A young man suddenly found himself alone in an endless black space. It wasn’t darkness as he could see, but everything was just black. Looking around he tried to figure out how he had gotten here. Last thing he remembered he had been balls deep in a cute girl, not much younger than he was. Both of them knew it was a fling, he had met her earlier that day and turned on the charm. It wasn’t long before they had stopped at a hotel, and were enjoying each other’s company.

Thinking back he had just been about to fill her depths, and then there was a crashing sound. Next thing he knew he was here. Suddenly one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen appeared before him. She was entirely naked, and nothing was hidden from view. She wasn’t particularly tall, but she wasn’t short either. Her hair was a deep dark black, even darker than the surroundings, it cascaded down her back freely, and poking out of it was a pair of short silver horns. Parting her hair a bit, a lovely pair of leathery wings extended from her back. She regarded him with a pair of piercing crimson eyes, and her skin was perfect. It was a lovely creamy tan as if she had bathed in the sun until it got just the right coloration. She had no scars or blemishes of any kind. Her breasts and butt were perfectly proportioned for her figure. So perfectly in fact that it was unnatural, and thanks to her surprising nakedness he could see that she didn’t have any body hair. Not a single spec anywhere on her body.

She gestured behind and a chair formed out the surroundings and she settled into it as if it was her throne, the young man still confused about what was going on let out a stream of questions. Starting with the most obvious being where he was, and also asking the woman who she was.

She leaned forward a bit, and smiled gently, “I am Dewari a goddess, and this place is a meeting place of sorts. We are in the void between worlds, not the vast one between stars but the equally vast one between realms. Anyway, that isn’t important. Congrats, you have been chosen as one of twenty-five lucky souls to be reincarnated as a dungeon! Since your affinity is close to mine, I will be your patron and guide.”

It took it a moment for him to process that, and when he did, he replied, “Reincarnate!? You mean I died! How!?”

She gave him a moment to calm down a bit and then leaned back, “Yes, and it was quite the amusing death. Your luck must have been terrible that day, as you were killed by a roller coaster crashing through the ceiling of your twelfth story hotel room. Killed you, your latest conquest, and the unfortunate passengers of said coaster. Don’t fret though, like I said you have been selected to reincarnate as a dungeon.”

He had no idea how to feel about that, and said, “A dungeon? As in a floating sentient rock? I don’t want to be a rock!”

She giggled, and shifted slightly in her seat, “Well I could reincarnate you as a succubus if you want, or could take being a dungeon.”

Not liking those choices, he asked for clarification, “So my choices are either Succubus, in other words, a girl, or a genderless rock? Why can’t I be an Incubus?”

Dewari shifted and thought to herself, “Dungeons aren’t genderless, in fact, they are all female. Should I tell him? Hmm, probably not, it will be funnier if she finds out on her own besides I designed a really great avatar for her. Although I could reuse the template if she decides she would rather be a succubus. Even though she has the potential to be a great dungeon. She kept her thoughts to herself, and answered, “Incubi don’t exist in the world you are to reincarnate in just as they didn’t exist in yours. There are male demons, but in the lust circle, they all rank pretty low. Your soul is too strong for such low-rank bodies.”

Ultimately he was left with a choice. As a dungeon, he would eventually get an avatar, and even if he didn’t actually have a gender he could recreate his old body or even an idealized form of it. That seemed attractive, but he knew it wouldn’t be real. It would be nothing more than a fantasy. On the other hand, he really didn’t want to be a girl, and choosing to be a succubus would mean having a girl’s body, and a girl’s problems. He wasn’t sure how long he had been doing mental gymnastics on the subject, and it seemed like an eternity. Thankfully Dewari waited patiently for him to answer.

He wasn’t sure if it was the right decision, but he didn’t think he could handle being a girl. So he ultimately decided that it would be best to be the genderless rock.

With a sigh, he answered her, and said, “I guess I’ll take the genderless rock.”

