3 Chapter Three, Heads Will Roll

I am dead. So dead. An S rank wants me dead. I should have dropped a rock on her head or something. I wonder if that would work.

The worse part for Bastill was the agony of having to wait five more years until his death. At least when you're living it's not a countdown. If anything, each year is a miracle and a blessing, but there is something different about knowing exactly when you will die. Like when someone gets a terminal illness. They knew they were going to die, but now they know they won't live past a certain time. He did have plenty of time. About 1,825 days left. He could start counting down and slowly go insane. Then his death would be a mercy kill.

What was he thinking? Yes, S rank was difficult to beat, well really impossible, however he had to try at least. It would also help to keep himself from going insane. Having a delusional goal. Isn't that what all humans do anyways? Sounds like a pretty solid goal. Of course, he was also a dungeon core, which he knew nothing about. However, that may be a good thing. He knew that if he was a human still there would be no way he could beat her in that amount of time. Maybe being a dungeon core would give him an advantage that he didn't know about.

He decided to open the door in hopes he may gain something, but there was a problem. He couldn't actually open the door, but he resolved this problem by dissolving it with his influence, which netted him one mana.

New Ability Learned!

Dissolve- Lets you dissolve matter and recreate learned matter with mana.

Learned Door

Door x 1 Mana

This was a nice little surprise to Bastill. First it turned out that he could learn skills, meaning he didn't always have to wait until leveling. Second it turned out that the door was directly connected to the outside. He couldn't actually see outside, he could only see in his area of influence, but as a couple leaves blew into the room he made the connection of where it led. He was able Learn things by absorbing them and was able to gain the mana that it would cost to create it. He quickly made a random door against a wall leading to nowhere spending one mana, then dissolved it and gained the mana back. He dissolved the couple leaves that had drifted in gaining him point one mana for each, while also learning how to create a leaf. On instinct he decided to dissolve the ever-wet blood that had been bothering him on the table. He Learned Ceremonial Blood from it, however he didn't gain any mana from it and couldn't seem to recreate it either. The table was still horrible stained by the substance

He tried experimenting with the new ability to dissolve matter, but it seemed to only work on non-animated objects. He learned this after trying repeatedly on these annoying birds that seemed to be building a nest on his wall. It was really too bad that he couldn't dissolve living beings, otherwise he would just dissolve Claire when she came back. Guess it couldn't be that easy though. That would have solved all his problems. It turned out that the birds had really started irritating him with their presence, however he couldn't directly interact with living beings. He realized this after spending an hour trying to kill two birds with a stone, but it wouldn't budge when he tried. Whether it was a rule of the universe or his own powers felt his intent and prevented him from doing it, he didn't know. With blind hope guiding him he started to finish filling the room up. When he had finished he got a notification.

You Have 1 Room

+Mana absorption increased to 36/day

Bastill wasn't sure what he needed to do next. He could try extending his domain of influence which would increase his mana absorption rate but use his current mana on hand. Since he could only absorb non-living objects, he created pitfalls to catch small animals. This might be a lead on creating creatures, but it would use mana and not increase its rate. He could also just sit here and wait for his capacity to fill up to one hundred. He already had thirty-two mana currently, only sixty-eight more to go, which would take around two days. It would also result in new abilities he could use, and a faster absorption rate. He felt that waiting was the right move logically to improve faster, however he hated being defenseless. His own Insecurities might be the end of him. He was still regretting how close the woman had gotten earlier. He needed to have a way to keep others away from him.

Despite feeling it was a big mistake to his growth, he began to make pitfall traps in the room with jagged rocks at the bottom. He learned how to make Granite. He earned one mana for absorbing five cubed feet of granite, which wasn't super helpful since it cost one mana to spread downwards for each cubed foot. In the end five cubed feet only cost him four mana instead of five mana, because he absorbed it all and gained one back. Each trap was ten feet deep and one foot wide and thick. He ended up creating five in all. He got a notification that he had created a new trap after the first one was made. He ended up spending forty-five mana. It took him a while to complete because he had to pause to absorb enough mana to get it done. When he was all finished he was down to four mana.

