Leonhardt looked well at himself with this vision that seemed to encompass everything as a circle and calmed down after thinking the bone hand was probably the Soulkeeper or death itself.
For starters, his actual body was the round black jade he bought on a whim. Was it special or was just a coincidence his body ended up becoming… what was the name again?
“... I think it was a Dungeon Core?” As soon this words came out from Leon’s imaginary mouth, a series of windows appeared.
[Dungeon Core]
[A living being created by the all-powerful First Creator to help people become powerful with Dungeons. The Core is mass of logical thoughts with little flexibility in its own thoughts, needing of a Dungeon Master to achieve all its potential.]
[The current ownership of such powerful objects is of the Ex-Phantasmas, they send the Cores to planets that received the Gift while being attacked by the Invaders. They randomly choose gems on the planet for them to receive the souls from the Cores based on their Ranks: Trash, Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, Heroic, and Legendary.]
That got Leonhardt by surprise, if he just asked aloud someone would answer him? The windows of Skills were something that never appeared so easily.
“Then am I a Dungeon Core right now? And what do you mean by Gift?” Leon already linked the name Invaders to the Aliens, he never heard about the Ex-Phantasmas though.
[You are partially Dungeon Core and Dungeon Master thanks to the decisions of the previous Trash Dungeon to share their souls and combine in only one being before reviving you.]
[The Gift is the system that permits people to fight against the Invaders. Dungeon Cores and Dungeon Masters also have it. You only need to say Gift or Status with the correct intention to see it.]
Leonhardt not even got scared of knowing his Race got changed and already began to think in the future, what could he do to become powerful?
“Then… Gift.” He said deciding to see this ‘Gift’ before using the knowledge that is gradually coming to him after he changed his Race, but that he was suppressing to take attention to what the windows were saying.
[General Information]
Dungeon Name: N/A
Dungeon Master Name: Leonhardt Udalth
Race: Core-Master(Half Dungeon Core and Half Dungeon Master)
Age: 0 Sex: Male
Welfare: Healthy Rank: Trash
Title: Sixth Destroyer
Patron: None
Classes: Novice Dungeon Master Lvl 1 0%
Mana: 5/5 (+1/day)
Essence: 1/1 (+1/min)
Floors: 1 Inhabitants’ Species: 0
Dungeon Points: 0
[Skills]
Active: Taming Lvl 1
Passive: Mana Regeneration Lvl 1, Essence Regeneration Lvl 1
Production: Dungeon Core’s Basics
Transcendent: Time Revival, Body Change, Complete Possession, Possession Lvl 1
[Quest: First Floor Management]
Make your first floor ready to the people of the planet D6C6S3 train in there for EP(Experience Points) until or after the end of the grace period granted by the Ex-Phantasmas
Rewards: Dungeon Points based on your performance
Leonhardt was in ecstasy, his theory that with a new Race he received a brand new talent for Skills was right. Now he had the chance to become powerful no mattering if he never can leave his Dungeon. And he even had now Essence, the energy his ancestors told him that was the basis of life and could create souls.
“First thing first, let’s do what my instinct and knowledge inside of me are telling me to do.” From his small body, mana colorful as his black jade’s body surged and claimed the first five meters around him and then extended in a straight line to the cave’s entrance.
The process took him about two minutes and cost him two of his precious Mana Points. But now he felt as if he was at home, serene and heartwarming despite the temperature in the damp cave, so it was worth it.
The new Core-Master knew he could absorb things to receive Mana, Essence or even Dungeon Points, the only requisite was that it died in his Dungeon and couldn’t be his creations. Since the Dungeon itself could be considered his body or stomach, Leon could absorb anything no mattering the distance inside of the Dungeon. But to take off all his doubts and clear the fuzzy knowledge inside of him, he decided to read through all the mini Skills inside of the Skill [Dungeon Core’s Basics].
There was more or less thirty Skills inside of it and it took him over one hour to understand everything he read together with the rest of the Skills he received from the previous Dungeon.
