Both Minnie and Rockie looked dumbfounded at the sinister red letters floating in front of them.
But that wasn’t all that happened. The flashing warning sign stayed floating for a minute before it finally vanished, and a big screen like thing took its place.
They both saw a White creature walking on all its four legs, circling around a brutally mangled body. This dead body seemed to have been through some kind of an explosion, as most of its upper half was gone.
Its wounds looked burnt and what looked like an arm and half a head was laying right across it.
There were patches of red here and there which probably was dried up blood.
They say that a person’s wounds tell their story. If such is true, then this person probably didn’t suffer before dying.
“Minnie what is this?”
Rockie pointed at the screen in front of him.
“Oh, this is one of the features and the perks of being a dungeon core, and I…” She smiled and replied, “I get to enjoy it because I am your partner.”
“Oh, okay. Wait a minute so this scene is related to me?!”
“Yeah, moreover, this is probably happening right outside your doorsteps. Otherwise we wouldn’t have been able to see this at all?”
That was a shocking news for Rocky.
“But how?”
“Oh nothing .It probably came into the detection range of your mana presence skill.”
Minnie answered him without any hesitation. And behaved as if, she was looking at cute kids playing in the playground.
She pointed at the monster in the video and said.
“You see that is a monster called wolf. A white wolf actually. You see how pure and dazzlingly white its fur is? These wolves are pretty prideful about their fur, and their family.”
“But what is it doing out here?” Rocky asked her.
“I didn’t know.” She replied shaking her head left and right.
“Anyways, what is doing? Oh, it jumped on the red goo!”
“Hey, that is not goo! That’s a human.”
“A human?”
“Yes, moreover it’s a dead human. Whoa, it’s really eating it!” She spoke, fascinated by watching live a wolf’s eating habits.
Rocky was the wolf tearing meat from the dead body, splashing red blood everywhere, and enjoying the taste. The spectacle made Rocky shiver.
“Ah! This is disturbing.”
“But it is only filling its stomach. It will probably go away after eating it.”
“It is fast at this eating thing.”He commented.
“Nah, you are probably faster.” She replied back.
“Me? I will also eat humans?”
“Ah, no, not only just humans, but you will eat everything that dies inside your dungeon.”
They talked about this and that. Minnie told him the difference between a human and monsters, and Rocky replied with oh’s and ah’s time after time.
She told him that killing other things in the world does not only let you state your hunger, but also provide you experience to level up and grow stronger.
She told him about the humans and how they advanced from simple and crude barbarians, to being so technically advanced that they were now the most prospering species of the world.
She also told him that he probably needed to be vigilant against those humans. As they had the tendencies to try to outdo themselves by exploring new ruins, and places in the search of resources, and sometimes, even dangerous monsters.
He wanted to ask more about those fascinating humans, but then he saw something.
“Ah Minnie, looks like it finished its meal.”
Minnie turned her head and looked at the screen and what she saw disturbed her to her very core, as color drained from her face and her breathing got heavier.
“Huh, oh… shit.”
“…”
“FUCK… lets me enter your world! Hurry up!! Shit, how could I forget… hurry up!!!”
----------------------------------------
A wolf and its pack were walking through the forest, when the smell of human blood in the air attracted its attention.
It tried to bring its brothers with him, but they refused, and he alone walked out of the jungle.
Moving about, he came across a dry patch of land and saw that the reason for such strong and delicate fragrance he smelled was a dead human body, which was lying across a hole in the ground.
He thought for a minute, before deciding to sit tight and testing the waters. He waited and waited, but when he saw no movement of any kind anywhere near him or his food, he started walking whilst keeping his attention on his surroundings.
He didn’t forget to check out the vicinity to look for multiple exits, In case of an emergency.
He slowly walked and stopped only when he was just 2 meters away from the body. He fired a small blade of wind on the presumed dead human and got ready to jump back at any moment, but when he saw the silence of the forest continuing, he happily dived over for a meal.
Though his wind blade out of luck ended up cutting the bodies arm and head, it didn’t displease him one bit.
He walked over to take a bit, but then he suddenly felt two small, no ant like presences keeping their eye on it and it flared. But thinking about how the presence seemed even smaller than the new born of his kind, he snorted once, and without giving them any mind, he stared enjoying itself.
He ate and ate till there was nothing but an arm left, and just as he was going to walk back to his pack, he changed his mind, and decided to see what the fuss was about. He then jumped into the hole with the last remaining piece of meat, an arm in his mouth.
