Inside a dark but bright room,‭ ‬Dylan finally regains his senses after his parent's deaths and‭ ‬realizes he's no longer in Fallholt village.

"Where am I‭?” ‬he asks.

“You’re inside the mana space,‭ ‬an area in the dungeon core where the dungeon master can escape to when you’re in trouble,‭” ‬says a voice which he‭ ‬recognizes to be the voice who was talking to him in his head but the answer only led to more questions.

“Mana space,‭ ‬dungeon core,‭ ‬dungeon master,‭ ‬what are you talking about,‭” ‬he asks the dungeon core.

“I imagine you must be confused but please,‭ ‬one question at a time,‭ ‬I promise I’ll answer them all eventually,‭ ‬we have all the time in the world after all,‭” ‬the dungeon core says back.

“All the time in the world‭? “ ‬Questions Dylan‭.

“Yes,‭ ‬we dungeons can live forever as long as we have mana and our dungeon core is intact and that privilege is shared by the dungeon masters through the contract so as long as I don’t die and you’re not killed we will live forever,‭” ‬says the dungeon core back.

“Live forever,‭” ‬he asks back.

“Yes,‭ ‬do I have to re-say it,‭ ‬so do you want to re-ask your questions but this time just‭ ‬1‭ ‬at a time please,‭” ‬asks the dungeon core‭.

A moment of silence descends as Dylan attempts to process what he’s just heard.

“Live forever,‭ ‬dungeon masters,‭ ‬contract,‭ ‬mana space,‭ ‬what’s going on,‭ ‬where are mum and dad,‭ ‬the last thing remember is seeing them‭ ‬die,‭ ‬what the hell is going on,‭ ‬wait he said he would answer my questions‭”.

“You said you would answer all my questions right,‭” ‬he asks.

“Yes,‭” ‬says the dungeon core back.

“Then where am I again‭?” ‬he asks

“Geez,‭ ‬I said you were inside the mana space,‭ ‬a place inside the core in which a dungeon master can escape to when in times of danger,‭ ‬you will be safe in here as long as no one destroys the dungeon core,‭” ‬says the dungeon core back.

‭“‬Okay,‭ ‬why am I here,‭” ‬he asks back.

“Well obviously because‭ ‬if I didn’t teleport you here you would have been killed by‭ ‬Lurking Shadow Catacombs bosses,‭” ‬says the core dungeon.

“Killed by bosses, you mean that dungeon”.

“rogue,” says the dungeon interrupting him

“huh,” he says

“Lurking Shadow Catacombs is no longer a dungeon, they're a rogue dungeon now,” says the dungeon core.

“Rogue dungeon?” he asks.

“Yes a dungeon that has broken attacked the outside world thus leading to another great purge,” says the dungeon core.

“Great purge?” he asks again.

“Yeah even I don’t know a lot about it, only that it was an event that happened 50 000 years ago and led to the extinction of over 99% of the dungeons of the time,” says the dungeon core.

“Okay, what's a dungeon core again?” he asks.

“Geez, I feel like we’ve just gone in a giant circle, how about I just explain the important parts to you?” asks the dungeon core.

“That might be for the best”.

“Okay, first I shall ask you, do you know what a dungeon is specifically,” asks the dungeon core.

“Yes, it’s an area that has condensed a dungeon core and serves as a housing for monsters, typically the monsters stay inside the dungeon but sometimes after a rank up period they do,” he says.

“Well technically yes, but that is only very general knowledge, allow me to explain, there are actually four kinds of dungeon cores, they are pure, sacrificial, artificial and chaos, the methods in which they are forged determines what type is forged, pure type dungeon core are condensed from when pure mana naturally condenses , they are the rarest and a technically neutral in nature, I'm of that type” says the dungeon core.

“Oh, then what about the other three,” he asks.

“Well, sacrificial dungeons are made through a special ritual in which a person will sacrifice a large amount of life to allow their consciousness to become a dungeon, artificial however are created by the mass fusing of mana crystal through unnatural methods thus creating a dungeon core, chaos, however, are forged similar to pure but in areas in which much fighting, death and hatred has been, do you understand” says the dungeon core.

“Yes,” he says back.

“Yes, now even though a dungeon is formed once a dungeon core claims land, there is something even more important that each dungeon must do before they can become a full-fledged dungeon, that finds a dungeon master, the dungeon master is a living being that shares the same mana wavelength as the dungeon but it’s completely coincidence when you meet one, it can be anything from instantaneous to even 1000 years later” says the dungeon core.

Hearing this, Dylan was shocked, he had never heard of a dungeon master before, he had thought that a dungeon master was a strong boss within a dungeon when he first was said those words by the dungeon just after his parents deaths but for a dungeon to need one before being considered a full-fledged dungeon shocked him.

“Why are dungeon masters so important,” he asks.

