I stretched out the wiggly invisible tendrils that made up the bulk of my body, part of the walls of the dungeon as it all radiated off of my core, and tried to get a feel for my world. When I had woken up I had started digging instinctively for the light, probably because a dungeon isn’t a dungeon if it doesn’t have an entrance, but now I couldn’t really use that entrance. Mama and Papa Badger had taken over that area after all, and rather than risk kicking them and their tasty free mana out I would need to make myself a new opening to the outside world.

The big problem was, well, I had no idea which direction I should dig in order to find the open air. I had no idea what the outside world looked like. For all I knew I could pick the wrong way and just tunnel endlessly out into a mountainside. I could waste all my mana, and then what would I do? I would just have this long tunnel into nothingness!

Worse! What if I dug and I ran into water? What if I ran into another dungeon? Or more badgers? There were just so many things that could go wrong!

Worrying about it was getting me nowhere, however, and I did at least know the difference between up and down, so I at least knew that if I dug upwards at an angle I would eventually hit open air. How far down did tree roots even go, anyway? If I was running into them already then the surface shouldn’t be too far up.

I picked the wall opposite my core, away from the badgers, and began to put [Tunneling] to work, digging into the dirt. While I had dug downward before to make more room for taller tunnels, I now began digging upward. I knew now how tall I needed to make them for things to be comfortable for my kobold, so I kept things at that height as I began to burrow away.

My new tunnel led away at a slight angle from where the first entrance had been dug out, which meant I was possibly digging deeper into wherever I was, but at least with it leading away there was less chance of the badgers finding their way in through that route. They were kind of cute, and they were useful as food, but that didn’t mean I wanted them to go and turn the whole place into their home. Based on stats alone they were way stronger than my kobold, so there was no way I wanted to deal with that potential interaction.

I kept [Appraisal] turned on myself as I burrowed, watching my mana carefully so I could keep it somewhat around the halfway point. If it dipped down too low I could find out for myself just how much mana new leaves and new bugs would give me. The absolute last thing I wanted was to use up more mana than I wanted and find myself stuck waiting for it to refill before I could actually finish the door. The less chance of badger on kobold interaction, the better for all of us.

Dirt disappeared into my core as if falling into a bottomless pit, the tendrils of myself that were rushing through the soil and making my body larger were happily charging ahead as I expanded. It wasn’t long before the flavour of the dirt began to change, and then the texture as well. It was richer, softer, but with small chunks of stone and pebbles mixed in so that there was an almost crunchy sort of effect. It made it a bit harder to get through, but it was also a nice change from what I was used to.

There were more worms and other small bugs as I [Tunneled] ever so slowly upwards at an angle, keeping the slope gentle and gradual so that it wouldn’t be too difficult to drag myself along if I decided to go moving my core along in that direction. My intention was to dig outwards, of course, but if I ended up just [Tunneling] deeper in then I would be compelled to move myself, so I needed to keep the options open.

More and more tree roots began to reveal themselves along the ceiling as I expanded, and I was careful to simply shake the dirt off and only eat the very smallest little tendrils of soft and tender wood that dangled freely from above. They were far more delicious than worms, but I didn’t want to go and kill the trees, not when they were helping to form a nice barrier overtop of me.

It seemed as if there was a forest growing up above the surface, which was pretty lucky for me given I had sent my kobold out to collect wood to build the door with. I was sure lots of things would be in the forest for me to make use of eventually, but none of that mattered for the moment. I couldn’t let myself be distracted from what was important: building my way to the surface so my kobold would have a safe way back home whenever they left to gather things for me.

That was kind of a weird thought, that I was someone’s home… It was sort of nice in its own way, but considering I was just trying to keep myself safe and fed? It was certainly weird to be a place where things lived. It wasn’t like I had started out wanting to be a place where creatures lived, it just seemed to be happening that way.

It just so happened that I was too weak to kill the badgers myself when I first woke up, and then it turned out to be a better idea to keep them alive, that was all this was. Just like it was smarter for me to tell my kobold to invite others back if they found them. Sure part of it was because I appreciated just how hardworking and helpful my kobold was, but it was also smarter to have more protection, especially protection I didn’t have to waste mana or points making.

I was being smart about all this. I absolutely wasn’t doing this because I was nice, or kind, or I liked any of the creatures currently calling me home. It didn’t matter how cute, or even ugly, they were, they were only being kept around because they were useful.

Maybe if I kept telling myself that I could convince myself that it was the truth.

The roots were beginning to be a real problem for digging upwards, forcing my path to twist a bit so that I could avoid where they overlapped thickly across the ceiling, searching for an opening. Was I getting closer to the surface? I certainly hoped so, the soil was getting richer and richer as I dug upwards so it felt like that might be the case. Surely in the forest more decaying plant matter in the dirt meant I was closer to open air.

