Graverra had always expected that if ever a true resurrection spell or ritual were to come into play, she would be on the other side of it. At a much higher level, of course. Probably the only one able or willing to revive Valerea’s unfortunately vampiric ass…

“But if he’s under leveled even compare to you…” The thought echoes around her similar to how the core’s voice had sounded in his room, but this wasn’t a room this was… Nothing.

Graverra notices then that the bursts of light and fuzz may have crystalized around her. Not just nonsense visuals before blacking out entirely, but stars, or constellations, or whole galaxies maybe. Because that’s what had to have happened. She still had to be blacked out and waiting to be revived. She couldn’t be…

“That bastard did too kill me!” The thought screeches around her, reverberating in the nothingness. At the same moment the want to ball her fists and stamp her feet draws attention to the fact Graverra no longer has a body. Not one she can feel or control or see, at least. She had to have something if she were still processing this all… At least, she hoped.

“If any bit of me is disfigured after this I’ll- I’ll…” Her thoughts keep sounding off around her. She would have then been grateful there was no one to hear this, about to finish that one about what she would be doing to the core once she was able to do anything again when a chuckle cuts through the emptiness.

Not Capo’s or the core’s - thankfully. It sounded too feminine for that.

“Not this again…” Another thought before Graverra can stop it, but it feels a little too similar to falling into some glitchy dungeon by mistake.

“Again?” The voice sounds amused still. “My, we think very highly of ourselves, don’t we?”

“We?” Graverra realizes then that she can’t so much look in any one direction as be painfully aware of her own minuscule place amongst the rest of the darkness. Even so, she can’t sense anything else there with her… Unless the points of light meant something. “I can’t be dead though…”

“Can’t you?” The voice still sounds more interested in toying with her than actually answering questions. “My dear, you let a dungeon core rip your silly little mortal shell in two.”

“No, I didn’t! Alright, well, I did, but he’s going to fix it! He had better fix it or…” Graverra stops herself both because she still isn’t sure she likes this every thought being voiced thing and she knows there’s not much she can follow that up with at the moment.

The voice laughs again. “You really believed that core?”

“I didn’t really have a choice, did I? He was going to- How do you know anything? Who are you?”

“It did kill you, Graverra. You are dead. Now, who do you think I am?”

Graverra might have gasped, if she still had things like lungs. “That’s not fair! I didn’t ask to fall in there! Who let that happen?!”

Because if she really were dead, then this was a god or goddess or something higher up like that. Graverra had never doubted their existence, though she had to wonder how attentive some were compared to others. She’d always thought Strexhin would have something to do with her in the end, as a necromancer.

“The core’s fault, though I wouldn’t expect that one to realize what it had done to cause that. It’s not fair… But that’s life, isn’t it?”

“I knew it!” If Graverra had hands to cover her mouth, she would have. Something told her this entity wasn’t particularly pleased with her dungeon core and that adding on to it all wouldn’t do either of them any favors. “I mean, he’s trying to fix it though now, isn’t he?”

“Ha! If that core truly wanted to be seen as competent, it never would have let you in to begin with, and it certainly wouldn’t have let you live this long.”

“I think… I think he loves me.” That was most definitely a thought that wouldn’t have found a voice any other way. She knows how it sounds, but…

The entity’s laugh hurts Graverra’s consciousness this time. “How very mortal of you. The core is trying to cheat the System, that one would, and it would try with anything else that might have fallen in to its meager halls.”

“Well, it’s not his fault if it works…” She thankfully stops herself before further notions about who’s fault this all really might be continue to project themselves. “I’m getting the hang of this- oh!”

“Oh… Oh you would…” The entity hums in thought, distracted by something else - though Graverra still has no visual point of reference for anything.

Suddenly it feels very similar to when the core had opened her grimoire without her permission, despite being fairly certain she didn’t actually have a body at this point to keep it on.

Name: Graverra Graeme

Title: Bride of the Dungeon Core

Race: Human - Drethiaq

Class: Necromancer

Guilds: [not available]

Level - 7

EXP. - ?????%

Health: -400/400

Mana: 1000/700

Stamina: N/A

In her mind’s eye, or soul’s eye, or whatever part of her was still visualizing things, she watched as her stats flickered between almost normal - the notable addition being a title and her physical stats - and something a bit more off. Sometimes her own name would flicker into ‘Undecided’ and her level would read 8, then 0, then switch to a system she wasn’t quite familiar with detailing sub ranks and splintering off in other ways. Instead of race it would read theme unless it swapped back to race again only to describe her as undead and with a new skill line to go along with it.