----------------------------------------
Just as the wolf jumped into the hole, Minnie vanished from the cave and found herself staring at a confused and somewhat funny looking chubby fairy.
“Minnie what happened? Why are you acting as if you are… scared?”
“I’m not acting, chubby. I really am sacred!”
He saw her shaking and having difficulty to stay standing and a phrase came to his mind: ‘A leaf alone in the wind, sacred to be apart from its mother.’
“So why are we here this time? Are we going to do that wet thing again?”
His sentence pricked her small heart, and she denied him blushing from head to toe.
“Wh-who will kiss who, stupid! That one was necessary for the blessing. This- this…”
“Ah! But that was fun.” he spoke in low voice and sighed.
Pfft!
Minnie laughed hearing that.
“Ahaa, if- If you like that so muc-h we’ll do it again. Okay. But this is not the time for that.”
“Why? Is it because of that wolf that just entered the hole? Geege..”
She saw him suddenly opening his eyes wide and then giggling like an idiot.
“Oye, why are being so silly now? We don’t have time for thi…”
“Ah, it is licking my body. Oh, that tickles.”
“AHHH… hurry up, open your status and summon a monster! Hurry up!”
She screamed into his ear, as she held his shoulders and furiously shook him. His head shook like the leaf in his phrase, and it got infinitely near of detaching from the neck.
He somehow used his hands and stopped her, and then he urged her to explain the reason for her sudden change in behavior.
“You don’t understand, that wolf will kill you, and then eat you like that dead body outside, and then shit crystal afterwards!”
He heard her and the meaning of the word dead left him stunned, but having the mind of an emotionless child that it was, helped him get through the initial shock of his discovery, and to think past of it.
‘Hum. Dying now after having born though after such a streak of coincidence will be a waste. But what can I do? My real body doesn’t even move, forget about killing that thing. Hmm, killing it, huh. Maybe the words status and summon will help me kill it.’
He lifted his head and looked at Minnie who had strangely calmed down, and was looking at the front where a life size screen stood, displaying all that was happening outside.
“Huh, how did that happen?”
He saw that the wolf had gotten bored of licking his surface, and was now sitting at its feet nibbling on the arm which he had brought from the outside.
The thought that said that it was dangerous to let a wild animal stay so close to it came to its mind, but he only shook his head.
‘What can I do? Kick it? But with what?’
Meanwhile, Minnie answered his previous question about the screen.
“I don’t know how, but when you told me to look at the screen, this popped out of nowhere.”
“Ah, not that. Well anyways, now that it is distracted for a minute, why don’t you tell me what a status is or rather why we need to kill that wolf thing?”
*Sigh*
“Think about it. Why do you think I said that a dungeon rages?”
She looked and saw his emotionless face looking straight at her, lost. And she unknowingly smiled back.
“Haaha, you see, a dungeon is a dangerous place, but it is also a very good source of nourishment for others.”
“I am Dangerous?!” he asked the questionable question.
“Yes, extremely dangerous. But as you might know, that great risk brings great rewards. A dungeon is…oh, it is about to finish the arm lets deal with it first.”
“Ah, okay.”
“Let’s quickly get a dungeon type, before doing anything else. Now, now, I know what you are going to ask, but let’s just get through this first while hope that the wolf won’t try to take a bite out of you anytime soon.”
She said that and he saw her moving her hands in the air, dancing, and when she stopped, a box magically manifested in front of him. Interested in the possibility that maybe she produced it somehow, he asked her.
“Yes, I called it this time. This is called a roulette wheel…”
“So this will let me choose my type?!” Being both confused and excited he asked her.
“Yes. You can see that there are a number of words written on it right?”
His mind automatically answered what words were.
“Yes.” He replied.
Seeing how he didn’t ask her, ‘what words meant?’ Minnie felt slight curiosity.
“I don’t know how you are doing this, but… forget it. Now, you see the arrow pointing towards the words.”
“Yes.”
He nodded his chubby head and his fat face made slapping sound across his cheeks. Minnie looked at him, but controlled her urges to stretch his face.
“Now, when you say rotate…”
“Rotate?”
And the wheel started rotating.
“No, why did you… well, anyways, it won’t stop until you say stop…”
Seeing as how he was once going to say stop like an idiot, she hurriedly closed his mouth with her hands which led to him falling backwards, and she fell atop of him. While having her whole body upon his and their noses touching each other’s, she said,
“God let me finish first. Anyways, now we’ll apply some logic into it and try to get the best possible option available to us. Okay. The board won’t stop until you say the word.”
