“I love the man who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.”

-Thomas Paine

“Death is never the end. Though the Gods are reluctant to provide details, even we mortals can perceive the soul. That uncertainty adds a certain poignancy and joy to the life we do live.”

-Funeral speech attributed to Theins the Cleric

Caden was staring down at his own body and felt conflicted. Certainly there was the usual denial, anger, disbelief, and the other disparate emotions of a newly displaced soul, but there was also a feeling that the moment was almost tawdry, pedantic.

‘So that’s it. I’m dead and in a bad movie scene.’

It felt so cliche. The scene of the scattered car wreckage and the distant sound of sirens approaching could have come from a bad movie, especially if it featured a person looking down at their own corpse. At least he hadn’t killed anyone else when he hit that patch of black ice.

The world started to fade away and become bright light. And it was in this moment that the cliche was disrupted. Caden felt himself abruptly yanked sideways through the world, moving in a direction hitherto unknown to him, and suddenly saw the inside and outside of the car, his body, and the concrete simultaneously.

‘Holy craaaaaaaaaaappp.’

Everything jumbled together with other impossible images and then reality snapped back into place.

He found himself in a room carved directly into stone. The room was fairly simple. A single archway that lead out into a hallway. The hallway turned a corner and went out of sight. The stone itself was mostly grey and tan, though a few stray veins of something marble-ish ran through it. His emotions were dulled; he was curiously detached, and he simply existed and observed. There was no concern; there was no curiosity. Both of these emotions would normally be appropriate, as he was not where, or what, he thought he would be after dying. Not to mention the issue of dying should have caused some small emotion all on its own. He thought these things, noted them, and continued on in perfect apathy.

Caden found he could see in all directions simultaneously, though the view below him was mostly blocked by the object he was resting on. He was now a clear red gem. He could not actually see himself, but red stained shadows pooled beneath him like blood.

The room contained other items that ought to have attracted his interest. Most notable were the balls of light floating just below the ceiling; they gave off a soft warm glow. A close second was the presence of another crystal. This crystal was black and roughly the size of a man's heart. The surface of the crystal was translucent, which hinted at inky depths. The crystal was placed on a stand. The stand was about waist high on a man and was composed of two hollow circles linked by a helix. One circle rested on the ground and the black crystal was held aloft by the other. Above the circle on the ground, a milky white crystal glowed dully and was held in place by metal prongs. The metal of the stand reminded him of silver or stainless steel, though the faintly glowing writing that spanned the outside of the helix was decidedly not normal.

Time had no meaning for him in his current state, and a timeless moment later a man entered the room. If Caden had been capable of expressing an emotion, he would have been surprised. He had, correctly, overturned his entire world view and decided that he was here due to magic. This would normally have been far more difficult, but lack of emotion does have some benefits for pure rational thought. Caden had subconsciously expected the standard mighty wizard look: long white hair and beard, possibly glasses, an ancient face like a crumpled brown bag, robes, a gnarled wooden staff, a pointed hat, etc... What he got was far more mundane and practical.

The man was wrinkled, but it was the wear and tear of someone who had spent many days braving the elements. Wrinkles were carved into the face as water shapes stone. He was balding, with neatly trimmed salt and pepper hair forming a half circle near the level of his ears, more salt than pepper. His nose was thin, short, and perfectly straight above teeth like polished ivory. The man wore brown leather boots, with pants and a long shirt both the same shade of whitish tan. His hips sported a leather belt studded with various pockets and pouches across the front.

The first thing the man did was examine him. He moved his hands and spoke words. As far as Caden could tell nothing happened, but the man's eyebrows rose and he smiled broadly while nodding his head. He repeated more gestures and incantations several times, each time smiling afterwards. Finally he looked between Caden's crystal and the black crystal on the stand. With a smile he rubbed his hands together and took a piece of chalk from a pouch at his waist.

The man drew a circle around the perimeter of the entire room. Followed by two more circles, a large one and a smaller one. Each circle touched both the outer edge of the circle around the room perpendicular to one another, and each other. Within the larger inner circle he drew two new circles. These circles did not touch each other and were several feet apart. Caden, along with the stand that held him, was placed in the center of one circle, and in the other the man placed the black crystal on its stand. Between the two circles the man wrote out runes in a straight line from the edge of one circle to the edge of the other. Off that line the man drew branches of runes in many different shapes. Sometimes just another simple line, but sometimes these lines branched or had other shapes; there were spirals, zigzags, and curving lines of text. Additional runes were placed at the perimeter of all of the circles, though these were less complex and did not cover the entire perimeter.

Once all the runes were drawn the man carefully checked that each one was correct. Afterwards he did the same thing again. He made no corrections, but moved with glacial slowness, not risking any errors. Once he had finally finished he carefully moved until he stood in the center of the smaller inner circle. With a few gestures of his right hand, the chalk around the room lit up with light. He kept his right hand in place and carefully moved his left into a pouch on his waist. He emerged with a handful of silvery dust and tossed it into the air. The dust drifted down towards the chalk and stopped an inch above the ground, forming the runes and circles in the air. With a gesture of his left hand the chalk flashed and vanished.

