Swimming along the reef bed is a young Nereid, finally setting off to find her own home. Not too much is known of Nereids, being one of the more solitary breeds of Fae, combined with their natural shyness and propensity to live in places unwelcoming to many aspiring researchers, such as “underwater”, they are more mysterious than their river-dwelling cousins the Naiads, and more reserved than their open ocean counterparts, Oceanids.

The Nereid in question is swimming around near the edge of the mana reef it was raised in, wary of venturing too close to the Hynix Archipelago for fear of capture by the humanoid races; and also cautious of settling down too far into the open ocean, what with the nigh nonexistent mana concentration compared to the reef and also the fact that not only are the predators there truly dangerous, the lack of hiding space has been the undoing of more Nereids than she cares to remember.

All of a sudden, the sand up ahead of her shifts, a small hole opening up in the seabed between a thick patch of seaweed and a large hard coral. Swimming closer to the entrance, she catches a taste of a peculiar mana, and while not as thick as her mothers’ home, it has a certain “tang” to it, the purity of the water element drifting out is something she isn’t used to at all, almost every other candidate for her new home she has come across has had some impurities, be it corals and the nature and earth mana they exude, or even that one conch shell she passed by earlier with the curious trace of fire mana. No, this is different, this warrants a closer look, hoping she isn’t stumbling into some other Nereids home, or worse, a trap some ambush predator has laid.

Peeking into the hole cautiously, she finds it darker than she would expect, the cave walls packed tighter than she feels possible, and the direction it continues deeper, a 45o drop for a few meters followed by a gradual incline towards the back of the cave, unlike any cave she’s seen before. Naturally formed cave, at least. Steeling herself to take a closer look, she slowly swims past the entrance, only to have her senses assaulted by a shocking amount and purity of water elemental mana. Confused by what could possibly prevent so much mana from escaping, she looks to the end of the cave and spies a tiny aquamarine jewel, only ten centimeters thick at best, rough and unworked.

Even without being cut, however, the sight of it is almost unnaturally splendid, the sea-blue color being magnified by the amount of mana being taken in by the surroundings, purified, and then released back out. Even the recently deceased corpse of some scaled humanoid floating near to it does little to detract from its’ splendor. Especially once that corpse begins to dissolve into glittering motes of light that flutter to the gem and playfully swirl around it as they are drawn closer.

Lost in thought, her tail starts working without her input, bringing her to the gem, until she is right beside it. The gem she is only barely twice the size of glows warmly, and in her trance she makes a statement.

“I would like to claim this gem to be my home, to bind it to my life, to care for it unto my death.”

You have claimed *error*

You have bound *error*

You have bonded with an unnamed dungeon core!

As a Fae, you will become a natural dungeon variant of your breed!

You have become a Dungeon Nereid!

As the first ever Dungeon Nereid, you have earned the title “Progenitor”

Due to binding with a High Dungeon Core, your race has become a Prime Dungeon Nereid.

As the first ever Prime Dungeon Nereid, you have earned the title “Primogenitor”

As the only existing Prime Dungeon Nereid, you have earned the title “One of a Kind”

For claiming your home, you have earned your name! Sela!

Due to various changes, your name Sela has become your True Name: Sela, of the Abyssal Reef!

Due to becoming a variant race, your body will begin metamorphosis. In order to not stress your mental state, you will be unconscious for the duration.

Reading to the end of the long string of notifications, the Nereid, no, Sela was dumbstruck. Three titles, a variant race change, and a true name were all things her mother had taught her, along with the knowledge that any one of these things she earned are not just rare, but almost never seen, even by the surface races. Adding to that was the fact that what she had bonded with was a dungeon, something that she knew very little of and all of that information explicitly stated that they only exist on the surface; and furthermore the fact that it was something called a “High Dungeon Core” which she has never heard of at all, Sela was a mix of confusion and elation. And then, she lost consciousness.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The little dungeon core was doing all right. It followed its’ memories pretty well, it thinks. It dug, and grew, and more digging and growing, and wound up with a pretty respectable cave, it thinks. That was another source of pride, too, thinking. It hadn’t interacted with much beyond its memories, and that other thought that tells it how it’s “status” looks.

