The small one-room hut felt strange to me. Like I was present in every fibre of its being and experienced everything and anything that resided within it and made up the entire structure.

From its shallow foundation in the ground to the heaps of hay it had as a roof. The walls were made of old mud bricks and columns that held the structure aloft seemed moulded from rotting timber, now stained with fungus, annoying weeds and a fat wall lizard plucking off and eating the few ants crawling over it.

I could feel every inch of the place, every corner, every crevice, and every piece of furniture it had within it.

A cold fireplace, a door, couple of wooden chairs and a bed with no linen, just frames. I knew which part of the bed required fixing (its top-left leg), and I knew just where the fireplace had caved in and fallen on top of the cold ashes underneath. I knew which of the two chairs were stable and wouldn't crumble by merely sitting on it.

I knew everything and felt everything inside this little abode.

But that is where my problems arose. My inhuman consciousness was active only inside the hut. Outside, the world was entirely unknown. Like the entire structure was floating inside a black hole with nothing but never-ending cosmic darkness outside.

The place had a pair of windows but they were closed. I couldn't push it open and look outside to decide just where on earth I was. Because I didn't have legs to stand on and hands to push open the window panes. I didn't even have a body.

Just a human consciousness living inside every inch and fibre of the hut, waiting and wondering. Thinking and contemplating. What now?

It took a while before I finally understood what I was. That too with a bit of help when I stumbled on something I hadn't noticed before. A human skull, lying amidst the burnt out ashes and for some reason I couldn't really feel it.

A Dungeon Core. I was a damn Dungeon Core.

But that created another set of problems. Chief of them being — this isn't really a Dungeon. But a small abandoned hut in the middle of what seemed like nowhere. And as for the Core itself, I couldn't really find it. Anything that would even remotely resemble it escaped my consciousness still.

So all I could do was curse and worry. Shit. What do I do now? I had no clue.

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Well, I was kind of wrong. I did find the damn Core and it was just where it was supposed to be. Inside the skull that previously hinted at me what I truly was. My severe thoughts and crippling depression had plagued me enough to blind me to the things that were lying in front.

Now as for the Core itself, I couldn't quite see what it actually was. A gem? A fancy piece of rock? Or the entire skull itself? I didn't know, because my omnipotence, which seemed to reach, feel and see everything inside the hut's four brick walls, failed to work when it came close to the skull.

If I hadn't noticed its white head peeking from within the grey ashes, I would've missed its presence altogether.

But I did find it. The skull and the core that resided within it. Don't ask me how? I don't really know. The only thing I do know is that it is my Core and probably the only reason for me being alive, or alive as anyone could be in my position.

Too bad I can't pick it up.

I slipped my consciousness into the fireplace and peeked at it from the stone railing above. The skull looked humanoid, at least the part that was visible. Its cranium looked clean and white, while the rest was submerged beneath the small pool of ash.

If this was indeed the reason why I was alive, I would've prefered to clean it and keep it somewhere safe where nothing could damage it. And then maybe wonder just who did this skull even belong to?

The first suspect was of course me, since I was the one without a body, floating around the room, being everywhere and anywhere but inside of it.

But that would mean I died? The thought wasn't a pleasant one. But how did it happen? I don't recall anything bad happening to me, since the last thing I remember before ending up here was...umm...it was...

Oh shit. I don't remember. The part of my life before I suddenly found myself here, eluded me like a dream, fleeting against the rays of the morning sun.

I knew those memories were there somewhere, inside my mind. But since I didn't have a body, it appeared like everything I felt, every emotion I had garnered, was fleeting. Escaping through my consciousness like water one tried to grasp but kept on escaping through the gaps in his fingers.

Even the very thought of somehow coming up here, being inside everything and able to see anything in the confines of this, bothered me for only a minute or so. After that, curiosity took over and I hadn't felt the crushing anxiety and panic like before.

Maybe that is what happens when one becomes a Dungeon Core. He loses the part of himself that makes him a human.

The mere thought was sobering. Emotions were what made us humans. But losing them entirely...I didn't know what to feel about that. So I did the mature thing and completely ignored those thoughts, instead concentrating on the more important parts.

Like how on earth am I going to remove the skull from the fireplace and keep it somewhere safe, where someone couldn't simply pick it up.

But to do that, I needed a body. Which I didn't have. Just omnipresent thoughts floating around.

Then I'll need someone else to do it for me. But who? There wasn't anyone who could pick up a human-sized skull and place it where I wanted to— wait a minute. The lizard!

Immediately, I zoomed in on my consciousness to find it. And there it was on the wall right above the fireplace eating a few tiny ants coming its way.

Don't all Dungeon stories begin with the protagonist learning how to control the ants, spiders and lizards to do its bidding? So I tried it, even if I had no clue as to how to do it in the first place.

Should I shout at it? But I didn't have a mouth to speak. Maybe I should try and use my Jedi power and try mind-controlling it? I tried it. First by staring at it as if my life depended on it (in some ways it did) then ordering it with my mind.

But the only thing I achieved was to look at the lizard long enough for a minor headache to bloom inside of me, which shouldn't be possible because I didn't have a head to begin with.

As for the lizard itself, it remained unbothered and unmoved. Totally ignorant of my presence. Maybe I should try the ants. They looked small yet numerous enough, running down the rafters to at least do something to the skull. But when I tried to control them with my mind, nothing happened.

Okay, maybe I'm doing something wrong. Surely there must be something else I could do other than slip inside the furniture and feel the whole hut. I should be able to move something, shouldn't I?

But even after trying a bunch of times, using every trick in the book I knew that would allow me to control at least one thing inside this hut, I couldn't. Nothing moved or even quaked to my ministration and at the end of the day, I was left with only a severe headache.

It still doesn't make any sense. My first day as a supposed Dungeon Core was not living up to my expectations.

What do I do now? Much like before, I had no clue. Only curse profusely and worry about my awful luck.

Until I heard a knock on the front door.

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