“Dungeon Traits.” He said without shame of being embarrassed by saying the wrong thing to the Gift show him.
[You already selected the only three initial Dungeon Traits that you could choose with your Rank. Wait until you Rank Up to select the next pack of Dungeon Traits. Unfortunately, you won’t be ever capable of selecting the initial Dungeon Traits once again.]
“As I thought I won’t be able to select the useful [Monster Loyalty] or [Dummy Core] traits, thanks to that now useless Transcendent Skills. How will I protect myself or become powerful without Monsters?” It was then his neglected Skill since he was a Human appeared on his mind.
[Taming Lvl 1]
[The ability that let yourself connect with any living being not considered as ‘People’ and order it to your binding. You can telepathically talk with your properly Tamed Targets. Trust and knowledge about the target are necessary to the Skill properly work, if not, the target will obey at maximum one order from you until you level it up more.]
“I just need to tame everything I create if I don’t have their loyalty.” Leonhardt began to scroll through the list of things he could create to his Dungeon with his new revelation, he didn’t have the confidence to tame something bigger and stronger than his cat though.
“With the Mana I currently have I can only create some plants, beings small as ants, a spider or a rat. But first let me absorb those rocks that fell down and my former body, I might receive something.”
Taking care to the absorbed rocks not cause another collapse, Leonhardt absorbed them while letting some rocks glued to the roof to prevent the same situation to occur again.
He didn’t receive anything, probably because the rocks were already part of his Dungeon, however, he received a notification when he absorbed his body that had a fairy glued to it.
[Body with a quality too high to be properly absorbed with the current Dungeon Rank.]
[Error…]
[Calculating solution… sensing a connection to the current Dungeon Master… error… sensing two anomalies in the body.]
[Solution found.]
[Do you want to make this body your new Dungeon Master’s body? As a Core-Master with the Skill Body Change, you can change back between your Dungeon Master’s body and Dungeon Core’s body whenever you want inside of the Dungeon.]
“Yes.” Even if Leon would have a real body that is not a gem, he knew he needed to be in his Dungeon Core’s body to do anything to his Dungeon.
[Error!]
[The two anomalies are making impossible the process of reversing the injuries in the Dungeon Master’s body. To continue the two anomalies must be deleted from the Gift system. Is it acceptable?]
“What are they?”
[A altered by Mana MSA Terminal Illness together with MDOS, and a foreign object one day know as a Fairy or Dungeon Core. The energy received by the complete deletion of the Fairy(Dungeon Core) will be enough to make the Illness as if it never existed.]
“Go on.” And the thing that plagued Leonhardt’s life was gone as easy as that with only two words, he was supposed to feel good by going back to his original body without a Terminal Illness to worry. Despite this, he felt as if things were too easy… he actually felt empty in his old body.
Why can’t he feel happy with this resolution? Did he have a screw loose after dying and reviving?
Was the Illness he fought against his entire life so worthless and easy to disappear to this ‘Gift’?
Then… what this Gift can’t do? Leonhardt’s brown eyes shone in his Dungeon Master’s body.
The happiness of having his Race changed and determination flooded once again in him as he forgot about his illness and concentrated in his future as a Core-Master to make certain Lord Seventh will have a good life in the universe he will be born.
“Now… sincerely, can you care to explain to me why a fucking ant cost 1 Mana Point? It is a third of my reserves.” Leon grumbled still knowing using an ant to his tests would be the best decision.
[The cost of everything you create with the exception of the DP(Dungeon Points) are based on your Rank as a Dungeon and how you tamper with it. For comparison, an ant cost 0.000...1 Mana Point to a Legendary Dungeon.]
“Great, so I am like a million times worse than a Legendary Dungeon, good to know.” He sighed, even in another Race he isn’t a special existence. At least he was already used to being mediocre, so he quickly destroyed all the arrogance he accumulated while reading the [Dungeon Core’s Basics] as he thought he was already amazing.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Thinking about an ebony ant with six legs, elbowed antennae, yellow blood, a distinctive node-like structure that forms its slender waist and was said to be capable of carrying ten times its weight, Mana revolved around the round small core with the form of a black jade and according to Leonhardt’s wishes and Dungeon Core’s powers an ant appeared at his front while costing 1 Essence Point to make its soul and 0.3 Mana Points to make its body.
