Chapter 2: A Quest from the System!
If ever someone asked whether I would recommend being turned into a dungeon core I would have to give it a solid maybe. If you were someone who was hoping to start on the road of gaining absolute power over an area, you control I would say go for it. If you liked socializing with others or for that matter, having a body being a dungeon would probably drive you insane. Since I was in the former category of people and frankly my life as a human had been dull so I wasn’t too broken up about becoming a dungeon. It might also have helped that when I woke up from the transformation of the system, I could clearly tell there were some differences in the me from before to the new dungeon me.
The most glaring change was obviously the lack of a physical body with hands, feet, or anything remotely human in appearance. My new body now was a small grey orb that floated on about five feet off the ground with a light glow of light shing around it. Another new change was I could see everything around me and had complete awareness of the room I was in. I instinctively knew that there were no other beings in the room with me, but I could also feel that I could change the room to how I wanted it. Before I even had a chance to do anything though two system messages took up my vision.
System Quest Given
Congratulations Malvermeth you have awakened as a sentient dungeon allowing you to unlock system quest! You have awoken and have begun to explore your surroundings but a dungeon that does not grow will not thrive or survive. Create the first floor of your dungeon and open your gates for those who dare to face the corrupting influence you use to ensnare your victims.
Success: Create your first floor and open your dungeon to the public.
Failure: You fail to create your first floor within the time limit.
Reward: 500 exp, unique skill dungeon sworn unlocked, & chance at a random dungeon boss
Consequence: Dungeon core is shattered.
Time Limit: 72:00:00
Well, that’s just great I get killed off my system monsters right as the thing showed up and now, I only had three days to create an entire first floor of my dungeon. To all the administrators who I was sure were watching me right now I gave a big mental middle finger to them all. Sure, the system said that my difficulty level would be God mode but these consequences right off the bat made it clear that I was going to be working hard for a while before I would ever get a chance to just relax. But just because I was essentially getting screwed over right off the bat didn’t mean I was planning on giving up just yet. As I grumbled to myself, I checked out the second system message that had appeared with the system quest.
System Notice
You have been given the demon starter pack and the dark ritual starter pack for dungeons! Use these starter packs to begin creating your dungeon challenges for those adventurers who challenge your halls. As a dungeon you have an instinctive knowledge of how to expand and shape your floors. Starter packs though give you a chance of learning skills or gaining dungeon monsters. These dungeon monsters will respawn over time but depending on your abilities the length of time varies.
Would you like to open your starter packs?
Yes/No
Obviously, I hit yes and instantly knowledge began to flood my mind. Some of the stuff from the starter packs were mildly disappointing. One of the so-called dark rituals made a person feel as though they’ve stubbed their toe. Amusing and could be useful in certain situations but over all some of these rituals would barely be considered dark. Though I was intrigued with a few of them, particularly the ones that created illusions to ensnare the senses of individuals. I could already tell that these rituals would allow me to trick adventurers into situations they never would have dared to do before.
The demon starter pack though I was excited to see gave me a few minions that wouldn’t cost mana to summon. Though the demon summoning rituals I learned from that starter pack revealed that to summon more dungeon creatures I would have to use more of my mana to summon them. But out of the minions I did gain I realized that I had twenty demons called Imps, five Infernal Knights, one demon called a Mammodian along with rituals on how to summon more of them. Eager to learn more about them I decided to pull up their information.
Imps
Imps are the most common type of demon within the dark or infernal realms. They are considered pest by most and only know basic hell flame magic. However, imps are the origins of all demons and so have the potential to grow and evolve in power over time if they can survive. Their loyalty is all but guaranteed so long as their master is powerful and generous. Beware though that like all demons they hunger for power and only respect strength, otherwise they could seek to undermine their master.
Strength: Basic hell flame, Invisibility, Unique ability: Limitless Evolution Potential
Weaknesses: Low durability, Holy Magic, Light Magic
Infernal Knights
Infernal knights while not demons themselves are created through the remnants of demonic entities. When a demon is killed its soul is shattered. These shards of the soul when captured and collected and infused into armor to create Infernal Knights. These demonic creations are often used as disposable soldiers. However, if they devour enough souls they can become more powerful and evolve or even awaken as a newborn demon in rare cases with some of the memories and abilities of the soul shard that was used to create them.
