My First Room

{Would you like to claim Burial Chamber of the Fallen Gods?}

That screen was the first thing I saw when I awakened. "What? And where now? I thought I was in Asgard. How did I end up in a tomb? Well, hopefully, this works this time," I say as I focus on the accept button hovering before me.

{Congratulation on claiming your first dungeon. Please absorb all objects in the vicinity to gain useful recipes.}

"Just a second, let me look around first," I said as I searched the burial chamber. Let's see.. coffins, rotten furniture, and dead rats; is there anything good in here? Also, "why am I stuck in the forehead of a giant Centaur statue holding a massive sword?"

"Whoever, or whatever built this place, was or is a weirdo. Ha! It was probably Therlion. I need someone around to talk to, or someone might think I'm crazy." I searched around the tomb I had somehow ended up in. "I'm certain I was in Asgard. How did I end up here?" I pondered as I searched, hoping to find some kind of answer or clue. I then stumbled upon some plaques. After getting a better look at them, I could see some familiar names.

THERLION---God of Death and Decay

DARNATH---God of Light and justice

THORGAN---God of Land and Forge

ARLEAN---Goddess of Nature and Harvest

"WHAT! How did Darnath become God of light and justice? He single-handedly annihilated The Church of Light!. Not to mention Thorgan. He was a Rock Giant, bound to an old ruin. Arlean, from what I can recall of Therlion's, and Thorgan's conversation, she was their Elven Ranger or Rogue." The details about her are a little hazy, though.

Whatever. I have work to do. "OK, let's clean up the room now," and with barely a thought, I absorbed everything.

{Starter recipes gained: Minor Earth Elemental, Skeleton Soldier, Skeleton Archer.}

"Looks like I could go the undead route." Undead Rat and Basic Wood Furniture. "Wait, why can't I make coffins?"

{A dungeon needs to have an entrance. I recommend a tunnel going east approximately two hundred feet.}

"Which way is east?"

{Follow the red arrow.}

"Alright, so that's east. Good to know. And it's on the opposite wall from my location, so at least I won't be the first thing anyone sees when they enter. Wait, hold up there, can you hear me?"

{I am an artificially enhanced intelligent dungeon system, so yes, I can hear you.}

"How long have you been there?"

{I have always been with you, Nalle.}

"Even during the eternity, I was in darkness?"

{Yes.}

"Why didn't you say anything? I was alone in the dark, not even sure I really existed?" I shout in frustration, and If I could cry, I would be right now.

{You never asked.}

"I thought you said you were intelligent. Whatever, let's just keep working on the dungeon. This conversation is depressing. Let's see, my current home is twenty foot by twenty foot, and around twelve foot high. It looks like it's built from ordinary dull gray slabs." I do not know how, but I realize nothing short of Therlion's level of strength is putting a dent in my walls.

I want to say I dug, but it was more like Compacting the stone, dirt, and sand into a tunnel five feet wide and eight feet tall while going at a slight incline. I found lots of different metals, different crystals, and random objects like dolls and buried bones. How did a doll get that far underground, anyway? After around three hours, I hit a wooden floor, possibly from my perspective, it would be a ceiling. "How did I get down here anyway there was no exit to this chamber?"

{Congratulations on making your first dungeon room and connecting to the outside. The system will provide you a dungeon entrance.}

"Alright, just ignore my question. It's not like it's an important matter. You know, being buried alive again." A moment later, a rustic-looking trap door appeared in the tunnel's end floor/ceiling. "What that's it, couldn't I get a fancy door that says come inside adventure awaits you. What no comment, OK, fine, you provided the entry. How do I make stuff for myself? Hello, are you there? How does this interface even work, anyway?" Did I upset the so-called intelligent system, or do I not get any more help once I set up an entrance? I suppose it's back to talking to myself—whatever who needs a voice in their heads, anyway. "Here we go, Status. Why are nearly all options in the drop-down menu gray and unusable, anyway?"

