Bile rose in his throat, but he forced it down, swallowing hard as he looked away from the horrific sight. His pulse pounded in his ears like orcish war drums. The trembling of his hands held his attention until the lighting shifted.
A glowing orange orb was floating just above the lip of the stone alcove. It almost looked like it was watching the three half-naked goblins devouring his corpse.
“Cuix, I order you and your team to stop eating that. It belonged to my new Dungeon Master. He might want to keep it.” The voice was emanating from the orb, or maybe from the alcove, Gabriel couldn’t be sure.
“What, what’s going on?” he asked. The deep voice that spoke startled him as much as it did the goblins.
The orb was even more surprised. It flashed bright yellow and shot up, slamming into the rough stone above it. “Ouch! Oh, don’t scare me like that.”
“Huh?” Frozen, he stared at the glowing crystal ball as it shimmied back and forth in the air for a moment, like a person shaking off a shock. It stopped and dimmed, shifting to a dark red.
“Oh no, did I fail again? Did your fleshy mind shatter?” the female voice asked, oozing sadness.
“Why would my mind shatter?” Gabriel replied. She had to be talking to him since the goblins were still snacking on his butchered remains. “Am I dead?”
The orb shifted back to bright pink and darted over so fast he almost fell off the altar trying to avoid her rush. “You’re not broken! Thank the Eternal Dungeon, it worked!”
“Slow down, you aren’t making any sense,” he said, holding up both hands to stall the energetic crystal.
“Sure… I… will… talk… slower…”
“Not that slow, I just meant slow down and explain what in the world is going on.” Gabriel pointed at the cock-gobbling goblin for emphasis.
“Right, yeah, sorry about that. I told them to stop, but they’ve been starving.”
“Okay, I can see that they’re hungry. But how can they be eating my body, I…” he trailed off, eyes glued to the muscular arm pointing down at the goblins devouring his corpse. He glanced down, eyes wide as he stared at the pale skin stretched tight over corded, veiny muscles. “Whose body am I in now?”
“Huh? Oh, you don’t remember? You were dying, and I, in my magnetic generality, bestowed a new life on you as my first Dungeon Master. Feel free to praise me lots!”
“Do you mean magnanim… never mind. What is this about Dungeon Master? And I thought you said I’d cease to exist if I died.”
The orb bobbed up and down.
“That’s right, your skanky elf girlfriend tore your soul to shreds, but fortunately, I saved you.” She grew brighter as she spoke.
“So, I’m not dead, and now I’m a… Dungeon Master?” Gabriel asked, trying to wrap his mind around the idea. He leapt up and almost tripped over his feet. Despite the awkwardness of his movements, he recovered his balance and shook his head.
How much stronger am I now?
As he looked around, he noticed the ceiling felt lower. It took a moment for him to determine that the room hadn’t shrunk while he’d been unconscious. His new body was several inches taller.
Below him, the goblins continued to feast. He tried shooing them away with a foot, but they just moved out of reach and then circled back around.
“Yep, you’re a DM now. It’s way better than being a greedy, short-lived human. Plus, you have almost three times more Soul Essence now. You should thank me lots!” Her voice had the innocent warmth of a small child, and he struggled to match that enthusiasm with the sight of three waist-high goblins snacking on a human corpse.
And that larger one is still gnawing on my groin. Why am I not more bothered by this?
“Uh, thanks for the save.”
“You’re very welcome, Gabriel Grimm.”
Heart skipping a beat, he stared at her. “How do you know my name?”
“Why wouldn’t I? It lists you as Gabriel Grimm, Dungeon Master to Core 143,643,664. Also known as Merideva,” she said, her orb dimming slightly.
His eyes widened. “Are you Merideva? Listed where? What are you talking about?”
“Of course I am. Who else would I be? But how can you not even know about the Dungeon Interface? You know, you’re kinda bad at being a DM.”
“How could I be anything but bad at something I’ve never even heard of until just now?” he growled back at her. “And what the hells is a Dungeon Interface?”