Strengths: High durability, Melee attacks, Unique Ability: Soul Devour
Weaknesses: Sneak attacks, Holy Magic, Light Magic
Mammodian
Mammodian’s are demons of greed that feast upon and nurture the greed of mortals. It is said that whenever misfortune befalls someone due to the greed of others a mammodian demon is likely behind the event. They are masters of contract magic, illusion magic, and can exclude an aura that entices mortals to give in to their most greedy thoughts and desires. Mammodian’s are fickle in their nature and will only serve those who gain them profit.
Strengths: Illusion magic, Contract Magic, Unique ability: Aura of Greed
Weakness: Melee Attacks, Holy Magic, Light Magic
After looking through the free minions I got my feelings on them were a little mixed. With the Imps I could use them as ambush creatures attacking from the shadows. The knights would be my main combat unit fighting head on while the Mammodian hid in the background deceiving and influencing the people who cam in my dungeon. The problem was that since they were demons, they all had a weakness for light and holy magic. I would need to fix that or find other minions without those weaknesses otherwise after a dew people braved my dungeon, they would be able to crush me easily.
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One of the things that both starter packs had offered me were rewards I could choose to give adventurers for beating my monsters and challenges. Though from the look of it the rewards weren’t something I would call amazing they would do until I could become more powerful and give better items. So far, I could grant adventures bronze coins that once absorbed could be turned into system currency or body parts of my dungeon monsters that could be used for a variety of things like potions or enchantments.
It was as I was looking at the rewards that an idea struck me on the way to summon more minions without using my own MP. One of the dark rituals I earned sucked away mana when activated. If I could link that ritual trap to a demonic summoning ritual, I could basically make a monster summoning trap without constantly having to use my own MP and make adventurers summon monsters for me. I could even leave bronze coins in common places and make it so that each piece was cursed to summon a demon making an adventures own greed be their downfall!
I eagerly set to work studying the two rituals in order to find a way to link them together. I would love to say that it was easy, and I was able to figure out the magic formulas but then I would be lying. While the system had uploaded a basic understanding of magic and the rituals, I had been given I still had to find the key phrases that would be used in the rituals and how to combine them together. Luckily due to being a dungeon core I had no need to sleep, and my mind worked faster than it ever had before resulting in me figuring out how to combine them after a full day of studying the rituals.
I then summoned one of the bronze coins the system gave me. The rituals called for me to create a sigil and then place whatever I was cursing in the middle of the pentagram. Luckily for me as a dungeon I was automatically able to carve the sigil into the very floor of the dungeon right underneath the coins. I then sent my mana into the sigil’s circle and watched as a deep red glow spread through the circle and symbols, building in intensity before suddenly the light disappeared. For a second, I thought that my little experiment had failed until two system notifications appeared.
System Notice
Items Created: Cursed Bronze Demon Summoning Coins
Through amateur attempts you have altered the basic bronze coins into cursed items. Bronze coins will now suck the mana off the first person who touches it. Their mana will then open a portal to allow a minor demonic being through. However, due to your interference the demon summoned will be bound to your dungeon.
System Notice
Ability Gained: Cursed Item Creation I
You have gained by your reckless experimentation the rudimentary knowledge of imbuing items with curses. Knowledge of basic curses and the best items to imbue with those curses will be imparted to you. Mana expenditure for creation of cursed items lowered by 10%. Create more cursed items to advance the skill.
Progress to next stage: 0/1000 items created.
Special Notice: Due to not having a physical body stats increases will not be given until the individual known as Malvermeth gains a avatar or physical living form.
Success, I thought triumphantly as I looked over the bronze coins. Creating the coins had cost me four hundred and fifty mana so nearly half of it but apparently my fast grower applied to their creation since they were essentially traps. I’d only been able to create ten of them, but I knew already that these would be a great gimmick for my first dungeon floor. I was a little annoyed that the curses would only be used once before turning the coins back into regular bronze pieces but at least I would gain some cheaper minions out of it. The usual ritual cost two hundred mana for each of the demons I summoned but now adventurers would summon them for me weakening themselves while strengthening me.
