The woman's perspective:

She slowly woke up, feeling as if she either has the worst migraine in human history or as if she drunk way too much dwarven ale yesterday and now has a massive hangover.

Torchlight stabs into her bleary eyes, making them water a bit. With a sigh, she closes her eyes again and snuggles back into the warm and softness around her.

Wait. Warm? soft?

With a start, she jumps wide awake. With wide and frantic eyes, she takes in her surroundings. It appears that she currently is in a cave that is well lit with torches. In the middle of the room stands a small pillar supporting a white, nearly round, gem. In front of it stands a lectern made of stone, containing a beautiful looking tome.

Above the gem is a small chute through which the outside air can be seen. The air inside the cave feels crisp and her breath can be seen every time she breaths.

Which raises the question, why isn't she feeling cold? In fact, she's feeling quite warm. Giving herself a once-over, she's surprised. Somehow, she's wearing soft, fur-lined clothes that appear to be made from higher grade materials. The clothes fit perfectly as well as if they were tailored specifically for her. she never even felt it when they, whoever they might be, put these clothes on her. How long was she even out for?

The last thing she remembers is that she was running for her life after escaping from her captors. While she had been fleeing, she had run down the mountain wearing barely anything, not even shoes. She had been sure that she was either going to be recaptured and quite possibly raped or worse or that she was going to die from exposure on this snowy mountain. And yet, none of these things happened so far. The fact that she fell down a hole she never even knew was there seems to be her salvation for now.

"Hello? Is there someone here?"

Even though she can't see anyone around, she still asks this, if only to break the silence.

As if on cue, two pairs of feline eyes open in the far corner. Straining her eyes, she can barely make out their grey shapes that somehow seem to perfectly blend in with the walls. Oddly enough, they just seem to stare at her, doing nothing else. Creepy.

"Why yes, there is someone in here. You are in the presence of my master and its creations"

A voice that sounds like old rustling papers answers her.

Because of the fact that there didn't seem to be anyone around when she woke up, she didn't exactly expect anyone to answer her. She figured that, whoever saved her, went outside or something like that and she just had the bad luck to wake up when no-one was around.

It appears that she was gravely mistaken, even though she can't seem to find the origin of the voice. Nor can she even see who this master is that the voice talked about.

"Who are you? Where are you? And who is this master you talk about?"

"I am WIKI"

and with that statement, the book that in on the lectern in the middle of the room flies up, slowly flapping its pages as if it were a bird.

"A... a talking book. DiI I hit my head or something like that when I fell?"

"You did, in fact, hit your head when you fell. But that is not the point. You have not gone crazy, I assure you. You are, as you said, talking to a book. I'm WIKI, a magical tome familiar, in the employment of my benevolent master."

"I...See. Please tell me then, who might this master be then who you are talking about?

"My master is currently all around you, he is the very dungeon you are currently standing in"

"A DUNGEON!"

In shock, she just stares at the gem in the middle of the room. If she is in a dungeon somehow, that must mean that the gem that is just lying there in the middle of the room, is a dungeon core. An item that has the ultimate power of creation, some even consider a dungeon core to be akin to a demigod. What's even more shocking is the fact that she is in a dungeon and yet, she still lives. Dungeons are wonderful places that can create things out of thin air. But they have a darker side as well. They are notoriously dangerous and they don't hesitate to kill whatever wanders in them, all to get stronger or to satiate a primal desire. And yet, she is in here, safe and sound. And if she guessed right, this very dungeon might have even saved her by keeping her warm and maybe even defending her.

Getting over her shock, she turns fully towards the core and bows towards it.

"Thank you for saving me, it would seem like I'm in your debt"

My perspective:

Well, that's one way to make a statement. She makes it sound as if I did something truly unexpected or unbelievable.

Anyway, that is of no matter for now. What I would like to know is if I can talk to her. Since I have no actual mouth, I can't just talk to her. Somehow WIKI is capable of speech, but I have to assume this is due to his magical nature.

"WIKI, is there a way so I can communicate with her?"

