As Ian opened his eyes once again, he realized he did not have eyes as he knew them. His vision spread out to encompass the entirety of a fifty meter cubed room, a fifty meter high ceiling was a waste of space and he wondered if he could change it later. There were no limits on his vision, it was completely focused from one corner to the other. He wondered if this vision was only for his core room or if it would extend to all other parts of his dungeon. A small well used book rested on a stone pedestal in the center of his core room. Ian has seen some unique cores, in fact the only SS rank dungeon he had conquered also had a book core, but cores were primarily circular and crystalline in nature. With his room examination finished a window popped into his vision.

Beginning Dungeon Tutorial.

Ian waited for the tutorial to continue, but after a couple minutes nothing happened. Maybe he had to interact with it for it to continue. As he thought ‘Next’ a new window appeared.

Dungeon Trait: EX Rank Mage

That told him nothing about what the trait actually did. Ian focused on the window and more information appeared.

EX Rank Mage: All magic skills and knowledge are carried over from your soul’s previous life without needing to purchase them from the Magic Tree. These magic skills and knowledge will act as purchased in the Magic Tree. Prices for unknown magic skills and knowledge in the Magic Tree are determined by what has already been purchased. The earlier magic skill or knowledge learned will determine first purchase in the Magic Tree.

The third window into the tutorial and he already encountered information Tidon hadn’t told him about. Tidon had said he couldn’t tell him everything, but this ‘Magic Tree’ seemed important if he wouldn’t have been able to use any magic without it. Ian thought back to the personal information sheet Tidon had and realized he’d probably already known Ian would get this Dungeon Trait and the associated ‘Trees’ so decided not to mention it. As Ian grumbled to himself about assuming and aloof Gods, he tried getting more information.

Magic Tree: A type of dungeon tree. Allows dungeons access to different magics through the use of DP.

Dungeon Trees: Allows the purchase of useful advanced tools for dungeons with DP. Dungeon Trees include Evolution Trees, Trap Trees, Treasure Trees, Magic Trees, and Research Trees. Different trees can be purchased in the Dungeon Shop or earned by leveling up. Choosing one branch of a tree causes the other branch to increase in cost by ten times. There are other more difficult ways to proceed down dungeon trees than using DP.

Evolution Tree: Allows the dungeon to access higher creature evolutions.

Trap Tree: Allows the dungeon access to more complicated traps.

Treasure Tree: Allows the dungeon access to more impressive treasures.

Research Tree: Allows the dungeon access to higher technological levels. Gives dungeon trees not normally available in the Dungeon Shop. Important for the dungeon’s secondary objective.

DP: Dungeon Points. Earned through accomplishing the dungeon’s mission.

Dungeon Shop: A shop that allows dungeon’s to purchase almost anything as long as they have DP. Primarily consists of Perks, basic creatures, basic traps, basic treasure, and basic magic.

Dungeon Shop for basics and perks while Dungeon trees for more advanced tools. It would have been nice information to have before starting the tutorial but at least he had it now. The fact that there were other ways to proceed down the trees intrigued Ian because as a young dungeon he doubted he would have a lot of DP. When he got a look at the trees, he’d have to figure out the best way to proceed down them without DP. Next.

Restrictive Trait: Magical Beauty

Magical Beauty: As a soul that has fallen in love with magic and all its possibilities your dungeon must be filled with it. Every area must fill an intruder with a sense of wonder and mystery. A dungeon area will only be accepted once your soul truly believes it is an area befitting your magical standards.

Tidon was right, he didn’t hate his Restrictive Trait. Without it he might have tried to emulate other dungeons thinking it was the right way to make a dungeon, but he would have been bored doing the same thing he’d seen in every other dungeon. In that aspect his knowledge of dungeons would have been a hindrance, so Ian was grateful for the restriction. He was still worried his dungeon would be too magical and scare intruders away, but dammit he couldn’t wait to make something amazing. Next.

