Certain dungeons can often produce materials unique to themselves. Take the dungeon 'The Rot' for example. It produces a deadly toxin that rots you from the inside out! How exciting is that!

  ...

  Attached is a System result returned from [Appraisal] of said toxin.

  — Research paper found in a room in a Mage's Guild sub-branch.

  ***

  Being alive was complicated.

  One moment there was nothing, and then poof, there was something.

  More precisely, the "something" is a small clear crystal the size of a marble.

  And thus, a dungeon core was born.

  The core awoke with a sudden start, everything coming into view in their vision. Or, more precisely, their dungeon vision.

  They frantically "looked" around the cave, their instincts kicking in, telling them of danger.

  The core realized that it could see the whole cave. After double- and triple-checking every nook and cranny for danger, the core stopped panicking.

  The core was in a tiny cave. It was a completely ordinary cave, with no entrance to speak of, just simply a bubble of air within layers of stone underground.

  They accepted it as fact.

  However, sitting in an empty cave with nothing to do was very dull. And soon, the young core's mind began to wander. They pondered various philosophical questions, such as "Who am I?" or "What is my purpose?"

  After what seemed like an eternity, something finally changed. A blue panel popped up in the vision of the core. Somehow, they knew that the panel wasn't physical and only existed in their mind.

  The core stared at the panel for a moment. Slowly, the coloured shapes upon it began to gain meaning. Or were they shapes? They were words, the core decided. Words. That sounded right.

  Slowly, the core began to go through the information. Sure, they knew they were a dungeon core, but they didn't know what to do. Now they knew.

  Instinctively, the core knew what mana was. It was a form of energy. It was as if the information had been engraved into his mind, which, according to the notifications about injection, wasn't far off from the truth.

  After exploring his new-found knowledge for a moment, the core was more relaxed than ever.

  However, there was one problem. The core didn't have an identity.

  They didn't have names or personalities, which were common signs of identity.

  After thinking on it some more, the core established themselves as female. Not for any particular reason. She just felt like it.

  My name shall be Astrid.

  Astrid felt happy at her efforts being recognized by the System. It didn't matter that others may not recognize her name. She was Astrid, the one and only!

  After some more internal celebrating, Astrid was ready to move on. And on cue, the System summoned a new panel.

  She selected Yes.

  That's nice to know, I guess. But I can imagine that if I do anything too disruptive, certain people will come and destroy me and my dungeon.

  Following the instructions, she surrounded her tiny cave with her mana. "Core Room," she said to no one in particular.

  She noticed the personalized description at the end. I wonder... could I get the System to display personal information about myself?

  Uh... Profile! Status! Personal Status!

  At the same time, a barrage of notifications assaulted Astrid's subconscious.

  Oof. That felt terrible.

  Ignoring the notifications for now, she decided to investigate her Status.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  The first thing of note was her mana. It was down by half a point, presumably from when she created her core room.

  Next, she checked out the skills.

  I guess that's why I can "see" mana.

  Fairly straightforward, eh?

  Wait. So I can —

  Astrid cocked her metaphorical head and made a small bump rise from the stone floor. It was so easy that she almost had instincts guiding them. Now that she thought about it, mana manipulation was easy too. Was there something that made her good at that? She didn't know.

  Slowly and methodically, she made a stone pedestal rise out of the ground beneath her core. Carefully, she added stone tendrils to lock her core in place.

  Then, she made swooping changes to the rest of her core room. The walls and floor became smooth and flat, and the whole room got bigger as well. Intricate patterns carved themselves into the walls, and ornate stone pillars grew from the floor, supporting the room.

  She suddenly felt exhausted. How was she so tired though? She eyed her Status and saw that her mana was down to single digits.

  Ah. That was why.

  Wondering whether the description changes automatically, she looked at her core room System window again.

  Astrid was happy — though not surprised — when she saw the new description. The System had shown itself as an omnipotent being, after all. It wouldn't be unexpected for it to update things in real-time.

  She moved on to her last skill.

  Ooh! Does it mean I get to know what everything is? I mean, I guess I already know what they are, but who knows what a skill will show!

  Astrid identified a pebble on the ground.

