“So, I am basically going to be some kind of mini god?” I asked the angel, a beautiful woman with many, many wings and had to be at least twelve feet tall. Oh, and lots of eyes. Lots and lots of eyes.
She tapped a near claw like finger to her chin, humming to herself.
“Yes, yes, I suppose so. Being a Dungeon Core is much like being a god if you take a moment to think about it.” She mused. “Though you must remember, unlike a god, dungeon cores are not immortal, they must feed on Creation in order to grow and function and can be slain by other mortals to fuel their growth as well.”
I took a moment to take that in, pondering what else I should ask.
‘I can’t believe I’ve gone from nearly sobbing about the fact that I had died to asking some monstrous angel woman about what being a freaking Dungeon Core would be like in the span of twenty minutes.’ I thought.
“So, I can create nearly anything, right?”
“Given enough time, resources, and space, anything can be possible.”
“And people are going to try and destroy me for various reasons, correct?”
“Yes, and before you ask being hunted will happen, it is not a might, not a most likely, but an absolute guarantee that people will try to kill you, and that you will have to kill them. Or at the very least repel them. People will do some drastic and nearly suicidal things to get their hands on you. Being made of pure Creation will do that.”
I was starting to draw some parallels between this and certain Earth literature and games. Creation being a step in for Mana, one that worked quite well given what Mana was meant to be, along with Dungeon Cores being little creators and shapers that made monsters and other such hazards to keep people from trying to killing them.
Speaking of Dungeon Cores...
“Why are they called that exactly, Dungeon Cores?”
She blinked all of her many eyes.
“It came from when Dungeon Cores were first discovered, they were found in abandoned dungeons since the ambient Creation often had nowhere to go and coalesced into Cores, beings of pure intent and Creation. I have never been asked that question before, though only now have I realized that, so congratulations on your inquisitiveness.”
Oh, that makes sense, I guess.
“You also said that I was the first soul pulled from Earth to become a Dungeon Core, is there a reason for this or am I simply just the first?”
She blinked once more.
“To say that Dungeons have been commodified would be... Quite an understatement. Instead of being the foreboding challenge they once have been, where the worthy survive and the unworthy perish or are given experience to be better than they were, most have been given an almost farm like nature, the monsters being culled by lower leveled mortals with higher leveled ones threatening the Core with destruction if it doesn’t keep pumping out creatures suitable for their needs. Any Dungeons like that of old times are often labeled “Kill Dungeons” and typically have large bounties, especially for the more powerful ones.
“So, we need souls not of our world, with ideas and concepts we have never thought of, to become a dungeon and break the mold. Yes, the mortal races have been more powerful than ever, but they have become lazy, complacent with easy gains, and if they keep this up, they will collapse in on themselves. Whether it be a new threat they are not prepared for, much like you, or if they ever fall into total war amongst themselves. If they do, like your world and their atomic bombs, life as they know it could cease to exist, given the power they hold currently, and lack of wisdom to use it wisely.”
Oh. Wow. That was, uh, quite the bombshell.
I took a soothing breath, letting future me carry the burden of thinking about my apparent purpose.
Also, ‘souls’?
“Are there going to be other Dungeons like me?”
“Yes, other souls from other worlds as well are also being recruited at this very moment. Our plan would not work if only one soul were given this treatment.”
Ok, so at least I wouldn’t be alone, situation wise.
There was apparently a System as well, given the mention of levels.
“One more question, what kind of system will I be getting, if any?”
She fluttered her wings.
“Oh, you are familiar with a concept such as the System? Good, this should be easy to explain then. Unlike most other systems, you will not level, or obtain anything from it other than knowledge or quality of life things. You will have to do nearly everything yourself, but the system will help prevent you from going in circles or spending an eternity trying to find out how to change the color of a rock or figure out other uses of Creation. It is also used to record your status, such as your Creation capacity, age, name, monster formats, and even notes.”
Oh, that sounds quite convenient.
I nodded.
“Alright, I believe I’m ready.”
“Good! You are going to be placed in a strategic position, one with high ambient Creation flow and far away from any civilized society to give you ample time to prepare. Now, Kailum, you must remember why you are here, but if worse comes to worst, don’t go without swinging, being an enslaved or “Tamed” Core is worse than death for some, forever forced to make trash and never able to do what you want ever again. Though I shouldn’t have to tell you this, yes?”
I chuffed. “Certainly.”
The angel smiled a sharp, toothy grin.
