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My New Life as a Dungeon Core
From the Bodies of The Burnt

From the Bodies of The Burnt

399-Divinium 10¹⁰ Obtained from source Growing Core Shard (Thomas)

The spider popped into existence in front of me. The pain stopped and the bastard crawled up the wall to go get busy. I went back to my core room to inspect my crystal. Verifying the changes that I figured I would see.

Meanwhile

The new, smaller male spider was created with a task, he knew what to do and after saluting the haunting visage of his master, he went to fulfill that task. Unfortunately for the spider, after procreation the male typically is consumed by the female, and this was no different.

I look over the core chamber on arrival to my room. The middle finger of sunlight a reminder to watch my temper in the future. The walls of dirt and floor of stone laced with cracks and roots sticking out. I'll fix this place up eventually.... I inspected myself for the first time in I'd guess two months or so.

Growing Dungeon Core Shard (Active) (Thomas) (44¹⁰ 399-Divinium)

Currently housing soul #3896732524320721881, the only dungeon core that didn't overwrite it's host soul entirely in the batch seeded the tenth month eleventh day forty-fifth year of the Grand Hegemony by the Gods of Illikita. Being watched closely by the gods as Core (Thomas) is different than any other Dungeon Core to date.

Divine Notes -

R: Repurpose the symbiote for guidance to alleviate the mortal idiocy this fool is blundering around in.

B: That would take a while but I guess it would work, slowly I'm sure he'll figure it out anyway.

R: He does seem brighter than most of the pure cores, even if he's still forgetful and devout on causing himself pain.

S: Perhaps it isn't intentional, it just made life without Divinium, with no source around it, it consumed a piece of itself. Chances are it doesn't know that Divinium is required to create souls and life, it was a human before, not even one from this plane of reality.

R: Well how do we tell him that, it's common sense here but apparently he's too stupid to figure out why he hurts so much.

B: Granting access to e y e s o n l y.

R: Greetings Reincarnate Thomas, you should see this when you examine yourself with your "DIE" sight, hahaha, you're definitely clever. Keep in mind that 399-Divinium is required to grant life and a soul to creatures you create. It is what you are made of, and "Mana" can't recreate it. You can claim more of it from all other sources of life that you absorb. Plants, animals, people. They have to be weakened to the point of almost dying for that though - we're working on adapting your core symbiote to grant you access to -error- and while you won't be able to add anything to this note remember we're watching you. Anything you speak, even without the voice you used to have, we will hear. Farewell for now.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

R: First thing this kid does is tell us to fuck ourselves, I like him, he's fighty.

S: Why am I not surprised.

They can hear what I say and not what I think, that's nice. They seem to not realize that the whole conversation before hand was also added to the notes. I'd compare them to technologically inept senior citizens but I don't get that full vibe from them, maybe R, whoever that is, but not the others.

"Does energy also consume Divinium? What are all the other elements, I'm only familiar with like one hundred or so, what is mana and how is it produced and why isn't there some kind of GUIDE for this SHIT if you're just going to stick random souls into ROCKS?!"

I let go of my hold on my emotions there a bit, screaming the last part of my sentence. I reel back in my temper. I wait for a while but no more responses show up on my description so I get back to work. I descend through the floor letting out a sigh in exasperation as I pass through the walls and into the big sink room.

They've been busy at least. What once was two spiders has turned into a few hundred. I mentally add a clock and a calendar to my DIEsight, thanking R silently for extending my abbreviation into a joke I never intended to make. They pointed out my shortcomings as well, that I don't keep track of time and that I'm easily distracted being the biggest flaws I know I have. I notice that I was reading my Cores information for two whole days since I had created my spiders and while I didn't Will another one into existence a Male spider poofs into being in front of me, saluting me then marching off to find a mate.

I watch as he is eaten afterwards then another one poofs in, giving me the salute and marching off to meet his end as well. I chuckle a bit to myself at the very tenuous connection to the story of Adam from the bible in my plane.... Except I'd given up my rib to create the life this time.

Mind you me, I'm not religious, I wasn't before at least, but apparently gods exist here, or if not gods, divine beings, since it was called Divine Notes. Oh well back to work, I can have an existential crisis and spiritual awakening after I've finished my task list, which is always growing it seems.

I let out another sigh and descend down to the bottom of my pit. It's littered with the carcasses and sheddings of hundreds more spiders. I absorb it all and wish I could make it stay clean, but remember I probably will have to come empty it frequently. I then excavate what will be a room to house my core on a lower level. I've been content letting it sit in the sunlight but I feel as though that is just asking to die again. I finish the room up and then go clean the pit out. I'm left with a star shaped room with different tiers of marble working up 5 levels to a central point. I use my fingernails to carve thin lines into the marble floors to make it look like it was tiled by hand, made by humans long before. I smile, maybe I can keep some humanity I had after all. I Will my Pillar and Core to appear in the center of the platform and am shocked when it seems to do so with just my intent, not just that but I've grown a bit bigger and.... I stop as I hear a rushing sound.

I float over to my pit and lookup the hole, only to duck back inside as a blue, gray and green tidal wave of mana rushes down the pit to reattach itself to my core. I hope to myself that my spider army isn't injured by the flow that seems to have grown from a gray colorless string to the mass of blues and greens that look like large threads of yarn. As it connects I sigh again in relief only to realize that the strings get faster as I do. I slap my ghostly appendage into my face.

"It's like breathing."

Literally it was in the description. I go check on my spiders and they don't seem to have even been effected. I follow the mana back through and notice that the green strands come from the gray mana passing through the multiple layers of drainage grates above becoming more green as it rubs against the stone. The blue must be the gray mana that has been in the water for far longer.

I return to my core room, making note to go back and edit all the stone floors and walls above me to look like they were made by human hands. As I think this I get an idea, keeping an eye on my mana available, I start hyperventilating, I want my regen to be faster than my rate of consumption when I'm digging things out, and the deeper I am the more mana it takes so I keep my eyesight open as I hyperventilate while digging a tunnel out from my Core room then straight down another 300 feet then out and in random directions around, creating large caverns deep below what I understand now is an ocean at least a mile above me.

Eventually instead of dropping while I'm digging around, I start gaining on my total mana supply and I stop my rapid breathing. I smile, and in one of the reflective damp pillars of stone I had left standing in my random digging I swear I see the grim reapers reflection, one eye glowing with a bright blue light, and the other a purple flame.