I had plenty of time to consider who and what I was, in fact time was really all I had. In between my long moments of contemplation over the old man’s cryptic words, I had been reflecting on the nature of myself. I hadn’t really discovered much, but I felt that was mostly because I didn’t have any real memories or knowledge to pull from.

I was an orb, I shifted colors and glowed faintly, and I floated in a fixed position. I was a male orb, that was something I felt it was important to hold onto for my identity, and I had some recollection of a time when I wasn’t an orb. I was pretty sure that before I was an orb I was a man, or at least a boy, but that was all I was sure of. I didn’t recall my race, my age, my name, or even what I looked like.

I will admit that early on that not knowing those things bothered me, but recently I’ve changed my way of thinking. I was an orb now, so what does it matter who or what I was before? I am an orb of the present, and I choose to live my life as such. What use could the past have for me in my daily life anyway?

I guess it could help to shed some new light on the old man’s words, maybe even offer me a new perspective on them… But that’s probably it…

I even had a theory, it was that by not knowing my past I was able to better enjoy my present. Admittedly being an orb stuck in place unable to do anything beyond thinking to myself wasn’t exactly enjoyable, but it was the only life I knew so it was at the very least tolerable. If I suddenly recalled that I had some amazing past and then considered what I did now, well I doubt my current life of silent contemplation would be the same ever again.

Though I do wonder, is the old man ever even coming back? Maybe giving me his grey-green haze was all he was going to do… But then why would he ask me to make something? This doesn’t make sense…

For not the first time I wondered if the old man’s final words to me were just a simple trick, that they had no real meaning and were only meant to befuddle me. I tried to think back to what else he had said in the time I had been awake, but I simply couldn’t remember that. I knew he had said many things but almost the only thing I had paid attention to were his words at the end.

Make something… Huh… Well, maybe I’ve already found the answer and just don’t know it yet… I wish I had some way to know if I’ve stumbled onto the answer.

***

I couldn’t say when it was that time lost all meaning to me, that would have required me to have an awareness of time that I sorely lacked in this dark cave. Hence the loss of meaning to the passage of time. I had guessed by now that floating orbs didn’t age so it wasn’t like time mattered to me anyway, it was just a little disconcerting to notice I had stopped even trying to guess how much time had passed.

I turned my attention internally, and then let my thoughts slip away. It was oddly relaxing to just let everything go, to just simply be. The moment dragged on, and then I went even deeper into myself. I stopped recognizing even the fleeting stray thoughts that normally peppered my consciousness, from that moment on I thought nothing. I just was.

I opened my metaphorical eyes and heaved a nonexistent sigh of relief and satisfaction. I had been utterly relaxed as I had simply existed, there had been no boredom just as there had been no thought. Still I couldn’t be in that state forever, it just didn’t feel like the right way to live. I felt that I had to think and do just as much if not more than I could relax and just simply let myself be.

I can’t do much, but it’s important to do what I can… So let’s try something new for a change. I’m going to think of a name for myself. Can’t just keep calling myself orb all the time after all…

I casually cast my gaze around the familiar cave that had become my home, there was a small new pool forming under the occasional drip of water that came from above. I had seen seven puddles like this form and disappear since I started my pouts of no-thoughts-just-being. I sort of liked watching them, it gave me something to do.

I could call myself Water… No, Drip? Puddle? Pool? Hmm… Rock? No… Huh, this naming thing may just be harder than I thought…

***

I opened my eyes as I felt the warm breeze. There was something big and black staring at me intently, and that something had very big teeth. It was also shinning silver and black so brightly it hurt to look directly at it, but I fought through the pain and stared at the interesting thing before me.

“So you were what was hiding behind that barrier… Interesting…”

I felt shocked as I heard the deep rumbling voice even though the thing’s mouth didn’t move, but even through my shock I felt more a budding sense of excitement. I tried to say something, but of course that accomplished nothing. Frustrated I fell back on the skill I had honed desperately all this time, I thought as hard as I could at the thing.

