Cyrus didn't mind labour. All the hard work accumulated into the most delicious of fruits, so sweet and mouth-watering. Building his new home was no less if not easier than all the other assortments of jobs he had taken in the past.
The rock and soil molded themselves into whatever shape the Decanus saw fit like a well-trained legion performing drills. Mounds of soil and debris disappear with a figurative wave of his hand, pure bliss. Tunnels and rooms which would've taken hundreds of workers toiling day and night were excavated with a thought.
If only he could bring this "dungeon core" technology home, imagine the glory, riches and fame that the Senate would bestow upon him. Alas, magic has its limits.
Cyrus had such high hopes. The thought of a spell being able to pierce the veil of reality and pinpoint the exact universe of his origins was foolish and naive but it was his only hope of returning home. The massive mountain of documents spoke nothing of long-range teleportation magic, nor give him clues to "taboo" magic that could achieve this. After countless hours of scrolling through glossaries and melting his brain into a grey puddle, Cyrus dropped the book in defeat and slumped to the floor. He sighed, "life never seemed to like me and it seems travelling across the multiverse has done little to stem the scorn".
The image of a cool glass of beer popped into his head. A small thin stream of saliva snaked down his chin. "If only," the Decanus muttered, "if only." Sighing once more, he removed himself from the human body and proceeded to continue carving out the wall.
A few hours passed by. In that time, Decanus had expanded his tiny cube of space into a comfortably sized-circular room with the standard being the centrepiece. Consulting his rectangular scholar friends, he carved a long and narrow hallway bridging his "core" room to the first "boss room." After contemplating the size of the chamber, he settled on a large rectangle shape, simple yet effective. He first drilled a small cavity at the dead end before absorbing the surrounding rocks and expanding the hole. Fortunately for Cyrus, the mana generated from the consummation of resources was enough to constantly fuel his activity. Work was quick yet tedious, the physical strain of labour had transformed into a mental one. The "dungeon core" had to constantly rest and ease the throbbing pain in his temples lest he blackout again. Another few hours passed with this process.
The boss room was complete.
While the roman was quite disgruntled by the inefficient expansion, he indulged himself with just a hint of satisfaction at the work in progress. Cyrus was no Alexander the great - excavator edition but he certainly wasn't going to fall below the pace of Caesar's formation of the triumvirate or in quality for that matter. Pondering his life as he carved out potholes in the wall, the creation of the tunnel to the 3rd last room had begun.
Stolen story; please report.
10 hours passed by, the echo of rock clattering to the floor constantly filled the halls of this dungeon-to-be. Dig. Rest. Dig. Over and over this process was repeated. The long hallway was complete. Time to go on to the next task and the next. The end wasn't in sight but the faintest glints of light indicated that completion was gradually nearing. Cyrus blinked, realising the glints of light were actually just white splotches in his vision. Reiterating to himself that he was halfway to completion, he took a break.
The scraping of rock once again rung through the freshly-carved tunnels. Hours come and ago. Rest and dig. Rest and dig. Cyrus wasn't tired, unphased by the dull and repetitious work. His discontent at the slowness had grown superficial, replaced by a secret sense of accomplishment, not that he would ever admit it of course. The 3rd chamber was complete, another simple design, a room with equally proportionate lengths.
Another hallway, another room, another path with its corresponding territory and finally an entrance space. Nearly there, only 5 more sections to go, the roman sighed. Compared to even the worst hardships his legion had faced, none could hold a candle to the expansiveness of this task. Destroy rock, relax, explode more rock. The dullness was getting to him, infecting his entire being with a sombre atmosphere that drained his energy like a parasite. Production slowed after that. Absorb dirt, destroy dirt. Like a hamster in a wheel, Cyrus felt like he was going nowhere.
After painstakingly carving out the last of the "challenge" rooms, he celebrated this progress with a well-earned break. In other words, turning his brain power down to the minimum and then staring blank-eyed at the wall. He had discovered this technique shortly after his slight mental breakdown which ended with him banging his head on the wall.
The roman sighed contently, "almost there," he urged his incorporeal body onwards. His non-existent bones creaked in protest, his ghost hands twitched unresponsively, his invisible brain splattered itself against the side of his head cavity in an attempt to commit suicide. Cyrus's body divided itself into a hotness and a coldness, a hardness and a softness. His lazy attitude broke from the weakened mental prison, meeting his greatest nemesis, hard work. It was the showdown of a century. Laziness called upon the traitorous brain cells and the muscle spies, causing the two legendary organ kingdoms to be toppled in an instant. Hard work lashed out, jump-starting the two systems with bolts of electricity. Narrowing his eyes, he whipped out, expecting a sneak attack, only to find a...sleeping blob of Laziness? Hard work face-palmed himself out of existence. An anticlimactic end for sure. After the two great foes defeated each other themselves, the body resumed normal functioning.
2 days later...
Completion! An arc resembling an aqueduct had been constructed, sunk into the soil like an archaeological find half unearthed. The area within contained a hinged door that would open with ease. A single, mental push was all it took to open the dungeon up to the world... A split second before he spread his awareness outwards, he heard a DING!