After the War of 812…the slavers came. The aftermath that occurred was worse, so much worse than the war itself. After our warriors left to fight on the plains to the east, we were trapped in our own city, no where to run, with the oceans to our back and the enemy surrounding us… The plains were a trap. We could see the fires burning from our walls, hear the screams of our men drifting on the breeze. We knew the war was lost. So, we surrendered, let down the gates. Some chose death instead, leaping to their death in the frigid waters of the ocean below. The rest, we had to watch our home burn as we traveled in chains to the iron mine.

— Gwen

I scream, brimming with a seething fiery rage as I slam my fist into my punching bag.

“Idiot! You’re such a stupid idiot!” I bellow at myself, trying to avoid looking at any of it–the aftermath. If I do, I’ll wallow in self-pity, and I am not doing that again. So I bottle up my anger and let its scalding heat flow through me, drowning out the need to fall into utter despair. I slam my fist again.

It had been utter disaster. Everything had been ruined. All but two of my ice golems were gone. The maze was wrecked. The wards had been completely ignored, like he didn't even notice them. The tree had massive gashes tearing open the sides of its trunk, looking like the tree had leprosy or something. Most of its branches snapped and tumbled down into the lake. Not a room inside remained stable. It threatened to make the whole tree split and keel over. I had shored it up the best I could, but I was in no mood to do anything more. Basically, everything I had mad was trashed by one single man. It didn’t console me at all that the underwater roots had been mostly untouched.

While all this had been devastating, it wasn’t the worst. No, the part that had me almost in a blubbering pile was all the pain. The pain of losing more than half of my fish. Losing the golems had hurt, but not nearly as much. The first fish down in the maze…I don’t know how it had gotten down there. It wasn’t supposed to be there. The monster had eaten him. And killed the others.

My lip quivers. To distract myself, I slam my fist again.

Ah’m was hurt. Again. He hadn’t even fully recovered from the hole in his stomach. Now he has long, red raw patches where the skin and muscle were peeled from his side. He was still awake at least. Grumbling, but awake. Nattiq had slipped into a coma or something. He had lost a whole arm. It had been my fault. All my fault.

I punch hard, gritting my teeth.

I was completely useless. We were awful, uncoordinated, and tripping over each other as a fighting unit. That monster was terrifying. It disappeared. Reappeared in the worst places possible. Even–even poisoned, even covered in blood, he just became more terrifying.

He didn’t need to touch to attack. A swipe of his hand through the air brought so much pain. You didn’t know what he was aiming at. You didn’t know which direction the attack came from. He could throw you, lift you up in the air and tear you apart, all without touching anything. I saw it all.

And his ghosts. You couldn’t touch them. Nothing seemed to work. You could only keep attacking in desperation as they swooped down, swooped through you, dragging their sharp, freezing nails through your insides.

I lean my head against the punching bag, gasping, trying to calm my breathing. Hyperventilating would not solve anything. I grip the fabric hard.

Somehow, somehow, we survived. Barely. By the skin of our teeth. I–I don’t really know how. I had panicked. I wanted him gone so bad I just pushed, pushed as hard as I could. He…slipped. Slipped through something. Disappeared, but in a way that I knew he was gone. Yet I could still feel him. Strongly. He was far, far to the south. It felt hot and arid. Dry.

I reached up to my face, then dropped my hand before I touched it. A small part of my core pounded. It was painful, the constant throbbing. My connection with the monster throbbed in time with it. I didn’t want to think about it. This throbbing. I had felt it, back before, a day or so after I had been identified as legendary. I ignored it. Now it’s come back so much stronger. I push the thoughts away, not wanting to ponder them.

“I’m an idiot,” I say. “That skill, [Tranquility]….” It was cold. It was me but at the same time it wasn’t. It was like I was a shadow of myself. I didn’t like it. It did safe my life, though, our lives. Raw instinct had flowed through me.

“I’m an idiot.” In this world, I am a dungeon. In this world, to survive, I have to be a dungeon. There’s no other way. When I first woke up, I had nothing except a few vague memories and a packet of foreign instincts. I had shied away from them, deeming my memories to be important. The instincts scared me. I pushed them back into the corners of my mind and tried to forget. Tried to continue living as a human. This is where it got me. Woefully unprepared for what was coming.

“If I hadn’t…If it hadn’t…Would I have died?” Instincts weren’t the curse I thought they were. They were a boon, a manual to how to live in this world. There was so much information I had access to, but never realized it. I didn’t even know I could turn to the System for answers.

