There is a remote woodland miles away from civilization, poorly charted and mostly left alone. In the middle of that forest mix of old and new growth trees lies a small, lone, barren mountain. At the base of that mountain, there lies an old, crumbling, forgotten bunker, a relic from an age past. In the darkest, lowest, and stillest corner of that bunker still accessible by the surface, something new to the world has begun to happen. Unseen, unfelt, and unknown energies begin to swirl together, an unfelt wind kicking up dust and disturbing previously still wires and debris as the energies coalesce for several hours until with an audible POP! a relatively small gem appears a foot off the ground. It hovers in place for a moment, glowing softly before dropping to the ground, clinking on a piece of rusted sheet metal before settling in place.
There, the gem rests, slowly collecting dust at first. However, as hours tick by into days, the pitch black darkness slowly fades as a dim glow begins to emanate from the room’s newest resident in an unknown number of years. The colors slowly shift, never quite staying consistent for more than a minute but gradually growing in intensity and its hues shift throughout every shade on the color wheel once before the cycle repeats.
Eventually, the lights of the gemstone reach through to all the corners of the small room, illuminating it fully for the first time in recent memory. At this first milestone of the little gem, it begins to rattle on the floor, growing in energy until it begins to levitate. There the gem rises halfway up the height of the room, shaking violently until finally letting out a blindingly bright pulse of light. If any creature was unlucky enough to be present at the time of the pulse, they undoubtedly would be seeing stars for at least the several seconds the room was bathed in the ethereal glow before it finally subsided.
Now much more lazily, the rainbow gem floats in place, bobbing gently as its glow paints the room. Groggily, the consciousness inside begins to wake up, taking in its immediate surroundings, aware for the first time.
‘Wuh… where… where am I?... Who… am I?...’ It thought to itself, attempting to metaphorically shake off lingering sluggishness. As it does so, a little chime went off in its mind. Focusing on it, it heard a voice for the first time, one that spoke directly to it.
“Welcome new dungeon core!”
It was shocked at the crystal clear clarity that the voice spoke with, the voice ambiguous but not threatening, but still not quite able to determine any specific qualities of it aside from it just being there. However, the words sank in a moment later and then it remembered, pulling from the small trove of knowledge it was born with. It was a dungeon core, a magical crystal creature who exists to create and regulate mana as well as to create gauntlets and defenses to protect itself, strengthen the successful, and cull those it deems fit.
Pulling out of its brief internal rediscovery, it nods in satisfaction, content with this job its existence entails. The voice continues.
“Due to the exceptionally low/nonexistant density of mana in this world, you have been created to prelude the mass integration of The System to this planet. In order to prevent catastrophic destruction as well as an unknown amount of mass sentient’s death, you must build up the mana density of the planet. The System has halted further integration efforts save for yourself in order to prevent said death and destruction. As such as the only of your kind currently able to exist on the planet, your purpose and abilities will be altered in order to match your new reality.”
At this revelation, the new core was shocked even more so than before. It could recognize the important task it was given and felt pride at that, but it was also a rather large task for a mostly non-mobile dungeon core. Covering a planet in mana? That’s a task which could easily take decades at its current capabilities. Fortunately the innate immortality of its species meant that time was not much of an issue for it, but it still needed to survive long enough on a non-integrated planet, which meant it had no idea the potential for dangers faced or even how the ground around it would fully react to being sculpted by a dungeon.
Before its ponderings could continue, it felt changes start to undertake on its form. New ridges grew in a way that felt uncomfortable but not painfully. It could feel its capabilities shift, new knowledge of how to utilize them downloaded into its memory. It was a much shorter process than its wakeup, mana now naturally dense in the room. When the process completes, the voice continues.
“As an extra to aid you in this world on the opposite end of the environment your kind is meant to live in, you have been granted a one-time use ability to extract non-personal knowledge from the corpse of a previously living sapient being. Utilize your new abilities well to allow The System to seamlessly integrate and bring more of your kind. If you’re unable to survive and complete your new temporary purpose, The System will resume normal integration. Now unlocking normal system access.”
