...What?

Was that...the System? It couldn't be. Right? He attempted to turn his head but found that none of the muscles in his body were responding, and instead were either screaming in pain or not responding at all. How was he still alive? He couldn't feel it...or anything really...but he knew that basically every bone in his body was either pulverised or shattered. It was a miracle he was still conscious. Actually, from the pain he was experiencing, it was more like a curse.

Oh dear, I suppose you can't speak like you are now. Here you go!

A blue box suddenly appeared in front of him, the contents of it only confusing him even more.

You have been given the opportunity to join The Dead Labyrinth.

Accept?

He stared blankly up at the box. He could...join the [Dungeon]? He simply stared up at it, his fading mind struggling to comprehend what this meant. Well, he was going to die anyway, and from what the...[Dungeon] said, it would help him speak to it. That most likely meant that he wouldn't die at this moment. That decided it then. After all, he didn't want to die.

Accept.

Offer Accepted: You have now joined The Dead Labyrinth.

Immediately the pain in him ceased, causing him to blink in confusion. The darkness that had been encroaching on the edges of his vision faded completely. Despite the alleviation of pain however, he still couldn't move a single bit of his body, and so resigned himself to thinking about what just happened.

First, he had been tricked by some sort of shapeshifter and thrown down a secret hole in a [Dungeon]. Next, he experienced the worst pain in his life due to the shattering of his body. Next, a purple box similar to that which the [System] used appeared in front of him and called itself 'Grace'. From what he could tell, it was most likely the [Dungeon] that had spoken.

Now that was bizarre. Sure there had been some stories of [Dungeons] that could communicate with the adventurers that arrived, but they were more often then not dismissed as the ravings of madmen and drunkards. He chuckled to himself. More likely than not, what he had experienced was just some last minute hallucination before his death.

He froze. He raised a hand to his mouth, working his jaw as he did so. He could move again. Hesitantly he sat up, eyes widening in disbelief as he wriggled his fingers in front of his face. Blood still drenched the clothes he wore, and pieces of his bone still stuck out in the pieces that had broken and pierced through his skin. Yet, he could move as though none of these affected him.

Race Conversion Successful: Your race has now been converted to Sentient Undead.

"...Excuse me?"

Did it just say that it...converted his race? He looked himself over again and noticed something strange. His skin had gained a pasty grey hue, and the bone that had been sticking out was slowly pushing itself back in, however the gashes they left did not heal, and simply stayed the way they were.

Ah, you can speak now! Excellent! So anyway, my name is Grace, what's yours.

"..."

Uh, are you all right?

"...I'm gonna need a moment to process this." He said, placing a hand on his chin in thought.

Okay, time for another review of the situation. The crazy tales of [Dungeons] communicating were in fact true. He was now an undead, despite not being raised by a necromancer. In fact, it seemed as though the [System] itself had turned him into an undead. And this didn't even happen after he was dead, rather it happened while he was close to death. And it had called this process 'Race Conversion'. So, if he never died, and had been turned into an undead, was he really undead? In fact, where did all the undead that appear in [Dungeons] come from?

Oh, we can just create them.

Really? That would explain a lot of things-

...Did the [Dungeon] just read his mind?

Well, you are technically now a part of me so yeah.

That was...interesting. So he would have to watch what he thought about.

Oh don't worry, I can only hear your direct thoughts, and only in the form of words. Plus, it's not like I'm listening 24/7.

Caelan let out a sigh of relief at that revelation. At least this way he could keep some form of privacy in his own mind. Hesitantly, he got to his feet, flinching at the large gashes in his body. He blinked as he observed the gashes once again. How did he get those? He had fallen straight down the hole and not touched any of the sides. He had also landed on his back. So why did it look like there were slices across him?

Comes with the new race thing, sorry about that.

Caelan nodded in understanding. So because he had been turned into a sentient undead he had been given various cuts and slashes across his body. From what he had read about, multiple open wounds were common for undead, even though no one really knew where they came from. Wait a second. Why was he so calm about this? He had just been turned into an entirely different race.

I'm currently suppressing all the panic that you are currently feeling, which might I say you have quite a lot of. If I wasn't doing that than we would never have been able to be having this conversation.

To be fair, it was perfectly reasonable to be freaking out in this situation. After all, he was a monster now.

Hey now, sure you ain't nice to look at, but that is no reason for self degradation!

Caelan scowled into the vast blackness surrounding him. The [Dungeon] knew exactly what he meant. Shaking himself out of his scowling he looked down at his legs, a slice in his arm caught his attention, mainly due to the fact that it was positioned in such a way that he never would have been able to get it.

"Interesting." He mumbled to himself, touching the wound gingerly, his expectations of feeling a bolt of pain shattered as he felt absolutely nothing. Frowning, he went all in and smashed a finger inside, stomach churning as a piece of flesh plopped out of his leg. His frown deepened however when another glob of flesh suddenly appeared, seemingly from nowhere.