Choose Six Perks:

Mana Generation x2-10

Dungeon Volume x2-10

DP Generation x2-10

Creatures x2-10

Traps x2-10

Perks x2-10

Treasures x2-10

Named Monster x2-10

Creature Loyalty

Creature Creation

Trap Creation

Treasure Creation

Creation

All Creatures

Mana to DP Conversion Lv 1

Mana Attraction

Helper

Ecosystem

Mana Generated vs Mana Consumed (General)

Mana Generated vs Mana Consumed (Specific)

The multiplication perks were all straightforward and allowed him to obtain more things in the future if he used perks now. He almost wanted to put all six of his perks into Perks x2-10, so he’d have seven perks every hundred levels. However Creation and All Creatures really called out to him being able to create whatever he wanted and pick any creatures he wanted.

Mana to DP Conversion Lv 1 might be good, but he didn’t know how much mana he’d have and ten trillion to one seemed a bit much.

Ian considered Helper which could answer any questions he had about the dungeon, but he already had a lot of information from Tidon and he simply didn't need a helper.

Mana Attraction attracted more creatures, but he didn’t know the base rate of creature attraction. Well he assumed it either wasn’t high or didn’t override creatures survival instincts at least. Most dungeons were surrounded by a town at minimum, so creatures tended not to approach.

Creating an ecosystem intrigued him but didn’t know how useful it would be until he started building and accepting invaders...but it was really interesting. Maybe he should pick it. No, he should wait. But it is a really cool concept. He already examined ecosystems across nations he didn’t need more of them. Well, he already studied dungeon floors...areas and he was going to make a lot more of those. ..Later. Dammit. Later. Sigh.

The last two he felt were something he would really need, but did he need them right at the start? Being able to tell how much mana was being expelled and how much was condensing into living organisms was paramount with the dungeon’s purpose, his purpose. After a long debate with himself along with continuous analysis and rereads of all the perks, Ian decided on his six.

Creation: Allows the dungeon to create anything from scratch. Enormous mana cost.

This perk was the one Ian knew he had to have. The possibilities were endless. He wondered if all dungeons had this option or if he had obtained through studying dungeons most of his life. Ian was worried about the ‘Enormous mana cost’ at the end, but his next perk was his back up plan.

All Creatures: The dungeon may choose from all known creatures when choosing creatures no matter the original restriction.

If Creation ended up costing too much mana, then he at least wanted a wide variety of monsters, animals, plants, and fungi to choose from. While Ian had studied traps, treasures, puzzles, it was unknown why he didn’t have any puzzle perks, and tried studying challenges, the study of creatures was his true calling. That was probably why he didn’t have the same associated perk for traps and treasures, although if that was the reason he didn’t know why he had their associated creation perks. He hoped picking these two perks which might have a lot of overlap didn’t come back to haunt him.

Perks x2,3,4,5: Gain the specified number of perks every 100 levels.

Yep, he did it. He invested into the future. Five perks every hundred levels. He hoped getting to level 100 wouldn’t take him very long as an EX rank dungeon, otherwise he would need to spend a lot of DP on Perks. None of the dungeons he observed during his lifetime that were under the one hundred floors had ever exceeded that number however. Obviously it was possible since floors apparently weren’t a true concept that the dungeons were hiding their true level. But if he was right and none of those dungeons went over level 100, then this decision might have been a bad one. ...He had to stop questioning himself. He already made his decision dammit. Next.

Choose Twelve Traps:

Hole

Log

Wood Spike

Arrow

Door

String

Trap Door

Trigger

Wood Ball

Water

Fake Cover

Wood Barricade

Small Rocks

Incline

Magic Release

Net

Lure

Release

Shoot

Connection

Mechanics

Stick

What the Depths, these sucked. Well, he’d at least try to pick the best options. At least he knew they could get better. Unlike perks however there were no descriptions, so he’d have to wing it...he could tell what most were at first glance though.

You have chosen the traps: Hole, Wood Spike, Arrow, Door, Trap Door, Trigger, Water, Net, Release, Shoot, Connection, and Mechanics.

Hopefully those would work out. Next.

