“Ehhhhh…… greeeee….”

Consciousness comes back like a slow wave of sludge. Slowly filling the mind and drawing awareness to the surface. With heavy eyelids, she slowly drags herself back to awareness, her mind taking its time to process everything as aching bones and muscles work to pull her into sitting upright.

Bleary eyes finally starting to work, she blinks again and again as her pupils take a second to adjust to the soft light of the Dungeon.

“What in the…? Achh! Ouch…”

Moving a hand up to her head, she pulls it away wet with a bit of blood. Her head aching as she looks around.

Rocky cave walls, wet with water, green squishy moss, blue glowing mushrooms, and a hard dirt covered floor…

“This is the Dungeon… Yes, yes. That’s right. I’m in the Dungeon. I was walking and then… Ahhhh! My rock! Where is my rock?!” She asks, looking around franticly, even as the motion hurts her head and makes her feel dizzy.

There it is!

Sitting just off to the side, she finds it. It had rolled away from her after she had let it go. Quickly lunging for it, she scoops it up and tightly holds it to her chest.

“Oh, thank goodness…”

Pulling it up, she looks into the rocks surface. Half of it is regretfully covered in dried blood now. But she had found a number of springs and ponds earlier in her wandering. She can wash the blood off, and it will be just fine.

Looking at her reflection, she finds a curious sight. Her eyes. She could have sworn that her eyes had shown red in the rock's reflection. But now they are green…

My eyes changed?

My…?

Wait… Me?

She looks down at herself. Her own pain and the worries for the shiny blue rock no longer filling her mind. Taking in her hands, arms, leg, and feet. Looking over and feeling at her body inquisitive. Her hand stopping just as it feels over her chest, catching the rhythm of her own beating heart.

“Wha… What is this? Who… Who am I?”

…

She just keeps sitting there on the dirt covered floor. Her head aching as she looks around at the Dungeon.

She knows that this is the Dungeon. It is where she was born. She knows that the moss is edible, tasty even. The water is drinkable. The rocks are good for throwing. She knows that she isn’t the only one here and also that, despite being born from the Dungeon, she is not safe in the Dungeon.

But she doesn’t know who she is…

She doesn’t even know what she is…

Her body is small, she thinks? She hasn’t had a chance to compare herself to other beings yet. She is covered in brown fur, but not her entire body. The fur only covers her arms up to her shoulders, and her legs and waist, stopping at her hips just shy of reaching her navel. The rest of her, from what she can see is hairless, her skin a shade of tan. But she cares little for such details, let alone the growths of fat on her chest. She hadn’t even cared about those before, and honestly, they don’t really seem all that important. So, she ignores them.

Examining her hands, she finds that her fingers end in little claws. She’s not entirely certain how useful they would be in a fight, but she does figure out that they are useful for when she has an itch to scratch on her leg. And looking behind her, she finds a long skinny tail that grows from her back side. It has a light covering of tiny, practically invisible, hairs that runs down its length, but from how it looks, it might as well be hairless.

Reaching up, she feels at her head and finds some short lengths of hair that covers her head. She doesn’t remember having hair… Besides that, is her ears, which are big, long, and fluffy. They move as she pokes at them. She is curious about why it is that she had never noticed her own ears of all things until now, especially considering how big they are... Other than that, there is a big bloody welt on her head from where she had hit herself. Touching it hurt…

How is she only just now learning what her body looks like? Her memories literally go back all the way to her birth, but yet, somehow, at no point had she tried to really figure out her own body. Almost as if she had zero interest in who or what she was right up until this moment…

Although, honestly, she can’t remember doing very much thinking at all up until she just woke up…

“Haaa… None of this really tells me who or what I am…”

Scratching at her head and squinting her eyes, she tries to focus on the information that she was born with from the Dungeon. Something tickles at her mind, and she manages to fight and grab it through the pain of her headache.

Humans? Am I a human?

….

Mmmm, no… No, I’m not. Humans don’t have fur or tails or ears like mine… I think that there are other races, but I can’t really think of them very well. Just that some of them have horns… And some do have fur and tails? Huh…

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

So, I’m not a human, but then what am I?

“Hmm?”

Finally, she notices the flashing light in the corner of her vision. Her memories instantly go back to the flashing lights that she had tried hitting and then the searing pain that ripped through her entire body.

Fear goes through her at the sight of it, but also curiosity…

It is what caused all of this and maybe, just maybe. It might have the answers that she needs.

With much trepidation and a shaking hand, she reaches out and touches the dot of flashing light.

It responds to her touch and expands across her vision, making her suddenly jump in fright. Arms crossed before of her face, she waits for the pain to come, but nothing happens.

Instead, as she lowers her arms, she finds a floating square in front of her. A screen with text written on it.

Blinking a few times at the weird sight, she decides to read the text that she finds. Not even thinking to ask why it is that she can read the words displayed before her.

Build, Inventory, Stats, Dungeon Map, Points Store, Mail, and Settings. These words rest at the top of the screen. Looking over the current display, she finds an image of herself displayed before her, standing up straight with her arms at her sides. Her image is displayed within a window and surrounding it is a bunch of brackets that are all showing as [None Equipped]. She looks over the brackets, reading some.

“Chest, legs, feet, hands, head… What’s this?”

