System Initializing
All Shel could see in the darkness was a screen hovering in front of her eyes, with words scrolling by.
Welcome new user: [Shelly Hollinday], you have been incorporated into the system, rejoice.
It did not matter how she turned her head the words remained centered and focused in front of her, she finally stopped trying to look around it and simply read what it said.
Examining host…. Generating stats…. Incorporating previous skills…. Unknown/Unexpected skills found…Adapting .. ..applying W.A.G. ……. slip streaming custom Isekai protocols.. … … 87% configured successfully.. 13% corrupted/unknown, within tolerances… continuing process; flagging errors for review…. Complete.
Say or firmly think ‘Status’ to access interface, please review the available training options and change log notes for updates.
Once she finished reading it, the words faded, she found herself again in the dark. She could feel a pressure around her like a heavy blanket. She seemed to be in a very small room, her eyes adjusted to the dim light, she was surrounded by trash. Completely surrounded, she could not see the walls or the floor, just refuse. The temperature was tolerable and she did not hurt anywhere. She tried moving but she was stuck, completely immobile, the junk had her firmly buried. Finally after a few minutes of futile twitching she considered her options and remembered what the screen had said. She firmly thought the word ‘Status’. A table of information popped up.
It listed her name and said her race was a [Dungeon Core], it said she was 0 days old and was level 0 she had -1500 dungeon points. Shel was not sure what any of it meant but there was a flashing envelope icon, when she looked at it said 1 messages waiting. ‘I will need to figure out how to read messages I guess.’ she thought but then, at that thought, it said message one. And a text note filled the space in front of her eyes.
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Shel,
I have selected ‘Dungeon Core’ as your race, this will enable you to summon creatures to support your dungeon, I was able to add your family as contracted members to your dungeon. This is the best way that I could determine to meet your request for your family to be together. However, you will need to earn enough dungeon points to allow them to join you. They will wait in a time stasis until you can purchase them as an option. I recommend that you do not activate their summons until you have firmly established yourself, as a new dungeon is fairly weak and can be destroyed quite easily. I have also placed you in an area that is Mana rich with no real competition for space. You are located under an ancient city called Jorhan, it is located in a key location on the continent. With a little patience and some effort you should be able to grow easily here. In order to maximize your odds, I have selected your first two skills. ‘Dungeons without Borders’ is a semi-passive skill that will allow you to determine where your active border to your dungeon are announced to system holders. You can have up to 25 percent of your dungeon territory treated as non active dungeon space. The second skill which is even more vital is “Peek-A-Boo Core” this passive skill obfuscates your core location so hunters cannot pinpoint its location. These prepurchased skills are kind of expensive so you will be starting in a Skill Point and Dungeon Point deficit. I hope the rich starting grounds that I dropped you in will allow you to quickly make this up. I think you will eventually understand why I feel these two skills are vital as you learn about how this world and dungeons work. I created a tutorial for you modeled after video games that I saw in your memory, this should help you get started. Work hard and enjoy your Isekai life.
Josephine
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
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After reading the message it faded away. Then another line popped up
‘This is confusing, I have no idea what this is about.’ She thought, she knew she should probably take a minute to cry, and work through her feelings but it was not pressing yet. Maybe that ‘calm spell’ was still in effect, she normally would be an emotional mess right now, she had DIED! What the Hell… Shel blinked at the tutorial message and the text faded with a musical flourish.
A brief image blinked up showing a labyrinth from a top view. There were groups of people inside the maze holding torches. There was a voice over with an interesting accent, Shel thought maybe someone from New Zealand. Tasteful upbeat music started playing in the background.
“As a dungeon core your purpose is to absorb and filter raw environmental Mana into pure Mana, you will sequester this pure Mana into objects and the structure of your Dungeon. In order for you to grow you will automatically absorb loose Mana, you will also need to acquire and absorb items from your environment, each novel item discovered will award Dungeon Points.” An image of a pile of equipment dissolving into motes of green lights appeared.
“If you absorb the same or very similar item several times you have a descending random chance to learn the pattern for that object or material for future purchase from the system menu. The chances for assimilation are based upon the complexity of the absorbed data and the number of times you have absorbed it. A simple piece of wood will be much easier to learn than a magic wand even though the wand is made of wood as well.”
The image changed to a mesh sphere surrounding a sparkling gem. The sphere flashed and grew outward slightly. The music swelled with an upward happy tune with each pulse of the sphere.
“Each time you level up the area of your influence will grow allowing you access to additional space and resources. Absorb the unclaimed items and resources within your area to begin. This tutorial will continue after you have earned 10 Dungeon points” to check your progress you can examine the system screen by thinking or saying ‘status’. The screen faded to black, the music resolving on a hopeful chord.
“Well, this tutorial is stupid, it does not even tell me how to actually absorb stuff, it just says I need to do it.” Shel muttered. “This is no help.”
There was a Ping sound.
New Message
The message icon lit up, Shel looked at it blinking, it expanded.
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Shel,
per your request I have installed a help system, I really do want you to be successful in this trip through life. I however cannot promise my full attention, once you seem like you are progressing my duties will force me to move on, in the future you can reply to one of these messages to try and get my attention, just don’t bug me too much or you will get spam blocked. :)
Josephine
Your Isekai experience is important to us, please fill out a brief survey and let us know what you think of our service.
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The message faded and there was another happy ding sound, a paperclip with big googly eyes slid into view and said excitedly with a chirpy voice “Hi, it looks like you are trying to set up a Dungeon, how can I help?”
“No, No, No, oh Hell no! Can I just get a wiki or community docs or something?” Shel shouted into the darkness.
There was a sad trombone sound and the paperclip changed into a little book icon and plunked itself onto the edge of her vision. Shel mentally opened it and looked at the table of contents, as she was reviewing it, more lines were popping in. It looked like Josephine or somebody was adding new pages as she looked on. She found the entry for absorbing resources and skimmed the page, it looked like she simply needed to focus on an object and decide to claim it or absorb it. Maybe she could clear some stuff from around her so she could begin to move around.
First though, she needed to take a minute and seriously think about what just happened. Shel closed her eyes and was still, what did she know? She was probably dead, and somehow reborn. Evidence seemed to point to the truth of that, as she was seeing phantom screens, and the system responded to her interaction. Josephine had implied that she could somehow save her girls from the dead, if she got strong enough. How should she get stronger? After James died Shel had needed to really learn how to survive, she no longer had the luxury of just following the lead of her husband, if she did not do it it did not get done. So what did she need to do or decide here? If she was now a dungeon core person, she should probably do dungeon core things. That would help her get stronger. She needed to figure out what dungeon core things were, maybe this tutorial would help. Regardless, the first and most pressing goal is to survive in this possibly dangerous and unfamiliar world. This might involve avoiding monsters, finding food and water, and navigating through treacherous terrain. She would need to understand the nature of her new surroundings and the creatures that inhabit them. She would need to learn about the local flora and fauna, and who knows, even gain understanding about the politics and social structures of wherever she was, discovering the history and culture of the region.
‘Wow that got deep fast, maybe I should just take a careful look around first.’ She thought opening her eyes.