The birds had been equally busy. They manage to build a decent sized mud nest high against the wall of his room, but he had taken to ignoring them. They didn't seem like a real threat after all. They were just trying to live in safety like he was. He didn't realize that they came in due to the dense mana atmosphere the dungeons where known for making. Given time they could possibly evolve into something else. Everything was capable of evolving. Being in a dense mana environment quickens the natural evolution process.

With it all finished, he realized he would have to wait for something dumb enough to fall in a giant gaping whole. As a solution he covered each hole with a fragile layer of granite, costing less than one mana to make. He realized that it helped his mind to be busy with a task. Anytime he even tried to rest his mind would get chaotic and he would start hyperventilating. Well he couldn't breathe at all, because he was a stone, but his mind would start freaking out. He had plenty of time and didn't want to spend it waiting for his mana capacity to fill up, while he was panicking. He needed to stay sane, which involved not giving himself any spare time. With only four mana to spare, he couldn't do a whole lot. He could dig into the wall and start to make another wall, but he had barely any room to spare.

All of a sudden, the one of the birds swooped down and snatched up his amethyst, bringing it up to the mud nest in the room. Bastill panicked at first, but eventually stopped. The bird had finally stopped trying to eat him. He ended up being pushed off into the corner of the nest. He now hated the birds but didn't have any way to deal with them. If he did anything to the nest he would be sent falling to the ground. He wasn't entirely sure how strong amethysts were and didn't want to be damaged. A new goal was added to his list. His biggest goal was to destroy Claire the Rank S. His second biggest goal was now to destroy these birds, which were… rank F. He might be killed by the lowest rank before he accomplished anything. He had plans of destroying an all-powerful dark sorcerer and at the moment he couldn't even handle two birds.

My two mortal enemy's… A S ranked dark sorceress. And a pair of mating birds…

Still with no way to solve either question he changed his mind to what to do now. He looked back at where he had been on the table. Well he didn't look. He had every piece of the room in his vision at all times. Instead he was just focusing on the stone slab. If he was still a human, he could have probably use the table to display a massive sculpture.

That's it! I still have my Stone Touch Trait, although it's an ability now… I think I can still be a sculptor!

He created a massive block of granite that reached the ceiling and had a width and length of five feet. Then he began to tune himself to the stone. Feeling its imperfections and stress lines. He slowly began dissolving and carving pieces away. Since it was already in his influence it didn't cost anything to dissolve it, instead he gained a slight bit back. But it was hardly noticeable since it followed the same conversion of every five cubic feet equals one mana for granite. He had a vision in his mind of what he could feel the block wanted to become. He saw a beautiful angelic goddess with wings slighting wrapping her back and sides like a cloak. He went into the same blank state of mind that he used to as a human. He was entirely captured by the stone and put every though and action into its creation.

After a solid seven days of uninterrupted focus he looked at his work. It was a absolute master piece. He had never before created anything that could even compete with it. It had a radiant glow around it giving it the aura of a goddess. The entire sculpture was white like it was carved from pure marble and not a mix of grey, white, and black granite. There was not a single flaw to be see. The beautiful goddess stood in reverence and exuded elegance. Even his old master would have been blown away by the detail and craftsmanship. No mortal man could possibly make such a thing from rock. Bastill was beyond pleased with himself. Shocked that a week had passed by so fast. He was beyond joyous that he could still carry on his passion without his human body. He realized that with all the time he should have gained enough mana to get to level three. He noticed he had a few new notifications to look at. Bastille focused on his new Notifications that he had gotten while he was busy sculpting the beautiful goddess.

Animal Deaths

3 Grey Squirrels x 10 mana

Grey Squirrel Learned

10 Common Spiders x .1 mana

Common Spiders Learned

Total Mana: 31

Yes! The pit fall traps were a success after all.

Level Up! Current Level: 3

Congratulations you successfully gained 1 room and filled mana to capacity.

+ Passive Mana Regeneration Increased to 50/day.

+Expand Consciousness rate lowered to 1 mana every 4 cubic feet

+ Next Level Requirements: 3 Rooms, 5 Creatures, Fill Mana Capacity.

Another

Tamed Creatures

2 Birds

Blue Bird Learned

Sculpture Completed

Blood-Teared Goddess of The Dungeon

Effects- If gifts are given that catches the dungeons favor then there is a 1% to 25% Buff to all Characteristics depending on the dungeon's analysis for the next twenty-four hours. Accepted Items are dissolved, while rejected items burst into flame.

