"The gods are masters of souls. Your actions in life are a mirror of your soul, which alters even as it reflects. In death you are drawn to whomever you are most closely aligned with. Heaven and hell are both the same, they are simply the people you spend eternity with. Be who you want to live with forever.”

Ecer the Wise, Prophet of Otga

I had been working on the entry cave for longer than I thought. Between my own mana and Exsan’s, we were close to the mana needed for the next level. Since it was just a short time away, now was a good time to meditate. The impact from seeing my soul was not as fresh anymore and I was ready to see it again. Hopefully I would learn more about it in the process. I was not sure what it meant to examine my soul, but I had a strong affinity for soul skills and I would be a fool not to use it.

I settled into myself. I decided to use something other than turning the flow of mana on and off. Exsan was working with it and he might object. For now I focused on the constant flowing of water. The noise of water ranged from the almost inaudible lapping at the edge of a subterranean lake, to the rushing roar of water cascading down in crashing waves before it vanished into the depths. I focused on all the loud noises first. I slowly tuned them out as I progressed to the softer and subtler sounds, tuning out each in turn. I found it easier than it had been before. With the vast area that the dungeon and aura covered I was subjected to far more information than I could process at once. It had unconsciously forced me to learn how to shut parts of my senses down. Now as I shut parts of my perception down intentionally that skill became obvious. Even as I realized this I acknowledged the thought and put it away with all the rest.

Eventually I lost track of the world completely and found myself next to my soul once again. It was not as I remembered it. My ability to perceive it had grown, and from a distance I could see the exterior of my soul as a sphere. I saw the exterior of it all at once. It reminded me of my aura perception.

My soul was as glorious as ever, almost. Its outer shell was constantly shifting, complex, but somehow I felt it had a unifying purpose. However it had scars, flaws. They were spread out in a few places, but they seemed to be healing. And the outer shell of my soul was not completely closed. Beneath, if that word had any meaning here, it was open and part of my essence was exposed. Beneath that was a machine.

That was my first impression. It was regular and moved in impossibly precise geometrical motions. It took me a moment to realize that this was also the shell of a soul. It was folded open to match my own and gleaming threads of its exposed interior were linked with mine. Its shell also bore scars, though they were deeper and more terrible than my own.

I knew examining it that it was Exsan. There was no logical analysis, I could simply feel it, know it. I could feel other things too.

I knew that even this perfect three dimensional view of my soul was a pale imitation of what my soul truly was. It moved in directions and dimensions I was either incapable or not yet ready to see. However, for the moment, seeing the matching scars, I knew that my soul had been wrapped around Exsan’s soul. My soul would eventually have smothered his. I could see what Tam had done. If I had stayed as I was originally, my soul would have strangled his and I would have become the uncontested master.

When I had no longer heard the voice of Exsan in the sewers, it was not Exsan dying. It was me detaching the still fragile connections to Exsan’s soul. I had been a hairsbreadth from death. In truth Exsan was the original owner of this core. However, I initiated the dungeon creation, not him. So the system healed us, and it had compromised.

As I saw and then touched the threads that connected Exsan and I, I could feel what had been done. From my core was drawn threads of memory, skill, all the necessary tools to think and know. This was what had been given to Exsan as recompense, and why he was progressing from mere instincts to thought so quickly. Exsan, by contrast, had threads from all the dungeon’s gifts, abilities, and power. A body had been given to me, and a mind to Exsan.

Our souls were stretching toward each other. Each gradually blossoming open to meet the other. The progress seemed tiny when perceived as a whole, but when I zoomed in it appeared to be moving with lightning speed.

Perception was strange here.

I lost myself for a time, dwelling simply in the pure joy of watching the two very different souls as they went through an ever changing panoply of shapes. It was hypnotic and relaxing. I almost felt like I was meditating inside my meditation. A piece of the universe falling inside itself to explore the universe deep within. Here, as I lost myself, I eventually noticed two tiny threads leading away from our souls. One from me, and one from Exsan.

I touched the thread that lead away from myself first. I felt the feeling of someone else, far away. A man, who seemed almost familiar. There was a sense of identity to the thread, much like how I knew the other soul was Exsan. I could not tell much about it, but when I pressed against the thread I could feel a single concept resonate through me. Debt, honor, obligation.

Confused, I released it. I had no idea what that was about. I could tell that the debt was owed to me, but nothing more than that. Was it some debt from my last life? Honestly there could be past lives even beyond that. Not like it would surprise me. What happened to a soul that wasn’t yanked unceremoniously to some other world and shoved inside a dungeon core? I had no way to be absolutely certain, but I was reasonably sure that was not a normal experience. I did lose myself wondering what it would mean if that was actually a normal experience. Eventually I came to the conclusion that it would mean that whatever god did exist was a colossal dick. Since I preferred to keep my, admittedly limited, sanity, I moved on.

