I awakened in a small room, about ten feet tall, approximately spherical. Then I realized something strange. I could see the entire room, all 360 degrees, without turning. The exception was a tunnel exiting the room, which was pitch black. As I looked around, I quickly got a bit bored. The room was devoid of decorations, other than a few rocks on the ground.

As I was looking around, I discovered something else I could do! I could move my viewpoint to anywhere in the room. This allowed me to see the sides of the rocks I couldn't see before, and more importantly, to see myself. As I looked to the center of the room, I saw a large amber stone floating there.

A floating stone was strange enough, but there was something even odder. Sitting on top of the stone was a young woman. And she had wings. They looked like the wings of a dragonfly, and actually fit quite well with the entire image. As I had no idea what was going on, I decided to see if I could get her attention. "Hello! Could you tell me where I am?"

She didn't even blink. Honestly, I'd been expecting a bit of freaking out. If I were alone in a small room and suddenly someone spoke to me I'd definitely have a bigger reaction than that. The only explanation was that she couldn't hear me, which made communication difficult.

I continued to explore the room, but the only interesting things were the floating rock and the young woman. I couldn't move my view into the dark tunnel. Every time I looked at the rock I got the strangest feeling. It felt like I was the rock. I mean, it wasn't too much less likely than my being an ethereal floating viewpoint, but it still seemed strange. Perhaps I was trapped inside of the rock? That made more sense, although I must be pretty small to fit inside that rock.

I decided to see if I could get the woman's attention any other way. I had tried calling out multiple times, but there was zero reaction. I was pretty certain she couldn't hear me. So far the only things I could do were look around and move my vision. Perhaps I could move something else?

I focused on the floating rock. I still felt a strange connection to it. I tried to mentally push on it. It was almost imperceptible, but I thought I saw it twitch. Encouraged, I tried again. Another twitch. No response from the woman, but to be fair, those movements were almost unnoticeable. I tried to give it a massive mental shove, and it moved a bit further.

"Whoa! You're awake!" I guess that got her attention. She jumped off the rock, hovering in front of it. "This is great! I'm glad we get to work together."

I had no idea what she was talking about. What were we working together on? Perhaps it was the mission from that Balance person. People? I wasn't sure how to describe them.

She hadn't missed a beat. "My name's Arianna, and I'm the dungeon fairy for your dungeon! Most of my friends call me Ari. Ari the fairy! I'm so excited to get started! What's your name?"

Well, she was definitely excitable. I smiled a bit. Or, well, I imagined myself smiling. "I'm Alex. Nice to meet you, Ari."

As I'd half expected, there was no response. She still couldn't hear me. I figured I'd just move the rock again to see if that helped. I shoved it, and it moved upwards a bit. I was getting better at it.

Ari waited a few seconds, then her eyes widened. "Oh! You can't talk! I need the bond to be able to hear you!" A bright stream of … something floated from the woman towards the rock. As it touched the rock, I felt a strange pressure, almost like the moment before you get a headache, but it never progressed to the actual pain. Suddenly, not only could I see the entire room, but I also saw a strange floating box, almost like in a computer game.

Arianna Brightwings is attempting to forge a dungeon bond with you!

Accept/Deny

I didn't know what a dungeon bond was, but it didn't sound good. I wasn't about to be put into bondage to anyone if I could help it, and I also preferred staying out of any dungeons. I picked deny.

Ari looked confused. "What? Why did you deny it?" Then a spark of realization came into her eyes. "Oh! You must not know what a dungeon bond is! It is a connection between you and me that will allow us to communicate. You see, you don't currently have a body or a mouth or anything like that, so for now to communicate you have to communicate directly mind-to-mind. Don't worry, I won't be able to do anything to you, and you could end it at will." Again she sent the little stream of … whatever it was.

I still wasn't totally sure, but she seemed sincere, and I needed to be able to communicate in some way. I picked accept, but stayed ready. Though, I wasn't sure what I could do if it was some kind of a trap. I guess I could slowly budge the rock over until it ran into her, but I still couldn't move it very fast.

Fortunately, once I hit accept, nothing happened, except I felt the strange pressure peak for just a second before fading away. I stayed on my guard, but nothing happened. Ari was just floating there, waiting expectantly. I figured I might as well try it. "Hello?"

"Hello!" Ari beamed. "What's your name?"

"My name is Alex. I'm confused, I seem to be stuck in this rock."

Ari smiled. "You aren't stuck in the rock, silly! You are the rock! Welcome to life as a dungeon core, Alex! This is your core room, and the heart of your new dungeon! This is going to be so much fun!"

