-The Gem-

“...most people call me... Death.” A grinding sound followed those words, his words were not spoken aloud but felt like they were directed right into my mind.

Death...Death...had come to see me, I started to panic again, I had to be very careful if I wanted to survive this encounter.

“Mighty Death, Reaper of Souls, why have you come and graced the little hole in which I reside?” I tried to make my voice sound as subservient as possible, trying to kiss this guys feet seemed like the only way I was going to be able to survive.

“I have come to make you my own, I have come to give you something called an attunement. This attunement will grant you powers that put you well ahead of your competitors and will give you the edge you need to survive in this cruel, harsh, world.” Sounded good, but there was always a catch to these things, and my instincts were telling me that the catch on this one was going to be big, “but,” and there it was, “You must swear your allegiance to me, and do quests for me.”

Huh, a hard question to say the least. “What exactly are the benefits that I will be receiving?”

The grinding sound once again echoed through my hole, grating on my nerves, “Smart little core,” damn this guy was patronizing! “All your monsters will be especially suited to dealing out death, further you will also start to gain special characteristics having to relate to death and the ways to deal it.”

“O mighty Death, look, I want to accept your offer, I do! Except I value my freedom, and I do not want to lose that! And so I must respectfully decline. Thank you for asking.” I could see the benefits of being under his command but I could also see all the things that could go wrong, namely that of becoming his slave.

“Humph, I will try to convince you one more time. You are the only being that is fit to receive this attunement in all of the world!” I could pretty much see Death gesturing grandly around the room, “Usually I can only grant a mark, but because of what you have done here today,” he gestured at the smoking corpses of the fairies, “By combining all the necessary requirements for the element of death to come into existence, that is the emotions of; grief, confusion, denial, relief, fear, peace, etc, etc, you can become an attuned dungeon! An empowered entity! This, as I said before, can grant a whole slew of benefits and can help grow your dungeon immensely, I implore you to accept this attunement and become one of the empowered.”

I have to admit the offer was tempting, very, very tempting, but something still felt off about this guy. He was a god, and yet he was imploring me to come and get empowered.

“I’m sorry O, Merciful One! But I must decline your offer, I do so with utmost respect and gratitude and hope to continue to have a good relationship with you. Thank you He Who Is Merciful.” I knew that I was taking a risk here but it needed to be done because there was no way that I was going to become a slave my entire life.

A cloud of black fog billowed and a cloaked figure appeared from the mist, clutching a scythe that inscribed with the faces of the forever tormented. Death came and pointed the tip of his scythe at my core,

“Obey, or die. Do not struggle. My power is such that you couldn’t comprehend it, and though you may have killed those fairies...you cannot kill me.” Well, that cleared up my choices for me, and also made a lot of sense.

I started going over my options; I could try to attack him, but something told me that wouldn’t go so well, or, I could just accept it, grovel, and hope beyond hope that I wouldn’t become a slave, or I could bargain.

“I know that I cannot kill you Mighty One, but what I ask of you before agreeing to your terms is that whenever you ask me to do something, kill someone, and so on, if you could pay me. For example, if you ask me to kill someone you could pay me with the body of a monster or if you ask me to create something for you, you could pay me with precious material. I’m sure that this couldn’t be too hard for you since you are rich, and such items would nothing to your coffers.” I think that I did pretty well not going to lie, that is a pretty good deal considering my position and the circumstances and shouldn’t do too much to hamper him.

“Hmmm, I accept this deal core. I leave you with this,” his scythe pressed into my core and with a horrible crystalline screech, followed by a metallic crunch, a line appeared in my core.

“This is your attunement and punishment; never bargain with me again core, NEVER!”

I was too lost in pain to comprehend, it carried me away, I was lost to my surroundings, it echoed forth from every fiber of my being.

“Yet, I am merciful.” Death waved his hand.

The pain abruptly stopped.