  ... Alright. It is a blue-ish grey pebble. Cool. I never knew that. Ah well. Maybe identifying something else would be better.

  But then, a rush of information filled her mind. It was about all the information about the pebble, from where it got its colour, and how the vein came to be. And then, she knew what it was.

  Huh.

  She identified herself. Or, rather, her core.

  Once again, a rush of information filled her mind, though she was more prepared this time. it was about how a dungeon core was formed, and what material comprises her crystalline body.

  Satisfied for now, she turned back to her status screen.

  What's XP?

  That explains it. Now that I think about it, there was an XP-increased notification. That probably got me to Level 3.

  After getting through all the new information, she returned to the tutorial.

  [Creatures].

  An almost entirely blank window popped up before her.

  Well, I haven't made anything "living" yet, so that makes sense. Better to sort them out, however. I feel I'll be getting lots of things thrown in here soon.

  She separated the window into several tabs — one for monsters, one for "critters," and one for plants.

  After opening the Schematic window, she did the same thing. However, there was one key difference. There was a schematic already there.

  Is that the schematic the tutorial said about adding? Probably, seeing as it's called a "Basic" Slime.

  She focused on the words.

  Both.

  Instantly, the scene of how to make a basic slime played out in her mind, and yet another window appeared.

  From the description, she deduced that making a slime requires much more mana than, say, making a bump in the floor. And looking at her still-low mana reserves, she decided to wait a while until her mana is full again.

  (Did you think it was going to end here like in Dungeon Core Chat Room? Well, no! So don't leave!)

  --- A not-very-pretty divider ---

  Astrid was ready to begin. Her mana was full, and her mind was devoid of distractions.

  First, she created a stasis field like in the instructions. By focusing on her room, and yelling "Stop!" in her mind to the mana, she saw the swirling mana in her room calm and eventually still. Or as still as she could make it. She could still see tiny flows of mana slowly moving throughout the room, but she hoped that it wouldn't be too big of a deal.

  Then, she gathered a small amount of gas into a small sphere, while feeding it mana simultaneously. Following the live instructions in her mind, she stopped it at around the 25 cm mark. She continued feeding it mana until she couldn't do it anymore.

  The gas had almost become like a liquid, which from the description of a slime, was pretty accurate. It faintly trembled from tiny vibrations in the air.

  She used more mana mixed with faint amounts of rock to form layers around the slime. She wrapped the layers around the slime, forming a membrane.

  Now for the moment of truth. She released her stasis field, and the slime flopped down to the floor, and didn't break!

  Poking and prodding the tiny thing with wonder, Astrid felt a sense of pride. She had made this!

  And time for the final step.

  While the text instructions were suitably ambiguous, the recording was not. She carefully took a piece of her life force and put it into the slime.

  Almost immediately, something seemed to change. The slime began to gain more cohesiveness as it "stood up" slightly, in its slimy way.

  And then, the slime started hopping across her core room and bouncing off her walls.

  Astrid observed the slime, shooting an [Appraisal] at it to see what she can deduce.

  Suddenly, and perhaps disappointingly, she found out that its internal structure was very simple. Though I bet that's why they are often the first monster created by a dungeon.

  Distracting her from her thoughts, she found a pair of notifications flashing at her.

  After viewing the list for a moment, Astrid began to consider her options.

  Well, first off, All Elements is gone. It only slightly increases the ability to use all of the elements. I don't even know if I'll like the other ones! Speaking of the other ones, Water is off the list too. It's just too... not permanent. Too malleable. The same goes for Air too. I just don't like that they are so conforming, always moving. I want to make something permanent, real. Earth would probably be nice for that. But I also feel that Fire would be a good pick too. A large part of Fire is its destruction, to clear the way for growth.

  Why don’t I just pick both?

  It was decided then.

  I pick Fire + Earth.

  In her mana vision, her core exploded with vibrant colours, and slowly the mana seemed to be absorbed into the core.

  Visually, her core was the colourless gem no longer! It was covered with swirls of brown and red and seemed to be glowing brighter.

  And then it was done. She was a real dungeon now, out of her infant phase. She could do whatever —

  Eh?