Wait. How did I know the dimensions of the room? How did I know it was the standard dimensions? The standard of what? Why could I see everything at once? And why couldn't I panic about the fact that I was trapped in here with no way out?
My instincts told me to dig but when I tried to move closer to a wall, I found I couldn't move! Yet I still didn't panic. There wasn't anything wrong after all!
Wait. Why did I think I could move when obviously I couldn't? Humans can move and I'm human. But I wasn't human. Not anymore at least. But what was I then?
And how was I meant to dig if I couldn't move?
In the middle of the room there was a diamond looking octahedron on top of a pedestal. That's me. I knew this with absolute certainty. Does that mean I'm a Dungeon Core now? That felt right. That must mean I can make monsters and manipulate my surroundings with mana! I immediately wanted to make a monster, but my instincts again told me to dig. Maybe I'm meant to make a room before making a monster? I tried to imagine that one wall lost a 1 m2 square revealing a cube with the dimensions of 1×1×1 meter, no longer questioning why I knew the exact dimensions. One moment the wall was whole the next it had a hole. I mentally giggled at that thought.
Then, exactly 5 minutes after I woke up - and I was absolutely sure that's how long it took -, a blue box appeared in front of me.
I was right! I am a Dungeon Core now! Before I could consider the message more, a new one replaced it.
Does that mean I'm the only Dungeon Core with… what did it call me again? With that thought the first message popped up again. The soul of a sapient? Or am I simply the first? Thinking for a bit I decided it probably depended on whether it happened on purpose or by accident. Of which I had no way of knowing.
I'm dead?! The thought shook me for a moment. No. I was dead. Now I'm a living Dungeon Core. My new Dungeon Core instincts told me not to worry about it. It didn't matter that I had lived before. Only what I did now. After a moment's thought I agreed with it. It's not like I can do anything about it anyway. Or remember much from my past life…
…
What about this Status window?
I start at level 0? And what's up with the requirements for level up?
The Surface World?
The "main" dimension of what? But the info windows had nothing to say about that. Perhaps it's not 'general' information…
What's my mission then?
25% or lower? Is that on a scale from 0% to 100% where 0 means supervillain and 100 means saint?
And how do I know what karma level people have? So I know if I should kill them or not…?
Skill or Ability? What’s the difference?
Okay then… At least that's a mission I can agree with! Pleased with my mission I decided to get started immediately. Okay, I guess I need to do the Creature Theme Selection…
And so, I pondered for a long time. I considered all my options. But in the end dragons was obviously the right answer.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Okay, so I didn't consider it for that long! I just really wanted dragons! I did try to consider the other choices, but dragons just always seemed better!
With that decided I then needed to choose my Starter Environment.
Well, that was a much shorter list. Maybe it's so short 'cause no other environment fits my chosen creature? Hmm. Magma in the environment would be nice as I could use it in several different defensive ways. But the hiding and sneak attack capabilities the forest would give is really nice too. The desert and mountain didn't speak to me at all, and 'river and lake' wasn't as interesting as the remaining 2. My goal isn't to kill everyone though so magma might be too much. Hiding is more my style anyway. Forest it is!
Dragonet?
They eat fruit? I hadn't ever considered that there might be a dragon which preferred fruit to meat.
While I really wanted to spawn one, I didn't feel comfortable doing so before I had made a forest for it. So, I went back to digging. First, I made a 1 meter wide and long 4 meter high opening. Then I began on the actual room. But soon I had to ask: How big should I make the room? Is there any limit to it?
"Count as more than one room"? Sounds like I'm only allowed to make a certain amount of rooms. I waited for a bit thinking the blue boxes would confirm my thought. But nothing happened. Maybe I need to phrase it as a question? Do I have a max number of rooms I can make?
… What's the different Floor tiers?
Pleased I had both gotten the answer to my original question and learned more about the system, I returned to my digging. With only one type of creature, there wasn't much reason yet to make the rooms anything but standard. I did briefly consider making one giant room but discarded the idea as I thought people might end up walking past a lot of the danger.
Huh?! Why can't I dig anymore?
Uh… I've run out of mana. Might as well look at these Floor Details, while I wait for it to recharge.
Hm… Creatures.
20 + 10 mana? What does that mean?
Ah. Got it! So I can use 50 mana to get a level 4 dragonet. No response. Right. Can I use 50 mana to get a level 4 dragonet?
Uh, alright. Later then. Let's look at Puzzles.
So I have to design the puzzles myself. Nice. That will give me something to do while waiting for my mana to come back. Are Traps the same way?
Thought as much. And so I began to design puzzles for a bit before a thought hit me.
I got distracted earlier but wasn't there mentioned something about Dungeon Cores already having enhanced growth? Why is that?
Uh… Neat! I went back to designing puzzles and ended up switching between digging and designing.
"Draconic" when it comes to the Creature Theme Selection means "dragon-like", so a creature with simply the head of a dragon is still considered draconic in this sense.
But what is a dragon really? According to wikipedia, sea serpents are considered dragons, so it can’t be because they have wings and breathe fire. And Chinese dragons can fly without wings and can’t breathe fire, so that can’t be it either. And since sea serpents can’t fly at all, what makes a dragon a dragon?
This question is in part what inspired this story. And after considering whether a bunch of different creatures are or should be considered a dragon, I came up with this rule:
To be considered a dragon, the creature must fulfill these requirements:
- Is either reptilian, serpentine or crocodilian
- Can do some form of magic (such as fire breath, flying without wings or, for sea serpents, simply growing unnaturally large)
- Is not simply an ordinary creature with magical powers
In the old stories dragons are also always dangerous, but that is not always true for the more modern dragons, such as the dragonets in my story. But that was all the consistency I could find. The different types of dragons are simply too different, making “dragon” a really broad term.
On the other hand: If a creature can breathe fire, it is automatically at least dragon-like, regardless of anything else. Breathing fire is simply considered unique to dragons, even though not every dragon can do it.
You are welcome to try and add a requirement to the list. Maybe I missed or forgot something.