Almost as soon as I was sure I was about to break through to the surface I instead found solid stone. It wasn’t a small one either, but was instead the full height of my tunnel that I was building. That was quite strange.

It was way too hard for me to just bore into, and much too thick to break into with my tendrils. Clearly I would need a higher leveled [Tunnel] skill if I were to make my way through the new obstacle, so the only thing I could really do was to turn and dig along it. It couldn’t be so big that I wouldn’t be able to find my way around to where it ended, right?

The large stone was mostly smooth, squared off the way the edges of my rooms were, and as I dug alongside it I found a perfectly straight cut in it that met up with a different stone. That was certainly mysterious. Did rocks really form like this? I doubted [Appraisal] would be much help, but all the same I decided to take a look.

[Stone Wall] Lvl. ??

HP: ???/???

MP: ???/???

Status: Immobile

Oh! That explained things! It wasn’t just stone, it was a stone wall! That made perfect sense! Of course it was smooth and squared off the way it was, it was man made!

Oh… Oh no. It was man made.

That wasn’t good, not at all. Was my dungeon really so close to people? Was I really in so much danger from the very beginning? I got an instant cold feeling through my core just from thinking about people. I wasn’t really sure what people were, but I somehow knew that they were dangerous, far more dangerous than the badgers were.

I got a feeling that they were smart and very clever, especially if they could do things like build walls from stone with such clean edges. I couldn’t even do that yet and building was the thing I seemed to be made to do.

The best thing I could do for the moment was to stop my excavating entirely and try to keep an eye on the situation, maybe send my kobold out and around to investigate once the door situation was completely taken care of. I needed to know how close the people were and how much danger I was in, but it wasn’t my first priority. After all, I wasn’t sure how much longer the badger family would sleep for, so I needed to take things one step at a time and be very careful.

For now I needed to calm down.

If I had run into a wall here then that meant it was down into the dirt, and lack of air and sunlight around it meant that I wouldn’t be seen from behind the wall. Even if I had run into something made by people I was still concealed behind it, hidden away in the soil where I was safe.

Hey, Inner Voice, do you know anything more about people? Maybe something to help me feel a bit less freaked out about this whole thing?

Humans, also known as people, are the natural enemies of Dungeon Cores.

… I said tell me something to make me feel less freaked out, not more so! You’re absolutely useless, Inner Voice! If you weren’t also me I would absolutely chew you out the same way I do [Appraisal]!

As angry as I was at myself for not being comforting, at the very least Inner Voice had managed to explain why I was feeling so nervous and afraid. My natural enemies were close at hand, the very creatures that caused me to need to create monsters and sprawling tunnels in order to keep them away from my core. I didn’t know what they would do with me if they found me, but I was sure it wouldn't be very good.

Would they smash or break me? Would they put me someplace where I wouldn’t be able to get to mana? Would they force me to do what they wanted?

I wasn’t really sure what a human was or what it would want with me to make it my enemy but I needed to be very careful moving forward, that much I certainly knew.

“Core? I am the back.” A squeaky voice called from the front entrance, so quiet I might not have heard it if I didn’t exist everywhere all at once.

Reluctantly I turned my attention away from the uncovered wall and back to my current entrance where my kobold, arms full of all sorts of interesting things, wiggled and squirmed to slide into the narrow tunnel. That was another reason I really needed to find a separate way in and out of the dungeon, the fact that they were basically the size of the existing door. It couldn’t be comfortable for them.

“Welcome back. It looks like you picked up all sorts of things this time.”

My kobold nodded their head slowly, and I took note that they seemed a bit more somber this time, an almost thoughtful expression on their face. It was hard to really judge what they were thinking between the oddly shaped mouth and scaly ridges, but the way they narrowed their large eyes made me feel like maybe they had run into some kind of trouble.

They sat down by the hole and squeaked softly, seemingly distraught. “You did not eat. Is Core okay? Is something the wrong?” They asked, one nearly black claw reaching out to touch the leaves that still clung to the branches.

I had completely forgotten! What with all the little tasty root pieces and bugs I had been finding, and then the whole situation with the stone wall, I’d lost track of the snacks mixed into the little door that my kobold was building for me.

I reached out immediately, plucking leaves from the branches and leaving them clean before I moved to slurp up the bugs as well. In my haste to let my kobold know I was fine I didn’t even bother [Appraising] them, which meant I ended up swallowing something extra disgusting without even knowing what it was. It was bitter and slimy, cold and thick, giving me trouble as I swallowed it. I hated that flavour instantly, and I only wished I had [Appraised] it so I knew to tell my kobold to avoid it from now on.

