Roughly somewhere between sea level and 100m below ground. That's the elevation Dungeon Cores form at, given the proper environment. A dungeon starts its life digging upwards. Slowly building rooms and levels, then waiting for them to increase in mana density before building another. As soon as a dungeon breaches the surface they are considered an adult and can begin digging downwards slowly, periodically shifting their core to lower and lower depths. Usually, this lifecycle is foolproof and even if formed under a hill - or small mountain - a Dungeon Core can usually find the side and open an entrance in the first few months or years it takes them to mature, however a good portion never makes it. It's estimated that half of newborn Dungeon Cores never reach the surface either because they aren't strong enough or get broken by accident.

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

And there...His mana was full, so he flipped back to “Storage” then the stored schematic. Step one is to create a stasis field, he began focusing on the influenced ground beside him.

A short while later the motionless corner of his crevice felt even more still and other than a faint clenching feeling as he held the space in place and frantically thought “inert”, “inert”, “inert” in the hopes that it would help it seemed to have worked.

Next step then... Gaseous element? I guess there’s some air here already he mused before starting to try and pull raw mana into a ball right beside him.

The mana fluctuated slightly in his sight, both there and not there as if he were looking at a reflection instead of an actual physical creation. Quickly flowing into a small ball roughly a single cm in diameter he checked his status – 9/10.

Pushing a bit more the ball continued to grow until it was roughly double in diameter – he checked the mana usage... 5/10.

That... felt like way too much mana was used for such a small ball… but he stopped pushing mana into the ball and observed it carefully. The ball was less of a perfect circle and more of an oscillating bumpy oval – but as long as he held it, it seemed stable.

Looking at the ball carefully, it didn’t fully appear to be mixed with a “gaseous element” even though he had made it surrounded by air. It was as if it was currently sitting beside reality. Not "physically there" and unable to influence anything that was.

Rather than continue, he focused instead on the step on the schematic pulling the feeling and information of what was needed. He saw a stretch of mana being spun with much more finesse than he was using growing and absorbing air as it did so. Afterward more air was pushed into the sphere until it seemed both lighter and more solid.

I guess I should have added air as I grew the ball...at least the end seems like they just continued adding to a density he sighed.

Noting down how the feeling of "pulling the air inwards" had felt, he turned back to the ball which seemed to have grown more and more agitated while his attention was shifted away.

The Core clamped down on it again, this time prodding the surroundings to get sucked towards it. Bit by bit – first with a great deal of resistance then slowly more control – the ball ballooned bigger and bigger as it filled.

For some reason when he first made the ball, the surrounding atmosphere seemed to just pass through his construct. The amount of air mixed with the mana was much much less than it should have been – even though it was surrounding and passing through where the ball was located.

As more gas was added – as if there was a hole in the side being pushed further and further open – the flow increased. Only part of the air he was pushing slipping out of his control and swirling away.

This continued before just as suddenly as it had sped up, the process started slowing down again, settling just before it reached a state similar to the one in his memories.

Close to three and a half centimetres in diameter, the ball continued to fluctuate and bump around erratically but with much less force than before. This strange material looked less like gas and more like a light liquid, despite being made of air...or at least partly made of air.

The surroundings he had pushed into it had acted strangely and he wanted to study that closer later. I can't get distracted by everything though, I should finish making this first.

Looking down at the next step, he juggled controlling the ball with flipping over to his “Materials” tab and attempting to open it side by side with his schematic. The process was less smooth than making the sections initially, the added mental strain from holding the raw mana not helping his concentration.

But, after the tabs resisted for a moment, both sides finally opened up side by side, The panel growing a bit on the edges to accommodate the larger setup.

Remembering the expanded, detailed view of the Basalt from when it was fluctuating, he focused and re-expanded it. He then grabbed some of the raw Silicon element contained within and pulled. The physical component appearing shortly beside his blobby mana ball.

He pulled the silicon and the mana in a strand as thin as he could imagine and began wrapping it around the ball. A clear, shiny covering slowly surrounded the core of his slime. He finally stopped this process at a point that felt right.

He slowly disabled the stasis field and let his slime drop and bounce as it hit the rough ground below. The Core stared at it in slight wonder prodding and examining the slime from all angles. I made this. This is mine.

It didn’t feel very sturdy, but it held its form – even after picking it up and dropping it a few times. The last step in the schematic was the simplest but also the most vague. Without fully knowing how, and zero indication from the system that he was doing anything, he broke off a small piece of himself and shoved it towards the blob.

He let the sliver of his consciousness leave his own mind and become something else. A new mind separate from his own.

The sliver was small enough that he didn’t feel any different, but the result was immediately apparent. His slime shone brightly and wiggled before trundling over to the wall and bouncing off of it. It looked like a small pebble, close in size to the Core's own crystal.

It turned again and moved down the crack that was the Core's domain before hitting the edge of his influence and slowing down to a crawl.

A second later with a small pop, the slime broke. Wisps of mana rose into the air as both the membrane and center of the slime seemed to melt, leaving nothing but a white powder behind. A second "second later" and the sliver of consciousness the core had broken off returned to him.

It was accompanied by weird half-memories – of having no sight or senses other than faint vibrations when he moved. These new memories felt less like something he had done and more like the downloaded information from the tutorial.