“Now then, take my hand, and your journey shall begin.”
It took her hand with my own. It felt like touching cold porcelain, though something about it felt oddly comforting.
I could feel myself beginning to fade away, and before it all went black the last words I heard were, “Good luck, Kailum.”
---
The first thing I noticed when I awakened in my new body was that I could see 360 degrees around me. Also, I couldn’t close my eyes, because I had none since I was a crystal in a cave now.
I could also ‘sense’ through what I assumed to be Creation that the cave I was in was quite large, going down for almost a mile. The cave was located at the base of a mountain range, with the opening slightly obscured by shrubbery. Everything after that became incredibly blurry, not letting me see anything.
God, this was so weird.
Alright, I’m a Dungeon Core. What’s the first step I should take? Perhaps I should check out the System before I do anything, that seems smart.
“Ok, uhm, System?” I ‘spoke’, though without any way to make noise it was more of a slightly louder thought.
The moment the word System was spoken a screen appeared in my head; crystal clear.
---
*STATS*
NAME: Kailum Malura
RACE: Dungeon Core
AGE: 2 Minutes
CREATION DENSITY: 2’000/2’000
CREATION REGENERATION RATE: 25/hr
DUNGEON NAME: Unnamed
MONSTER TEMPLATES: None
---
Wow. Spartan.
There really wasn’t anything of use I got from that; did I have a lot of Creation for a Dungeon Core? Was it little for a Dungeon Core? Wasn’t I told that I could ask my System for knowledge?
“Is the amount of Creation I have a lot for a Dungeon Core?”
Ping!
*YES, MOST DUNGEON CORES TYPICALLY START WITH AROUND 600 CREATION AND A REGEN OF 5/hr, YOUR FORMATION IS AN ANOMOLY, THOUGH IT IS FAR FROM UNIQUE*
Oh, wow that was far more than what I expected to get. Thank you, System!
*YOU'RE WELCOME*
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
So, the amount of Creation and Regen I had was incredibly high to say the least. That angel was not lying when she said I would be placed somewhere with high amounts of Creation.
Let's see, what else should I ask?
Ah, I know.
“System, how do I increase my Creation Density and Creation Regen?”
Ping!
*YOU CAN INCREASE YOUR CREATION DENSITY BY FOCUSING ON PULLING IN AS MUCH CREATION AS POSSIBLE, EVEN WHILE YOU ARE FULL. IT SHOULD CAUSE YOUR CREATION TO BECOME DENSER AND ALLOW YOU TO ABSORB MORE, THOUGH THE FASTEST WAY TO INCREASE CREATION DENSITY IS BY SLAYING MORTALS AND TAKING THEIR SPIRITS, AS IT IS FAR MORE SUITABLE FOR SUCH PRACTICES.
THE ONLY WAY TO INCREASE YOUR CREATION REGEN IS BY MAKING IT SO THAT IT FLOWS TO YOU EASIER, SUCH AS CREATING PATHWAYS SO IT COMES TO YOU DIRECTLY AND FLOW FASTER INSTEAD OF PASSIVELY ABSORBING AMBIENT CREATION*
Hm, alright that doesn’t seem too bad. I should be able to do that. The whole ‘taking mortal spirits’ thing seems pretty sketchy though, is there a difference between spirits and souls?
*THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SPIRITS AND SOULS IS THAT SPIRIT IS AN INCREDIBLY MODIFIED AND DENSE FORM OF CREATION, CREATED THROUGHOUT THE SOUL’S LIFE SPAN IN THE MORTAL WORLD. SPIRIT IS USED BY THE SOUL TO CONTROL CREATION, ALLOWING THE USE OF MAGICS*
Alright, thankfully I’m not going to be eating anyone’s soul anytime soon, thank God(s?).
So, I know how to increase my Creation Density, now what?
Perhaps I should do what Dungeons do best before I decide to enhance myself.
Creating monsters!
I focused my senses throughout the cave system, trying to find something suitable. In my old life I would always find myself sketching little creatures, sometimes they would be cute, other times horrifying. Mostly horrifying to be honest. So I was quite excited to start playing God, for the lack of a better term. I loved thinking about what could be made; Rat dogs, blood sucking monsters, massive insectoids, leech dragons, anything was possible!
So, what was available?
Rats, bats, some more rats, a snake, funny looking roly-polies with spikes on them, leeches from a large pond of water at the cave’s entrance. A bird.
Perfect!
Now, what shall I make of them, what shall be my theme? Every competent Dungeon needs a theme, yes?
