Marianna slowly opened her eyes, finding she was laying on what appeared to be a mental bed. It was rather comfortable, but she supposed it was because she created it, and of course she knew what was most comfortable to her, after all.

Then she remembered why she was waking up. She’d fainted, which was something she’d thought impossible. Having only slept once the entire time she’d been in this new world, Mari didn’t realize she could faint. Considering she’d fainted a few times in the recent years of her life, Mari had assumed a few of the previous shocks she’d experienced already as a dungeon core would’ve made her pass out. And since she hadn’t, she’d figured it was simply impossible.

But apparently it wasn’t. Perhaps she’d simply subconsciously willed herself to sleep so strongly she fainted? But why had she fainted again? Mari looked around, scanning different viewports for an explanation. And she found it.

There, standing next to the crystal body that was Marianna, was the seemingly-beautiful prototype creature that Mari’s root had created. It was the zippermouthed unicorn. And it simply snoozed next to her, soft shrieks oozing from its mouth as it snored.

Marianna was reminded of Timothy, and how he’d once fallen asleep during a shift at work… on his feet. Mari was so impressed by it that she’d left him alone for a few minutes. And he didn’t move once. It was like he’d been frozen in time, and Marianna would’ve thought something was wrong, if it weren’t for the soft rhythmic snoring coming from his mouth.

Eventually, she’d slapped the back of his head and scolded him fiercely. He was only a high schooler, so maybe Mari was too strict with the boy, but she figured it was better he learn what a real job would be like before he was exposed to the world.

The unicorn, however, bothered her much more than the seventeen-year-old. The creature’s long blood red tongue lolled out of its mouth, and hung low, nearly touching the ground. Acid drool dripped off the end of the tongue, and Mari assumed the pit below it had formed from that very drip.

At some point, she held her breath as she finally maneuvered Ivy, the Overseer in her core’s room, towards the unicorn. She figured she would examine the horrifying creature while it was asleep, and decide how to handle it then.

Review! She thought the command while Ivy gazed at the unicorn.

Prototype Unicorn (Sleeping)

This fusion of horse and magic was created by the Research Root (Creature) as a prototype for Dungeon Marianna. It is fundamentally loyal to the core, and converts the excess materials it consumes into an acid, through a magical process, which it can then use to fling as a weapon.

Created by: Dungeon Marianna

Mari looked at the sleeping demon. Though its snores were more like tortured screams, with its half lidded eyes, she could see that it was barely any different from Timothy. And it just wanted to be loved! Her heart ached that she had probably hurt his feelings when she’d recoiled in horror.

Aw. Mari cooed. He’s not so scary when he’s sleeping. Then, with a snort, the unicorn’s tongue retracted swiftly into his mouth, and his eyes opened wide. They rolled around as he turned his head to look at Ivy, and the flying bulb flinched away. His eyes, now alert, were glaring at the Overseer, and he scraped his hoof along the ground. Then, a notification appeared before Mari’s vision.

Alert

The Research Root can perform further research on the unicorn to refine it into your ideal version. Destroy prototype unicorn?

D-destroy? Um… no way! I’m keeping him!

Alert

Confirmed. Prototype unicorn design has now been finalized into Unicorn design.

Well, that wasn’t exactly what she had wanted. Now whenever Mari decided to make another unicorn, it would always be an acid-slinging monster. Yikes. Well, she couldn’t have handled the guilt of killing him for no reason other than he was different.

Through Ivy’s eyes, Mari stared at the glaring horse. She tried to communicate with him.

[Hello! Mr. Unicorn! Um, I’m sorry if we got off on the--]

Without her being able to finish, the unicorn reared back on its hind legs, neighed loudly, and charged into the main corridor. It ran past Marvin, the Overseer Marianna had positioned before the Ratmen’s hallway, and she tried to speak to it again.

[Hey! Where are you going?!? I just wanted to say sorry!]

But the unicorn was already passing the Ratmen’s hallway, zipping up towards the cave entrance, past Smitty, and out into the wilderness. He disappeared into the woods, and Mari could no longer see him from Smitty’s viewport.

