Awakening

Waking up was odd for me. Mostly because I couldn’t remember going to sleep. Wait.. what was sleep? Wait, wait, wait. Before anything else, who am I? I was Me, obviously. What else could I be? Other? That’s a ridiculous thought.

With that question answered, I quickly moved on. I didn’t particularly care to focus on the seeming ridiculousness of even asking that question anymore. It was stupid to think I could be anything other than me, since I was all there was!

That brought me to my next immediate question; what was I?

A mere moment after I had thought the question, I suddenly felt something leave me. And with it, I realized that not only was I not the only thing, but that there was quite a bit of Other. A dense energy that had previously been entirely contained within myself had flooded outward, leaving me reeling as the energy expended. As it came into contact with my surroundings, it let me suddenly see!

I spent a good deal of time simply marveling at suddenly being able to see! Around me was a hard, jagged substance, with me nestled in the middle of a small hollow. Completely sealed on all sides, this hollow was now almost as densely filled with that strange energy as I had been.

Speaking of myself… Using this odd method of sight to gaze back at myself, I felt a mixture of joy and disappointment. I was a small, three inch across orb of black, glossy smooth material. Realizing I was a simple orb, made out of a material not unlike what was around me, was what spawned my disappointment.

On the other hand, my joy came from the next immediate thing I noticed about myself. All across that smooth black surface, were glowing gold runes and patterns. Glyphs and sigils twisting and turning in on themselves and each other, laced along in countless lines and columns. The symbols glowed with a dull golden light.

My reverie was broken by a sudden, startling chime noise. To my greater shock, I heard the sound within myself, but the energy around me let me know it couldn’t be heard at all beyond myself. Before I could ponder this further, a message flew through my mind.

Dungeon Core

As a Dungeon Core, many things that are impossible become possible. However, many things that are often found easy are found difficult in exchange. Your birth in this world marks your beginning. Access to nigh unlimited mana, powerful senses, and godlike abilities of creation and manipulation, a Dungeon Core is impossibly powerful. But not on their own.

Others in the world know the incredible strength of such a Core, and they will seek to bind you or seal you. As a core, you have limited options to defend yourself. But the Dungeon you create around yourself will serve as your limbs, it will protect you from any threat. If you develop and care for it, that is.

I barely had enough time to recognize and understand that message before another imposed itself on me, this time showing vastly different information.

Obsidian Dungeon Core - Unnamed

Names

Mana

Mana Regeneration

0 / 2

50 / 50

+1.0 / Hour

Titles

None;

That... Was a lot of information... Left reeling from the sudden massive dump of information, I retreated back within myself. With hardly a thought, all of what I now knew to be mana retreated deep within my core.

I am a Dungeon Core. Thinking over everything, I couldn't seem to decide what parts were most important. At first, everything seemed to be strange and beyond understanding. But even as I felt confusion over so much, information slowly began to filter in and fill in the blanks. When I wondered what it meant to be an Obsidian Core, I began to simply know that obsidian was a glassy type of rock. Again and again, questions popped up in my mind only to be answered by suddenly appearing knowledge. It was only when I wondered where all that knowledge was coming from that I received an answer about that.

As a Dungeon Core, I could evidently draw knowledge about things I saw and knew. Quite frankly, that was too useful an ability to try and question at the moment. Slowly, as my questions about what rock was and how it was different from air or mana, as those questions ran out, I began to feel an itch. Without knowing how I knew it, I could feel my instincts pushing me to create. To push at what I could reach and create a safe place, to force an existence around myself. To create a Dungeon.

With hesitation, I began to extend my mana again. Inspecting my immediate surroundings, I found once again that I was in a small hollow of stone. The empty space was hardly larger than my own sphere. My instincts began to grow louder and louder, pushing me to burrow. Pushing me to burrow and dig deep, to layer defenses and everything I could between me and everything else. Just from the message about Others wanting to bind and control me, I couldn't help but find myself in agreement with those instincts.

A moment's questioning was answered, and I began to push ever so slightly with my mana. Instead of just filling the space, I tried to press it against the walls of the hollow. To my annoyance, it did little to nothing, the rock stubbornly staying in place. Pushing harder and harder, I began to flood the small space with more and more mana. The sigils across my surface glowed as mana poured forward, slamming into the walls. Mere moments later, the walls began to grind away.