Choose Twelve Treasures:

Wood Butterfly Sword

Wood Cutlass

Wood Estoc

Wood Arming Sword

Wood Katana

Wood Baselard

Wood Knuckles

Wood Katar

Wood Backsword

Wood Kukri

Wood Sickle

Wood Pickaxe

Wood Battle Axe

Wood Tomahawk

Wood Hand Axe

Wood Crop

Wood Club

Wood Rock

Wood Mace

Wood Quarterstaff

Wood Pike

Wood Pitchfork

Wood Lance

Wood Bardiche

Wood Glaive

Wood Halberd

Wood Naginata

Wood Lucerne Hammer

Wood Javelin

Wood Spear-thrower

Wood Longsword

Wood Claymore

Wood Barong

Wood Hook Sword

Wood Boomerang

Wood Throwing Knife

Wood Throwing Dart

Wood Bolas

Wood Warbow

Wood Composite Bow

Wood Horn Bow

Wood Crossbow

Wood Sling

Wood Blowpipe

Wood Bullwhip

Wood Chain Whip

Wood Nunchucks

Wood Flail

Wood Lasso

Wood Buckler

Wood Kite Shield

Wood Targe

Currency

Rocks

G- Attributeless Mana Stones

Plant Fiber Tunic

Plant Fiber Hat

Plant Fiber Gloves

Plant Fiber Shoes

Plant Fiber Trousers

A lot more choices this time, and it looked like killing things was for dinner. The dungeon's purpose was on full display with this window. Although, the fact that they were all wood didn’t make a bit of sense. How could weapons that required flexibility be made completely out of wood? And what the hell was a wood rock? Ian was almost tempted to pick at least one of those to see how it would work. Even though a lot of weapons were present he didn’t see all the different ones he had examined and trained with in his life. It was possible not everything was available to him at this point in time. Unlike with traps he got explanations for each item this time. It was possible that his general lack of interest in traps had reduced his options.

The three that stood out from all the others were Currency, Rocks, and G- Attributeless Mana Stones. It probably didn’t say what type of currency because that would change depending on where he placed his dungeon. He along with many others thought the currency given by dungeons were items lost by dead adventurers, but it looked like dungeons could produce it on their own. It also explained why monsters dropped currency in dungeons but not in the wild.

At first Ian had wondered why the hell he would want rocks, but upon further thought he realized that a lot ores, minerals, and gems could be considered rocks. He could be bringing his hopes up to have them dashed spectacularly, but he felt his logic was solid. The only problem with selecting rocks is how long and how many dungeon points would it take him to reach useful materials.

Mana Stones were always useful for magic items. However most magic items used specific attribute mana stones because using attributeless mana stones required an extra step in the mana refinement process. Ian liked attributeless mana stones because even though they required more work they allowed for more in depth magic items. In his opinion G- attributeless mana stones were worth more than attribute mana stones, but the dungeon ranking system seemed to take societal norms into account.

With the first three treasures decided, he needed nine more.

You have chosen the treasures: Wood Knuckles, Wood Arming Sword, Wood Claymore, Wood Tomahawk, Wood Mace, Wood Halberd, Wood Javelin, Wood Throwing Knife, Wood Composite Bow, Currency, Rocks, and G- Attributeless Mana Stone.

If Ian still had a heart, it would be beating a mile a minute waiting for the next category. Next.

Please Choose Twelve Creatures:

Biota:

Soris Web Spider Egg Sack

Soris Trap Spider Egg Sack

Soris Tarantula Egg Sack

Soris Jumping Spider Egg Sack

Soris Blue Sparrow Egg

Soris Red Sparrow Egg

Soris Brown Chickadee Egg

Soris Black Chickadee Egg

Venate Gold Crowned Eagle Egg

Venate Specter Winged Hawk Egg

Soris Brown Osprey Egg

Soris Red Crowned Eagle Egg

Worid Farm Mice Newborn

Worid Farm Rat Newborn

Worid Field Mice Newborn

Worid Field Rat Newborn

Zogon Speckled Butterfly Egg

Zogon Serrated Centipede Egg

Zogon Black Beetle Egg

Zogon Putrid Cockroach Egg

Green Cave Moss Spore

Green Cave Fern Spore

Bleached Cave Conifer Seed

Soris Cave Daisy Seed

Phosphorescent Cave Mold Spore

Venate Succulent Mushroom Spore

Zogon Hallucinogenic Mushroom Spore

Red Poisonous Serrated Mushroom Spore

Giant Tuna

Newborn Human

Newborn Elf

Newborn Dwarf

Newborn Dragonoid

Newborn Naga

Newborn Gnome

...