Speaking of the tutorial, he checked the box – expecting it to have changed. But as he did so, he found the most opaque and unmovable panel yet sitting right beside his status and previous tutorial window. Both the status page and the tutorial notification were slightly transparent. A clear, colourless and slightly boring table of information besides a small rectangular box that displayed the current task.

Tutorial 9/10

Pick Initial Elemental Specification on level up.

However, the new panel was solid and sharp, obscuring everything behind it from view. As soon as he glanced at it all other sensations seemed to fade and while he could turn and look back at his other two boxes the new panel kept slowly dragging his focus back.

Mana Specification

Water

Fire Control Halved. Water Control Doubled.

Air

Earth Control Halved. Air Control Doubled.

Fire

Water Control Halved. Fire Control Doubled.

Earth

Air Control Halved. Earth Control Doubled.

Water + Fire

Opposing Elements Water and Fire Forcefully Controlled. Drastically reduces Air and Earth element control, by dividing them by 175% twice turning them both to a paltry 33% of base control. Simultaneously this option increases both Fire and Water to 175% of base control.

Warning. Complementary Elements have a detrimental stacking effect on other sources.

Air + Earth

Identical to the above option, Opposing elements Air and Earth are increasing to 175% of base control. Water and Fire are reduced to 33% of base control.

Warning. Complementary Elements have a detrimental stacking effect on other sources.

All 4 Base Elements

By focusing on the basics, you forgo higher orders of mana. All 4 base elements in the tier one category have control increased to 111% while weakness is pushed to the future. Warning. Tier 2 and above mana sources are heavily impacted.

Non-Elemental.

A "gamble towards future power". By picking this option, base rank 1 elemental mana becomes harder to use, decreasing control to 50% each, while more complex flavours of mana become easier to learn. You also get a bonus in control the further from any base element the flavour is.

Warning! There is no guarantee any non-elemental mana is anywhere near as strong as base elements or their derivatives and esoteric flavours of mana can be detrimental to core health.

W..wha… I have to choose? The core stared at each option carefully. Nothing stands out… I don’t like this and I don’t want to make the wrong decision and ruin the rest of my life. The core thought while hovering over each option.

Does this matter? Can’t I choose them all? he continued while staring at the warning besides "all 4 of them." Mentally shaking his head he dismissed that choice, I don’t want to sacrifice the future for current power. Looking down at the non-elemental option he thought. Whoever or whatever wrote this really doesn’t want me to pick it considering that warning. Actually, every choice but the basic options has a warning. Does the warning mean there's a higher risk and higher reward? Are they better somehow? I feel like it's not giving me enough information. After looking at each option again and again waiting for a feeling of kinship to appear- waiting for one to stand out as the option that most felt like him...he felt lost.

Flicking his thoughts up and down for what felt like forever, a small flash finally appeared in the corner of his vision next to the status.

Title Gained.

Indecisive

Description

Hidden condition met by taking significantly longer than the average selection time.

Duration

5hrs.

Effects.

Provides additional help and friendly edited advice from elders.

A moment later his status blurred slightly and the title appeared below his stats.

When he focused back on the selection a smaller, somehow less substantial chart matching the tutorial box floated beside it.

Earth

Air

Fire

Water

Sum of percentages

Water

100%

100%

50%

200%

4.5

Air

50%

200%

100%

100%

4.5

Fire

100%

100%

200%

50%

4.5

Earth

200%

50%

100%

100%

4.5

Water + Fire

33%

33%

175%

175%

4.153

Air + Earth

175%

175%

33%

33%

4.153

All 4 Base Elements

111%

111%

111%

111%

4.44

Non-Elemental.

50%

50%

50%

50%

2.00

Notes:

Hey, noob if you're seeing this you probably need a push.

I have to say adding this condition was hard. Without a Tier, your status isn’t fully formed and it's awful trying to implement conditional magic that reaches level 0 nobodies who knows how far away. I hope you appreciate the work this took.

I don't know why the gods gave options other than the first 4, they are all a trap- I filled out this chart showing the initial benefits of each choice in terms of how easy they will make your life, with a single comment. Future potential is based on effort but making things harder for yourself doesn't always help you reach further. Training with resistance only boosts your strength if you can remove that resistance after you are done training- otherwise, it just makes everything harder. Aka those warnings are there for a reason and detrimental means stay away fool it's not worth it. (even if it let me make this message I regret it) -OG

Reading through the candid advice seemed to pull the core out of whatever mental block was preventing it from making a decision. Agreeing somewhat with the note’s message he looked at the first 4 options dismissing the rest.

It's not like it prevents me from using that type of mana after all, just makes it slightly harder... and they do have the best benefits.

Trying to look at the options from a different angle he thought of the benefits he could think of based on the limited knowledge he had.

Air seems the most useless... so I think I’m going to pick Earth – That way I don’t get a penalty to either Water or Fire and besides I’m surrounded by Earth. It's probably most of the surrounding mana and should be stronger. Yeah, honestly the fact that this option doesn’t give a penalty to either Fire or Water means I still have a lot of versatility.

Satisfied with his choice he only hesitated a second longer before grabbing the option and feeling his consciousness unfocus and dim.