I brainstormed for a while, trying to think of something. Nature, swamp, water, flying monsters, small monsters, big monsters, cute monsters, scary monsters.
Scary monsters...
Yes, yes that can work. If I am trying to make people respect Dungeons once again and I’m also trying to keep myself alive, I might as well try and make the most horrifying, dreadful, absolutely godless abominations to strike fear into their very souls.
Only an absolute madman would try and delve into my domain once I’m done!
Let's get started. Leeches are going to be a no brainer, who wouldn’t be terrified by something trying to suck their blood? Though they are quite small, and mostly water bound.
“System, how do I alter creatures for my purposes?”
Instead of a little voice and some text like the last few times, I was instead injected directly with the knowledge and know-how on how to turn some innocent animals into monsters. Convenient!
I first began by increasing the size of the leeches by several orders of magnitude, at first, they were about the size of someone’s thumb, but they soon grew to be about the size of an average dog. I then started to give them limbs, but stopped myself once I realized they had no bones. I didn’t want to give them tentacles as that would be difficult to use for terrestrial movement, but I also couldn’t give them legs as they would be impossible to use without anything keeping them up. I didn’t want to give them bones either as that would take away the ability to go into incredibly tight spaces, limiting their ability to hide and ambush people. Just as I was going to give up and think of a new design, I came up with a genius idea.
Instead of bones, they would have thick columns of incredibly dense flesh and muscle that they could clench and flex at will in order to either stand or squeeze into small spaces.
Once they had legs, they could reach up to an average person’s waist at the shoulder, but their ‘tails’, which used to just be the latter end of their bodies, would be too large to comfortably move with, so I decided to make them somewhat bipedal with a hunched, leaning posture to counteract the weight. Their front feet became hands with four fingers and a thumb, each digit having small claws they could retract at will. Their back feet became bigger, with four front facing toes and a back facing toe.
What I was left with was a semi-humanoid leech monster that could reach up to a person’s shoulder. They had colorful stripes on their backs ranging from green, red, blue, purple, and orange, left by their previous forms.
Yep. Those are monsters already.
I had made six of them, and with a quick check with the system, realized they could actually reproduce, eventually making more once conditions were optimal. That should save me a lot of pain in the future.
The whole ordeal took about 200 Creation to do, it would be a lot for a normal beginning Dungeon, but for me? Not so much.
Their home would be the first and possibly second chambers of the cave once they discover it, since they contained large, clear pools of water that came from a small stream flowing in through a hole in the ceiling. Already they were sniffing around, looking for delicious blood as they inspected every nook and cranny with their eyeless forms, using thermal and light detection to look for any prey, attributes their lesser forms had, though they were enhanced by my changes. I also enhanced their intelligence, as I doubted leeches could be very smart.
I gave them a small mental nudge to go outside and get any large game they could find, knowing they must be famished after what I had done to them, and like a dog to a squirrel, they set off into the dark night.
What should I call them anyways? A good monster needs a good name. Maybe I should come up with the name for my Dungeon before I do that though, to see the tone.
I spun many ideas in my head for what to name my Dungeon, until I thought about an earlier comment I made, something about being a madman for delving into this place.
With that, I made my decision.
*DUNGEON NAMED TO- MADMAN'S ABYSS*
Sweet.
With that name came another, one I believed fit my little leech goblins well.
*NEW MONSTER TEMPLATE MADE- ABYSS GAURD*
Perfect!
The Abyss Guard would be perfect fodder creatures to keep myself safe, with the ability to hide and move quickly, they can easily ambush unaware threats.
Now that I am thinking of it though, I realized there aren’t too many places to hide for them, as the walls of the cave are slick and mostly smooth except for little divots every now and then. Lets fix that.
I placed small boulders around and added cracks into the walls, big enough to let the leeches fit but small enough that you wouldn’t expect anything. I also added beds of fluffy green moss I had found randomly to give the place some charm. I then deepened the water pools in the first and second chambers to let the Abyss Guard fully submerse themselves in so they could be comfortable while they weren’t fighting or hunting.
You know what. While I’m at it I might as well do a whole refinement of the Dungeon.
There were ten chambers, all connected by tight pathways one would have to squeeze themselves through in order to progress, all of varying lengths. Most chambers were roughly the same size, with the exception of the first, sixth, and tenth chambers, the one I resided in. The first was quite a bit bigger than the others, being about twice as large as the other chambers, them being about 15 meters across. The sixth chamber was almost 70 meters across, with lots of boulders and uneven flooring, forcing someone to be extra careful so they wouldn’t slip or trip. The last floor, the tenth, was by far the smallest, being only 10 meters across, with myself at the opposite end of the entrance.