As he looked back at the Goddess he noticed the blood that couldn't dry was slowly leaking from its left eye only to be absorbed by the stone and leaked again. It made the Statue look like it was constantly crying red tears. He decided to give it a plaque for others to read so they would understand it's ability. The Plaque read, "Here I stand, the Goddess of The Dungeon, I weep for those Adventurers who fall, gift to me and I will it in kind, I will watch over you. For I am the Goddess of The Dungeon."

This would be a very valuable way to get new items into the dungeon. If they weren't new they would still be valuable to absorb for the mana they would give. Bastill was shocked at all that had happened in a week. His new capacity was 250. He had filled it by 231 mana already. He had never had this much mana before. It was truly astounding. He now had learned how to make different creatures! He cleaned the traps and reset them. He decided to stay in the bird nest for now, because he didn't have any creatures capable of fighting, which made it the safest hidden area. He mentally ordered the two tamed birds to attempt to lure creatures to his domain that his pitfalls could easily subdue. He specifically told the birds as best he could, "Lure small animals in here. Okay? They have to fit in the traps I have in here. Nothing bigger than a fox. Got it?"

The birds physically nodded their heads in agreement as they headed to look for something to lure back to the dungeon. Unknown to Bastill the birds had shortened his speech to something they could remember. It helped the birds to cut out the confusing words. In their minds they repeated the phrase, "Lure animals bigger than a fox."

He began thinking that in order to grow he needed human involvement eventually. For better or worse humans always rapidly changed the environment. He didn't really understand where this thought of human involvement came from. It almost felt like a base instinct. However, he couldn't even protect himself from two birds then a single adventurer would be his downfall. He needed the adventurers, but he needed to be defensible first. Though emotionally he didn't feel completely right about bringing humans here. If he had creatures in place, then they might end up injuring the adventurers. Bastill didn't feel good about hurting innocent people that hadn't harmed him.

Getting into contact with humans would be a huge step in his plans. Claire probably thought he was still here expanding his consciousness, without any ability to communicate to the outside world. He would show her how wrong she was. He would grow stronger and he would be ready for when she came back. Bastill just hoped that he'd be able to be strong enough to vanquish her in time. Claire was the one human he didn't have any qualms about killing. She deserved it and it was really in self-defense, which he didn't feel bad about. It was all about survival after all.

Next on his priority list was reaching the next level, but he couldn't reach the next level right now. He needed to meet the other requirements of owning five creatures and three rooms. This meant that maxing out his mana capacity right now would be absolutely useless to him. In short, he needed to spend mana to make mana. If he reached his max the rest that he earned would simply escape his grasp and disappear. He still needed two more rooms and 3 more creatures. His two birds that took up residence had been tamed and now counted towards his creatures. With this in mind, he went about carving two more rooms one connecting to this main room, and the other leading off the new one. He began digging into the wall.

He was able to accomplish more then he thought he would when he came across new materials that gave him more mana than usual. He learned the following: Marble, Coal, Dirt, Agate, and Quartz. He ended up creating two large rooms. Leaving him with a leftover of fifty mana. Bastill quickly created three grey squirrels, costing thirty mana total, and ordered them to go fetch plants from the outside so he could learn them. After an hour of continuously only bringing acorns in, he finally was able to have them bring back better plants that could be used for alchemy. He then went about planning how he was going to lavishly decorate the sides and the ceilings. He imagined he would have plenty of time to decorate later. His mana absorption had increased to seventy-five mana a day which he would reach the max capacity needed to level in about two and a half days. Meanwhile he could enjoy his passion.

However, the birds where more successful then he thought. In fact, too successful. They had long since found a creature to back to the dungeon. They were slowly working their way back to the Dungeon. The dungeon core was about to be in a bit of surprise when the new intruder entered. The birds had managed to find something that wouldn't fit in his one square foot pit fall. They were bringing back an adventurer.

Bastill had managed to carve out four medium display areas, two in each new room. One for each side. He was just putting the finishing on a carving of an angel when suddenly he felt an intruder enter his dungeon. He was so startled that he accidentally chopped the head off the poor angel sculpture he had just finished.

Who in the hell just entered! They made me decapitate the angel… Fucking bids messed up. I specifically said not bigger than a fox…