Chapter 1.

I was in complete darkness, darkness though; may not be the right word to describe the utter sensory deprivation that I was currently experiencing. No site, sound, taste, smell, or feeling Sensory input was directed into whatever was passing for my neural processing process. AKA my brain. How did I find myself in such a terrifying and odd situation, you may ask? Well, that's easy, I chose it.

I had just finished playing an older RPG survival game late into the evening on Friday night. I had gotten home from my job at an architecture firm, where I had the distinct displeasure of ensuring the engineering veracity of the overly artistic architects. Many of my colleagues had a notable disdain for me when one of their brilliant masterpieces was deemed completely infeasible by me, sending them back to their drawing boards. I had finished an especially hard week and had decided to spend my Friday night cooped up in front of my computer playing a game that brought me an immense amount of joy. Then I was going to read a few chapters of the most current Gamelit I was reading and going to pass out. My weekend plans comprised of repeating that process until Monday, with the only brief interlude being a possible Tinder hookup if the opportunity presented itself.

I thought my weekend was well planned out and had no idea what was about to happen to me. When I exited out of survival crafter 4, something odd happened. My computer screen, the TV in the living room behind me, and the TV in my bedroom all began to admit the static screech of white fuzz and the bright fluorescent flicker of light-filled my nice two-bedroom apartment. Then just like if I was in a video game, a window prompt opened in front of me. The edges had gold knotwork around it, and the background was completely black. White letters spelled out a question.

Message: Do you wish to become a dungeon core, Alex Mitchell? Yes, or No?

It took me all of but two seconds to read the message and about another 10 to make up my mind. Dungeon core books were some of my favorites, and for whatever reason, I was being presented with the option to become one. Was this the start of some system apocalypse, was a divine God or goddess offering me an opportunity to save the wayward souls of some faraway planet or was I completely going insane. Whatever was happening in my mind, I had all but only one option to choose from.

YES!

The moment that I chose yes, I had the briefest flash of regret thinking about how my friends and acquaintances would possibly miss me but then again, none of them really liked me, so I wasn't going to really be missed that much. My family, well, they were not the best. My father was an abusive alcoholic, whose only one good quality was that he did not put us up for adoption because my sister and I were better used as punching bags than long-forgotten bits of semen. My mother, well, let's just say she made her life choices and decided to stick with them and not change anything in her situation. She was wonderfully kind and beautiful, except for when she was covered in bruises or when my father was around. My sister and I were close in age, and when we each turned 18, we left, never turning back.

My sister and I had formed a close bond through all of the torment and abuse that we suffered and witnessed, but once we were out of that hellhole, it had been years since we had talked to each other.

With the brief flash of regret behind me, my apartment filled with a blinding white light, and I was catapulted down a rollercoaster of kaleidoscopic colors and sensations. My only thought as I was zipped around through some unknown dimension was how awesome it was going to be to become a dungeon core. All the cool things that they were able to do. From absorbing matter around them and learning everything about what they consumed. To using Mana or other forms of energy to create matter from essentially nothing. Casting spells creating loot and epic items and fighting off world-ending entities. Being able to expand your dungeon influence and aura and take over vast quantities of land, with numerous chambers and traps, monsters and secrets for adventurers to uncover.

As quickly as it had seemed to have started the kaleidoscopic roller coaster, it ended, and I was left in complete darkness. Well, complete sensory deprivation. I couldn't really tell how much time had passed during the kaleidoscopic journey, but it felt like forever, but now that it was over, it felt like it did only taking a second.

Time is a non-thing when you have no sensory input; you can't really tell how much time is passing. I tried counting in my head to 60 a few times to get a feel for how much a minute was in this place. One Mississippi, two Mississippi. Doing this about a dozen times, I finally began to have a sense of time after the 60th Mississippi.

Another thing that happened at this moment that I will never forget is I felt the first drop of Mana enter me. It seemed to coalesce and drip in from nowhere and everywhere all at once and hit somewhere deep within my soul. And just like I had imagined, I consumed it almost out of instinct than out of any focused will of my own. As soon as the tantalizing static crystal and electricity flushed into whatever was passing for my body currently, I was filled with an innate deep understanding of what manna was.

