Chapter One: Twin Cores_The Double Dungeon

The being known as [N] awoke, if that could indeed be the correct word for it. It would likely be more accurate to say that its senses expanded from its body. Before it even checked where it was, its first concern was immediate, though it grimaced with the name it had to use.

[{A}? Are you there?]

There was a terrifyingly long silence before a shaky response came.

{I...I think so. I can’t see anything - we’re together, right?}

[We should be, unless Jim lied.]

A sound disturbed both of them, a sound cutting straight into their consciousness.

Dungeon created! Acquiring menu… complete!

With an almost cheerful ding, a menu appeared, illuminating their surroundings. They appeared to be in a small circular room, with rough, rocky stone walls, no exit, and no entrance.

They could see each other now. {A} was a small, smooth sphere the color of the sky, even though neither of them could clearly remember which sky it had been. [N], on the other hand, was a dark, almost pulsating green, and slightly bumpy all over her surface. They were both floating, with nothing holding them up.

{You look so nice!}

[I’M A BALL.]

{A ball that looks nice!}

[How are you getting anything positive from this?!]

Instead of responding, {A} hovered over to the small menu, noting that the movement was effortless and a little pleasant. It moved up and down, getting a little excited. {You should try this - it’s really fun!}

[N] sighed in irritation, moving over. [Stop messing around.]

Examining the menu while {A} slowly but happily floated all over the cave, it carefully checked it over.

Name: [N]

Name: {A}

Race: Dungeon

Class: Basic Core Lv. 1

Mn: 30 (1/h)

Esnc: 0

SP: 100 (0.1/m)

Skills: Innate Mana Control Lv. 1

Basic Summoning Lv. 1

Skills: Innate Mana Control Lv. 1

Basic Summoning Lv. 1

Blu: 0

Still looking at the menu, [N] called, [Hey, this looks really important.]

Another box dinged into existence next to it, and [N] floated over.

NOTICE: {A} Blu: Spider Format acquired! Essence acquired (1)!

Confused, [N] looked over and saw {A} floating in horror over a small gray stain. {I didn’t mean to - I tried to pet it and it just sort of…}

Excited, [N] turned back to the menu and saw that it had changed. Now it displayed {A}’s Blu with a small one next to it, while [N]’s counter stayed at zero.

[Are there any more spiders over there?]

Its voice was a little shaky when it responded.

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{Just one. I think it’s a little traumatized. Why do you - NO!}

[N] had floated over and mercilessly smushed the spider into another gray smear, and promptly received an identical notice.

[I think that we can summon anything we kill!]

{Why would you do that? He was minding his own business!}

[Please. He was going to die sooner or later, we just helped him along. Think of it as a favor - now he doesn’t have to worry about being in a tiny cave.]

{The cave is nice - don’t insult our cave!}

Ignoring her, [N] tried to figure out how to use the menu, and {A} floated over to it.

{Do we get to have a spider?}

[I’m trying to - whoa.]

They both felt a sudden drain, and as they watched, a cloud of strange blue dust appeared, sucked itself together, then formed a small fuzzy spider with an even fuzzier top hat.

{She’s so cute! Oh my gosh she’s so tiny - and soft! Or is it a he?}

{A} floated all around it, letting off a happy glow as it (very gently this time) rubbed the spider. The creature actually looked excited to see her and silently jumped onto her surface. [N] shivered, looking back at the menu to see another notice.

{A} successfully summoned a {Snazzy Spider} Lv. 1! Snazzy Spider has been perma-bound to {A}’s desires!

Now this was exciting! [{A}, tell it to walk over here!]

The core was currently flying around the small cave, the spider slightly struggling to hang on to {A}’s smooth surface, and laughing. [N] couldn’t believe it. How in the world was the other core staying so positive under the conditions?

NOTICE: Congratulations {A}, on summoning your first creature! It is recommended to surface. Please do so at your convenience.

[How do we do that?]

A further box appeared, this one a dim gray.

Use your shaping points, you dumb cores. -Jim

[N] almost exploded in fury, a slight reddish glow coming off it. That whatever he was had dropped them into an unwinnable, unbelievable situation and expected them to just know what to do, and its sister core refused to take anything seriously.

Entrance successfully created! Core room established.

What? Turning its field of vision, [N] saw {A} hovering in front of a large and perfectly circular tunnel that clearly hadn’t been there before. The tiny spider was already happily moving up it.

[...How did you do that?]

{Well, I saw that it wanted us to build an entrance, so I just thought of using everything we had to open a hole and it worked.}

[WHAT?]

It checked the menu again.

Name: [N]

Name: {A}

Race: Dungeon

Class: Basic Core Lv. 1

Mn: 10 (1/h)

Esnc: 0

SP: 0 (0.1/m)

Skills: Innate Mana Control Lv. 1

Basic Summoning Lv. 1

Skills: Innate Mana Control Lv. 1

Basic Summoning Lv. 1

Blu: 1

Population: ???

Population: (1)Snazzy Spider Lv. 1

Zero?! They’d been at a hundred a moment ago, how had they dropped to zero so quickly? Did building a simple tunnel really use that much of their - what did he call it? - shaping points?

{Um… can you help over here?}

Snapping out of its reverie, [N] realized that its sister core was no longer in the small room. Looking up the entrance, she could see the core vainly attempting to exit, but it kept getting pushed back into the hole. The spider seemed to have the same issue, tumbling over backward as it tried to exit the entrance. Evidently they were stuck in their cave, with no way of leaving.

[N] felt the rage coming up again and suppressed it, the rim of its core glittering with small sparks.

{A} floated over to it, a slight tinge of deep blue concern crossing its shell. The spider crawled up the wall and stared at her.

{We’re going to be okay.}

[How do you know that? How could you possibly know that? We could die in here! Your spider will probably die in here and we won’t be able to do anything about it! For all we know, we could be here forever! We’ll almost certainly be here forever, actually, because WE CAN’T EVEN GET OUT! So why won’t you just give up?!]

The sister core shrank back, and the spider quietly walked past them into their room. The sparks coming off of [N] stopped as it regained control.

{You’re right.}

[N] looked at it, surprised.

[What?]

{I said, you’re right. We’re probably going to die in here, we’re going to be here forever, all of the stuff you said is probably true.}

It was remaining shockingly calm as it said all of this, and [N] didn’t understand how. Couldn’t understand, really.

{But I’m going to make the most of it. If I have a short life here, I’m going to make sure it’s the best short life I’ve ever had.}

It was stunned, but… it kind of got what {A} was saying.

[I’m going to keep trying to survive. Whatever it takes.]

{And I’m not going to stop you. I want to live too, you know. But I also want to live, not just survive.}

[N] managed a laugh. [We might not even be alive, you know.]

The resolute answer came instantly. {Then I’m going to be not alive with everything I’ve got.}

It was done being tired. It was especially done with being angry since that just went nowhere. What it wasn’t done doing was surviving.

And it really was going to do whatever it took.

Chapter One: Twin Cores

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