Chapter 2

I began my work repairing the System Monitoring Stations. The plural wording turned out to be correct as well. Both of the odd little stations by the door leading out of my room went through a visible and slow transformation. The scattered and broken bits all over the ground, as well as some that were seemingly fused with the wall began to almost flow back into the stations themselves.

I was transfixed by the scene before my eyes. The metal flowing back into the monitoring stations like it was water, seeing the destroyed objects reform into what once was reality.

When it finished I saw the screens flair to life, an otherwise unblemished oddity amidst the destruction. The screen displayed multiple aspects of what a normal 'power core' should display. With a bit of tweaking I was able to figure out a method of altering what it displayed. Knowing that it would be useful I felt excited at the new knowledge and the clarity of thought it brought me.

I took a moment to relish the feeling before moving on to the next project. I looked around my area in an attempt to see what might be the greatest use of my Mana at this time. I focused on the walls and was surprised to see it had two boxes and options for the room.

Name: Wall Paneling.

Status: Destroyed.

Function: Provides structural integrity and additional protection of key systems.

Importance: Large

Cost to Repair: 900

Modifications: Increase Durability, Change Material Used, Change Design.

Name: Internal Ship Wiring

Status: Destroyed.

Function: Provides access to power to multiple key functions throughout the ship.

Importance: Large

Cost to Repair: 1200

Modifications: Increase Durability, Change Material Used, Change placement.

Both were labeled 'large' in matter of importance. I could even see why. The ship wiring would provide power to the systems such as life support, artificial gravity, and air filtration to name a few. The paneling provided protection for said wires and allowed the ship to continue being structurally sound.

I was thankful for the small descriptions in each object because it seemed to stimulate my mind into fitting logic I did not know I possessed where needed. I felt joy at that and noticed something strange with the sense of elation.

The room seemed to brighten and I turned my focus from those boxes and saw that my 'body' was actually glowing brighter. Did it actually display emotions based on my mood? I wanted to curtail that for some reason though. I felt displaying emotions so openly was a sign of weakness and should not do it openly or often.

That train of thought made me pause for a few moments as I chased after it, trying with all my might to locate the source. I ultimately had to give it up as the harder I chased, the further it drifted away.

Name: None

Level: 1

Race: Dungeon Core

Mana: 2,852/5,000

Minions: 0

Traps: 0

Environment: Derelict Ship (fighter model)

A quick look at my own status again showed me with exactly 2,852 Mana left. I stared at it for a bit, feeling I needed to see something. There it was! My Mana increased by ten after twenty five seconds. I waited another twenty five seconds and it increased again.

Good, I had a frame of reference for how long it would take to regenerate my Mana to full. Honestly I actually had no clue how long exactly I ended up doing some really poor calculations in a vain attempt to figure it out and just kept coming up with something like twenty hours.

I finally decided to just ignore that and wait until my mind was more clear, or I had someone more intelligent to question. Regardless, at least I now knew it actually did regenerate.

I selected the wiring first and repaired it. This part confused me a little because it seemed to encompass all the wiring throughout the room. At least the wiring in the wall. It was a good thing, I figured, seeing as it would actually cut down on the exact cost of Mana as I went about my repairs. It confused me because I had a feeling some of that wiring wasn't even connected to what I originally selected to repair.

Choosing to not look a gift horse in the mouth, an odd turn of phrase, I accepted it and then chose to repair the paneling next. It was at this point I felt the exhaustion the tutorial had mentioned as my Mana dropped all the way down to seven hundred seventy two.

I felt a little woozy, in truth, kind of like I had just spun around in circles for half an hour and needed to vomit everything I had eaten that day. Trying to figure out exactly how I even knew that just made me want to vomit more. I stubbornly followed the thoughts though, desperate for some clue as to exactly who I was before I had become this strange marble thing that had boxes show up everytime I focused on something.

The end result was me growing more disoriented and confused until I finally stopped and was forced to ride out the nausea and sudden spikes of pain caused by my attempts.

An hour passed by at a slow crawl as I combated the nausea. It finally abated after that hour, thankfully. My Mana had regained one hundred forty four back as well. I frowned a bit at the odd regeneration and wondered if it was slow or fast for a Dungeon Core.

Shaking the thought away for the moment I went back to work. The walls had apparently been included in the paneling repair because every square inch of the walls were bare of any scorch marks from blaster fire, dents, and shrapnel from whatever the hell else was destroyed in the explosion.

That left the floor and it only cost five hundred mana, oddly enough. It was labeled 'basic' for importance which I found odd. Wouldn't anything I created or dominated need a floor? I was really beginning to wonder about the ranking of importance but I chose to repair the floor anyway.