[Level up!]
[You are now a Novice Dungeon Master Lvl 2 0%. Mana and Essence Regeneration will from now on level up and increase their effects basing in the level of your Class, the Dungeon Master.]
“Wait… wasn’t supposed to the ant cost 1 Mana Point?” He said observing the ant walking without purpose on the ground. And I seriously won a level by ‘helping’ the Dungeon Core create an ant? How low is the bar set to Dungeon Masters of Rank Trash Dungeons? Could be they don’t properly guide their Dungeon Cores?
[Thanks to your deep knowledge about animals, the basic anatomy of any living being and being aware of the concept of cells and atoms, the cost to create the ant was reduced as the Mana was guided to form the ant instead of being forced to access the database of everything that exists in the center of the Multiverses.]
“Who would know having the doctorate degree would come in handy? Not that I am complaining though.” Leonhardt changed back to his Dungeon Master’s body and approached the ant since he couldn’t use the [Taming] Skill in the Dungeon Core’s body.
Carefully extending his hand while putting it over the way the ant is walking on, he waited until the ant ‘trusted’ him enough to walk over it.
His plan to make his [Taming] level up enough to him tame any other creatures he creates was to ‘cheat’ through what the keyword ‘trust’ meant in his Skill requirement. It wasn’t like he was making a gamble, he had enough knowledge about ants to his Skill work and he already tested this method when he was younger.
He wasn’t capable of leveling up [Taming] only because he didn’t have the ‘talent’, but since part of his body is a Dungeon Core full of Skills and talent he can’t see the reason for him not finally leveling up the Skill with the old tricks he already thought about in the past to his Skill work.
Leon grinned as the ant curiously looked at him while climbing his arm.
[Level up! Taming is now Lvl 2. You can make any ant weaker than your Tamed Ant instantly yours.]
With the ant in his arm, Leonhardt walked to the Dungeon’s entrance and ordered the ant to left it. “Fetch some leaves or whatever you can with your small body to me absorb.”
The moment the ant’s head went outside of the Dungeon, the head exploded spewing its yellow blood on the ground while strangely the rest of its body began to become motes of light.
When the process ended, the rest of the ant’s head and its blood continued outside of the Dungeon and its body from below the head became a small token with a symbol on it that was the mixture of black and red, some sort of arrow pointing to the front.
“So a creature from the Dungeon dies if it leaves the Dungeon and the body still inside the Dungeon become those… tokens? What are they?” Leon crouched to take the token, but his hand passed through it as if the token was just an illusion.
[Dungeons can’t have, absorb ou touch tokens, the People Points, which are the mean the people use to revive if killed. They lose PP based on what killed them, this is a feature given to only them to have a minimal chance to survive the Invaders. Not even Ex-Phantasmas, Invaders or Legendary Dungeons has access to this feature.]
“How unfair, then aren’t they practically unkillable?” Leonhardt said as if he was never a Human, fully considering himself as only a Dungeon. “How will I absorb things outside of the Dungeon? It’s not like I can-” He stopped his own words, perceiving a problem in his thought process. “Gift, can I leave the Dungeon?
[Yes, a Dungeon Master can leave the Dungeon to help the Dungeon Core gather resources. You are a Core-Master though, so you will have limited time to do it before dying.]
“Why you didn’t tell me earlier? I lost an ant for nothing.”
[The Gift is a system heavily based on emotions and thoughts that only rewards the ones that actively seek and make questions while always looking at the future, it is not obliged to tell or answer something you didn’t think or sought. The lazy and the ones living in useless debauchery have no place in the Gift’s heart.]
“Wow, I got a harsh response than I thought.”