“What did he do?!” Of course she hopes that means it worked, but it was still off and jarring, and how she sincerely hoped she wasn’t actually undead now. She’d only ever wanted to raise them, not become them.

“Well, can’t you read, Mistress Dungeon Core?” The entity’s tone is haughty again, but it doesn’t bother Graverra quite so much after being called Mistress Dungeon Core. She might want to throw an ‘of’ in there in the future, but… She’d never had a proper title before.

“So it did work?”

“In its very odd, unnecessary way, I suppose it would.”

“Would?”

The entity laughs. “Oh dear, did you really think we could just allow dungeon cores to go… unionizing with adventurers like this? No! It shouldn’t be done and it most definitely should not be done the way you two did it. Eugh!”

“So…” Graverra could have picked any number of things to ask about, but she really thought she’d gotten the hang of only voicing the ones she wanted. Thank goodness. “So I can’t stay in the dungeon?”

“I would rather you didn’t.” But the fact that the entity hadn’t outright said no strikes Graverra as odd. And she hadn’t yet said anything about undoing any of this…

“Would you send me back where I belong, then?” After all the trouble she’d been through, Graverra doesn’t feel it’s ideal, but so long as she can keep certain aspects of this and not remain dead…

“Oh, no dear, I can’t do that now. The core has shown you too much. You can already feel it now, can’t you? The ability to create from nothing.”

“Well, I am a necromancer…”

The entity laughs again, and Graverra winces. This had to be on purpose now. “I told Strexhin you types would be insufferable… No, dear, I mean really from nothing. No components, not that watered down stuff you all call mana. You can interface with the System now, weakly. And don’t you dare try it now if you want to have any hope of being allowed to remain as you are. We can’t let that sort of thing wander freely and the sudden absence of it would drive you mad.”

Begrudgingly, Graverra is thankful for the warning. She knows she would have.

“I suppose we could allow you to be your own core…” The entity sighs, but really seems to think on it, weighing the option.

Graverra does as well. At first blush, it doesn’t seem like a terrible idea, especially if her only other option is to cease existing. In the moments she’s been allowed to think on it previously, she’s come to the conclusion she might actually make a fairly decent dungeon core. She’d certainly know how to make a better looking one than…

“I’d be alone then, wouldn’t I?” She’s mostly thinking to herself. About what the core had already told her. About what she’d admitted to Capo about why she’d become a necromancer in the first place.

“Not forever,” The entity says plainly. “Eventually you’d be able to host all sorts of things, if that’s what you’re after.”

“They’d just be stupid mobs though.” If she still had a nose to wrinkle, it would have. She’s also now grateful that Capo hadn’t come with her. As much as she sympathized with the skull, he was just a mob, and a particularly useless one at that. She wasn’t sure she could handle having nothing but Capos or bone spiders to talk to for months or years or however long it took to be a more respectable dungeon.

“And there’s still that attitude of yours…” The entity groans and Graverra can only imagine some form of temple rubbing going on as well. “I don’t need two impudent cores.”

“Did… Did you make my core? Er- The one I’ve been talking to?” They really would have to work out a name after this. If there was an after this.

The entity snorts contemptuously, “Of course I did. I shouldn’t have, but…”

She might have continued, but Graverra’s thoughts interrupt, “Was he something before then? Is this what happened to him?”

“Ah, ah, ah… I won’t be baited into that. If the two of you are oh so clever, then maybe I will leave you to your devices… Could be fun to watch… Could always end it whenever I saw fit.”

“Oh…” That had to be a threat, though Graverra was now too frightened to wonder any further about the terms of this whole thing. It was no wonder to her now if this was who the dungeon core had to impress, why he would be so touchy about it all… Even if taking her in did count as trying to cheat the System, she couldn’t blame him for wanting a little edge. She still thought she could build an alright dungeon if he would just let her…

“Hm. Yes. I will push back your deadline. I’m sure you have plenty to discuss with your new paramour, but after that there will be no more special treatment, do you understand? Given the circumstances, I am being very accommodating.

“Yes! Yes, ma’am, thank you, I-“ It was probably for the best then that despite surely still being in a sate of unconsciousness, Graverra felt herself blacking out once again.