A dungeon is excited!

[STATUS]

NAME: N/A

TITLE: N/A

RACE: C-TYPE DUNGEON OBJECT

LEVEL: 1

CLASS: N/A

SPECIAL CHARACTERISTICS: CURIOUS

HEALTH: 100/100

HEALTH REGENERATION RATE: 1/DAY

MANA: 100/100

MANA REGENERATION RATE: 1/DAY

ABILITY POINTS: 0

AVAILABLE ABILITIES: <DUNGEON SENSE(PASSIVE)>, <EARTH MANIPULATION(BASIC)>, <BIOME CREATION(BASIC)>, <MONSTER CREATION(BASIC)>, <TRAP CREATION(BASIC)>, <DUNGEON EXPANSION(MAX)>.

It woke up in a simple, dark room. No, it was wrong to say 'in' a room.

It was the room.

The Chamber was its body, and the Core was its brain!

The unnamed dungeon, despite being too young for complex thought, disposed of innate knowledge and 'dungeon common-sense'. A bare minimum of information, that served all new dungeons to learn and grow. It knew, for instance, how to read the virtual words of "STATUS" that hovered in the void of its chamber. It was also aware of the Great Outside, a bigger, more interesting world on the surface of the plane, suffused with light and life. Images of microbes, fungi, plants, animals, and most importantly, of the sentient races flashed through its mind. Short gnomes, beardy dwarves, elegant elves, muscular orcs, and intelligent humans were some among the many sapient peoples that existed in the Great Outside, and the dungeon couldn't wait to meet them!

And that meant, of course, to kill them!

This murderous drive stemmed from a deep, primordial instinct suffused in its very being, as a dungeon. Its reason to be, was to attract the foolish members of the sapient races, called "adventurers". It would trap them, kill them with waves of monsters, and absorb their tasty essence in its Core! Their sacrifices would only come to fuel the dungeon's growth. It would expand, its mysterious labyrinthine layout confusing even the brightest of sages. It would amass loot, enticing the challengers to blindly risk their lives. It would lay innovative traps that would take them by surprise, and grow a wide variety of monsters, to stave off the adventurers' boredom. Every floor will be equipped with memorable mid and final bosses, each with their special powers and multiple forms that would make the intruders despair!

New ideas ran wild in the young dungeon's mind. It toyed around with many concepts, envisioning a plenitude of different paths it could take to become a good dungeon. No, forget about just being good. It wanted to be the best dungeon there ever was! It wanted to have its name known throughout the lands!

People from all corners of the Great Outside would delve into its floors, risking their lives for the promise of riches and might. Bards would sing tales of the dungeon's dangers, and children would dream of one day becoming the heroes that reached the last floor. All the other dungeons would become envious of its levels, that would extend deeper into the underground than any of its kin reached before.

The young dungeon was excited!

Thinking about the future, its Core churned in anticipation. It felt the impulse to establish the 'Gate' to the Great Outside as soon as possible, and welcome droves upon droves of unprepared adventurers that waited for its grand opening! Yet something held it back. A voice of reason, an instinct of self preservation stopped it from foolishly digging towards the surface. Instead, its attention was directed to the mysterious hovering text. More specifically, it focused on the little scribbles in the corners, which it had ignored before. A portion of the text was glowing softly, and the curious dungeon couldn't help but willing the text to grow bigger. In an instant, it expanded to replace the [STATUS] previously displayed.

[QUESTS]

ONGOING QUESTS: { OPEN THE DUNGEON GATE }

{ OPEN THE DUNGEON GATE } - QUEST DETAILS:

QUEST DIFFICULTY: BASIC

PROGRESS: 1 / 4

TASKS:

ESTABLISH CORE-CHAMBER LINK [COMPLETE]

SPAWN MONSTER ( 0 / 1 )[INCOMPLETE])

LAY TRAP ( 0 / 1 )[INCOMPLETE]

ESTABLISH PATH TO SURFACE ( 0 / 430 PACES )[INCOMPLETE])

QUEST TIME LIMIT: N/A

QUEST REWARD: LEVEL UP!

With its budding intelligence, the infant dungeon understood very few things. But one of them was that it couldn't open the 'Gate' just yet. The dungeon lacked the means to kill the sapient intruders, and would only lead them to its unprotected core. Realizing its recklessness, the dungeon cursed at itself. Thinking for itself was hard, and bad. It was a much better idea to follow the [QUESTS]. It didn't know why, but it felt compelled to listen to them. Whoever made the quests was much more insightful. Was it a God that made them? Were the [QUESTS] the meaning of its life?

Ugh, but it was so frustrating! It wanted to meet the people outside, now! It wanted to have some fun, now! Even if it didn't know what fun was, having fun was good! Its mischievous instincts begged for it. But alas, work had to come before play. Such was the law of the world. Such were the [SYSTEM]'s rules.

So the dungeon went to work. First on the [QUEST] list was creating a monster. But how was it supposed to do it? Was it enough just to think about it?

[USED <MONSTER CREATION(BASIC)>. IN ABSENCE OF TARGET, A RANDOM MONSTER WAS SPAWNED]

[SPAWNED {SMALL SLIME LV. 1}]

It…worked! It really did! The little dungeon succeed in creating life for the first time, and lost itself in the exhilarating feeling. It studied curiously the cute creature called {SMALL SLIME} that it had managed to give rise to from nothing! The way it blobbed and swayed and moved on the floor of the 'Chamber' filled it with warmth and joy. Most importantly, it was no longer alone. It finally had someone to talk to, someone to share the wondrous adventures of growing to become the best dungeon there is!