Leon hid his Dungeon Core’s body beneath some spare rocks scattered through the cave and mentally prepared himself to leave the Dungeon and go to the world where Aliens are attacking.
[00:00:00:10:00 minutes remaining]
[The timer will only reset after the day end.]
With the timer to his new death hanging over his head, Leonhardt began to run to gather resources while taking one second to look in the direction of the capitals and discover the purple holes were gone. Or the Aliens took over the planet or they were repelled, Leon tried to not think much about it as he picked everything he could found, even twigs and mushrooms.
Making quick travels, Leon put everything in his Dungeon and didn’t absorb them yet, he didn’t want to lose his precious time. I am too far away from the river to pick fishes or water in only ten minutes, so I will content myself with these apples and the acorns I found far away from the apple trees which I ended up stealing from that nasty squirrel, does it cost too much to share a little with someone in necessity? Later I will tame that stupid-
After Leon put the first acorns on the Dungeon and was in the process to steal more from the squirrel with the timer at 2 minutes, he heard a growl behind him.
Turning around he saw a big and tall black fox with upright triangular ears, pointed snout, a long bushy tail and two things he never thought he would saw in a fox, scarlet slit eyes and a curved single horn in the middle of its ears.
“This is impossible-” The fox pounced on Leonhardt, bringing him to the ground while trying to rip off Leon’s right arm as it failed on its aim, its original objective was a clean bite on Leon’s neck as the black-haired man was distracted fighting the tiny squirrel, but its excitement on making its first kill after being summoned made Leonhardt hear it and instinctively put his arm over his face.
The acorns fell off Leon’s arm and he began to struggle with the fox on the ground as the impertinent squirrel took the chance to take back its nuts amidst the danger, how much that thing like its nuts?
Throwing his best punch with his left arm at the fox’s snout, Leonhardt picked its horn on his hand as the fox got disoriented and hurled it as far as possible.
[00:00:00:01:13 minutes remaining.]
I am going to die, Leon thought as he began to desperately run back to the Dungeon with false hopes that he will have a chance to survive there, if I am going to die again at least it could be once again in the cave.
Centimeters away from the heartwarming cave, the fox reached him and took a bite at its leg, it didn’t know why Leon was so desperate to enter the cave full of Mana but feeling danger, the fox began to drag Leon by his leg while at same time trying to rip it off in vengeance by the punch it received.
“You are too insistent!” Leonhardt tried to kick it away from him, however, the fox was adamant this time in ripping his member off.
[00:00:00:00:25 seconds remaining.]
Giving up of throwing the fox away from him as stones were only inside of the cave, Leonhardt began to crawl to reach the Dungeon.
With blood coming from his nails as he was slowing winning the contest of strength and willpower, Leonhardt ignored the pain coming from his bloodied right arm and leg for the chance of survival in his Dungeon.
[00:00:00:00:08 seconds remaining.]
“Damn!” Shouting to give illusory strength, Leon flexed his arms and legs, even the one almost falling lifeless down on the ground, to make a jump to safety as if he was a four-legged animal.
[00:00:00:00:06 seconds remaining]
[Timer stopped.]
[You are gravely wounded.]
[In-]
Flying some centimeters above the ground with the fox in tow, he reached the inside of the Dungeon and immediately picked a stone to attack the eyes of the fox that was stunned for being in the air for some seconds and how crazy Leon was to jump with his leg almost tearing off.
“...!” The monster let go of Leon’s leg in pain and began to warily circulate around him with one of its eyes full of blood.
Leonhardt wincing at the sudden surge of pain when his adrenaline got low and seeing how much of blood was pouring from his leg and hands, he took the chance that the fox isn’t, for now, attacking him anymore to see the messages he received when he made his last jump.
[Intruder detected!]
[You earn 5 DP for the invasion.]
[Disabling most of the Dungeon Core’s Basics and functions until the Intruder is gone.]
[Disabling Time Revival.]
[Disabling…]
And the plan to bury the fox under the rocks he could create with his Core was gone, he wouldn’t even be able to heal his injuries for now. Nevertheless, he earned 5 DP that is useless for now.