The floating sphere let out an annoyed sigh, her glow shifting to a dull orange, and he’d swear she rolled her orb at him. “I spent a lot of DE on you, so you could at least be a good DM and go recover that Domain Crystal you let your friends steal.
“As far as the Interface goes, just focus your ‘mind’s eye’ on controlling the dungeon, and voila, Dungeon Interface,” Merideva said as if she had thoroughly explained the concept.
“Just focus on…” Well, I’ll be damned, it worked.
The moment he thought about it, a pane of vivid green with black text manifested before him. He reached out to touch it, and his arm passed straight through.
Like an illusion. Was all of this a sick adventurer joke?
“You meatsacks and your obsession with touching things. Just think about the page or line you want to view, and it will switch for you,” she huffed, shifting to a darker burnt orange.
“Are you…” Gabriel asked. He trailed off, uncertain how to ask if the Core was jealous of him having hands. Instead, he concentrated on the glowing pane before him. Text and numbers filled it. As she said, it listed his name among other things.
Gabriel Grimm
Dungeon Bound (Base Species: Human)
Sex: Male
Age: 25
Soul Essence: 895
Dungeon Master of Core #143,643,664
Level: 1
Below that, it detailed family displaying a small symbol of a tree. After focusing his intent there, the screen flashed, and he saw a large, stylized family tree. With every branch left blank save for his name at the bottom, and his mother’s just above him.
Well, that’s pointless.
He mentally clicked the next section and stared at the strange list of blank spaces and multiple abilities starting with dungeon. “What’s this bit about level one mean?”
“Oh yeah, you’re only first level, but I’m sure you’ll rank up super fast and be a proper DM real soon.”
“That’s not very helpful.”
“Hmm? It’s super simple. You level up as a Dungeon Master, and you unlock loads of cool powers and abilities. ED locked away all the goods ones so that clueless DMs don’t botch it and blow themselves up,” Merideva said, her voice taking on a wistful tone.
“And how do I level up?”
The orb flashed, hovering side to side. “You really are terrible at this. How should I know, you’re the DM, you tell me. Though it only improves your dungeon powers. If you want to get stronger, you’ll still need to cultivate more Soul Essence.”
Looks like she’s going to be no help at all. Guess I’ll have to figure it out for myself. But if it’s as time-consuming to increase as the Guild’s ranking, I need to focus on survival first.
He looked down at his pale and very nude body.
And clothes.
A single thought brought up the previous page, and he glanced over the Attributes section listed there.
“Most of this is like a much better version of the Adventurer Stats those Soulstones at the Guild produce,” Gabriel said.
“I would imagine so. Those silly adventurers love to loot Soulstones, though the Eternal Dungeon said to be stingy with handing them out. Don’t want them to be too easy to acquire.”
“The Eternal Dungeon?”
Merideva stared at him like he was an idiot. Or at least it felt like she was.
“You don’t even know about the Eternal Dungeon?” she asked, then continued, muttering. “What kind of half-wit did I wind up with? I wasted all of my DE on this brai
n-dead ape. I’m doomed!” she wailed, her glow fading to a dark red as she wobbled.
“Wait, I’m not brain-dead or a half-wit, sorry. Just a little confused with all the crazy shit that’s been happening in the past week.”
She stopped rambling and sniffled. “You mean this isn’t what your life is normally like?”
“What getting betrayed, sacrificed, learning that the Dungeon Core is alive, and ending up bound to it? No, not normal for me at all. A week ago, I wasn’t even an adventurer.”
“Really, then why did you come down here? No offense, but you seemed like a pretty weak human. My goblins almost killed you. They’ve never killed anyone before.”
“Wait, you saw that?”
“Of course I did, I’m the Core, I can see anything my monsters see,” Merideva said confidently. Then she continued, sounding far more subdued. “I can also see anything inside my Domain.”
“Well, I was a student at the Lostbarrow Academy of Magic until a week ago when the baron’s son, Kelith, framed me for theft and got me expelled.”