“You have one year. That which you seek to find is in the land of Torian. When I need of you, I will fetch you, remember, one year before my binding fails and you fall into never-ending pain and eventual death.” I could feel him grinning beneath his cowl. The fog started to obscure him and then abruptly dissipated.

“Oh, remember, you can form and destroy things using essence, essence you can get from deaths, and materials. Your welcome.” Thanks a lot, bastard, lot of good you’ve done me, I didn’t dare voice my opinions out loud, but it’s the thought that counts. It was then that he disappeared, leaving me with one last phrase,

“Serve me well core, serve me well, and perhaps one day you will be healed.”

...

“Damn you, Death, damn you.” These were the words I muttered myself over and over again. Along with the promise to myself that I would kill that, selfish, evil, dark, bastard.

Right now though, I had bigger problems.

I was stuck in a hole, had a damn crack on the side of me, and hell I was an indentured servant to Death! Death, the bloody god of the DEAD! In shorthand, I was screwed, completely and utterly screwed.

But,

I still had the essence from the two fairies that had paid me a visit, though they came with their problems.

When I had consumed them I felt and urge for more, and more, and more. Like a drug, that sadly, I was hooked on.

Still, the essence had its uses, already I had excavated four rooms all in a straight line, with my core room at the back of them all. What I had realized was that while I could excavate rooms by absorbing dirt, it took a hell of a lot more effort and time.

So I used essence. I still haven’t touched the corpses of the fairies or the bugs I ate; I noticed that they didn’t dissipate like the dirt did when I absorbed them.

I had four rooms, not a ton of essence left but not too little either, oh, and a hunger for more sentient essence. The bugs were staving it off but they couldn’t quite scratch the spot.

“Stop,” I spoke out loud, I needed to curb this hunger, otherwise I was most likely going to become addicted and become a mindless druggy waiting for my next shot. I didn’t like where I had gone after I killed those fairies.

Thing is, it tastes really good.

Now onto my next problem, what was the point of me? I was dungeon I knew that but what was I supposed to do as a dungeon? My instincts are just telling me to make bigger and more rooms, as well as to eat sentients. It wasn’t telling me how! It frustrated me, for example, I could tell how big the rooms I made were (10 meters by 10 meters.) Yet I didn’t know how to kill.

I was also getting kinda lonely. I still have no qualms about killing those fairies but I could use some companionship. I’ve taken to just staring at my core and wondering will I be like this for eternity? I hope not, I would rather die than have such a repetitive existence as building rooms and pondering on instincts that don’t help me.

“Oh, remember, you can form and destroy things using essence, essence you can get from deaths, and materials. Your welcome.”

Death's words came back to me in a flash.

Specifically in the first part, I can form or destroy things using essence.

My instincts tell me to use it on one of the bugs that are crawling around my room. Yeah. Only now they work. Thanks a lot, evolution.

I start to funnel essence into a wiggly thing that has no legs, a worm is what I think they are called. It’s starting to grow, and grow, and grow, I watch with fascination as its mouth becomes wider and wider, then burgeoning horror as it grows teeth, its body muscles become ten times stronger and it starts to salivate.

Oh, yeah, I’m an empowered Death dungeon.

Whups.

I keep on funneling, instinct is telling me to keep on adding essence, I have a feeling that this worms gonna be special. It keeps on growing until its head has touched the roof, its teeth are the size of swords, its muscles as strong as steel, its skin soft and spongy but still tough hopefully able to rebound whatever attacks it.

It is then that I have a genius idea, but who am I to judge? When I had evolved the worm I saw everything about it, what it was made of, what it liked to eat, etc, etc.

I found that it was good at digging, I had seen it dig through miles of dirt, and so I thought that it would be a good idea to get it to dig out some new rooms for me.

...

My core was residing it the only room that had been saved by the devastation.

I learned a valuable lesson, war machines knock down walls, they don’t build them.

My Worm had attacked the roof of my dungeon with abandon, it had let out a roar and launched straight up, teeth presented.