And then she finally noticed her position and blushing, she fluttered her wings and flew away. Then she helped help him sit, as it was a hassle for him alone, and looked at the rotating wheel. She gazed at the wheel and seriously pondered about her options.
“So we have the option of becoming a goblin type, slime type, Reptile, birds, ah these are the basic ones. Huh, undead, Underwater, chest, Elf! Now that’s rare. The rest are trash. Oh- Oh- OH, Dra-Dragonian. Now I’m hyped.”
“What what? Found anything good?” He asked her while imitating her ‘excited jumping routine’.
“Dragonian, let’s go for Dragonian. Anything relating to dragons is super ultra rare. I don’t even think there is any dungeon alive which has dragon type common monsters.”
“Well why not; you probably know what’s best in this matter.”
He quickly searched for dragons through his memory, and the images and description his mind gave him about the super ultra fascinating beasts hyped him too.
“Okay, so you just need to say stop when I say. I repeat – when I say. Okay.”
“Yes Madam.” He saluted with his wobbling arms.
Then they both stared at the rotating wheel like hungry predators, while Minnie started calculating something in her head. She noted down its rotational speed, the torque and the momentum it carried. She took the factors of inertia and centripetal forces and worked through her ideas to also consider friction.
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Having worked a formula of some kind, she looked at the space between the options and calculated again. She checked and reconfigured. Time passed slowly and after five minutes she looked at Rocky and nodded.
“Just stop it after I count to three, and say stop. Okay.”
“Okay.”
She lifted her head counted one, two, three and shouted a ‘stop’ at him. And having gotten his signal Rocky too enthusiastically shouted back ‘stop’ at the top of his voice.
“STOP”
“…”
“…”
But instead of stopping right there and then, the wheel kept on rotating.
“Ah, Minnie, why didn’t it stop?”
But she didn’t answer him and just pointed at the wheel.
He looked and saw that it was still rotating, but then he noticed that it was ever so slightly losing its momentum.
He tensed and like her, fixed his gaze upon it. He peeked at Minnie and noticed her mumbling something and decided to copy her.
“mumble-mumble-mumble-mumble”
And as if whatever mantra they were working had worked its charm, the wheel finally started slowing and reached the bracket which had undead written over it.
“Just a little more, just one more bracket, Please god please!!”
And as if finding her current state funny, Rocky mimicked her, and repeated the same thing like a parrot.
The wheel as if it still had some life left in it moved a little more, and the arrow came over the Dragonian option and after moving 9/10 of the distance it stopped.
When Minnie saw that it wasn’t moving anymore, she screamed like she had seen a ghost, and tightly hugged her funny looking partner.
“WE did it! Yes, yes. Now we’ll be safe. Now we’ll be safe.”
She held him and jumped around for a minute when a new message box appeared in front of them, and her heart leaped out of her mouth.
Insects may look small and weak alone, but together they pack quite a punch.
Congratulations your dungeon type has been changed to Insect.
There are a variety of insects.
As you are the first specimen to have chosen the insects as your quality,
The first Boss monster will come free of cost. Happy choosing.
Left with her mouth opened Minnie jerked her head, and stared at the roulette wheel hard enough to burn a hole through it, while the wheel tried to fade away by hiding behind the burst of messages.
She saw that the arrow, which she thought had stopped at the Dragonian, had somehow carried on moving and made a touchdown on the next box before finally stopping.
“We were tricked. WE WERE FUCKING TRICKED!” she flared.
“Ah, but I think we’ll be okay as an insect…”
She heard him say that and cried out.
“Don’t you say that, please don’t say that. Who will be happy becoming an insect?”
But he misunderstood her words and thought that maybe he was actually going to turn into an insect.
“Huh, I will become an insect?”
“No, not you… but, but…”
And she broke out in tears.
“No…ho...w will we sur..vive the atta..cks.” she sobbed.
“Oh don’t cry and don’t worry. It’ll work out somehow. Look the system was happy with our decision and it even gave us a free boss monster. Whatever that is.”
Minnie looked at the box still floating in front of her. She read the sentence and started crying even louder.
*Hiccup*
“It said… it said that we are the first dungeon to have even chosen the insect type…”
“That’s… great.”
“That’s shit!” She screamed into his ears.
Rocky sighed and stood up somehow holding her left hand and spoke looking at something far away.
“Well, stop crying for now. We are still in the present, the future is far away.”
Then he turned his head and looked straight into her eyes, and spoke wearing the warmest smile that Minnie had ever seen.
“So why become sad dreaming by the unknown when we still have time. It’ll be alright. Don’t worry, I’m here.”