I stare down at my hands. But…as much as it had saved me, I don’t want to turn unfeeling again. The instincts that had awoken were now warring with my emotions inside. It was turmoil. Instinct tells me I me stone. Emotion tells me I am human. I’m not sure they’ll ever reconcile. Because, I died in my last life. I don’t think I’ll ever reconcile with that. I knew that dying wasn’t something that could be called unfair. It couldn’t be called wrong, or something that wasn’t supposed to happen. Death didn’t work like that. But at the same time the feelings raged in me. It was. It was unfair. It was wrong. It wasn’t supposed to happen. I touch a spot on my stomach.

Why did it? Why did death happen. Why did I die? Why did other people have to die, too? My hands shake.

I remember, during the fight, I only could continue fighting because of [tranquility]. If it wasn’t for that… But it broke down midway through the fight. The instincts keeping me from panicking seeped out of me, returning to their former place. Emotion welled up, washing over me. I found myself fighting for my life. And a few seconds later, I found a hand through my heart.

My hand went to the place. If I was a human, I’d be dead. His face. The glee it held. The joy, exhilaration, madness gleaming in his eyes as he plunged his hand into my chest. I shudder.

He ripped me out of my head after that. I had almost broken completely down there, both mentally and physically as he ran a finger across the edge of my core. He was going to kill me.

I drop to my knees and hug myself to suppress the shudders. The pain flares in my core, the place where he dug his nail in, the place where he tore a piece of me out and swallowed it. It felt like someone digging out my brain with a toothpick, poured lava through my veins, and skinned me all at once. I thought I had died.

After he disappeared, I couldn’t function. I don’t know if it was because of the pain of having a piece chipped out of me or the after effects of [tranquility]–I suspect it was both. I could not think. It hurt. Waves of pain and exhaustion washed over me, and I almost passed out. A little piece of me remembered, though. It was a slice of information I found when the instincts had taken over.

I pull up the information again. It…I need to mull over it. It changes a lot of things…

It was the sole fact that a person’s mana dwelled in the blood. They could increase their mana by drawing it in through the pores and refining it. Using mana would draw it out of the bloodstream and into the muscles. Regeneration was just the rate at which the mana returned to the bloodstream.

Most people wouldn’t go through the process of refining natural mana. It was tedious, slow, and slightly painful. The art was becoming lost over the generations. Most used a catalyst that happened whenever they leveled up to increase their mana. Whenever a monster was killed by a person, they receive a part of the monster’s soul. That soul translates into experience points. When enough soul is connected, it shows as a level up, which means that the soul coalesces into two droplets, which can be used to refine your body or mind. The soul is the catalyst that draws in natural mana at a pace impossible if you were to refine it yourself. It infuses your body or your blood with mana, increasing your mana capacity–the mana in your blood–or your overall health–mana that dwells in your bones and seeps out whenever the body is hurt to repair it.

My System is different. I don’t have blood. I can’t store mana in blood. I can’t collect pieces of souls. I have no experience points. Instead, I draw in natural mana. I store it in my core. I don’t have to refine it to use it. That’s why I can never qualify as a mana battery. I am one, technically. I gather mana from the atmosphere. But people can’t use natural mana. It’ll seep right out of them before they can even try to use it, damaging their veins in the process. Wards don’t have that problem though. They can run off of natural mana or refined mana. I found out that the ward I made will never run out of mana because they are connected to me.

Why this is important. For one thing, natural mana always has a tint, which is what people have to refine out. If it comes from somewhere cold, the natural mana will chill. If it’s hot, it’ll burn. If it’s dry, it’ll dehydrate. If it’s wet, it’ll drown. If it sits in a dungeon core long enough, it won’t even enter something that doesn’t belong to the domain. Basically, the natural mana I draw in, I own it. No one else can take it.

Ah’m and Nattiq joined my cause. On a low level, that means they joined my domain. The natural mana of my domain was available for their use. In a way, without even knowing, they’ve been slowly increasing their mana without even knowing. They don’t need to refine it because this natural mana only has my tint to it.

Mana can speed up the bodies healing process. It can increase cell regeneration at a dramatic rate, but it can’t replace what is lost. It will leave scars. But, in those last few moments of consciousness I had, desperate I reached out I found I could control the mana in their bodies. Not the most pleasant of ideas. I still find it creepy when I think about it. In short, I forcefully stopped the bleeding in both Ah’m and Nattiq, directing their mana and my mana to their wounds, speeding up the healing process and closing them up. They didn’t die from blood loss.

I suck in a breath of air and hold it.

It wasn’t much. They’re still littered with scars. The body can only take so much forcefully mana induced healing, but as long as they’re not bleeding out, it’ll heal. I’m not sure if Nattiq will ever have an arm again, but I want to try to help him if I can. If I could make him a new one… It was my fault…

After I woke up, I remade my body. Made sure my tree wouldn’t fall down. Briefly checked on my injured, including the vent lord. He was beaten black and blue, but thankfully still alive. Then, I found my punching bag. That’s it. I’ve been beating on it for most of the day.

