Gemheart Dungeon (Unnamed) Soul Fragments 0/100 Mana 0.4/32 Mana Per Hour +0.2 Anima: 1 Logos: 2 Arcana: 2 Blessings: Gift of Beauty, Gift of The Sun. Recently born, this dungeon has displayed a refined aesthetic taste.

Your creation has received divine favor.

It has been Named ‘Sanctum of the Jeweled Serpent’ and given the following Blessing:

All creatures within this room will become more poisonous, with effects increasing the longer they spend near the Core.

Divine acknowledgement! I’d say it was an undeserved honor but, let us be honest. It was very deeply deserved.

With this blessing the centipedes crawling the walls had gone from mere decoration to a genuine menace to anyone trying to invade the Sanctum. Better yet, I could widen the chamber at the top and include some more poisonous beasts. Perhaps…

The possibilities of being a dungeon were endless. Every day was a new chance to channel my creativity into artful methods of murder.

However, I had a problem. My Mana reserve was running low. It was an awful feeling, a sickly sense of emptiness. I needed to eat - a grisly process of dissolving unliving matter through the cloud of ambient Mana that surrounds me. I had tried it out on a rat carcass floating in the stream outside my lair and the results…

Well, you imagine an invisible force peeling a rat layer by layer like an onion and see whether it leaves you feeling particularly appetized.

No, what I had my eyes on were the nice, juicy fish swimming through the stream.

And I had an idea.

I took the design of a spiderweb from one of the high gloomy corners of my domain, and spun it across the stream, making the webbing thicker and tougher. My first attempts failed to anchor to the walls and were quickly torn apart by the currents. My second survived until a fish came rushing downstream and tore right through the web.

I kept at it, making the strands as thick as ropes, attacking the task with the unique patience of a dungeon core. My last dregs of Mana dwindled and drained but…

There it was.

I had spun a net across the river of rainwater flowing through the tunnel. As the rain continued to fall far above, sticks and trash and rubble were swept into my web. A pale, fat fish slammed into the barrier and was pinned there by the wash of water, kicking and struggling. I simply waited.

Hours ticked by. A small dribble of Mana returned to my reservoir. But better yet, the rain had stopped. The river slowly dried to a stream, a trickle, a nothing.

Four fat fish flopped about and died in the net, suffocating on dry land.

They were delicious.

At two points of mana each, the pale cave fish restored what creating the rats had spent. Speaking of the albino brood, as the waters receded they were able to leave the Sanctum, scampering through the tunnel outside. All manner of wildlife was beginning to surface from the crevices and nests they had bunkered down in when the flood hit.

I left enough of the fish behind to lure them down. It was a bloodbath. Rat snapping at rat, hungry insects swarming at one another. Those few scraps of fish might as well have been a feast after days spent trapped by the waters.

‘Worth killing for’ was a low bar down here.

With each creature that died I consumed the corpse and dragged the tiny spark of Soul into my den. Each fragment was nourishing, empowering. I only needed one hundred to level. That was a fraction of the vermin that lived in my domain.

But more importantly, I had Mana to work with.

My first concern was increasing my income. Over a long period of time, I could harvest algae and lichen for a little more Mana than they took to create, thanks to the plants prodigious ability to reproduce. But that was a far away plan. What I needed now was a hunter to protect me and bring me tribute.

I turned my attention inwards, to the notifications I’d been ignoring.

You have Awakened and selected the [Gemheart Core] Genotype

You may now select a Free Schema. Your first summoned creature will gain a special blessing.

Creations made from a Schema have their cost significantly reduced. You may create further Schemas based off absorbed creatures or your own creations.

Minor Golem (Common) - Simple constructs made of mud and dirt, Minor Golems are tireless workers and strictly loyal, if not especially intelligent.

Green Viper (Common) - A mundane snake, this viper is nonetheless able to kill opponents many times its size through ambush tactics and a paralyzing venom.

Kobolds (Common) - The lowest and cheapest of intelligent creatures, Kobolds have the ability to learn basic skills and will naturally create Chieftains and Shamans as their population rises.

Ratfolk (Rare) - Clever, cowardly, cheap. With ratfolk you get all three. Prone to mutation, ratfolk can adapt to any environment.

Crystal Spider (Rare) - Beautiful and cunning creatures, Crystal Spiders secrete dazzling and razor sharp crystals that they use to prepare traps for their prey. Unintelligent.

Shadow Raccoon (Rare) - Surprisingly intelligent, these creatures shapeshift into humans by stealing their shadows. Have a small chance of learning Shadow magic when evolving.

Well, I should hope my choice was obvious.

Green Viper was the superior option.

Ah, I can all but hear the layman cry out, choose Crystal Spider! No, choose Raccoon! These lack the finely tuned sensibilities of the sophisticated dungeon core. I had fate with serpents. My body was etched with their shape, their likeness carved into the door of my lair.