And with that, the voice went silent. The core floated there for a moment before having a barrier it didn’t even realize existed lifted from its mind and it was finally met with The System’s normal screen showing up in its perception. The core begins reading its notices with it now on its own.
‘Error… Mana density too low… Delaying wakeup…’
Ah, that explains why it felt so… out there, so to speak when it first woke up. Also why its thoughts feel like each one has had to wade through slowly thinning slime too.
‘... Sufficient mana density created… Introduction complete… Analyzing core properties…’
It scans the text, noting the final message it has received so far. Truthfully it was hoping for more answers than what it has been provided so far, feeling rather unprepared as its gaze fell upon the rest of its current sanctum. Sure it innately knew of stone, water, the basics when it comes to materials and even some more exotic ones like mithril, as well as basic structures and the like, but it was surrounded by unknowns.
The walls felt like fake stone, there were no recognizable wooden objects, the metal was unfamiliar, especially as two different items made of what seemed to be the same kind and were clearly here for similar amounts of time were in vastly differing states. Even the shattered glass on the floor felt off. At least the moss on the ceiling and the roots growing through cracks felt familiar, but its domain was limited until its system finished setting itself up, then expansion could begin.
Fortunately, another mental ding brought it out of its uncomfortableness of its unfamiliarity.
‘Rainbow core detected… Outside not found… Dungeon expansion enabled, first quests given.’
Quest: Expand your domain to the outside world. Rewards: Unlocking rest of system features, dungeon theme choice.
Quest: Use special granted ability [Knowledge of the Dead]. Reward: ???
It… did not like the look of unknown rewards. It also did not like having its theme unable to decided yet either as a dungeon's theme is what granted it the monster suitable to said theme to defend itself with. After all, a dungeon with lava rooms and water-elemental defenders was a good way for a dungeon to have no defenders, so the system handles deciding what monsters a dungeon should be using for the most part. Hopefully these would resolve rather soon. Still, being confined to just its sanctum was undesirable for any core, so it's time to expand!
...
It should’ve expected this honestly. There was basically no mana on the other side of the door, so aside from the door itself and the walls, it had to wait for the mana to build up before it could continue. Luckily claiming the sliver of space it could past the barrier meant that it could see how far it’d need to grow to reach the outside.
It couldn’t see anything. The sliver of light it could shine through the cracks in the door barely penetrated the darkness beyond. And with how little mana was in the air, it wouldn’t even be able to plant torches to light the place up! Honestly, it was excited at first but this was starting to get annoying. But, it had nothing better to do, or could do really. Sure it could force the door open to allow the mana to flow better, but the door was rusted shut and it could tell the cost was too much to make it worth it, not to mention it’d probably snap it off of its hinges and then it’d be left without any defense, which was even worse.
Sighing, it did what most cores do when caught with boredom of not having anything to do at that time, and went back into hibernation. Hopefully none of the world’s natives would find it in the meantime while it waited to conquer the rest of its soon-to-be dungeon.
The gem dims as the core returns to slumber, slowly building up the mana density as it crawls across the decrepit structure. Of course, when a thick layer an entirely new world energy washes over previously fully mundane objects created and born in a world devoid of it, things may have a few bumps before calming down.
Puddles of water start to either freeze or heat up seemingly at random before the liquid returns to normal. Metal begins to oxidize rapidly before being fully saturated, then the layer of rust peels and disintegrates in seconds, leaving a scarred, uneven surface in places previously smoother, and other sections where the metal glistens like it's been freshly polished. Exposed wires which have corroded to the point of not being connected to anything find themselves suddenly electrified, arcs flying and insulator coatings warping before the charge disappears almost as quick as it appeared. Even the concrete walls crack in places from the stresses of being infused with mana, the whole structure threatening to collapse and bury the nascent dungeon but holding on seemingly by threads, the rebar in the walls strengthening the concrete enough to hold itself together.
