It watched as a black box unfolded, displaying all the information its status held.

N/A's Status Location: N/A's Dungeon Name: N/A Age: 8 Days Old Race: Rogue Dungeon Integrity: 07/30 Mana: 02/27 Dungeon Size: 0.1/8 Current Integrity Status: Terrible, Recovering From Mana Deprivation! Abilities: Appraisal, Mana Sense, Mana Sight, Mana Shaping, Mana Drain, Limited Telepathy, Matter Assimilation. Available Monsters: None Titles: Pixie Slayer, Mana Drainer Achievements: Pending...

Looking over its status, it instantly became dejected when it saw that it had only acquired two points of Mana from the Pixie. It was further dispirited by its Integrity instinctively knowing that if its integrity had reached zero, it would've perished in a similar way to the Pixie it killed.

Moving to look at its abilities, it was instantly bewildered seeing abilities its instinct never told it about, except for Mana Sense and Mana Drain which it had already used before.

It began thinking about the first listed ability, Appraisal, and started racking its mind for any information it could dig up, only for its query to be swiftly answered by a black box.

Appraisal An ability unique to Dungeon Cores allowing them to view information about anything within their Dungeon. This also applies to the Status Window.

Seeing Appraisal's description, it started appraising everything it didn't know about instinctively within its status.

Mana Sight Differing from Mana Sense which can only see Mana, Mana Sight allows Dungeon Cores to see through Mana as if it were their eyes.

Mana Shaping Unique to Dungeon Cores, Mana Shaping allows them to mold the world around them permanently, and even allows them to create life so long as they have sufficient Mana.

Limited Telepathy Allows Dungeon Cores to transmit orders directly into the minds of its produced Monsters.

Matter Assimilation Allows for any material, liquid, gas, energy, and life not native to the dungeon to be assimilated, allowing the Core to recreate it via Mana Shaping.

Finishing the appraisal spree, it relished the new found knowledge about its abilities and immediately set out to see the world around itself for the first time.

It fumbled, briefly trying to activate Mana Sight, until it thought of using Mana Sense again, but this time it delved farther into the Mana surrounding it than it had using Mana Sense. This enabled it to see details about its location like the rugged stone pedestal it lay upon, and the rest of the gloomy cave which greeted its sight for the first time.

Glancing around, it was met with round, lead-grey stone walls surrounding it from every direction, with heaps of the same rock, spread throughout the room. It also noticed some type of red things jutting out from cracks in the floor.

Further examining its surroundings led it to discover a small arm sticking out from beneath one of the piles of rocks, making it recollect the voice it had heard that was cut off by a loud cracking and rumbling noise when it first awoke. It quickly realized that this must've been its Pixie, which got crushed by rocks falling from the ceiling before it could form the link. Drawing its sight away from the crushed Pixie, it spotted another Pixie corpse lying at the base of its pedestal, which it concluded was the one it had drained of Mana. What really caught its attention, however, was the crooked gap in the wall three meters beyond its location.

As it began moving its sight towards the gap, its exploration was halted by searing pain flaring in its mind and the appearance of two new black boxes.

Warning! User Is Exceeding Maximum Dungeon Influence Range!

Please Select Starting Race Grobs, Rating: Lesser Common - Lesser Uncommon Trogs, Rating: Lesser Common - Uncommon Goblins, Rating: Lesser Common - Moderate Uncommon Gnolls, Rating: Common - Greater Uncommon Kobolds, Rating: Moderate Common - Exceptional Uncommon Orcs, Rating: Greater Common - Lesser Rare Mana Leeches, Rating: Lesser Rare - Mythical Demons, Rating: Common - Moderate Mythical Undead, Rating: Lesser Common - Lesser Legendary Elementals, Rating: Lesser Common - Exceptional Legendary

As the pain in its mind faded away, it felt frustrated and confused at the minuscule influence range.

The inborn memories it had told it that its influence should have been around fifty meters in radius and not the measly two and half meters it currently had.

Thinking more about this, it grew worried because it knew that to increase its influence it would need to soak the area around itself in Mana until the area became an extension of itself.

Just the fact it only had two points of Mana made it clear how bad its situation currently was, and it would need to spend quite a bit just to expand its influence to a more reasonable size.

Placing the worry about its influence at the back of its mind, it focused on the second box which asked it to select a starting race. Being momentarily confused about what it meant, the Core appraised the black box which cleared its confusion.

Select Starting Race

Allows you to select the first monster race available for you to use.

Achievements and Titles can be unlocked depending on your pick.

Assimilating defeated monsters and beasts will add them to your available monsters for creation, however, their Mana cost will be significantly higher than monsters selected from the race menu.

Reading this, it decided to appraise its first available option, excited to see what it would learn about it.