Her dark-red hue morphed to a warm pink. “Oh, so you’re just an apprentice mage, and you’ll become stronger and be able to do real magic soon?”
Gabriel winced. “More or less. It takes twenty years to graduate as a certified apprentice. I was training to join the Guild as a bureaucratic mage but had to find some way to earn a living after I got kicked out. I couldn’t find anyone interested in hiring an expelled, unlicensed mage. That left me with the choice to join the army or become an adventurer, and I chose adventurer. Better pay.”
“How did that work out for you?”
“Yeah, don’t remind me. Anyway, I’m looking at this Dungeon Interface, and my attributes seem way higher than the Guild one reported. Is there a different standard for them?”
“Huh? No, but you’re looking at the stats for your new dungeon-crafted body. I figured you would need to be a lot stronger than you were if you’re going to recover my crystal in time. It was really fortunate that you have an Open Soul. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to do so much boosting.”
The scale is the same? Damn, she more than tripled my strength, stamina, agility, and toughness! I knew I had an Open Soul, that was the reason Mother sent me to the Academy in the first place. Most mages are considered lucky if they have an Unlocked one. But to triple my Soul Essence in a single day is crazy. I bet a lot of adventurers would be willing to die for that kind of increase.
“Wait, could you have boosted my mental stats or my magic instead?”
“Since you are bound to me and have an Open Soul, you can spend SE to upgrade any stat that you want. But with how frail you were, I figured you needed the strength and stamina more. You have a lot of work to do, so it’s important to keep your health up.”
Gabriel sighed.
If she’d tripled the abilities for my spellcasting, I might be able to take on Estrial and the others. What the hells am I going to do with extra strength? There’s not much point in focusing on these stats until I get more Essence to invest.
“The other two humans took your sword, ratty armor, and backpack. But I figure you can get a new sword and then chop them up real good, now that you’re not so slow and weak.”
And how does she expect me to beat a Gold-ranked adventurer with no weapons or armor?
He sighed again. Annoyed by the fact that Merideva effectively tripled his SE without bothering to boost his casting abilities, he focused on the entries on the next page. “Why is my Charisma so high? I don’t recall what the Guild Soulstone listed, but I know a hundred is way more than I had before.”
“Huh? Oh. Well, you wouldn’t make a good leader for my monsters with pathetic human leadership ability, now would you?”
Gabriel stared at the glowing orb for a minute.
Of course she’d waste more SE on boosting my ability to lead goblins.
Ignoring the chattering Core, he resumed browsing the Interface. He found another page that listed all the glyphs he knew, and the spells he’d cast by combining them.
I recognize all but the last four, which have gibberish for names. Lovely.
***
After several minutes spent studying the alien symbols, Gabriel turned back to the Core. “There’s a list of glyphs in here, I recognize most of them, but there are four I can’t decipher.”
“Hmm, I don’t really know anything about human magic. Shouldn’t you be able to figure them out?” Merideva muttered, floating closer as if to peek over his shoulder.
“Right.” I’m dealing with a spoiled child, aren’t I?
“Do you know any spells to get my crystal back?” she asked.
“Um, not as such, no. My field of study was more on utility magic, not combat or tracking. So unless one of these new, unidentified spells will work, I’ve got nothing.”
“Boo!”
Did… did she just blow a raspberry at me?
“Fine, if you don’t have any useful magic, you can at least sneak up on them and steal it out of her bag, right?” she asked, floating in closer and pushing against his chest.
“I’m not a thief!”
“Eh? All you humans are grubby little thieves. What, are you bad at looting too?” She moved back, her pink color turning yellow.
Is she sulking?
“Um, Merideva? What was that you mentioned about the Eternal Dungeon?” he asked, trying to get the strange being to talk about a different topic.
“You really haven’t heard of the ED?” She floated up and hovered right before his face, shifting from yellow to a dull pink.
“Nope, Is that you, or…” Gabriel said, trailing off suggestively.
