Daniel found his consciousness hazy as he woke up. He couldn’t see or hear anything. All he could feel was cold. Not a bone chilling cold of freezing wind or the cold burn or snow touching skin in winter. Just an uncomfortable cold like the one you feel in the morning when you forgot to close the window, and someone pulled the covers off you.
As his mind came into focus he realised he really couldn’t see or hear anything at all.
(What the hell is going on here? Again?) Daniel thought as he tried to move, only to realise he couldn’t.
(What?) he struggled for a few seconds before giving up.
(Help? Anyone?) realising he can’t move Daniel decided to call for help.
[Welcome… Initialising Dungeon System…10%...40%...70%...100%...Initialization successful…Welcome New Dungeon]
(This looks so weird. Why can I see this screen but nothing else?) thought Daniel as he stared at the words on the screen in front of his eyes.
[Loading Dungeon System components into New Core]
A strange sensation ran through Daniel’s mind as unfamiliar information flowed into his head.
(A different universe? Mana? Magic? Demi-Humans? What the hell is all this?)
The information flowing into his head made him even more confused.
(I’m a dungeon? What does that even mean?)
[Dungeons are precious gems that through the accumulation of mana over an extended period of time have gained a limited amount of sentience and begin to produce floor after floor of rooms with traps and monsters to protect themselves.]
(Protect? Why would they need to protect themselves?)
[Dungeon cores are the only known entity in this universe capable of absorbing mana and storing it in a solid state. To become solid, mana needs to be compressed to its limit. Therefore, a thumbnail sized solid mana gem is made of as much mana as 10 max level mages use in their entire life.]
(That’s… So, I’m now what other races would consider a gold mine?)
[Not only are the dungeon cores themselves highly sought after, dungeons usually create their rooms, floors, and traps from the best material they can find in their surroundings. This makes ‘dungeon diving’ the most dangerous but also the most rewarding action for the inhabitants of this universe.]
(So, what is the best material I have available in the surrounding area, how big can I make the dungeon and how much materials do I have to work with for creating the dungeon?)
[Initialising Scan… Unable to Scan.]
(What? Why?)
[Material surrounding Dungeon Core is impossible to penetrate with Scan spell.]
(Scan spell? Is there anything else I can do to check my surroundings? I’m starting to get bored of this darkness and science.)
[Dungeon Vision spell available.]
(What does it do?)
[Dungeon Vision allow Dungeon Core’s with a stronger sense of self and sentience to divide a portion of their attention outside of the core and move around their dungeon in a spectre like state.]
(Let’s do that then.)
As Daniel used the spell, he felt a portion of his vision split away and move slightly to the side.
(It’s still dark.)
[Dungeon Spectre is still underground.]
(Ooh. Which way is the closest to the outside?)
[All directions are 13,423 kilometres away from surface.]
(What the hell? Why so far away?)
[Dungeon Core is currently at the centre of a planet.]
(Planet?? How is it so dark here then? Shouldn’t the core be, I don’t know, glowing with heat?)
[Planet is currently 100 billion years old and has cooled and solidified. The entire planet is one solid ball of matter, core to crust.]
(Wow. 100 billion, huh?)
(But wait. 13,423 kilometres? That’s more than twice the size of Earth, isn’t it?)
[Accessing Universal Database… Planet Earth was 6,371 kilometres core to crust.]
(Ooh yeah. Was. So, I guess it’s really gone?)
[Correct. Planet earth was destroyed by an unidentified shock wave traveling through Universe #4.]
(What number Universe is this?)
[This is universe #96 out of 100 universes in the Multiverse.]
(Are there any differences between the Universes? Do the numbers mean anything?)
[The higher the number the bigger the Universe is and the more mana there is in the Universe.]
(So, there was mana in my previous Universe?)
[After Universe #20 the amount of mana is so small that only around 0.00001% of the Universe contains mana.]
(That’s… not much. So how do I go about creating this dungeon?)
[Go to the planet’s surface first.]
(Right.)
Daniel followed the system message and started traveling through the solid planet to reach the surface.
After moving for about 13 seconds Daniel was floating above the surface of a dull grey planet.
The night sky looked different yet similar to the one on Earth. An uncountable number of stars filled the sky.
(System, you said I could look at my territory, right?)
[I’m not the system. I’m your bonded Dungeon Fairy.]
(A what? When did this happen?)
[As soon as the System was installed and initialised it chose a Dungeon Fairy that was not already bonded with a Dungeon Core to assign to you. I was chosen to be bonded to you.]
(Where are you right now? And how are you talking to me with these system messages?)
[I am on a fairly small planet. The system says I’m 2 lightyears away from your current location. As for the messages, when there’s no way for the fairy to physically speak to your core, with yours being buried in the centre of a planet and all, the system provides a way to communicate over long distances.]
