A dungeon core’s birth is not a fast process taking decades or even centuries for mana and souls to coalesce into a core. However when they are fully formed it can take the barest hint of mana to wake them. And that’s exactly what happened.

If a person had witnessed it, they probably would have been amazed. Not so much by the awakening process, which was imperceptible, but rather by the core that valued a fair bit more than a king's ransom.

Now, not all cores are created equal. There are a grand total of five core types recognized by the researchers of the Profane Hessian and the Holy Atricet Empires. The first and most common core type are the Artificial Mana Regulator Cores, AMRC’s for short. They are commonly used by the wealthy as home security systems and even as a cleaning service. The second core type are often referred to as floating sphere by adventurers due to them being just that, spherical floating rocks. The third core type and the kind of middle ground between the “true” dungeons and the lesser dungeons are the metal cores. They are your standard run of the mill dungeons with monsters and treasure. The forth core type, and the true dungeons, are the crystal cores. These cores have a great deal more intelligence than your average rock and have traps and puzzles in their depths. Finally, the fifth core type, and arguably the most diverse and interesting type of cores, are the forge born cores. These are objects that, over time, gained sentience and became dungeons. Forge born cores are by far the rarest type of dungeons. There are four known to exist: a mop, a copper coin, a rusty great shield, and the crown of a long dead king.

Returning to the newborn core, it was obvious at a glance which type it was. The sword lay trapped deep underground, yet was still gleaming and sharp, truly a testament of a master craft dwarven blade. As it woke, system messages began to flow into its mind.

Core detected allocating traits.... Matches detected... processing... Trait acquired Soul prison Those beasts you have truly blessed and made your own will not truly fall as long as you live Trait acquired Eternal corruption Those that should dare to wield your glory without your will, will find that they are not the master Trait acquired Champions blade You are one of the few cores in this world that need not cower in fear. May you cut your enemies asunder

The core blinked as it tried to process the information. Or it blinked as much as a core could which wasn’t a lot more than a mental blink. After it made the mental blink, it gave up on sorting through the information and instead gave in to its instincts telling it to assimilate and mold the earth around it. So instead of dealing with, or even thinking about its status and the new traits it had acquired, it began to push its mana into the surrounding area. It was slow going, maybe a centimeter every few seconds and after a few hours it had a ten by ten meter, roughly cubic area under its control. With that it began to mold the stone intending to create a square room with rounded corners. This process was much faster than the first and was completed in just under an hour. After that, it began pushing mana out again before it hesitated. Its instincts were telling it there was something missing and it instinctively opened its status in hopes of finding what that was.

Status Species Dungeon core Rarity inapplicable Name Sanctus Sanguis Dungeon name none Floors 0 Generals 0 Champions 0 Elites 0 Affinities Holy,Profane Mana 96/100 Enlightenment 100 Transcendence 100 Soul 0

Something in Sanctus’s mined clicked as it realized what it was missing. It needed its first general. With that, a system message popped up asking Sanctus to select a starting monster. Sanctus promptly ignored it and instead it created a fine thread of mana and threw it outward and waited. As the hours passed there were a few nibbles on its line but none actually bit until Sanctus felt a tug on the thread. With that Sanctus pulled the thread back in and out of thin air walked a man wearing a dark red suit with a black tie. The man's eyes glowed yellow and had slits like a snake, but other than that he looked kind of like an accountant, thin with jet black hair and a proper goatee. He adjusted his tie and gave a bow, “hello my name is Markus and I’m here to inquire about the employment opportunity I was recently made aware of.”

Sanctus looked at the creature standing before him and tentatively reached out to its mind, “Markus will be a general?” Sanctus questioned, testing out the mental connection. “Well yes that is what I wished to speak to you about,” replied Markus. “May I ask you a slightly personal question?”

“What does Markus want to know?” Sanctus asked.

Markus readjusted his tie and then continued. “I really must apologize for asking my potential future employer such a personal question, but do you happen to have a trait called soul prison?”

“Yes,” Sanctus replied without thinking much of it. “That’s wonderful,” Markus responded in a slightly more excited tone. “As I said before my name is Markus and I am interested in serving as the first champion of your dungeon. I am a greater demon, but I imagine you’ll want further details. I’ll start with my strengths and weaknesses. My weaknesses include a lack of mercy for invaders, timing that is almost too perfect, and sometimes I get a little carried away toying with my prey. As for my strengths, I have an excellent affinity for both fire and plague. I have spent several centuries studying and refining tactics in warfare, and I am well versed in organizational development and workplace management. If you elect to hire me, I assure you that you will not regret your decision.” With that he knelt down and bowed his head.

Sanctus felt its instincts guide it as it wove mana and transcendence around the demon kneeling in front of it.

You have forged a pact with the greater demon Markus.

After talking a little more with Markus Sanctus started pushing mana back out into the stone around its little room.

A few days went by as Sanctus continued to spread out its mana and mold the stone. At first, becouse of Markus’s request it made a small room next to the core room with a table and chair made from stone. Sanctus then started marking an intricate cave system. When Sanctus finished, the cave consisted of five larger rooms shaped like ovals about two kilometers long and one wide with twisting tunnels snaking between them in a way that one would need to go through each room before making it to the core room. After the basic layout was made Sanctus created stalagmites and stalactites throughout the rooms and in a few of the tunnels Sanctus then created a few ponds, rivers and even a lake in one case. With that done the only thing left was to make an entrance to the surface.

So for the next eight hours Sanctus pushed mana towards the surface.

As Sanctus pushed mana upwards, there reached a point where it was evident that there was no more stone above and instead it was sand. Sanctus continued spreading outward until it found the stone slope upward where Sanctus then focused its attention. Eventually Sanctus felt its mana touch air and evaporate and so it stopped its upward rise and instead began the process of moving stone.

