Twenty shimmering cards adorned with ornate designs float around Katia. She frowns while inspecting the different cards, and as she focuses on a card the information pertaining to it enters her mind.
Katia scrutinizes her class options with great care; She pores over the details of each option for several minutes at a time.
"The huntress sounds neat, and so does the necromancer, but neither of them are what I'm looking for."
One card Katia hasn't inspected catches her eye; The card's subject is a glittering multicolored sphere while the background is a grey wall of bricks. Katia focuses on the card and sees depictions of monsters worshipping the crystalline sphere.
Katia's interest is piqued as she focuses on the card's information.
"Dungeon Core?!"
Katia takes a look at the class skills. The first skill is called Dungeon Terrain. It allows the dungeon core to manipulate terrain using unlocked materials. The second skill is called Dungeon Critters, and lets the dungeon core spawn and modify unlocked living and non living beings. The third and final skill is called Dungeon Rewards; This skill grants the dungeon core the ability to make special reward items for delvers.
Katia's mind is made up; She selects Dungeon Core as her class, and everything goes dark as Katia's soul is ripped from her human body.
~
Katia's consciousness gradually returns. She floats in a black void, wherein she can sense everything at once. The feeling is uncomfortable at first, but Katia quickly adjusts.
"So I'm a dungeon core, aren't I?"
Katia is relishing her new reality when a system window pops up to inform her of her first quest.
Quest Added: Baby's First Room
Objective: Create an enclosed room.
Reward: Moss material unlocked.
"Oh, so that's how I unlock new stuff."
With some introspection Katia finds she has two materials already at her disposal: Earth Mix Air, and Limestone. Katia's core glows slightly as she puts her new Dungeon Terrain skill to use; Stone manifests in the shape of a four meter cube before a two meter cube of air hollows out the interior of the stone cube.
Quest Complete: Baby's First Room
Material 'Moss' unlocked!
Katia isn't sure if she should be proud, but she's happy to be getting a new material as her first quest reward. She tests it out by whipping up a one meter cube of moss inside the stone room. According to her skill the moss is a bit spongey, but is firm enough to be used for platforms and walls in rooms, albeit its not anywhere near as sturdy as the limestone.
Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.
Quest Added: Baby's First Corridor
Objective: Connect two rooms with a corridor narrower than both rooms.
Reward: Dungeon Portals learned.
Quest Added: Baby's First Monster
Objective: Spawn a monster.
Reward: Rat King unlocked.
Two quests appear at once, and Katia is thrilled by the prospective rewards; creating Portals sounds like a really overpowered skill, and the name Rat King gives boss monster vibes. Katia is quick to use her Dungeon Terrain skill once again; This time she creates a second 4 meter stone cube room, and connects it with a one meter wide tunnel. This wouldn't fit a standing person, but that's not Katia's concern as of yet.
Quest Complete: Baby's First Corridor
Skill 'Dungeon Portals' learned!
Katia's mind is flooded with information on the ins and outs of Dungeon Portals as a skill, and frankly it's disappointing. She had expected some spatial nonsense allowing her to create seamless portals like a certain spatial dungeon in a story she read, yet instead its a skill allowing her to create portals which connect the outside world with her dungeon, and connect floors with one another. These portals have several restrictions, and give her a stuffy feeling.
"I'm probably expecting too much. This isn't some story, after all."
With that quest out of the way and no new quests popping up, Katia focuses on her Dungeon Critters skill to find she has a Dire Rat unlocked to begin with. Using the skill to spawn a Dire Rat inside one of her two rooms is almost as easy as using Dungeon Terrain, and soon she has a little swarm of the things wandering around the two connected rooms.
Quest Complete: Baby's First Monster
Monster 'Rat King' unlocked!
Katia can't help but get a little giddy as the flow of rewards brings her both pride and joy; She builds an 8 meter stone cube before hollowing it out to create a 6 meter room within, and spawns in the Rat King.
The monster is quite a beast compared to the dog sized Dire Rats, but its real strength is the skill 'Swarm Borne' which spawns Dire Rats each time the Rat King is damaged. Katia can picture how infuriating that would be for an adventurer to fight against.
Quest Added: Baby's First Treasure
Objective: Create a reward item.
Reward: Wood & Bronze materials unlocked.
"Two rewards? Awesome!"
Katia needs no further prompting as she starts activating her Dungeon Rewards skill. She has three options at the moment: Linen Bandage, Rat Jerky, and Floor Map. The skill clarifies that delvers cannot take anything out of the dungeon normally, however things created with the Dungeon Rewards skill can be taken out as they are meant to be looted by delvers.
The first two items on Katia's list are exactly as you'd expect, however the Floor Map is special in that it will always be a simple map of the floor it was created on outlining the layout and where the entrance and exit are.
Katia makes her choice, and a small roll of linen bandages appear midair in the Rat King's room before plopping onto the ground quietly. The bandages feel strange to Katia's dungeon senses, as if they are not entirely hers.
Quest Complete: Baby's First Treasure
Reward: Materials 'Wood' and 'Bronze' unlocked!
Quest Added: The First Floor
Objective 1: Create your first floor with at least 3 rooms, 6 monsters, and 1 reward.
Objective 2: Link your first floor to the outside world with a portal.
Reward: Dungeon Effects learned.
The instant quest adding after acquiring her reward throws Katia off, but she quickly realizes this is the end of having her hand held by the quests. Delvers will likely enter Katia's dungeon once she opens her portal.
Katia prepares to build her dungeon's first floor.