Since my goal was to corrupt those who would brave my halls I decided after looking over the items and minions from the starter packs that my first floor would focus on greed. I remember in before my death how greedy people could be and something told me that just because the system had arrived in our world that that wasn’t going to change anytime soon. I could still remember the constant payments to the bank I had to make for the crappy car I had gotten and then the rent payments and then to top it all the insurance I had to pay for all of it. Humans I knew early on when I was one of them were always going to be greedy creatures, looking to make the most money as quickly as they could and that would be their downfall when they came to my first dungeon floor.
Enough remonetizing about the past I only had two days left before the quest failed and my core was shattered! But how was I going to design my first floor, after all before kicking the bucket, I had just been your average nine to five office grunt just trying to survive in the hellscape of working in a cubicle. I decided to summon one of the imps to get a visual of what I was working with. Since they were the lowest level of demon according to the system then I wasn’t exactly expecting them to be all that intelligent. However, when I summoned the first one, I was in for a little surprise.
“Who the hell has summoned me to this cess pit!” Those were the first thing the imp screeched as soon as it appeared in front of me. I was a little surprised at the appearance of the demon. Imagine one of the stereotypical little cartoon devils and basically you got the picture though it was also a hell of a lot uglier. The imp was still flying around the room looking for the person who had summoned him. I decided to take the chance to analyze him, and his system information sheet appeared.
[Unnamed]
Male Imp
Level: 1
Profession: N/A
Huh I guess he didn’t have a name, that was a little weird. Did that mean all the minions I got wouldn’t have names either? I could already feel a headache coming on at the idea of trying to direct hundreds of monsters and demons while none of them having a name to identify themselves. Wait could a dungeon core even get a headache I wondered to myself. The imp was starting to get increasingly agitated that its summoner hadn’t appeared, so I attempted to speak to him.
“Hello little imp, and welcome to my dungeon.”
“Hugh,” the imp yelped outload whirling around again still looking around. “Who said that? What warlock summons a demon and doesn’t even reveal themselves and why did you summon me into a dungeon that isn’t even active yet?”
Interesting warlocks were the people who usually summoned demons and other creatures from the dark dimensions. I would have to remember to be on the lookout for those types of people if I ever came into my halls. The imps were still ranting, though some of the insults he was throwing out were interesting. The one about how my family lined was sired by a lustful goat herder and its flock I found funny to be honest. I decided to use my control of my dungeon minion in that instant to shut him up.
“Silence Imp! Your master is not some doddering mortal who would summon you on a whim. All around you is my domain, my kingdom. You are the first of my servants to be summoned into my halls!”
At my command the imp instantly became mute as my dungeon magic hit him with my command. It was interesting and relieving that even though I didn’t know telepathy or have a body he could instantly understand me when I directed my thoughts at him. As I spoke the imp’s eyes became wide and he started gesturing wildly at his mouth. Guessing what he wished to ask, I granted him permission to speak again.
“Are you saying you’re the dungeon itself?” The imp asked in amazement gesturing to my dungeon core.
“That is correct.”
“May I analyze you?”
“You have my permission to scan me.” I said already knowing what he would see when he analyzed me.
Malvermeth
Dungeon of Corruption
Level 1
Profession: Trickster
Apparently, me being a sentient dungeon at level one was a big deal because the imp just stared at me in shock for a few minutes. But slowly the shock wore away and, in its place, devilish delight appeared on the imp’s face. His shoulder started to shake as he started to howl with laughter.
“A new dungeon of corruption has just been born and its already sentient!” He howled in excitement as he started to fly around the core room. “I honestly feel bad for the mortals of this planet, they don’t have any idea what is in store for them!”
“I take it you are pleased with your new master.”
“Oh yes, great dungeon, my lord Malvermeth! I have so much that I need to tell you but let me say that I would be honored to be the first to serve you!”
At his response I couldn’t help to be pleased with his answer. I still had two days left before I needed to open my doors to let in the first adventures. With a willing minion to help me out I was certain that I would create a truly nefarious first floor. Then I would be able to gain the energy to expand to another floor and then another. Until eventually I gained enough strength to be unassailable especially against those who would seek to crush my core.