Name—Nalle. (You can change one time)

Title (N/A) Race—Dungeon Core. Element (None) (can choose one)

Floors—1 (none available)

Essence 10~10 Mana 10~10 (+1 A day)

"Now we are getting somewhere!"

"Let's see." Name: Nalle, I already figured out my name when that crazy undead rock-napped me. 'I mean rescued' But it appears I can change my name once. Well, I don't care about that. I'll come back to it some other day; if it becomes necessary,

Race Dungeon Core. Dungeon Core? "Do dungeons count as a race? Well, if the System says so, I guess it does. Moving on." Elements, "let's see what we can be. Wow! I get to pick between Earth and... EARTH! Hmm, tough decision. Let me think, I will go with... Earth."

{Earth Element, all inhabitants based on this element, will receive a 10% increase on all stats.}

"That's it? Oh wait, there's more."

{All Earth base inhabitants will cost 10% less Essence.}

"I will take it!" I said with a bit of excitement in my voice. "Elements out of the way. Well, let's just skip floors for now and move on to Essence." Focusing on the little -?- a bubble that pops up.

{Inhabitants will require a specific amount of essence to Summon. Note all inhabitants will require 25% of the base cost for respawning.} {note cost rises as inhabitants grow stronger}

"OK, so what is essence?… Oh, right system is giving me the silent treatment, how childish. Figure it out myself. Got it, thanks anyway." Ooh, summon, I like the sound of this page lets sees. Maybe I can summon a friend to talk to that will talk back… Looking at you, system. Well, you know, figuratively coz I don't have eyes, and you have nobody.

"Let's see.. here we are," {Minor Earth Elemental cost 10-8 Essence.}

"More expensive than I had hoped. Wait, why is this my only option? Where are my skeletons and undead rats? Are you playing with my system…. Stop ignoring me. I know you can talk."

{You are summoning a Minor Earth Elemental; Since this is your first summons, would you like to promote it to a boss for 10% more essence?}

"I knew you would find some way to take all my essence. Yeah, why not promote my Minor Earth Elemental?" I let out a mental sigh as I felt my essence drain.

{Opening gate to Lower elemental plane… Locating Minor Earth Elemental (1 star)}

"Hey, what is the star for?"

{Restricted data, you are unauthorized to view information.}

"Whoops, I better be careful, or I may lose my interface." was my first thought. My second was. "Ha, I knew you were still there. You can't ignore me forever."

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

{Target located, beginning summoning.}

I watched as a brown swirly gate just kind of moved across the chamber; I could swear I saw a field of rocks with a massive and familiar rock person in the background, sitting on an equally massive throne. (was that Thorgan?) After it vanished, a seven-foot-tall rock golem stood there, looking confused. Then it turned to me and gave me a gentlemanly bow. All he needed was a cane and hat to complete the picture. Mentally clapping excitedly, I say, "I am calling you Rocky."

I watched Rocky lift his head and nod. He walked to the center of the room. Conjured a stone chair, more like a throne, and sat down, staring at the tunnel leading to the trapdoor. "I think he likes his name." Also, that throne is an exact duplicate of the one I saw in the swirly gate thingy.

{This concludes the dungeon tutorial, good luck Nalle, please ask your Dungeon Fairy companion for further instructions or information.}

(dial-up noises) {Error, Dungeon core -Nalle-, Dungeon Fairy. ERROR! files missing, Please wait while I contact Dungeon support}

"Uh oh, I think I broke him."

{This interface will shut down until a licensed Dungeon support officer can verify core status.}

"And then everything went dark….. Just kidding, only my interface did."

"I wonder if it is possible to get a curse from eating a tomb." I think there might be a problem with me. Was the thought rolling around in my mind. My next thought was, it's not my fault system, you have issues, and you need to work them out for yourself. "So, I will do my dungeon stuff myself. Who needs a cranky system, anyway."