And proceeded to dig, or more accurately attack the dirt.

It left a gaping hole in the roof of the first room, and then dug sideways and around, wrecking all the other rooms that I had built, sending them crashing to the floor. So much essence...wasted!

I probably should’ve exerted my influence and stopped the rampage, the thing is, the thing was beautiful! Digging and digging, then digging up and up.

Then bursting through the surface, it was then that I called it back down, I could feel the essence holding its form together dissipating, and I didn’t want to lose the only monster that I had.

-Delvers Guild-

Tim had been sent by the overseers to check on what was believed to be a new dungeon. He had brought with him a seasoned group of adventurers and delving equipment, preparing to mine down to the dungeon and check out its danger level, monsters, loot, and when it should be ready to be farmed.

The sun had been outshining over him and his party, luckily the trees had shaded them for the most part, though they were getting a little scarce as of late with the town turned city so close by.

That was they heard the rumbling.

Tim was a seasoned delver and had had his share of earthquakes and the like, but this seemed to be strangely localized. He knew that dungeons didn’t have the ability to dig upwards that fast.

He also knew that earthquakes weren’t that localized.

He turned to the mage, an earth mage, which was part of the adventurer’s party. “Alright, look, I know that you and your friend rouge, like to play pranks but now is not the time.”

“This isn’t me...” The mage put his hand to the floor sending his magic into the ground below.

“What the...” The mage's eyes widened, he started to gesture wildly, “OUT, GET OUT, MONSTER, MON-“ A huge creature burst from underneath him, huge jaws opened wide for killing, the seasoned adventurer only just managed to roll out of the way losing a finger while doing so.

The rest of the group came rushing in to help, the healer already hauling the mage away as they all took combat positions.

The worm went back down the hole it had made.

The mage continued to scream, the healer working his hardest to reattach the finger.

The leader of the party, a lithe, slim, ranger walked over to the hole and peered down, then cast a charm.

“Down this way leads to what I think is the dungeon.” She looked down angrily, “In fact, I think that that monster was part of the dungeon.”

“So who's up for some dungeon diving?” A grin stretched across the face of the rouge as he readied his daggers and prepared to enter.

...

Sentients were coming and I had to fight the urge to go up and just eat them all. I had stationed it at the only entrance to the dungeon, which also happened to be where my core was.

I had a bad, bad feeling about this.

...

“Who do you think it belongs to, dark or light?” The mage asked as they walked down the steep tunnel that the worm creature had created.

“Dunno, I wanna know what loot it has, I also wanna know if it's empowered or marked.” The rouge said with a flourish of daggers.

“Remember Death, Darkness, Celestial, Infernal, and Chaos dungeon cores must be removed and shattered.” The leader this time.

“There hasn’t been a Death Core in ages, not since the Lord of Darkness, and Lady Light turned up. Though to be fair if the fairy has an empowerment then that could transfer some power over to the Core.” Tim spoke in a whisper, torch held high above his head.

They walked carefully down the dark tunnels, which seemed to lead nowhere, now and then they stumbled across a broken room but they couldn’t find the dungeon core.

...

I thought sentients were supposed to be smart.

They were just wandering around in circles, going past the same rooms over and over again and yet still they hadn’t found my waiting Worm.

Wait.

They were coming.

...

Tim was confused, this was his fifth dungeon excavation and none of them exhibited as much damage as this one did. Collapsed tunnels and rooms riddled the place, and they weren’t in standard formation either, they all seemed to be facing straight and the tunnels were erratic at best.

“Over here!” The mage had finally sensed something, it was usually hard to use your magic sense because dungeons released a lot of ambient essences which could mess up the readings.

“Alright, Gor and Gork, you're at the front. Tim, at the back. The Mage, the healer, and I will be support.” The leader started to shout out orders, knowing that they were most likely going to be facing the Worm again.

In this formation, they entered the hole.

...

The sentients had just entered into the main tunnel that led to the room where I was at.