I was very confused. I was fairly certain those Balance people had wanted me to fight the dungeon cores, and now I was one. Also, how were a bunch of floating rocks threatening the humans? "And … what exactly is a dungeon core?"

Ari looked confused. "What do you mean? Everyone knows what a dungeon core is. It is the little gem that is the heart of a dungeon." She looked at me expectantly, waiting for me to understand. "That runs the dungeon?" Still waiting. "And if it's taken out the dungeon stops working?" Not ringing any bells. "Do you seriously know nothing about dungeon cores?!?"

I didn't think it would improve her opinion of me, but best to just pull the bandaid off. "Not really. And … a dungeon? Is what exactly?"

Now Ari looked a bit annoyed. "Look, we're supposed to be a team. Stop joking around so we can get to work. What do you actually know."

I shrugged my shoulders. Or, well, I would've if I'd had any. But somehow I got the sense that I still sent the feeling across this … bond thing.

Ari sighed. "You actually know nothing?" That stung a little, but as far as the topics she was referring to, it was accurate.

"But I'm willing to learn!" I tried to get her a bit more excited.

It seemed to work. A little. She smiled at least. "Well, I guess that's all I can ask for. OK, where to start?" She thought for a moment. "OK, well, you are a dungeon core. This means you are this rock here." She patted the floating rock. "You are an entity who builds something called a dungeon. This is basically your home and lair. You will fill it with things to protect yourself, because a dungeon core is a valuable item, and I'm guessing you would rather not be turned into jewelry." She smiled.

I chuckled. "Sounds unpleasant."

Ari nodded. "Especially since being removed from your dungeon is a dangerous thing for you. You live off of essence, which your dungeon feeds to you. When removed from a dungeon, even if unharmed, the dungeon core soon dies."

That certainly sounded unpleasant. "Note to self, don’t leave the dungeon." Then I had an unpleasant thought. "Does that mean the rest of my life is going to be spent in this tiny room?"

Ari laughed, a sound like wind chimes dancing in the breeze. A very unique laugh, and rather pretty. "Of course not! One of the main things you'll be doing throughout the years is expanding your dungeon! After all, you wouldn't want all of the fighting happening right in the room with your core!" She grew a bit more serious. "Your core may look like a rock, but it is actually rather fragile. It won't break accidentally, but a solid blow from a decent weapon would be enough. Even a club could do you in."

I decided to make sure I was understanding right. "So I'll make additional space somehow, then add defenses to keep people away from me. If they make it to this room, it's basically game over."

Ari beamed. "Exactly. And as you grow stronger, your defenses will get even better, until someday whole armies would struggle to get to your core."

If a single core could eventually combat whole armies, that explained why the humans were having problems. "And how do I grow stronger?"

"By fighting adventurers and collecting essence, of course!" She paused. "Oh, that's right, you're totally new to this. Well, by fighting those who come into your dungeon you'll grow stronger, and you can also grow by passively collecting essence."

That was another new word. "Essence?"

Ari had apparently resolved herself to the fact that I knew nothing. "Essence is a form of energy. All things contain some small amount of it, but it is far more concentrated in living things, especially intelligent ones like humans. That is, to begin with. As things age, they gradually collect more essence. Normally this is done by consuming other things with essence. For example, when a wolf eats a rabbit, the wolf gains a small amount of the rabbit's essence. This means the older something is, the more essence it will generally have."

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That made sense to me. It seemed to follow the idea of a food chain, except in addition to nutrients and energy, things also got this "essence" stuff as well. "So something like an incredibly old tree might have more essence than a human, despite being not intelligent?"

Ari smiled. "Exactly. Now, usually the amount of essence a creature gains within its life is small compared to its inherent essence. There can be things, however, that change this. Say an incredibly ancient dragon dies, and a small tree grows on its remains. That tree will have an unusually high amount of essence due to the high essence food it is getting. Still, unless it passes certain points, it won't matter very much. These points are called tiers and sub-tiers. I assume you've never heard of them?"

I sent an impression of me shaking my head. As I was getting the hang of it, this mind-to-mind communication stuff was pretty handy.

Ari nodded. "I assumed. Well, the tiers are pretty simple. They go G, F, E, D, C, B, A. There are more that follow, but you likely won't encounter anyone higher than that for a long time. Each tier has 9 sub-tiers. So the weakest sub-tier is G-9. This is basically no essence. Things like rocks are G-9. At G-8 and G-7 you have the plants. G-6 through G-1 are the animals, generally increasing in intelligence as you move up the scale. So G-6 would be something like a snail, while G-1 are things like apes that have rather high intelligence."

