When Gorm first regained conciseness only ten years had passed. He was still in the room that trapped him for over a century. The only difference he could find was that the carvings on the walls were glowing in a soft green. He further discovered that the oak tree, that was now him, encased the formerly suspended Mana Crystal. It was as if it was now a part of him.

Before he had time to come to terms with his new situation, he suddenly felt a gigantic force draining his mana. He tried to fight back but he only managed to slow the draining. His only option now was to absorb enough mana to offset the draining.

Thus Gorms years as a mana battery started, or at least that was how he felt. At any point in this time, he was trying to overcome the equilibrium, just to always fail. With no time to find out why or how this was happening, because he had to always concentrate on not slipping up, he didn’t notice the changes that happened around him.

Due to the constant absorbing and releasing of mana his body, the oak, was becoming wider and lusher. It now seemed too big to fit into the room.

The other, more important change was that the holes started to give off dim light.

------------------------>

As the years flew by light in the holes grew brighter and brighter. One fateful day roughly 500 years after Gorm first woke up again, he felt the drain slowing down.

‘It’s stopping? Finally, I thought I was going insane!’ For the first time in, what he felt were ages, he could think about something except absorbing mana.

‘It’s finally over!’ Gorm sensed that no mana was drained anymore. It was as if a weight had been taken from his shoulders. Like he could breathe again after staying underwater for too long.

Now he only wanted to find out what all this mana draining was all about. The first thing Gorm could think of as a reason was that transferring his soul into a tree needed a lot of mana. After checking his body, he couldn’t find any abnormalities that would explain the drainage. Shifting his perception to the outside, he discovered light blue rectangles floating in his vision.

Welcome, New Dungeon Core!

Please review your start options.

You may choose five dungeon options.

:

:

:

:

:

Outside interference detected:

+ massive mana drain

+ forceful expansion of territory

+ massive boost in mana absorption

- ability to build anything

Congratulations!

You have created your second floor.

You may choose one dungeon option.

Warning!

Only one room on the first floor detected.

Please build five rooms to continue.

:

:

:

Forceful creation of the second floor detected.

Congratulations!

You have created your third floor.

You may choose one new dungeon option.

Warning!

No room on the second floor detected.

Please build a room to continue.

:

:

Forceful creation of the third floor detected.

Congratulations!

:

:

:

:

:

:

Congratulations!

You have created your 47th floor.

You may choose one new dungeon option.

:

:

Completely enclosed cavity detected.

Dungeon territory is automatically expanded to include the cavity.

Congratulations!

You have claimed land teeming with life.

+ Endless Wilderness ecosystem

You have recreated the Endless Wilderness ecosystem in your dungeon.

+ common Endless Wilderness monsters package

Congratulations!

Due to having fused your nature attuned core with a Magic Oak, having a functioning ecosystem and being in possession of at least 50 DP, you can now buy the natural dungeon package.

Do you accept?

Yes / No

Gorm knew what a dungeon was, but he couldn’t make sense of those floating rectangles.

After reading through them repeatedly he assumed that the mana drainage had something to do with the floor creation. He also figured out that this wasn’t a normal process.

The reason for his 500 years of torture had to lie in the room he was in. But that was still no explanation for the 46 new floors. Most probably it was the holes, that was the only reasonable thing Gorm could think of. Now he had to find out how.

Gorm tried expanding his perception beyond his prison room and it was surprisingly easy as if he was reclaiming something he never knew he had but always was part of him. While keeping expanding he investigated where the holes were leading.

It was like he had a map in his mind, he could see everything his, still expanding, perception touched. The holes were the entrances of a network of branching thin tubes, which were like blood vessels in the mountain.

A few minutes of nonstop expanding perception it covered the entirety of the mountain with the exception of a gigantic cavity right in the middle of the mountain and over his current position. It wasn’t like before that he could expand without any effort. No, he had to support the expansion with mana.

Gorm felt like he was pushing against a bubble, he had the feeling that if he could get it to burst something good would happen. So he kept pushing with all his might. When he nearly exhausted all his mana, it suddenly gave in.

Congratulations!

You have dominated your first few creatures.

+ one DP

Due to being influenced by your mana for a long time it was easier to dominate them.

Gorm felt dizzy, he could perceive that everything in the large cave was a part of him. But he couldn’t understand how that was possible. It shouldn’t be possible, at least when he applied any knowledge he had.

And then there were these floating rectangles. He felt a new one appear when burst the bubble.

The older rectangles had been quite helpful, despite the fact that he couldn’t fully understand them, so he read the new one carefully. It described what just happened quite accurately.

He still didn’t know what to do with these dungeon option selections. Where should he redeem them?

Welcome to The System!

This is your first time actively using The System (not-so-)young dungeon core, to activate it in the future, just think about what you want to see.

To view your status, think about it.

To view dungeon options, think about it.

To view the building assistant, think about it.

:

:

Please use The System again soon.

Regards:

Your personal System Manager

Gorm was stunned. ‘Are these boxes alive?’

After waiting for an answer for a few minutes without anything happening, he made the decision to view his status. Not out of interest, no, to prove that he wasn’t imagining things.

‘Status’ he thought.

Status

Name

Gorm

Title

-

Race

Dungeon Core Oak

Floors

47

Rooms

2

Age

524 years

DP

67

Level

1 (47)

Mana

50 / 130 000

Affinities

Nature

Mana Regeneration

500 per min

Specialties

-

Abilities

-

Ecosystems

Endless Wilderness

Monsters

26

Sapients

1

Bonded Creatures

-

Intruders

1

The system got his name right but was about it. Gorm was close to 4000 years old, and had a major affinity with earth and nature was only a minor one.

But he could still explain them, maybe it had been 500 years since he fused this the oak tree. This fusion could have strengthened his nature affinity. Nature was a top-tier affinity, made up of wood, water, earth, light, and air. Light, on the other hand, was a mixture of fire and air. In addition, everyone with a major nature affinity had a minor affinity with life and death.

This could explain where his earth affinity went because as soon as someone gained an affinity higher than the seven basic element ones, one couldn’t use them individually anymore. Unless they weren’t included in the higher tier affinity. And one person couldn’t have more than one major affinity. That was what made the nature affinity so special, it was composed out of every element except darkness. Because it always came with a minor affinity for life and death, which both where a combination of every element except for darkness and light respectively. Gorm now could control every element.

The rest of the floating window needed a bit more explanation. Accordingly, Gorm concentrated on the things he wanted to know more about.

Dungeon Points (DP):

Dungeon Points are used to unlock dungeon options, specialties and buy special abilities.

You currently have 67 DP.

Specialties:

Specialties are the things that make your dungeon special or go over the level of normal ability.

You currently have no Specialties, to unlock them you need ten, fully functioning, floors.

Abilities:

Abilities are your tools for greatness, you use them to expand and build your dungeon.

You currently have no Abilities, to unlock them you need to complete your first floor.

‘So those points are like money?’ Gorm had never used money, all his transactions were trades of things of roughly equal value. But he didn’t think of this as an issue. He only hoped he could easily distinguish between what’s a good and what’s a bad deal.

Gorm made the decision that he would first try to understand the system and then build the first floor, before using his DPs.

He hoped he would unlock some useful abilities and later specialties.