Gems were not known, normally, for their wit or conversational skills. The vast majority of gems did not bother with questions of “Who am I?” “Why am I here?” “What is my purpose?” and, of course, “Why am I hungry?” Yet in the pool of congealed mana, a gem asked itself those questions. Her mind - at least that question had been easy to answer, she had a mind because she was clearly thinking - flitted about those questions, trying to find an answer.

she thought.

There was no answer to that question forthcoming, so she decided to give herself one. Somehow, she had knowledge of language - the question of how could wait - and knew she was surrounded by rocks. Lith could, if you butchered an ancient language enough, mean ‘rock.” So she named herself Calith, for “In the Rock.”

Calith tested the name for a moment and decided she liked it.

Unfortunately, the other questions were ones she couldn’t answer for herself. They were why’s and what’s, and that required more information to answer. She supposed she could assign herself a purpose, but that would be tricky without understanding what she could do. However, one of those questions was the wrong question. “Why am I hungry?” didn’t matter. “How do I stop being hungry?” was a better question. Calith understood that eating was a thing, but what did gems eat, and how did they?

The pool of mana around her roiled and bubbled with her thoughts. The idea of eating or drinking it felt… wrong. Gross. So what else was there to eat? Rocks surrounded her. Calith knew that rocks were not food for most creatures, but she was a gem, which was just a rock that sparkled. So… did rocks eat other rocks?

Calith focused on a small segment of rock. To her surprise, it melted and flowed into her. Her hunger vanished, but more than that, she felt awareness of it. This wasn’t just rock - it was limestone, a type of rock that was formed from calcium carbonate. It was great for building with. She also felt less hungry now that she’d eaten the small chunk of limestone. Encouraged by these results, Calith devoured the limestone around her pool, eating large chunks from it. The pool spread out into the new space she was making for it. Some of the… whatever she was absorbing from the limestone flowed back out of her as that liquid, so the depth of the pool didn’t change.

A gross thought crossed Calith’s mind.

To Calith’s surprise, someone answered. The voice was distant and faded, but it was there.

Calith said to the voice.

Calith thought, glad for something to do.

There was a laugh in response.

Calith focused herself, feeling… something. There was a feeling of… movement, without anything that was moving. Like a wind without air. That made no sense, but she reported it to Rathel.

That seemed straightforward enough. To Calith’s relief, the actual act of forming the net was easy. Pushing her mind into it was trickier - it wanted to stay in the gem - but after a few moments she was now floating above herself, in a web of mana, and could feel the leylines thrumming through her. she asked.

It took a lot of work. Rathel was right about that. Creating stone made her pool shrink, which worried her, but Rathel assured her it was normal. It still didn’t want to go where she told it to go - it kept trying to return to the edge of her pool, from where she’d taken it. Getting it into a good looking figure was beyond her skill - when she was done, she had a lump of stone with a head, two arms, and two legs, but was otherwise shapeless.

Imagining her thoughts like a liquid made putting part of her mind into the sculpture a bit easier. Moments later, something shifted, and she was now looking at two places. One was the rocks around her pool, like she’d seen before. The other was… a wide open plain. Except there was no grass, just a pale white mist. The sky was a patchwork of colors, reds and purples and greys and deep blues. Looking down, Calith was in her avatar - although instead of being lumpy stone, it was lumpy flesh. The sight of herself was… gross, if she was being honest. “Now what?” Calith said and was shocked to find that she made noises.

“Uh… Rathel, come in?”

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Moments later, a form took shape. This was humanoid, but it was far more refined than Calith’s form. Rathel’s avatar was a human man with gold skin and long, silver hair trailing behind him on a breeze Calith couldn’t see. His eyes were sapphires - not the color of them, but actual sapphires - and he wore ornate black and purple robes. “That’s much better,” he said, stretching. “It’s easier to communicate in the Mesh.”

“What is this place?” Calith asked.

“It’s not a place. We don’t actually have bodies here. This is a metaphysical realm that exists supported by the ley-lines. The Mesh. We can project avatars of ourselves into here to interact.”

Calith scratched her head. Well, bumped it awkwardly with the lump of flesh that was where her hand should be. “Weren’t we already interacting?”

“That was only possible because I was spending massive amounts of power to communicate that far. I don’t mind doing so - it’s part of my job with the Cabal.” Rathel raised a hand to forestall her question. “Let’s get back to the basics. You are a dungeon core, a sapient gem that is going to construct a dungeon to form your body. You’ll summon monsters for adventurers to fight, gather mana, and grow stronger.”

Well. That answered the question of what her purpose was. “Why?”

Rathel shrugged. “Because it’s how we survive. A dungeon that doesn’t will eventually starve.”

Not starving was a good enough reason for Calith. “And what about this Mesh? I just use it to talk to other cores?”

“Precisely,” Rathel said. “That and over time, you’ll be able to build your own personal mesh site here. Other cores will be able to leave you messages, and you can send them responses, without needing real time interaction. There are also meeting halls set up for dungeons to spend time in. You can leave a remnant avatar - don’t worry about that now, I’ll teach you how to later - for easy access. You don’t have to talk to them, but it is recommended you do so. Being a dungeon was a lonely existence before the Mesh.”