"Right, rocky? He isn't listening to me, and he is too busy running his stony hands on the arm of his chair. Rocky is nearly seven feet tall, looks almost identical to an average humanoid, and doesn't have a nose for some strange reason. Why give him a mouth but no nose? What's the purpose?"

I can feel my essence and Mana levels. No surprise, my essence is empty. But my mana also seems low. If I had to guess, that throne constructed by Rocky used MY! mana. The throne in question is roughly four feet wide at the base and six feet high. The straight backrest comes to three points, each with a small round crystal sphere on the tips. The chair he made, from some kind of volcanic stone, all shiny and black. Don't ask how I know what a volcano is; I do not understand myself.

Nope, I am wrong. It was absolutely Rocky. That boulder smirked at me. Well, I will show you, "go patrol the entry tunnel....... Or just sit there on your nifty throne and ignore me, that works too." OK, back on track, I have six or seven mana. Let's try building another tunnel. I focused on a spot fifty feet off this chamber and started compressing the ground making a shaft five feet wide by ten feet tall. I wouldn't want Rocky to hit his head, right? I continued until I had an offshoot about ten feet deep and stopped.

Strange, I did not notice any drain on my mana. I guess I will build a few more for now and observe what happens. "Interesting, well, Rocky, I made six ten-foot shafts off the main corridor. Three on each side fifty feet apart, starting from your throne room. I can't understand why I felt almost no drain at all, though." "Let's try making a ten-foot by ten-foot room on the end of a branch." "Just what did you make your throne out of anyway? It took around thirty to forty percent of my mana."

"Duh, that's because the brute created the material while you're just moving it around." Said an unfamiliar voice.

"Wait, what, who said that, and how did you get in here?; Why can I not see you? I know everything in my home?"

"Silly rock, that's because I'm not in your dungeon, I am your local representative from Dungeon Support, and I am here to fix any bugs in your system. I got a notification about an hour ago. Didn't you send it?"

"My system mentioned something about that before going dark. It also said something about a licensed representative. Can I see your documentation, please? Before you come in and do whatever you do to verify my status." (whatever that means. Also, what is documentation, why do these strange thoughts keep popping up?)

A second later, a tiny fairy hovered before me. She was five inches tall, had translucent wings that hummed as she hovered in front of my statue, wearing a tube top barely covering the two lumps on her chest. (that seems important to me somehow) She had on a miniskirt that barely covered her upper thighs. (For some unknown reason, I found that inappropriate.) "Sweety, I do not need a door, but here is my license, anyway."

"OK, hello, and welcome to my humble refurbished tomb." After reading the card, I reply ... "Tayna, weird name." With a snort, Tayna responds, "says the rock with an Elven name." "Anyway, to business, to make things easier, may I speak to your fairy companion. Things will go much faster that way."

"Um, no."

"What do you mean, no?"

"Just how it sounds, I don't have a fairy. That's why my system crashed. It was looking into that."

"How strange give me a second here. Ah, I see you only woke up a few hours ago. Congratulation has been a long time since a core has awakened from hibernation on this world, as the essential level is low. That's fine, and I'm sure your fairy will be along shortly. For now, I shall connect to your system and see what I Can find out." Tayna said, smiling at me.

Stunned, I finally figure out Tayna is talking to me, actual conversation. Excitedly I respond, "You can hear me, really hear me?"

Confused, Tayna pauses whatever she was doing on her interface, "Yeah, all fairies can talk to dungeon cores. That's why we were in charge of dungeon support. Didn't they go over that with you before placing you here?"

I quickly tell her everything I Can remember up to the point she arrived. "Please don't leave me until my fairy arrives. I plead I don't want to be alone, Rocky is great, but he talks very little."

