Hello everyone here is chapter 2! I hope you enjoy it and please leave a comment on what you like, dislike, and what I can improve on!

Alice stared at the dungeon core before her and after a long and awkward pause she asked

“So what is the name of my master?”

The dungeon core seem to suddenly come back to its senses and muttered so quietly no one but himself could hear “A name… I haven’t had used my name since then… really doesn’t bring back any good memories.”

Alice seemed to have heard the dungeon core muttering to himself and moved closer.

“Hello is anyone in there? Is this thing hollow?” Then she said as she lightly knocked on the crystal.

This seemed to have gotten his attention as he quickly composed himself and said,

“You can call me Sage.”

*Bing*

“Name is now Sage.”

“That voice again. It seems to make an announcement whenever something important happens. Is this an automatic function of my new body or is there something else at work observing me?” Sage secretly thought. Then he suddenly thought of something and said, “Did you hear that?”

Alice looked confused and replied, “Hear what? Nothing but you, me, and rocks here.”

“I see, so it seems these messages are directed towards me.” he thought. After a pause he asked “So what’s a dungeon fairy?”

Alice replied, “We dungeon fairies are formed when a dungeon core gathers enough mana to truly awaken. Our job is to guide the dungeon as it grows and to help it maintain a dungeon.”

“I see and what, exactly, are dungeons?” Sage asked after a slight pause

Alice stared at him like he was some strange creature.

“What’s wrong?” Sage asked, feeling very awkward

She continue to stare at him then flew around him knocking here and there.

“What’s wrong?” Sage asked again, feeling helpless

Alice finally seem to regain her senses and shouted,

“How do you not even know what you are! I thought you were a pretty talented dungeon considering how smart you were right as you awakened but how do you not even know what a dungeon is? Oh what am I to do. If this dungeon core is like how will we survive! Will I ever be able to evolve and become like my sister? What if he gets destroyed and I get captured! Oh what to do what to do!”

Seeing Alice zipping around the room in a frenzy Sage wasn’t sure of what to do. he had always been kind of a bookworm in his past life. His focus had always been to learn so he could become stronger and because of his own lack of talent he had to work harder than everyone leaving no time for any social interaction. Once he became known as the Sage Emperor he became even more reclusive. All the people who came to him seeking his knowledge and were very respectful to him. And now there is a little girl having a panic attack before him and he really doesn’t know what he should be doing.

“Ok, so this might not be the smartest dungeon core out there but at least he seems to be good at gathering mana, that’s one upside. Ok Alice you can do this, you going to make this dungeon core into the best dungeon out there!” Alice muttered.

With that she seemed to have finally calmed herself down. She turned toward Sage and said,

“Ok time for a lesson. I don’t know what happened to you that caused you to forget the most basic information you’re suppose to be born with but I’m not going to die or get captured because of you. I’m going to give you a crash course in dungeon basics!” Alice took a deep breath before she continued “Dungeon is a location control by a dungeon core. There are many varieties of dungeons but overall it’s a place where people come to kill monsters and get loot for their trouble. A dungeon core, that’s you, is what controls a dungeon. The dungeon is a part of your body and as you grow so will the dungeon. A dungeon core is formed naturally underground where there are high density of mana. It takes a very long time for the mana to slowly condense into a core. Once enough mana is gathered in the core the dungeon core gains consciousness and then forms their dungeon fairy.”

“So what exactly is a dungeon fairy? Are you a part of me?” Sage suddenly asked.

“What no, that’s gross.” Alice quickly replied, “While us dungeon fairies aren’t really part of the dungeon, the mana gathered by the dungeon is used to form our body. We’re normally spirits without physical form but when a dungeon awakens they form a dungeon fairy which is the host body for us. We’re given a chance for a physical form and in return we help a dungeon grow.”

“I see, please continue.”

Alice continued “Ok, so as a dungeon you will expand your territory using mana you gathered which in turn give you wider control and faster mana gain. You will also need to populate your dungeon with monsters and traps to protect yourself.”

Sage quickly asked “Wait protect myself from what? Is there something after us?”

Alice explained “Well as I said before people will come into the dungeon to test themselves against the various danger in a dungeon. Most people will be here to train themselves and to make money from this place but there will always be people that might have ideas about a dungeon core. Normally it is against the rules to destroy a dungeon’s core but there are always greedy people who might want a dungeon core for whatever reason.”

“Wait, why is it against the rule to destroy a dungeon’s core?” Sage paused for a moment and then continued, “And what do you mean by normally?”

“Well it’s simple silly, just like how the relationship between a dungeon and a dungeon fairy is beneficial so is the relationship between a dungeon and its surrounding people. A dungeon has the ability to produce resources just using mana gathered from nature and this is a very valuable to the surrounding people. Having a dungeon would draw in travelers from far and wide, increasing trade in the nearby area. A dungeon would also serve as training grounds for adventurers and sometimes even the army will use it to train their soldiers! So if we build a good dungeon we’ll have a lot of people coming to visit us which in turn will provide you with what you need to evolve!” Alice seem to be getting very excited.

“I see, I suppose it’s the same as magical forests the sects use to train their disciples only the entire area is controlled by a sentient force. Interesting, well if it’s a training ground then this might not be as hard as it seemed at first.” Sage was muttering to himself again.

Alice felt awkward when Sage just seem to mutter to himself without telling her anything, she was about to speak when Sage suddenly said, “You said having people in the dungeon would provide me with what I need to evolve, what does that mean?”

