Groggily my vision blurs into focus, depicting a small sandy hole with rounded stone walls on all sides. Glancing around with my not-so human anymore body I find my surroundings rather plain. Dark and plain. Looking up I find merely a continuation of the tiny walls, sealing me in this tiny, ever-so-slightly claustrophobic room.

If I had a thumb it would be deeply pressed against my pale forehead in annoyance. Great. I know these stories, I’ve read them to my kids whenever I was bored. I’ve turned into a dungeon after the destruction of humanity. I faux-sighed, Could be worse. Could be in hell. I quickly rephrased my last sentence, might be in hell. Too soon to tell.

Anyway, might as well get the standard stuff out of the way. Status! Nothing? Menu!

*ting~

~| Dungeon Stats |~

Diversity Rank: 1

Danger Rank: 1

Mana: 10,004

Animus: 100

Rooms: 1

Levels: 1

Monsters: 0

Bosses: 0

~| Dungeon Information |~

Dungeon name: ---

Dungeon title: ---

Nodes- none

Entities- none

↓ Expand Grimoire ↓

Well fuck you to. Not like I want to be a person with a name. I grumbled silently as I looked over the menu that popped up infront of me. No name. No titles. No nodes. No entities. And both ranks are 1. I sighed and I tilted my metaphorical head upwards in annoyed contemplation. Well, nothing to do but get stronger. Heh, I smiled wildly, maybe I can even become a god in this world.

Well then, Let’s begin exploring my abilities. First thing’s first- I promptly moved my vision around and confirmed I had the standard dungeon viewing abilities, as well as the room sense and floating crystal core, which really looks a shiny pearl at the moment. My ex always liked pearls. She also liked it when I said they are like her. I sighed, though, she didn’t like me explaining they’re basically a bundle of dirt wrapped in a good exterior. Anyway~

Moving on I found I could also sense this mana force in the air, and that I could pull it in and convert to my own like in those xianxia novels. I did gain a couple hundred mana after a few seconds, though whether or not the pace was slow or fast... *Shrugs* that’s up in the air.

Next thing is next, digging into the walls. Focusing I pulled mana out of my tiny body and willed it into a rather blunt point, then slammed into the wall like an old, slightly bonked miner. Surprisingly my mana easily cut through the wall, leaving a trail of sand that slowly fell down to the ground. Hah! Energy can’t be destroyed nor created! Happy with this discovery I looked down on the sandy ground underneath me. Willing my mana I tried something different, specificly I created a potent electromagnetic field that pulled all the metal particles out of the sand- covering my core in the process before clearing it- and then lit the floating orb above my head with the gracefulness of a kindergartner with a flame thrower, melting the asorted metals and creating a small bronze-grey ball that I dropped to the floor- which turned to glass at some point- with a satisfying clunk.

So. Mana is usable and versatile. Though my control is crap. Then again I wasn’t really trying anything but seeing if it was possible, which it is! And that’s great! First step to world-domination complete. I cackled mentally before collecting myself and looking at the ceiling, which I knew simply due to the fact sand falls down, and if it wasn’t than this world has an issue.

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Focusing I wielded my mana into a tiny drill, then promptly pushed it into the ceiling at a slight incline. ‘What are you doing? You ask.’ trying to get bloody insects to come in here. I’m pretty sure animus is required to make creatures, and having a horde of insects to farm would be a good starting point. Though my walls aren’t made of dirt. Oh wasted potential…

Minutes go by as I continue pushing the mana drill towards the surface, causing me to wonder whether or not I was under a mountain, as my drill was moving relatively fast for my size. Walls are stone after all. I sighed, will I have to make robots and golems? I’m a highly acclaimed bio-genetic designer of the year 2219! Leaving me with robots is a complete waste of my potential! And knowledge! *thunk! Finally!

Looking upwards I found my drill plunging through what was now dirt and with another thunk it broke through the surface, giving me an opening for a miniscule amount of air and a small pile of sandy dirt sitting on my tiny core. Luckily I’m not underwater or anything. Though that could make for an interesting dungeon… Umu, I’ll see about it later.