The process continues, mundane materials reacting esoterically when infused with mana for the first time before settling back into their pre-infused states with varying changes in physical properties or conditions. After hours upon hours of this process, the dungeon core finally stirs once more. Peering through its new domain, it mentally nods appreciatively at the size. The core was one level below where the new entrance to its domain laid, though its mana was hard at work inside of its domain infusing and reinforcing all the existing materials. Not to mention the sprawl of the floors meant it had plenty of floorspace to use when it finishes integrating the structure and increasing the ambient mana density.
As it thought, its perception gazing over the crumbling entranceway to the rest of the world and peering into the outside, it felt something click.
Quest Completed: Entrance formed! Distributing rewards…
Finally the comforting status screen it instinctively knew the existence of the whole time opened up, and it could look over its stats to try and see just how itself and abilities were affected.
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[Unnamed Rainbow Dungeon Core]
Level: 1
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Floors: 2* (NO NEW FLOORS GRANTED UNTIL LEVEL COUNT MATCHES FLOOR COUNT)
Core attunement: Unspecified
Dungeon Theme: Not Set; No Current Options Known
Mana: ERROR Mana density too low to build up!
Creatures: 0/0
Special Creatures: 0/0
Boss Creatures: 0/0
NOTE: SOME SKILLS LOCKED DUE TO INSUFFICIENT MANA DENSITY/LACK OF A THEME
Skills: Mana Generation (SPECIAL) (PASSIVE); Territory Manipulation (LOCKED); Domain Sight; Creation; Destruction; Absorption; Spatial Storage; Analysis (LOCKED); Knowledge of the Dead (x1)
Titles: Herald of The System
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‘Huh…’ The core couldn’t help but speak to itself. Some things it already figured were the case and as such wasn’t surprised by, like the fact it couldn’t build up mana for its own use until it brought up the ambient mana levels. The lack of choices for the theme though were rather alarming when it looked into it. Without a theme it couldn’t summon creatures or sculpt its territory. After all, what was the point of doing those when whatever theme that was chosen could make those previous actions pointless.
Trying to keep itself from spiraling, it starts looking through the rest of its domain trying to find something to help. Its search comes across two places of note, one on the first floor and one on the second. On the first floor it finds a broken down equipment setup partially caved in. There’s shattered glass, twisted metal, charred wood, and spilled liquid stains everywhere. It doesn’t even know where to begin with figuring out what happened there.
On floor two though, just a few rooms away from itself, there’s a much odder discovery. The room features two piles of human corpses in various states of decomposition. How incredibly peculiar…
Of course, it could recognize an opportunity when it sees one, and its special bonus skill could be utilized without it even needing to do anything! Combing through the bodies, the core looks for the most intact body present. Most of the corpses have decayed to the point there’s only rotten flesh clinging to bones, but one body stands out to it. Namely, the weird, brightly colored albeit ruined yellow suit it’s wearing and the fact the head, neck, and chest are mostly intact, though discolored and crawling with insects. It can’t puzzle out what it’s made from, but the cause of death is easy enough to figure since everything below the ribcage is just not there. Quite a brutal scene for anyone but a dungeon core.
Focusing on the corpse, it intones the unique skill it was given.
[Knowledge of the Dead consumed!]
[Copying knowledge… Done!]
[Discarding personal details… Done!]
[Downloading remainder…]
And like that, it felt like a wave just crashed into it and it was being crushed under a mile of rock at the same time. So many concepts, names, general mythos of this world, and apparently ‘best’ way to make a ham sandwich all get crammed in at the same time. A literal deluge of what exactly the human knew of everything is, the name of, general ideas of how it was made, the basics of what everything is made of, and an idea of what exactly happened here too.
As quickly as the process starts, it ends. Only a few seconds have gone by but parsing through all that new information feels like it’s been hours. Unfortunately the fact it wasn’t a fresh corpse either meant there’s plenty of holes left needing to be filled, and some tidbits got twisted to the point where it’s blatantly false, like pineapple belonging on pizza (it doesn't even know what pizza is and yet the information given to it stating so just feels so wrong on such a fundamental level it's convinced such a combination is not meant to be), but otherwise plenty of knowledge ripe for use.
Taking a moment just to confirm, the core reopens its menu to check its skills.