Noticing a little ‘i’ symbol she clicks on it. Another window pops up.

“Any clothing or armor that you wear will be listed and displayed here… Information will also be displayed to help you better understand the defensive capabilities of any gear that you wear. If you wish to compare any gear to something that you are already wearing, simply hold it and press the compare item button. This feature is intended to help you find and use the best gear that you can. Though, nothing is stopping you from wearing as much as you can fit on you person. Your body is your own limit, and the system will adapt to accommodate…”

Poking around, she hits a little red ‘x’ in the corner, and it closes the helpful window. “Oh!”

Up in the corner of the main screen is another little red ‘x.’

“So that’s how I was supposed to get rid of it… Great, I wish I would have known that earlier…”

Besides everything else on the screen, the image of her body is at least somewhat interesting to look at. Though she quickly finds herself losing interested in how she looks.

My eyes are pretty at least. Shiny and green. I wonder if I can find any shiny rocks that look like them?

Shifting her attention back up to the top of the display, she finds two things of note. One, the word ‘Build’ is currently looking more solid and forward than the rest, like it is a part of the current screen that she is on. And second, the word ‘Mail’ is flashing at her like it wants to draw her attention. Honestly, it is sort of annoying…

Deciding that clicking on it will probably make it stop flashing, she goes ahead and does so.

The screen changes as a result, ‘Build’ moving to the back some while ‘Mail’ comes forward along with the new screen.

Looking over the screen, she finds a few options.

Send Mail, Inbox, Chat, Rewards, Bug Report.

‘Inbox’ is flashing, so she clicks on it, causing a new window to pop up. Inside is a single line of text with a letter and a present symbol. The text simply read, ‘Welcome!’ and is flashing, so she clicks on it.

Much to her bewilderment, yet another window pops up, this one with a bunch more text. “Ahhh… Just how many of these things are there going to be?”

Huffing at this weird thing, she reads the words.

----------------------------------------

Dear, Bug 1413,

Welcome to the System!

We are proud to include you as one of the select few to be granted access to the Protype Magical Operating System developed by REDACTED. As of right now, this system is only in use by Dungeons and their Sapient Class Entities for the purpose of testing and quality control.

As a Sapient Class Entity under the command of a Dungeon, you have been granted access to the System! Congratulations!

As a newly born Sapient Class Entity, we are certain that you have a lot of questions and concerns. We understand, and it is our desire to assist you to the best of our ability.

Contained within this message is a gift. Please click on the link bellow to receive it. This is your beginners package put together, just for you, by REDACTED. Please enjoy!

After receiving your gift, you can find it in your inventory.

Best of luck and please enjoy your access to the System.

Sincerely and with best wishes, REDACTED.

----------------------------------------

“Ok… So, this is the System?” She asks. Looking up to the beginning of the message, she reads the first line again. ‘Dear, Bug 1413,’

“Is, is that my name? Bug 1413? Hmmmmm… Well, I certainly don’t feel like a bug, or look like a bug… But I guess it is at least something for now. Bug 1413… I think I’ll just call myself Bug. It’s easier.” Bug tells herself.

Nodding her head, she follows the directions written in the letter and clicks on the link. Yet another window pops up and tells her that a gift has been placed in her inventory. Closing all of the extra windows and cleaning up her view, she follows the directions and clicks on ‘Inventory.’ Her screen changes and shows a display of rows and columns of boxes. Only a single box has anything in it. A picture of a little present with a red bow on top.

Clicking on it, a prompt pops up asking if she would like to open it.

She clicks yes and the prompt disappears. In her inventory, several of the boxes get filled with new icons. One looks like a letter and is flashing, so she clicks on it, causing yet another a new window to appear.

“Hello, Bug 1413, good job on opening your first gift box. If we had the Quests and Achievements system up and running, you would have just earned one…”

“What’s an Achievement? Ehhh…”

“In this gift, we have given you some clothes so that you aren’t running around naked. We know that Entities in your current position don’t typically care about nudity, but you will quickly come to find clothes and armor to be quite useful. Please get in the habit of wearing them…”

Bug looks down at herself. “Is it weird to be naked? Hmm… If it’s useful, then I’ll use it.” She says with a shrug.

Continuing to read out loud. “The other items that have been provided for you is a dagger, a canteen for storing water, a cookie baked by REDACTED just for you, and a handy Knowledge that will help you learn to navigate the basics of the System. It will also provide you with some very basic information outside of your standard Dungeon-Born Knowledge. Please note that you don’t have to actually read the manual. The Knowledge is just learned when you accept it…”

Bug continues to read over the letter until she gets the basic idea of what she is supposed to do. Following the instructions, she clicks on the book in her inventory and selects yes when prompted to learn it.

Yet again, the system makes another window pop up. This one with a little bar that is filling up from left to right.

“Why does the System have to make so many of these boxes keep popping up? So annoying…”

Watching the bar fill, Bug find that her head is hurting a bit more. Once the bar fills up completely, she gets hit with a burst of pain that has her collapsing to her knees and gritting her teeth.

“Ahch….! Ahhh! Why does it have to hurt!?”

Thankfully, the pain passes quickly, only leaving her with a slightly worse headache and the bloody bump on her head pulsing angrily.

“Ahh, that sucked…”

At least it wasn’t as bad as the first time.