I had my Worm or Wyrm as I started to call it fade back into the shadows as much as it was able so as not to startle the visitors, though by the looks of it it seemed that the Wyrm already had.

They went down through the tunnel at a snail's pace, before eventually coming into the main room.

..,

“I see the core!” The rouge was the first to let out the cry.

“Mage, identify it, see if it has an empowerment, prepare to kill it if needs be.” The ranger started to whisper something and her arrow lit up with a blue light.

The mage raised his hand and concentrated before stumbling back, his face had gone white.

“It’s a Death Core.”

“Kill it! Go! Go! Go!” The leader immediately started shouting orders.

...

I tried to speak but all I did was vibrate, I then tried to send out a sliver of my essence and telepathically communicate with them but that didn’t seem to work either.

I saw what I think was a mage raise his hand, it was then that I felt an odd sense of discomfort and a fuzzy feeling permeated my being.

The mage stumbled back, pointed at me, shouted something and then everything went to hell.

They started to advance on me but I had no idea why that was when the bow-wielding person released an arrow surrounded by blue light.

My Wyrm ripped out of my control, leaving me stunned and interposed itself between the arrow and me, it exploded sparks going everywhere.

My Wyrm growled, a black mark stained its hide but it was otherwise unharmed. The bow wielder looked on with amazement before shouting orders and sending what appeared to be two large green-skinned humans with tusks.

Dungeon creatures? Was another dungeon attacking me? Was that even possible? All these questions whirled around in my head, along with confusion.

Why were these people attacking me? I started to angry, I started to feel the overwhelming desire to destroy.

To eliminate.

To feed.

I found myself inside of the Wyrm, but I felt no confusion, no disorientation, all I felt was rage, and the burning desire for death.

Nothing felt wrong, it didn’t feel wrong as I chomped one of the tusked humans in half, nor did it feel wrong when I threw his bloody remains at the rest of his party.

...

Tim watched in open-mouthed horror as he saw the Worm come from the shadows, block the ranger's most powerful attack, and then rip Gor in half and throw his pieces onto the rest of the adventuring party.

Tim looked down and saw Gors head roll and come to rest at his feet.

He stood still, just gazing at the head.

The mage looked up wide-eyed, “The dungeon is essence buffing the damn thing.” That was all he could say before his arm was ripped off and his legs were crushed.

The monster rose and ripped Gork's head from his body, blood spurting out of the stump where the head once resided spraying blood and gore all over the cavern.

The healer hadn’t been able to do anything so fast was the attack.

Tim had the horrible feeling that this cave was going to be his final resting place, Gorks head landed in his arms, followed closely by what looked like the ranger's hand.

Tim screamed brains were covering his hands, blood was splattered around the cavern, pieces of bodies flying through the air.

The healer's head landed in his arms.

He took both heads, looked at one, looked at the other, both faces locked in expressions of horror, shock, and denial.

He looked at the headless bodies; blood, guts, and bone spraying out of them like a geyser.

He screamed and started to run.

That was when he saw the body of the ranger land in front of him, the once beautiful maiden was missing an arm, a leg, and her stomach had been laid open.

The Worm wrapped itself around him, oblivious to his screams, Tim felt saliva drip slowly down the side of his face.

The last thing he saw were teeth, the last thing he felt was his spine snapping, ribs breaking, and neck creaking.

The last thing he heard was his horrified screams echoing throughout the room.

A dungeon had arisen and it looked like it was out for blood.

...

The men back gave with a satisfying snap, his screams adding a musical background to the otherwise quiet cave, and I found myself thrust back into the core.

I didn’t have time to think about what I did before euphoria took, the essence that the sentients had provided pouring into my core, it felt good, so good.

I let myself be carried away, swimming in the emotion, in the feeling, I had dealt death today.

It had felt ever so good.

I heard clapping, and then a horrible grinding of teeth, that I now knew was Death's way of showing amusement.