My Mana dipped dangerously low then leaving me at four hundred sixteen and another bout of nausea. The confusion didn't come this time at least. I fought my way through the nausea feeling and waited.

I spent the time it would take my Mana to regenerate to some degree looking at the skeletons again. They drew me like a moth to the flame, another odd phrase, it still fit however.

I closed in on one of the large bulky skeletons that I thought of as male and was clearly not Human. One reason was that the skeleton itself had four arms and they seemed elongated and disjointed at strange places. The skull was also somewhat strange, it had two eye sockets and what I believed to be a nose area but the holes were larger than I believed was normal for a human. The other factor was the sheer size of the skeleton. It was easily twelve feet tall. I shuddered internally at that as well. It was just the right size to simply reach up and pluck me free from where I lay.

I would try to find other defenses to defend myself against things this large in the future, somehow. Another was clearly strange because the bones seemed hollow, lacking any real size or weight with a skull like some kind of bird and the lower body of a snake. I was unsure where I got those animals from, or how I knew they were animals but I was slowly getting used to the strange fits of knowledge that assaulted me.

The other three were more Human in shape and size, though one seemed to have an additional pair of holes higher on the skull, at the sides, rather than where I felt ears should be.

Judging by their positioning throughout the room it appeared that it was two against three and they had come to blows over something both parties wanted to obtain. I had a strong feeling that it was me they were killing each other over and decided it was a good thing they were all dead.

What really drew my attention though was the strangest desire to eat them. For the first time I felt hunger beyond anything I had felt since awakening and they all looked like something I wanted to call a chocolate shake. I imagined myself licking my lips and tasting something sickeningly sweet and cold. The image was gone as fast as it came but I decided I wanted to feel that again and moved toward one of the skeletons and started to try and drink it.

My attempt failed miserably. Partly because I couldn't actually drink anything without a body and partly because whatever it was that preserved them here seemed to be fighting me.

In my frustration I forced every fiber of my will into the act I wanted to do and heard an odd little shattering sound and then the single most amazing thing I had ever felt suffused my being. I remembered things, images, touch, taste. Most importantly I remembered that chocolate shake thing and I sucked down the energy or whatever it was that this skeleton had until it was gone in a frantic fervor to continue tasting it.

I did it again and again with each corpse. It took all five until I felt bloated and satiated beyond belief. I felt like burping but had absolutely no way to really do that so I luxuriated in the feeling before realizing my Mana had been filled to completion long before it should have regenerated.

The skeletons? It was the only logical thing that I could think of. Thinking of the tasty, no gone, skeletons I craved more and felt true regret I had given into my gluttony. I swore I would savor such things in the future, make them last so I could enjoy them beyond a rushed pleasure.

I had more boxes popping up but I wanted to finish this section of the tutorial before I truly began looking at all of those. Call it foolish, but I had a single minded focus I knew served me well in the dream versions of me and I would follow it.

I completed the repairs for two thousand more Mana. The remaining repairs had been more monitors along the wall, an odd catwalk that led to a panel in the pillar I resided on, and the door itself that apparently had broken gears that prevented the thing from opening.

I looked around my now fully repaired, oddly clean, looking home and smiled. I felt an odd sense of pleasure at having finished my 'cleaning.' I could not explain it but I greatly liked it. That did it, I would ensure this room was always clean and orderly no matter what it took.

An odd dinging sound resounded within my mind and I saw the tutorial place itself within my vision, consuming everything I could see.

Congratulations on completely repairing all you could within the Engine Room, or Core Room! According to time records it took you exactly three hours and twenty two minutes to complete this section of the tutorial, a record! You will be granted an additional reward at the end if you manage to break another time record in my database.

Now we may move on toward trap making. Your current environment prevents most basic traps such as the pitfall or spike trap most prevalent within Dungeons. We have no records within the tutorial to assist you and request you figure something that could be construed as a trap through your own effort.

The way you make a trap is by focusing on an area and thinking of possibilities and using your own knowledge so your Mana may create the trap. Be advised that the more advanced the trap the more Mana it will cost, as well as the fact your level prevents multiple traps from being constructed at this time. You will be granted an additional reward at the end of the tutorial based on not gaining the proper help from the tutorial.

I frowned at the messages and decided that the tutorial was utterly useless, but I wanted whatever those rewards were. So I thought for a time, trying to remember everything I could from my dreams and thinking only of a basic tripwire like trap.

Focusing on the floor just before the door I saw the ability to make the wire was possible but I could not actually create anything to attach to it. Everything else I attempted gave me the prompt 'Unacceptable trap'.

I scanned the room, fighting the rising panic down when I spotted the blaster pistols that had been used still laying on the ground. I felt the overwhelming desire to devour them but fought it down. Devouring them like the skeletons may ruin my future and prevent me from continuing the tutorial.