Grobs Grobs are a lesser species of Goblins with even less intelligence than their original race. They make up for this loss of intellect by having greater breeding and birth rates than even Goblins do, allowing a tribe of ten Grobs to erupt into a tribe of thousands in mere days. Thankfully for the sapient races of the world, Grobs live deep underground in large caves and rarely ever leave their dwellings. Available Starting Grobs: Common Cave Grob (L-C), Cave Grob Hunter (L-C).

It didn't know how smart or what, goblins even were, but it felt to be able to go from ten to thousands in days was undoubtedly impressive. Not getting ahead of itself; however, it appraised the second option, wondering whether these Trogs were going to be better than these Grobs.

Trogs Trogs are a lesser species of Trolls, losing much of a Troll's famed physical strength. Trogs gain intellect in return, nearly rivaling that of Humans. Their breeding rates and birth rates are slightly lower than the average goblins. Trogs generally live deep underground in large caves similar to Grobs and frequently come into conflict with them, leading to massive wars occurring between the two. Available Starting Trogs: Common Cave Trog (L-C), Cave Trog Hunter (L-C).

Looking at their descriptions, it felt like Trogs and Grobs were complete opposites, with Grobs being stupid and fast breeders, while Trogs were smart but slow breeders. Even the description mentioned them fighting each other. Still being unsure of its choice, it appraised its next option.

Goblins Standing no taller than three and a half feet, these short menaces have brought no small headaches to humans, for every goblin camp destroyed three more usually take their place no matter what efforts humans put forth trying to exterminate them once and for all. Goblins have weak physical strength, being barely stronger than a 7-year-old human child. They regularly use numbers to overwhelm and exhaust their enemies. Starting Available Goblins: Forest Goblins (L-C), Cave Goblins (L-C), Moss Goblins ©.

It only glanced over the information about Goblins, finding them not worth its first pick, and moved to appraise the next option.

Gnolls Looking like a wild dog standing upright, Gnolls gather and hunt in packs of twelve to fifty on regular occasions. This makes them dangerous to encounter at any given time as their teamwork makes them a mighty foe in combat. Gnolls commonly live in forests or grassy plains where they hunt anything they can find, but they tend to avoid areas with large concentrations of humans such as cities, towns, and villages. Available Starting Gnolls: Plain Striding Gnolls ©, Stone Fur Gnolls (M-C).

Although Gnolls were more interesting than Goblins, they lived in different environments than it currently resided in, and it wasn't taking any risk choosing a race which might not perform well within its cave. It didn't discount them for when and if it ever reaches a point where it can expand beyond the cave it's currently in. That, however, could be far in the future as it couldn't even explore the rest of the cave due to its tiny area of influence over its surroundings.

Before it could proceed to appraise the next option, it felt something enter its influence which immediately grabbed its attention. It instantly spotted the offender, a giant four-legged mass of fur moving towards the Pixie corpse. It watched as the beast snuffled at the body before deciding it was good enough, and opened its maw wide as it devoured it in a single bite. The beast chewed loudly as the sound of tiny bones snapping filled the room, its eyes scanning for more remains that might be left. It didn't take long for its sight to land on the pedestal which held a black stone with bizarre runes and diagrams covering its surface; the Core had already blanked out in terror of being eaten by this monstrous beast, which eyed it with curiosity before turning away and squeezing back through the gap leading out of the room.

Calming itself down, as it watched the beast leaving the room it quickly appraised this creature which had given it its first taste of pure terror.

Storm Hide Bear Frequently found living in caves situated on mountainsides, Storm Hide Bears possess vast physical strength and can augment themselves with the power of lightning, making them deceptively fast relative to their size. Their appearance differs little from that of regular black bears with the only exception being the occasional sparks generated by their fur. Rating: Uncommon.

Reading over its description, it felt afraid at this beast's power. It determined its fear was justified when it saw the bear's rating, as none of the selectable races had a higher beginning rating than it, except for the Mana Leeches.

Feeling more hurried than before, it returned to appraising the next option on the race list.

Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

Kobolds Usually found in caves. Kobolds share similar traits with Goblins except for their physical strength which vastly surpasses that of Goblins. This high strength originates from the minuscule amount of Drake bloodline that is present within Kobolds, and can be seen in their reptilian appearance. This bloodline and its benefits come at the expense of making them challenging to evolve beyond their first evolutions, making them an unpopular starting selection among Dungeons. Available Starting Kobolds: Adult Kobold (M-C), Kobold Warrior (G-C), Kobold Hunter (M-C).

The Kobolds interested it, leading it to appraise the Drake bloodline with intriguing results.

Drakes Giant reptiles feared for their draconic strength and are often associated with Dragons, however, contrary to what most sapients believe, Drakes do not share any direct lineage with Dragons. Standing on four legs, with crocodile-like scutes that can stop even the sharpest of blades, they can grow to a height of thirteen meters and a length of sixteen meters. Their close resemblance to the widely know, and feared, crocodiles makes it easy for any Drake to bring fear to any who lay eyes on their majestic form, boasting pride and fury more considerable than even that of Dragons, which are famed for both. Rating: Unparalleled Mythical.

