The Origin of Dungeons [Dungeon Core]

In the olden days,

We humans had different ways,

Back then we used to thrive,

Now we only survive. 

-A traditional rhyme of a certain mountain town of the northern fringes of Eurah Continent. 21 AA (Years After Awakening)

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It was just another regular old day of June, June 22nd of 2026 to be exact.

In a certain town called 'Cypress Town' on the eastern fringes of Europe, a young lad, looking to be 17 years old, with a lack of any distinct features, regular brown hair and eyes, was walking on a relatively busy street. He was passing by old stone houses, which the town was famous for, all while lost in his own thoughts.

'Sigh, barely clinched the grades this year. Otherwise, I'd have to study during the summer. Eugh.'

The lad's name was Lan, though he preferred to be called 'L' by his friends, like a certain detective in a certain animation, not that it mattered. No one called him that, because there was no one who spoke to him on a regular basis. He was the 'quiet kid' type, not because he had an arsenal at home, nor was he an antisocial psycho. Lan simply liked peace and quiet, he often wondered why he didn't ever get bored being by himself.

'Now that this school year's over gotta find a job or something... Can't leech off my parents forever.'

He was on his way back from school, and while everyone was gathering and partying, celebrating the end of the times of boredom, he was on his way home.

The question is, where exactly? Most official workplaces won't really accept me till I'm eighteen, nor do my neighbors need anyone to trim their lawns or something... Am I being unimaginative, or finding excuses to be lazy as always?'

The lad did have a flaw, which was when he was required to go out anywhere or do anything particularly active, he was almost immediately struck by severe demotivation. The complete opposite happened at gaining opportunities to stay at home doing nothing. And to him 'home' was a room inside the dorm with three other guys living in the same room as Lan.

Considering they were probably partying right now as well, he wasn't particularly keen on returning home today. So, he decided to walk around and bask in the summer sun.

"Nothing beats this feeling of freedom! Hehe..."

Lan laughed to himself, not even realizing he was also saying that out loud.

And so, he walked around the small town of Cypress with no apparent purpose or reason, purely enjoying himself, unaware of the great changes soon to come.

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Depths of Planet Earth, Inner Core, 1 hour ago

Deep below the mountains, oceans, and the sky, in the midst of searing heat, molten magma, in the depths, no living being has ever seen, something changed. In the deepest layer of Earth, there was... Something resembling a flame, flickering slowly, growing, as it always was for millions of years.

But that quickly changed, it began swaying and roiling, as if under the winds of a great storm. Then it started shrinking, collapsing inwards as if to turn back into a spark it once was.

That kept on going and going, until all that remained was a tiny, almost microscopic point of light so intense, that it could blind any human, if there was one to happen to see it.

And then...

It Bloomed.

It expanded countless times, filling the entire core of the Earth.

Soon after, invisible waves flew out from beneath the Earth's crust, sweeping through the entire planet.

And after it...

No earth-shaking event really happened, the ground did not split, oceans did not evaporate, and the sky did not wail.

However... Unnoticeably to anyone... Changes happened to every living and non-living existence on planet Earth.

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Cypress Town, Present time

As Lan was walking through the town, somewhere along the way, he took out the headphones from his bag and started playing some music, humming along.

~~I'm falling from madness, and down unto sadness

I've even forgotten my goal!~~

However, as he was engrossed in the music, he didn't notice that he was walking under a construction site.

Neither did he notice a crane lifting a steel beam being transported over him.

The worn-down steel wire also went unnoticed earlier during the safety checks, or maybe no one even bothered to check.

However, that very beam hit its limits... And snapped.

Under the widening eyes of the crane operator, an otherwise unnoticed steel beam quickly plummeted towards the ground.

It went unnoticed all the way until it landed.

On top of where Lan stood.

All that was left behind was a steel beam, a gruesome mess left behind of a young boy full of ambition, and the screams of the crowd.

Unfortunately for all of humanity, this tragedy was far from last today.

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A Zoo somewhere in the USA

A crowd was walking around, looking upon various caged animals, set up for display and entertainment.

However, the long-bound animals were tired of this captivity.

And they were provided the opportunity to turn the tables that very day.

In one of the cages, a lion stood, looking over its pride, it was deeply dissatisfied, however, by lack of hunting grounds, lack of FREEDOM.

In the next moment, however, it felt energy erupting from the very core of its being, spreading through the veins of its body.

Then, the lion's muscles bulged, and claws started falling off, only to be replaced by new ones, which were covered in a metallic sheen as if they could cut through metal.

Under the shocked gazes of the crowd, its height increased to 2 meters tall, towering over any man.

And this was happening to every animal.

From fat and cute-looking pandas growing spikes along their spines, turning into muscular and ferocious-looking monstrosities, to massive elephants doubling over in size, gaining additional pairs of serrated tusks and becoming covered in chitin-like armor, nearly doubling in size and becoming something akin to walking tanks.

Every animal became bigger and faster.

Deadlier.

Exotic plants started growing out of control, roots breaking through glass, steel, and concrete. Former Venus flytraps grew teeth and started actively searching for humans, entangling them with vines and dragging them, screaming, to their inevitable doom.

Chaos erupted, crowds scrambling for the exit, trampling over each other, shouting, screaming, crying.

Meanwhile, the Lion that Awakened first, has already broken through the steel that once restricted it, leading its pride out into freedom. Unto the hunt.

Similar scenes happened everywhere.

Giant birds were catching planes and helicopters flying over forests and mountains, Bears were tearing unfortunate hikers, and instead of being shot by a hunter, a deer instead impaled the hunter with its newly enlarged horns.

As for house cats... Well, they were sleeping as always. With the exception of terrified former owners hiding in the corners of their houses.

The humans were no longer at the top of the food chain. 

Everything went back to the way it should have always been.

However all this chaos that erupted mere moments after the young lad named Lan died, it no longer mattered to him.

As the energy that composed his very being, his 'soul' flowed down, back into the earth, to once again return from where it came from, it stopped. Or rather, became trapped in a pile of minerals.

It wasn't an omnipotent god who put Lan's soul there out of spite, it was just entangled inside of a newly spontaneously generated combination of ores, which under the influence of mana's return, just so happened to have the ability to contain the 'soul'. This one-in-a-billion chance which was only possible during the planet's awakening, happened.

And the 'soul' remained there, silent.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------As time passed, mana was, little by little, attracted to that stone, that ore, that gem the size of a pebble, deep underground.

And, 36 years after the event which later became known as 'The Planetary Awakening'...

'What the bloody hell just happened?'