Calith nodded. Well. She hadn’t given this avatar much of a neck. So it was more of a bobbing motion. But still, it worked well enough to communicate her intent. “So that’s our entire existence? Talking and eating?”

“Not at all,” Rathel said. “It’s recommended you develop some hobbies, or find other things to do. Talking and eating would make for a poor existence. Some dungeons work hard to make Avatars that can explore the physical world. Some grow gardens, some make art to give to mortals as dungeon loot, some work on their mobs until they are true animals that wander free - there are so many things you can do.”

Some of that sounded like fun. The gardening, especially. Still, something was bothering Calith. “I appreciate it, but… why did you reach out to me ?”

“Of course, of course,” Rathel said. “So I’m registered with the Sable Cabal as a Mentor Dungeon. I help teach new cores the basics. I’ll actually leave a remnant avatar here when my attention isn’t present. You can ask me questions, and if they’re easy answers the avatar will provide it. If not, I’ll see the questions when I come back. Remember I mentioned dungeons develop hobbies?”

“I do. It happened just seconds ago.”

Rathel chuckled. “That it did. Some young dungeons struggle to retain information. Well, my hobby, my passion, is education. I teach new cores.”

“All right. And you’re my teacher. So… what’s the Sable Cabal.”

“Ah, right.” Rathel ran his hands through his hair. “So you see, there are six major Dungeon Elements, which differ greatly from the elements mortals worry about. They deal with Air, Fire, Metal, Wood, Water, and Void. Our elements, however, are Abyssal, Profane, Carnal, Sacred, Sylvian, and Firmament.” There was a definite sneer on his face for those last three. “Your mana pool resonates most strongly with the Abyssal element. The Sable Cabal is an organization of dungeons of the first three elements that work together and support each other.”

Calith narrowed the lumps of flesh she had for eyes. “And let me guess, the latter three work together and against us?”

Rathel clapped his hands once. “You understand! That is precisely the situation.”

“And now I’m being drafted into this war between two groups,” Calith said. She hadn’t been alive for very long, and everything was new, but she knew she didn’t like that idea.

”Oh, oh no. Apologies for giving you the wrong impression.” Rathel waved his hands as if brushing the thought away. “In ages past, that was the case. But in modern days, we are more inclined to… other competitions. Ones that leave no core destroyed. They try to undermine us, we try to undermine them, they try to surpass us, we try to… you get the idea. It’s become less of a war and more of a game.” Rathel clapped his hands again. “Which reminds me! You’ll want to make your Profile.”

“How,” Calith asked. She wanted to ask what a Profile was, and how she could hear Rathel putting a capital P in the front of it, but figured actually creating it would bring comprehension.

“Simple enough,” Rathel said. “This is your spot on the Mesh. Just imagine a tablet forming, and project your sense of self into it.”

That didn’t sound simple to Calith, but she was quickly learning that some things just came instinctively to her as a dungeon core. She did as Rathel instructed, and as strange as it felt, the tablet formed.

Calith, Newborn Dungeon

Primary Mana Type: Abyssal

Guild Membership: Sable Cabal (Pending)

“That’s all?” Calith said.

“That’s all for now,” Rathel said. “You don’t have mobs, or a dungeon, or really anything else that would normally appear on there - and since you didn’t know about them, they won’t generate on your profile. Once you’re registered with the Cabal, we’ll be updating your profile to show the standard information, although you’re welcome to customize it as much as you want - so long as your information is still visible.”

“Assuming I join the Cabal. I haven’t decided to do that yet.”

Rathel nodded. “Of course, of course. And there’s no pressure to do so. But if you don’t, I won’t be able to advise you for free anymore, and you won’t be protected by the Pact of Three, and you won’t have access to Cabal resources or meeting rooms, so you’ll have to find other dungeons to interact with - and even finding them will be hard. Oh, and you won’t be able to access the Profane or Carnal elements, which will make you unappealing for adventurers.” Rathel gave her a smile, and now Calith thought she felt something predatory there.

“So join or you’re doomed, essentially,” Calith said.

Rathel nodded. “Now you’re catching on. We’re dungeons, after all. We are the apex predators of this world. Work hard, and one day, you’ll be strong enough to tell us exactly what you think of how the Cabal operates - and we’ll listen. Right now, however… babies don’t choose their parents, and dungeons don’t choose their elements.”

Calith stared at him, looking for any trace of… something. Kindness. Pity. Understanding. What she found was just dispassionate certainty. “Fine,” Calith said, and the Pending dropped from the end of the Guild Membership section of her Profile. “So. Now that you’ve strong-armed me into joining, I want the benefits. Show me how to build a dungeon.”

Rathel’s grin widened, and the cold undercurrent of his earlier words vanished. Once again he was all friendly and smiles. “I’d be happy to. Let me give you some basic exercises to work on, and then I’ll check back in when you’ve made progress. Don’t eat anything that’s alive yet, just eat around it - next time, we’ll touch on mob creation.” Rathel held out his hand, and a stone tablet appeared. “Absorb this. It’s the basic instructions of Pact Compliant dungeon craft.”

Calith did so, and information flooded her mind. So much of it was size constraints and other similar limits, but Calith put those aside for now as she focused on the exact act of how to build a dungeon.

Fortunately, it didn’t look like it would be hard at all.