“From the lips of Yamash, The Word was spoken unto the world. For behold, The Word governs and defines all things. In balance was it given, for, even as The Word grants order and makes manifest the system of the world, so to in chaos shall all things be permitted to grow. Few things are holier than that a man shall progress in the levels of the world, and bring a greater piece of it under their dominion.”

-From the Holy Text of Higrath

Excited at the thought of finally gaining a level, I imagined the progress it could bring me. Despite this, Tam continued his preparations at a glacial pace. Admittedly, I was not showing my excitement, and I had absolutely no desire for him to know about it. Demonstrating it would show Tam I understood what he was doing. My dungeon half, annoying and persistent as it was, seemed to lack the cognitive function necessary to integrate the separate concepts together, and I didn’t want to show myself as anything more. There was a certain leap required to go from seeing the mice as food or mana, then understanding the exact amount of mana from each, adding it up, and realizing that I could level up.

While my musing continued, Tam measured the borders of my aura with more spells. At least, that is what I thought was happening. At the moment, I was just glad I had not expanded to cover all the walls completely. It was good for Tam to underestimate me. I would keep my aura growth well away from him.

Even as Tam made his preparations, I also made mine. The status screen opened with a thought and so did the AP purchase menu. If leveling up was truly about to happen, it would allow me to conceal the purchase of a skill at the exact same moment. Hopefully, Tam would think that it was simply the result of the new level and not me getting better with deliberate intention.

Based on my observations, I was fairly sure that Tam had a single weakness… possibly two. He was impatient. So far, the only change I had made was getting better at absorbing mana. Tam wanted me to do more than that, to improve in some way. He checked and monitored me constantly. However, even if he monitored, and made precautions, he was making me more powerful. Or at least, would if he leveled me up. If he planned on pushing me forward deliberately, all that needed to happen for escape was for Tam to underestimate me. And as long as he didn’t know that I was intelligent, that possibility was far more likely. The more skills I gathered, and the better I got with them, the more options I would have available.

Tam may have enjoyed studying me, but I was enjoying being an experimental subject just a bit less. As much fun as it might seem, I wanted to opt out of this research study. I didn’t really need that ten bucks anyway.

I had no idea how long this could go. How long did dungeons live? No idea. However, considering that my body was crystal, it could be forever as long as nothing killed me. Do I count as a silicon based lifeform? How long Tam would continue the experiment remained uncertain. For all I knew, he was immortal. My mind spun any number of terrible scenarios. Tam could introduce his experiment to others. I could potentially be stuck as a research subject for centuries.

And that discounted the uses that someone could have for a dungeon. I didn’t understand exactly what I might be capable of, but I already knew that is was possible for me to summon monsters, animals, and plants. I could be used to farm, or worse, as a weapon of war.

World domination, anyone? Or perhaps its more modest hick cousin, country domination. Sadly so unfashionable compared to its chic contemporaries.

No, the risks were just too much.

Based on my other half, dungeons were not all that bright, though getting a proper sense was difficult. It was not like we had conversations, I just felt its basic knee jerk reactions. I translated them into thought because that was simply how I thought.

Should I name my other half? Ha. I could just imagine telling a therapist that I had named the voice in my head that wanted me to kill people. Somehow, I had the feeling that would be considered a ‘Bad Idea.’ Eh, it probably won’t make anything worse. After all, there actually was something other in my head.

Well, my other half is essentially a blood-thirsty brute. So what name says that? Blood, blood… I know the Latin word for that right? Ugh, it is on the tip of my tongue. Sanguine, that's right. As in, exsanguinate, to remove all the blood from a body. Hmm, shorten that and it actually sounds like a name. Exsan. Okay, its official, I dub thee Exsan.

Tam’s preparations were continuing ad nauseam, and despite my impatience I found it hard to blame him. If Exsan was the typical example of a dungeon’s attitudes… that caution was more than fully justified. I wanted to escape to get my freedom. Exsan wanted to murder and control everything nearby and make a lair.

Someday, I will get a cat, and it will lay in Exsan’s lap. Or, more likely, lounge on top of my core. Cannot have the evil mastermind without a cat, after all.

I missed my cats, stuck at home with my parents.