“You did well today, pet, I can feel the emotions permeating the air and... mmmm...” Death pretended to shiver, “They feel ever so good!” Death paused and seemed to bask in the atmosphere of my cave. “Aaaah, I know that you feel it as well core, alas, you seem ever so determined to ignore my gift and... talk.” Death spat the last word out.

“You were lucky I was there to keep you from talking little pet, you had the right idea going for a little while.” He came up to me and stroked my gem, “That matters not, your first task is to kill all inhabitants of the city closest to you, or, you must put them into servitude.” He took the body of one of the dead tusked humans; orcs I remembered is what they were called.

“Your payment.” He threw the dead body at the foot of my core, he picked up and threw the rest of the bodies at the foot my core as well.

“I don’t think that counts as payme-“

He held up a finger to forestall me and spoke, “Before you start complaining, yes, it actually does count as payment, you have neither absorbed the bodies nor done anything that would claim it as yours, sucking the life essence out of it does not count because that is an autonomous action and out of your control.” He stroked my core again.

I knew better than to argue, even though I was furious on the inside, both for him scamming me and for him stopping me from communicating with the sentients that had entered my dungeon.

“Calm down pet, you will get more food and sentients to play with as you eliminate the city for me.”

“You bit-“ Death had waved a hand and a force had settled over me, preventing me from speaking.

“Pets don’t treat their masters with such disrespect; your punishment is a muzzling for the next week. Bad core, BAD!”

I was fuming on the inside, but there was nothing that I could do except wait it out.

“Now, you must also remember core that you have a crack in your side.” Death waved and horrible pain swept over me, it was so bad that even the Wyrm started to roll around on the ground and cry out, it stopped abruptly. “Now, I hope you have learned your lesson pet if you continue to be a good pet I might even grant you name! I’m sure you would like that wouldn’t you.”

Death was chastising me like I was a child! His tone was what you would use on a disobedient baby! Rage poured through me, but I knew that if I did one wrong move Death would punish me, and I didn’t want that at all.

“Remember, I want the city gone.” His voice was vicious and full of hate.

“Do not fail me or there will be consequences.” I tried to speak but he had left me muzzled, he thought me a dog, I would show him.

I would.

It was only then that I saw what my cave looked like, it was then that I sensed the emotions of the sentients that I had killed and what I saw horrified me.

Fear, pain, despair, horror, all of these feelings permeated the air. It was then that I remembered what I had done, I became the monster that I was trying so hard to hold back.

I was becoming exactly what Death wanted me to become.

I felt… like I had failed, I hadn’t been able to control myself, I had become a Death Core.

I tried to speak, to say something to the corpses that were piled at the foot of my core, but nothing came out.

I did the only thing I could do and absorbed them, then I sunk into despair. I tried to cry, something that I knew of but could not do. I didn’t want to be seen as a monster, I didn’t want to become what Death seemed to think I would, I also didn’t want to kill a city.

I had no choice.

I was a slave.

The one thing that I had tried to never become.

I was a failure.

I sat in the ruins of my dungeon, blood staining the walls, and I started to prepare.

Prepared to end the lives of thousands.

Damn you Death.

…

-The City-

The Exarch of the city of Talon was holding court, it had only been in the past decade that Talon had gone from a mere town to a full-fledged city-state and the courtroom reflected that, it had once been a chieftains longhouse but was now used as the court. The doors slammed open and a messenger came through.

“Sir! The adventuring group sent to scout out the new dungeon has not reported, and had have been missing for over a week.” The messenger bowed before the Exarch.

“What the guild ask of me? There is nothing I can do about a missing party of adventurers.” The Exarch responded.

“The guild asks that you send Lascaris to find out what is happening.” The messenger said deferentially.

“Fine, tell them they owe me a favor. Lascaris!” The Exarch called.

Out of the shadows came the mage, a marked of the Truth, it made him perfect for investigations.

“I shall go my Lord.”

“Thank you.’’ The Exarch sat back with a sigh.