Setting fate aside and putting this in logical terms, a viper was likely cheaper than any of the intelligent options - and certainly cheaper than Crystal Spiders - but able to defeat enemies many times its own size. That made them perfect for bringing in a return of Mana.

But most of all, they were natural. A viper wouldn’t bring attention in the way a crop of new ratfolk or spiders made of gemstones would. All around me I saw the debris of civilization. Rings and trinkets glittered among the chewed bones caught in my net.

Humans were close by.

I instinctively knew them, and knew to fear them. Humans coveted cores. Some would form peaceful contracts with them, yes, but others would seek to drain them of Mana and harness them as mere enslaved batteries. I couldn’t afford to announce my presence until I was ready.

So viper it was.

There are few words to describe receiving a new Schema. It hits like a lightning bolt. It overwhelms the senses. For a few distressing moments, everything tasted of snake.

I didn’t even have a sense of taste.

When it faded, I had a perfect image of a green viper in my head. I could tell you every detail, count the scales, count the heartbeats of that snake. It was a flawless blueprint that I could create a thousand identical serpents from. I was eager to start - to meet my first proper creation.

Mana poured in motes of liquid light into the idea of a snake, bringing it into reality. Bones formed first, a long skeletal structure, and then organs and muscles filled in the gaps. Skin was last. At the final moment, there was a sudden twist as something else seized control of the process. A streak of golden scales materialized across the creature’s spine.

And then it was done. The viper stared out at the world with yellow eyes.

It stared at me for a long time, and I swear to you, I felt the intelligence in its gaze. Far more intelligence than a simple snake.

Then it nodded its head, slowly and sleepily, and curled its body around me. I felt remarkably safe in that moment. I had found my guardian.

Aurum. I decided I’d Name him Aurum.

[ Gold-Streaked Green Viper ]

“Aurum”

This common snake possesses the faintest hint of a golden dragon’s bloodline, giving it unusual intelligence and potential. It can spit a paralyzing venom.

Blessing: Name of the Treasure Guardian - This beast grows constantly by maintaining contact with its hoard, steadily absorbing Mana. Amount of Mana gained increases with hoard size.

I made two more snakes, neither of whom had the golden scales or the intelligence of my new favorite. As I made them I fed in thoughts of the hunt, thoughts of fighting and killing, and sure enough, they came out far more aggressive than mundane serpents would be. They slithered through the tunnel like agents of death. I quickly gained Mana from several rats killed, some of them my own creations.

Satisfying results for a day’s work. If given time, my hunters would likely harvest the one hundred Soul fragments I needed to level.

But I had other concerns.

Where was I? When should I expect human guests? I had no way of answering these questions, since I had no direct control over my creations unless I infused them with a Shard. It was stifling. Like being born without limbs.

Unfortunately, a Shard took one ingredient I didn’t have. A common gemstone. With the last of my mana, I would need to create a solution.

I had created rats before, but this one was the rat to end them all. Stronger. Faster. Far more cunning. Eyes like rubies and fur like cloudy white quartz.

I thought of treasure as I made her. Of gemstones glittering in the dark. Of gold found in the muck. Of wandering far from home and returning to the nest triumphant and rich.

As she scampered off into the dark, leaving my territory, I could only wait and see if this would be enough to instill a whole new instinct in a brain as common as a rat.

While I waited, I considered the final notification.

You have reached First Level.

You may now choose an Attunement. Attunements offer a small bonus initially, but will later grow to effect monster mutations, Overflow gifts, and Dungeon Laws. Choose carefully.

You may choose to receive an additional Schema Slot OR an expansion to your Mana pool OR The Great Wheel’s Whim (I).

Again I was confront with the web of choices I had seen when choosing my Genotype. Bubbles of light and imagery strung out on darkened pathways. Looking into one at random, I saw the Attunement of Mold in all its damp glory, an empire of algae spread endlessly through the tunnels, thriving and slimy.

Another contained the Attunement of Drowning. A fearsome, dark abyss full of horrors.

The Attunement of Greed. This one I paused on. It was smaller than the rest, a lower level of power, but it suited me. The one issue was its Blessing. It would draw people towards me. This was not what I wanted in that moment, but I promised I’d return when I was a more established Dungeon.

Having noticed a hierarchy between the Attunements, I rose higher. Larger and brighter options loomed. But as I moved towards them, an invisible pressure pushed me back, like the tide washing away my tiny consciousness from an island of light. I could only catch glimpses.

Water. Fire. Steel. Powerful concepts.

I would be back for them.

You have selected the Attunement of Disguise (I)

All creatures within your Dungeon will receive basic camouflage, and you may alter their coloration without spending Mana.

That left me with a final decision. Expanding my Mana pool was out of the question. I had enough trouble keeping the current one full. So, a Schema Slot or the Great Wheel’s Whim?

Once again, I went with the immediate choice. Another slot wouldn’t help me when I hadn’t even filled the ones I had. Instead, I selected the Wheel.

And everything went white.