Even more interesting.

Yeah, monsters are weird like that. Anyway, you should probably get moving.

Huh? Why?

Earthworms. They are currently heading this way and they will kill you.

"WHAT!" Caelan blurted out in shock, the ground rumbling beneath his feet being the answer he got. He looked around in the dark space, the edges of the cavern only barely being visible, "Can't you do anything to stop them?!"

Hey it's not like I can control them. Sure I can give them a general direction to go in, but they are mostly autonomous. So if you wanna not die...again, then turn about 48 degrees to your left and run as fast as you can.

Gulping at this revelation he did as she said and turned left, however, had to estimate however much these 'degrees' were. He ran as fast as his legs could carry him, his apparent state of disrepair doing nothing to slow him down. The rumbling slowly grew louder and louder, the tremors threatening to throw him off balance. He eventually saw a narrow passage, and, deciding that it was where the [Dungeon] meant for him to go, sprinted into it, squeezing his arms together so as to not scrape against the sharp rock wall.

As he continued to run down the passage, the rumbling slowly receded, eventually disappearing entirely. He still continued on however, not wanting to take a chance that these earthworms weren't following him. He emerged into a small room, panting heavily as he looked around. It appeared that even though he couldn't feel any pain, his lungs still functioned like a normal person. What a strange inconsistency.

Taking a look at the room, it was about the size of a small storage space, the place illuminated by a large spherical crystal suspended in the middle of the room by a pillar of stone that descended from the ceiling, stone claws hooking around the crystal and casting shadows over the room.

Ah, great to finally meet you in person! Or maybe orb? Core? No that doesn't sound right...

Caelan gaped in disbelief. This was the [Dungeon Core]. The heart of the [Dungeon] and what it formed around. And it was in an obscure room with nothing special about it. From what he had read [Dungeon Cores] usually resided in massive arenas with hundreds of defenses and traps. From what he could see though, there was nothing to protect this [Core].

Yeah, I was thinking about going for that when I remembered, "Hang on, of all the games I've played, every [Dungeon] that does that always ends up eventually being destroyed. Mainly due to the fact that they basically point out where their [Core] is located." So I had a brilliant idea. How about, I just hide in a hard to notice room. Worked wonders so far.

Caelan tapped his chin with a finger, mulling over what the [Dungeon] had just said. That was...very sound logic. It was almost worrying how intelligent this [Dungeon] was.

Why thank you.

But what did she mean by 'games I've played'. That was extremely confusing for him. Did [Dungeons] play games? Could they play games? He was now extremely thankful that this [Dungeon] was suppressing his panic, as he most certainly would have absolutely lost it by now. He should probably ask about that.

"Hey [Dungeon]-" He began but then remembered that his mind could be read. So that meant that the [Dungeon] had almost definitely heard his question.

So why was it staying silent?

He looked up at the [Core]. He wasn't sure, but he swore he saw it pulse slightly.

Okay. So, please don't freak out.

Why would he freak out? He probably couldn't freak out right now due to the emotional suppression.

I'm not actually sure I'll be able to handle any more panic. You're already emitting quite a bit, even for me. But back to the matter at hand. Do you want the short version or the long version?

A worried look crossed onto his face. He hadn't ever read anything about this, even in the ones that many considered crackpot theories.

The short version sounded like the one in which he would get the most answers the quickest.

Alright, short version it is! Hmm...where to begin? I guess from the start of this whole thing. Basically, I'm a 19 year old university student that got transported into this world by a ~T-!r/;a23vE-"Le)r, ended up being turned into a [Dungeon] and have been kind off just vibing underground for the past year or so.

Would you like to hear the long versi-

Oh oh.

Caelan's eye twitched once. It twitched again.

Warning: [Mental] Madness Status Effect present.

...

Could not resist [Mental] Madness!

Caelan collapsed to his knees, his entire body twitching like mad.

Oh no you don't buster!

Warning: [Mental] Selective Memory Loss has been applied by [The Dead Labyrinth]

...

[Mental] Madness Effect has been nullified by [Mental] Memory Loss

...Welp, it was nice having an actual conversation with someone. Not that it lasted long anyways.

I wonder if you'll ever get your memories back?

Caelan then collapsed to the ground, his twitching halting in the process. He stared blankly up at the stone roof. He blinked in confusion. Why was he here? He stood up, staring up at the...[Dungeon Core]? Why was he...He looked at his rotting flesh, eyes wide in horror and shock. The [Core] suddenly pulsed, drawing his attention. He leapt back in shock as a purple bolt shot from it into his chest. The scenery around him suddenly changed, from that of a small room with a [Dungeon Core] in the middle, to that of a massive cavern.

Confused he began to move forward, eyes straining to see in front of him, with no visible light source for him to properly see. Was this a [Dungeon]? He was so confused. He couldn't remember anything before or after he got here.

"I wonder what Syllia's up to..."