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[Unnamed Rainbow Dungeon Core]
Level: 1*
Floors: 2* (NO NEW FLOORS GRANTED UNTIL LEVEL COUNT MATCHES FLOOR COUNT)
Core attunement: Unknown
Dungeon Theme: Not Set; 4 Options Available (LOCKED UNTIL MANA DENSITY RAISES TO SUFFICIENT LEVELS)
Mana: ERROR Mana density too low to build up!
Creatures: 0/0
Special Creatures: 0/0
Boss Creatures: 0/0
NOTE: SOME SKILLS LOCKED DUE TO INSUFFICIENT MANA DENSITY/LACK OF A THEME
Skills: Mana Generation (SPECIAL) (PASSIVE); Territory Manipulation (LOCKED); Domain Sight; Creation (LOCKED); Destruction (LOCKED); Absorption (LOCKED); Spatial Storage (LOCKED); Analysis (LOCKED)
Titles: Herald of The System
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Losing a skill never feels right, even if this is the first time that’s happened in its life.
As it thinks, it realizes something else rather important. It had theme options! In its excitement it ignores the notification on the themes and just tries to open the menu repeatedly to no avail. This damn world and its damn lack of mana! All it wants is to function like a normal dungeon core, is that so much to ask!?
Grumbling, it starts looking over its domain once more, undoubtedly going to need to wait at least another day to start being a proper dungeon. With its new knowledge, it examines its sanctum, now recognizing the utility closet for what it was. It glares disdainfully at the corroded pipes and frayed wires, even more so at the junction box that simply fell off the wall, bits of concrete clinging to some of the still-intact bolts. This place was a mess and it certainly had its work cut out for it.
Returning its gaze outside of its sanctum, it goes over the whole complex once more with an even more critical eye, recognizing what rooms might’ve been in the past now, and being not impressed with the numerous faded graffiti tags. The room on the second floor next to the stairs spoke of someone deliberately smashing the furniture, smashed planks and twisted bed frames clearly showing that rage fueled their destruction, not mere time.
As it looked over the first floor, it came across the partially collapsed room once more, and recognized it for what it was: A lab. More specifically, the ruined remains of a meth lab. A gods-damned illicit drug lab. It's offended, not by the nature of what the lab was used for, but that fact that it was so incompetently used that the result destabilized the remains of the complex.
Now it was incensed. ‘THOSE DAMNABLE HUMANS!’ It howled to itself, recognizing some of the scorch marks poking out from behind the rubble as signs of the explosion's origin, causing the collapse. Even if it wasn’t here at the time, or having even been born yet for that matter, they still blew up its home! Already as a dungeon it knew it would have little trouble killing sentients, that's just par for the course for dungeons, but this…
This was unacceptable.
After taking a moment to calm down, but still simmering in rage, it looks over the damage it’d need to repair. Frankly it can recognize that it got lucky, a quick dart of its perception through the floor bringing it face-to-face with a bowing ceiling, the rebar holding the crumbling concrete together being the only thing keeping the lower room from being caught in the collapse too.
Looking a little deeper, it could even find the smashed lower-half of the corpse that piqued its interest, still buried in the rubble. Pretty understandable considering it’s less than an eighth of an inch thick.
When it fully calms back down, it looks over the rest, finding only some new small animal tracks that it couldn’t identify near the entrance and some dead rat burrows, poisoned when the lab was functioning most likely, still holding the skeletal remains of their previous occupants.
Content with having found everything of note it could in the rooms and what little remains of the ventilation and pipe networks, it decides to do something most of its kind don’t even get the chance to do. Moving all of its perception to the entrance, it gazes outside and simply watches, unable to do much more at this point.
Time starts to blur for it as the single yellow sun which brings warmth to this planet moves through the sky, eventually setting and its place being replaced by the planet’s moon. Counting the seconds to busy its mind, it is quite peaceful gazing over the silent forest and quiet night sky. Well, silent in that it can’t hear anything outside of its dungeon, not much it can do about that really until mana imbues the world.
Night passes and the day returns, the core continuing its counting as it still feels it hasn’t quite filled its domain enough.
