"The world will naturally seek to fix imbalances in the flow of magic; to right the wrongs placed upon it. Dungeons are the response to a land overipe with magic of one particular kind or another."

-101 Wisdoms of the Grand Sage.

The Necromancers collective rituals had failed; not in any part of their own fault, but rather the tome of magic they had put their trust into. Whatever grand plans they had had died with them; in their place five orbs of magical power once meant to be their phylacterys was left instead to overlook the destruction of a feifdom. At the height of their power; they had enacted the rituals prescribed by what they thought had been another of their kind, only to discover moments before their death that the valuable jewels they had collected, and filled with magical energy had not accepted their souls; but denied it and left them adrift to bear the consequences of their own actions.

Five men died having killed hundreds for their actions; and in the destruction new life slowly began to grow in the ruins filled with the curse of undeath. The same said orbs that had been meant to give them eternal unlife underwent metamorphosis; each unaware of the other's presence; as their creators bodies began to rise from the potent energies of their surroundings and wander downward from their now cursed towers; while directionless undead either wandered into the wilderness to infest the lands further; or remained trapped inside both collecting and shedding their collective taint upon the world.

There was however an issue each core faced, as their energies began to coalesence. A dungeon was meant to have floors; wide sprawling complexes with dozens of rooms of which the cores would fill under their own accords under their own set of rules that the system that guided them would set... But they had no space. Expanding outwards was met with open air; and the rooms below were infested with undead. One core shattered; the now skeletal necromancer that had created it had gnawed upon it until it had broke; leaving naught but crystal remains behind. The rest continued to survive not by forcing the top of their towers to expand; but by doing... Nothing.

Letting energies expand; each core had come to the conclusion that attempting to bridge the open air as instinct had demanded them to do had become an effort of futility; so as to figure out a solution; mana they channeled inward did not go towards the usual process that guided newborn cores; which would of normaly caused them to generate a few rooms and maybe a goblin or a kobold or two to guard them until they awakened... They channeled their mana inward; towards growth and evolution. In short: they awakened.

It took near ten years for the black gemstone to stir; the flickering path of mana gathering around it had been stiffled by its awkward angle as it awoke. Sluggishly at first; the first sensations of conciousness was hard to categorize. Discomfort and a feeling of both discontent and crampedness as awareness settled into place... It was a Core; as it referred to itself off a haze of jumbled thought processes was not secure but began to slowly observe its surroundings.

Rotten wood; the floor of its room was decaying and full of holes; unmaintained the room had started to fall apart in a cold and unforgivingly wet enviroment... There was a layer of white powdered snow and ice that clogged a corner of the room; while the rest was covered in stages of mold or rot... It observed upwards; as mana began to seep from the open windows and the holes in both ceiling and rooftop. The room had been a library of some sort; long since decayed markings held fragments of long spent magic that seemed familiar to it despite its new state of mind. And with its newfound intelligence; it reached out... Bits of mana flickered into the writing; and the writing began to vanish as the stream of information brought itself towards the core. Small bits of understanding filtered into its mind; as mana seeped from the remains of the spell circle that had been involved in its creation... A new feeling entered its mind; as it gathered its bearings: Curiosity.

The input had faded shortly after it appeared in its mind; it could now create the infused chalk; at a great cost to itself if it so wanted... But that made it wonder... as its presence passed over the books on the shelves, and the other bits of ruins in its room. The core proceeded to start devouring the rest of the objects in the library. Eating the books may had been a mistake on its part as a massive stream of information tried to flood into it. The core had to press the information to the side for later because simply consuming the books hadn't granted it any insights; but it had given it a way to 'read' them; which had given it both literacy and something to do as time passed between its expendature and gathering of mana.

Slowly; the room began to adjust; the rot on the wood gave it more material to work with; but the flooring began to be repaired; and the windows alongside the holes of the roof were sealed shut with wood from the decayed cabinets and with that; the sense of discomfort began to fade instead for just the feeling of crampedness. The Core looked to itself; and pondered why it felt a sense of bitterness as it cleared up the room. The System gave it pings to sort through as it examined its surroundings; its presence leaking through the walls into a doorway that lead... Downwards.

