A Dungeon Core is formed when high levels of mana infuse a crystal at a certain elevation for enough time to permanently change its internal structure. The exact way a core awakens sapience afterward is unknown however it is widely known to be separate from the core formation with the most believed theory being they are placed by the gods. Attempts to artificially create a dungeon in opportune areas have been met with failure repeatedly – despite perfectly functional low cores forming in controlled environments they have always remained inert.

-An Excerpt from “A study of dungeons VOLUME 1”

A spark of awareness followed immediately by a slam of confusion filled the new soul. The moment seemed to stretch frantically onwards, a loop of “what is happening, who am I, why am I, what is anything” flipping again...and again...and again through their thoughts before a simple colourless panel appears at the position the Core's consciousness focuses.

It hung there in their mind. Solid yet with no real attachment to anything and no real form.

Unnamed Dungeon Core

-(edit)

Level

0

0/10 exp to next level.

System Access Level

0

0/2 requirements met to advance.

-Tutorial Complete

-Level 1+

Stats

Current Elevation

0

At Birth Epoch.

Mana Regeneration

1

unit/min

Mana Storage

10

units

Physical Storage

100

units

Titles.

Welcome Young Dungeon.

This automated tutorial will walk you through all aspects of the system's function while lessening the initial confusion you are no doubt experiencing. The non-optional Basic dungeon Language package is being imprinted.

Staring at the strange shapes and lines a disorienting rush of information floods into the core’s consciousness. It wasn’t painful but seemed to last for ages – concepts contained in the form of symbols, letters, and their combinations. Units appeared with distinct quantities and lengths; symbols to express emotions and thoughts with increasing complexity until, just as quickly as it started, the rush stopped.

Staring at the box in front of him the words slowly came into focus, both the initial status page and the new notification beside it. With the returned focus came comprehension. The words crystal clear and troubling.

How did that rush of knowledge get forced upon me? Non-optional? I’m not sure if I like the idea of that no matter how useful it seems to be able to comprehend...read this notification.

The vast amount of information on language was perfectly preserved in his mind but still felt weird and foreign. The information was there from the ground up – however, his mind hadn’t yet sorted it and made enough connections for it to feel like his memories. The core mentally dismissed the message, it shrinking before being replaced nearly immediately with a new one.

Tutorial 1/10

You are an existence called a Dungeon Core. You exist for the regulation of mana and to challenge those who enter you. However, your life is your own, and other than a few guidelines that no doubt resonate with you, how you go about your newfound existence is up to you.

A second dismissal transformed the page into a new one

Tutorial 2/10

Effort must be rewarded to the best of your ability. And challenge must be given at an incremental difficulty. After breaching the surface other than the entrance you are not to forcefully spread and build on the surface other than to provide multiple entrances or exits with potential beacons and through special reclamation events.

Tutorial 3/10

The landing page for any system is the status bar. Here you can review your relevant species' stats, as well as any "system gained" achievements that are currently applied to your being. For example, if you were to break any of the previous tenets the "aberrant" title would be given and communicated to any "system given" creature nearing you leading to potential crusades to erase your existence. This is your only warning.

The Last message gave our Core pause. It had started flipping through the information watching the panel shift and move about with each page.

I’m being forced to follow those arbitrary rules? And if I break them the system will betray me?

The rules made sense to its “sensibilities” and he didn’t really feel any pressing desire to break them but the very act of them being enforced made him nervous. Flipping to the next page he tried to ignore the panic he felt with that revelation.

Tutorial 4/10

The second panel is system storage. It provides an intuitive, customizable way to sort, describe and otherwise interact with both designs and notes as well as raw resources.

The status, which had been static throughout all the interactions so far slid to the side passing out of view – a new, empty page filling its place. Nothing other than a faint sense of potential movement backwards at the top filled the page. Less of a visual indication that he could change tabs and more of an instinctual tag.

This new panel was blank, with no text or colour it was simply a panel. Paging through the tutorial, it flipped back to the status page – this time leaving a faint forward feeling near the top that he could follow to return to the previous empty panel.

Tutorial 5/10

Finally, any future panels will unlock as soon as you reach the system access level for it and created pages may be linked to templates if conditions are met.

The second part of the tutorial requires the user to accept a Basic Information Package

Accept Tutorial Information and Starter Package Y/N ?

A message very like the first appeared and this time it gave him some semblance of control – This one is optional? Should I refuse it to see what happens?

The only thing stopping the core was a faint fear that if he refused the new information, he would never be able to accept it. With a thought, the information was accepted. This rush was less intense, a quick flash of memory for already present instincts along with a detailed shaping of mana and material that, after imprinting into his memory, also seemed to slide into the status before settling.

