Congratulations on your achievement.

You created your very first room as a dungeon.

The mana you gained by doing this will be enough to raise you to the next level of dungeon.

To Help you in this endeavour, you are granted a dungeon companion.

Based on your past experiences you gain the companion:

WIKI: A magical and sophont compendium with an endless amount of pages that knows all there is to know about dungeons.

His knowledge will expand whenever you gain a new level. Also, whatever you learn as a dungeon gets written down onto his pages.

Guard him well young dungeon. After all, knowledge is power.

As soon as I finish reading the last sentence, a voice enters my mind.

"Greetings master"

"Who is there?" I ask within my mind.

There's a silence for a bit.

"Why aren't you answering master? Are you perhaps mad at me? Or..., might it be that you are unable to answer me?"

A gasping sound enters my mind this time.

"That must be it, you can't 'speak' yet. Oh, poor master. Let me help you with that. Try this: infuse whatever you want to say with some mana and then project that towards me. Or, if you want to 'speak' to everyone that is in the room, project what you want to say to the room instead."

Since I have no idea where the owner of this voice is, I project my voice into my room.

"Hello, thanks for that tip. Can you tell me who and what you are, please?"

"Certainly master, my name is WIKI and I will be your companion for the rest of your dungeon life."

"Ohh, you are the one my pop-up told me about. you certainly got here fast."

"Why yes indeed, magic can do many wonderful things."

"So, WIKI, from what I understand, you are sent to me to help me in case I have problems or encounter question that I can't easily answer, am I correct?"

"Yes, master."

"Splendid. Here's my first question for you then. Is there a way I can perceive things like a normal mortal would? See, Hear, taste and smell? The feel part I have somewhat under control, I think."

"Oh poor master, have you been without senses al this time? Fear not, I can help you with this. The main principle of sensing things as a dungeon is that you are only able to sense things that happen in your dungeon. Or you need to make use of dungeon monsters and use their senses, but this is something that is not within your reach just yet."

"How would I become a dungeon then? Because, so far, I'm under the impression that I'm not a dungeon yet."

"It is as master says, master isn't a dungeon yet. To become a dungeon, master needs to infuse the rooms that he creates with mana. It is also important that you think about claiming the infused area. Otherwise, it the room won't count as part of your dungeon. The moment you become a dungeon, you can use every sense other mortals use within the confines of your dungeon. Try it, master, it's easier to just show you instead of explaining it."

Since I already have a room, I only have to infuse it then. Slowly, I let some of my precious mana pour out of me which promptly starts filling the room. When about half of my accumulated mana has left me, I get the feeling as if the room is 'full' and that I can't infuse it anymore with more mana. With a thought, I mentally lay claim to the room.

Immediately my mind receives a shock. I can see the walls that line my room. I can smell the musty smell that is associated with a cavern. I can feel the cold that comes down from the hole in the ceiling. I can see WIKI.

He looks like a fair sized tome made out of slightly yellowish papers and with a blue cover that is lined with gold.

I can see the slow flapping motions he makes to just float there. I can hear the slow flapping as well, the sound of rustling leaves or pages. I can even see the occasional snowflake that falls out of the hole in my ceiling.

I can even feel the snowflaking drifting to the floor of my room where they slowly melt. I can even taste the falling snow as if I stick my tongue out and the snowflake landed on it. In fact, I seem to know a lot about those snowflakes now. Their makeup, their ice crystal matrix and even what weather phenomenon you need to be able to form this particular snowflake.

"hey WIKI, how come I seem to know everything there is to be known about those snowflakes that flutter into my room? The same happened when I created this room. I seem to know a lot about the rock I devoured, even if I never had any geology classes."

"You absorb any and every non-living entity that falls on the floor of the dungeon. The only exception to this is when the object is somehow claimed or actively being used. For example, even though a boot touches your floor, you will not be able to absorb the boot for it is still attached to a living being and therefore, it is in use. You do the same absorption when you expand your rooms, for temporarily claim a piece of rock and, for a lack of better word, devour it. Full knowledge about everything you absorb or devour will then be instantly transferred to your memories. Since I'm now your companion and due to my magical nature, anything you learn by absorbing or devouring will also be written down onto my endless pages."