The man started to gesture with both hands and spoke firmly and clearly. The silvery runes grew steadily brighter as the man continued. Eventually the light grew harsh and blindingly bright as the runes blazed with contained power. Caden, however, missed much of this. As the chanted words progressed he found his view more and more constrained. He found himself focusing on the black crystal with inhuman intensity. The black shape grew before him. First it was like a dark moon, then a black world beneath him, then like a deep cave, and finally all he saw was darkness.

When Caden awoke his mind was functioning properly once more, although he had some doubts about that. Mainly because the first thing he saw was a few pop-ups that looked like this:

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Your status has changed!

Status

Name: N/A

Type: Dungeon Core – Soul Hybrid

Level: 1

Crystal Status: 100% - Undamaged

Status Effects: Mana Drain

Available Mana: 0/25

Passive Mana Generation: 10/Day

Next level: 15 Mana Cost

Subsections Available: 1

Ability Points: 100

Skills: Mana Absorption I,

Limited Omniscience (Dungeon)

Soul Mana I

Dungeon Aura Expansion I

Titles: None

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You have been given new titles!

Reborn Soul

Your soul was captured just after death and reborn into something new. You are aware of yourself as a soul in a way few people ever are. Take this new chance and make the most of it.

+250 Ability Points

Learn and level up soul related skills in half the time

First of its Kind

You are the first of your kind, a dungeon with a mortal soul, and are potentially the progenitor of a whole new existence. The weight of the world rests on your shoulders, but you have unlimited potential.

+500 Ability Points

Learn the first level of any skill in half the time

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New Quest Obtained!

Freedom or Dominion

You are being held captive. Some of your abilities are removed. Escape or kill your captor to gain your abilities back. Exceptional accomplishments in this task can earn greater rewards.

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‘What?’

Caden's mind was a tumultuous blend of emotions, and the pop-ups were not helping. He was first confronted with his recent experience of becoming post-mortal.

‘I died!’

And… now he was reborn... sort-of.

‘Am I in a game? Well I doubt that. More like in a place that functions like one I suppose. And I am going to rip out the throat of this petty magician that dares to…’

Wait. That was not really his own thought. It was a foreign instincts that momentarily twisted his thoughts.

Caden could feel that he was no longer alone within his own mind. He shared his crystalline existence with something other. It was darker and more primal, a creature of urges and instinct rather than intellect. By comparison anyway, as humans were not exactly shining examples of intellect triumphing over instinct themselves. He could feel the impulses of this other half, and how it was tied into his own mind. It had risen up and the feelings had transmitted through his own until it warped his thoughts.

‘This could be dangerous.’

Caden's other half resented being trapped. It wanted to expand and protect itself, to bury itself in tunnels deep within the earth. Most of all it wanted to lash out at the man that posed a danger by being too close. TOO CLOSE!

He marshaled his thoughts, trying to remain calm and tamp down the raving of his other half. He focused on what was happening now. He still had sight in every direction, but he could now feel and see everything within a few feet. Mostly he was focused on was the man (too close), who was, in turn, examining him with great interest. Caden was now also keenly aware of himself. Unlike before he could see himself from inside and out. He was now a purple crystal, more of a gem really, a large oval with dozens of small facets. His lower end was firmly held by the same stand the black crystal had been in before.

Caden could see even more. He could see faint movements of currents in the air. And contained within the air he could see... something. He did not know what to call it, but his other half's instincts recognized it with hunger as power. This power was everywhere, it gleamed faintly in the air, and he could see it slowly swirling inwards toward him. From there it condensed into a stream that entered into his core. Then, however, it was pulled away and diverted down into the helix of the stand where it followed the runes along its structure until it was stored in the white crystal below. Caden's other half wanted to rave and rant about this as well, but he refused to listen; his attention had already been caught by something else.

The old man had made a few gestures accompanied by words. Unlike before, he could see something radically different. As the man's hands moved, traceries of power formed into a web.

‘Beautiful.’

The web finished and sank into his crystal, leaving a filament of power that connected back to the man. The man squinted slightly, and his eyes went back and forth while he looked unfocused.

‘Looks like he is reading something. The same kind of display I saw earlier? I wonder what kind of information it has on me.’

He had been trying not to think about that.

‘I’m a dungeon, rather some odd hybrid dungeon, and I was dead. Not exactly true now though is it. I had died.’

He found his mind was rather focused on this. The idea of death tended to periodically occupy the thoughts of anyone capable of understanding what that would mean. And now he found himself past that. This was quite a shift. He was not dead but rather undead, formerly dead, not as dead as he used to be, the dungeon formerly known as dead. He laughed to himself at his own poor jokes.

He tried to shake his head and nothing happened. It was the strangest feeling he had ever encountered, because he felt like something should have moved but nothing had changed at all.

‘Wonder if I will need to deal with phantom limbs?’