I touched the other thread that linked to Exsan. It had no identity that I could feel. It was instead a more complex series of ideas. It was a series of images. Growth, a crystal growing and glowing. It changed shapes as it continued. Death, embodied by crystal pieces falling through the air. Rebirth, a shard of crystal striking the ground and bouncing back into the air to blossom with light and life once again. This were repeated, the images changing, but the core idea repeating endlessly. This then, represented Exsan’s nature as an immortal soul. I had tried to examine the skill, but it had not responded, since it was not mine. Dungeons could die, but they would always return. The phoenix imagery was more apt than I had realized.

I dwelt for a time in the soulscape and simply enjoyed the peace. I felt a faint pull and allowed myself to be drawn once more toward the world. I allowed myself to drift back to full awareness, even as I lost awareness of my soul. The details faded in my mind. For all the power in seeing my soul, the experience started to fade immediately. Gradually my mind blossomed back into the world and everything became clear and vibrant. Including the small insistent gleam of the notification light. Well that at least explained why I felt drawn back to awareness.

I opened the notification.

Exsan is attempting to level up.

Total mana required: 120

Current mana totals:

Caden: 49

Exsan: 78

Would you like to level up?

Yes No

I agreed.

Your status has changed – Level Up

Status

Dungeon Name: None

Name 1: Caden

Name 2: Exsan

Species Type: Dungeon Core

Subspecies: Twin Souled

Level: 5

Crystal Integrity: 100% - Undamaged

Status Effects: Current synchronization: 1% (>400 days)

Available Mana - Caden: 7/200

Available Mana - Exsan: 0/200

Passive Mana Generation: 110/Day

Survival Points:500

Next level: Costs 240 Mana + 100 Survival Points

Subsections Available: 2

Ability Points: 2652

Skills: Directed Mana Absorption II,

Limited Omniscience (Dungeon)

Soul Mana II

Dungeon Aura Expansion II

Manipulate Earth II (Earth)

Learning II

Enhanced Aura Perception II

Ambient Mana Manipulation II

Soul Meditation II

Interdimensional Repository II

Aura Mobility II

Destructive Assimilation II

Matter Fabrication II

Found Dungeon

Pain Resistance II

Vital Comprehension II (Life)

Mana Construct Intuition II

Mana Lexicon II (Language)

English IX (Language)

Living Creation II (Life)

Mana Diffusion II (New)

Dungeon Control Menu (New)

Titles: (Shared)

First of its Kind

Skill Evolution

Mana Specialist II (New)

Escape Artist IV (Deception)

Dungeon Martyr III (First)

Touch of the Grave I

Dread Salvation I

Seen the Infinite Void

Investment Specialist

Back from the Brink I

Dungeon Progression I (New)

Titles: (Caden)

Reborn Soul

Titles: (Exsan)

Immortal Soul

Mana Diffusion II

Your aura distributes all ambient mana throughout the dungeon. This mana is stabilized and capable of numerous uses. This skill is passive and can increase by both extending into richer mana sources and by acquiring more mana than can be held.

Dungeon Control Menu

The primary interface and system used to control and manage a dungeon. This allows you to control constructs, structures, monsters, loot, environments, and more. Various schematics can be purchased, and some will already be available. You may add your own designs into the system to be easily replicated.

New Titles Earned!

Mana Specialist II

You have acquired and developed numerous skills that direct, generate, and perceive mana. Your skills reflect a special talent for dealing with mana. Bend the mana of the world to your will.

+100 Ability Points

+10% Bonus to mana based skills

Dungeon Progression I

You have finally acquired all the basic skills needed to craft, control, and upgrade a dungeon. From now on mana will not be enough. You will need to struggle and triumph to grow and progress.

+50 Ability Points

+5% Increased Dungeon Expansion Speed

Hidden Rewards Revealed

Quest Reward

+500 Survival Points for Escaping

Investment Specialist

+10% Survival Points earned from adventurers dying or exiting active dungeon areas

Well that was definitely helpful. I had been in contact with Exsan a few times over the past few days, but so far his use of English could be generously called terse. I was actually wondering if I would need to teach him how to speak properly. There were so many concepts and assumptions that were wrapped up in language. And it was very important that I was able to communicate with him effectively. We needed each other, but proper communication had been pushed back so far.

For the moment, as I saw the need for survival points, I was glad that I had already earned some from my first quest completion. It was also nice to get the hidden rewards revealed. I had been wondering about those for a while. I also hadn’t gotten any ability points this level. So far they had come every other level. One hundred at two, and (if I removed the extra 10% from investment specialist) four hundred at level four. If the pattern continued I would gain AP again at level six.

I could see a few potential patterns for how I got more. It could just be a simple progression of three hundred more each time, which would mean seven hundred next time. Or it could be more complicated and be exponential. That would make the next reward be nine hundred at level six. Obviously the exponential progression was much better for me. And it would make sense of some of the absurdly high costs in the store for some things. Getting ten thousand AP at level twenty would make costs like 25,000 a lot easier.

