Murmurs and screams and moans repeated hopelessly within the well. To exist here, without purpose was hell, but the essence, the soul, of any life began here. Brewed up by some not quite forgotten God. In this well resided fresh spirits to be individually plucked out and placed as seen fit by the progenitor of all life. Rats to men to dragons and very rarely lesser deities, these souls would call out to live and exist outside of the well and She would oblige. Hundreds of thousands of souls pulled from the well and thrown to the world of the living daily. Just as quickly there would be souls that are satisfied or surrender themselves and get ground up and destroyed. Their remaining essence goes back into the well and coalesces into fresh new souls.

Today a rare soul is born. Not a god, or an angel. Not a pit lord or diabolical fiend. Nor was it a dragon of the highest caliber. It was something with more potential than any of those. A dungeon core.

Dungeon cores were unique in that they had a strong pull to other souls. To remove the souls that clung to a dungeon core would be difficult and would injure the core, whether metaphysically or in its worldly pursuits. So She didn't. The core and its neighboring souls were flung into the word. An imp, a Kobold and seventeen rodents of varying magnitude. With that a dungeon core was born.

***The Core***

The kingdom of Surah was large so when a small room that hadn't been there before appeared in the Gemini forest, it went unnoticed. It was a stretch to call it a room really. It was a 5 feet by 5 feet by 5 feet cavity in the ground with a slope that led into it. In the room sat a pedestal with an impressive emerald. The emerald had a name. It was Veraform and it was a brand new dungeon core. Veraform could feel more than just itself contained within the gem.

“Allies” it thought. “Or tools at least” when it sensed the multitude of barely sentient souls within it. After a moment of wondering how to use them, a menu appeared in the minds eye of Veraform.

Lesser souls: 17

Minor souls: 2

Mana: 10/10

Abilities: Consume, Materialize

Materials: Packed dirt

With that Veraform began to experiment. What exactly could he consume? There were stones in the wall. Veraform focused on them and they started to vanish.

Material learned! Stone!

Sure enough his menu updated itself and stone was listed in the materials. He focused again, this time on the ramp, or rather on stairs that didn't yet exist on the ramp and within seconds the ramp was now stone stairs. His mana dropped to 9. He felt the change before he checked his menu. Despite his lack of eyes, the entirety of the room was visible to him. He saw everything within, but nothing outside of it.

“How am I to use these Souls?” he pondered. Without an answer he began lining the walls with stone. The dirt was ugly and Veraform knew he deserved better. He was after all, a magnificent emerald. Once it was done his mana was brought down to 4. What was he supposed to do? He couldn’t use his souls as far as he knew. He waited and wondered and eventually he felt an inexplicable rise in mana. He was at 5 now. His menu listed something new.

Passive mana generation: 1 per hour

“Not particularly fast,” he thought. AN INTRUDER. His mind leapt as he felt something enter his dominion. It was a rabbit. It had hopped to the second stair and raised its twitching nose to smell the dungeon. It hopped further down and explored. Veraform tried to consume it since that was his only option at the moment, but something prevented him. “I have to kill it” he realized. Veraform, in what he thought of as a stroke of genius, decided to materialize a stone above the rabbit and crush it. Again, he was met with some resistance. He couldn't materialize rocks when something was in his dungeon! “Unbelievable,” he thought. “This is my domain and I Should rule it.”

Level Up!

You’ve come to realize some things about yourself! Its about time you start expanding.

Gained Material: Rat

Gained ability: Expand

The message appeared within the mind of Veraform, distracting him from the rabbit. Immediately he tried to summon a rat, but again he was met with resistance. Frustrated, Veraform could do nothing but wait. Eventually the rabbit left and Veraform had 7 mana to work with. He immediately summoned a rat, costing him one mana and one lesser soul. “Wonderful” he thought. Disregarding the Costs he summoned 6 more and was at 0 mana. Next time the beast came back he would eradicate it. With 0 mana Veraform realized he couldn’t even attempt to expand. That would change soon he presumed. He had no sense of time but sooner than later he would gain mana.

Before a rabbit could arrive he had gained mana and decided to focus it on expanding. In every direction aside from up, down and past the staircase, his senses expanded. He could see past the walls about a foot. Oddly enough he felt no different. AN INTRUDER! Jarred, he immediately called for his rats to attack, though they were already on their way. The rabbit however was only on the second step and turned before it could be caught. It had left the dungeon and the rats refused to go past the top step. He would have to surprise the rabbit. Veraform consumed some of the walls to form a hole his rats could go through and a small room on the other side that they could hide in. He was a genius. Surely no creature could match his intellect, he thought to himself. Once again he waited for the rabbit to return. As he gained mana he spent it on expanding. He had gained four feet before the rabbit returned.

“Your doom is close brown one” he snarled to himself. The rabbit bounced down the stairs and around the room. Once it had passed the hole in the wall the rats came out to chase and bite and claw the rabbit. They were slow to emerge due to there being only one hole, Veraform noted. He had learned. He would improve the design next time. The rats dug there teeth into the rabbit and refused to let go despite its frantic hopping and twitching. Perhaps it could have escaped from two or three rats but Seven? It had no hope. Before long it was dead and Veraform knew what he was going to do. He consumed the creature. It awarded him one mana and one lesser soul. As well as the ‘rabbit’ material.

Level Up!

You've killed your first creature! Congrats!

From now on killing creatures will grant Knowledge points. You’ll learn to use those once you’ve completed a super secret objective!

Wonderful. Everything was coming together. Veraform knew he was on his way to becoming the most powerful entity this world had ever seen. Now he just has to figure out this super secret objective he learned about.