Now, hopefully some insects will come down into this nice little hole of mine so I can reap their pathetic souls and gain animus to make other creatures. Oh, and genetic material would be good as well. Though I should probably check out this Grimoire thing in my menu, expand! *ting~

- Dungeon Grimoire -

A collection of all information known to a dungeon. Whenever something new is created, it is stored and can be re-created for a lesser cost. Things can be converted into mana and absorbed, thus learning their properties.

→ Expand Creatures

→ Expand Plants

→ Expand Nodes

→ Expand Traps

→ Expand Items

→ Expand Liquids

→ Expand Gasses

→ Expand Solids

Well that’s easy enough. Basicly a folder system so I don’t have to rely solely on memory. Nice. This is definitely an up of my day. Now let’s see, no creatures, plants, nodes, traps, items, liquids, gasses, or solids! Guess I better get to work huh!

Well first off let’s just eat the air around me and see where that gets me. Blindly I grab a bunch of mana and leak it out into the surroundings, then with the image of absorption as the base I pull the air around me inward.

>>You have gained knowledge of breathable air!<<

I raised an eyebrow in annoyance, no oxygen? No nitrogen? Just… breathable air?

…

As someone from modern society this pisses me off. Why the hell would it be so simple! Like fuck! What is this world made out of? Polygons!? Everything is just a quantum field they say!

Going past my grumblings and the desire to create pure unfiltered oxygen just to see if I could, I move onto absorbing the sand, stone, glass, and the metal ball I created earlier. And low and behold everything but the metal ball comes up with things like ‘Murky Glass’, ‘Hard Stone’, and ‘Fine Sand’. What is this, a third-rate sandbox game? Actually, don’t answer that. However~ The metal ball was interesting.

>>You gained knowledge of Orichulum, Iron, Copper, Gold, Silver, and Mithril<<

Woohoo! Fantasy metals! I shall make the dragon slayer sword out of adamantium! Though I don’t have adamantium yet… I’ll get it one day! Anyway why no other common metals like tin or aluminum? Does this world not have them or something? Also what about silicon? I know the sand has some.

Well nothing I can do about it now, though I will slap someone when I become a god. I mean really? I might not be the most appearance-aware woman in the world, or at all, but becoming a little shiny ball? It’s kind of demoralizing! I can no longer eat! Not that I did that much without reminders… work was fun ya know?

Anyway~ Away from the depressing thoughts and on with the over-simplified science! I’m just going to go and assume that since this world has mana, and the status window calls everything so simply, that I can just make things out of thin air. And you know what? I’m gonna try it.

Focusing my mana I pulled out a huge glop of it, then promptly realized creatures I would create would have nothing to eat- so screw it! I’ll make a moss that eats stone and forms mana fruits! This place wants to be simple with me! I’ll be simple with it! Gradually I twisted the mana with focus, willing it to become my desired form as I pushed it into a thin layer on the stone around me. *thump with a jolt I felt another energy leave my body- probably animus- and coil into my mana as it somewhat wrenched itself from my control, leaving only my metaphorical fingers in it so I could modify it on the fly. Yes yes this will do, why don’t we make the berries somewhat poisonous while were at it while the moss itself is somewhat edible. Oh! And to help with mana production I’ll make it so when it grows to thick the layer open to air will turn into mana dust!

What? Moss doesn’t produce berries? I don’t care! It’s magic! The ultimate excuse! I’ll do whatever the hell I want because with magic it is possible. *ting~

>>You have created a new life form. Automatically named: Berris Manus Moss <<

MWahaahaha! It’s Aliiiiiiiive! Getting over my franky moment I growled at the system for automatically naming my creation for me. Not that I have a better name, but it still rubs me the wrong way. Looking at my creation I happily found a thin layer of vibrant green moss already slowly wearing away at the stone and producing little pale blue beads of mana berries. And I only say slowly due to my perception of time, this thing is eating through stone at the same speed a carver would with a tiny chisel, and that is fast for a plant.

Though I’m probably going to have to kill it off when it grows to a certain point as I don’t want just one huge cavern, nor do I want said cavern collapsing on me. But for now it will do as a quick way to increase the mana density around me and start clearing out a vacant spot.

Now then, what to do next~