Leon could try to reenact the scene of when the previous Dungeon Master killed himself in a rock collapse, but that would be too much dangerous. Who knows if in the next collapse the entire mountain this cave is under will fall down, killing him and the fox?
Deciding that a careless decision will cause his death, Leon forcibly calmed down by thinking about his cat, how fluffy it was and the way it relaxed him while being at its side.
“Now, Gift. How can a fox have a horn? For what I know this shouldn’t be biologically possible.” Leonhardt held the stone full of blood threateningly at the direction of the fox is walking.
[This fox is a Horned Black Fox Monster that can be randomly spawned through all the planet together with others monsters after this planet received the Gift and the Invaders arrived. And this species is famous for its horn being capable of feeling its target heat and Mana like a reptile tinged by Mana.]
“So it works like a snake’s pits? Then the structure inside of the horn and how it sends information to its brain should be similar to a viper and I doubt with that form and blood it doesn’t have the same heart and organs a normal fox should have.” Reaching at this conclusion, a smile appeared on Leon’s face. “I can tame it with this knowledge!”
This conclusion was correct, however, Leon didn’t know that exist many beings with exact equal forms but with structures so different it can even be considered of two separate phylums.
“What trick should I use for it ‘trust’ me?” Leonhardt rocked his head quickly thinking in the solution before the fox decides to end its game of walking around him.
He remembered the concept of Skills that his parents told him, Skills are the crystallization of your talent in doing something together with how ‘well’ you used it and your powerful imagination(thought) of the expected effect of it. This the reason why most of the users of the Skill [Heat Control] can’t make water become ice, the relation of heat and fire is too ingrained in their mind to-
“Could be I am thinking wrong about the word ‘trust’ from the start? If the ‘trust’ in my Skill was from the literal sense of the word, then the taming of the ant would never work because I couldn’t ‘talk’ with it to construct a ‘trusting relationship’ before taming it and I used a cheap trick to do it.”
Taken by sudden inspiration, Leonhardt screamed. “[Possession]!”
From his body, bright lines made of light appeared and floated to the fox’s direction.
The fox tried to escape from them, but they were insistent as Leonhardt and the fox couldn’t reach him to stop them since new lines were constantly being created as Leon's face became pale.
Without its left eye, the fox didn’t saw a stalagmite while wretchedly running from the lines, hitting the stalagmite and it was finally bound by them.
Leonhardt felt his soul and the fox’s soul touching each other, and before the partial process of [Possession] was finished, he immediately activated [Taming] while stopping his [Possession].
[Level up! Taming is now Lvl 5. Any Tamed being will from now on become a Dungeon creature as soon as it enters the Dungeon.]
[Level up! You are now a Dungeon Master Lvl 6 20%. Potential of the Dungeon Core doubled. Maximum Mana and Essence doubled. You can now see the basic status of anything in your Dungeon.]
[Intruder gone.]
[Intruder is now a Dungeon creature. Reactivating...]
“My ‘imagination’ was correct. As I thought I can make only a brief connection of souls thanks to [Possession] and what can be more ‘trusting’ than having two different souls be connected in a deep level?” Leonhardt gave a sigh of relief and rested as his body was healed by [Time Revival].
[Complete Possession: Locked]
[A complete body and soul change only possible one time in the life of any of the targets and Skill Body Change is a prerequisite to its existence. This is a forbidden Skill as it touches on the domain of the Soulkeeper and punishment is certain to come to the ones daring to challenge her. The only current way to obtain it is to receive it as a random Skill in a Dungeon Trait.]
[Possession Lvl 1: Partial]
[By making two different souls touch and connect with each other at a deep level, the user can decide what will happen with the body of this Skill’s target. The user will temporally take control of it while the target can’t do anything about it, however, the requisite to this Skill work will need of the target’s permission or of it being stunned while being gravely wounded.]
[Obs: Commands that can bring the target’s death, purposely or accidentally, are prohibited.]