While sitting in the brightly lit room, Marianna sent one of the Overseers to check out the pile of once-people. From the corner of its viewport, she noticed an opening in the frontal wall of the boring square room. Queuing up another Overseer, she sent the second one floating into the opening, hoping to understand more about the world she was in. She was already getting the hang of this new situation!

Letting out a silent cheer at her progress, she eagerly watched the progression of both Overseers. They moved so slow! The second Overseer let Marianna get a better look at the room she was in, as it flew towards the door. She maximized its viewport, and spun the views around. Yes, in the center of the room there were her and her twin’s floating cores. Beyond that, the room was empty, setting aside the pink fleshy birthing pod, and the… remains. However, towards the door, Marianna could see some more detail in the walls. The packed black dirt was actually carved into rectangles. Somebody had created dirt bricks! When Marianna activated [Review], she could no longer see through the viewport. Hundreds of glowing blue status messages blocked her vision. And each said basically the same thing.

Black Dirt Brick

A simple brick made of black dirt, created by a dungeon core. It can’t support much weight, and will collapse if flooding occurs.

Created by: Blue Core (Dungeon Marianna)

Black Dirt Brick

A simple brick made of black dirt, created by a dungeon core. It can’t support much weight, and will collapse if flooding occurs.

Created by: Red Core (Unnamed)

The only difference between the messages was that each brick seemed to have been individually created by one of the two cores. Which was strange. Marianna didn’t remember having made anything.

So maybe this blue core was operating before I got here? I guess I must’ve possessed it.

Which was an eerie thought to her. She didn’t like using someone else’s body, even if that body wasn’t sentient beforehand. Marianna mentally shook her head, the Overseer following her motion. It wouldn’t do to be thinking about something she couldn’t control. Especially if it creeped her out. Instead, she minimized the viewport, and let the second Overseer float its way into the great beyond.

After what seemed like forever, the first Overseer had reached the pile of broken bones and hovered over it, staring down as Marianna asked. She had a hard time looking at the viewport.

Marianna had never actually seen a real dead body before. Of course, she’d been to funerals, and one or two closed-casket wakes, but she’d never actually seen one for herself. So this was a gruesome first experience.

She probably would’ve thrown up if she could have, but Marianna’s new dungeon form allowed that as much as it allowed her to faint. She finally mustered up the courage, gazed at the remains, and activated her skill, dreading the response.

Review…

To her surprise, only three boxes appeared.

Human Dregs

These are the remains of various dead humans. Consumed by the twin cores, their skeletons were the discarded portions.

Condition: Poor

Created by: Red Core (Unnamed), Blue Core (Dungeon Marianna)

Travelers’ Clothes

The standard in equipment for travelers, it is built to be lightweight and flexible. Provides little armor. Only a fool would enter a dungeon wearing such simple clothing.

Condition: Fine

Created by: Unknown

Royal Crown

This crown once belonged to a member of a royal family. If disassembled, can provide gold and precious gems. Highly desirable. Extremely rare.

Condition: Excellent

Created by: Unknown

Woah! Marianna didn’t notice the dusty golden band in the pile until the skill alerted her to it. But when she took a closer look, she could see the extravagant circlet shimmering in the core-light, even through the thin layer of dirt. That was cool.

She took a closer look at the box titled “Human Dregs”, noticing that it was created by both cores.

Wait, she thought. How could I have created bones? There’s only… And then it clicked. These remains weren’t just any dead humans.

The twin cores had eaten them. And she was one of the twin cores.

Marianna screamed in horror, and recoiled away from the viewport. For the next few minutes, she cried, fearing the implications, not even realizing she couldn’t feel the tears. Did she… eat people? She balked at the thought, nearly retching once more.

Eventually, Marianna recovered from the episode, vowing that she would engage in no human consumption. With that resolution in mind, it was easier for her to investigate the remains. But her attention was soon drawn away from the pile of bones and materials when she noticed a new Overseer viewport in the blackness of her vision. “Overseer #3: Unnamed” was written transparently over the box that must’ve appeared when she was too busy weeping to pay attention to her display.

Hmm. Marianna pondered. Maybe I should give them names? Overseer #X is getting a little boring... Hm… I know! Number one will be Smitty!

Then, in the top left viewport, the text reading “Overseer #1: Unnamed” changed to reflect her decision. It now read “Overseer: Smitty”.

Thinking she’d name the rest later, Mari sent the new Overseer to the right wall of the room, and left it there, not sure what to do with it. At least from there it gave her a nice view of the room. What she didn’t expect, however, was for the creature to turn sideways, and attach its tentacles’ suckers to the wall. Like that, it was more of a home security system than a living balloon. She decided to use that angle as her main vision from now on. It felt weird to feel nothing, but at least she could see herself now.

Overseer #2 had finally travelled through what Marianna guessed was an unlit hallway. As it approached a light, she could see the walls were no longer made of dirt bricks. Instead, they were just regular stone. It was a tunnel.

The Overseer reached the edge of the tunnel, and stopped. Marianna could see out beyond the tunnel, into a large grassland. Trees surrounded an open plain, and the tunnel came up out of the ground like a subway station.

She tried to drive the Overseer forward, but it wouldn’t move. Instead, it hovered for a few seconds, before deciding to flip upside down, and dock itself on the roof, looking out. The viewport corrected its orientation, and a status menu appeared in her vision.

Alert

Overseer #2 (Unnamed) has reached the limits of your territory.

She sighed internally. Seems like I’m not gonna be able to leave this cave any time soon. While she was pondering the idea of being trapped, Marianna realized that there was something she could actually feel. It was hunger. And it was growing.

Over the next few hours, Marianna continued to fly Smitty around the cave, discovering she couldn’t make one of the creatures pick up the crown. She investigated herself a bit more and found a crack in the side of her shell. It was long, thin as a hair, and perfectly straight, as though it was built into the shell. The Red Core had one, too. What are these for?

Then, in response to her question, her Blue Shell’s crack widened, and pieces of the crystal withdrew, opening an inner hatch, and revealing what must have been her current body. Positioning Smitty in front of the opening, she peered inside her shell.

A large blue orb, the size of a watermelon, rested inside. It shone even brighter than the shell, nearly blinding poor Smitty, who cringed away from the orb.

That’s me, Marianna thought in amazement. Though she didn’t have any arms or legs anymore, being in fact a simple sphere, she thought her new body was beautiful. She sat frozen in amazement for a few minutes, and then, forcing Smitty to face the orb, activated [Review].

Core Marianna

This is your core, Dungeon Marianna. Should it be destroyed, you will cease to exist.

Condition: Perfect

Created by: Unknown

Woah… She let Smitty hover away from the orb as he apparently wanted, and mentally closed the hatch doors, dimming the light from the ball within. Then, Marianna attempted something she had been wondering about. Can I spawn one of those birthing pods?

As she attempted to command whatever-made-things-happen to create one, yet another screen appeared in her vision.

Alert

Energy level too low to create birthing pod. Required energy: 200.

193/500 available.

What? Energy? That was new. Marianna hadn’t expected a notification like that. She needed two hundred energy to make a birthing pod, but she only had a little over one hundred and ninety. How can I obtain more, then?

Alert

Current energy regeneration: 3 per minute.

Oh! She exclaimed. That’s helpful! She smiled cheerily, though, it was an empty gesture since she couldn’t actually display her emotions. That thought depressed her a little, but she quickly recovered, and decided to start looking into what else she could do as a dungeon core...