This is the story of how I died. I know a little melodramatic but in truth this story does start off with my death. Usually in stories like these the main character faces a small challenge and progressively becomes stronger and stronger until they become completely overpowered. In my case I slept through the beginning of the apocalypse and got turned into Shish Kebab within the first thirty seconds. If I had known that the apocalypse was going to happen today, I probably would have set my alarm clock to wake me up!
I guess I’m getting a little ahead of myself. After all you guys watching my suffering didn’t come here to hear me complaining about dying for the first time. No, you all want to see some action and adventure maybe a little magic and see the hero get the girl. Well, you might as well close the book right now and read a nice fairy tale about some prince charming saving the princess or some other similar crap. I am a monster no doubt about it though my road to becoming one of the bad guys didn’t really start out until after my death when I got a blue message box from someone called the administrator 54.
Attention Eric Fletcher!
Congratulations citizen Eric Fletcher of planet 2,374,666 otherwise known as Earth! You are the first individual to have been slain since the system integration of your world. Honestly, we administrators were quite surprised since we have never had a sentient member of a species sleep through the system integration before. Not only that but you were killed off by just a slime and two goblins which we found hilarious! However, some administrators have argued for intervention since you never even had a chance to fight back.
The arbitration with the system has finished and we are delighted to inform you that you will be given a second chance at life. Hopefully you won’t sleep through it this time! The system will randomly select a new body for you to inhabit as well as grant the usual chance to pick a class and profession. Please inform other inhabitants of your planet that your situation was unique and therefore any request to revive other individuals will not be handled by administrators. Please do your best to entertain us for as long as you are able. Sincerely: Administrator 54
System Change Occurring in 1:00 minute.
Seriously! I died and I apparently got killed by the weakest monsters in video games, slimes, and goblins. This administrator 54 seemed to find me dying hilarious which personally I found outrageous. Let’s see how you felt after waking up from an all-nighter to find out you’d been murdered in your sleep! It looked like not all the administrators were just like him though since it seems they were able to get me a new body. The mention about a system integration though had me worried, was it something like you read about in trashy online novels?
New body creation now commencing please stand by.
Error: Error 49 detected on planet Earth. To many of same species detected on planet surface. New random species and body will now be selected and generated. Additional rewards will be given to individual known currently as Eric Fletcher will be provided.
Random species being selected.
Whoa, whoa, wait what did it mean that I wasn’t going to be human anymore! Sure, I wasn’t some supermodel and to tell the truth I could have stood to lose a few pounds and hit the gym more. The last thing I needed was to get thrown into some random alien body and figure how to move around. What if I became something with scales, tentacles or even worse what if I suddenly became a chick alien. I’ve read a few interesting stories in my life but the last thing I wanted was my life to suddenly become some sort of gender bender web novel!
Species and body have now been selected!
You are now a Dungeon Core.
Wait that can’t be right can it. I thought dungeon cores were just big balls of magical energy that controlled dungeons like in the games. How was I supposed to survive the apocalypse as some magic rock! What was I going to do when adventurers came in to smash me to pieces. Sure, in the games and books I would summon monsters and traps to protect me, but I couldn’t flee if they failed to beat adventurers. This was essentially going to turn into a me against the entire world situation!
Special Notice
You are the first dungeon in your solar system to become sentient. You are also the first dungeon to become sentient as fast as you have. This has caused the system to award you with the title of Fast Grower and Dungeon Representative of Earth! The system however wishes to inform you that due to interference of administration any further rewards will be withheld from you.
Special note from Administrator 54: Sorry Eric but we aren’t going to give you everything for free you little sneak! We will allow you to have the titles though and their benefits are very sweet. Also you might want to change your name if you don’t want humans to realize you were once human. Situations like that could lead to you being the subject of some pretty horrific experiments.
Are you freaking kidding me I was in this whole mess because of the system and administrators. At least let me have as big an advantage as I could get. Why was the administrator even calling me a sneak. I literally could do nothing as all these changes were happening to me. I barely had time to think about the message from the administrators or the system before another popped up. I grumbled quietly to myself about the administrators and their meddling before checking out the titles I apparently earned.
Title Earned: Fast Grower
You have obliterated the record for fastest a dungeon has ever become sentient. The fastest before this moment was 1,562 years of life. As such a system wide announcement has been made to all sentient dungeons of your accomplishment, increasing your fame. You also gain the bonus of a 10% decrease in cost for dungeon expansions, monster summoning and trap creation.
Well, I guess it isn’t too bad of a benefit. Though I wouldn’t know until I finally got this new body that I was getting. Maybe it wouldn’t be too bad, and I would have some avatar or something that would allow me to move around a bit. After all I didn’t just want to be some magical rock for the rest of my life! I then decided to look at the second title that I had been given.