Stupid apartment rules…

Tam finished up and cast a last spell on me, before shaking the cage with the mice-bugs slightly. I obliged and focused on it. Nothing to see here, just a well trained dungeon. Feed my Sey-, um, I mean Tam. Tam looked unfocused for a moment, as he cast a ball of fire towards the cage. Little bits of the metal started to drip with heat, but I was more focused on the mana bursting out of it and flowing into me. I ended up with even more than I had expected, the fireball had contributing a few mana as well. I had slightly more than eighteen mana. With a flick of mental effort my level grew and I purchased a new skill.

Status

Name: N/A

Type: Dungeon Core – Soul Hybrid

Level: 2

Crystal Status: 100% – Undamaged

Status Effects: Mana Drain

Available Mana: 3/50

Passive Mana Generation: 20/Day

Cost for next level: 30 Mana

Subsections Available: 1

Ability Points: 850 (+100 For Level. -200 for Learning)

Skills:

Directed Mana Absorption I >II,

Limited Omniscience (Dungeon)

Soul Mana I

Dungeon Aura Expansion I

Manipulate Earth I

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

Learning I

Titles:

Reborn Soul

First of its Kind

Skill Evolution

That part about Exsan being named is probably a bad thing. At least it wasn’t the entire name. Still waiting for mine apparently. Right, deal with that later.

I pulled up my two new skills.

Manipulate Earth I

Move, loosen, condense, generate, or destroy earth and stone within your aura using available mana.

Learning I

All other skills are slightly easier to both acquire and learn. Slightly lowers the Ability Point cost of all non-summon skills (5% Bonus and Discount).

The Learning skill had cost 200 AP and it was everything I was hoping for. It would provide easier access to learning other skills, forever. It would also make everything I purchased cheaper, except for summons of course. It was a tiny bonus, but it could easily add up over time. Plus, a number of the AP skills were already very expensive. That 200 would pay for itself with just one skill over 4000 AP. And, it was a skill with a level, presumably that meant it could and would level up over time. Presumably as I learned information or used my skills. And I was planning to do that anyway.

I was also happy to finally have a way alter the world around me: Manipulate Earth. I was expecting, and hoping, to get something like it. I had been slightly worried, for a while, that my only ability to dig would be through summoned monsters. Fortunately, that appeared to be an ability that I controlled directly.

I brought the AP menu back up and looked at the other learning type skill I had seen. It was for summoning creatures, plants, etc… I debated buying it for a moment, but summons had no place in my current escape plan. Not to mention, Tam might have already noted all the differences. He was careful enough about me already.

There was still mana remaining, so it was time to test out my new ability. If I could manipulate stone well enough, then I could grab my core and run. Admittedly my mana regen was still not very high, but it was double what it had been before.

Commanding stone to move turned out just like expanding my aura. It was instinctual and easy. Everything I needed to do was sitting there in my head, waiting for me. Well, I didn’t have a head, but the idea remained the same. A tiny tendril extended a few fractions of an inch from a wall before the runes embedded into the wall burst into action. The entire array lit up with light. From the center a beam of light emerged and disintegrated the stone tendril.

I stopped for a moment.

This… this had the potential to make things difficult.

Tests were in order.

I extended a new bit of stone elsewhere in the room, even as I concentrated on destroying a section of stone hidden well behind the wall.

Need to hide why the mana is being lost.

By the time the mana ran out there, was no change as far as the room showed, since my work was constantly erased, but I had made an empty sphere about three feet across deep in the wall.

Why does the sphere have air in it?

I could understand if I had destroyed the stone into nothing. Perhaps if I had converted it to mana or something. Nope. I changed a three foot radius of stone into air. And I could sense that air. It wasn’t under immense pressure, like it should have been, if I had somehow reconfigured the elemental nature of stone into a gas. Nope. Mass just disappeared. And I had made solid stone out of a relatively small amount of mana, come to think of it. Exactly how energy dense is this shit? Or was it just magic and therefore breaking all the rules. Not like conservation of mass and energy are important laws or anything, nope, not at all.

While I took my time commiserating with physics about this level of bullshitery, and how utterly ridiculous magic was busy giving physics the middle finger, Tam looked overjoyed. He seemed both utterly unsurprised and dismissive when the beam of light came and destroyed the stone, repeatedly. Not surprising, guess he was expecting me to get this ability. Tam simply smiled for a few minutes and then proceeded to dismiss the spells in order. With the dismissal of the last one, a small amount of mana was available again.