(Ooh. Well, nice to meet you. I’m Daniel, and I appear to be a Dungeon Core as of now.)
[Hello Daniel. My name is Lilly. I’m your bonded Dungeon Fairy.]
(So back to my question. Why can I see the surface?)
[Dungeon Vision allows a core to observe everything within their claimed territory.]
(So how am I above the planet’s surface?)
[The entire planet and about 100 kilometres above the surface are included in your territory.]
(Why?)
[This planet has been dead for the past 43 million years. It has no inhabitants and no atmosphere. The planet also stopped rotating after the black hole nearby vanished.]
(Black hole? It sounds to me like this planet shouldn’t exist anymore.)
[Correct. The planet was formed from the nebula clouds of 3 separate giant stars. The stars were stolen from their solar systems by a black hole passing by. Eventually all 3 stars collided and exploded. However, because of the black hole, the nebulas stayed together and were also being pulled towards the black hole. The 3 nebulas combined into one huge nebula and tried to form a new solar system, but because of the black hole there was never enough pressure at the centre of the nebula to create a new star. So, the nebula did the only other thing it could under the circumstances. All of the space gas and dust collected into one place and formed a solid ball. The core of the ball became hotter and hotter, the remains of the stars shifted and created the planet.]
(So, this planet is the combination of the nebulas of 3 different nebula clouds?)
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[Yes. However only the densest and heaviest parts of the nebulas remained in the ball. All the lighter things like most of the gasses were sucked away by the black hole.]
(How big was the planet when if first formed?)
[The planet only lost around 20 kilometres of radius due to the fact that the components making up the planet were already heavy and dense.]
(So, is there any way to check what this planet is made of?)
[Your current Spectre Form can cast spells, you should be able to scan all the materials down to the core of the planet.]
(But the system said it couldn’t scan the centre of the core around my Dungeon Core.)
[What the system said is that the Scan Spell couldn’t pass through the material, making it impossible to Scan what is on the other side of it.]
(Is that what it meant? That’s one confusing system.)
[You seem to have adapted pretty well considering most other Reincarnates scream and cry about going home.]
(I don’t think the shock of the situation has registered with me yet. I may start freaking out later so hold your praise for later.)
[That may be true. Well, go ahead, I’m kind of excited to find out exactly what that floating ball of galactic treasure is actually made of.]
(Me too. Here goes nothing. Scan material composition of the planet.)
[Scanning… *BEEP* Scan complete. Major quantities of following metals found.]
[Aluminium, Titanium, Iron, Cobalt, Nickel, Copper, Zinc, Silver, Tungsten, Osmium, Platinum, Gold, Orichalcum, Adimantite, Mithril, Thorium, Divinium, Radium, Starium, Timonium, Tritanite, Vibranite, Promethium, Tartarite, Sunstone, Star Iron, Scarletite, Galvaron Iron, Blightsteel, Bloodmetal, Solarite, Neutralite, Titanite, Obsinite, Neutronium.]
(Holy Crap! Are you seeing what I’m seeing Lilly?)
[Unfortunately, no. I can only send and receive messages to and from you. Anything the system tells you or anything you see I cannot.]
(Well, the Scan just showed me a list of all the metals it found in ‘major’ quantities. It’s a list of 35 metals and I only know 12 of them.)
[35? That’s a lot of different metals. What are the ones you know?]
(Aluminium, Titanium, Iron, Cobalt, Nickel, Copper, Zinc, Silver, Tungsten, Osmium, Platinum and Gold.)
[Those are the everyday average metals of most average races. Although, only dwarves know how to turn Titanium, Cobalt, Tungsten, Osmium and Platinum into something usable.]
(Dwarves are the short guys, right?)
[Along with Gnomes, Halflings, and Fairies, yes, the ‘short guys’.]
(Sorry.)
[No problem, just remember it for next time.]
(I will.)
[So, what are the metals you don’t know?]
(Right, here’s the list the Scan spell gave me.)
(Orichalcum, Adimantite, Mithril, Thorium, Divinium, Radium, Starium, Timonium, Tritanite, Vibranite, Promethium, Tartarite, Sunstone, Star Iron, Scarletite, Galvaron Iron, Blightsteel, Bloodmetal, Solarite, Neutralite, Titanite, Obsinite and Neutronium.)
(So, what do you think?)
1-minute passes.
Another minute passes.
(Hello?)
5 minutes later.
[These are definitely on the Scan result list?]
(Yes. All of them are making up the planet in what the system called major quantities.)
[You are going to be the Multiverses first indestructible Dungeon.]
(What? What do you mean?)