[Cannot Create New Floor: Do Not Meet Requirements.] The system chirped, and the core understood why it was stuck. The Core only had a single room; and it couldn't progress downwards until it had completed the one it was on... Which was... Five rooms alongside at least five monsters and a 'boss' monster. Further probing revealed each room had a size requirement which given while the room it was in counted for one... It had no idea how it was supposed to fulfill the rest of those requirements. So it continued to search. A desk joined the steady string of mana entering its system; in which it found a few more books and nothing else of note except for a few metal nails that had been used in its construction; but the price of the metal was far higher than both wood and stone combined.

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It pressed outwards again; seeking a solution. Open air met the grasping feelers of mana; causing the core to shiver as it spread to the immediate surroundings outside of the tower; feeling as though it was dissipating into the open air had returned the discomfort; but it found something new for its effort. Along the roof; an old nest had been left untouched half buried in the snow. And in it? The shells of a few eggs. With great care the core absorbed the fragments; focusing on them with care to not disturb the nest lest it fell from the edge it was on. The old shells were clearly a bit more recent than the decay of the rest of the structure; fragments of dark brown flecked onto the primarily yellowed shells. A sigh of relief ran through the Core as it let out a small pulse of mana it didn't know it was holding. The shell had provided enough information for it to create something new; and with a feeling of trepidation; it began to invest mana into creating a new creature from the schematic it had gathered on instinct.

Carefully a thread of mana was pushed out from Core; the thread was the connection in which the first creature would be born in this new dungeon; the system dropped down a menu; asking the core if it wanted to generate a 'Lesser Snowtail Hawk' and after a moments hesitation... The core pressed yes.

The thread of mana became a spool; wrapping around itself, as the Core felt their will being pressed into making a series of decisions at the systems request. It did not entirely understand all of the options; many of them seemed unavailable or required amounts of mana that it either didn't have or wasn't comfortable with parting with; but as the creature began to take shape it saw one option that appealed to it. With a small flash of light the thread disconnected and the bundle of mana began to hatch. A small bird; barely a chick began to rise from the dissapating mana and the core felt a moment of tightening and warmth in its very being.

White and brown fluffy fuzz for feathers; and slightly plump in overall shape the baby bird slowly gained its bearings, its gaze questioning, as the small change made the world of difference. The feeling of warmth increased as it moved over leaned up against it before asking, "Mama?" The baby bird had a voice; and intelligence beyond its species. The small but sharp beak was a small yellowed contrast to the rest of the bird, as shiny yellow eyes reflected the core in its gaze.

Core, now nicknamed 'Mama' by its own creation, mentally screamed to itself about how adorable it was. It... She? Wanted dozens more of them. Hundreds! Nay- Thousands!

The new life in her core room finally broke the small haze of clinical examinations of its surroundings; as the core cooed over the baby hawk; which slowly waddeled on over to the core. The core made a note that their bird was shivering; and a few bits and pieces of information began to make itself clear. In the center of the room; the core began to take bits and pieces of the materials it had gathered from the room; bits of cloth from a chair, wood, cotton, and a few sheets of paper, and wove it into a larger more comfortable version of the nest outside. A wooden bowl, padded and layered with blankets, to which the baby hawk stumbled in surprise before looking between the core and the newly made combination between a nest and a bed.

It was only then that the core, mama, realized that... She hadn't spoken back to its creation... It took a minute to consult itself, digging through information and feeling out what its instincts felt that should feel right before pressing forward. A wave of sensation overwashing over its own senses as it gently probed her creations mind. The new conciousness of the hawk was bright, vibrant and saw in a way that she couldn't. While the core was aware of the entirety of the dungeon it occupied, her creation had senses the core lacked. The new sensations were alien to it; and it did its best to push them to the side for later in favor of making itself heard, and so to the baby hawks happy surprise, the core spoke its first words as haltingly as the hawk itself, "I... am here."

It wasn't a true voice, but a message that the hawk understood. And it brought her a bit of warmth as the baby bird moved itself over to her, taking a good look at her, before gingerly pressing itself against her core, "Mama is pretty."

That drew a laugh from the core, and then a noise of surprise that echoed itself through their connection as the baby hawk moved the core. the apple sized orb being rolled over to the bowl, mana spinning as the baby hawk brought her into the nest she had just made for it. Once they were settled in; the baby bird began to nap and that had settled it...

Mama wanted millions of them.