Its description and rating left it amazed and saddened that it couldn't acquire this creature to deal with the menace likely living beyond the gap in its room. Kobolds still held its primary interest for now as it moved to appraise the next option.

Orcs Resembling Humans in many ways, Orcs believe themselves superior to them and often see Humans as cursed Orcs hence, they call Humans Soft-skins. Orcs have a multitude of different variants such as Green-skins, Grey-skins, Dark-skins, Flame-skins, and, the most common variant, Brown-skins. Orcs are often seen as savage beasts with little capability for empathy, but truthfully, Orcs are similar to Humans in almost every way and even boast higher kinship than Humans do. That doesn't make them any less brutal towards Humans, however. Orcs gather together in tribes led by their chieftains, the strongest Orc in the tribe, and routinely raid Human and Beast-kin villages, kidnapping females to serve as mates and males to serve as food. Available Starting Orcs: Brown-Skinned Orcs (G-C).

Orcs interested it mainly because they seem like they could deal with the Bear, but its confidence wasn't too high for them regardless. It was curious to see what the brown-skins had to offer and quickly appraised them.

Brown-Skinned Orcs Brown-Skinned Orcs possess two times the strength of adult Humans, however, they lack the same intelligence Humans possess and boast the most savagery amongst the Orc species. Nonetheless, beware as killing too many of them may cause them to unite their tribes into mighty war host against those who threaten them. Rating: Greater Common.

It wasn't very impressed with the brown-skins because it didn't know how strong humans were, just that goblins can easily cause problems for them, Trogs nearly had the same intelligence, and Gnolls tended to avoid them. It swiftly discarded Orcs from its mind and proceeded to appraise the next option.

Mana Leeches

Mana Leeches are rarely seen by the sapient races of the world. Always living in Mana Springs leads them to be nearly unknown to the rest of the world. Mana Leeches vary wildly in size according to their age, starting at just ten centimeters long and four centimeters wide all the way up to sixty-one centimeters long and thirty-six centimeters wide. Once they latch onto something with Mana, they won't stop draining it until they are killed, or the object runs out of Mana, which is lethal to most living beings.

When created by Dungeons, sixty percent of Mana they drain goes to the Dungeon Core.

Available Starting Mana Leeches: Tiny Lesser Mana Leechling (L-R).

Mana Leeches! It held great optimism towards them for being able to acquire Mana for it, but felt they might be too easily killed due to their small size. It placed Mana Leeches high in the possible selection list just for their ability to acquire Mana.

Looking at the list so far, It placed Mana Leeches first in its mind, followed by Kobolds, then Grobs for their swarming capabilities, the rest didn't really interest it beyond Gnolls for their coordination in combat. Moving on, the core decided to appraise Demons next.

Demons Seen as the most brutal and vile race in the world, demons are commonly reviled by most sapient races, with humans and elves actively hunting them any time they emerge regardless of where that may be. Demons consist of an endless variety of species with more constantly appearing from their otherworldly realm. Available Starting Demons: Imps ©, Fiends (M-C), Succubus (G-C), Satyr (G-C).

Finding little information, it appraised the four starting demons for more details.

Imps & Fiends Commonly thought of as evolved Imps, Fiends are actually their own species, possessing immense physical strength but no magical ability. This is unlike their smaller cousin the Imp, which boasts little to no physical power but has excellent control over magic, being able to strengthen basic spells to dangerously high levels without causing their Mana to rampage. Imps look like a red-skinned human child with a mouth full of tiny dagger-like teeth. Fiends have the appearance of an adult human bulging with muscle on every inch their body. Their presence grows more terrifying when you account for their height, being three times that of the average human, and their four demonic horns protruding from the top of their head. Imps, Rating: Common. Fiends, Rating: Moderate Common.

Seeing Imps and Fiends appear in the same box felt bizarre to it, but it disregarded it and continued scanning the rest of the Demons.

Succubus Bewitching engines of sex, Succubi can make the most willful men and women break under their fearsome skill in bed. Succubi use powerful Illusion and Mind Magic to appear as their target's most extraordinary fantasy whatever that may be. They have the appearance of elves using their beautiful and luscious bodies to cause men and women alike to lust after them. Rating: Greater Common.

Satyrs They possess strength greater than even Fiends and a sex drive as high as a Succubus. Satyrs are the horror of any women on the battlefield as they always target them first, even attempting to violate seized women in active combat. Satyrs appear as giant goat-headed men towering at five times the average height of an ordinary man. They commonly wander entirely naked, ready to assault any women that are unfortunate enough to come across one. Rating: Greater Common.

