Well no sense fretting over something I can't change, instead I should focus on what I can do to keep myself alive for the foreseeable future.

"Been a long time since I've had to help a new dungeon, none pick undead these days." Said a distinctly feminine voice that seemed to emerge from the skull.

"So you're my assistant? How is floating skull supposed to assist me with anything? You don't even have arms or legs."

Steve had the impression the skull was rolling its eyes at him, which was impressive as the skull didn't actually have any eyes.

"I'm here to help you create your dungeon and provide you with information that isn't found within any Dungeon Manual. At least until you get yourself killed anyway. But I think introductions are in order first, I am known as Nova, a pleasure to make your acquaintance......" The skull stopped there and seemed to be waiting for a response.

"Oh, I'm Steve."

"Steve. Right. The old man strikes again with awe inspiring name." Nova responded giving another eye roll.

"Hey! I came up with that name myself thank you very much."

"Of course you did. Now, first things first. You need to create a boss to protect the core room. Right now any old creature could come right in and smash us both into splinters. You should have the knowledge on how to do so already from the Dungeon Manual I assume you have read. Simply focus on creating a minion and your options will be displayed." Nova advised.

Following Nova's advice, although Steve was sure that he would have done so anyway even without the pushy skull telling him what to do, Steve focussed on creating his first minion.

Summonable minions available:

Basic humanoid skeleton

"What? That's it? All I can summon is a basic skeleton!?"

Nova seemed rather amused by this. "Well what did you expect, your a level 0 dungeon, you're not likely to be summoning any liches or vampire lords are you?"

"Ugh. Still though. Fine, I'll summon the skeleton."

Concentrating he focussed his will on creating a new skeleton. So doing he felt an unusual pulling sensation like something vital had just been torn from him. It wasn't necessarily a painful sensation but now one that he enjoyed much either. In the centre of the room a skeletal hand burst through the floor. Quickly followed by an arm and the rest as the skeleton pulled itself from the earth. After getting to its feet the hole it crawled out of seemed to reseal itself leaving it smooth as if nothing had happened. The skeleton was a dirty brown colour and seemed to be from a human with a height of approximately 1.6 meters.

Congratulations! You have summoned your first minion, a Basic Skeleton.

As this is your only minion it will automatically become your boss for this floor. As this is your final (only) floor it will protect your core room from invaders and as such you will be unable to send it anywhere else in your dungeon.

Congratulations! You have completed your first step towards Announcing your dungeon to the world.

Progress: 1/3

After this message popped up the skeleton seemed to change. It great to just over 2 meters in height and its colour changed to more of a beige colour and the bones seemed thicker and sturdier.

"My first step towards announcing my dungeon? That doesn't sound good."

"Oh that's just your beginning quest. Once you have created your first minion, trap and room you will be ready to Announce. Essentially what will happen is once you complete this quest, each adventurer and other dungeon on this continent will receive a notification saying that a new dungeon has spawned, which will prompt people to begin searching for you."

"Exactly! Doesn't everybody hate the undead? I'm not sure this skeleton is going to be able to protect me if everybody comes looking to destroy me."

"Well no, not EVERYbody would want to destroy you. Just, you know, most of them. Besides, just because you Announce doesn't mean anybody will immediately know where you are so you should have some time to create a decent first floor before anybody shows up. Providing you don't do anything too stupid like sending your minions forth to conquer the surrounding lands and assuming you can provide enough resources or treasure to whomever finds you, their is a SLIGHT chance that you will be allowed to exist." Nova seemed to convey this with a grin, which again was impressive given the lack of lips.

"Besides, look at your mighty creation, I'm sure he will protect you!" Nova continued sarcastically.

Groaning to himself Steve decided to take a proper look at his creation. While examining his new skeleton boss, Steve was surprised to see a new blue box appear.

Name: (none) Race: Undead Sub Race: Skeleton Level: 0

Class: Defender Quality: Uncommon Disposition: Unwavering Loyalty

Characteristics:

Strength: 8 Constitution: 13

Dexterity: 4 Intelligence: 2 Luck: 0

Huh? What is all this stuff...?

Focussing on the information from this box, more boxes started to appear.

