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Unknown Place, Unknown Time

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The first thing I felt as I slowly drifted awake was, ironically, a drifting sensation. Like I was floating on a pool of water, rocking back and forth. It was soothing; relaxing. As was my want, I decided to enjoy the sensation and try to keep this state of being as long as possible. Slowly though, I became more and more aware. At some point, something twitched in my mind. I should be in my bed, why was I feeling like this?

When I went to take a deep breath, I felt nothing. I didn't take a breath, I didn't feel my chest expand. In a slight panic, I was thrust into full awareness.

I certainly wasn't in my bed. I was completely surrounded by water, with an island to the west. There were hundreds of fish swimming in the coral reef below me, as well their supporting ecosystem. Wait, What?!

Dumbfounded, I tried to blink. Nothing happened. I tried to raise an arm nothing happened. Why couldn't I move? Oh. I was a gem. A Gem? Yes; a three inch long, tear-drop cut, Teal Sapphire. Why is my body a Sapphire? And where the fuck am I? Unlike my other questions, nothing jumped out to me.

Unable to do anything, I continued to float on the ocean. The tide pushed me towards the island, which looked to be volcanic. Specifically the tide was drifting me into a cave entrance, a huge triangular crack in the side of a cliff at the side of a long beach. I was soon pushed up onto the sandy beach which ran along one side of the cave.

It was quite a deep cave, and the water reflected beautiful shifting designs on the cave roof.

And so, there I sat as the tide rolled out.

My glittering facets darkened as the sun set, the dazzling orange and pink tapestry of the horizon visible from within the cave.

With nothing to distract myself with, I was confronted with my new existence. I was a Sapphire, a Teal Sapphire. Gems have no brains, no hearts, no nerves or anything needed to be alive. They are composed of carbon and other minerals which give it a unique structure and coloration.

So why was I alive?

A glimmer of a memory caught my attention. Was I... A Dungeon?

A Dungeon: A crystal or gem with a concisousness and agency, which formed constructs of mana to defend themselves within twisting and dangerous caverns.

So, If i was a dungeon....

Status?

...

Bugger.

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Nothing worked. Wherever I was, I didn't have a system. That's fine. I've read stories where the core did without. I can too.

Obviously, I'm using it in some capacity. I can see after all, and I don't have eyes to see with. Speaking of, It's like I have 360 degree vision, though about half of it is obscured by the sand and the other half is staring into the moonlight cave.

I attempted to turn off my vision and failed. Eh, worth a shot.

Maybe it's like an exhale kind of feeling? I imagined taking a deep breath, and a long exhale. Ad infinitum. After a few dozen repetitions, I felt something. Motes of glowing energy, without colour yet sparkling like distant stars.

With every inhale the motes drew closer, some absorbed into my facets. With each exhale, those motes i absorbed left my gem.

But I could direct them.

Not accurately, but with grand sweeping motions. Almost unconsciously, I set them orbiting.

I also changed my breathing rhythm; sharp, strong inhales which drew motes closer and my orbitals spinning faster. Long, slow exhales which prevented the unaffiliated motes from drifting too far away.

It was a kind of meditation, and what once took all my focus became second nature. I was dimly aware of the sun rising and setting, over and over. After what must have been almost two weeks, My rings were like Saturn's; beautiful and glittering.

It also showed that this wasn't working.

Yes, I could draw mana closer and yes, I could control it afterwards. But I couldn't do anything with it. In frustration I drew my rings within my facets all at once and with an explosive 'shout' the mana shot away. My motes collided with the sand beneath me, the walls of the cave around me and the ocean water beside me.

The mana stuck to the walls, becoming lodged. The mana in the water continued unimpeded until it hit the sea bed. The mana in the sand became lodged much like the walls. The mana which shout out the cave mouth hit a passing seabird.

And Did Something.

The bird skwarked and lost altitude, crash-landing on the sand as it's delicate nervous system-like mana circuits were disrupted by my speeding motes. Within seconds, I felt the motes converting the bird's natural mana to more of my own mana.

Within the minute, the Gull was an extension of my will.

I could feel it's existence, if I wasn't paying attention. Focusing on it, however, gave me a wealth of information.

I could feel it's biology, i could see through it's eyes. I could feel the mana within it and by pressing my will upon it; i could tell it what to do. Absently, I directed it to fly up and around the island.

Flying is incredible, even if it is by proxy.

I was right, the island was volcanic. In fact, the volcano was active, even if not erupting at the moment. It's crater lake was boiling with nebulous and toxic gasses.

The flora was tropical; Palm trees by the beach and rainforest covering the rest.

I released the bird from my direct control, though I could still feel it in the back of my mind. Right. I can control animals i infuse with my mana. Cool.

What about the mana in the walls?

As soon is I directed my attention to it, I felt the mana in the walls and ground shift slightly, and suddenly I wasn't just the Gem, lying in the quartz and obsidian sand. I was also the sand, the walls formed of various strata of volcanic rock. Vaguely I could feel that my mind still resided within the gem, the Core, but the rest was like my body.

I was the cave, from the mouth to the termination.

Time for testing.

I willed the sand below my gem to move, and it moved. Like water, the black sand rushed towards my gem. With a push and a pull, the sand lifted me into the air, then fused into a five-foot tall obsidian pedestal, sparking with white glimmers.

My tear-drop form was gently held in place by fingers of rock, the tip of my pedestal designed to look like a hand, reaching up to caress my core. Quickly, before it could tip sideways, I extended long roots of obsidian downwards, to anchor my beautiful pedestal.

I also felt slightly 'out of breath'. Well, that makes sense. I did just manipulate and fuse sand into obsidian. That should take a fair amount of energy.

The next 'breath' of mana I took, I breathed with the whole cave as my mouth. I watched, astonished, as hundreds of free-floating motes rushed into my cave, coalescing into a stream of glittering not-light that wove through the air to my gem.

It was after a few minutes of this that I realised I hadn't exhaled. I was still 'breathing in'. Wait, Duh. I was a Gem, not a Human. I didn't need to breath. It was just a mental construct I'd fashioned to help conceptualize it.

As the stream grew from hundreds of motes to thousands, I took in the river of mana. I guzzled it down like a glutton, but soon began to feel... Full. I was also glowing rather brightly, an internal light throwing it's own reverse-shadows onto the walls. As the feeling of fullness gained strength, I took the mental cue and stopped inhaling.

But the Mana didn't stop coming.

It was now a roaring river, moving under it's own momentum. Panicked, with the feeling of fullness growing painful, I pushed my own mana out, making space for new mana to rush in.

I threw my mana into an orbit ring, and watched as it collided with the river of power coursing towards me. Slowly, ever so slowly, the river diverted. It joined the orbiting mana and as it collided with mine, it mingled and shifted, becoming mine all on it's own.

After what felt like an eternity, but must have been less than an hour given the shadows, the stream slowed to a trickle, though it never stopped.

New problem. I had so much Mana orbiting me, I had absolutely no idea what to do with it.

A second of thinking, and the answer came to me.

I was a Dungeon core. I could manipulate and absorb mana. In the stories I had read, Cores got bigger as they grew in strength.

Slowly this time, I pushed a few motes inside me to my facets. I gently pushed them out, but held them to the surface of my core.

Then, they crystalized!

I gently brought more to the surface, evenly, growing larger one grain of width at a time.

And so, that is how I became an almost foot long glowing Dungeon Core, on a five foot long obsidian arm and hand, sticking out of the sand.

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