Dungeon.

*tip* *tip*

I could hear the faint sound of water droplets hitting the surface of another liquid.

"Urgh... What happened?", I turned over my lethargic body as I stared at the ceiling that had cracks and holes in it.

"Where... am I?", I asked out loud.

*Wsshhhhhhhhh*

I could hear the sound of something leaking to my right side.

My eyes widened as I took in the sight.

A giant, purple crystal, now broken into a million pieces, shimmering with a beautiful purplish hue. Whatever the crystal was, it must've looked absolutely stunning when it was intact...

The crystal was in the middle of the room. Speaking of the room, it looked extremely damaged and out of shape. Also, it looked ancient.

I tried getting up and succeeded in doing so.

"Ow! My head hurts...", I said before taking my right arm to caress my head.

but as soon as I did so, shock and confusion took over me.

'What are these things...? They feel so rigid... I can't remove them either...', I thought.

Quickly, I ran over to the little puddle of water and looked into it.

What I saw sent shivers down my spine.

'What... the... hell...', I thought as I looked into my own reflection.

I had two, crimson-coloured horns on my head. I was also wearing some black, royal-looking robes with gold embroidered details... My hands were covered with black gloves... My face still looked roughly the same, apart from my eyes changing colour from black to red and my skin becoming smoother...

'What the hell is this?', I wondered.

"ARGH!", I yelled before collapsing to the ground.

I suddenly remembered what happened to me a few hours prior...

I was hit by a truck...

I was going home from school and was hit by an uncontrolled truck...

And then...

I think I died...

But then, why am I here?

Suddenly, a sound interrupted my thoughts.

*Ping!*

[Quest: Repair the Dungeon Core.]

[Time Limit: 72 hours 58 minutes.]

[Upon Failure: Death]

I looked at the holographic screen floating in front of me dumbfoundedly.

It looked like a black-tinted window with golden text on it.

I was confused beyond belief.

'Quest? Dungeon Core? Death? what does that mean?!', I yelled internally.

'W-wait... maybe this is like an isekai?!', I thought with excitement.

'In that case...'

"Status!"

...

Nothing...

"Stats!", "Status Screen!", "Status Board!", "Status Help!", "Help!"

Nothing worked...

One last time...

"Console!"

[Console]

[Race: Arch-Demon{Variant}]

[Class: Mage]

[Attribute(s): Darkness, Necromancy]

[STR: E]

[STM: E+]

[MAG: C]

[WIS: D+]

[CHR: A+]

[Skills: {Miasma Spike I}, {Dark Knives I}, {Shadow Bind I}, {Raise Undead I (0/5)}, {Lesser Necroflame I}]

'Whoa... I really was isekaied. This is nuts...', I thought as I stared at the console.

'But... I have no idea was the skills do...', I thought.

'Wait, maybe?'

"Debug Skill: Miasma Spike."

[Debugging...]

[Miasma Spike: Creates spikes of dark miasma from the magic sigil created. The sigil can be created on any solid surface. The spikes as well as the magic sigil disappear after 10 seconds.]

'That's cool as fuck!', I exclaimed at myself.

"Debug Skill: Dark Knives."

[Debugging...]

[Dark Knives: Creates 4 black knives of miasma out of a magic sigil created on the caster's palm and shoots it towards the direction of the palm. The knives do not home in on any target. The knives disappear after 10 seconds.]

"Debug Skill: Shadow Bind."

[Debugging...]

[Shadow Bind: Creates 5 black chains of miasma around the target, if the target is in contact with the magic sigil. The magic sigil can be placed on any solid surface. Each chain has its own HP and if the target damages it enough, the chain breaks. The spell remains active as long as the caster wishes it, although it will drain mana if remained activated.]

"Debug Skill: Raise Undead."

[Debugging...]

[Raise Undead: Raise an enemy you defeat as an undead summon. The maximum number of summons increases with the spell's level. If the enemy's level is too high, the undead's level will be nerfed and set proportional to the caster's.]

"Debug Skill: Lesser Necroflame."

[Debugging...]

[Lesser Necroflame: A buff type spell for undead summons. Provides extra magic defence against Holy magic, and strengthens all stats proportionately. Currently, effects last for 10 minutes.]

'Wow... That's quite an arsenal...', I thought after carefully reading each and every line of the explanations.

'But... how do I repair the dungeon core?', I asked myself.

There was no one around to call for help or ask the question to... I was simply at a loss for what to do...

Without any leads or even theories, I walked up to the shattered purple crystal, which was most probably the dungeon core.

As soon as I walked up to it, a small window popped up-

[Dungeon Core]

[Status: Broken]

[HP: 0/100]

[Need magic crystals to repair...]

'Magic crystals? What are those?' I wondered.

'Maybe a magic crystal is something that drops when you kill a monster? or maybe it's a rare gemstone that you mine?'

"I'm betting on the first one...", I thought before contemplating what I would do next.

I walked away from the dungeon core for the time being and decide to investigate my whereabouts.

There was a door in one of the walls of the room I was in.

I walked up to the rusty old metallic door and pushed it open.