With a flood of exhilaration at controlling my environment, I pressed harder. Farther and farther the walls stretched, back and back, pulling away from my beautifully glowing orb. I finally relented when the walls were over a meter away from my orb, leaving a much larger space for my natural mana to inhabit. I could feel within myself that barely even a single point of mana had been used up in shaping the rock. I realized that the mana I had tried to use originally was not a part of that total the odd messages had given me. Instead it was separate entirely, functioning as a type of sense instead of regular mana.

With my original failure figured out, I began channelling out mana again, pressing the walls farther and farther. I had no idea how much time passed as I simply pressed the walls farther and farther. All I knew was that I eventually could feel that I was close to half my mana being used up. The room around me was vastly changed from what it had been originally. Instead of a hollow roughly four or five inches across in any direction, now stood a massive chamber, almost thirty meters across in any direction. Looking across my massively expanded environment, I still felt that something was missing...

Simply letting myself follow my instincts, I began to push mana down. Instead of grinding at the stone however, I began pulling it up. With a last moment thought, I started twisting the stone as it rose. Forming a spiraling stone column in the center of the room, a last push of mana created a divot for my orb to comfortably rest in. A sudden, subtle feeling of belonging pulsed through me. Looking about, I could start to understand why. I had created this, this was mine. This place was a home to me, and I belonged here, on the column I made. When the next message came, I was much less surprised. Somehow, the odd flow of information through my mind suddenly felt more comfortable, as though it were an old friend. You know, if I'd had any old friends to compare it to.

Dungeon Core Room Created!

Select your first Guardian Creature!

Kobold (Common) : A bipedal monster race, Kobolds are weak, but adaptable creatures. The tribes they form can form into formidable powers given time and the right conditions. The dormant traces of draconic bloodline makes many laugh at the creatures, but should it awaken, a Kobold would find no laughter facing it.

Stone Slime (Common) : Slimes are among the most notoriously common and weak creatures. Their ability to adapt to any environment is oft looked over, as are the sometimes stunning adaptations they produce. The Stone Slime utilizes a hardening exterior to prevent it from harm, its usually weak membrane hardening into a semblance of stone for a short time.

Rock Skorpion (Uncommon) : While not a fearsome fighter, a skorpion is a formidable ambusher. The Rock Skorpion takes this to new levels. With its exterior chitin disguising it as a simple stone, it can launch its stinger forward and deliver a powerful toxin into its prey's body. It is not to be overlooked that this same chitin heightens the skorpions defenses as well as stealth.

Obsidian Hound (Rare) : The Obsidian Hound is a lackluster single combatant, but when in a pack the Obsidian Hound can defeat even powerful enemies. Its sharp and tough fur allows it to shrug off many enemy strikes while its razor sharp obsidian fangs can rip through even weak stone. For all its short ranging speed, the Hound is actually quite limited in range due to its need for constant sustenance. It simply cannot afford extended chases.

Mana Serpent (Rare) : The Mana Serpent is a creature very rarely seen. Able to sustain itself off of pure mana, it seeks out places of natural power, leylines, dryad communities, and even Dungeons. With its inherent ability over mana, the serpent can strengthen itself far beyond what a normal serpent would be capable of, in the case it does need to fight off a predator.

I ignored my realization that I was becoming increasingly capable of dealing with these messages, as I took in my options. For all of the positives the first three might have extolled, I doubted the last two creatures were listed as rare because they were weak. I was just about to select the Obsidian Hound, being influenced by my own form when I held back. Paying attention to the descriptions more closely, I narrowed in on one word; sustenance. The Obsidian Hound would need to eat and drink. As much as I had done within my wonderful room, there wasn't anything for such a creature to sustain itself on, and I wasn't sure when I might be able to supply those things. Instead, I selected the Mana Serpent, making sure it really said that it could sustain itself off of pure mana. Pure mana, that I could provide.

Watching through my omnipresent vision in the thirty meter chamber, I watched dumbfounded as a glow began to form at the base of my column. It began to stretch from simply being a mote of glowing white light, stretching longer and longer. I watched with surprise as the light stretched to a meter long and near fifteen centimeters thick, I hadn't expected it to be so large. As the glow faded, I could begin to make out details.

The body was visibly corded with muscle, but the shifting iridescent blue and green scales made it an elegant display of power. At the very tip of its tail was a singular oversized scale that extended out into a triangle, forming a blunt blade like tip. On the other end of its body, was the head. emerging outwards from the long body, the head was longer than I expected and streamlined, graceful. The serpent's eyes were a deep purple, offsetting it somewhat from the blue and green scales. When it opened its mouth to taste the air with its forked tongue, I could see two fangs within. It was only a moment later that I realized my mana-sense wasn't limited like normal sight. I could see and feel within the serpent, its heart beating and its muscles shifting. I watched as it slowly spiraled around itself before raising its head up to regard my orb silently.