“Well, dungeon masters are so important because dungeon cores are just pure clumps of mana that besides talking with a dungeon master have only two simple instincts, that is to expand the territory of our dungeon and to spawn in creatures to our dungeon when we have the mana, it’s a dungeon master that designs the dungeons, sets which monsters are bosses, controls monster during a dungeon core battle, and essentially keeps the dungeon under control” says the dungeon core, shocking Dylan.

“Something so important, how come no one knows about this,” he asks.

“Well, The dungeon exploration committee does, or at least it’s higher ups, also some powerful guilds guild masters have alliances with dungeon masters but dungeon masters mostly keep their existence a secret,” says the dungeon core.

“Why?” he asks.

“Simple, I said that without a dungeon master we only have two simple instincts, but because of the contract, we lose our instinct to expand our territory once our dungeon master dies, essentially making us monster spawners that can be repeatedly farmed without consequence to the outside world,” says the dungeon core.

“Huh, something so serious if one of you dies, and what's this about a contract, you’ve mentioned it at least three times already,” he asks.

“The contract is what we form with our dungeon masters, it essentially allows our dungeon masters to use our mana when inside a dungeon, control and design our dungeons and it’s denizens while also assigning rank and status, and share our lifespan, in exchange for a dungeon masters protection, but there are downsides to, such as when a dungeon core is destroyed, it’s dungeon master dies but when a dungeon master dies, they only lose their instinct to expand, also dungeon masters have to personally set everything from boss monsters to safe zones, essentially designing the whole dungeon, all we do is spawn the creatures” says the dungeon core.

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Hearing this Dylan is surprised.

“So the dungeon master gets the benefits but also gets loaded up with all the work,” he says.

“Not to mention the fact that if they reveal themselves to the outside world, they will be hunted down and killed as every single nation wants to get their hands on a free puppet dungeon they don’t have to risk possible invasion from, not to mention they have to get every single dungeon specimens themselves” says the dungeon core.

“Dungeon specimen,” he asks, confused by the term.

“Yes, dungeon specimen, you didn’t think we could make monsters out of thin air did you, we'e pure clumps of matter, not god, we can’t just make something out of nothing, the dungeon master will get dungeon specimens through three different means, they are buying them on the dungeon interface, collecting a species from outside and integrating it into the dungeon or modifying a creature already living in the dungeon to a subspecies or maybe even an entirely new species of animal” says the dungeon core.

“Huh,” says Dylan trying to process what he just heard, dungeons don’t create things out of thin air, they need actual specimens to create their monsters.

“I'm sure yours trying to process what you just heard right, but we dungeons are pure clumps of mana, not gods, all we have is the ability to spawn exact perfect genetic copies of creatures gotten through one of those three ways, anyway maybe I should explain about the dungeon interface, I've mentioned it a few times already but haven’t gone into detail about it” says the dungeon core.

“Um, sure,” he says back.

“well I think it would be best to explain it to you with it open so open up your status page first,” says the dungeon core but this just confuses Dylan “think about the status page and it will appear"

Hearing this, Dylan immediately starts to think about his status page when suddenly.

Name: Dylan Occupation: Dungeon master () Level: 1 Dungeon points: 10 000 Strength: 30 Dexterity: 40 stamina: 40 mana: 1000 (5000 when in the dungeon) mana regeneration: 15% per hour (instantaneous when in the dungeon)

skills: basic archery lv 3

basic swords skills: lv 2

Innate skills: +20 to four main stats when in dungeon (G class)

Dungeon interface

Dungeon master skills: living liquid metal (G class) lv 1

Seeing this suddenly appear in his head, Dylan naturally was shocked but before he could say anything, the dungeon core interrupted.

“Interesting stats, 50 speed, you must be pretty fast then, the average speed for a level 1 is only about 30, and 40 dexterity and stamina, that only comes from long hours of training and 1000 mana, you could be a wizard if you wern't a dungeon master but then again those stats are nothing to higher ups but to have that before you awaken, pretty good, by the way, 5000 mana is the maximum amount of mana I can store right now” the dungeon core says.

This statement, however, confused Dylan even more but he was soon interrupted again.

“If you're curious about those innate skills and the dungeon master skill, don’t be, I'll explain them in a bit but first, those empty brackets are where you can input another occupation,” says the dungeon core.

“Input another occupation?”.

“Yes, because dungeon masters must hide their own title, they have the unique ability to hide their occupation under a different one, this just allows more safety because a lot of places in larger cities and capitals require the revealing of statuses and living out in the middle of nowhere for eternity is just sad, anyway innate skills are skills given up being given an occupation and are unique to hidden titles like yours, which is dungeon master or to special titles like hero and war god, and dungeon master skills are essentially innate skills unique to dungeon masters and they have something to do with the dungeons, they grow stronger as the dungeon grows stronger, you get one when you become a dungeon master, a second when we become a C rank dungeon, third when becoming A rank and one after each rank up after that” says the dungeon core.

This statement, however, surprised Dylan.