Monsters:

Newborn Goblin (G-)

Inferior Jelly (Lesser) (G-)

Inferior Slime (Lesser) (G-)

Newborn Orc (G)

Newborn Ogre (G+)

Newborn Oni (F)

Newborn Wolf (G)

Moving Moss (G-)

Newborn Kobold (G-)

Newborn Lizarden (G)

Baby Web Spider (G+)

Skeleton (F)

Zombie (E)

Newborn Dragon (D)

Inferior Air Elemental (Lesser) (G)

Inferior Fire Elemental (Lesser) (G)

Inferior Ice Elemental (Lesser) (G)

Inferior Time Elemental (Lesser) (G)

Inferior Space Elemental (Lesser) (G)

Inferior Heat Elemental (Lesser) (G)

Newborn Lizard (G-)

Newborn Squid (G-)

Dirt Golem (F)

Newborn Lamia (G)

Ghost (G)

...

The effect of All Creatures was really something. The list of biota and monsters extended pages upon pages and these were only the basic forms. Only picking twelve of these was going to be a heavy task.

Most of the selection was straightforward with an occasional heart pumping selection like Newborn Dragon, but the inclusion of his former race and other sapient races stopped him for a moment. It made sense, Tidon had told him the entire Universe was made of mana, so the sapient races would be too. Since Dungeons used mana to create things it made sense that they could create the sapient races. However, he had never encountered a sapient race not intruding upon the dungeon. What would be the impact of creating such an intelligent being out of thin air be? Ian supposed it would be very similar to what happened when the Gods first did it. Well, he would have to have the ‘Why do we have to fight others of our same race?’ discussion. Did the Gods have to have that discussion after creating the Universe? He hoped not. He was sure he’d eventually try it, that was the way he was, but not right now. Which meant, even though Dragons were heart thumping and considered monsters, he couldn't pick them either.

Before he chose his creatures, Ian needed to plan how he was going to make his dungeon. His first thought upon being told he would be a dungeon was to make a floor...area that would be somewhat safe for villagers. After a bit of thinking, he realized it was a stupid fucking idea. No self respecting villager would go into a dungeon unless they were an idiot. While he wanted to create a death area to prevent people from reaching his core, he didn’t want it to be his first area. Sadly he didn’t know if he’d be able to move areas or entrances, so the first area needed to be accessible to low rank adventurers. With a sigh Ian realized how often his friend Seth, the Adventurer’s Guild Master of Soris, had to remind him that the lowest rank adventurers weren’t as strong as he thought. ...Of course! Monster ranks! Each area would only have a specific rank of monster be the highest rank present. Luckily he had a good grasp on which biota corresponded in strength with monsters, so he shouldn’t have problems placing them. First area would be G- rank, then G rank, then G+ rank, and so on and so forth.

With his EX Rank Mage trait he hoped he would be able to make his teleportation circles, so he could make areas without stairs. It would also allow him to build areas without directly connecting them, so he could create areas with different difficulty ranks out of order. Even if he created a floo...area for each difficulty rank, he would only have thirty areas. Oh! He could create different difficulty areas for each type of terrain! ...Damn, intruders would need the ability to go to multiple areas from the first area, and he had no idea if he could do that. With an internal sigh Ian decided to postpone any more area planning until he could actually build.

For his plans he’d need a lot of low level monster and other biota, but a couple would have to be high level to keep him safe.

You have chosen the creatures: Soris Web Spider Egg Sack, Phosphorescent Cave Mold Spore, Zogon Serrated Centipede Egg, Green Cave Moss Spore, Green Cave Fern Spore, Inferior Jelly (Lesser) [G-], Inferior Slime (Lesser) [G-], Moving Moss [G-], Newborn Goblin [G-], Newborn Oni [F], Inferior Water Elemental (Lesser) [G], and Newborn Wyvern [E].