Focus, focus. He was getting distracted, and he was letting himself because he was avoiding the suddenly massive issues facing him. He died. His former life was over. A lot of the time characters in books and movies got transported somewhere else and whined and moped about how much they wanted to go home. That was not an option for Caden; the going home part, he could moan and whine all he liked for all the good it would do him. He was dead. He repeated that in his head, because while he understood that on an intellectual level it was hard to convince some remaining part of himself of that truth. His friends were going to mourn, his parents and family cry over a grave which would contain what remained of his flesh after organ donation (assuming the crash left donation still feasible). His old life was over.

‘Oh God. My parents and brothers. Nothing I can do from here at all… Well. It is not like I could have done anything after I died either way.’

He was something else now. From what he could tell his soul was more or less the same, except for his new partner, which was a relief, but the rest of his world was vastly different. He was in a world with magic, and one styled like a game at that. There were infinite possible worlds, and Caden supposed he should be grateful he landed in one that was within his ability to comprehend at all, but it was beyond merely strange. He was a dungeon... sort-of. He was a crystal. The heart of a dungeon to be, even if all that belonged to him for now were a few feet in every direction. He could feel the intense possessiveness of his dungeon soul; it might not have much but it was his.

‘How many times did I wish there was more magic in my life? Oh course I didn’t want to die to make it happen. This reminds me of that birches poem by Robert Frost. Well, best to do what I can.’

Caden finally read through the pop-ups now that he had calmed down somewhat. The mana drain status explained why he could see that energy passing through him as he consumed it, as well as what the energy was. He was obviously being kept at zero mana so he could pose no threat to the man studying him and keeping him captive. The mana that was siphoned off of him seemed insignificant compared to the total amount around, especially around the mage.

‘The total mana I am producing is pretty small. The wizard is throwing off far more. Probably not just using me as a mana battery then.’

However, he still didn't understand the mage as he spoke. He had been half hoping that he would gain that knowledge from the dungeon core, but no such luck. He guessed he had better get familiar with himself. He focused on each of his abilities.

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Mana Absorption I

Raw mana within your aura can be drawn into your core to increase your available mana.

Limited Omniscience (Dungeon)

You can see, hear, and feel everything within your aura. Living entities and dense mana sources can block your senses.

Soul Mana I

Unlike any other dungeon, you have a mortal soul. Mortal souls naturally create raw mana. This mana flows into your available mana.

Dungeon Aura Expansion I

You may convert any available mana to expand your area of influence (aura).

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‘Right, well that all actually seems straight forward. I can draw in or create mana and then store it, and then I can use it to expand my influence, known as aura. Looks like I also have some perks because I am both unique and reborn. Probably need to level up before I could do anything else. Not that that is going to happen as long as I have no mana. Damn. I am going to need to find a way to fix that.’

Caden focused on his ability points and a massive array of purchasable options appeared. They were neatly organized and he could even search in various ways. His dungeon half lacked the wherewithal, and interest, to understand anything he was doing, so he assumed it would just do this kind of thing on instinct. It was mostly just trying to urge him to get something done. Most of the options were plants or animals, some both, he could learn to create, but since none of the associated mana costs were zero, (‘No surprise there’) he would need to do something else before he tried getting any summons. He searched through the list, finding what he could on mana. It looked like he could not buy an increase for any of his current skills, or if he could that option was not available yet, so there was no help from that.

There were a few skills that looked promising. There was a skill that resisted magic with the dungeon core as its target, or which altered its immediate area. Another would allow him to resist magical drains of any kind within his area of influence, and from the description it looked like it would benefit monsters in his dungeon to a lesser extent. Many others allowed him to get far more mana under certain conditions, like the death of his own monsters or other creatures, but would not be helpful now.

Since he had special affinity with souls he looked up anything with that too. There was not very many options for that available. He was not sure if that was because he was not high enough level or skill to get them, or simply because he was the first dungeon who had a soul that could use them. There were some options for undead creatures using the souls of killed adventurers. Another option used the death of creatures to generate soul energy, though he had no idea what he would even use that for. The only remotely currently useful option he saw was for some kind of soul perception, it could more accurately see the power of creatures and people. Mostly he was looking for ideas of what was possible.

The titles that Caden received had actually provided him with vital information. One skill said that he would gain the first level of skills easier.

‘I do not have to purchase every skill, or get them from level ups. It explicitly says I can learn skills. That means I could at least potentially learn all of these skills. Good thing, damn most of these are expensive. Don’t want to waste these ability points either.’

Most of the skills he had looked at could not even be afforded yet. He wondered if certain skills could only be purchased though. At the moment he had no idea how many points he would get each level. If he got 100 per level then they were rare enough that he would want to conserve them. He could end up getting a lot more, or a lot less. He had no way of knowing.

‘As long as I am not in any danger, well, immediate danger, there is no reason to waste my resources. Ugh, I don’t want to just sit here endlessly though. And I am going to kill that old man. No, Shut Up You! Great, now I am yelling at a random instincts that are flaring up in my mind. That bodes well I am sure. I am not going to kill him. I am just going to make absolutely sure that I escape.’