“Anyway lets get back on topic, man I'm all over the place, but who would have thought I had so much information to tell you, I thought it would be so much simpler, anyway, you should still have your status open so simply think to open the dungeon interface and it should open” the dungeon core says.

Dylan immediately does this and the status screen immediately changes.

Dungeon Interface Dungeon Overview

Dungeon store: Grade G

Dungeon Layout Dungeon Species modifier

“The screen should have appeared in your head, there should be a dungeon interface title and four subparts called dungeon overview, dungeon store, dungeon layout and dungeon species modifier, dungeon overview gives you the, you know, name, floor number, number of bosses, species in the dungeon, basic information, dungeon store is where the dungeon master can buy everything, I'll go into more detail a bit later, dungeon layout provides a map of the dungeon, and allows you create rooms, set spawn/safe zones, assign boss monsters and essentially build your dungeon,and dungeon species modifier allows you to modify species of creatures already in your dungeon and create new subspecies of this creature, know I've just given out a lot of information so I'll give you a sec to process it” says the dungeon core.

Hearing this, Dylan gave a sigh of relief as he attempted to process all the information, it took him a good ten minutes before he was ready to continue.

“Okay, I'm ready,” says Dylan.

“Okay, so now think to open the store menu,” says the dungeon core in which Dylan immediately follows.

Dungeon Store Dungeon Points: 10 000 Equipment Items Skills Species Rooms Traps

“Okay, there should be a thing called dungeon points at the top, that the currency used to buy everything in the shop, and to hollow out the dungeon, at our current rank we get 1 point per person that enters the dungeon and another for every hour after entering that they stay, with fifty points awarded when killed, we also get 10 points every day without doing anything” says the dungeon core as naturally as anything but this however shocked Dylan.

“10 points without doing anything, but if a party of 10 were to enter the dungeon you would immediately get 10 points anyway, and if they stayed an hour after this you would get 2 days worth of points and killing just one would give you five days worth of profit, there certainly is more benefit in having people raid the dungeon then not” he thinks.

“Anyway the four tabs are kinda self-explanatory but there is some specifics i need to explain, equipment is split into two which are weapons and armour, you can literally find any kind of weapon or armour in there, items are any other miscellaneous things from chairs to rare plants and animals, even a whole castle can be bought here, you can store and retrieve anything from these 2 tabs instantly so yeah” hearing this Dylan is surprised.

“Skills is where you can buy any skill from any class, you, however, have to have either personally killed a user of their class or killed an adventurer who had that class in the dungeon and you only learn the skills they knew so there are limits” the dungeon core, kind of shattering Dylan's dreams but he realised there had to be some limit.

“Species are species that have previously existed/ are existing right now in a dungeon, their sold in three forms, singular, card and spawner, singular are for when you just want one of a species, typically their bought by dungeon masters to experiment on with the dungeon species modifier or to see if they will integrate well with the dungeon. cards contain the genetic data to spawn a set number of those creatures, they range from 10 - 100 and will spawn automatically when there is enough mana, there are of course methods you can do to reuse/store them but these are generally used when you're in quick need of troops as they’ll instantaneously spawn as many as they can and will continue until when enough mana is gathered. spawners are your more permanent option, you can buy preset one which already has a species in them or you can buy an empty one and put in a dungeon card and it will immediately start to spawn, you can control them to spawn in under certain circumstances and even set them a certain amount of mana in which they will use” says the dungeon core but Dylan seems to be getting bored so the dungeon core hurries up and explains the fifth tab

“Rooms are essentially where you can buy rooms, now you can create natural rooms but hollowing out the space within the dungeon but the rooms in here are special and will provide benefits, like the boss room which provides benefits for bosses such as increase speed or strength or trap rooms which are riddled with traps already and many more” says the dungeon core.

“And the traps are essentially where you buy traps to put within dungeons and the can range from natural traps like sticky vines to traps like poison rooms,” says the dungeon, taking a break.

“Is that all,” asks Dylan with a bit of hope.

“Just two more quick bits of information, the first is that even though we can spawn creatures, if there are a male and female of one species or of another species or whatever, they can reproduce, these reproduced creatures won’t be under your control but that of one of your spawned creatures which will command them under your orders but they will attack you if not careful, you can still die, even inside the dungeon, and that there is more information, I don’t know that information, all I know is that there is more and that I can’t explain it to you right now so if you find something you don’t understand, ask me, if I can’t tell you then know that it’s for a reason, that's all” the dungeon core says.

Hearing this Dylan gives a sigh of relief.

“Finally, I thought I was going to fall asleep, wait, did I say that out loud,” he asks with an embarrassed tone.

“Yes, you did,” the dungeon says in a monotone almost robot-like tone.

“Hahaha, sorry,” he says before he suddenly turns serious “anyway, where are my parent's bodies,” he asks.

“Oh, their right over there, encased in the iron coffins" the dungeon core says as a mana hand appears showing Dylan, he immediately walks over and touches them, the metal melts away to reveal empty space.