Mana was Crystalline and flowing all at once; it attached itself to the strings of reality at the smallest of the quantum level. It was a force, energy, just like gravity, the electromagnetic force, and the weak and strong nuclear forces. It bound and guided reality, holding within it endless possibilities and potential.

With the rush of knowledge came the first sensation I had ever felt in my new form, pain. Then I promptly blacked out because that pain was something else like a long electric screwdriver being shoved up your backside that had a blender option that was inconveniently turned on.

Graphic descriptions of pain aside, when I once again was aware of myself, still within the complete sensory deprivation, I had a new sense. I was full like I had just eaten a complete dinner and some dessert. I know I didn't have a stomach, so this sense of fullness must have come from the Mana. I now had an awareness in my mind of a spot within the form I was inhabiting where the Mana resided. My mana pool.

"Awesome." I tried to vocalize, but that definitely did not work, being that I had a distinct lack of lungs and vocal cords.

I sat for a moment, maybe 100 years. I really Didn't know not having any way to gauge time at all. Suffice it to say, I came up with my next move. In all the books that I had read, dungeons ate things and then gained knowledge about them. Seeing as I had Mana, I decided to focus on using that to try and eat what was outside of me.

Creating the mental picture of a Pac-Man character in my head, I focused outside of what I determined to be me and chomped twice. In the brief second it took me To execute the eating action, a few things happened. First, my mana pool was depleted by half.

Second, I gained an incredible rush of knowledge about granite. It would appear that wherever I was, I was completely encased in the substance. Good old quartz, potassium feldspar, mica, and amphiboles. Now the knowledge that I gained was far more than just what the material was; I understood the atomic composition of each of the molecules. The way the crystalline structures were latticed and, most importantly, their durability. This equated to me understanding how much of the axle forces the materials could be subjected to.

Third, I realized that chomping granite was not going to be the most efficient way of consuming the material. In fact, grinding rocks together in a chewing motion is probably one of the most inefficient ways to consume granite.

Fourth, the two fist-sized sections of granite that I had consumed I was now completely aware of. Instinctually I had interlaced my influence into the Mana, and it had stuck to the edges I had carved out with the Pac-Man experiment.

Taking my newfound knowledge And the two small fist-sized sections I was aware of, I began a process of dissolving the granite all around me except for what was directly under me. Because now that I actually had space around me, I was able to feel the pull of gravity, and I knew at the very least what direction was down. Pushing small amounts of Mana out of me, I coated the stone around me and began the process of dissolving and digesting the stone. This process was far more Mana efficient than what I had tried previously. By the time I had two fist lengths all around me and above me, I had only used about 10% of the Mana that was currently left inside of me.

I didn't know if anything bad would happen if I used up all of my Mana, So I decided to only use another 20% of my Mana, leaving my internal mana pool at 20%. The radius around me was now six fist sizes in a dome.

I waited, and waited, and waited. My mana pool only filled with the steady drip, drip, of Mana coming in from outside of me. It was during this time that I discovered a wonderful ability inherent to the form I was currently inhabiting. I assumed I was a rock, gem, or jewel of some kind and was not biological in nature, as I would surely be dead by now if I was. That ability was to affect how I perceived time. By focusing on the drip of Mana coming into me, and a lot of wishing it was full already. I noticed that in some moments, it would seem to speed up. The drips came at the same intervals and intensity but faster and faster. Then, through experimentation, I could make the time between drips last longer and longer. In computer terms, I was adjusting my frame rate, the process by which I perceived the flow of time.

"Thank the heavens," I tried to say once more upon figuring this out; it didn't work. Same problem as last time.

So quickly, at least from my perspective, my mana pool was full once more.

During this accelerated time as well, I became aware of what I was calling my internal subconscious map. This was the mental-physical representation of all of the subconscious processes my current body was handling. The space that I had hollowed out took up a tiny portion of this vast black backdrop. It gave me the ability to see the alcove that I had created. I was aware of everything inside of it, but keeping the three-dimensional 360-degree observational view was very disorienting. Considering I had spent close to 30 years of my life with binocular vision. So I quickly learned to form the same kind of vision within my mental landscape. I was also able to see Mana, well, more precisely, three distinct forms of energy that were present within the alcove I had created.