The tiers were going to be very easy to remember. I was glad that at least one thing I would be able to keep track of.

Ari continued her explanation. "Increasing in tier is a much larger jump than increasing from sub-tier to sub-tier within a single tier. So F-9, which is the normal level for a common human, is a fair bit stronger than G-1." She paused for a second to think about what to say next. I'm pretty sure it was the first time she'd actually paused unless she was waiting for me to say something.

"Basically, a good rule of thumb is that two creatures of the same tier will be approximately equal in strength, or at least able to put up a good fight." She paused to think again.

I had a question. "What changes to give them so much greater strength? What does a D tier human have over an F tier human, for example?"

Ari fluttered a bit higher. "Lots of things. They are a lot more resilient, for starters. A blow that might kill an F tier adventurer would probably only slightly harm a D tier adventurer. They are also stronger, so they can do far more damage in the same amount of time. But the biggest thing is mana.

"Dungeons use essence to manipulate the world around them, but they are unusual in this regard. Almost everything else uses mana, a less pure form of energy. The higher tier an adventurer is, the more mana they have total, and the faster it returns when they use it up. This lets them cast more spells, push past their limits more, and generally makes them all-around stronger."

Most of that made sense, but there was one thing I wanted to learn more about. "You said mana is less pure than essence. What does that mean, effectively?"

Ari smiled. "Because essence is more pure than mana, you can do things with it the adventurers won't be able to do with mana."

I thought of something. "If humans are pretty high up, and they only start at F-9, how does anyone ever reach the higher tiers?" If it was the difference between a rock and a human to go from G to F, I imagined anything in the A or B tier would be absolutely terrifying.

Ari nodded. "This is where dungeons come in. In the normal world, like I said, creatures gain essence by killing and eating other creatures. However, there are only so many other high-essence creatures to fight, and every time one of them dies, most of their essence is lost. The exception is within a dungeon. Within a dungeon, any creature that kills another receives some of the essence, significantly more than they would outside. Additionally, a large chunk of the essence that is lost in the normal world is captured by the dungeon core that runs the dungeon. No one knows where this essence goes if they die outside. Some have even hypothesized that the entire world is actually a dungeon, run by the most powerful dungeon core ever, but no one really knows."

That didn't seem to help. "Wait, even then you're just reducing the loss of essence, there isn't any additional essence being added to the system! Also, does that just make me a reservoir for essence that then just goes to whoever eventually kills me?" That didn't seem like a good situation.

Ari shook her head. "The answer to your question lies in two parts. Loot and mobs. I'm going to answer the second question first. As you collect the essence, some of it is put towards increasing your tier, but most of it you use to create mobs. Mobs are any creature created by the dungeon. They are also called things like dungeon mobs or dungeon monsters. Thus, the people in your dungeon almost never attack you, but constantly have things to fight. Your mobs are one of the biggest defenses for your core."

I think she could feel a bit of discomfort through the bond, because she assuaged my worry before I even said anything. "They aren't actual living creatures with souls, they are completely under your control and don't feel pain or emotions. This is actually one of the ways mana is different from essence. Mana can't create living creatures, even ones that don't have a soul like mobs. And even essence isn't pure enough to make a soul. There's no known record of anything actually managing to create a soul." That was good. I felt a lot less bad about creating robots to be slaughtered than actual living creatures. It also made sense that I couldn't make a soul. Even that Balance person had needed to find a soul to bring here, even they apparently couldn't make their own.

"Now for your first question. First, I need to explain loot. When one of your dungeon mobs is killed, as I explained earlier, the adventurer gets some of the essence you used to create it. The rest is lost. For some additional essence, you can choose to create loot for the adventurers when the mob is killed. This serves as an added incentive to convince adventurers to come into your dungeon. These loot items range from low-value coins for weak monsters to powerful weapons or rare materials as the dungeon grows more powerful."

One thing confused me. "You said I would be defending my core with these mobs, and it sounds like they would definitely kill a lot of adventurers as they were fighting. Are the adventurers really willing to risk everything for some coins, or even some rare material?" As I thought about it though, I realized that it didn't surprise me very much. After all, people took some crazy risks sometimes for greed. Still, I wasn't sure I wanted that many lives on my conscience.

