Finally beginning to calm down from her moment of self-discovery and emotions, Crucible realised that the tutorial had been waiting for her to give it another ‘yes’ to continue.

A flash of embarrassment struck her as she scolded herself for missing that…

‘Huh, guess that’s what emotion is’. Crucible pondered as she realised that she’d just felt embarrassed, it was so strange. She didn’t know how she understood what emotions were supposed to feel like, information just seemed to enter her mind when it was needed, almost like she was remembering something she’d forgotten a long time ago.

Still they were useful, the strange thoughts that seemed to come to her sometimes had allowed her to realise what her ‘self’ was. Crucible eventually decided that it was something she’d question at a later date.

‘Oops, almost forget again’. Crucible let out a mental sigh as she sent a message telling the tutorial to continue.

Now that your sense of self has been cemented it’s time for you to learn more about what you can do as a dungeon. First let’s check your status screen!

Crucible felt a fluctuation of mana as a wall of information manifested itself in her mind.

Name: Crucible

Species: Dungeon core

Title: None

Rank: 0

Health: 100/100

Mana: 500/500 M0.1/h

Abilities: [Dungeon influence] [Modify Terrain] [Manifest monster]

Crucible absorbed the information silently, trusting the tutorial would soon answer the questions she had about this screen.

Going from top to bottom, let’s explain what all that means;

Name: What you call yourself, or what other people call you. Your name is a part of your identity that makes you different from other individuals with different names.

Species: Orks, spiders, elementals and dwarves, all of these are different species. You are a dungeon core, that’s your species and it sets you apart from others who don’t share it.

Title: What most people call your dungeon. It could be anything from super fluffy adventure cave, to devils grove. Your title is subject to change over time as more people find your dungeon and/or change their opinions about it.

Rank: As you go up in rank you’ll gain more abilities and other such cool things. Gain ranks by defending your dungeon and completing certain goals.

Health: Very self-explanatory, health drops as you take damage, you’ll die if you run out of it.

Mana: The magical energies of the world stored in your body, use it to activate your abilities and do most of the things you can do. It regenerates over time (currently at a rate of 0.1 mana per hour)

Abilities: These are what allow you to do as the dungeons do! They often use mana and are your bread and butter as a dungeon core.

As she went over the new knowledge Crucible couldn’t help but wonder how she could have forgotten all of this. She had made half the system after all…

No she hadn’t.

Crucible tried to shake of the invasive ‘not-self’ thoughts, they felt almost like hers but different somehow. Like an echo of something far more powerful.

Once again Crucible pushed the thoughts aside and mentally motioned the tutorial to continue.

Currently your abilities are locked by the tutorial, let’s start by unlocking your [Dungeon influence].

Mana began to pulse rhythmically as Crucible felt herself become… more.

Your [Dungeon influence] ability automatically uses the background mana produced by your core and infuses it into the surrounding environment, turning it into dungeon land directly under your influence. It also subverts simple creatures to your will overtime.

She could feel it happening, slowly her deep red coloured mana seeped into the rock around her core. Crucible could keenly feel every single stone affected by her mana, as it continued to spread her awareness of the surrounding mountain began to grow.

Now use one of your other abilities, [Modify terrain], to affect the surrounding rock.

As if by instinct, Crucible reached out for the ability and pushed.

The stone of the wall obeyed.

Retreating under her force of will, the rocky wall didn’t stop moving until it had left the area currently affected by her [Dungeon influence].

[Modify terrain] allows you to shape the land around you, as long as it is in your [Dungeon influence]. This consumes mana though, so keep an eye on how much you have left.

A quick check confirmed this as her mana count had dropped from 500 to 480.

Now use your mana to hollow out a decent sized cavern as your influence expands. This will serve as the first room of your dungeon.

Seeing no reason to not follow the tutorial’s advice, Crucible began shunting her mana outwardly, forging her small empty pocket into a much larger room. Stone bent to her will with what felt like practiced ease and soon she had pushed every piece of cavernous wall to the edge of her influence…

Except the floor, she definitely didn’t want to push against what was holding her up and potentially injure herself.

This is your first dungeon room, it may be small now but you can modify that in the future when your influence expands.

You may notice that your mana has been drained significantly by digging out this room. Don’t worry though, while [Modify terrain] can use a lot of mana, creating new rooms for your dungeon also increases your mana regeneration rate!

Crucible once again checked her status screen, while her mana had dropped to 300 out of 500, her mana regeneration rate had grown to M5/h or five mana per hour.

Now that you have taken the first steps on the road of becoming a successful dungeon, this basic tutorial shall come to a close. Don’t worry though, the [DUNCORE NETWORK] will still be here to help and guide you through both the known and the unknown.