WIKI turns towards me and shifts his posture so it would seem as if he were addressing me, confusing the woman in the process. For the sake of the woman, he says aloud:

"Yes and no, master. Currently, there's no way for you to communicate with her since you don't have an avatar yet. Mind to mind speech is also not possible since she is not one of your creatures. The only way for you to be able to communicate with her would be if she offered you her full and unwavering loyalty of her own free will. This way, she would become somewhat a minion of yours and would thus enable you to speak to her mind to mind."

Upon hearing this, she becomes pensive.

"Well WIKI, seeing as that a normal person would be unlikely to become one of my minions, you shall just have to be my voice for now"

"very well master"

WIKI turns back towards the woman and says to her:

"Since my master has no conceivable way yet to communicate with you directly, I will act as his proxy for now."

"WIKI, tell her that, if she has any questions, she should feel free to ask. Tell her as well that I have some questions of my own that I would like an answer to."

"Lady, my master wants me to tell you that if you have any questions, you should feel free to ask and he will answer them to the best of his capabilities. He also wants me to tell you that he has some questions of his own that he hopes you can answer for him."

"I would be glad to answer any question your master has. Might I start then with a question?"

"Go ahead"

"Well, correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm under the impression that the dungeon of your master seems on the small side.

This is a bit weird since your master seems, from what I can hear, more or less fully aware and sentient. This leads me to only one unlikely conclusion. Is your master, the dungeon, an actual person? Is he as truly alive as I think he is?"

"My my, she doesn't beat around the bush. WIKI, tell her this. It is as you suspect. I'm in fact a newborn dungeon and thus rather small. I barely even got my first level yet. And yet, I'm as you say fully sapient and sentient. What I won't tell you though is how I came to be, this is a little secret of mine I'm going to keep close to my chest. What I would like to know though is, who are you? I can't just keep calling woman or lady after all"

"Oh, my sincerest apologies, how rude of me. Yes, proper introductions are in order. I'm princess Mary-Ann of Ralomar, niece of the king of Ralomar, His Royal Majesty Edmond of Ralomar. Might I ask what your name is, sir dungeon?

A princess. In my dungeon even. Granted, she's only the niece of the current king, but still. Being in the presence of royalty is nothing to sneeze at.

But now I'm in a bit of a pickle here, since I don't really have a name. According to my character screen, I'm just called 'unnamed dungeon'. And going with my name from my previous life just feels wrong. What if I go with the name I always pick in games?

"You may call me Aaron Lightblade."

Would you like to change your name to Aaron Lightblade?

You can only change your name once and are given this chance because you came to this world unnamed.

Heck yes.

A quick check of my character screen brings a smile to my proverbial face.

Name:

Aaron Lightblade

Level:

1

Location:

Dragon mountains

Dungeon companion:

WIKI, the endless tome

Mana:

10 360 mana

Mana collection:

0,0050 mana per second

Mana needed for next level:

100 000 mana

Integrity of the core:

100%

Chosen dungeon monsters:

Animals

special achievements:

*First dungeon with an artificial core

Titles:

Inventor

Learned skills:

Mana senses

Numbers of floors:

1 floor

Inhabitants:

3

I finally have a name according to this world.

And I have a nice bit of mana lying around, which I gained from the kills, the items and the little bit of digging I did previously.

But I'm getting sidetracked.

"I have some more questions if you don't mind. As I've said before, I'm a newborn dungeon and thus I'm pretty new to this world in a way. I don't have any of the basic information a normal person might have. I have no idea how this world is called, what continent I'm on nor do I know what kingdom or empire I'm in. The only thing I know for sure is that I'm located somewhere in the dragon mountains. But even my knowledge of the dragon mountains is slim. Do they span for hundreds of kilometres? Or are they somewhat isolated and not part of a mountain chain? "

"Geography one Oh One then. Your dungeon lies in the kingdom of Ralomar, ruled as I previously said by my family. The dragon mountains are a chain of mountains that span for over a thousand kilometres in length and are over two hundred kilometres wide and form the natural border between Ralomar and the empire of light. Your dungeon lies only at the start of these mountains, in fact, if you were to go down the mountainside, you would encounter forests and flatlands. Your dungeon is located on an altitude above the perpetual snowline, meaning that this area is always covered in snow, all year round. The kingdom of Ralomar and the empire of light both lie on a continent of Allanaar. The kingdom of ralomar has some smaller neighbours as well, but they are hardly noteworthy and are our allies so I'm not going to elaborate on them. If you truly want more information about them, I can cover them in a course of geology one oh two."