…

-The Core-

My dungeon was fixed. I put my core room at the bottom of my five-room dungeon, adding a sixth room. An entrance was also there though I had not yet opened it, it would look just like a mound of dirt to any passers-by.

This time I built up, rooms starting at the surface and then descending if I was going to kill a city I needed an obvious entrance, so that way I could mislead then ignorant sentients.

They would only see a three-room dungeon, populated with just enough monsters to give them a fight along with a fake gem that I had found during my digging in the middle of the third room.

The other rooms were hidden, these were my staging areas I stuffed them full of monsters. I wasn’t able to replicate my Wyrm, but I was able to create mini-wyrms that weren’t as big or strong but could do a lot of damage.

I had evolved ants, cockroaches, and moles. The ants looked like a human with mandibles, antenna, claws, and dressed in full plate red armor without a helmet. They were only half the size of a human though.

The moles just got a whole lot bigger, developed tougher skin, and got huge incisors.

The cockroaches looked like the ant but much bigger and they seemed pretty stupid even by insect standards.

I hadn’t tried to play with any of them and I had only evolved what I could find, I tried looking for a queen ant but couldn’t find any.

I still hadn’t brought myself to recreate the sentients.

The dungeon animals were breeding though but none of them had given birth yet, I was hoping that their children would be able to go outside my area of influence because I was still a long way away from getting to the city. Something like thirty miles, a horse could get there but there was no was getting even close to that point any time soon.

What I had noticed is that as I killed sentients my area of influence increased.

A dilemma, to say the least, I didn’t want to slaughter an entire city and based on the attacks of my Alpha Wyrm it would be gore-filled and horrible.

I just didn’t see any alternatives.

…

“Hold!” Lascaris shouted.

The group halted, Lascaris looked on them with disdain.

There was no one of the import and from looks of it they were all just common guild fodder, Lascaris looked at the floor and exerted his power as a marked.

And found something horrifying, he was powerful enough that he could see into the past if there was enough intense emotion, he had stopped here because he wasn’t even trying and he could the sense the fear that permeated the area.

Then he had looked into the past and knew that he would have nightmares for the rest of his life.

“Who are you, and why do you come to my dungeon?” A voice spoke in his head, startling him.

This wasn’t the first time that he had been telepathically communicated to, but it was the first time he had been communicated to by a dungeon.

“We are investigating the disappearance of an adventurer group.”

“Oh, yes, they attacked me after my Wyrm almost killed one, it was an accident I assure you.”

Based on what Lascaris had seen that tale looked plausible, but if there was one thing that Lascaris knew was that more than one of those things could easily decimate the forces of the city, it was with this in mind that Lascaris said,

“We have also come to make a deal with you, I understand that Dungeons need materials, human essence, and other creatures to be able to survive.”

“Yes, that it is the gist of it with a few odd misconceptions.”

“We will feed you our criminals, and give you creatures and materials and in return, you will not attack the city and let the adventurers guild and farm your depths.”

“What is this farming that you speak of?”

“You do not know? Surely your fairy must have explained it to you! Regardless, it is when adventurers enter your depths, kill your monster and gain the treasure that they drop, or they get killed. A win-win situation.”

“I accept on one condition, should the ever adventurers ever come within shooting distance of my core I am allowed to eliminate them and the city,”

Harsh conditions to say the least.

“I agree, as the Exarchs advisor I have the authority to agree on behalf of the city, the guild is a different matter.” He raised his right arm and proclaimed both mentally and physically in front of witnesses,

“I swear on the gods of Truth and Honor to honor this agreement let any who break this oath have their soul dissipated and dispersed through time.” The essence was drawn from the air and into him.

“I also swear on the gods of Truth and Honor to honor this agreement let any who break this oath have their soul dissipated and dispersed through time.”

…

“LASCARIS! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!”

…

“CORE! EXPLAIN YOURSELF BEFORE I KILL YOU AND DISSIPATE YOUR SOUL!” Death had appeared.