When Sanctus broke out into the surface it had Markus go to the entrance and look outside. From this Sanctus learned that it was on a mountain island with a grassy plane to the west and crashing waves on the north and east. From the entrance on the mountain, the south was not visible.

Markus said that being on an island had some benefits and drawbacks. He also advised that Sanctus could make another entrance in the water, flood a few tunnels, and add more of the rivers and lakes to make the dungeon amphibious.

Taking the advice from Markus, Sanctus set to work building new lakes and rivers as well as some new tunnels connecting them. Finally Sanctus opened a hole under the sand it had found earlier and watched as water flowed in. Instinctively Sanctus guided the water with mana making it follow the paths and stay in the intended area. When this was done, Sanctus went back through the first floor to look for any unnatural edges or patterns that might give the cave away as a dungeon. When Sanctus had spoken to Markus earlier he had told sanctus that it could be dangerous for Sanctus to be discovered by enlightened races too early. Markus also said that the fact that Sanctus summoned a demon ment that it was a heretical dungeon and the church may not be happy to find Sanctus’s existence. After Sanctus finished its work, it was time to wait.

After about six hours, the first creature appeared. It was a small octopus about 60 centimeters from the end of its tentacles to the top of its mantle. Sanctus noticed the intruder immediately and excitedly ordered Markus to kill it. Markus made his way to a river near the small cephalopod and as the octopus slowly entered the river Markus’s hand shot into the water grabbing the creature. With a squeeze and a sickening squelch it was dead. With its death, information about the creature streamed into Sanctus’s mind. It instinctively knew the code needed and how the mana would have to be spun and weaved to create the flesh of this creature. Without even realizing it Sanctus started weaving the pattern and a small octopus plopped into the river next to Markus. Markus glanced at the creature before promptly walking away still holding the pulped octopus. Sanctus made a few more of the creature while he waited for something else to enter the depths.

It didn’t take long for other creatures to enter the cave and within three days Sanctus had the blueprints for a black horse fly, common shore crab, blue tailed minnow, common wolf spider, lesser vampire bat, brown rat and a very unlucky raccoon. Sanctus made a few of each creature and watched. After a day Sanctus felt something was off. Sanctus had witnessed a few of his creations kill and consume each other and his instincts said that this was normal and a good thing. However Sanctus hadn’t witnessed any of the creatures that were being eaten feeding. Or at least it hadn’t until the second day of observation when one of the shore crabs ate some seaweed that had drifted into the caves. That’s when it hit Sanctus that creatures being eaten needed to eat plants. Because plants didn’t process as invaders to Sanctus’s instincts Sanctus had never even tried to create one. With this realization Sanctus began to create moss, seaweed, and a few mushrooms that had either drifted in through the water entrance or were brought in through the fur of some of the creatures. After this Sanctus replenished the prey animals and sat back to watch.

After another few days of tweaking the number of creatures and the ratio of prey to predators Sanctus finally got a message.

First floor complete Greater demon Markus appointed as first floor general First floor will now take on characteristics of greater daemon markus

With that slightly ominous message the entire first floor of the dungeon shuddered. Glowing red veins began to appear on the floor of the caves as rock melted into tiny streams of molten rock flies and bats began to swarm together and Sanctus could see the diseases form inside their blood. The rats started to blister and become bloated, and the raccoons began frothing at the mouth and losing fur. On the other end of things the crabs began sprouting spikes, the fish became partially rotted and dark oily substance began oozing out of their rotted flesh. The spider’s silk caught alight with ghostly blue flames and one of the octopuses grew claws on its suckers with glowing red tips and bright red circles appeared all over its body. However the others octopuses merely seemed to become slightly more venomous.

As this took place Sanctus looked toward Markus whose jaw was currently so far down that if it dropped any lower it would probably pop out of its socket.

Summoning honor guard for General Markus…

As the message appeared burning rifts appeared in the air around Markus and pale ghostly figures with bright red eyes and sharp fangs clawed themselves out of them. Sanctus gave them a glance and identified them as lesser vampires. Once they were out of the rifts they knelt in front of Markus, who by then looked like his eyes were going to bulge out of his head.

Naming dungeon

Sanctus felt mana beginning to spiral and pulse as it was pulled into its blade. As this happened Sanctus felt the world slow and a sharp pain shoot through its mind. The world faded and Sanctus fell asleep for the first time since it awoke as a dungeon core. When Sanctus woke there was a message hovering in its vision.

Congratulations on creating The Abyssal Sanctum. May those who dare enter your depths finde glory or death

After Sanctus read the message it noticed Markus standing in front of its core. “My liege, are you alright?” Markus asked in a voice that sounded just barely more proper than it did worried.

“Yes Markus I’m fine, just a little core ache,” replied Sanctus in a tired tone. “Did anything happen while I was out?”

“No my lord everything is as you left it,” Markus said with a slight readjustment to his tie.

“Good I’m going to look around,” Sanctus yawned as his mind drifted off to examine the dungeon creatures.

As Sanctus watched the creatures it was surprised at the fact that the diseases affecting some of them seemed to not be hurting them in the least. If anything the creatures seemed to be stronger and more energetic than they had been before their transformation. Some of the rats were even swarming together to kill larger predators. The flies were another thing entirely swarming together and devouring unlucky creatures leaving nothing but bone. Sanctus gave an internal eye roll as it mentally noted the changes. “Real inconspicuous...” Sanctus thought sarcastically. With a slight chuckle it started to turn its attention back to Markus, but it felt something visceral shoot through it. Sanctus whirled its attention to the entrance of its cave just in time to see a large brown boot step into the entrance.