Title Gained: Dungeon Representative of Earth
You are the first dungeon that has gained sentience on the planet registered as earth! This means you are the designated dungeon leader of your planet. You are given the ability to know the location of all dungeons on earth, communicate with dungeons when they gain sentience, and the ability to unlock the global dungeon market. Access to the global dungeon market allows you to purchase the various starter monsters, traps, and environments given to earth dungeons. This does not give you access to unique creations which will either need to be created through your own means or through trading with sentient dungeons.
I wasn’t going to act too excited just yet, but this second title seemed a bit overpowered. Being able to have such a big variety of monsters, traps and environments would allow me to have a huge leg up on other dungeons. Plus being able to communicate with them would probably help with trading and keep me from being too bored out of my mind. Though I wonder why I would need to be able to know all the dungeon’s locations. I’ll have to investigate that function a bit more later.
After looking through the titles I decided to look at the next blue box that appeared. Reading it over I was happy to see that it was my class selection sheet. There weren’t many choices available to me due to my new status as a dungeon. Apparently, the lack of having a physical body probably makes my options rather limited. Looking through the options though I only really saw five options available to me at the time that gave me any reasonable benefits.
Class selection process will now commence!
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
Special Notice: Due to the individual being a dungeon core selection of classes has been limited. Additionally, each class has a section designating the ease of using the class. The harder the class the more powerful and more secure you can become when facing adventures latter on in your existence. However, the higher the difficulty the more likely adventurers will attempt to purge you from existence while the easier existence will give you a higher life expectancy but weaker power.
Trap Master Dungeon: Trap Master dungeons are masters of traps and puzzles. You gain the basic trap and puzzle back and a discount on purchasing the two. Your focus will be creating puzzles adventurers will have to solve and deadly traps which will depending on the dungeon grant loot or prizes to your intrepid adventurers. However, monster purchases will also be more expensive for you to purchase the only instance where this does not apply will be boss rooms. Difficulty: Normal Mode
Necro Dungeon: Necro Dungeons focus on undead creatures and sacrificial rituals. Gain the undead creature starter pack and dark ritual starter pack. Turning your victims to undead or having adventurers use the necro rituals within your halls empower you and gain you strength. Monsters gain more power the longer they survive as well as when they defeat adventurers. However you hold an increased weakness to light and holy magic. Warning: Necro Dungeons are often times targeted for destruction by religious groups. Difficulty: Hard Mode
Monster Horde Dungeon: Monster Horde dungeons focus on overwhelming challengers with monsters. This allows you to purchase dungeon monsters and minions at a discount as well as two monster type starter packs. Monster hordes are also unique due to their ability to have breakouts in which if your dungeon is not cleared then after a certain amount of time your monster horde will leave your dungeon and hunt outside. You will still gain system credits and your monsters will have an increase in strength when the breakout occurs. However other purchases will have a markup in price such as traps or environments. Difficulty: Normal Mode
Castle Town Dungeon: Unlike regular dungeons that gain strength from death these dungeons gain strength through life. You gain the ability to create a safe zone in your dungeons where visitors and citizens can rest under the protection of your minions. In exchange those under your protection vow not to harm you and to serve as your defenders. Gain a rough keep and minor walls as your starter bonus. However you cannot attack anyone who vows to protect you and will only gain power in those slain who aim to attack your dungeon. Gain the special ability to appoint a lord over the castle. Difficulty: Easy Mode
Overall, the first four options had many different strengths and weaknesses. I had thought of choosing the necro dungeon because the thought of having a horde of zombies and necrotic rituals brought out my inner edge lord. But the warning at the end made me a little nervous. Plus, there was that special notice at the beginning of the class options. Essentially the harder the existence I started out at the more powerful and secure I would be if I survived long enough.
My inner gamer was screaming at me at this point to look for the most difficult class option out there. Honestly though most of those options were basically screaming hey adventures please purge me now. I wanted to live at least for a while before getting killed off or even better not get killed off at all. While I was having my little inner debate, I kept glancing at the fifth option I had initially chosen. It was a pretty big risk, but I thought that if I did it right, I could have a shot of working with it.
