Having had a rough life, always afraid, always hungry, being bullied and threatened by those above him in strength or guile.
Joshua succumbs to the rigors of his life.
But he awakens shortly after.
"The one who has suffered will be given a new chance, the one who suffered will be given power, the one who suffered will bring despair and death and challenge, the one who suffered will cleanse the world."
What? No way, ill do things like I want.
Joshua was reborn as a Dungeon core. To challenge adventurers and draw in the magic to cleanse it... A city on his doorstep filled with greedy, tricky, powerful people who all want to exploit him. They will learn the truth of the dungeon.
The sanctuary dungeon
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Pain
Joshua had almost been accustomed to the pain and suffering he had to endure... But he was always amazed at how the world would show him just how much his body could surprise him with the suffering it could endure. He was unable to move, his entire body screamed, the parts that were still part of him atleast. Ever since he was a child he had been either in pain,scared,broke, being pushed around, being used, seeing his friends suffer, being betrayed. Over and over his life was filled with this struggle.
And now the end had come. The pain began to vanish and his eyes closed and with a sigh, his final breath released him from his body.
He awoke feeling wonderful. No more pain, even before the last horror of his life that left him maimed and mutilated on a slab, his body had always ached. A broken bone that never quite set. an injury from a fight that always stung slightly. the silence from his right ear. All that was gone. His body felt fresh and complete and it brought tears to his eyes as suddenly he was reborn. He looked at his arms and body, it was not a famished body with scars and rough hands that had worked and toiled under someone's whip. But a healthy body of a young man.
After looking at his hands he looked around, he was in a glowing empty void. He realised with a shock he was not touching a solid floor but was floating in this void. "Hello?... Is... Is this ..." He tighten his brow, he had never trusted the priests or sweettalkers of religion, having suffer just as much under those that proclaimed a holy life and a neverending joyous afterlife to those that would just kneel before what ever deity they proclaimed was better than the rest.
He was about to ask if he was in heaven. He grit his teeth thinking that the people that had once hurt him and forced him to work so they could rise in their religious life promising him the very potential heaven he was now in.
But no answer came. "... Maybe... I am just dying... Trying to escape the pain..." He looked around as he thought, a slight smile on his face, he would be fine, strangely enough, even if he just vanished into a void.
But then he felt the void constrict and pulse. It no longer felt as expansive as before. He looked around in a panic as the world bent around him, the eternal infinite glow was suddenly limited to a large spherical area that he was in the center off.
[Dungeon Core Host has been collected]
[Core Crystal has manifested]^
["The one who has suffered will be given a new chance, the one who suffered will be given power, the one who suffered will bring despair, death and challenge, the one who suffered will cleanse the world."]
A line of text appeared in front of him, he understood it clearly despite also knowing this script was different from the one he was used too. "What??... No?! I will not bring despair!" He angrily shouted out, but the message remained in front of him. He suddenly felt as if he was being picked up but it was not on his skin he felt the grip. He was unable to pinpoint what was happening as suddenly the glowing void trembled and then shifted in colors and shade to a much darker hue.
[Core has been placed in the world]
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
[Cleanse the world, challenge those who live with death and despair]
Joshua was about to protest, he did not want to do the bidding of someone now that he was "potentially" a spirit, would someone always be able to keep him under their leash... How much could he potentially suffer if his spirit was endless? Words he had heard from many speakers of faith scared him and made him lash out. ”I refuse!!!” But no one responded.
[Spatial Sense] rank 1 Learned
[Summon] rank 1 Learned
[Draw in Miasma] rank 1 Learned
[Mana Conversion] rank 1 Learned
[Construction] Rank 1 Learned
[Skill: Appraisal] Rank 5 Learned
Joshua felt the dark fog around him, he could see it against the edge of his spheric home, as it swirled around the outer edge of the barrier he felt a rush of energy as it slowly began to pass through the barrier in a evenly spread out pattern.
[Miasma Conversion Begun]
[Mana gain] = 1 Per day
[Mana] = 5/10
"What is happening to me???" Joshua proclaimed out loud, but the dark fog gave no response and continued to be drawn towards his spherical home.
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In the town of Galland, a small outpost on the edge of the kingdom Vesallis, a sad not well repaired wood palisade surrounded the egde of the town with towers popping up here and there. The town was quiet as it was in the dead of night, the town surrounded by chopped down trees for a good distance and then a large dark brooding forest.
A gentle fog was hugging the ground, making it look like outside the town it was a etheral lake, the town walls a small island in the lake. Calmness and only the sounds of the night save a few yells from inside the city was all that transpired. When outside the city a few 100 meters suddenly a small glowing light appeared. The fog suddenly stopped gently moving around aimlessly and began to spill towards the glowing light. The ground distorted and stretched around the light as it morphed into a gate. The earth and stones themselves changing shape and composition until they formed the gate with a pair of large stone doors, etched with runes, as the construction happened the small light was raised up above it the fog continuesly spilling forward into the structure.
The alarm bells of the town began to ring as the tower guards spotted the sudden appearance of the gate and the rising glowing light, the town stirring from its slumber after a while and out of a tavern and barracks came people with weapons and armor hastily adorned, as they all met up at the side of the town where the alarm was being rung.
The mayor of the town was rushing out of his manor, he turned to face towards the tower that was ringing its alarm bell, just as the small light above the now completed gate exploded into a giant pillar of light that shot up into the sky, illuminating the night as if day had appeared in that area, the mayor quickly began to move towards the city gate nearest the beam of light, he himself was not carrying weapons but he was quickly followed by a towering hulk of a man in armor carrying a massive twohand sword. They both joined the groups of people and headed out to the gate.
”What is happening! Someone report!” The mayor exclaimed to the militia that had formed, the mayor making way through the group of people and adventurers all standing around out of curiosity or panic, all wanting answers. But they all made way for the small mayor as the towering hulk sent out clear vibes of not to get in their way.
The Mayor made his way up onto the primitive wall and looked out. He froze in step, the hulking man following him also froze. Anyone who was up on the wall and looking out were awestruck by what they were seeing.
The pillar of light extended up into the sky and clouds. The night fog was being pulled towards the gate and vanished as soon as it touched the structure. The ground becoming visible as the fog was absorbed. The fog continued to spill out from the forests surrounding the town, the fog spilling along the walls from the furthers around the town and straight into the gate.
The mayor mumbled out ”A Dungeon...”