Finally, the first non-dismissible notification appeared.

Tutorial 6/10

Task 1. Store raw material and begin spreading your influence.

Feeling out his newfound knowledge it took little work to attempt to push his essence out into the surrounding stone bleeding out into the crevice on one side before touching another wall a meter past it. As he claimed the surroundings, they entered his vision and instead of a black void he could look around and see his surroundings.

His sight was weird. The Dungeon Core could vaguely see everything in his influence, but it was fuzzy and muted. As soon as he focused on something in his influence he could “see” it as if from all sides. A 3d panorama looking inwards on the wall, or rock, or his crystal.

For he could now see he was a small, slightly misshapen and lumpy crystal. Trying to look outside of his influence put his vision right up against the still expanding wall and everything outside looked flat and distorted as if looking through a scratched up and dirty glass pane. Out of the corner of his focus, the information in the status started ticking down more and more, the value in his mana storage moving from 10 to 9 all the way to 5 before he stopped.

Trying next to pull the stone above and beside him into himself using instincts partly from his core, but mostly from the imprinted mental memory, he was met once more with success. The material in his influence seemed to slowly get stripped away layer by layer as if it were evaporating into nothing before suddenly the process pulled to a halt, a sharp feeling like suffocating accompanying his status showing his lack of mana while a cm or two of material was removed on two sides of his crystal.

Unnamed Dungeon Core

-(edit)

Level

0

4/10 exp to next level.

System Access Level

0

0/2 requirements met to advance.

-Tutorial Complete

-Level 1+

Stats

Current Elevation

0

At Birth Epoch.

Mana Regeneration

1

unit/min

Mana Storage

0/10

units

Physical Storage

0/100

units

Titles.

A minute later the trapped suffocating feeling abated as his Mana Storage ticked up to 1.

Coming back to himself he noticed the tutorial notification had already flipped to the next task- this time with no mental prodding from him.

Tutorial 7/10

Task 2. Sort and organize your new inventory.

This task was more ambiguous than the previous with no convenient instincts to accompany his new memories. Awkwardly the status was flipped to the empty panel. It now had a faint sense of containing information despite it still being blank.

With a focus on that information the panel filled with haphazardly shifting blocks of text – one moment a dense feeling of the stone around him with the text Rock was near the top a second later it exploded into several separate components - Si: Silicon, O: Oxygen, Fe: Iron, Ti: Titanium, Al: Aluminium and then as quickly as it split it shifted again into simply “Solids 17.23g”

Below the rock, an even worse blend of units, shapes, ratios of elements, and mana along with directions twisted about. After letting go, the panel went back into a blank state.

Trying again, this time focusing on the concept of physical storage and applying it to the panel instead of directly touching his storage, a bar slowly faded into the page.

After focusing on it the panel expanded to the whole page once again filled with a mutating set of information on the rock he had absorbed, this time without the other shifting sets of information. Focusing only slightly this time on a concept he froze the contents into its current form – Rock: Basalt: 17.23g. Then using a bit of focus made a "raw materials" heading and pushed the rock into it. The more he pushed and prodded the status into giving him what he wanted the easier it became.

Looking over at the tutorial notification he saw it was still not complete. I’ve already sorted out the rock. Why is it not complete? He thought before remembering the shifting mess of concepts he saw originally. That too?

Backing out he tried once again to focus on it this time touching the information briefly and getting a concept of a monster. Pushing out a panel for monsters he opened it and froze the concept into a name that expanded into the shape with all the steps sequentially laid out beside it. Did I receive this schematic as the starter package? Reviewing the concept, it was much easier to understand without each part constantly shifting.

Slime: Simplest "self-contained" creature distributed with the tutorial.

Step 1: Hold your influence as solid as possible in as large an area as you can imagine comfortably with the concept of “STOP” - not frozen, never "frozen" - to reduce mana interference.

Step 2: Holding a portion of mana aside, feed any gaseous element and roughly the equilibrium amount of raw mana into a sphere keeping it as calm and springy as possible.

Step 3: Slowly wrap your ball in Silicon using your mana to stretch and hold it.

Step 4: After wrapping multiple times slowly decrease your influence field to regular levels and test the strength of the membrane adding more layers if needed.

Step 5: Imbue the slime with a spark of your life.

As if reacting to the organized steps that were displayed, the tutorial task switched to a new page with little fanfare.

Tutorial 8/10

Task 3. Create your first Dungeon monster.

Flipping from the Storage tab back to status he checked his mana. - 9/10.

Might as well wait till I’m at max capacity before starting. He settled down to wait the minute it would take to refill.