“I’m an idiot.” If only I had known earlier. Known about a lot of things. I haven’t been a dungeon at all. Just an idiot. I say I can take in mana directly. Have I ever? No. I haven’t. I didn’t even really know what mana was. I didn’t know it was floating around me, ready for me to reach out and grasp it. The only way I knew to increase mana was from experience. And that was leveling and paths. It’s almost humiliating. It feels like I’ve gone my whole life without taking a breath, and now I finally figured out how to breathe. I’ve been suffocating this whole time. The notification I get when I manage it the first time feels like it’s mocking me.

Be careful not to lose any limbs down there. Your total health and mana take a hit. Same with losing too much blood. Health and mana potions can only do so much. The mana in cannot be fully refined. It will dissipate a while after use. — Beck Dewan before the Pit

Congratulations! You’ve crossed an important milestone.

Level [22]!: You have learned what all dungeons are born to do. You just took a little longer than most. ([Mana Absorption]: absorb natural mana from the air to boost the mana and the health of your domain; +10 path points.)

I reach out and feel the flow of mana around me. There were hints. I didn’t see them, but they were there. Lines the System told me such as that eira were born from natural mana currents. I draw mana into my core.

There’s two layers to it, I discovered. I hadn’t ever really looked inside myself before. The thought bugs me. It’s a strange interplay between the two layers. They act as my blood and body. The outer layer was thick. It’s mana was slow, its current was gentle, a dark forest green. I could feel it. It was my health. The inner layer was packed tight. Hard. The mana was fast, swirling, a vibrant green who’s glow pierced through the outer layer. The mana that powered my skills.

My core damaged. The crystal around that part was grey and sick, like it was decaying. My mana regeneration was trying to keep up. I could see it. Dark green would flow close to the gash, losing its color. The grey would green just a bit. The now dark mana would sink and fall into the center, the densely packed swirling vibrant green. It would then slowly regain color, a speck of dark green amidst the bright. Once it had, it would float up once more to the outer layer to repeat the process, the very slow process.

The moment I cast a skill, however, the opposite occurs. The green mana shoots out from the center, touches the edges of my core, and loses color. It’s translated as force on the outside world, force I use to manipulate things or whatever. After that, the mana slowly falls back to the center where it regains its color. The result: my core looks like a washing machine on the inside. It’s super weird. And my emotions effect the vibrancy of it all.

Drawing in mana from the outside is interesting. It takes a bit of effort to get it past the walls of my core, but once it does, it immediately travels straight to the center and is dyed bright green. My total mana goes up as the density of that center layer increases. Which is super good! Yay. But I haven’t figured out how to increase my health, to get it to stick to that first layer instead of falling straight to the second. Which is sucking right now.

My gash. It’s the worst injury I’ve gotten since I came to this world. It’s long and deep. A little deeper and it would have started leaking my dark green mana. I can feel it. I shudder. Right now, it’s at a balancing point. I’m still loosing health. But my regeneration is just enough to keep it at where it is. So while it’s still a dangerous state to be in, I won’t die anytime soon. My regeneration just sucks. I don’t know how to fix it. I don’t even know if the gash in my side will be fixed if I increase my regeneration, either.

I sigh, frustrated, and slowly work on increasing my mana capacity. Another worry niggles at me. Where is Niko? I can’t find him anywhere. Originally, he was fighting in the school of sliver fish with me at the top of the tree, against that monster, the gwisin–I officially hate gwisins now. But, right after the fight started, I lost track of him. Right about when the ghosts appeared…

He wasn’t dead. I could feel my connection to him. It was strenuous, but there. He just wasn’t in my domain… I hope he’s alright. He feels far away.

Another thing bothers me. These screens. I’ve been ignoring them. They scare me, but I can manage to read through them now.

Your core has been severely damaged.

Yes, I know.

One of your skills has become damaged due to the damage to your core:

[Golem Creation] — (Can be programmed; Can be controlled remotely or directly driven for a total of 12 hours at a time (cool down: 12 hours); If creator is a dungeon, golem cannot move outside of dungeon’s influence)

I grit my teeth. 20 active hours to 12. That hurts. Kind of a lot, but the next two screens help, just a bit.

If a projectilist is on the legendary level of the Hero of Tolbeth, he no longer is a projectilist. Rather, he is a siege weapon. — Master of Siege Arts

Congratulations! Your mastery of the projectile is astounding.