The door opened with a horrific creaking sound as if the metal was screaming in agony.

The door revealed a corridor. I couldn't properly see the end of the corridor, as the light from the dungeon core in the room couldn't reach that far.

I looked at the dungeon core and an idea came to mind.

I walked back to the core, picked up one of the million pieces the core had broken into and walked back to the corridor.

'Hmm... that works...', I thought as I looked at the now lit corridor because of the piece of the dungeon core in my hand.

The corridor was not too big, but it did have one or two doors leading here and there. I of course opened the doors, only to be greeted by another long corridor that looked almost exactly the same.

The floor was dirty and oftentimes, I could spot bones and other trash. The bones did not look like they belonged to any human, so I wasn't as scared.

'Well, this is a dungeon...'

I decided to ignore those corridors for fear of getting lost and kept walking straight away from the dungeon core room.

After about 5 minutes of walking, I ran into a corner. A T-corner with 2 different ways to go...

I couldn't see the end of either of the corridors.

I deiced to take the left corridor and hoped for some form of clue to appear there.

As I kept walking, I came across a door that looked rather special. Its size was a bit more than normal and had intricate designs all over it.

It looked quite ominous, actually.

Gulping down my saliva, I pushed the door open.

Immediately after opening the door, my nose was assaulted by a disgusting smell. It smelled of rusted iron and rotting bodies.

After catching my breath, I looked into the room and immediately regretted doing so and jolted away in shock.

The room had some kind of carcass in it. A 'creature' whose body was damaged beyond recognition. It was rotting and was clearly dead for a while.

I closed the door and decided to forget what I just saw.

As I shut the door, I saw in the corner of my eye a thing at almost looked like a notebook.

After calming myself down a bit I looked at the direction of the notebook and sure enough, it was a notebook of sorts.

It was old, dusty and the cover was damaged.

I couldn't recognise the language that was written on the cover, but I could strangely understand it...

'Victor's Diary...', the title read.

Without hesitating, I opened the diary.

--- after about 30 minutes of reading ---

I closed the diary and started thinking deeply.

'So I really am a dungeon master... It seems that this Victor person was one of the adventurers who challenged me in the past... He didn't win though...', I concluded.

'This might mean that I have quite a bad reputation above ground...'

As I was thinking, suddenly, out of nowhere, I could hear the sound of something flying towards me at great speeds.

Cautioned, I looked upwards and tried to see what was coming towards me.

'Is that... A bird?', I thought before feeling a gust of wind pass by me, fluttering my robes.

'What the?!'

As I turned around to see what just passed by me, I was shocked to find out what it was.

'A crow?', I wondered. Its eyes were as red as my own, and its feathers were a majestic black colour that looked glossy with the crystal's purple light shined upon it.

"CRAAWW!", it yelled out.

"CRAW! CRAW! CRRRRRAAAAWWWW!!!", the crow was freaking out in front of me and started circling around my head.

"H-Hey! Calm down!", I tried to reason with the crazy crow, but to no avail.

"CRAWW!!", it yelled and dived down, landing on my shoulder perfectly, gently rubbing its little head on my neck and cheek.

"Pfft! Hehe... wait... don't do that... it... tickles...", I said out loud as I tried to shake the crow off, but the crow won't budge.

"Crraw... Craw!", it made that sound again.

"What are you doing? I can't understand you-", something just struck me.

I looked at the crow and focused on it. I thought another window might pop up if I did.

And sure enough-

[Corvis, the crow]

[Race: Dark Spirit [Crow, Male]]

[Status: Happy, Emotional]

[HP: 100/100]

"Corvis...", as soon as I said that, the crow stopped what it was doing and looked at me, tilting its head, as if questioning me.

'That must be its name...', I thought after analysing the crow's behaviour.

"You are Corvis, right?", I asked the crow.

"Craw!", it nodded its head up and down at the question.

'Seems like it can understand me... It may have been a pet of this body before I possessed it.'

"Haha! Corvis, it's good to see you!"

"Craw! Craw!", it once again nodded its head up and down in excitement.

'Cool bird...', I thought as I played with Corvis a little more.

"Corvis, can you help me reach the Core Room? I seem to have forgotten the way...", I asked him.

"Craw!", once again after an affirmative nod, Corvis flew off my shoulder and yelled "CRAW!".

"Follow you? Okay...", strangely I felt like I could understand this bizarre bird...

Sure enough, within 20 minutes, I was back in the core room.

'It seems like little Corvis here knows how to get to places inside the dungeon...', I thought.

"Corvis, you know this dungeon quite well, right?", I asked.

"Crrraaw!", Corvis puffed out his chest and nodded affirmatively to the question.

"Haha, great! Then, can you help me find some magic stones?", I asked again.

This time, Corvis thought before nodding or yelling.

After a good 10 seconds, Corvis suddenly jumped up and yelled "Crraw!", and then started to jump around, flapping his wings and hitting the floor with his beak.

'What?'

It kept on this act after it finally grew tired and looked at me.

"You mean I have to fight to get them?", I asked.

"Craw!", Corvis replied affirmatively.

'Just as I suspected...', I thought.