Pain. Massive migraine level brain pain. I think to myself, Is this the second time? The first time was a building collapse, and the second time was an explosion. Will I be in a different world this time? I think to myself, until I am blinded by a dark blue screen.

Select Starting Dungeon Monster

Goblin

Small green humanoids with a high evolutionary variety.

Elemental

(Select one element) Beings of pure attributed mana.

Kobald

Scaly humanoids with a trace bloodline of dragons.

Undead

Reanimated creatures.

Undead (Specters)

Reanimated creatures with no physical body. (Affected by title [Specialized Mage: Soul])

Golems

Animated constructs made of mana. (Affected by titles [Certified Mage: Golemancy] and [Certified Mage: Runic Inscriptions].

Something recognizable… it means I am still in the same world as my second life… or one very similar… but, I seem not to be human anymore. I guess that last experiment really must have gone haywire… Heh, that old king, if he knew I became a Dungeon he would probably jump for joy at the possible riches. But, depending on how that explosion ripped through the protective barriers, with little obstruction, I doubt the capital survived.

Is selecting a starting monster like selecting a class before? But no, you had to be level 5 before class selection in my last life? Different rules? No I am probably overthinking it and the two have no relation. I start to ponder my choices, goblins are disgusting creatures that I would rather not interact with if necessary.

Kobolds, while it is true that they have ‘Trace’ amounts of dragon blood, it was observed to be less than .01% and would take at least 10 class evolutions before they can even become even the most lesser of dragons. And for elementals, if I am a dungeon, I will probably want more people visiting me, and while the singular attributed mana will definitely attract a specific group of people, I feel it narrows my focus too much.

Now I turn to undead. If I even dare to choose that I will be targeted by many holy churches, it is a vital requirement for some divine classes to vanquish ‘Beings of great darkness’ for a class evolution. And an undead dungeon classifies as that. Though it is affected by that one title, giving me more options…

As for the last one, Golems hold a special place in my heart, If my first life I had two majors in both Bioengineering and Robotic Engineering, so when I encountered the chance to learn golemancy in my second life, which had such similar characteristics, I jumped at the chance. I learned runic inscription to make more advanced golems, then I even delved into the rabbit hole that is Soul magic to make a golem capable of thinking, with great success.

I wonder why the Golem option is only affected by those two titles though? I try to pull up my status screen, but to no avail. I can’t even observe my surroundings yet, only the Monster selection screen… I guess I shall choose the obvious choice.

Monster Selected: Golem

And with that, I felt the whole world light up around me, I could see all around me and could feel it too.. And taste it? It felt like all five of my senses combined into one. I quickly try to pull up the status screen again, and to my luck, it works.

Name: Odracir Hilers

Race: Dungeon Core

Class: [Unselected]

Level: 1

Mind: 10

Body: N/A

Soul: 10

Mana: 1000/1000

Health: N/A

Titles:

[Certified Mage: Golemancy]

[Certified Mage: Runic Inscriptions]

[Specialized Mage: Soul]

Monsters:

Golems (Select for more Options)

Skills:

[Mana Will]: Level 1

[Conjuration]: Level 1

[Dig]: Level 1

[Morph]: Level 1

[Create]: Level 1

(Status screen will only be colored once)

Barebones compared to my old status, all my titles for accomplishing special feats are gone, along with all of my skills that I learned over the years or got from my class. I seem to have a few innate skills, only ‘Mana Will’ being one I had never heard of. A new Tab called ‘Monsters’ that looks like the tab for ‘Subordinates’ granted by some specialized classes.

Mind attribute determines you mana pool, different races get different bonuses from it, humans get 10 mana per attribute, dragons get 50 mana per attribute, and it seems dungeons get 100 per attribute. Body attribute works the same way as Mind, just for Health. I have never heard of anyone without a Body attribute, but it does align with stories of conquering Dungeons.

There are two types of Dungeons, ‘World Recognized’ and ‘World Spawned’. Recognized dungeons can be anything from a Bandit camp, to a bear cave, the nuances for how they come about are not completely understood, but it has been recorded that those ‘In charge’ of those dungeons get special titles that give them rewards. To defeat them, you just have to kill the leader, and you get rewards for it.

Spawned dungeons are dungeons with a dungeon core, they vary in how they look, but the unique thing about them, is that the monsters inside of them drop more experience, and that Cycling your mana inside of them, rewards greater amount experience.

The way to defeat ‘Spawned’ Dungeons, are to fight your way through the floors of the dungeon, and make your way to the dungeon core, it is said that even the highest level warrior is unable to destroy the dungeon core, and the only way to defeat it is to enter a ‘Contest of Wills’ and battle it out mentally with the will of the dungeon.

Should you win, then you have two choices, Either ‘Destroy’ or ‘Conquer’. Destroying the dungeon, grants a hefty amount of experience, and a special title. The dungeon will also disappear forever, and collapse. This is rarely done because it hurts the interest of everyone who intends to use the dungeon, and people who do so, unless either strong enough, or have a big enough backing, are usually killed in gruesome ways, unless extenuating circumstances are involved.

Conquering a dungeon is much more common, when a dungeon is conquered, the person who did so, gets a portion of the experience which would normally go to the dungeon for a set amount of time, and can somewhat influence the dungeon, and they gain a title. The amount of time a dungeon stays conquered, depends on the ‘Battle of Wills’ which varies all the time.

Soul Attribute, Does a variety of things, Increases the experience you get from ‘Cycling’ Increases your focus, Increases your Will, Etc. Basically, the higher your Soul attribute, the better you are. It seems to vary exactly what it does from person to person though, some getting different benefits.

Skills, there are plenty of variations to skills, for example, A Miner and an Assassin both have [Dark Vision] while both will allow you to see the outlines of things in the dark, higher levels of the skill, for the miner will give a subtle glow to Ore, whereas for the assassin, it will show the heat signature of the living.

Then there is Rarity, there are five ranks of rarity.

[Common]

[Uncommon]

[Rare]

[Extraordinary]

[Legendary]

Rarity can affect anything from skills, to titles, to items, to even classes and monsters. There is alleged to be three other ranks, [Ancient] [Mythic] and [Unique]. But I have never personally seen them, so I am unsure.

After checking through my new status, I look around at my new body, seeing it answers many questions. Before I died, Myself and others were working on a new type of Golemancy, creating a golem with a newborn soul. Golems, when not controlled directly, can only act under a rigid sect of instructions given to them, and the goal of this project was to make a golem with the capacity to think, many ideas were tried, but the limiting factor was always a lack of mana.

One day, a researcher came in and said he had found a solution to our problems, he took out a box that was about 2 meters cubed. Made completely out of Lead, a metal known for blocking mana. He cast a spell and numerous runic inscriptions flare upon the lead casing, within it, a perfect crystal sphere, 10cm in diameter, and a flawless emerald green was shown. The marvelous part was the dense waves of mana being given off.

Some high level mages were able to increase their levels quickly from a mediocre try of ‘Cycling’. One of the researchers by the name of Allison, who had a very high level legendary identification skill, said it was a legendary item called [Mana Well] that gives off endless mana. All the researchers were overjoyed, the item for the golem core was finally found.

The body of the golem was made with many legendary metals, and special items were integrated, every millimeter of space was covered in runic inscriptions. All that was needed was the final ritual to create the golem core. And that's where things went wrong. Something happened, and there was an explosion.

And here I am, in a crystal strikingly identical to the so called, [Mana Well].