Welcome to the World of [Thunnberg], new dungeon.

As Dylan stared, shocked, at the white screen which blotted out most of his vision, trying to comprehend the words in front of him, they quickly disappeared and were replaced by others.

The voice of the World greets you. Your soul was found floating on the abyss between life and death due to your lingering regrets and your wish to continue living, along with many others. Your soul has been bound to a newborn dungeon as a result, and the others have also been moved to different worlds to live a new life, however, at the cost of a majority of your past memories. The crystal you currently reside in is known as a Dungeon Core-which will be your new heart. Protect it, for if it is broken or taken out of the dungeon, you will die once again. We hope you will be able to make the most out of your new life. Another thing we believe you should know is that in this world, all living things have a status which summarizes all of the attributes which that living being has, unlike your old one. To view your status, all you must do is think or say [Status]. That is all. We wish you luck in your new life, and hopefully you won’t die with any regrets.

Okay…Dylan stammered in his mind as the bizarre screen filling his vision disappeared, I still don’t know what is going on but…[Status]…

Another blinding screen of glowing white light formed itself in front of Dylan, causing him to startle.

Congratulations. By opening your status, you can learn the basics of your own body, skills, and how others would refer to you. As a dungeon core, your body does not contain any pure ‘stats’, so those are discounted from your Status window. Your [Level] determines how high your stats can grow, though as a Dungeon, this only affects the maximum amount of mana you can utilize in your environment, as well as the unlocking of new skills and capabilities. Leveling up requires your maximum mana to be completely full. This is also the case for both animals and monsters, who gain minute amounts of mana through devouring the corpses of their prey. After filling up to their maximum with mana, they can evolve and grow stronger, hence their instincts to move to mana-filled areas such as dungeons, or to devour other creatures. As a dungeon capable of controlling animals and monsters, this is a vital piece of information for helping your defenders to evolve.

As soon as Dylan processed the information from the ‘Voice of the World’, the words filling the screen faded away, replaced with something new; his status.

Status:

Level: 1

Name: N/A (Dylan)

Species: Dungeon

Titles: N/A

Mana: 0/10

Skills: [Dungeon Overlay] [Dungeon Edit] [Dungeon Watching] [Dungeon Order] [Absorb Essence] [Absorb Bodies] [Dungeon Summons]

Attributes: N/A

Evolution Points: 0

Oh ho, so that’s how it is, Dylan mused to himself as he read everything on the screen, it makes sense that my Level is 1, and the name can’t really be helped since I don’t think dungeons have names, but what is with this ridiculously low amount of mana! Like, seriously, I this must be one of the lowest mana capacities which could possibly exist! And I don’t even have any mana anyway!

Dylan’s vision slid over to his skills section after griping over his lack of mana. After getting confused and playing around with his thoughts, he found that by thinking of the name of each skill, he could find a summary on what the skill can do.

Alright then, Dylan thought, [Dungeon Overlay]

[Dungeon Overlay]: Allows a dungeon to see the overview of how many rooms, floors, traps, and guardians they control. Also allows them to instinctively understand how many species of animals, plants, and monsters they can summon, and the type of available species.

Rooms: 1

Floors: 1

Environments: 1(Cave)

Traps: N/A

Guardians: N/A

Animals: None

Plants: None

Monsters: None

That’s a pretty neat skill then for management and logistics, though it doesn’t seem to be in depth…Dylan wondered, The skill description mentions nothing as to the layout of the floors, and the placement of traps and defenders…Next up on the list then…[Dungeon Edit]

The words on the screen shifted once again, blurring out then reappearing anew on the screen.

[Dungeon Edit]: Allows a Dungeon to focus their thoughts into the creation of new rooms, floors, and environments. By focusing, the dungeon will expend mana to tunnel into their environments and create pathways, rooms, and even floors based off of their will.

So basically, I can play god within the dungeon, and change anything I want terrain wise within the dungeon…Dylan mused, This skill is definitely a requirement if I want to be able to defend my core, and I definitely do not want my dungeon to look like a cave! Anyway, I think I can understand the rest of the skills just by glancing at them, so I think I’ll skim through them quickly…

[Dungeon Watching]: Allows a Dungeon to use their senses to view any of the on goings within their range of influence. The Dungeon can choose to hone their senses to view a specific area or view a wide range or even the whole dungeon with less attention to detail.

[Dungeon Order]: Allows a dungeon complete control over all of the animals, monsters, plants, and guardians which belong to it, allowing it to give them basic orders with absolute certainty that they would obey. Less intelligent creatures, however, may not be capable of understanding complex orders.

[Absorb Essence]: Allows the dungeon to gain the ability to summon any organism which has died within its influence, with the exception of any being which cannot be classified as an animal, plant, or monster. Magics and skills can be obtained through the death of eligible creatures within the dungeon, rather than the capabilities to summon them.

[Absorb Bodies]: Allows a dungeon to absorb bodies of animals, plants, and monsters after their death, granting mana proportionate to the power of the creature.

[Dungeon Summons]: Allows a dungeon to summon an unlimited number of monsters, animals, and plants in an area under their influence at any time, and maintain them indefinitely, given they have the required mana amount at the time of summoning.

Summons! Dylan was definitely excited about this. I probably don’t have anything to summon though…

Ding!

You can now [Summon]: Black Ant

You can now [Summon]: Moth

Huh? Neat!

Dylan immediately brought his vision to the entrance of his cave, observing several ants dissecting the corpse of a moth. He had gained the ability to summon them following their deaths. He could instinctively tell that they had died right at the plate-sized entrance of his cave, the very limit of his influence.

Nice!

What a lucky break! Free summons and mana…Mana!

[Absorb Bodies]! I need that mana!!!

As Dylan shouted in his mind, the skill [Absorb Bodies] activated, causing the corpse of the moth, along with the bodies of the ants which were sacrificed with their struggle, to glow a bright blue before shattering into small particles of blue light which promptly faded away. Dylan cheered, doing a dance which involved throwing his vision all around the room in excitement. When he settled his vision back into his core, he shouted in his mind:

[Status]!

Status:

Level: 1

Name: N/A (Dylan)

Species: Dungeon

Titles: N/A

Mana: 2/10

Skills: [Dungeon Overlay] [Dungeon Edit] [Dungeon Watching] [Dungeon Order] [Absorb Essence] [Absorb Bodies] [Dungeon Summons]

Attributes: N/A

Evolution Points: 0