“You little nasty son of a bitch. You might be thinking, “Oh I’m just a little baby dungeon pwease don hurt me” well guess what, I don’t give a shit.”
Walking up to the core, he could feel the power it gave off. Too bad dungeons couldn’t directly attack people. For whatever reason, dungeons were unable to spawn monsters or shoot spikes at people in their vicinity. So this dungeon core was stuck, as he was right next to it disrupting the entire dungeon from doing anything.
“Well, first let’s check my skills out.”
Hp:130/171 Mp:104/104 Str:149 Ag:154 End:253 Dex:173 Int:100
Free points: 33
Titles: Endurer
Class: Golemnist Lv: 47 Affinity: Perpetual/ Blight Lv: 48/ Lv: 49
Skills: Identify Entity Engraving Carving Sense Material
Circles: Flex Command Lite sense
Choose Two Circles: Sense Reflex Mana Inlet
“Well, well, well. I get to choose two circles. I’m guessing sense is a better version of Lite sense? Maybe? Doesn’t matter because I’m going to be choosing the other two.”
He willed to learn the Reflex circle and the Mana inlet circle. The information of how they were used and their purpose was downloaded into his mind.
“Well fuck me. The Mana inlet circle is fucking useless for me.”
The Mana inlet circle allowed a person to engrave a circle that could accept a mana crystal or stone to power a golem. His golems were already running infinitely without any mana from him anyways.
“The reflex on the other hand.”
He thought it was a good choice. It allowed golems to react to dangers to themselves or the master, himself in this case, and involuntarily act to protect it. He guessed they would be able to dodge lethal blows to their circles now, hopefully.
“Now, time to get that core.”
He reached for it but stopped when he noticed the air temperatures were fluctuating erratically. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a wisp of color in the air. Quickly, he backed his hand away from the core, worrying that it might be connected to a trap of some kind. More color gathered, creating a ball of multicolored fog. Then the ball of fog separated and began twisting into different shapes. It was a word.
Don’t.
The words shifted again to form another word.
Harm.
His education did include that dungeons were intelligent, but he had been iffy about the subject. He treated it as a truth that he followed but did not believe in that much. After all, a talking rock sound ridiculous.
He was startled out of his thoughts by the mist shifting again. It Quickly went through a series of words to form a sentence.
Let’s make a deal.
“A deal, hm? Wellll, I don’t know.”
“What can you give me?”
As he waited for the mist to form a full response he began to think.
Many dungeons did not have an affinity. Some would gain a specific affinity if they chose to, but most don’t because it allows them more freedom to do many different things. Of course, there are also hypothesized benefits to choosing an affinity. Many of the larger and more powerful dungeons have an affinity. He was not taught why or how the affinity contributed to them being better, if it does at all that is. It was just a fact that many powerful dungeons have affinities, so people assumed that they were connected somehow, but were unable to determine how.
While he ruminated, the mist stopped, completing its sentence, which he reread to himself.
Riches beyond your desire.
“Are you bound by the rules other magical creatures have? That a deal can not be broken, only circumvented.”
The mist seemed to hesitate then form its response.
Yes?
“You don’t know?”
“Alright. I will be writing this deal and you must accept it, or you will die. Understood?”
Yes
“Good.”
He brought out a piece of paper, ink, and a quill. These were from the paladin and were quite expensive where he used to live. He did not really want to use it, but, may as well, he had no other use for it currently. He began writing when he suddenly had a brilliant idea.
“Dungeon, would you like to grow stronger?”
Yes.
The mist responded in affirmative to his question.
“Would you like to get out of this dungeon intact? Actively seek prey instead of waiting forever for one to come fumbling in? This dungeon is quite out of the way you see, nobody near to this place except a few wanderers who got lost. How long will it take for you to grow stronger?”
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
He sensed hesitation as the mist swirled without giving a response. Time to tip it over the edge with his own goals.
“Also, I know a secret that everybody else on this stupid world seems to be oblivious to. I bet nobody says what you really want to hear. It seems the world is against your plight, but you can be sure of one thing if you follow me. Those Stinking, Rotten, Fucking Gods Are GOING TO DIE!”
After his speech, he punched the wall as his anger got the better of him.
“Grah! You better spawn something outside or I am going to Fuckin Kill You!”
He pushed the doors open to go back out into the swamp and was met with many acidic creatures. In his anger, he slaughtered each and every one of them.
By the end, he had managed to cool off.
While the notification of leveling up dinged in front of him, he noticed he had passed 50 in his class and both affinities.
“Nice. Also Ow. This fucking hurts”
He dropped to his knees and rolled on the ground as his entire body felt like it was on fire. His skin wriggled with the occasional popping of air bubbles that formed under his skin. From an outside perspective, it looked like his skin was boiling like water.
“Finally, it’s over.”
When he looked at himself it seemed that the Blight had worked another change. His skin was cracked all over and felt harder. Deciding to test it, he got out a spare knife and slid it across his palm.
He went back into the room with the core and continued where he left off.
“As you can see, I am not swayed by the gods. My ultimate goal is to kill them. That is where I believe our goals align, am I right?”
The mist responded in an affirmative.
Yes. But how do you accomplish this?
“Accomplish what? We will gradually build our strength and one day, kill them.”
Accomplish allowing me to go out of the dungeon.
“I actually have a plan for that. It might work or it might not, but I believe it should work. Has it been done before? Probably not. I don’t believe anybody has ever even wanted or thought about doing this to a dungeon core before now. Not many could get the right reason either, what with the gods affecting them. I’m glad I found that dungeons such as yourself, Demonic in nature, have not been affected. We will be the pioneers of the craft, how exciting.”
He rubbed his hands together, excited to see if his idea would work.