[Neutralite, Neutronium, Solarite, Starium, Sunstone, Star Iron and Divinium are basically completely unknown to the inhabitants of the multiverse save for a few very old and powerful beings who happened to find tiny amounts of Divinium and Star Iron in meteor craters. And even those tiny amounts could only be imbedded into existing equipment. Those metals can only be melted by temperatures that are only possible in the centre of a giant star. Now do you understand? If I’m right, then the core of your planet should be made of Neutralite and Neutronium. What this means is that if those metals were covering the surface of the planet, you could ram the planet into anything in the Multiverse and it would have no chance of surviving. No matter if it was a planet or a star. If the planet had a strong enough gravity, you could probably even survive getting sucked into a black hole and come out without a scratch.]
(That… sounds terrifying and yet somehow awesome at the same time.)
[Right? I wish I could see it.]
(The planet?)
[Yeah. You have no idea how excited I was when I got a system message saying I was getting bound to a dungeon. Imagine my disappointment when I found out the dungeon I was bound to turned out to be so far away I don’t even know what the distance unit means.]
(Light years?)
[Yeah. What does that even mean? Is it a time or a distance?]
(It’s the distance light would cover if it travelled for a year.)
[How fast is light?]
(1.079 trillion kilometres per hour. So, the distance between us is nearly 19 quadrillion kilometres.)
[I know Dungeons don’t have one, but the lifespan of Fairies is around 400 years. So, unless you can travel 2 lightyears in less than 340 years, I will die before you get here.]
(Couldn’t one of us… I don’t know… like teleport to the other?)
[Do you know of a spell that can transport planets 19 quadrillion kilometres? Because I don’t.]
(How about you teleporting to me instead?)
[Teleportation doesn’t work like that. You can’t just pick a direction and teleport ‘a million kilometres that way.’ You either have to have specific coordinates, which only work on the surface of planets, or have been to that place before.]
(Then all I have to do is turn the planet into a space ship and create a warp drive big and strong enough to allow the planet to travel faster than light!)
Daniel got really fired up. He spent over a hundred years studying everything earth had to offer when it came to technology after all! Turning a planet into a ship and building FTL drives was nothing for him! Or so he thought. But reality was different.
[Do you even know how to do that?]
(Of course I do. I learned how to build FTL drives and even helped build an entire star ship.)
[No. I mean do you know how to manipulate your territory and the things in it?]
(That’s a Dungeon thing, isn’t it?)
[Yes. Every Dungeon creates rooms, floors, and traps by manipulating its territory and the materials that happen to be in it.]
(Wait…doesn’t) [that mean…] ([I/You]) (should be able…) [to manipulate…] ([The Entire PLANET!])
[Yes. Yes, it does. It means exactly that.]
(The entire planet is my territory. I can manipulate everything in the entire planet.)
[Could you? Could you really do it?]
(I know how to make the individual parts and how to put them together. The only problem is figuring out how to manipulate each metal individually and then getting each part to come out perfectly. I would have to spend some time getting used to the manipulation, then try making something smaller with it first. And then practice until I can make all the parts I need.)
Daniel and Lilly got very excited, both for different reasons. Lilly, because she had finally been bonded to a Dungeon Core and it seemed to be a very smart and unbelievably lucky one at that. Daniel, because he got to learn new things.
(Lilly, I promise you, I will get to you. I will get to you on time if it’s the last thing I do. Let me just figure things out and practice for a while. I will get there as soon as I can.)
[I will wait as long as it takes. I just hope you really do make it in time.]
(I’ll try my best. I just need some time to be able to use the manipulation to make the parts I need.)
[What are you waiting for then? Get going. Do what you have to do to get here.]
Daniel started checking the System for anything useful.
[Dungeon Statistics]
[Dungeon Options]
[Dungeon Spells]
(Let’s check the Statistics first.) thought Daniel while selecting the Statistics tab.
[Dungeon Core Durability: 100%, Mana: (Error: Increasing too fast to give accurate answer), Dungeon Rooms: 0, Safe Rooms: 0, Dungeon Floors: 0, Traps: 0, Monsters: 0, Animals: 0, Evolved monsters: 0, Evolved animals: 0, Mutated monsters: 0, Mutated animals: 0, Named Monsters: 0, Floor Bosses: 0, Dungeon Bosses: 0, Plant life: 0, Bound Dungeon Fairy: 1/1]
(No floors or rooms. I guess that means there are no natural caves?)
[Dungeons cannot claim: Natural caves, Other Dungeon’s territory (unless the previous owner of the territory is destroyed), Another creature’s territory.]
(Makes sense. How about Options?)