Dungeon Name:

The Abyssal Reef Dungeon

Mana

N/A

Partner

N/A

Titles

Randomizer, Perpetual Mana, To Boldly Go, Invasive

Floors

1

Creatures

Kobold; Mana Fan Coral, Mana Brain Coral

Traps

Underwater

Yes, much like that. It even knew what some of that meant, which is pretty impressive. It also figured out “Eat" and was delighted. That’s right, once it grew all the way to the surface, and opened itself up, some food called “coral” fell right in, and gave it some new knowledge, and some new food. Unfortunately, nothing else has come in to feed it yet. But it can wait. That’s not all, though. When it opened a bunch of water rushed in too, that felt good. It felt even better once it realized the water itself was full of food, too. It even got some titles for its food.

Congratulations! For being the first ever dungeon to open in a location with more mana than can conceivably be consumed, you have earned the title “Perpetual Mana”

Congratulations, for being the first ever dungeon to open in the biome “Mana Reef” You have earned the title “To Boldly Go”

And on top of all that, it even earned another title when it spawned a kobold, and as a further bonus the kobold gave it a show, with all the struggling and twitching, then clawing at its’ throat, the little gem learned about humor.

Congratulations, for having and using dungeon spawns far from their native habitat, you have earned the title “Invasive”, and a large bonus to the adaptability of all future dungeon spawns, and increased chances of rare evolutions and variant races.

That aside, it finally had another meal show up not long after, a curious looking thing, with bright coral orange hair, two arms, a green tail and long, thin fins coming from its back. Feeling giddy at what this new meal would teach it, it suddenly became confused when the meal didn’t feed it. Instead, it floated in the cave, looking past the mana corals it had placed to its’ sides and focusing intently at the gem itself. The longer the strange meal lingered, the more this confusion gave way to apprehension, and then fear.

As it started to draw closer, the core was even more horrified to learn that it could not change its own interior fast enough to prevent the meal from reaching it. Even the kobold it spawned was no help, twitching uselessly and then dissolving; no doubt giving into fear of the newly recognized threat that crept ever closer. Finally the menace reached it, the slow approach obviously being how a master predator plays with its meal. And as all games must end, so too did this nightmare. Once the agonizing approach ended, and the demon had its hand on the helpless gem, it spoke. Out of its mouth came noise, grating and awful, the fear being amplified as it seemed to detail every terrible thing it would do to the helpless core, and how it would enjoy doing it.

“I would like to claim this gem to be my home, to bind it to my life, to care for it to my death.”

Unnamed Nereid attempting to claim you as its home

*Denied*

Unnamed Nereid attempting to bind you to it as an abode

*Denied*

Unnamed Nereid attempting to bind with you as your partner.

*Accepted*

Your partner “Sela” has become a dungeon variant to better fulfill its new duty.

Your partner “Sela” has become bound with your fate, to never betray nor abandon you. As proof, she will take your name as her truth, “Sela, of the Abyssal Reef”

The pebble of aquamarine was silent for a moment, before the magnitude of what happened sank in. The other thoughts in charge of its “status” saved it! The little gem was overwhelmed with many new emotions. Relief, happiness, thankfulness, and a strange connection to the former menace. A budding relationship, empathy even, and an understanding of the things intentions.

And as it immersed itself in her intentions, it found itself rethinking the opinion it had of her. From what it could tell, maybe she wasn’t trying to kill it. Not from what it could tell anyways. It seemed she was alone, looking for a home, and impressed by the gem and its capabilities. That was understandable, too, the gem impressed itself plenty, so it only made sense that everything else would be too. It began finding itself growing endeared to its new partner, especially once it realized that what she knew was being shared with it, and it was learning a lot more than before. It even knew what it meant to have titles, and how impressive it was to have four!

Of course, there was also the knowledge of all the meals that awaited it outside, along with the real menaces that it should be scared of. Just the thought of those “surface races” or the “predators” and what they were like was enough to motivate it to never have one as close to it as Sela.

Thinking of her, it turned its attention to her, watching her floating serenely by its core. It was even watching the changes of “adapting”. Her bright orange hair slowly turning to a deeper shade, then shifting hue to a deep blue-green, a few shades deeper than itself. Her tail slowly gained a purple color, along with her fins, whilst her skin became subtly tanner. After these changes finished, her eyes fluttered open, taking the same tinge as her hair. Overall, much more pleasant than the kobold, and it was satisfied. It just had one more thing it wanted to decide.