Well that was an absolute failure… I hope he’s not as evil as he looks… Mari scrunched her face, filled with uncertainty. Sorry outside world…

Turning away from her absolute failure, Mari noticed the other notifications that crowded her screen. She started to proceed through them, swiping away the ones that stated simple things like her energy being full, and unable to fill any further. Then she came to a very interesting one, and paused.

Alert

Ruby Mine completed construction. Assign a worker now?

That perked her up. She turned Ivy towards the front of the room, and saw that the mine was, indeed, complete! Where once there was a red, crystallized circle, there now seemed to be a huge tunnel bored into the wall. It was framed by glistening stones. Her core-light danced across them, creating a beautiful kaleidoscope of pulsating color. The mixture of her blue light with the red rocks made the new tunnel glow a beautiful purple. Marianna was in awe.

Wait. How long was I out if that’s finished?

Alert

The Ruby Mine completed construction 6 hours ago.

Marianna did some quick math in her head. If the dweller pod had about eight hours left when she’d last checked, and it had finished before she’d passed out, that meant that there were seven hours left on the mine. She’d been unconscious for thirteen hours?!?

How many days had it been then? Quickly doing her math, Marianna figured it had to have been at least four days that she’d been in this crystal body. She was amazed at how fast she’d adapted to her new body, and how quickly she’d forgotten about the passage of time. Her mother! Her poor mother… She was probably still worried sick about Marianna. Mari resolved herself again to get moving to find a solution out of this place.

Well… She thought. To get out of this world, I need to find a way out of this cave…

She had [Possess] at her disposal, but Marianna didn’t feel comfortable with taking control of somebody else’s body. So that was out of the question. And the Overseers couldn’t fly beyond her territory, so that was unfortunately out as well. She pulled up the viewports, and peeked in on the rats through Ellen’s eyes.

And she was amazed to see what they’d done. In just the few days they’d been there, the rats had developed several finished houses from various materials they must have scavenged from outside. She could clearly see wood and stone, as well as some pelts Mari assumed belonged to beasts of the forest.

Miradeen stood in the center of the Ratmen’s chamber, directing various citizens to different structures. She waved her bone staff tiredly, and the rats moved to their new jobs. Some citizens began stacking materials in different piles, while a few assembled crates from the collection of wood they had left over. The two warriors were posted at the intersection to the hallway, watching for intruders.

[Hey, Miradeen!] Marianna called out to the shaman. Her half-lidded eyes opened wide.

“My lady?” She turned to Ellen, the bulbous flying octopus mounted on the wall.

Wow, Marianna thought. How do they know where to look?

She shook her mental head, and then asked the shaman, [Do you have time right now?] The rat queen nodded and gestured towards a couple of citizens awaiting instructions from her.

“I am trying to find jobs for these two, but we don’t really have enough wood for them to work with, nor can I assign them to help the others without causing a crowd.” She scratched her forehead, her pointy claws pulling out knots in her fur, but the queen didn’t seem to notice. “I also can’t assign them to help the Yeshi and Baruk, our warriors, because they have no experience in combat. It’s quite the quandary. But forgive me for blathering on about our issues. How can I serve you?”

[Hmm,] Marianna responded. [I might actually have a solution for those two!] She thought up a command, and another box appeared.

Alert

Assign Verax to Research Root and Koria to Ruby Mine?

Mari affirmed the command, and the two Ratmen looked shocked as though they’d just been woken up. They looked at each other, and the queen, and then walked towards the piles the Ratmen had created. Verax collected several tools, and Koria grabbed herself a bone pickaxe, and a simple pointed metal rod. Then they both walked out of the room and towards Mari’s chamber. The queen just watched them leave.

“Did you… assign them a job?” She asked after a minute. “That… makes things easier. At least we can be helpful.” She tapped her staff on the floor in thought, then asked, “What did you need from me?”

Mari addressed the new notifications as the queen watched the rats leave. She read some information regarding ruby production, and, after discovering the Ratmen had diverted themselves a veritable waterfall from above, told the root to perform research on mermaids, her next endeavor. But she made sure to specify that the fish-half was on the bottom! Then she smiled.

[I was hoping you would help me figure out a way to move my core!]