It was slightly interested in Satyrs for their physical strength. However, it wasn't even sure whether they could fit within its cave without being hunched over the entire time. As for Succubi, they were outright overlooked by it for being useless in the current situation.

As it progressed onto its next appraisal, it heard roaring reverberate through the gap, and sounds of a battle taking place, causing the entire cave to quake.

It grew worried the room might collapse, but its worrying didn't last long as the fighting rapidly ended, leaving the cave once again shrouded in its usual silence.

After being reminded of the fact the Bear still lived within the cave, it moved to appraise its next option, glad that it was almost through all of them.

Undead Considered the greatest enemy of the Aruba Theocracy, they've declared entire crusades against Dungeons, Elementals, and Necromancers using these beings. Dungeon created Undead, contrary to their belief, do not actually have captured souls as they are entirely formed by Death Element Mana and nothing else, which causes a death attribute soul to be born as their body forms. This does not apply to Necromancers and Death Elementals as they need a corpse and a soul to possess this corpse to create Undead. Undead can also rise on battlefields which haven't been sanctified or purged of bodies. Available Starting Undead: Lesser Skeleton (L-C), Lesser Zombie (L-C), Lesser Ghoul ©.

Feeling irritated at whatever created this useless description, it tried appraising the skeleton, zombie, and ghoul, but got even less information than the box already gave, so it appraised the only other intriguing thing mentioned in the box.

Aruba God of Light Warning! Appraisal Blocked!

The sight of its appraisal being blocked shocked it solely because it had no idea appraisal could be felt and prevented! Hoping it didn't anger whoever Aruba is, it moved on to its final option.

Elementals All Elementals are born as wisps of differing elements, however, while Elementals may begin frail and arduous to evolve, at their peak their magic can equal that of Ancient Dragons! Available Starting Wisps: Flaming Wisps (L-C), Water Wisps (L-C), Earthen Wisps (L-C), Wind Wisps (L-C), Frost Wisps ©, Lightning Wisps ©, Light Wisps (M-C), Dark Wisps (M-C).

It hoped the Wisp's description wasn't as useless as the Undead one.

Wisps An amalgamation of high purity elemental Mana that has gained the ability to form simple thoughts like that of babies, they are born with the innate ability to use basic spells of their given element. Rating: Lesser Common.

The fact that wisps could use basic spells made it curious as to what those were, and whether they were strong enough to kill the Bear. It didn't hold much hope, however, as it being listed as frail made it likely to be supremely effortless to slay.

Seeing all the options, it reflected over its most likely choices, being Mana Leeches, Kobolds, and Grobs. The other choices were thought provoking, but in the end, they weren't useful in its current situation. It finally settled on the Mana Leeches, in large part due to the fact they could get the Mana it desperately needed as there was little to no Mana in the air, making near impossible for it to absorb anything from its surroundings.

Selected Starting Race Mana Leeches Yes/No?

"Yes."

After finalizing its choice, more black boxes spread out before it, making it wonder when they were going to leave it alone.

Congratulations! For selecting your first race, the Achievements have been unlocked, and pending Achievements will now be displayed!

Dungeon Achievement Unlocked!

Solo Dungeon!

Unlock Condition(s): Be born unlinked to any Pixie and succeed in acquiring Mana.

Effect(s): Mana Drain and Matter Assimilation become simpler to perform, and Comprehension increases more rapidly compared to other Dungeons.

Dungeon Achievement Unlocked!

Leeching Core!

Unlock Condition(s): Forcefully Drain Mana or Blood from a living being and select any variant of Blood Leechlings(UC) or Mana Leechlings® as one of the three first races of your Dungeon.

Effect(s): Greater affinity and evolution potential for Leeches, and strengthens Leeches within your Dungeon by 25%.

Dungeon Achievement Unlocked!

Rare Beginning!

Unlock Condition(s): Select a rare rated race as your beginning Race.

Effect(s): Elevated chances for races rated lower than rare to obtain a higher rated evolution.

Watching as the final box faded away, it decided to look over its status once again before throwing itself at fixing the current situation.

N/A's Status Location: N/A's Dungeon Name: N/A Age: 8 Days Old Race: Rogue Dungeon Integrity: 08/30 Mana: 02/27 Dungeon Size: 0.1/8 Current Integrity Status: Terrible, Recovering From Mana Deprivation! Abilities: Appraisal, Mana Sense, Mana Sight, Mana Shaping, Mana Drain, Limited Telepathy, Matter Assimilation. Available Monsters: Tiny Lesser Mana Leechling (L-R). Titles: Pixie Slayer, Mana Drainer Achievements: Solo Dungeon, Leeching Core, Rare Beginning.

The sight of its integrity recovering by one point made its spirit rise, helping it feel ready to tackle its predicament.