The knock on the front door was neither loud nor incessant. It was simply a couple of raps against the wooden frame then a murmur of someone speaking from the other side.

I couldn't make out what the words were, though they sounded humane. It seemed like they were coming from very far away, making it difficult for me todiscern what they wanted.

If they want me to open the door, I can't do that. Even though I could feel the knocks against its surface, the very task of actually opening it was still beyond me.

So all I could do was feel the knocks on the door, hear soft murmurings and wait for the person standing on the other side to either force his way in or leave me be. I still had to move my Dungeon Core from the ash pile.

But it seemed my visitor took the first option and pushed the door wide open. Huh? So it wasn't locked. I got the first glimpse of my guest and the world waiting for me outside. A narrow weed-choked dirt road that led up to my doorsteps and a couple of trees standing like two tall pillars. Not bad. The world on the other side looked nice enough.

Now as for the visitor itself, she looked nice too. Tall with short black hair, neatly trimmed. High cheekbones, red pouty lips and gold-rimmed eyes moved to and fro across the entire length of the hut. First time a hot woman is checking me out. I wondered aloud, quite amused.

She wore what looked like a white button-up shirt but over it was a thick brown leather armour, closely fitted and a pair of mean-looking gauntlets on either hand. I wouldn't want to be at the end of that. The woman had a satchel over her shoulders and a stack of papers in her arms. Up close, I could see a couple of daggers hanging from either side of her slim waist, easily within arm's reach.

Once fully inside,she closed the door shut, and looked around like she was searching for something. Her eyes moved up and down, left and right, taking in every nook and cranny of the little one-roomed hut.

What are you looking for? I wanted to ask her but because of a lack of lips, I couldn't speak. All I could do was simply watch her stand by the doorway, head turning, eyes moving.

Until those golden-rimmed eyes landed on the fireplace, or more importantly the humanoid skull buried underneath piles of ash.

Oh, no!

Becoming a Dungeon Core and losing the ability to feel many emotions had worked in my favour till now. Helping me adjust to my new state of being. With no body, just thoughts and memories of my past life forgotten completely.

And yet, just looking at the woman's gaze zooming into my Core, sent panic running down my entire being, absolute fear coursing through me. My vision which till now seemed to be present everywhere and anywhere all at once, zoned onto the woman as she began moving towards the fireplace. Her steps were sure like she knew what she was doing.

Oh no! No! No! No! I wanted to scream, throw the furniture at her, make those ants crawling over the walls attack her and tear apart her flesh. I wanted to do it all and more, just to stop her from moving towards my Dungeon Core. No! No! No!

But I couldn't. The only things I had with me were my thoughts and prayers. Moving anything or making any changes to the hut to make the woman stop in her tracks was beyond my control. All I could do was watch helplessly as she inched closer towards the fireplace, long legs crossing the distance too quickly for me to do anything but scream and rage and beg.

Please, please, please. But she remained deaf to my pleas. Instead, she took a knee, slipped a hand carefully underneath the fireplace and brought out the skull hidden within.

It was the first time I saw it fully without anything obstructing the view. And it was indeed a human skull made of bone with the appropriate holes in its eyes, nose and a set of good-looking teeth

Is it mine? I didn't know. I never had an x-ray done on my head. At least not that I can remember and in truth, human skulls looked pretty much the same for all, so differentiating this one as my own was a difficult task.

But at that moment none of those thoughts mattered. Whether the skull was indeed mine or not. What mattered was that it was in the hands of a woman I didn't know anything about. And deep down I felt that if something bad was supposed to happen to it, I was a goner. That would be the end of the road for me.

So I, with ever-increasing fear and trepidation, looked on as the woman took the skull in her hands, turned it to face her fully and look at it through the holes. A frown formed on her pretty face. What is she looking at? I wanted to know desperately. So I placed my consciousness on the wall behind her and tried peeking from above her shoulders.

What is inside the skull? Maybe my actual Core.

Maybe the skull was a covering of sorts to protect the delicate Core that resided within, and the one this woman was actively looking for. Please don't find it, please don't find it. Prayers were all I could do as I was helpless to do anything else. Prayers that were quickly dashed when a triumphant smile blossomed across her pretty face.

Oh no...It was the first time seeing a beautiful woman's smile filled me with so much dread. From her triumphant expression, it looked like she found what she was looking for inside the skull, even if all I could see were two black holes that made up its eyes, staring back at me accusingly from the other side. Oh no…

The woman then carefully placed the skull on the ground. Is she going to smash it with her feet? Was the first thought that entered my mind as I watched the skull lay on the stone floor. Freed from her grasp, I looked at it from all sides, trying to find a way I could move it.

Quickly I scoured the entire hut, anything that I could use to stop the woman from doing whatever she was trying to do. But all of my efforts were in vain. Even though I could feel and see almost everything inside this small one-room hut. I couldn't move anything. Not the ants, or the lizard, the bed, or the two wooden chairs. I couldn't do anything but watch the woman hover dangerously over my precious skull.

Which leg is she going to use to crush my Core? The thought floated inside my mind. Both of her legs looked long and muscular, in the tight leather pants she wore. Someone works out. But whether they were used to crush Dungeons Cores like mine, was yet to be revealed.

But ultimately, nothing like that happened, because the woman didn't raise her leg to crush the skull, but pulled the satchel hanging over her shoulders forward, then looked inside. The stacks of paper she brought with her, were placed on one of the two wooden chairs.

Curiosity and fear got the better of me and I looked at what those papers were. I tried to find any information about what was happening here and who this woman was. But I couldn't discern anything because the words written on them were in a language I didn't understand. It looked like lady luck was firmly against me.

And as if the woman heard my thoughts, she pulled out a long nail and hammer from the satchel and took a knee beside my skull. Oh God no!

She picked up the nail, placed it dead centre in the cranium, lined up the blow and struck it viciously with her hammer.

Pain, unlike anything I had ever felt before, burned through my senses. It made me scream. Though the woman remained oblivious to my agony and stuck again with the hammer. The pain doubled, dwarfing the headache I was feeling before. The experience was akin to someone really hammering a nail into my brain.

"Ahhh!" I screamed but the sound of my cries was once again ignored. The woman was too busy bursting open my skull to care. God, I want to kill her. Tear her into pieces, skin her alive for what she was doing to me. Rip her head from her shoulder-- "Ahhh!"

She struck again. A noticeable crack finally formed in the bone. She was close to breaking it apart and getting to my precious Core.

Is there nothing I could do to stop it? There wasn't. My senses were blinded with pain, and my thoughts and ability to see everything and everywhere inside the small hut disappeared with every blow she took. Like death was closing in from the sides.

Is this how it will end for me? Somehow finding myself here, living inside a hut with no body, just my thoughts and watching a beautiful woman kill me by punching a nail through my skull. Is this the end of the line?

I got my answer seconds later, when another strike with the hammer to the skull, right where the crack had formed, caused the bone to finally cave in, like it was made of glass. This left me screaming and crying in pain, even though I lacked both eyes and lips to do so.

A bright flash of light then erupted from the cracked skull, blinding everything inside the room in a glaring white glow until I could see no more...

...and soon I wasn't me anymore. Blessed oblivion, free of pain, welcomed me home.

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