A pang of sadness struck crucible as she read the message, how was she supposed to know what she was meant to do without the tutorial?

Since the tutorial is over the [DUNCORE NETWORK] will now unlock the part of your [Dungeon influence] that will allow you to feel creatures that are inside your dungeon and direct those that are under your control.

Please note however, that the [DUNCORE NETWORK] will create an opening to the outside world in T-48 hours, remember to prepare yourself for that!

So good luck! – Vesstiage, manager of the [DUNCORE NETWORK].

The moment those words finished manifesting themselves, she realised she could feel a ‘not self’ in her influence. Focusing on the ‘not self’, Crucible found herself looking at a small black beetle that was about half the size of her core.

What stood out the most to Crucible however, was that the beetle, the ‘not self’ felt like it… belonged to her for lack of a better term.

Creature identified: Common Cave beetle

Classification: Non-monster insect

This black beetle is often found in caves close to the surface, while its claw-like pincers may look intimidating this beetle only eats cave moss so the pincers are only used for self-defence and attracting mates.

Note: This very simple creature has been under your [Dungeon influence] long enough to give into your will. It is now a part of your dungeon.

‘It’s mine...’ Crucible knew now that the creature was hers. Though it was only a small bug, it was HER small bug, the first minion that would serve her and live in her domain.

‘Wait a minute, I though the tutorial was over?’ Crucible questioned, as she viewed the information regarding her new minion.

While the tutorial may be over, [DUNCORE NETWORK] will always be on standby to provide information when the dungeon core is confused about something.

‘Yes!’ Crucible let out a mental laugh of relief that caused her core to glow brighter for a second. The relief that the she hadn’t been left without help was almost enough to distract her from her dungeon’s new denizen.

‘No, I need to focus on my new servant’ she decided, trying very hard to be serious as she turned her attention to examine her bug more closely.

*PING!*

‘What now!?’ Crucible cried out to the network in exasperation as more information streamed into her mind.

The network has detected (2) unclaimed achievements, would you like to claim them?

‘… What are these achievements?’

Achievements: Awards given out for performing certain tasks. What these tasks are you won’t know until you complete them. Achievements are often accompanied by a reward of some kind, like more mana capacity or an ability.

‘Well I suppose a small distraction wouldn’t hurt’. Crucible gave into her curious and excitable instincts as she accepted the achievements.

Achievement earned: Yes, the floor really is lava.

You survived being submerged in magma or lava. That takes some serious will to survive!

Reward: [Elemental immunity: Magma]

Achievement earned: Molten core

You were caught in a volcanic eruption and lived to tell the tale. But was it skill or luck that saved your bacon?

Reward: [Create element: Magma]

‘That sounds really cool.’ Crucibles thought was tinged with awe as she looked at the [Create element: Magma] ability she had just gained.

‘Though… I don’t remember doing anything like that. Does it have something to do with those thoughts I get sometimes?’ Unfortunately her question was doomed to be met with silence.

‘Well, I might as well use it. [Create element: Magma]!’ Crucible invoked, focusing on activating the ability. She felt her mana swirling around her in complex patterns before solidifying…

‘Wait, where’s it going?’ Crucible would later learn that she had to focus on where she wanted to spawn the magma before creating it. Because without focus, the magma defaulted to forming…

Right on top of her.

Magma damage nullified by [Elemental immunity: Magma].

The incredibly hot rock flowed over Crucibles core, settling around her like some kind of lava bath.

‘That’s kind of nice actually’. When she realised the magma wasn’t hurting her, Crucible started to enjoy the feeling of bathing in the magma, to her it just felt comfortably warm.

While naturally occurring magma and lava may cool overtime, that which is created by the dungeon is kept in a liquid state by the dungeons background mana.

‘I have an insect minion and a magma bath. Could this day get any better?’ If Crucible had been a human she would have let out a sigh of contentment as she relaxed in her impromptu bath.

‘Wait… what if I put the two together? That’d be twice the amazingness!’ Crucible gave herself a mental pat on the back as she sent a command to her beetle.

‘Fly towards the magma!’ She ordered. The beetle dutifully took flight, rapidly beating its insect wings as it soared onwards at its mistress’s direction.

As the beetle collided with the incredibly hot liquid, its body was burnt to a crisp in less than a second.

‘Beetle no!’ Crucible cried as she felt her first minion’s life being snuffed out just as quickly as it had arrived.

You can now create: Common cave beetle

‘Huh?’

When a creature that is not one of the civilized races dies in your dungeon that you don’t know how to create, you automatically learn how to replicate it with the [Manifest monster] ability.

‘I can have more beetles?’ An innocent hope flowered in Crucible’s thoughts as her excitement began to build.