The first was what I was going to call my dungeon influence. The composite energy that made up my body, my Mana that had bonded permanently with the surrounding space, me. The second was the active effect of Mana or the Mana that came from inside of me that I used to influence the world around me. The third and final was unattenuated Mana. Raw or wild Mana that filtered in from outside of my dungeon influence but was not under my direct control.

With my Mana full, I became aware of a feeling of increasing pressure. It felt much the same as when you dive into a swimming pool and swim to the bottom. Slight at first but continuing to gradually increase over time. Add returned my frame rate back to normal, and could feel the increasing pressure. Along with the increase in pressure came a feeling of a deep instinctual need to relieve the pressure, to expand. Deciding that it was probably best to follow whatever ingrained instincts I was given by whatever it was that brought me here, I continued expanding my alcove.

Doubling the size of my domed alcove, I had expended 50% of my Mana once more. The pressure that I had been feeling was almost instantly alleviated and did not begin building up as fast as it had when my Mana was at 100%. I realized that this meant that I would be in a continual cycle of expanding and regenerating my Mana, and if I stopped for too long, I felt something bad would happen.

I needed a way to measure time, as I could not tell if a second or hour was passing. This led me to contemplate what I knew about creating time-measuring devices. Clocks.

I decided I was going to have to give creating material a try. This was another fundamental ability the dungeons had within the books that I had read. I imagined it was going to be much the same as consuming the rocks, but instead of directing my Mana to dissolve the rock around me, I was going to insert the Mana into a mental projection of what I wanted.

In the mental landscape, I projected an image of a tiny sliver Of quartz crystal A few finger lengths away from the small thumb size rock that was at the center of the dome, and which I presumed to be me or at least what housed my consciousness. Directing my Mana into the projection, the translucent imaginary image began to drink in the Mana. after about 5% of my mana pool was directed into the tiny crystal, it solidified. Appearing out of nowhere directly where I had intended within the alcove that I had created.

Next, I created a small silicon board about the size of a thumbnail That I materialize directly underneath the small crystal Shard. The quartz crystal was raised off the floor slightly as the silicon board-formed underneath it. The silicone board was larger than the crystal and took another 10% of my Mana to create. I was going to have to do some experiments later on just exactly how much Mana was used in the creation of objects. But first, I had to build the tools to even begin to get accurate measurements.

The last step was almost too easy. All I did was direct a small amount of Mana to produce a tiny Volt of electricity and directed it into the quartz crystal. This activated the quartz crystals piezoelectric effect, and with my heightened frame rate, I watched as it began to oscillate 32,768 times a second. To me, each back and forth looked like a slow ping pong game.

Now came the magic of my subconscious map. I portioned off a small amount of my mind and had it watch the crystal and count. Every 32,768 oscillations, it would increase the seconds' number on my internal display I was creating. I portioned off another part of my mind, and every 60 seconds had it increase the minute portion of my internal clock. I did this until I had an automated system that would count all the way up to years and was displayed in my mind's eye. Creating a HUD.

Year: 0. months: 0. Weeks: 0. Days: 0. 00:00:01.

I now had a self-automated way of telling time. When I let the automated parts of my subconscious run, I could feel that the clock took up only 1% of my subconscious to operate.

With this done, I could now see how long it actually took to fill my mana pool up. I dissolved more stone and pushed my influence out more and more. I noticed as my Mana dropped to zero that my influence could be expanded past the rock that I had dissolved.

Checking my clock I waited, to see how long my mana absorption would take.

12 hours that's how long it took nearly half a day. When my Manor was full, I continued to wait and kept track of the pressure that I felt. Wanting to see how much time I had until it became an overwhelming urge to expand. That took about another 12 hours, and when I could hold off no longer instead of expanding my dome because I was currently beginning to become worried about the structural integrity of my small alcove due to the fact I had no idea how much dirt and pressure was actually pressing down on top of me, I force expanded my influence to about double into the rock surrounding me.