Name: Only sentient creatures have, or are allowed to have Names. Monsters that have existed for a long time or evolved may discover their Name, alternatively they may be bestowed a Name by another, though this is usually a very difficult thing to do as names can only be given by Creators and only to creatures that are deserving of a Name. Undead: Most undead creatures do not need to breath, eat, sleep or rest as most races do. In addition they are immune to the negative effects of Death Magic and resistant to the effects of Dark Magic. Conversely they are very susceptible to the negative effects of Life Magic and somewhat weak against Light Magic. Skeleton: Skeletons are one of the undead races. Most are simply reanimated or constructed remains of the deceased and have little to no will of their own, while some have been resurrected using Death Magic and have the consciousness and soul of whomever they were in life. When a skeleton is defeated, providing their constituent parts are now too damaged and are relatively close together, they are able to repair and reassemble themselves given time. Defender: Defenders is a class type available to most races and is considered to be tier 1. They are usually considered to be particularly tough for their kind and specialise in protecting other creatures or guarding specific areas.

Quality: All creatures, items, resources and just about anything else can be assessed to determine their quality. The known qualities are as follows:

Basic, Common, Uncommon, Scarce, Rare, Epic, Legendary, Mythic, God touched.

Disposition: A creatures disposition towards you based on the information you have available to you. WARNING: Do not put too much weight on a creature's given disposition as in most cases it will be based off incomplete information and is subject to change based on innumerable circumstances. The known dispositions are as follows:

Blind Hatred, Hatred, Disgusted, Immense Dislike, Dislike, Unfriendly, Neutral, Friendly, Liked, Well Liked, Praise Worthy, Awe Inspiring, Unwavering Loyalty.

Level: A creature's level is an indicator of the overall relative power of a creature when compared to others of its kind. WARNING: Do not put too much weight on a creature's level as this does not take into account other factors such as location, equipment or relative disparity between creatures. A level 100 Chipmunk will never be a threat to a level 1 Beholder. Characteristics: Strength determines a creatures relative physical might and will impact how much it can lift, carry, and the amount of damage it can deal with physical assaults. Constitution measures a creatures hardiness determining how much damage a creature can take before perishing, if a creature can shrug off impairment effects and its overall stamina. Dexterity determines a creature's nimbleness and will impact a creature's ability to dodge, move swiftly and its precision. Intelligence determines a creature's ability to wield magic, their problem-solving skills and its overall will. Little can be agreed upon regarding luck with the following notable exceptions. Luck can not be relied upon, and if you ever meet a someone or something with a negative luck stat, you should probably run as it is entirely possible that sooner or later a mountain is going to fall on them or some other such improbable event.

Huh, fair enough. I wonder what my stats look like..

Name: Steve Race: Dungeon Core Sub Race: (Unknown) Level: 0

Class: Creator Quality: God Touched Disposition: -

Characteristics:

Strength: 0 Constitution: 5

Dexterity: 0 Inteligence: 8 Luck: 0

"Well thats depressing."

"What is?" Nova asked.

"I just saw my stats for the first time and they seem pretty poor, well except for my Quality."

Nova made that eye rolling motion again. "Well of course they aren't, your still level 0. Once you have finished preparing your dungeon and have Announced you will gain your first level and can start earning experience towards gaining more levels. Plus each time you level up your Characteristics will increase. Why, what is your Quality?"

"Can't you just look and see?"

Nova sighed. "No I can't look and see. I can see my own stats and given time to properly examine items I can give more information. For you things will be a little different, for example you will have complete information regarding anything you create and anything you absorb though you still won't get anything more than basic information from examining anything else, including other creatures. Try examining me and you will see what I mean."

Fair enough, let's have a look see.

Concentrating on Nova for a few moments caused another blue box to appear.

Name: Nova Race: Undead? Sub Race: (Unknown) Level: (Unknown)

Class: (Unknown) Quality: (Unknown) Disposition: Neutral?

Characteristics:

Strength: (Unknown) Constitution: (Unknown)

Dexterity: (Unknown) Intelligence: (Unknown) Luck: (Unknown)

"I see what you mean. Although some stuff is showing like you race and disposition, though they do have a question mark as well."

"That's because they are guesses based on your observations. When you are more experienced more information will be available." Nova informed him.

"I guess that makes sense. What do you think I should do next then, create a trap and a room?"

"I would recommend creating some weapons and armour for your boss and then creating the layout for your first floor. Once you have populated it with more minions and some treasure for the adventurers then you can go ahead and create your first trap and Announce yourself. However before you do any of that, the first thing you are going to do is make a nice pedestal for me to sit on. I don't plan on rolling around on the floor for the rest of my existence."