"That is a lot to take in. Now, on to other business. I want to ask you some questions that might bring up bad memories or that might make you uncomfortable. You can always refuse to answer them of course if you think I go too far or if they are too painful."

"Go ahead, I'm a big girl. And despite what you might think, I'm not as emotionally scarred or unstable as you might think I am."

"Okay then. I presume that the men that chased you in here, which died in here while you were out, by the way, were your captors and that you somehow managed to escape?"

"Oh, they chased me and died in here? That is wonderful news. How many followed me? and was there a fat one as well? Did he die a horrible and/or humiliating death?"

"There were five of them, one of them the fat guy you are thinking of, I think. They all died because a Yeti chased them and nearly killed one of them. Since it sounds like you despise the guy, I can tell you that he got his face smashed in and got snacked upon. In fact, he was the very first to die since he slipped on the ice that lines my corridor and fell flat on his fat ass."

"Hah, serves that bastard right. They only lightly guarded me, thinking that the mountain would be enough to deter most people from saving me if they even know where I am. Therefore, the four others were the only ones guarding me."

"How did you get captured? I would assume that a member of the royal family like yourself would be well guarded. But seeing those thug's fighting prowess, they seemed like normal thugs and not capable of fighting a lot of guards."

"Well, quite stupidly actually. I was returning from a diplomatic mission and decided to stay in a roadside inn. I and my guards took up an entire floor with my room in the middle. But they must have known or guessed that we would stop there for when after they served us dinner, all guards that ate started falling asleep, myself included. The very few guards that didn't eat anything were sadly killed in the confusion. I can only assume that my captors just picked me up and walked out, just like that. I only hope that they just left when they kidnapped me and that they didn't slit the throats of my guards. When I woke up again, I was tied like a hog, stripped of all of my valuables and was clothes in simple clothes that nearly came apart the seams. After a couple of awful cold and hard days, we arrived at their hideout that was a bit further up the mountain where they split up. Most of them went back downhill to guard the way up and as I said, only those four stayed high up in the mountains to guard me."

"How did you manage to escape?"

"I got lucky, I think. The fat one that died in here was their leader or the one that hired them, I think. After a week of captivity up here in the mountains, he arrived in the hideout. The very first thing he did when he arrived was to order the captors out so he could have his fun with me. Which was the first of many mistakes he made. When he was grabbing at me and trying to fondle me, I noticed he still had his knife strapped to his belt. With him distracted, it was easy for me to grab for it and to slash at his belly and face. Sadly enough, I couldn't reach his balls because his fat belly protected them, otherwise I would have cut them off. With him reeling back from the pain, I quickly cut through my bonds and just ran outside into the snow. Not thinking where I could go to, only that I wanted to get as far away from there as possible.

And the rest you know. Fell into a hole and was saved by you."

"Sounds indeed unfortunate that you didn't manage to cut his balls off, yeah. On the other hand, it's my assumption that, because he was bleeding quite heavily, the Yeti chased them because it was attracted by his blood. So in a way, it was a good thing that you didn't hurt him more than you did, otherwise, the Yeti wouldn't have been there to help me with killing your captors. And I wouldn't have been able to add the Yeti species to my repertoire."

"You...can create Yeti's now somehow?"

"Yes, they cost quite a lot more but I can. They seem crazy strong as well. They most likely will make fine guards to keep me safe for now. I do have another question though. Who was the fat man? Do you know him? He seemed to be someone important and rich, judging on the quality of his clothes and the ring he was wearing that I couldn't absorb. When I looked at it, it seemed as if it was magical in nature. I don't know if magical items are rare or not, but since the thugs didn't carry any, I would assume they are at least uncommon."