"I do like knowledge and as the pop-up said, knowledge is power. Being able to absorb things and learn from them will greatly increase my knowledge and therefore my power."

"Now then master. The main reason why I was sent here. At this point, with just one room, are you considered to be a level 0 dungeon. Since all the cool stuff starts at your first level, is it my duty to help you advance to this level."

"Tell me then WIKI, how would I go about levelling up?"

"Before I can tell you how to level up, I will need to tell master of his character screen. If the master wants to think 'character screen' while using a tiny bit of mana, master will find one popping up."

With the tiniest amount of mana and a mental command for a character screen, it indeed pops up, right in front of my proverbial eyes.

Name: Unnamed dungeon Location: Dragon mountains Dungeon companion: WIKI, the endless tome Mana: 506 mana Mana collection: 0,0025 mana per second Mana needed for next level: 1000 mana Integrity of the core: 100% Chosen dungeon monsters: N/A Special achievements: N/A Learned skills: Mana senses Number of floors: 1 floor Inhabitants: 1

I can't help but stare at the character screen with astonishment.

After all these years of gaming, I now have my own character screen, with stats and all.

Taking note of the 530 mana that I currently have, I finally have a way to quantize the mana I collected so far.

Since it felt as if I lose about half my mana by claiming this room, I lost slightly less then 500 mana.

That kinda sucks a bit, since I was sitting on the required amount of mana to level up.

On the other hand, the expenditure gave me my senses back, so I have no right to complain.

Most of the stats on the character screen don't surprise me. After all, in terms of age and experience, I'm basically a newborn babe. What does surprise me though is that I already have an inhabitant?

"WIKI, why does it say here that I already have an inhabitant?"

"You see master, even though I'm your companion, I count towards the total amount of inhabitants as well."

"I see. Next question then. What does it mean by chosen dungeon monsters?"

"When you get to the first level, you will be able to select a type of monster that you want in your dungeon. The only choices you will be able to pick from are the ones with a 'common' rarity."

"Wow, that's definitely something to look forward to. So, in order to level up, I'm assuming I need to stockpile 1000 mana then?"

"You are correct, master"

Seeing as that I gained mana by hollowing out this room and that, according to the character screen, I will gain mana passively as well, I should easily be able to get another 500 mana.

Even though I want to start digging and devouring more rock to gain more mana, I need to be smart about this.

So I send out another mana ping, one that is a little bit stronger this time.

When it returns, it gives me just what I needed. The direction of the nearest mountainside.

With renewed fervour, I start digging a corridor towards the side of the mountain.

The corridor I'm going with will be two metres wide and two and a half metres high.

Since I received about 37 mana for each cubic metre that I dug from the room my core is currently in, I figure that the amount of mana I will get for digging the corridor should remain the same, as long as I only encounter diorite.

So, with the dimension of 2 metres by 2.5 metres, I should gain 185 mana for every meter I dig towards the side of the mountain. So if I create a corridor that is 3 metres long, I should have enough mana to gain my first level.

After a few hours have passed, I finish my digging. I made sure to make the walls of the corridor to be smooth and that the ceiling is slightly curved so the weight of the mountain is spread evenly.

With all of that done, I check my character screen again.

Name: Unnamed dungeon Location: Dragon mountains Dungeon companion: WIKI, the endless tome Mana: 1088 mana Mana collection: 0.0025 mana per second Mana needed for next level: 1000 mana Integrity of the core: 100% Chosen dungeon monsters: N/A Special achievements: N/A Learned skills: Mana senses Number of floors: 1 floor Inhabitants: 1

Looks like I even managed to gain some extra mana by passively collecting some.

"WIKI, now that I have the required amount of mana, what should I do?"

"That's easy master, just gather the required amount of mana, condense it until you can't condense it any further and think about levelling up."

Gathering my mana, I set about following the magical book's guidelines.

Conventionally, the act of condensing something involves increasing the pressure of the medium.

So by manipulating the mana with my mind, I increasingly put more pressure on it until I get the feeling it won't condense any further.

With the super dense mana fighting against my control, I scream out in my mind:

"Level up!"