With a small amount of hesitance, I reached out across the newly formed mental bond and sent a feeling of greetings. The serpent swayed side to side before nodding slowly. As it uncoiled to investigate the room, I began to feel the ever so slight pull it exerted on mana. In addition to the way I could see and feel everything in this chamber, I could feel a slight draw of mana towards the serpent. With some relief, I noticed that the amount it took in was eclipsed by the amount I produced. The wonder of the stone room around me quickly lost its luster as I investigated the strange bond I could sense between me and the serpent.

I could faintly sense its health and location within my mana without having to actually look for it, the bond simply told me where it was. If I prodded deeper, I could glean the very surface of its mind, the barest of its thoughts and emotions. As it slithered around the room, I could easily tell that it was curious about where it was and that it was trying to build a map of the room in its mind. For a brief moment, I felt as though that was as deep as the bond went. Just as I was about to pull my attention to something else, something about the way the serpent drew in mana caught my attention. Focusing more on that pull while holding the bond in my mind, I felt something invisible slowly shimmer into being between it and my core.

The serpent suddenly stopped moving and looked towards my orb, curious at the sensation it was feeling coming from my touch on its mind. As soon as the bridge between it and I formed, I laughed to myself within my core. I could pour mana into the serpent! Still overrun with a mixture of surprise and joy at the realization, I fed a single point of mana down the connection. Shifting my attention from the connection to directly observe the serpent, I felt the connection collapse. Maintaining the connection requires focus and constant attention; it also temporarily blinds me... Good to know. I made a quick note of the fact to myself and examined the serpent.

It had coiled around itself and was slowly swaying in the air. I could see and feel the mana coalesce into its heart, a dull glow emanating from beneath the scales. The glow began to spread, following along the tracework veins, the glow illuminating the scales from beneath as it spread throughout its body. I immediately knew without knowing that this was how the serpent uses mana to strengthen its body. The glow continued, the light emanating from its heart only barely dimming as the seconds passed. After the snake started to emanate feelings of slight confusion, I realized that the serpent usually used much less mana for this, and by pouring in so much it was lasting much longer than usual.

Watching intently, the serpent apparently decided not to just wait it out. Uncoiling rapidly, it began to quickly move around the room, taking advantage of its strengthened body to even more quickly explore the chamber. As it moved, I felt an odd happiness at seeing a creation of mine moving and living. In that exact moment, I knew that I enjoyed being a Dungeon Core. If it meant I could create beings and create places for them to live, then it was good. The glow surging through the serpent was just starting to fade as it wound its way up and around the pillar. For a brief second, the idea of something coming close to my core, even touching it, made a shot of fear, anger, and disgust riot through me. It was only after the knowledge that it was a creation of mine reasserted itself that I calmed down enough to watch it curiously.

As it reached the top it paused for a moment, seeing my orb up close. I could tell it was admiring the golden swirling patterns across my surface. Then it broke its gaze free and continued winding its way up, the surprising long body beginning to coil around my orb. I did realize that it was careful not to touch my surface, though I couldn't tell why, and was reluctant to dig into its mind for such a reason.

I could feel a tug at my being, my instincts as a Core trying to tell me something. Trying to push me to create.. a layer. A floor, an environment for creatures and creations. Interesting.. Before I did that, I focused on the aspect of my power that I hadn't touched on. Looking at the serpent, and remembering the word next to what I am, we were the same. Unnamed. I didn't want to just be a thing, a creature with no name. And with the serpent my only companion, for now, I didn't want that for it either. Luckily, I had two Names open.

I spent a long time considering the issue, it was important after all. Long enough that I regenerated my first point of mana. I spared a thought to draw an answer on measures of time, now that I knew how long an hour was. After a long wait, with the serpent resting beside me, I finally decided. I pressed the thought of the serpents name down our connection, impressing it onto its being. Kyr.

At the same time, I pressed my name onto myself, watching it appear in a previously small empty space on my glossy surface. Etched in golden lettering was, Sybas.

For a long moment, nothing happened. Then, I felt a fundamental shift, the world changed, and both Kyr and I began to glow. A more overpoweringly bright glow than I'd ever seen in my short life. And we both became Named.