Stunned, Tayna gapes at me, "that sounds like you woke up long before Therlion broke you out of that tomb. But how you shouldn't be able to sustain yourself without a steady stream of mana. That's why the hibernation system is in place to keep the core viable till enough is available in your vicinity to get you started. I think I better go through your system and see firsthand what is going on." With those somewhat worrying words, Tayna began typing onto her interface. (I want hands. They look so useful)

{Dungeon Fairy detected, attempting to set up a connection, connection established.}

"Hey, my interface came back. Wow, Tayna, you sure work fast. Why are you so pale, anyway?"

"How did that happen? I just bonded as your dungeon fairy. Poor Sally, she has been waiting for this ever since we arrived in this world. It's strange, though, and the dungeon system doesn't start the bonding, only the fairy. That's a safety mechanism to protect fairies from being enslaved to cores." said Tayna with a conflicted look.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to do that to you. I wanted you to stay with me, but not against your will." (strange how come this bothers me, but summoning Rocky felt right)

"Oh Nalle, if I thought it was your fault, I would have already left and got someone from headquarters to look into it. Never mind, I have a connection to you now. I will dig into your system and see what's going on."

"Maybe you shouldn't. What if something bad happens to you?"

"I have Administrative rights for anything Dungeon related on this planet. Here I am, top management," said Tayna with a proud smile. (I want to smile too)

While Tayna got to work on my system, I smoothed out the surfaces throughout my dungeon. When I was starting on the floors, Rocky glanced over at me, shook his head, and mimicked slipping on a slick floor. Tayna paused her work long enough to give Rocky a nod of approval. After I replaced the slick part of the floor with shallow grooves for traction, Rocky nodded to me and set back down on his throne.

Eventually, Tayna throws her arms into the air. "What is all of this crap? Your system looks like someone mashed a few files together and sent it to you through some bugged median. I can't make heads or tails out of it. Honestly, it should not work at all. Most of the processes simply aren't there." After a long pause where Tayna was tapping the air in front of herself, she asked me. "How do you interact with your system?"

"Well, notifications pop-up, some make sense others do not. Mostly they appear when they are guiding me on my next step. Sometimes it responds to my voice… thoughts, but that stopped once it installed the entrance. But, I can access my status; that's how I made Rocky."

Tayna rubs her temples. "You interacted with your system just fine. Then it stopped after installing the entrance. It's strange, though, and I can't find any of the frameworks for an A.I. system. In fact, there is no system, only a few corrupted files. Oh, sorry, let me be more specific. I mean, I can't find the dungeon system. The world system is fine, although it looks like someone intentionally locked you out... Also, Monster summoning or creation should be on a separate menu. Why was it in that one?"

"I don't know, but if it helps after it summoned Rocky, the option is no longer there."

Sighing, Tayna waves it off. "No, that really doesn't help," Tayna looks down at her own interface and said, "hold on, I got a message."

Dear Tayna, you have contracted with the Dungeon core known as Nalle. We have revoked your administration rights, and a new system manager is already on the way. At the earliest convenience, please clean out any belongings from your workspace. Thank you for your years of service from Dungeon Support's primary office in the multiverse conflux. I hope your new career works out for you.

"Well, that was fast. Sorry, Nalle, I won't help with any of the system related problems anymore. They took away my admin privileges."

Anyway, while my new friend was reading through her notification and seeing what she could still do, I finished building up all the rooms of my main entry hall. With my interface back, I get exact numbers again, yay. Still two mana available; I can probably make another good-sized room with that. But first, "Tayna, I still have two mana. Do you need anything?"

"Yeah, I'll take what remains to make myself a home and a few pieces of furniture."

"Wait, why do you need all of it? You are the size of Rocky's thumb?"

"Do you think I am going to live in a house of stone and basic wood furniture? Well, guess again. My stuff may be small, but it is all being conjured from nothing." proclaimed a fussy Tayna.

Before Tayna can begin building her home, a notification appears, floating in the air in front of all the three of us.

{Congratulations, your dungeon has got its first sentient visitor. Continue to grow stronger.}

I laugh and say, "sorry, no building for now."