'Hello, little one! Want to be my friend?' the dungeon Core tried sending a thought. It was aware of the way sapients use a different means of communication called 'speech' but the dungeon's anatomy lacked the necessary appendices to produce sound without magic implements. So it figured it could send a simple thought instead. But the slime didn't respond in any way, instead it kept blobbing in place.

'Hello!' the dungeon tried again. 'Hello? Do you hear me?'

There was no answer. The dungeon tried again, this time willing more magic into its thought.

[CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE LEARNED <MONSTER TELEPATHY(PASSIVE)>]

The [SYSTEM] congratulated it? Does that mean it did something good? The dungeon core was once again filled with joy and accomplishment. Certainly, if it continued on this path it would become the best dungeon out there.

'Hello, little friend! Did you hear that? The [SYSTEM] congratulated me! I'm the best!'

Much to the dungeon's surprise, the thought it sent elicited a faint response. The slime stood still for a second, as if listening intently, before its gooey mass trembled slightly. What was this? Could the slime understand it? More experimentation was needed. This was fun, so fun! Time passed untold in the dark underground, as the core told its short, but fascinating life story, praised its 'mastery' over the [SYSTEM]'s secrets, and expressed its dream for becoming the best dungeon out there. Yet the slime never did more than it did before. Nothing the Core told it enthusiastically could illicit a verbal answer, or even a different physical response. Slowly, the dungeon lost its patience.

'I'm so tired of being the only one talking. Hey! Are you even listening?'

'You're making me mad! Just say something! Do something!'

'Ugh, just go away! I don't want to see you anymore!'

The core once again lamented not having the sapients' appendices, for if it did, its mouth would have been open agape at this moment. The slime listened to its command, as it turned around and crawled to the furthest corner of the Chamber, leaving a trail of ooze like a grass snail.

'Wait! Come back here! I didn't mean it! I was…'

No sooner had the thought departed, that the slime carried out the order. It followed the same slimy trail, and reoccupied its spot. The new discovery, that the slime could be commanded rekindled the curiosity in the dungeon's Core. It began frantically experimenting with more commands for the little monster.

'Move left! Move right! Jump! Attack! Roll over! Grow! Sing!'

The slime had proven to be unresponsive to most commands. It could move to and from the Core, but it couldn't left or right. It was also unable to perform any other task than moving and eating dirt, which frustrated the dungeon a lot. It really wanted to know why it wasn't able to direct the slime properly, and why it couldn't talk back if it could hear its commands. Was it dumb or something?

…

Wait, was that it? Was it dumb? Could it not go right or left because it didn't know which was which? Could it be it just didn't know how to speak? That would explain a lot of things. Nay, all of the things! But what was the dungeon supposed to do? Its only friend was dumb as a brick, and willing it to go to and from it was getting boring real fast. How could it make the slime smarter? Its not like things just magically grow a brain or something…

Or did they? A new bout of experimentation had begun. The first try was a bust, so was the second, and the third. And the twenty fifth. And the fifth seventh. It turned out making a brain for a creature without a nervous system was kind of difficult, especially since the Core had never seen a brain in reality, only possessing the fragments of innate knowledge it was born with. Understanding the anatomy of a living creature was harder than it seemed, and beyond its current scope of comprehension. In the end, it could only give up, and face the reality: its friend was dumber than a brick, and there was nothing to do about it. But the dungeon still cherished the slime, as it was its only friend in the lonely underworld. Its not like it could just magically will a new, better friend into being…

Oh, damn it! Of course it could! Why didn't it occur sooner?

'Sorry, little slime. I know you were my best friend for so long, but you're too boring for me. We're breaking up. N-no hard feelings, ok?'

Before questioning if the slime even possessed the mental facilities to process emotions like sadness or betrayal, the dungeon core got busy at work creating a new friend. This time, it would make a genius slime! It used all its remaining mana into making it the most intelligent slime possible! It would walk, talk, sing, and listen to the Core's many stories! But it was hard. The process of creating this new friend felt draining. Literally.

[USED <MONSTER CREATION(BASIC)>. TARGET: SLIME. SPECIAL CHARACTERISTCS: SAPIENCE, ABILITY TO COMMUNICATE, INCREASED INTELLIGENCE, SINGING TALENT]

[FOUND CREATURE MEETING CRITERIA. SPAWNING { SAPIENT GENIUS BARD SLIME LV.75}]

[WARNING: INSUFFICIENT SKILL LEVEL TO SPAWN { SAPIENT GENIUS BARD SLIME LV.75}. REDUCING REQUIREMENTS TO MEET SKILL LEVEL.]

[CONFLICT RESOLVED. SPAWNED {INFANT HALF SAGE SLIME LV. 1}]

[WARNING! INADEQUATE MANA LEVELS FOR SUPPORTING MONSTER {INFANT HALF SAGE SLIME LV.1} ON THIS LEVEL. A MINIMUM MANA CONCENTRATION OF LEVEL 2 IS NEEDED TO SUSTAIN THE MONSTER.]

[WARNING! THE MONSTER {INFANT HALF SAGE SLIME LV.1} WILL DEVOLVE, OR EXPERIENCE MANA STARVATION IN 4 DAYS]

[WARNING! MANA RESERVES DEPLETED. ALL ABILITIES ARE TEMPORARILY UNUSABLE.]

Torn between the excitement of a half-success, the grim prospect of its new friend, and the mysterious ailment called [MANA RESERVES DEPLETED], the dungeon's Core succumbed to mana fatigue, and the world went dark.