“Aside from some nasty bug I just ate? Yeah, I’m okay. I was just working on trying to build a different entrance while you were out, that’s all… Hey, are you okay? Your face just got all weird.”

My kobold shook themselves, ears flopping about as they almost swung their body from side to side. I wasn’t really sure if they were just trying to shake the look off their face or if they were answering my question with a very strong “no”, so I decided not to press any further for the moment.

While I waited for an answer they began adding the new wood they had gathered to the stack, tossing a few strange objects over the gap and down to where the floor was lower, which meant they had either collected those things for themself or for me. I wasn’t sure which, so I kept quiet, just watching for a moment while I gave them time to figure out what they wanted to say.

There wasn’t much further for the wood to go, and looking at what they had brought and what space was left I knew that this was it: either my plan would work or it wouldn’t, but either way my kobold had brought enough wood to close the gap from floor to ceiling on the hole.

“Please be the careful digging, yes? There is old building in forest, smells like people still visit from time to time. Do not want Core to be in the danger.” They said in a surprisingly soft voice, their claws rubbing against each other as they looked at the last thick branch laid across their knees.

An old building, huh? I could only guess that I had already run into it and that it was what the stone wall belonged to, but the wording made me curious...

“Visit? As in… People don’t currently live there?”

My kobold shook their head again quickly, eyes squeezed shut. “Oh no, people no live there. Is all fallen and broken, so not place for living, but maybe people explore there, like people like to explore dungeon?” They suggested, eyes opening as they lifted the branch up to wedge into the last open space. “So must be the careful, if entrance made there then more easily findable. Would be good later, yes, but not so much the now.”

[Door Building] automatically gained.

I could worry about what it meant for people, my apparent natural enemy, to explore dungeons and for an entrance there to be a good idea eventually later. Now was a time to celebrate! My plan had worked brilliantly!

I didn’t bother to let my kobold know that they had managed to do it, instead I focused on my new skill and the pile of wood that had been wedged into the hole. I stretched my tendrils out against it, and with a clicking sort of sensation the wood shifted and flattened, fusing together to form something that was unmistakably a door.

While my kobold wiggled rapidly in place, hands clasped over their mouth to keep from making any happy noises that might alert the badgers to their presence, I investigated my new door. Wood framed it, sunk into the dungeon walls to make it stable, and the hinges carved from wood as well, with a little wooden door knob on either side in order to open it. It wasn’t the prettiest door, but I had only had wood to work with. I could worry about aesthetics later.

Judging from how tired I was feeling I could guess that the door had still taken quite a bit of mana to build, even with the material all there to work with already, but at least I hadn’t wasted any points purchasing a skill that I could just gain on my own. With more points under my belt I could focus on making more kobolds later, as soon as I gained a new entrance.

“Quick, get in, you can celebrate when the door is shut behind you.”

That was all the nudging my kobold needed, it seemed. No sooner had I spoken than they were wiggling their way into the larger tunnel and shutting the small door behind them. Their tail wagged hard, thumping against the ground as they began to let out cheerful sounding squeaks, running through the tunnel toward the room where my core rested as they leapt and skipped, jumping and throwing their arms out.

“Core! Core! We did the thing! We did!” They cheered, their voice so high pitched I had a hard time deciphering it.

I mirrored their joy, my core glowing in such a rosy red that it lit up the room in a colour that didn’t so much remind me of food as it reminded me of warmth.

“You know what that means, right? You give me my name and I’ll give you yours.”

If my kobold had been celebrating before then that was nothing on what they were doing now. As they entered the room they began to spin about, arms spread wide, laughter echoing off the walls. “I know exactly what Core should be named! Core is Core, of course!” They cheered.

The colour drained out of me and I repeated that back to them slowly and my tone must have revealed my annoyance because my kobold quickly slowed, shaking their head rapidly. “No, oh no no, not Core as in Dungeon Core. Core as in…” They paused, head tilting, lips moving as they seemed to be muttering something to themselves. “K-O-R. Kor.” They spelled.

I repeated that back again, but softer this time, and with a wide smile they nodded quickly.

It was a pretty simple name, and it sounded pretty much like what I was, but… I strangely liked it. Kor. It was a nice name, maybe, possibly. At the very least it certainly made me feel less bad about the name that I had picked out for them in the end. I hadn’t been able to really decide on anything much better, but at least I was able to justify a reason for the name.

“Okay then, I’m Kor… And you, my kobold? Your name will be Cobble, because you helped to cobble together a door for me.”

No sooner had those words left me through our connection than the world suddenly went blurry and dim, the light fading from around me rapidly as I felt the rest of my mana drain away to nothing. What was happening? What was wrong? Why… Why was this…?

Everything went black, and I was asleep.