Hours later, its vision is filled with a new alert.
New Title Acquired: Timekeeper; Successfully keep track of time for a full day down to the exact second. Reward: Accurate clock which can be viewed at will.
Huh. It wasn’t even trying for a title, merely wanting to busy itself. Still titles are titles, even if it didn’t have much of a use for its reward. Getting more will always feel nice, it was sure of it.
SUFFICIENT MANA DENSITY ACCRUED: Unlocking dungeon functions.
Oh? OH! Fucking FINALLY! Now it can finally get down to doing what it was literally made to do in the first place: build its dungeon. Quickly it reopens its menu just to make sure it's finally happening.
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[Unnamed Rainbow Dungeon Core]
Level: 1*
Floors: 2* (NO NEW FLOORS GRANTED UNTIL LEVEL COUNT MATCHES FLOOR COUNT)
Core attunement: Unknown
Dungeon Theme: Not Set; 4 Options Available
Mana: 1/20; Regen: 1/hour
Creatures: 0/0
Special Creatures: 0/0
Boss Creatures: 0/0
NOTE: SOME SKILLS LOCKED DUE TO LACK OF A THEME
Skills: Mana Generation (SPECIAL) (PASSIVE); Territory Manipulation; Domain Sight; Creation (LOCKED); Destruction (LOCKED); Absorption; Spatial Storage; Analysis
Titles: Herald of The System; Timekeeper
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YES! Now it could finally get down to business! Quickly its perception moves back to its core, traversing much quicker now, not having noticed before its sluggishness but now with its environment dense enough it is painfully obvious how delayed it was moving previously.
Eyeing its core, it is satisfied to see it now hovering in place, no longer bobbing. It is positively giddy now, and without delaying any further, it opens its theme options and begins to study them.
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THE EVACUATION BUNKER: Originally meant to shelter the hapless when the worst came, a mix of poor management and infighting brought ruin to those it was meant to protect. Now nothing can be trusted in its depths. Anything can be a trap, and the souls left behind are well aware of that fact.
Starter creature: Skeletal Undead
THE MILITARY BUNKER: Originally meant to house soldiers and munitions ready to aid its people or defend their home, poor leadership and power struggles ended the protectors lives. Now its depths are roamed by creatures tougher and more capable in fights, and one whose bloodlust from the soldier’s souls prevents them from listening to commands or fears while engaged.
Starter creature: Modern Living Armor
THE RESEARCH BUNKER: Originally used to research beings who never should’ve been made, one test subject’s escape brought death to the bright minds who inhabited it. Now all that advanced knowledge is used for, aside from smarter denizens, is much more complex devices. Complexity isn’t without cost though, and as such the variety can get small.
Starter creature: Flesh Abomination
THE RELIC BUNKER: Its purpose lost to time, this bunker is nothing but a maze of underground ruins. Exploring such an old place must be done with care, lest the structure give way and turn the bunker into a tomb.
Starter creatures: Overgrown Mimics
NOTE: All theme choices have unique effects applied to the dungeon as a whole that will be revealed upon selection.
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Decisions, decisions. Each theme has its specialty, and they all have their benefits/drawbacks. Admittedly the lack of options is annoying, but it’ll make do with one of them. Now what to choose?
Evacuation Bunker clearly favored traps and supported more creatures. Research Bunker, though, favored fewer monsters in favor of higher quality creatures possibly capable of independent planning. Could be useful when its dungeon grows larger. Military Bunker sounded more suited to defense and fighting with potentially more effective options. After all it still wasn't 100% sure on effective defense, but picking that theme would let the system hand craft local weapon and armor designs into its defenses. Finally, Relic Bunker sounded more rounded, with no real drawback or no boost to anything either that it could figure out from its description aside from making the bunker complex it now inhabits into even more of a deathtrap than it already is. Plus there were those effects it no doubt wouldn’t figure out until it picks one of them, unfortunately.
It spends time pondering this choice, it is rather important after all and it won't be able to change its mind later. Spending some time pondering weighing the pros and cons, it eventually comes to its decision as to what bunker dungeon it shall become.