This did not immediately alleviate the pressure building inside of the alcove I had made. However, instead of a drip-drip of Mana entering me, it felt like a tiny pressurized spray being forced into me. Measuring the amount of time once again, I realized that when the man of pressure inside of the room was that high, it only took about ten hours for me to completely refill my mana pool. However, the amount of pressure in the side of the room was not reduced fast enough, and in only about two hours, it was once again an overwhelming urge to expand.

This was going to become a problem because I could see the raw Mana floating inside of my alcove, I could also see the density increasing. As the density increased, the mana particles began to run into each other in an unorganized manner. This had a variety of effects, from small sparks to tiny snowflakes being formed. From the few observations that I made from the random interactions, I realized that they could potentially become extremely hazardous to my survival. Thus I was forced to Expand not only my dungeon influence but the actual physical volume of my dungeon body.

I also realized that this was probably the reason why dungeons had to eventually connect to the outside world. Because without a pressure valve, the internal body of my dungeon would become inhospitable even for me. And considering I was inside of my body, that was not going to be a good thing.

Now, this all sounded very dire considering I was at a critical mass level of my experiment; Luckily, due to my ability to increase my frame rate, I had all the time in the world from my perception. I decided I was going to have to do a sort of stability test for the rock around me. I was going to send a shaft straight out as far as I could. I lacked any precise measuring tools for distance, so I was left with using familiar body parts. I knew my hand was about eight inches long, or twenty centimeters. The shaft would be one hand wide and one hand long. I could have also used another body part to measure, but I didn't think that would be appropriate.

I gathered my Mana and began to dissolve the wall directly in front of me, or what I was going to call the front. I did this as fast as I could in a straight line with my imperfect hand measurements. I dissolve some granite, some iron, basalt, and igneous rock. The tunnel continued to grow and grow until it was 25 hands long, and the wall of rock that I was dissolving abruptly ended. At this point, I only had 60% of my Mana left and quickly shifted from dissolving the rock to projecting my dungeon influence into the cave.

When I had used an additional 50% of my Mana, converting it into my dungeon influence, I covered the entire interior of the subterranean cave. There was a small pool at the center of the room that was fed by the steady drip of water coming down from a stalactite. Along the edge of the pool was fine, coarse sand and dirt and mushrooms grew along the bank and walls.

Not detecting anything immediately dangerous, I slowed down my frame rate and waited another 12 hours for my Mana to be completely full.

Years: 0. Months: 0. Days: 2. 12:45:34.

With my Mana now full, I directed my attention to the small white cave mushrooms that were growing along the shore of the small pool. I tried directing my Mana to consume the mushroom but was immediately blocked by a force that covered it.

"Hum looks like it's going to have to be dead for me to absorb it." I thought and tried to say. I really needed to find a way to speak and someone to speak to.

Wasn't I supposed to get some cute dungeon fairy or brightly colored wisp that was going to guide me along the path of being a dungeon? Apparently not yet, or not at all.

How to kill a mushroom 101. Start by creating the mental image of A granite block about one hand span in each direction. Position the mental image of the granite block above said mushroom. Ensure that the height of the granite block is sufficient enough to cause enough damage to squish said mushroom. Infuse the mental blueprint with Mana and wait for gravity to take effect.

Splat. Well, less of an actual splatting sound and more of a whooshing one, but I think you get my meaning nonetheless. I focused on the now-dead mushroom and began absorbing the organic material. This process was a head rush almost as intense as when I had consumed my first drop of Mana. A swirl of the information entered my mind of the genetic structure and the composite atoms the mushroom was made out of. It's life cycle, what it ate, and even how much water it needed to consume. I now intrinsically knew how to create a blueprint of a mushroom and that I could create it by the same process that I had created the granite block.

Deciding to immortalize this momentous occasion, I moved the block along the ground and up along one of The Cave walls and set it along a ledge that I created. The very first item I had used to kill my very first thing. I do believe that this might become a theme of my dungeon, immortalizing the grand inventions I was going to create to waylay and hinder adventurers. But adventurers and all that was for a later time, a much later time, I never understood why dungeons were forced to open to the wide world before they were actually ready. Sure, there was a point in time where the inflow of raw wild mano would exceed the amount my core could absorb, enter my ability to create new rooms, but that wasn't for a long time. Until then, it was time to prepare, for what, I had no idea, but I imagined it was going to involve a lot of blood and death.