Alice was startled by the sudden outburst and said “Oh right I forget you seem to lack all dungeon common sense. It is fairly simple really for a dungeon to grow they need mana and lots of it. As you expand your dungeon size you will get more mana but that comes slowly. In order to get more mana you need people inside your dungeon. The stronger someone is the more ambient mana they give off and you can capture that for your own use. Of course if they were to die inside your dungeon you get even more!”

“Wouldn’t it be bad if people started dying in there?” Sage asked

“Well it is part of the trade off. No one will grow if there is no danger and if dungeons are not life threatening then they would be flooded with people abusing it for its resources. You won’t be able to keep up with the demands and you will be sucked dry. Making a dungeon dangerous deters those lazy people away after all you don’t really need people without much mana in your dungeon.” Alice slowly said

After pondering for a while Sage asked “You said before that normally it’s against the rules to destroy a dungeon core, when it is not against the rules?”

Alice replied “Like I said before there are many types of dungeons but most of them are pretty superficial as it is just the type of monster and environment. The two type that are different from the rest are Demonic Dungeons and Void Dungeons. Demonic Dungeons are dungeons that have fallen under a demon’s control. They become a lair that breed demon and is used to attack the people that lives on this land. Void Dungeon are even scarier as the void is something that is still fairly unknown. The spawn creatures of the void and the dungeon will rapidly expand into areas where people live. Both are considered highly dangerous and will be destroyed at all cost.”

Sage processed all this information and finally said “So how do I exactly go about this whole dungeon business?”

Alice happily replied “For starters we need to increase the size of this dungeon, just this room is way too small, you won’t want people to find you so easily! Once we have a decent size first floor we will need to fill it with monsters, traps, and loot. Then all we need to do is to make an opening to the outside and we are open for business!”

Sage said “Sounds good but where are we exactly? All I know is we are in a sealed cave, how far away would the outside even be?”

Alice pointed to the eastern wall and said “Don’t worry silly that’s what we dungeon fairies are for. You only need to dig about 200 meters to the east and will connect use to the outside. Of course right now we have much more important things to do. Oh right Sage what is your current status?”

Sage was startled by the sudden question and proceeded to check his own status.

Status

Name: Sage

Race: Dungeon Core

Mana: 290/300

Level: 5

Alice waited for a response and after a while asked, “So what is it?”

Sage replied, “Sorry you can’t see the status window? I’m currently level 5 and have 290/300 mana”

“WHAT!” Alice was in complete shock “How? You just awakened and formed me how did you gather so much mana already? I guess my luck isn’t too bad though the dungeon core I got stuck with is a bit dumb. I guess god compensated in other areas. With this kind of growth rate we’ll be able to…”

Sage just stared at this hyperactive little fairy zipping around as she went into another mumbling rampage. While Alice muttered to herself Sage started controlling the mana in his body to expand his dungeon.

“So it seem the cultivation methods I brought from my world has greatly speed up my ability to absorb mana in this world. Although this dungeon fairy seems to be on my side I believe it would be best to keep it a secret that I’m a soul from another world. I’m curious to see what type of cultivation they have in this world.” Sage thought to himself as he continued to dig.

Alice’s little fit lasted for a few hours before she became exhausted. By the time she came back to her senses Sage has already expanded quite a bit. The room they were previously has now been expanded to a 30x30x10 meter room with a tunnel going south. She also notice that Sage seemed to be gone and instantly panicked. She quickly flew down the tunnel and found another room but Sage was nowhere to be found. She is now in full panic mode and shouted “Sage where are you!”

Just as she shouted a rock on one of the walls moved with a rumble and a secret passage opened out as a voice came from inside “In here Alice!”

Alice flew through the door and as she flew inside the stone door closed again. Once she was inside the room she saw that it was a simple room that’s about 20x20x5 meter room. She couldn’t help but exclaim “Wow Sage you already expanded this much and even figure out how to spawn traps without me even explaining it! I thought you didn’t know anything about dungeons, were you holding out on me? Or trying to make me look bad!”

Sage was confused and asked “What do you mean spawn traps?”

“Don’t be so shy, that stone door was a secret passage that dungeons can spawn. I haven’t even told you about spawning stuff yet you already did it. Guess this won’t be so bad after all!” Alice was every excited at all the progress that has been made.

Sage replied “Wait, spawn traps? I built that stone door myself using mana.”

“What! That’s amazing how did you do it! Well forget it for now I guess I was a bit distracted earlier but we should move on to the next phase which is spawning! You will need to spawn monsters to populate the dungeon, traps to trick all the people that enter, and then loot to draw people into the dungeon!!!” Alice said, seeming to be getting into another frenzy.

Sage couldn’t help but secretly sigh “Doesn’t she ever get tired? Speaking of getting tired I haven’t seemed to be feeling any fatigue either since I have started my life as a dungeon core. I wonder what the status of my little dungeon fairy is.”

With that in mind he proceed to scan Alice.

There was a sudden flash of red light that blinded him for a split second before Alice’s status window appeared.

Status

Name: Alice

Race: Dungeon Fairy

Mana: ???

Level: 10

“What was that, it seem Alice didn’t notice anything…..” Sage tried scanning Alice again, everything was normal this time and her status window just appeared. He tried again… nothing happened. “I wonder what that was, could it just be my lack of control…”

Just then Alice excited continued “Alright let’s start with spawning monsters! Just focus your thoughts on the dungeon core and think about monsters. A list of what you are capable of spawning and their cost will be displayed to you!”

Edited by: mossclaw64

Edited by: The super secret and mysterious masked editor... from space!