For the moment, I played with my new ability in the test sphere I had made. I turned dirt, sand, and stone into one another with no trouble and a small amount of mana. Condensing stone into a denser and harder substance was possible, but more mana intensive. Making stone from nothing was the most costly. At this point there was both a positive, and a negative. I had plenty of stone to work with, but my mana ran out almost immediately.

Tam left while I worked, his departure unnoticed. After running out of mana, I returned to my usual practice of mana absorption and keeping mana still. As always, it was slow but I made steady progress. Night came over my room with the dimming lights cast into faint glimmers, all without me seeing Tam again for the day. My practice continued through the night and I contemplated what I should do if Tam deliberately gave me more mana.

Obviously, my level was top priority. With more mana, I could extend my aura and manipulate more stone. The problem, was that I didn’t want Tam to think about my aura at all. It extended far beyond what he was aware of. If I found a cavern, I could extend into it. And if it had life I could gain mana from the deaths of the creatures there. So far, however, the most I had seen was some tiny geodes.

For now, I could show Tam that I was “learning.” Tam was sure to expect something, but I didn’t think he really knew what to expect. The system had outright stated that I was unique and new. Stone created in different areas could show him I was trying different strategies, but hopefully the randomness of it would not show any kind of actual intelligence. Hopefully, my learning skill would also help cover up any accidental signs of real intelligence I might give him.

No idea how that skill would impact a normal dungeon.

I thought of a few things to try with my abilities, stuff I could show him. I could make the walls smoother. This would also act as a test to determine if I could dig into the walls, or if I would get the same response from that obnoxious rune array on the wall. If I could, I would make statues. Nothing original, just copies of what I saw. And while Tam saw what I was doing, more would happen behind the scenes. I wanted to study my own earth manipulation skill and see if it was truly understandable, and not just powered by handwavium. The same with the beams from the array. Calling this new world magic and leaving it at that was not an acceptable excuse. Science had always been a passion of mine, and understanding was the true reason why. I loved knowing how things happened. Even if it took a while, by hell or high water, I would understand this new world too.

My determination notwithstanding, very little progress had been made by the time that morning announced itself with an increase of light. Tam entered shortly after and cast a diagnostic spell on me. Another similar spell was directed at the disintegration array. Shortly after, the dregs of the spell on me was absorbed and I focused as much as possible while the stone moved at my command. I could see nothing more, for now, but improving my sight simply went on my list of things to do. It actually entered my list of things to do as much as possible. When I practiced holding mana in place, watch, when I moved stone, watch, when I made aura, watch.

There was simply no way to accept that these things happened without some kind of outside force acting on them. Things needed to be acted upon in order for them to undergo change. If that was no longer true… then figuring out the new rules might actually be impossible. It was completely possible that the forces were acting at scales I simply couldn't observe, too. However, without proof, there was no point giving up.

Tam interacted with me less, and he was gone for the rest of the day, failing to appear at all the next. I had a small amount of fear, of just being left alone as an abandoned experiment, even if that didn’t seem likely. I was fairly sure I could learn to escape, but it wasn’t a certain thing. I imagined being left alone in a dim room for years, or longer. Forgotten and abandoned for millennia. Gah. Yeah, that way lies madness. Probably literally. I couldn’t imagine my mind surviving through it. And if my new form forced me to stay sane… it would just be torture.

I threw myself into practicing as a distraction. I was no closer to seeing what was happening, at least as far as I could tell. Holding mana in place was getting easier, though, and the speed and narrowness of my focus had been improving. That night I received another screen popping up in front of me.

Your skill Directed Mana Absorption has increased from level I to level II

The skill’s description remained unchanged, but experimentation proved it to be improved substantially. Focusing allowed a slightly smaller area to be used, and the speed of absorption was twice as fast as it had been originally, according to my best guess. Attempting to hold mana showed no difference at all.

I had been continuously trying to up my speed, and it had improved, but the largest difference came when the level went up. However, since the mana stability had not changed, that meant it was a different skill entirely, or at least another modification that could be made to it. Slowly the world was beginning to make more sense to me, though it was insane by my old standards. Hopefully, gaining new skills would enable me to make better conclusions.