I started by adding small, mossy rock shelves above and around the entrance to a few chambers, allowing for sneaky attacks by my monsters. I made sure that one couldn’t just peer out and up to see them by placing them at odd angles. On the seventh, I created sharp shards of obsidian like glass that stuck out of the floor, covering every inch of it, forcing any delvers to climb across the walls or else they would shred their feet. I also lengthened it by about 30 meters and added more shelves across the higher end of the walls, so monsters would be able to comfortably live in here and be able to pester any would be adventurers. This ‘floor’ one could call it I would dub ‘The Glass Lake’.
I went to the fifth chamber and thought about what I should do with it, my head annoyingly only drew up blanks though. I chose to do something simple and made it so that two parts of the walls, one on either side, stuck out to block the path half-way, turning the chamber’s path into an S shaped hall.
With some minor touches to the rest of the chambers, my mind turned back to monsters, or more specifically, the lack thereof.
Yes, the Abyss Guard would (hopefully) drive off anyone of minor threat, but with how few there were now that’s all they could really do, if anyone competent enough to kill them came by I would be screwed. I decided that, with how large the sixth chamber was, to make a boss, and add some minions afterwards since I had an idea for what I wanted to create.
I was just about to grab some poor snake when I realized something.
Shouldn’t Systems have an analyze or identify ability?
“Analyze.” I spoke, my attention towards the snake.
---
SPECIES: Large Headed Viper
STATUS: Healthy
AGE: 1 year
SEX: Male
CREATION DENSITY: 5/5
DESCRIPTION: The Large Headed Viper is a species of venomous snake that typically feed on small game, their large heads giving them a powerful bite force, letting them inject heavy amounts of venom without letting their prey escape.
---
Not much, good to know that I have the ability at least.
One thing bothered me though, why didn’t it have a level?
*ONLY SAPIENT CREATURES ARE ABLE TO ACCESS LEVELS THROUGH THE SYSTEM, AS THEY DO NOT PROGRESS IN THE SAME WAY*
Oh, well that explains it. And by “not progress the same way”, do you mean that monsters and animals progress through evolutions?
*YES*
Called it.
I began the process of monsterification, if that was even a word. Like the leeches I increased its size, but instead of being as big as a dog, I decided to make it slightly bigger than a hippo. I gave it thick, powerful legs with strong muscles and long, sharp, sickle shaped claws that could put deep divots into stone. I then shaped its head into something that looked like that of an alligator snapping turtle’s, with a sharp beak strong enough to crush a boulder. I removed its eyes as I felt that could be a needless liability and weak point since it would be living inside of a cave without any light and gave it incredibly powerful thermal detection organs throughout its body, giving it a near 360-degree vision like me. After some finishing touches like changing its scale pigment to a light gray like that of the stone around it, I (metaphorically) stood back and appreciated my work.
The result was a near draconic looking thing, 5 meters long from beak to tail and 2 and a half meters tall at the shoulder. Given its new home being boulder riddled and difficult to traverse, this thing, no, this Abyssal Drake should be a terrible force to be reckoned with.
*NEW MONSTER EMPLATE MADE- ABYSSAL DRAKE*
Thank you, System.
*YOU'RE WELCOME*
I placed the Abyssal Drake in the sixth chamber and hollowed out a den for it. Wouldn’t want my adorable little baby to be uncomfortable now, would we?
As it trotted around, investigating its new home by heat and smell, I analyzed it.
---
SPECIES: Abyssal Drake
STATUS: Healthy
AGE: 1 minute
SEX: Male
CREATION DENSITY: 50/50
DESCRIPTION: The Abyssal Drake is a Dungeon monster, made to be strong, fast, and absolutely horrifying, it excels at rushing down prey, and is almost impossible to hide from given its powerful sense of smell and thermal detection.
---
Well, that went over pretty well, with the exception of the whopping 400 Creation it took to make the damn thing. That’s twice as much as the Abyss Guard, and that was when I made six of them! Turns out creating monsters took much more Creation than altering your environment, as when I was making changes to the Dungeon it barely took 50 Creation to do.
I decided that after my next monster, I should work on improving my mana regen.
Sigh.
Where’s a fluffy blanket and a pillow when you need one?