"That fat pig was one of my kingdom's nobles. He was baron Ronhein Svarhall. A relative minor noble that was a member of the faction of nobles that politically opposes the king. How he ever grew the pair needed to stage my kidnapping is still beyond me for he was known as a coward and an opportunist. And as you said, he was quite well off but not as filthy rich as some other nobles. As far as the item you are talking about goes until you'll let me see it, I can't tell you what it might be."

I manipulate some earth to form a crude pedestal with the ring lying on top of it. Mary-ann slowly approaches it and looks it over without touching it. Her eyes slowly grow wide and with an unbelieving face, she just stares at my gem.

"Do you really have no idea what this is? The item you just have lying around here is called a possession ring. They are bound to their wearers and most often even to their family or heirs. When they are bound to the wearers family and the wearer dies, the rings teleport themselves to said family. Alerting the family of the wearer's death and making sure that the rings don't get in the wrong person's hands. A possession ring is a magical item that holds a magically and legally binding deed of ownership proving the wearer is the owner of a plot of land. They are often used for quite large plots of land. In general, nobles usually have many of them. Occasionally the wealthier merchants own them as well. The beauty of possession rings is that they give the wearer a little bit of power and influence over the land it is bound to. From what I can gather, this ring represents the ENTIRE mountain and even some of the land around it, most of it part of the forest at the foot of the mountain chain."

"That sounds amazing, truly a wonderful and lucky find then. But this makes me wonder though. Was the baron Heirless and familyless? Why else would it not teleport to his heir or family?"

"That is actually a rather good question. If I remember well, he had a wife, two sons and a daughter. He likely carried many rings when he came here that teleported back towards them. For it to not happen to this one, especially one that spans such a big area, something weird must be going on. The ring was most likely never bound to them, which is what makes it weird. As I said, most people don't want valuable plots of land to get in the wrong person's hands. Maybe he never wanted anyone to find out about his involvement in my kidnapping and therefore he never bound it to his family.

Whatever his reason was, it would seem that you only gained from it. Congratulations, you are now the proud owner of this mountain."

"How do I claim this as my own then?"

"Normally, one would put the ring on one of his fingers and bind the ring to his or her mana. And once it is bound to him, one would bind it to his or her blood and maybe even specify who of his or her blood it should go to. But with you not having any fingers nor any blood, I have no idea of how you could become its owner. I don't even know if a dungeon can even become the owner of one of these rings."

"Master, if I might but in? I might know of a way for you to become the owner of this ring. As I said earlier, any person that offers you its unwavering loyalty and services becomes a minion of sorts of you. With such a minion, for a lack of better word, you can then use said minion to claim the ring. Even though the minion claims the ring, you become the owner of the ring since you are the master of said minion."

Again, Mary-ann gets a pensive look on her face. After a couple of minutes, the pensive look on her face turns into one of determination. She looks straight at me and with a serious voice says to me:

"Aaron, I would like to offer you my full and unwavering loyalty. To protect you to the best of my ability, anyway I can. To keep you safe from any noble or person that might want to exploit you. I admit, my decision is partially influenced by the gratitude I feel towards you for saving me. But I'm also intrigued by you. I've never met a dungeon core, never even seen it with my own eyes. And I could have never even dreamed of meeting a dungeon like you. An actual living creature that has the power of creation in his own little domain. Thus I pledge myself unto you, to do with me as you see fit."

Mary-Ann of Ralomar offers you her full and unwavering loyalty.

A claim such as this is automatically verified with magic to protect a dungeon core from abuse.

Her claim is found to be the truth.

If you accept her offer, she becomes your agent, free to act outside your dungeon. Doing whatever she can, all in the best interest of your dungeon. She will act as your representative in the outside world and will never be able to, as long as she remains your agent, to intentionally harm you in any way.

A contract like this can only be broken with the consent of both parties for loyalty goes both ways.

She will receive some benefits as well. She will be touched by your mana which will increase her lifespan by a large amount and will even awake magical abilities if they weren't already present.

Would you like to accept her pledge and declare her to be Mary-Ann of Ralomar, Agent of Aaron Lightblade?