His words worked like charm covered in honey syrup. Minnie stopped crying then and there, as if she was just waiting for some to sweet talk to her.
She used his hand and quickly sprang back on her feet. He cleaned the wetness from her face with his other hand, and hugged her.
Seeming how she was being tightly held by a guy who couldn’t even stand properly made her giggle a little, but she willingly let him hug her and hugged him back in respect.
Placing her forehead on his small and slender, but solid shoulders she spoke slowly.
“Okay, I understand. Let’s wait for whatever our future has in store for us… Together.”
“Okay.”
Then they both stopped hugging each other and looked in the eye. He felt that maybe she was going to do that wet thing again, and got ready to receive her, but she just gave a small peck on his left check and moved back to look at the screen, while he stood there dumfounded.
He shook his head and moved somehow to stand beside her and looked at the screen, which was then showing the wolf having already engulfed the meat on the arm, and playing with the leftover bones.
“Hey Rockie, Let’s move on with the plan: kill wolf. We don’t seem to have much time left.”
He heard her say the term, but didn’t ask her as he also knew that it was better to focus on the matter at hand.
“Okay, next is the status. Like the name suggests, it shows the status of your body in an understandable format.”
She saw him looking at her like an idiot and sighed.
“Well, it’ll to better if you just open your status. I know, I know you don’t know how to do it. So please, stop with your puppy eyes and listen.”
She said, while Mr.Core thought about the meaning behind the strange word, ‘puppy eyes’.
“This skill is also related to the soul, so it will be easy for you.”
“Okay.”
“First concentrate your mana. I mean Use mana sense, and try to move whatever you see toward your chest or in your case, anywhere near your actual body. And when you start feeling a little ticklish, just simply say status and the system will do the rest.”
“This sounds a bit difficult.”
“Don’t worry about it being difficult, and just concentrate.”She said with worry.
So he did as she told him, and although he was inside his inner world for the time being, when he used mana presence the dots of lights once again emerged into being. He concentrated, and after a minute, one of the dots started willingly moving towards him.
Two more followed it, when it touched them, and as if they were attracting other dots, soon a whole group of them started working their way toward Rocky.
And as if the wolf had sensed something, he jerked his head toward the crystal, which scared the shit out of Minnie. But the wolf found nothing out of ordinary in the empty cave, and got back to chewing the last remnants’ of the arm.
Soon Rocky felt the tingling sensation, and as if it was his cue, he uttered the word STATUS with his whole might.
“…..”
And nothing happened.
The dots of lights kept on getting collected towards the first some. And after a large group of them formed, they magically vanished and the same old sound ringed inside his head.
*Ding*
Status / Dungeon Interface
Name
None
Race
Crystal
Level
2
Affinity
Dark, Fire, Life
Rank
0
Job
Dungeon Core
Nature
(-1)Neutral
Class
None
…
Titles
Born Killer, Named Helper, Fairy’s Blessing
…
Health
85
Health Reg.
1.1/min
Mana
485
Mana Reg.
1.3/min
Vitality
8
Knowledge
32
Resistance
10
Intelligence
18
Skills (Passive)
Telepathy, Mana sense lv(1), Mana Regeneration Lv(1),
Skills (Active)
Outburst(Special), *Locked*, *Locked
Skill points
6
He looked at the status, but couldn’t understand what all those numbers and words meant. So he asked Minnie, who looked at him as if she was seeing a ghost.
“What? Why are you asking me those things?”
“Huh, well, I am obviously asking you things which I don’t understand on my status screen.”
Confused, Minnie asked him again.
“What you see that on your status?”
“No there are a lot of other things like titles, health, mana etc.”
“Incredible.” She said.
“Huh…?”
Understanding that Rocky didn’t have any idea about how precious those words meant, she decided to explain them to him.
“You know, the status I was talking about is for the dungeon. Not your personal status. Actually, now that I think about it, I don’t think dungeon cores even have a personal status box...”
But he was too busy looking at his status and didn’t notice her mentioning that.
“Oh, oh, there is a word dungeon written on it in red.”
And the mystery of no dungeon interface was solved before its investigation even started.
“Press that. We’ll talk about this matter after getting through the wolf.”
He did that and another blue box, a little different from the first one opened up. And interestingly, it appeared in front of both of them.
“As expected.”
“So you can see it too Minnie?”
“Yes, this one, even I can see. Don’t worry this is just how the system works. Anyways, let’s see what we have and what we don’t.”