“You need mana to power yourself and I can provide you with infinite mana. It won’t allow you to grow in strength of course, but it will be able to make sure you are fully charged all the time. This, in turn, will mean you have all the time in the world to hunt down souls to feed yourself and grow stronger.”
The mist swirled around the core as it thought.
“So, do we have a deal?”
Yes.
“Perfect. Now, let’s lay out the terms.”
He wrote a new deal down on the paper, deliberating with the core on what it entailed.
It included that the core had to obey him until his untimely demise, where it could then do whatever it wanted in its new body. It was unable to harm him in any way unless asked to do so by himself. The core had priority over all the souls it gathered itself from killing people, along with one one-hundredth of his own victim’s souls. (Who knows, he may find a use for souls at a higher level, he didn’t want to rule it out so he only allowed a small portion to the core.) He would provide the core with a golem body making use of the best materials available, as long as it did not harm him to get those materials. The last thing was that the core had to create an item that blocked his affinities from the identity skill used at a high level.
Why the item?
“Well, it is to hide what allows me to defy the gods. We will be going into civilization to take advantage of the benefits that entail, like an abundance of materials. Also, wars. If I know one thing about humans and the like, it’s that they like to fight each other. Humans against humans and probably plenty of race wars, that will be a golden opportunity to level. Also, I need to find another dungeon to level in as well. Dungeons are quite rare in the wild, stumbling upon you was like a miracle. Wait. Miracles are done by gods, fuck them, this was dumb luck.”
The dungeon seemed to agree after that.
“Now let's see if this works. I, Zelhaut, hereby agree to this deal in the presence of the system, with… What’s your name?”
Krindle
“Krindle. Now you say the same thing.”
He waited while the dungeon said the same thing but in its mind.
The signal for the deal being a success was a notification in the interface.
You have entered a deal with the dungeon core known as (Krindle)
“Great. Now make me that item, and also, if you don’t want a wooden body I suggest you make yourself a metal or stone one.”
Fine.
While the dungeon created the necessary items, he got to work experimenting. What he wanted to use to house the dungeon core was a mana inlet circle. But it would be slightly adjusted. He was not that well versed in editing the circles but it was about time he started. So he began work on a wooden golem. Engraving the mana inlet circle, he made slight changes to its structu-
BOOM!
The blast rocketed him backward.
“Ok then.”
---
Krindle had mixed feeling about this whole affair. On one hand, the thought of going outside and actively hunting prey was a much more exciting prospect to him than just waiting for prey to come in. On the other, he had to follow this human’s orders and undergo an experimental transplant into a body of a golem which he had to create himself.
BOOM!
---
“Unholy shit, I think I got it.”
After many failed attempts he had possibly succeeded. The secret to the mana inlet circle was the same circle, just everything mirrored. So all the symbols were facing the opposite direction they were. This, in theory, would push mana into whatever was placed there instead of drawing from it. Then he had thought “how will the core control the golem?” so he wanted to integrate a command circle, without his signature symbols to mark it as his, to allow the core to control it. The command circle took some tries as well, erasing different symbols to figure out which were his. It turned out that the command circle had many different symbols marking it as his, like a combination lock. After having removed his symbols, it was a free command circle ready to be controlled by hopefully Krindle. He linked the circles, also adding lite sense, flex, and reflex circles hoping they would work with the new core command.
“Alright Krindle, I think I figured it out so hand over your new body.”
Door.
He went to the door and retrieved the body and blocking item. The body was metal and two meters, six and a half feet, tall. It had a normal humanoid form but with claws for hands, a blank oval for a face, spikes going down its spine and forearms, and a tail that seemed to be able to split at the end to grab things. It felt like a good metal, a gut feeling.
Looking over to the other item with the golem, it looked plain. It was a wooden ring. Very mundane, not much to look at. It was his identify block.
Nobody would think to steal a wooden ring, his most prized possession as of now. He slipped the ring onto his middle finger on his right hand, then got to work on the new golem. In this golem, he placed the adjusted mana inlet circle inside of the golem, along with the other circles. There was a small slit in the upper back of the golem. That was where he engraved the circle.
“Alright, I’m done now. All the circles are in place.”
He dragged the body over next to the core.
“Let’s do this then.”
Make it quick.
“Let’s make one thing clear. I am the boss, if I want you to die, you’ll die. Understood?”
...Yes.
“Good.”
He quickly grabbed the core and inserted it into the golem. The core dimmed then flashed to life as it absorbed the mana from the circle. The slit closed, hiding the core from view. Then red lines began to originate from the core across the golem’s body, looking like veins. The golem began to move. It stood upwards, taller than himself, and looked down at him with its blank slate of a face. The face split horizontally and the golem opened its new giant mouth with pointed teeth lining it.
“It worked.”
Krindle raised an arm and appraised it.
“Yes, it appears so.”
“You can talk?”
“Yes.”
“Well keep your words to yourself when we see other people, got it? They might freak if they realize you are a dungeon core.”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
Rumble.
“I am no longer keeping this dungeon active. It will collapse soon.”
“Fuck! Run!”
He began running with his new comrade Krindle hot on his heels. He was a bit faster than him, but he wasn’t going to carry a huge chunk of metal, that would slow him that they would then both be going slower.
“I made a secret path to the exit, It is this way.”
Krindle punched a wall that exposed a shortcut to the exit.
He quickly turned and ran through the tunnel. They neared the exit and he jumped, expecting the tunnel to collapse right behind him.
“Well, that was anticlimactic. Looks like I had quite a bit of time.”
He sat down to catch his breath and soon out came Krindle. The cave opening remained open until about ten minutes later, then it finally collapsed, spewing dust outwards.
“I guess we should head out Krindle. We are going to town, or a city, haven’t decided yet.”
“Very well.”
The two figures, one a golem, and one a monster went off towards civilization, heading northwest.