I spent a good thirty minutes figuring out how to infuse my Mana into a blaster so it became 'mine.' Another twenty minutes figuring out how to mold and morph my Mana into something tangible and move the blaster into position just below my core, roughly head height with the door. The rest was easier, I simply attached a wire to the trigger and connected it with the tripwire at the door. Anyone that stepped into the room and hit that wire would get a face full of plasma.

I heard another sound and was feeling down right proud of myself for completing the trap section as I had. With luck I would improve that in the future though.

Congratulations on completing the Trap portion of the tutorial! You have broken another time record at fifty six minutes! This combined with figuring out how to make a trap in your environment without tutorial aid has granted you an additional two rewards from the reward pool at the end of the tutorial.

Now we may begin the final portion of the tutorial, Minions. This will be the final portion of your tutorial and is by far the most important because no matter your disrepair, your lack of traps or abundance, it will always be your minions that fight and die so you may survive. You are granted the choice between three possible beginning Minions breeds; lizard, bat, spider. Please think, hard, about your choice and we may begin.

Oooook. Well then, what the fuck kind of training was so short and lacking in more detailed information? Fuck it, I wasn't entirely sure about that word but I knew I liked it a lot. Lizard, bat, spider. Three choices that I didn't fully understand but I knew what each of them was instinctively. Thinking about them for a moment brought images to me.

Spider showed me an eight-legged furry creature with fangs and a multitude of eyes. I knew they held poison, deadly or otherwise, were ambush and trap based creatures and laid eggs in large numbers.

Bats, NOPE! FUCK NO, NO, NO, NO! I did not understand the abject terror I felt but I stopped thinking about the creepy rat things with wings. Resisting the shudder I moved on toward the lizards.

Lizard ejected an image of a cute little green thing that I knew was called an anole. The Lizard, like the spider and the big pile of 'fuck no,' had a multitude of different kinds within the species. Images of something called a bearded dragon, komodo dragon, and desert monitors were some of the more interesting looking ones. Oddly the gecko was the single most clear image I had and it continued talking about car insurance, whatever that was.

Making my choice, I chose the lizard. I figured I'd go with something I thought were cute, no matter the kind, and go from there.

You have chosen the lizard as your starting Minions. You must now create a lizard from your Mana. This will bind the creature to your will. Your Minion feeds off of your Mana and is capable of evolving depending on how much Mana you infuse into the creature.

Your very first Minion is even more important. It is designed to be female and will create more of its kind through whatever means it reproduces by gathering your Mana into its womb. This allows you a sustainable population without needing to constantly make more as time goes on.

As the first Minion it may also always be brought back with its memories and personality in tact after a set amount of time. This only applies to Minions that are the very first of the species you create, as you have chosen lizard that will be the case for them.

You are limited to creating a simple green anole at this time because of your level. Think about your creature and invest the amount of Mana you wish into it. The more Mana you invest during the initial creation of your first lizard will dictate how much it may grow and even its possible evolutions in the future. Please begin now and then we shall continue and complete your tutorial.

Well, that was a little confusing but I got the basics of it. Basically the first would be a female and also become something like an immortal little companion I could talk at, or think at. I looked at my Mana and saw I had five thousand Mana again. I frowned at that. What in the fuck?

I had not waited that long, nor had I eaten anything else. It made no sense, I tried thinking of possible solutions and could only think that maybe those skeleton tasties had in fact filled me to capacity and beyond but because I could not hold all that Mana it did not register into my Mana Pool. I frowned a bit more at that, it was a weak reasoning but it would have to do for now. The tutorial was no help and thinking at it wasn't doing anything either.

I focused instead on my coming Minion and thought very hard about the little anole that was going to be cute as hell. I decided that I wanted it to have as much of a chance to grow as I could give it and shoved over four thousand five hundred Mana into the dim image of my anole.

The image grew so bright it was almost blinding but I could see the anole now. I thought she would be cuter with larger eyes and I saw the eyes grow a few centimeters larger all around. I stared at that and decided I wanted to see the green anole have a single purple streak going from the tip of her nose all the way toward the end of her tail. The strip of deep purple appeared and I could feel something inside me trying to fight its way out.

Curious I allowed it to come out and it turned out to be the most high pitched girly squee sound I had ever heard. Considering I had not heard it before that made it the only one and I chose to ignore the fact that my decidedly male personality had created such a sound.

I thought that she was perfect and then everything turned into a blinding white light and then I felt heard something plop onto the floor just below where my anole would have formed.

I looked down at her once the light faded and saw two big round anime eyes blink around and then look up at me. 'So adorable,' I thought and then I was astounded to hear a very high pitched, feminine voice bark at me while the little anole jumped up and down cutely.

'Not cute! Ferocious! I go rawr and protect Papa!'