HELLO! WHAT ARE YOU! CAN YOU HEAR THIS! I’M TRYING TO PICK A NAME, WHICH DO YOU THINK SOUNDS BETTER BETWEEN ROCK AND PUDDLE? CAN YOU TALK SOME MORE! HAVE YOU SEEN AN OLD MAN! SERIOUSLY WHAT ARE YOU? ARE YOU GOING TO EAT ME? PLEASE DON’T EAT ME! AM I THE FIRST FLOATING ORB YOU’VE MET? DO YOU KNOW WHAT I’M SUPPOSED TO MAKE, OR IS THAT A METAPHOR?

The large thing cocked its head to the side as it stared at me. For a moment I thought it understood my thoughts and that all my work thinking hard for so long had payed off.

“What is an infant dungeon core doing behind a barrier that strong? And one that’s somehow already been imparted with power without being imprinted or bound by anything… Perhaps this is fate…”

The big black thing reached out and touched me gently with its snout, huffing out more warm air as it did.

“I shall leave my mark on you as well… A gift of power and knowledge should be sufficient enough payment for my resting in your dungeon for a time…”

I bright silver and black light flashed and squiggly lines in all sorts of colors formed and swirled through the air. The silver and black light began to flow into me as the old man’s grey-green haze once had before, and once again I was washed over by feelings of bliss and euphoria. It was all just so pleasant, so overwhelming.

I watched with a strange sense of wonder and terror as my orb shifted to a deep black color with motes of bright flickering silver inside it. As the last of the grey and green were overcome by the deep black and twinkling silver I felt something heavy drop onto my mind…

***

When I woke up the big black thing was moving out of the now much larger opening. It looked like it was leaving me, but what before I could even process that I felt the weight in my mind shift.

Dragon…

I looked at the thing, no the dragon with awe. As I stared dumbfounded more and more information surged to the forefront of my thoughts.

True dragon… I’m looking at the black dragon, one of the ten true dragons…

And then the dragon was gone, it had left without a word just as suddenly as it had arrived. Still in a state of shock I looked down at myself and found my orb colored in the same way as the dragons scales, deep black with bright flecks of silver.

Dungeon… Dungeon core, dungeon heart, dungeon stone, dungeon will… I’m not a simple floating orb, but a… Dungeon core?

It was too much information to process, even with all my experience in thinking my thoughts now were far to weighted for me to take. What was even more terrifying was I could feel that I had yet to even scratch the barest hints of the surface of the weight the dragon had left in my mind. I knew deeply and instinctively that if I tried to take in all that was there my mind and my entire identity would shatter into nothingness.

So I did what I always did when I couldn’t bear to think anymore, I sunk into myself and tried to just be.

Meditation…

I disregarded the thought and the heavy weight it carried.

Spirit sleep…

Again I gently waved the heavy weight aside.

Aura relaxation…

It was harder to sink down into the wonderful state of thoughtlessness than ever before.

Inner cultivation…

I couldn’t wave away all the thoughts, and the weight of the information they carried was too heavy for me to fight off. So I simply stopped trying, in a moment of enlightened insanity I embraced the entire weight in my mind while trying to think nothing. As I let everything go while simultaneously accepting more than I’d ever known before I felt myself sink deeper than ever before.

***

Aura. Mana, life force, spirit. The essence of a soul.

Ten dragons. Black, white, gold, grey, silver, blue, red, green, purple, brown. Keepers of the balance.

Four titans. Ocean, mountain, forest, sky. Defenders of the mother.

Eight elementia. Space, soul, darkness, light, fire, water, earth air. Wardens of all mana

Five races. Human, elf, dwarf, beastkin, arcane. The mother’s children

Trials. Monsters, dungeons, wars, famines, plagues, death. The judges of the worthy

Eden. The world the mother gifted to all.

Eden. The challenge the mother created for her children.

***

I felt heavy. Dense. It was a very uncomfortable feeling, but one I understood. I had been… meditating. Yes, I had been meditating to help absorb the knowledge the black dragon had left me with. I couldn’t absorb it all, it would do far more than hurt me or make me uncomfortable if I had tried, but I did take in a lot.

I know more of the world than I had ever known before, and I also knew more of myself. I knew my role, and I knew what was expected of me. However, the thing that I personally felt the most satisfaction from knowing was the meaning of the old man’s words. He had asked me to make him something because I was a dungeon, I was born to create…