Uno, a few days earlier

So yeah, plan “I have no mouth and I must scream” has ended in failure. It was clearly not a super Saiyan world. No blonde hair, no monkey tail - I’m not even thinking about how ridiculous would it look on the onyx gemstone that my body was turned into. This operation ended badly - not for the lack of trying though, but because I felt something.

Ground, to be more precise.

Yep. I’ve fallen down from somewhere to somewhere.

Progress!

It’s time to try another method.

Dumb repetition? Maybe. But there isn’t much to do anyway, so why not?

Let’s just say that shitting out magic didn’t work too.

I don’t want to talk about it.

After another failure, I've moved towards new goals. Or rather magic systems I remembered from different games and media. It was tiring. I didn’t even know that I could get tired. After all, this body is now an unliving piece of earth. Well, maybe not completely un-living, but still…

So there was a shot at Aztec blood sacrifices - but where to find a victim willing or not? Or a virgin for that matter? I couldn’t even bleed myself. Scratch that.

Maybe voodoo? But how, without drugs? And I’m all out of bodies to use. No zombies then...

Chanting some Indian spells? Once again - silence was the answer.

Witchcraft? Where would I (once again) find ingredients and more importantly a place to carve my sigils in?

Summoning? I didn’t remember any of lesser devil names and getting somebody like Lucifer or other grand and the powerful demon was out of the question. Especially because I now understood that they were most definitely real. And possibly fatal to a little gem like me. Maybe after I’ll grow bigger. If I will.

This took some time, but I tried every single trick in the book and was at my wit's end. Nothing worked. I mean nothing! I even tried some Viking-like ancestor summoning or New Age bullcrap! Maybe my ancestors were just too timid? There were no heroes in my family tree! Bite me.

And so - null.

Zero.

In desperation, I decided to be stupid.

[Status] I thought. Having no mouth is really a handful. But lo and behold… it worked.

Name

Uno

Race

Dungeon core

Affinity

None

Element

Anima

Location

Henrik Waltzer ruined castle - Dungeons

Magic

None

Skills

None

Innate Abilities

Mana sight

Mana levels

Full

Seeing the blue box (once again) I made up my mind. If going stupid was the way to deliver then I’ll do just that.

[Mana sight] My mind whispered and then I saw everything.

Which meant that I could recognize that I was lying on the floor in a small, half-buried room with a skeleton chained to the wall and parts of the ruined table and chair from which I undoubtedly fell. It was a small place, not even big enough for an adult human to stand up. But for a Dungeon core like me? It was perfect.

Safe, for once. Unless there were some worms or other weird creatures in this world that would enjoy the crunchy texture of gems. No. Don’t jinx it, Uno.

Weird. It was the first time I referred to myself by my new name. Huh. So human beings can get used to anything. Interesting.

Now how do I describe my newfound power? It was like echolocation - mana goes out, mana bounces from wall, dirt or that rat, mana goes back. And I know everything.

Wait.

Rat?!

What the hell is that?! This place was sealed just a moment ago, how is there a rat inside?

With a quick scan of surroundings, I get a closer look at both the being and its way of entrance. To put it simply - it dug a tunnel through the dirt. To put it in a bit more complicated way - this is no simple rat. While it is as big as a soccer ball - which would by itself elicit screams of horror from many women I know - it also has damn big claws and comically oversized front teeth. It’s like a mole crossbreed with a rabbit and a rat. The greyish fur covering most of its body seems rather tough too.

Clearly, this creature was made in a way to ensure survival in some damn dangerous places. That’s bad. Maybe this silly god who sent me here was panicking because of that?

Now this means that chances of me surviving are min-Owwwww!! WHY ARE YOU EATING ME?!

I’m a freaking gem! You won’t get full from nibbling on me, you damn rat! GYAAAAA!

It hurts! It hurts!

I was only hurt like that once! That damn heater was malfunctioning and trying to repair it I was electrocuted! Owwwwww! It felt just like THIS!

*Bzzzzzzzzzt*

.

..

…

Huh?

I scanned the room once again. Molerat (let's call it that right now) was lying on the floor, twitching. Its chest rose slower and slower and then simply - stopped. And so another blue box appeared.

Congratulations!

New Attribute has been created - Dungeon core level

Your Dungeon core level has been changed to 0

New Innate Ability has been added - Anima manipulation

New Innate Ability has been added - Dungeon creation

Was I teleported to some Virtual Reality? What’s with this world and freaking video game logic? I was still reeling from the pain but noticed that my surface was untouched. Seems like I’m one sturdy gem. Just please, please… I hope that all this pain was me losing HP?