Ari smiled. "The answer to that is two-fold, and also answers your first question about how dungeon cores actually increase the total essence amount. The first part of the answer is that yes, many adventurers would be willing to risk their lives for the treasures they get in dungeons. But the second part of the answer makes even more adventurers willing. A dungeon can create a special loot item called a resurrection token. This gives the adventurers a point they return to if they die in your dungeon. They are only really risking their lives if they die before they get the resurrection tokens or if they keep trying after dying once. And generally the dungeon’s first room contains 5 very easy mobs with the tokens as loot. This also allows the dungeon to control the number of people allowed in the dungeon at once. Or at least, control how many people will be safe."

It sounded almost like I could give the adventurers a checkpoint. That made me far less worried about people dying in my dungeon.

Ari continued. "This is also how dungeons add to the total essence. You see, when an adventurer dies, the dungeon collects a lot of the essence from the adventurer, and the adventurer has it when he or she comes back. This quickly can increase the total essence within the dungeon and the essence of said adventurer."

These resurrection tokens sounded a little OP. "Why doesn't everyone just carry a dozen of these tokens? Wouldn't they become effectively invincible?" I realized something else. "And immortal?" If it reversed aging, that would be insane. I could imagine someone dying from old age, just to come back as a 20 year old from the resurrection token they had carried for years. I also realized Ari had been hovering this whole time. "Also, if you want to sit down again, you can do that. I didn't mean to make you hover there."

Ari smiled again, then sat on my core. She patted it. "Thanks. Anyhow, there are a couple of reasons that doesn't work. First, each person can only have 1 resurrection token. Second, if you leave the dungeon you got the token in, it stops working. Third, they only last for a week or so, even within the same dungeon. You can make them last longer, but most dungeons never need to. Some dungeons add mazes or things like that, and they'll increase the time the tokens last. Fourth, they don't affect aging, and at the later tiers, adventurers are practically immortal to aging anyway. Finally, there are some powerful organizations who do keep their most important people within dungeons to protect against assassination, but usually the value of the dungeon is higher than just hiring some good guards."

That made sense. Now there were only a few more problems. "If I need essence to make mobs, but I get essence from my mobs killing stuff, how do I get started? Do I just hope something comes in here and dies?" I realized another problem. "Also, how do I make mobs?"

Ari smiled. "The first question is simple. Dungeon cores also collect ambient essence from within their dungeons. In fact, this is another reason adventurers like dungeons. As the ambient essence is pulled towards the core, the density of ambient essence increases. This allows certain plants to grow that can only grow in high essence environments.

"The second question is also fairly simple. First you have to gain patterns. Then, once you have those patterns, you can make mobs from them. Based on your color, I would assume you are primarily going to be working with earth essence and earth mobs."

That gave another obvious question. "Earth essence? As opposed to space essence?"

Now Ari was the one to look confused. "Space essence? What is that? No, there are 8 kinds of essence." She drew a circle in the air as she listed them off. "Light, fire, death, earth, darkness, water, life, air. Everything is composed of various amounts of these 8, usually with one or more more prevalent than the others. For example, the rocks in this room are mostly earth essence, with probably a bit of darkness essence in there as well. If there were mud, on the other hand, it would have lots of earth essence and water essence.

"These are important because different kinds of damage do more to certain materials. For example, a fire spell would do a lot of damage against a wooden door, but almost none against a stone door. In your dungeon, you will need to make sure no single kind of essence could easily make it through your entire dungeon. Earth dungeons don't have as much of a problem with this, while fire dungeons sometimes have a hard time preventing water mages from strolling right through the dungeon. On the other side of that coin, fire dungeons usually have a high kill count, because their mobs are really good at putting out a high amount of damage quickly. On the other hand, earth mobs are usually better at surviving damage, but can't deal as much back."

That made sense. A fire could do a lot of damage, but was also relatively easy to quench. And unless the right circumstances occurred, a rock usually wasn't very dangerous, but was extremely difficult to damage. I realized one problem with this whole discussion. My dungeon currently consisted of one 10 foot tall room and a tunnel I couldn't see. "Ari, how do I increase my dungeon’s size? You said I should keep all fighting out of this room."

Ari nodded. "Definitely. What all can you see?"

"I can see the room we're in. I can see just the start of that tunnel, but nothing in it. It's strange, my vision cuts off very abruptly."

Ari nodded. "That's normal. The area you can see is called your influence, and is technically also your dungeon. Most people, however, call the area you carve out and fill with mobs and traps your dungeon, and the area you see your influence. You use essence to increase your influence, and you can control the area within your influence. This is another thing you can do with essence that adventurers can't do with mana."

That made sense. "So now what?"

Ari smiled. "Now we get to the fun part."