“Oh no, I’m new, and this dungeon doesn’t even have a proper name anymore. ED is the oldest dungeon ever. He created all the other Cores in existence,” she gushed, the orb growing brighter as she talked about dungeons.
“So, he’s like your father?”
“Huh? I guess you could sort of say that, but not,” she said. “ED was ‘created by the gods to provide a fair and balanced form of divine entertainment a real long time ago.’”
Gods making games? Either she’s crazy, or this is much weirder than I’d thought.
“Are there rules to this game?”
“Oh yeah, there are lots of rules we have to obey. Since you’re the DM, you need to be especially cautious about breaking the rules. ED doesn’t forgive DMs that cheat,” she said, punctuating her statement with a bobbing motion that Gabriel took for a nod.
“No cheating. Got it. But, maybe it would help if you told me what the rules are?”
“Eh? That sounds like a lot of work and so boring. Are you sure you don’t know the rules?” Merideva whined, floating back and forth in front of his head.
She jerked to a stop and shifted to an angry magenta.
“You, you’re just lazy and trying to trick me, aren’t you!” she said, her voice rising in sync with her color change.
“What? No, I honestly don’t know anything about dungeons. All I knew before I met you was that this dungeon was dying off. Adventurers rarely bothered coming here since the Aether density has declined, and there are few monsters beyond goblins or orcs to hunt.”
The orb stared at him for a long moment. At least he thought it did.
“Really? That’s stupid. You humans are stupid.” She huffed, but the Core cooled down and gradually returned to the softer pink. “If that’s the case, I guess I’ll have to explain them. But first, you need to learn to command dungeon monsters.”
Gabriel watched the orb for a minute, patiently waiting for her to explain. After suppressing a sigh, he finally asked, “How do I command them?”
“Duh, you send them a command.”
Shaking his head, he let out a deep breath, then turned to face the goblins crowded around his corpse. “You three, stop eating me.”
Two of the goblins turned to stare at him, sickly yellow-black eyes unblinking.
“Why are you talki
ng to the goblins?”
“Didn’t you just tell me to command them?”
Merideva laughed, a bright tinkling sound. “No, you’re supposed to use the Interface to command them.”
Feeling a touch embarrassed, even as he silently raged at the Core to be more precise, Gabriel concentrated on the mental screen. It took less than a second to pop up this time, and it shifted to show a chart listing several goblins, him, and Merideva.
Okay, now that makes a lot more sense.
He mentally tapped the first goblin on the list.
Cuix
Conjured Monster (Goblin)
Sex: Female
Age: .087 (Time since Conjured.)
Soul Essence: 22
Upgrades: 0 —Promote to Dungeon Bound? (Requirements not met.)
Threat Rating: E
The biggest one is female? She was eating my…
He shook the thought aside and tried commanding Cuix to stand at attention.
The wiry little monster, still munching on the dead body’s crotch, stood up straight and twitched around to face him. She swallowed and flashed a hideous and bloody grin his way.
Wow, it worked. Oh shit, is that my… Nope… Nope, just going to pretend I didn’t see that.
He couldn’t resist the impulse to glance down at his new body.
I think Merideva boosted more than just my attributes. And I’m still naked. Hope she has some clothes hidden around here.
Looking back at the goblin, Gabriel realized Cuix was also inspecting his new and improved manhood.
“Hey, my eyes are up here!” he said while commanding her to look up mentally.
Beady goblin eyes slowly tracked up to meet his gaze.
“Why you mad, Boss Guy? Your new one looks way better. Didn’t need old one anymore,” the goblin said, then blinked, eyes bulging. “Or did you wanna eat the good parts? Not nice to hoard!”
Is, is she lecturing me about…
He let the issue drop since he didn’t think winning an argument with a goblin would be a good time investment. Instead, he mentally commanded the other two to stop as well.
Instantly, both males hopped up and got into a rough formation behind Cuix.
“Hmm, not bad. Now try making the goblins move around the room, then send them out and down the hall,” the Core suggested.
Dungeon Bound Page 3