I honestly wasn’t sure what mana diffusion did, so for now I brought up my new menu. The first section was dedicated to structures. These were non magical and permanent once made. Among the simple options that were already available to me was a pitfall trap. It was rough pit of variable depth and was poorly concealed. I was guessing this is what a normal dungeon used in beginner areas. There were also options present to purchase other kinds of related traps, like a spike pit. I was quite certain I could make most, if not all, it was offering from scratch. In fact, I fully intended to do so.

Other structures were simple things like stairs, hallways, etc… Nothing here was even close to the complexity I could make on my own. However, the option to save my own structures for later reconstruction was going to be immensely useful. While I was in this part of the menu I took the time to copy all of my statues, both in the entrance area and my core room. I also saved the buildings and the dungeon doors. The lights saved too, though they went into a different subsection. The menu seemed capable of holding designs for everything I had made so far, so there was no reason not to add everything. Sadly the various emblems couldn’t be added.

The next sub-menu was where my lights had been stored. This section also showed why I had acquired the mana diffusion ability. All of the creations here ran off the ambient mana of the dungeon. There was brief note at the top that the current mana available was above average. I assumed that was due to the geothermal mana I was continuing to trace with my aura. My probes were at least a half mile from the edge of my dungeon now, though the twisting paths that they followed were actually many times longer.

Each item here had a fixed ambient mana cost. The first items made me want to hit my head on something. They were a light globe (small), and an ever-burning torch. And I had worked so hard on getting the lighting up and running. With a sigh I made a few copies of each to see what they looked like. There was no upfront cost of mana. My aura gradually funneled in mana and they slowly grew. The light globe was a glowing sphere that hung in the air. It was a reasonably constant white light that was quite bright. The ever-burning torches created a flickering red orange light that covered a small area. They were attached to the wall with a stone bracket. The torch part was a bit of a misnomer. The flames flickered over the bracket and burned no wood, and it emitted no heat at all.

They both cost about the same in terms of ambient mana to keep running. Each was very cheap, though lighting any large areas would still stack up.

Struck by a thought, I used the stored pattern of my firefly lights. I watched as ambient mana created them. They took longer, since mana was invested into their creation. I looked back at my ambient mana, it had not changed. I smiled to myself. I actually had two methods of making lighting now. One was faster up front, but required mana to run constantly. Since the lights I created drew in mana on their own it apparently didn’t cost ambient mana. Or perhaps it was more accurate to say that mine naturally made more mana flow toward them.

Regardless, that meant that as long as I had time, light should not really be a problem. And I had more variety in the types I could make now too. Using this I immediately ordered the dungeon to make several thousand small, about an inch cubed, mana crystals filled up with mana. I did space out the creation a bit though. Both because I thought it would help prevent the ambient mana from dropping too far over a wide area as they were made, and in case they released any heat. I had not felt any from them so far, but you never know.

After that were options both magical or mechanical. I could order a trap to reset back to a starting point. There were also components for making moving parts and traps. I could make an a chosen section spin, rise, fall, etc… All the options were very basic, but I knew that together they had the potential to make incredibly complex systems when put together. And again, it would let me save what I made.

The next section was for monsters, but it was greyed out. Yeah, no real surprise there. I hadn’t bought any and still had no idea how they showed up in a dungeon.

The next section was for dealing with loot. It did not have anything offered other than a basic copper, silver, or gold coin. It would, of course, allow me to add more things I could offer. I just wished I actually understood the value of my various materials. I could set up chests and assign loot. I could also adjust the odds of when they would appear and where. Quite a few of the options were also related to monsters and currently locked. One thing that was interesting was an option to design, in complete detail, what would appear on the coinage in my dungeon. I was actually looking forward to the creative part of that. It had the option to pick a design for me, but I knew I would prefer to do it myself.

I pulled up the next area and saw customizable environments. This had some potential. Several options were already available, all from the cave system. It explained that it would provide nutrients and conditions that were suitable for cave dwelling organisms. There were different variants for the geothermal areas, swift moving and slow moving streams, deep lakes, underwater caves, and more. All of these were environments that were already in the sphere of my dungeon. Apparently it could replicate anything I already controlled. Once I set up a small section of the sewer this should let me tune it perfectly as I expanded it. It should help me as I started to grow the various plant seeds as well.

The next section was the last, but is was somewhat miscellaneous. It had options for locking and restricting areas so that they required some kind of key, basic options for designating objectives to open doors or offer treasures for puzzles, options for closing or resetting the entire dungeon, environmental modifiers for any dungeon area, options to randomly create or change an area, and more.

For the first time in a long while, I wanted to grin a grin filled with joy, anticipation, and sharp teeth.