Dungeon Interface / Status
Home
Monsters / Store
Name
…
Type
Insect
Floors
0
Total no of monsters
0
Rooms/Floor
0
Total no of invaders
0
Mana used / Total mana: (0/425)
Dungeon
0
Monsters
0
Resources
0
Upgrades
0
Dungeon Currency
1040
Reputation
10(Neutral)
“Okay here it is; the dungeon interface. Let me teach you the basics for now and then we’ll get a full grip on it some other time.”
“Whatever you say.”
And she gave him a quick review about the basic’s, before moving on to the important parts.
“Oh that’s interesting you somehow have 1040 Dc instead of the standard 1000.”
“What, what Dc’s?” he asked.
But Minnie was too busy playing detective and didn’t hear him at first.
“Oh, you probably received it from the dead human outside our door.”
And when her eyes met his, she saw him looking at her lost and demanding.
“Ah, sorry, what were you saying? Oh, Yes. You see, every monster has a price and a mana requirement you need to pay to summon them. Mana is required to control the monster and this Dungeon currency or DC is what we pay as the price. Your mana is high enough and we have our standard help in the form of Dc which should let us summon some monster right of the bat. But it is important to not spend our money too haphazardly, because we have too many things to buy and organize our dungeon.”
“Well moving on. So you see the second row. There are some words written on it like home, monster store; right?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, this right now is the home screen that is why the word home is glowing green right now. Now you see the words monster and store and how they are red?”
“Yes.”
“Now to buy monsters we need to open the monster tab. SO go on and touch it. Let’s see what kind of monsters this insect dungeon has in store for us. I hope there will be something worthwhile.”
*Ding*
Dungeon interface / Status
Monster
Home /Store
Dc(1040) / Mana(0/425)
Name
Mana reserved
Price(DC)
Name
Mana reserved
Price(DC)
Ant egg(0)
5
10
Bee egg(0)
5
50
Ant worker(0)
10
50
Bee worker(0)
10
100
Ant soldier(0)
20
100
Bee soldier(0)
25
250
Ant queen(1)
100
500
Bee queen(1)
100
1000
---LOCKED---
Minnie was shocked to see that the monsters which her personally selected dungeon was letting her to buy were mundane small timers.
“Ants and bees? Seems like our luck is bad.”
But he couldn’t understand what she meant by that.
“Why?”
“Don’t you know what kind of monsters ants and bees are?”
He searched his mind to see if he had any idea and found out that he knew a great deal about them.
“Umm, oh! Now that I think about it. Aren’t they cannon fodder type of monsters?”
“That is what I am saying. Ah, it’s over huh. Well, it was good knowing you life…”
“Oh shut up! Just tell me how I can summon one.”
And she seemingly uninterested, pointed at the interface and said,
“Just click on one, and let me sulk.”
He heeded her advice and firstly clicked at the bee warrior. This led to a prompt to appear in front of him.
Please choose wisely. You won’t be able to choose a different monster before having 10 floors.
He asked Minnie what the message meant and she told him that in a dungeon, monsters lived on places called floors, and the more floors a dungeon have the wider will be its variety.
He instinctly felt that this was an important decision, one that would make or break his dungeon. So he decided to think about it for a moment before choosing. He tried to ask Minnie about her choice, but she said,
“Whatever, choose anything. There is no difference between their fighting power or potential anyways. So what does it matter.”
He gazed at her for a minute and sighed.
‘Ah, she’s no help this time. Even though she said she would help me with anything. Well, whatever.’
Firstly, he thought about what ants and bees were and how they would fare against the wolf outside. From what his memory described, the ants were known for their speed and power. Ants had six legs, so they could run very fast and said to have the power to lift fifty times their weight.
But because they are not naturally aggressive, and don’t often come out of their mounds, they are considered small time monsters individually. Though things change when their home is attacked. Well in the end, they are still not hard fighters and seemingly an old man with a stick or a young human with a club could easily defeat one.
Bees on the other hand are dangerous. They travel in groups, are aggressive and attack anyone they deem dangerous to themselves or their queen. Their sting seemed to have different kinds of poisons depending on their evolution or daily habits. They are dangerous because they fly and they fly fast. They are extremely fast, but have low vitality.
But according to his mind, surprisingly more people had died because of the passive ants than the aggressive bees. As for why, the reason was very simple. It was because though a bee might be a greater adversary than an ant, but an ant never moves alone, forget about fighting.
So thinking how he will have more success having an ant colony rather than a bee hive, he decided to choose the Ants and actively bought one Ant worker to test the waters with the wolf outside.