‘[Manifest monster]!’ She invoked, thinking of summoning another beetle.

A single point of mana was expended as Crucible’s energies formed into a small common cave beetle.

‘Haha! Soon I shall have all the beetles I desire, with them I shall…. wait this one died too?’ Crucible was snapped out of her daydream by the sudden death of her second minion.

The shrivelled and dried up corpse of the beetle lay before her, showing clear signs of death by very sudden heat exposure.

‘Well… no matter, I’ll just place the beetles further away from the magma!’ A plan of action made, Crucible began creating more bugs.

27 beetles later, she finally admitted to herself that whilst being further away from the magma meant it took longer for the beetles to die, the heat still killed all of them eventually.

‘Ok, so maybe if I put the magma somewhere else, the beetles will live! But where could I move it to?’ Crucible pondered this question for a few seconds before an idea struck her.

Using the [Modify terrain] ability, she carved out a thin chamber just underneath the cavern floor that equalled the space above it in both length and width. Then she removed a small portion of the rock separating her room and the new chamber and allowed the magma to flow down into it.

When the magma failed to completely fill her new 1-inch tall chamber, she simply added more. Then once the chamber was full, another quick application of [Modify terrain] sealed up the hole in the floor.

The end result worked a lot like central heating, the entire dungeon room was kept warm by heat being conducted through the floor. Most engineers just weren’t forward thinking enough to harness magma for such a task.

What Crucible didn’t know however, was that putting her makeshift lava tank below the floor had made the rock there unfortunately thin. Dangerously so actually, one might even call it an ‘accidental death-trap’.

With the magma now in a separate chamber and Crucible blissfully unaware of the danger she’d just created, she gleefully formed another beetle.

The heat still killed it after only a few seconds.

‘Why do my nice things stop me from having nice things!?’ She shrieked as her genius plan failed.

With her attempt at strategy a failure, Crucible’s still young mind decided that it was time for a more… active plan.

Brute force.

Forming another beetle, she began forcing as much mana into it as she could.

As Crucible’s newest minion slowly started to die like the others, she began to get desperate…

Then, the beetle changed.

Red mana spiralled around it as its head, pincers and legs began to turn a burnt amber colour. The black shell on its back that hid its wings began to flake off, revealing a new shell that shone a bright yet slightly rusty ruby red.

Common cave beetle has evolved into Fire mountain beetle.

‘Huh?’ Crucible’s thoughts froze as she recognised that the beetle was still alive. It looked different though, the words she wanted to use to describe it lay just out of her reach.

‘Red’ was the first truly coherent thought that hit her and ‘beautiful’ was the second.

Creature identified: Fire mountain beetle

Classification: Non-monster insect

This red and orange beetle is found dwelling near the magma chambers of dormant volcanos, feeding on the ambient mana they create. Because of this they have developed [Heat resistance], an aspect that has led many of them to be hunted by civilised races for their use in flame resistance potions.

You can now create: fire mountain beetle

A few seconds of silent observation later allowed Crucible to finally internalise the fact that not only was her new beetle minion still alive, it also wasn’t going to suffer spontaneous death by heat any time soon.

Naturally this revelation led to a lot of joyous laughter.

‘Ha-ha yes! I have the best minion ever!’ The sheer excitement and happiness that Crucible was feeling became visible as her core glowed a brighter red and her mana bounced rhythmically back and forth in energetic motions.

As if responding to its mistress’s joy, the flame coloured beetle buzzed its wings and took off. The insect began flying around the dungeon core, circling in time to the beat of the mana the core contained.

‘More, more! My beetles shall be legion!’ Crucible cackled as she once again invoked [Manifest monster].

In a small window of time that stretched just beyond an instant, thirty more red coloured beetles came into existence.

Warning: Mana low, (92/500)

The message snapped Crucible out of her bug induced mania. It only took a few more seconds after that for her to link the dots together and realise that between the digging, magma generation and beetle spawning, she had spent a lot of mana.

‘…Oops’ she thought sheepishly. ‘Wasn’t there something super important supposed to be happening soon? Something that I’d want mana for?’

As if summoned by her question, a notification from the system appeared.

Dungeon opening will be created in: T-44h 23m

‘That’s still pretty for away though…’ Crucible pondered whether or not she should be worried. Her mana would probably be mostly full again in 44 hours… right?

‘Yeah, it’ll probably be fine. Besides, my beautiful super cool minions can keep me safe!’ Crucible reassured herself as she turned to tend to her new beetle army.

If she had known that all of her beetles were small enough for an adventurer to crush one of them with a single step, she probably would have been a lot less confident.

But she did not, so Crucible continued on in blissful ignorance, completely unprepared for the dangers that lay ahead.