In the slumbering abyss of blank, endless darkness which came with leveling up, Dylan experienced a plethora of images flashing through his mind, images of his past life. As if he was using [Dungeon Watching] to fly past them. Images of people whos’ faces he recognized, the mindless hustle and bustle of daily life, cycling from school, coming home, practicing hard, doing homework, and the last few minutes of free time before slipping off into his sweet dreams and restarting the cycles all over again. The faces of his friends, his family, and even random people he might have passed by on the streets flashed by. Suddenly, a dark hand of fire, explosions rippling along its surface, appeared. Images of blood, bones, and broken bodies began to flash by; burnt flesh and heart-wrenching cries filled his ears, and still the hand drew closer. As the hand reached forward, covering Dylan’s field of view with a layer of rippling explosions and fire, he realized that this was memory of his death. His vision burred, as if tears were streaming from his eyes, blotting his vision, then, all he saw was nothing.

Hrrrmph???!!! What’s going on?! Who?! What?! WHERE AM I!?

As his vision came back to him, Dylan darted around the cave in confusion for a few rounds before he came to realize.

Oh…yeah…

Dylan’s vision slowly settled back into his core, giving the impression of a weary old man making his way back into bed. The reality of the situation finally crushed down on Dylan with full force, as he realized that there was truly no way to go back. He was dead on Earth, and in Thunnberg, he was most likely in danger. He would need to utilize all of his knowledge to protect himself at this rate.

Let me consider the situation…Dylan pondered, I’m a newborn dungeon with no means to defend itself other than a few insects which probably won’t stop even a determined rat. I am a Dungeon. Which most likely means people will use me as a resource to get stronger by training within me and fighting my precious monsters and animals, harvesting resources they can acquire from them and from myself. There is also a chance that dungeons are considered bad in this world and they would seek to destroy me before I grow too powerful. The final thing I can consider is how valuable a Dungeon’s core is. I’ve read light novels back on Earth, and according to some of them, people would seek to remove the core from a Dungeon for experiments or to sell, which translates to killing me for profit.

Dylan listed several ideas in his head, and opted to hope that dungeons were a part of his first idea; that they were considered to be precious resources for countries to collect harvest resources and train soldiers, places where adventurers delved and cities were built around them. If a dungeon in this world was considered to be a valuable resource, Dylan may just have his hands on a free pass to prevent greedy adventurers from robbing his precious core!

Oh, right! If Dylan had hands right now, he would have slapped his forehead in realization, I leveled-up didn’t I? [Status]

Status:

Level: 2

Name: N/A (Dylan)

Species: Dungeon

Titles: N/A

Mana: 0/25

Skills: [Dungeon Overlay] [Dungeon Edit] [Dungeon Watching] [Dungeon Order] [Absorb Essence] [Absorb Bodies] [Dungeon Summons] [Forceful Evolution] [Natural Order]

Passive Skills: [Auto-Absorb Bodies] [Siphon Mana]

Attributes: N/A

Evolution Points: 1

What’s with the bolded skills..? I can tell that a few of them are new, but why is Dungeon Watching new? I recall having that one already. Let me see…

[Dungeon Watching](Upgraded): Allows a Dungeon to use their senses to view any of the on goings within their range of influence. The Dungeon can choose to hone their senses to view a specific area or view a wide range or even the whole dungeon with less attention to detail. The Dungeon can also see through the eyes or senses of any of its animals, monsters, or guardians, or search their memories, allowing them to send monsters out of the dungeon and view their surroundings after the creatures arrive back.

Wow! Incredible! What a good skill! How generous! Dylan nodded to himself cheerfully. Maybe I can utilize my moths now to actually see outside now.

With that, Dylan took a look at his other new abilities, as well as his new passive skill.

[Forceful Evolution](New): Allows a dungeon to control the evolution of its monsters and animals using the mana they have accumulated within their bodies. If an organism does not have the required mana to facilitate its evolution, or the dungeon wants to evolve an organism past its boundaries, the dungeon would need to supply the mana. The evolution is only limited to the amount of mana available for evolution, and the creativity and will of the dungeon during the evolution process.

[Natural Order](New): Allows a dungeon to toggle on/off breeding for their animals and monsters, allowing a dungeon to procure forces without having to spend any extra mana. However, this causes monsters within the dungeon to prey on each other, as if the dungeon contained a normal ecosystem, and it may take longer to build up forces due to young organisms needing to grow. Helps to facilitate the evolution of monsters.

[Auto-Absorb Bodies](New): Automatically absorbs any bodies in 10 minutes after the death of an organism, allowing adventurers time to harvest from a corpse and preventing corpses from rotting if left for too long. Halts the process of absorbing the bodies if the maximum mana limit has been reached, however.

[Siphon Mana](New): Allows a dungeon to absorb mana from all creatures within the dungeon, without affecting their overall mana amount. Allows passive regeneration of mana from any and all living beings. Amount of mana gained depends on the strength of the organism.

All of these seem like great skills! Dylan was deeply satisfied with the benefits associated with his level up, especially the forceful evolution natural order, and siphon mana upgrades. The auto body absorption was essentially what he did on a daily basis now anyway. Now, to my defenders.

Dylan’s vision flew to the entrance of the cave, where he had sent nearly all of his defenders, save for 2 centipedes and 2 bombardier beetles. As he saw the mess at the entrance, his non-existent eyes widened. It was truly a scene of carnage. The corpses of hundreds of ants lay curled up and dead. Both of his spiders lay dead on the ground, and the only creatures left remaining to defend his entrance were 3 centipedes and 2 bombardier beetles, all of which were not in good condition. Their carapaces were shattered in multiple places, and their ichor was dripping along the ground, yet they still stood strong. Dylan could feel with [Forceful Evolution] that all of them had maxed out on their mana and were ready to evolve. The most interesting thing that Dylan noticed was the praying mantis the size of a palm weakly struggling on the ground, with its wings torn and limbs damaged. With only one claw, it faced off against Dylan’s party of bugs, while they only stared back menacingly.

A Praying Mantis! This would be an amazing addition to my summons! Attack! ATTACKKKKK!!!!!!

Upon hearing his [Dungeon Order], the three centipedes burst into action, approaching the mantis while clacking their mandibles threateningly. The bombardier beetle following with their behinds aimed at the mantis. After a few moments of staring at each other, the two groups erupted into action, and after a few minutes of the most intense fighting Dylan had watched, the mantis slumped over from exhaustion before dying.

You can now [Summon]: Praying Mantis.

Excellent! Although 2 centipedes died in the engagement, we gained the ability to summon the mantis, and the remaining creatures can evolve!

Dylan’s vision turned to the centipede and 2 bombardier beetles who were ready to evolve.

Hehe…My mana is all full thanks to [Auto-Absorb Bodies]. Come here so I can evolve all of you!

Dylan’s beaming ‘smile’ shone upon the 3 insects as they returned back from the war.