Ian knew that dungeons could get decorative items such as torches to be placed on walls, but he had no idea when he’d get the ability to purchase them. Nothing so far had mentioned decorations, so decided on the phosphorescent cave mold spore for light. His selections also relied on the fact that his first few levels would be a cave system. As much as Ian wanted to be different only a couple of dungeons he had explored didn’t have caves as the first few levels even the high rank ones. Ian had his own hypotheses such as the camouflage one Tidon had mentioned and that all dungeons had the ability to create caves since their entrances were basically holes in the wall that mimicked cave entrances. Ian sighed as even though he had studied dungeons most of his life, he still knew very little about their inner intricacies with only knowledge about their workings from the outside.

Now that he had his creatures it was time to pick a location. Next.

Please choose your entrance location.

The map that appeared was unlike anything that Ian had ever seen. It was not flat but a large circular object. While it was known that the world he lived on was a sphere, seeing it in its entirety was awe inspiring. Ian could zoom in and see different landmarks, cities, natural wonders, mana densities, and other wonderful features of the world. The first place Ian zoomed towards was Soris his previous nation. The idea of being close to his friends struck a chord with him, but his own influence had made it a difficult nation for dungeons due to the high adventurer and dungeon diver survival rate. However, after Ian tried to place his dungeon in Soris the system refused him. It seemed his like towards Magical Beauty was already waning. With a huff Ian zoomed out to look for something more magical.

After what seemed like a few minutes to Ian, but was in fact a couple of days, he had found the perfect spot. While caves were simple Ian had a soft spot for them and already planned for the first areas to be caves, so he would place his entrance at the bottom of a large mountain. Large was a bit of an understatement, it was the tallest and widest mountain Ian had ever seen and it was a lonely peak. The best part was it caused large swirls of various mana attributes both around it and up it resulting in a vortex of mana surrounding the mountain and a large variety of ecosystems.

The bottom was covered in large evergreen trees which stretched out from the base for a couple of kilometers. The forest had the largest variety of evergreen trees Ian had ever seen with a total of ten forests around the base with completely different species of trees.

The mountain had four different biomes past the forest with a large deep lake and multiple rivers, a couple from the mountain, to the north; a wide prairie with herds running through it to the east, a canyon to south that seemed to be competing with the mountain with how deep it was, and a large swamp the west that oozed dark mana.

The usual biomes while amazing were not what made his heart soar with anticipation. The magical biomes up the mountain took his breath away. Floating islands normally considered large were dwarfed by the mountain and these islands gave him even more terrain with a variety of ruins located on them including castles, crypts, towers, and entire towns. These islands also contained their own biomes, but were quite similar to the ones on the ground.

Around the same height as the floating islands forests of fungi surrounded the mountain. Ian had seen smaller fungi forests in cave systems but never outside or this large.

Further up were the metal forests. Living metal grew in different shapes and sizes and all anything seemed to eat were the rocks of the mountain.

Next was the perpetual storm layer where beings that thrived on electricity and the constant bombardment of rain gathered.

The mana density lessened afterwards and the mountain resumed more normal biomes starting from taiga and reaching tundra at the top third.

The inside of the mountain amazed just as much. The top of the mountain contained ice caverns with normal caves in the taiga region.

The caves in the metal forest were laces with rare ores and metal he’d never seen before. However the living metals on the outside were not present, but organic life with large concentrations of metal were present.

The fungi forest simply continued into the cave, but with less light oriented species. However, fungal monsters greatly increased in the fungal caves.

The base contained normal caves with underground lakes, which themselves contained underwater lakes. These underground lakes led to the aboveground lake outside through a vast, submerged cave system.

Below the underwater caves was simply layers of earth, but much higher than they should be were enormous caves of magma. After looking through the magma caves, Ian found a single path that lead to the very top of the mountain. It was not enough to make the mountain a volcano, but the fact that such a long cave existed tickled Ian’s fancy. It was almost everything Ian wanted.

The negative aspect of the location was the time it would take the sapient races to find him. The closest village which he believed to be human was over a week by horse. While he could focus on simply hunting monsters, their lower intelligence meant most of them didn’t care about anything besides killing sapient races. His dungeon would attract them, but Ian doubted he’d receive enough to make a difference. Besides Ian wanted people that would appreciate how magical he would make his dungeon. After Ian selected the bottom of the mountain on the prairie side closest to the human village as his entrance location the tutorial ended and he could finally get started creating his dungeon.