[Create: Floor, Room/Safe Room, Corridor, Trap, Monster, Weapon, Armour, Accessory, Magic Item, Gate, Miscellaneous Items. Move: Floor, Room/Safe Room, Corridor, Trap, Sub-Dungeon Core. Mutate: Monster, Animal, Plant. Evolve: Monster, Animal, Plant, Dominate Animal]
(Dungeons can create monsters but not animals?)
[Monsters are different from animals. Animals are born natural as offspring, while monsters are made from mana. In areas with a high concentration of mana, the mana sometimes condenses into a Mana Core. The Mana Core then Absorbs more of the surrounding mana to create a suitable body for itself.]
(So, a Mana Core is a monster’s… what? Heart? Brain? Both?)
[A Mana Core is the puppeteer while the body is the puppet. As long as the Mana Core is in contact with the body, the body will continue to fight. That is also the reason why all sentient races hate monsters. They are hard to deal with and very persistent. Some monsters have a Mana Core in their head, making them easy to deal with and profit from. Just decapitate it and dig the Core out. There, easy money. However, in most monsters, the core is around the chest or stomach area. Those are not so easy to deal with. Cut off its head and it will use its limbs. Cut of the limbs and it will try to use its body to hit you. Very annoying to deal with and in most cases the quickest way to deal with them is to destroy the Core. That means you get nothing but tired. Destroy the Core and the monster dies instantly, but you get no money.]
(What about the monster’s body? Wouldn’t it have harvestable materials that you could sell?)
[As soon as the Core is removed or destroyed the body turns back into mana, literally vanishing into thin air.]
(That’s… inconvenient.)
[Indeed. That’s why Dungeons can create items for the Adventurers to find. If the Adventurers find items they want or need they are less likely to destroy the Dungeon Core even if they reach it. Some kingdoms go as far as to send teams to clear Dungeons all the way to the Core and either threaten it or make a contract with it to get the materials they need.]
(What kind of items can Dungeons make?)
[Anything it has seen before. When an Adventurer dies in a Dungeon, the Dungeon absorbs the mana in the body, the body itself and all items the body had on it when it died unless someone else picked something up. The Dungeon then looks at the items it absorbed and recreates them to put into treasure chests along the way.]
(Doesn’t that mean I could create entire generators and buildings?)
[Unfortunately, no. The Dungeon System is incapable of creating complicated structures and items.]
(Could I make each individual part and put them together?)
[The only way to find out is to try.]
(I’ll try making parts for a Plasma Pulse Engine first.)
[Whatever one of those is, will it help you get here?]
(If I have enough, or one big enough I could move the whole planet through space. That would be the first step of getting to you.)
[Great! Try it then.]
Daniel chose the miscellaneous items tab, only to be greeted by an empty table.
(There’s nothing here.)
[What did you do?]
(I selected the miscellaneous items tab to see if I could make parts for the engine. But the tab is empty.)
[The miscellaneous tab is for items that the Dungeon has absorbed that don’t fit into one of the other categories. All of the creation tabs will be empty for you, you haven’t absorbed anything yet.]
(But I know how to make all the parts.)
[Close the tab and concentrate your mind on each part. Imagine touching them and turning them in your hands. See what they are made from and how they are shaped. If your imagination is clear enough the system should pick up on it and allow you to see them in the tabs they fit into.]
(Ok. I’ll try. Give me a minute.)
Daniel began concentrating on his memories. Especially the ones of him building the engine in his garage. Remembering the shape, weight, feel and materials for each piece. Like an old projector flickering to life, the scenes from his memories started playing in his head. Like a part by part guide, each part, one after the other were put into place. Connected and fitted perfectly to each other.
Just like that the system beeped into action, recording each part, and sorting them into the tab they fit into the most.
After an hour of going over the memories to make sure each part was as perfect as it could be, Daniel looked back at the creation tab.
[132 new items added to creation tabs. 4 new items in weapons tab. 6 new items in armour tab. 122 new items in miscellaneous tab.]
(Weapons and armour? What?) Daniel thought slightly confused and worried, wondering if he made a mistake.
[Creation: Weapons: Cobalt wand, Cobalt staff, Tungsten wand, Tungsten staff.]
(Those count as wands and staffs? Well, whatever, as long as they are there.) Daniel was relieved to see that it was just the System using strange criteria to sort the items.
[Creation: Armour: Cobalt helmet, Cobalt tower shield, Cobalt buckler, Tungsten helmet, Tungsten tower shield, Tungsten buckler.]
(Helmets, tower shields and bucklers? I’m guessing those would be the housings and cover plates. Looks like all the rest is in the miscellaneous tab. Good, this should be easy now.) Daniel thought to himself with a mental nod of the head.
Daniel then used the Creation menu to create each part one after the other on the planet surface.