To turn away from reality I started to wonder even more about the rules of this world. By earlier demonstrated logic (I still can’t stand how irrational it is) there should be few actions that could be taken right now. To summarize - killing gains me… something. Let’s in true gaming fashion call it experience. By getting it I’ll grow stronger - level up. That much is clear. There are some weird things - like how did I generate electricity that killed this rat? Or why it wasn’t working before. Why skill or magic ability wasn’t added when it worked? What is Anima manipulation? What is the damn Anima itself?

Hmmm… to answer the last question. I think I remember something like that at least. There were some psychological shows I watched (again the science channel was my all-time favorite) and there was something about that word. Was it greek in origin? Roman? I don’t remember. But it was about inner truth, I think? Or getting to the truth? Yet what was such truth if not preconception.

Bah. Before I get too philosophical. What does it do? How do I use it?

Think Uno. Think. Video game logic.

Okay, let’s be stupid once again.

[Activate: Anima manipulation]

*bwoooooom*

Wow. It’s so weird it’s impressive. So to call out my powers I need to express them?

Something happened. There was a sense of power going through me. I knew I could create. Give life. Enforce my truth on the universe. So of course, I did.

I started the creation of my first minion.

There wasn’t much around to choose from, so I decided in my delusion to create as God did in the Bible - by using dirt. And maybe a bit of wood and iron which were just lying around. Courtesy of broken down jail bars and wooden furniture.

The main body was made from dirt with pieces of stone mixed in. The same was done for the head. These weren’t really important. Arms and legs were created from wood reinforced with small pieces of iron (in all honesty they looked like simple sticks), but most of it was used on the left one - to create shovel-like appendage. I didn’t have the ability to heat up metals, but stacking sharp parts of it next to each other created enough space to both dig with it and carry some material. Second hand had three “fingers” made from iron which gave creature ability to grasp, albeit on a basic level. Legs were made from wood with circular “feet” looking like small plates.

It was finished and I looked at it in pride. The act of creating something, however ugly and DIY looking was always one of the best parts.

And as soon as I stopped pouring mana it simply fell apart.

Huh?

W-why?

No. NO! I won’t be defeated! Video game logic! Video game logic! My chant worked like self-hypnosis. I sculpted, connecting various parts together and the being was turning to nothingness almost immediately. And again. And again.

But it wasn’t a one-sided fight.

I was learning.

When I squinted enough (yes, I know - quite hard without eyes) it seemed like there were parts of energy flowing away from my gem - core if you like - and reinforcing my creation. Only they dissipated the moment I took away my attention. They reminded me of glue used to keep the parts together.

Yet I was firmly in duct tape camp, using it and it’s varieties in both my private life and while working. There was nothing that couldn’t be held together by it. What duct tape joined let man not disconnect. Or so.

So why not…

I started using my “mental duct tape” on a future minion and getting more important parts together. It took me some time, but with patience dirt “human” stood before me.

In one piece! Even when I took my mana-tention back.

It wasn’t moving.

So I tried the next trope. If ability calling worked with other things, then what about…

[Analyze]

Anima-glued Dirt Drone

Dungeon drone made from inferior materials by young and inexperienced Dungeon core. It has a basic ability to move, function, excavate, transport and attack. It is also first of its kind - both in the dungeon and on Yana - because of ingenious use of Anima magic as a bonding agent. Drones are incapable of moving outside limits of the Dungeon core influence that spawned them.

It worked!

And that explains why this Drone of mine cannot move. There was something in earlier announcements about creating a dungeon, right?

[Status]

Race

Dungeon core

Name

Uno

Dungeon core level

0

Affinity

None

Element

Anima

Location

Henrik Waltzer ruined castle - Dungeons

Magic

None

Skills

None

Innate Abilities

Mana sight, Anima manipulation, Dungeon creation

Yup. Here it is. Let’s do it like before.

[Dungeon creation]

Congratulations!

Unnamed Dungeon has been created!

Innate Ability has been lost - Dungeon Creation

Hey! That’s not fair! I worked hard for that! Well, maybe not. But it was mine nonetheless… Wha-at? Why doooo I feel soooo ti-red~

G’night.

Wait, I thought that I couldn’t sleep?

Ah, who cares. Sweet dreams

***

Congratulations!

Unnamed Dungeon basic drone chassis has been created. Drone production will commence. Room creation will commence. Materials dissolution will commence.

NOW