[Natural Projectile IV]: Projectiles you launch have greater damage (3 inch projectile/ 5 mana; +10 blunt damage or +10 to piercing damage depending on projectile)

Why does no one use projectiles? They are difficult to master, as one must be a master of controlling mana to control projectiles. It’s a simple skill to learn, a difficult one to improve. — Professor Halbalt on Projectiles

Congratulations! You are natural with projectiles.

[Natural Projectile V]: You can now merge materials you use for projectiles. You can now successfully use liquids as projectiles. (6 inch projectile/ 5 mana; added damage depending on material used; +10 piercing power to liquids)

They happened during the fight. I noticed. My projectiles suddenly got a whole lot more deadly. I think they were just waiting for a stressful situation to level up. Kind of annoying, though. I didn’t have a chance to use all the effects of the second level up, though. I was too busy trying to survive to figure it out. It sounds really cool, though.

I decide to try it real quick. I take a bit of lava and form a projectile. It looked kinda like a glowing makeshift arrow. I swirled it around in the air, playing with it. It was weird. You could tell it was still liquid, but, for the most part it kept its shape, especially at the tip. I launched it at the wall. It slammed into it like an arrow, drilling a good couple inches into the wall. Then the projectile fell apart, dripping lava down the wall. This…could be very deadly.

Mixing ice into the projectile was even worse. The two were somehow kept separate even as they merged together. When slammed into the wall, the projectile dug in even further. The lava dripped down the wall; if it wasn’t for [aura of protection], it would have begun melting it. The ice from the projectile actually created a layer of ice over the existing ice. The projectile had both burning and freezing effects. It made no sense…

Adding metal to the mix, made it even sharper and did more piercing damage. Acid added corrosive damage. The gas actually solidified into a poison. Now, I have a deadly sharp projectile with burning, freezing, corrosive, poisonous properties. I wonder how well that monster would have held up under this. I twirl the projectile around, some of my confidence coming back.

I pause, thinking. I have path points. I chew on my lip before putting my path points into defender. I still didn’t feel safe.

Let this moment linger. Let it stand still within the confines of time. Lest we forget what must not be forgotten. Lest we forget it to time. — Evensong of the Temple of the Sun

Congratulations! {Defender IV (30/30)} Path: Complete. Through a twist of chance, completion of path causes — {Strategist II (55/55)} Path: Complete (+80 mana regeneration; {Defender V (0/50)} path; {Strategist III (0/95)} path; [Standstill I]: You are able to stop your perception of time’s movement for a short while, but in that instance you cannot move. Can be used in conjunction with [Forewarn II] (-120 mana/ sec))

This? What does this mean? If it does what I think it does… I punch the punching bag to get it swinging, then try out the skill. Time slows down to a stop. The punching bag stops mid swing. My body grows heavy and I cannot move a single one of my muscles. But my thinking is sharp and clear. Strangely, [forewarn] activates. I can see the predicted path of the punching bag as one…two…three seconds pass. Time speeds up. The punching bag resumes its pendulum swing. I dodge and slam a high kick against its side as it swings pass, then step back.

This could be very useful. I manage a small smile.

Status Menu Name: Haven [Locked]–Devin Race: Legendary Dungeon Level: 22* Attribute: Green Health: 64/313 (2.75/min) Mana: 37/371 (4.1/min)* State: Damaged -- (-2.75 health a minute) Biomes: 5* Floors: ?%Ξ] Named Monsters: 4 Monsters: 23* Animals: 25,243 Plants: 132,200+ [Ξ] Path Points: 5* Paths: {Beginner V (0/20)} {Ingenuity II (30/60)} {Valiant II (0/120)} {Defender V (0/50)}* {Architect I (0/50)} {Strategist III (0/95)}* Skills: [Influence VI] [Incorporation IV] [Ambient Aura VII] [Plant Growth I] [Green Thumb I] [Tamer II] [Karma II] [Natural Projectile V]* [Core Teleportation] [Epithet][Elemental Manipulation X] [Biome Creation] [Fluid Floors] [Golem Creation] [Loyalty] [Tranquility] [Warding I] [Forewarn II] [Mana Absorption]* [Standstill I]* Achievements: |Ingenuity!| |Powerful!| |Dauntless!| |Against the Odds!| |Crack Shot!| |Breeder!| |Safe Guard!| |Creator of Wonders!| |Leader!| Causes: |«Against the World»| — 4* [Ξ] Auras: |Aura of Light|, |Aura of Warmth|, |Aura of Fury|, |Aura of Souls|, |Aura of Protection|, |Aura of the Lost|, |Calming Aura| Fire: Main, Magma Water: Main, Ice, Acid

Earth: Main, Plants, Minerals, Metal, Wax

Air: Main, Toxic Gas