Dungeon of Corruption: The most insidious type of dungeon your focus is the very souls of those who explore your depths. Corruption dungeons work on corrupting adventurers through vices or other more insidious methods. Dungeon gains the demon starter pack and the dark rituals starter pack. Gain the unique ability dungeon sworn. In addition to every death occurring in your dungeon you also gain additional power and currency by corrupting adventures enough to use dungeon sworn ability on their very souls. Extreme weakness to divine magic and light magic. WARNING: Dungeons discovered to be corruption dungeons are purged with extreme prejudice by organizations within the system and are actively hunted. Difficulty: God Mode
Holy crap was the fifth class overpowered but also dangerous! The fact the system was around basically proved that aliens were around, and that warning meant they would be trying to purge me the second I was discovered. Plus having a god mode difficulty meant that I basically had no chance to survive long. So, me being the reasonable life loving individual that I was the decision was obvious. I selected the corruption class; I mean my inner gamer wanted to see how long I could last and since I died already its and I was stuck as some magical rock I might as well see what I could do.
Right after selecting my class, I then got to select my profession. Again, the fact that my body was now a dungeon core seemed to have limited my options. Apparently, the system discriminates against those who couldn’t leave a certain area or who didn’t have hands or feet. Looking through the list of classes there were a few that stood out when you compared them to the other available options. Though after a few minutes I was able to narrow down potential options to just three.
Profession Options
Ritualist: Ritualists are individuals that hold an in-depth knowledge of forbidden rituals, spells and incantations. Ritualists are often sought out to help others understand the meaning and abilities of unknown rituals. They gain experience when performing new rituals or unlocking their secrets as well as new spells and incantations. Advanced forms of the profession can allow individuals to create their own unique rituals to empower themselves or fulfill other goals. Synergy with class: High
Trickster: Tricksters are those who focus on deception of their enemies and even their allies. Through manipulation and lies a trickster can make others believe them completely by ensnaring the senses. Skilled in illusions and body manipulation a trickster can even fool higher tiered individuals if they have advanced their skills enough and even shapeshift. Advanced forms of the profession can deceive even gods and allow for them to escape detection and identification. Synergy with class: High
Summoner: Summoners are those who use rituals to summon beings from other dimensions and making pacts with these entities. The more beings that a summoner has made pacts with the greater their reputation with other worldly beings become as well as a greater increase in power. However, beware summoning something before you are ready otherwise these beings will devour you. Advanced forms of the profession will allow for princes from the dark dimension as well as eldritch horrors to be summoned to our realm. Synergy with class: Very High
Honestly all three of these professions sounded like they would work with my class as corrupters. The ritualist would allow me to understand mystic rituals and when it advanced enough would allow me to better increase my own personal power. Trickster though would increase my chance of surviving and with my class it sounded like quite a few people would be aiming to purge little old me. The summoner class though probably tempted me the most with the ability to summon beings from other dimensions was just screaming pick me up.
The one thing that gave me pause was it gave me a warning about summoning beings that could devour me. Plus, that part about summoning eldritch horrors really set off some warning bells. The last thing I wanted to do was summon Cthulhu and his brothers to our world. That would probably get me purged even faster than just being a dungeon of corruption. Making up my mind I decided to go for the survivability option and chose the trickster profession.
Well, I’m sure this will be a pretty fun experience. So far, I’ve basically guaranteed that as soon as people found out what class of dungeon, I was they would be gunning to shatter me as soon as possible. I knew that the thought of being killed should terrify me but something about already dying had apparently caused something to snap inside me. Now I relished the challenge since this time I wouldn’t be the victim, now I would be the hunter.
At first, I had been frankly pretty pissed off that I wouldn’t be human anymore. But I was starting to come around to becoming a dungeon. While the rest of the people of earth were attempting to survive the monsters, I would become one of the monsters. I would never have to be a victim in this new world ever again! It as I was thinking about my new lease on life that another system message appeared in front of me.
System Message
Do to the individual known as Eric Fletcher being slain and now reconstructed at the behest of the administrators a offer is made. Would you like to change your name into a new one recognized under the system?
Yes/No
I wasn’t going to be human anymore anyway so why not make a complete break. After all, before the system I wasn’t anything remarkable or memorable. All I did was work, play video games, and try to survive each day. I clicked yes and after thinking for a moment chose an old player name, I had for some of the online games I played. With satisfaction I tried to pull up a character sheet and was thrilled when one showed up.
Name: Malvermeth
Race: Dungeon Core
Class: Dungeon of Corruption
Profession: Trickster
Level: 1
Tier: 1
Experience: 0/1,000
Mana: 1,000
Titles:
Dungeon representative of Earth (Displayed), Fast Grower
Abilities:
None
Skills:
None
I grinned as I looked over my status sheet as I said goodbye to Erik Fletcher and my old life. Sure, right now it was nothing to look at but there was so much room to grow. Already I could see how I could gain power and recognition with the system that had been impossible in my old life. I suddenly felt the system start to take my consciousness away as my sight started to fade. When I woke up, I would become a dungeon core and begin my own adventure. I mentally grinned at the amount of fun and mischief I would be able to get to in this new world.