I blink into existence screaming.
What else am I supposed to do after I just died!?
It was a supposedly simple night on a supposedly boring week on a supposedly normal month.
Yeah fucking right.
Because while I was lounging in bed for the 12th hour straight, someone burst down my door, screaming at me to give them all my money/valuables
Hah, what valuables?
I "lived" alone in a one bedroom one bathroom place too small to be legally called an apartment, working remotely for a busy corporation that did not give a shit about me, and barely gave me enough hours to just pay for my bills.
So once again I say, Hah!
But now my dingy one room apartment is gone, I got fucking shot and... no more mold in the bathroom or creepy crawlies under the tiny kitchens sink...
Ugh.
I should stop screaming and try to figure out where I am, because there is a very distinct blackness between getting shot, bleeding out and waking up...in a cave?
It was dark, I knew that it was dark but yet I still was able to see surprisingly well, maybe it was because of the strange little glowing rock in the middle of the cave.
Hello little glowing rock, please don't give me cancer of the body.
Speaking of...where is my body? Looking down just gives me vertigo and yet there is nothing to see, cool no cancer of the body when I am just a floating consciousness!
Moving closer to the stone I feel a wave of...energy? Vibes? Reaching out to "touch" the stone made me feel sea sick, and then suddenly I feel like I am being sucked through a tiny straw.
---
[[Error: dungeon is corrupted]]
[[Error:attempted fixes failed]]
[[GM notice: Error is labeled as Soul]]
[[Soul integration with Dungeon? Y/N]]
[[Y]]
[[Soul integration...1%...5%...]]
[[34%...]]
[[57%...]]
[[82%...]]
[[99%...]
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
[[99%...]]
[[100%]]
[[Soul integration complete: Soul is now a dungeon. Rank 1 system access granted.]]
[[GM Notice: Soul will get Rank 0 system access.]]
[[Make Soul true dungeon? Y/N?]]
[[Y]]
[[Tier 0 system access granted]]
---
I wake up, once again screaming.
Because gone was my nice ghostly existence and now...I feel rigid. Before I was floaty, I felt like I was unchained, free to move as much as I wanted.
No, I had a tether, I could feel it wrapping against my everything, I knew what was tethering me, even though I don't know why I know it.
It's the stone.
The one I "touched", whatever it did after I blacked out had...bound it to me and-
[[Welcome User:Soul you have been integrated into Dungeon 46978 as commanded by GM:1]]
A box cut off my thoughts, knocking the panic out of me as I "saw" it in my mind and it just blinked there for a while until I mentally pressed it.
[[You have been allowed Tier 0 system access. Making you an equal with a true dungeon rather than an integrated will.]]
Well that is something...mentally clicking it again I waited for another box to pop up...
...
...
Okay damn, that's all I was getting from it...
Time to panic again right? What the actual fuck was happening to me...I got shot, blacked out, woke up in a cave, got sucked into a...dungeon thingie? And...and what was I panicking about again? I...huh I can't seem to keep that thought in my brain, I know I should be panicking so much more but...
I can't seem to focus on the...ugh it's not worth it, let's just focus on the box right?
Drawing on all my knowledge of isekai and light novels I start rambling off words.
System?
Options?
Stats?
Status?
Oo! That one got me something!
[[Name: N/A]]
[[Level:0 EXP: 0/30]]
[[HP 1/1 MP 0/20]]
[[Skills: 0]]
[[Floors: 1 Rooms: 1]]
[[Schema: 0]]
[[Titles-Boons-Blessings]]
[[Chat/System/Options:LOCKED]]
Huh...not a lot there? Maybe if I level up I can get more? Clicking around my status page, I mentally grinned as a new box popped up when I poked at Species.
[[Schema list:...]]
[[Error: Dungeons start with 1 schema...]]
[[Fixed: triggering free schema choice.]]
If I had eyes I would be blinking as three new boxes flashed into existence.
[[Gremlin: E-Ranked Schema: Small fey creatures, Gremlins are crafty, able to use simple tools to make and repair traps, but have the habit of ignoring commands if something is more interesting]]
[[Feral Imp: E-Ranked Schema: Small infernal beings, Feral Imps are as the name suggests, feral, they are unintelligent and simple minded, but their claws will still be able to dig into flesh nonetheless.]]
[[Pebblite: E-Rank Schema: Small elementals, Pebblites are the lowest of the Earth Elementals, slow and sturdy, they are good for defense and not much more.]]
Hrm, there wasn't any really good one or super over powered options, seems like I am not the main character and I don't start with op stuff.
Reading each over a few times I try to think what-
Wait, why am I going along with this? Shouldn't I...
Pain blitzed through my brain as I tried to think, there was the blink of a screen appearing but I just ignored it as I blocked out the pain.
After a moment it was gone, leaving just a dull ache in my psyche...ugh.
What was I doing again? Monsters! Right!
Selecting the Gremlin schema, I turn my attention to the screen that popped up when...I was having a headache.
[[WARNING! User:Soul is unable to feel certain emotions as User:Soul is now a Dungeon.]]
[[GM note: Don't Think Too Hard On This. Don't.]]
Totally not menacing at all thank you very much.
Okay, so...not thinking too hard on why I exist or why any of this is happening to me. Got it.
Closing the screens, I look around the cave that I seem to be in, rough gray and speckled brown stone surround me, with ceilings about 8 ish feet and maybe 6 wide? There was a corner that led into an area I can't seem to see into, and the dead end that my...stone? Core? Gem tether thing? Was, with a small puddle of stagnant water in the back.
Hm, Dungeons can usually shape themselves right?
Focusing on part of the rough stone walls, I felt a build up inside me before it flowed and the wall smoothed out, looking more like concrete now instead of raw rock.
Wootness! I can shape things!
---
I went on a bit of a shaping spree, and when I stopped to look at my handy work, I couldn't help but feel a bit proud of myself.
The once wavey and rough walls are now smooth and straight, I even carved in small grooves to mimic the look of bricks, the floor was smooth as well, though it looked more like tiles now.
I had deepened the little puddle a tad, as I had an idea for it. Since I could manipulate the stone to shape it, I should be able to build it out right?
I tried summoning up some stone around the puddle, making a small wall around the water filled divot before making a pillar rise from the ground under it, and making a bird bath looking thing.
Woo! I can make stone! Great, wonderful, perfect…that would be a cool place to put my rock/core/self in…
Reaching out with my “hands” I couldn't even move my core an inch.
So…Problem, I don't seem to have a way to move the core…hrmmm
Gremlin! I can make one of those right? Or do they just spawn?
Letting out a hum, I tap into my status page and clicking into the schema section I click on gremlin and grin inwardly as I get a pop up.
[[Create Gremlin Spawner? Y/N]]
Well yes please~
The pop up disappeared and there was a rush of power from me, and my..."vision" blinked into blackness for a moment before it came back to normal.
Centering myself a bit I see what caused me to black out.
[MP: 5/30]]
That was most of my mana! It takes 25 mana just to make a spawner? Where is my spawner?
Looking around the little chamber I had made, I spotted a crack in the wall that wasn't there a moment earlier, looking closer at it I got a pop up
[[Gremlin Spawner: Time till finished - 20 minutes]]
Oh...I was kinda hoping that it would just spit out a gremlin right away but this is fine I guess.
So fine...