He knew it would only be an illusion, but he was hoping that if he got an avatar he would be able to recreate his old body. Dewari smiled happily, and said, “Perfect. Let’s get started then. There is so much to learn, and I just know you will enjoy your new life as a dungeon. Even if you will have a few speedbumps at first. No avoiding those entirely, but I think I can help you avoid the stupid ones.”

Although he didn’t know she was omitting some important info like his new gender. Then suddenly a blue screen popped up in his face. It was a lovely light blue box like you would see in a video game, and it was clearly loading something. 

It took a while. Maybe a few minutes, but nowhere near as long as some of the large programs on his computer. When it finally reached a hundred percent, a second screen appeared, and text scrolled by so fast he couldn’t even read it. Then a new window emerged. He felt a bit of excitement rise up when he saw the new screen. 

The young man was a little uncertain of what he was looking at. It seemed to be the start of creating his dungeon, but other than the first race he didn’t really know much about the others. In addition, he was a little confused about the choices. Especially why they all seemed to be demons. Looking up he started to ask the goddess what this was, but she began to answer him with a lecturing tone before he was even finished.

“Alright, the screen you are looking at now is part of the system. It will let you choose your starting races, and thanks to your affinities your races are demons. It's why I couldn’t reincarnate you as say a human or elf. You have too strong an affinity for darkness, infernal and lust. Hence you will be a demonic dungeon of the lust circle. Now then about your choices, first of all, I recommend you ignore the Imp. It's weak, and rather useless. Not to mention, its evolution tree is a rather dead end. Personally I recommend you start with the Lesser Demon Girl, and Lesser Beastkin Demon. The other two are good as well, but you can get them in the store later. Not to mention the first two can fill in the basic roles quite nicely. Harpies just aren’t any good without room to fly. It is their greatest strength, and Arachnids are best with traps and ambushes. Lesser Demon Girls are a really good lust circle demon race that has a lot of potential and a good grasp of magic.  They should make great minions, and they can eventually evolve into high tier demons like the Succubus. The beastkin demons aren’t as good at magic, but have good physical parameters. Together they should make a decently challenging opponent. Also, lust demons have special spells, skills, and pheromones that they use to help corrupt their opponents. Most demons prefer to corrupt their opponents rather than defeat them in battle, and gain more experience by doing so as well.”

Listening to her, the young man, reviewed his choices. He read and reread the descriptions as he considered the options, before ultimately choosing to follow her recommendations. The descriptions did seem to support what she was saying, and he understood that at first, he would want the basics covered. So with no reason not to choose them, he grabbed the two starter races that she recommended for his new dungeon. Although first, he had to figure out how to select them, but thankfully it turned out to be simple. All he had to do was think of his choice, and he was then asked if he wanted to select that option. With just a few quick mental thoughts he was through the first choices, and a new window appeared. It was a simple window telling him which starter races he had chosen, and then it moved on to the next window. This one proved to be a bit longer.

The young man looked over the new list of traits trying to figure it out. Before he had progressed further than the first trait he already had alarms ringing in his head. Reading it he was able to infer that anyone who failed his dungeon would end up naked on his doorstep. Concerned, he asked, “Uh, correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t that first trait mean that anyone who fails my dungeon would end up naked on my front doorstep?”

Dewari nodded, an act that made her naked breasts bounce, and distracted him briefly before responding in her normal seductive lilt, “Well yes. It does, but failure naturally comes with a penalty does it not? There are a couple of traits that modify that penalty available. For you, I suspect that the trait, Curse of Lost Manhood would suit you best. I know you don’t really like guys. With that one, you will get to look at naked girls instead. If you happen to be looking out the door when someone fails.”

She was right, he really didn’t want to look at naked guys if he could help it, and when he looked at the trait it seemed to speak to him. It was as if it was made for him. Then he heard her speaking, “Regardless of your choices, remember you can grab them later in the store for DP if you want them. However, personally I think you should get Dungeon Loyalty. It is a very powerful, if underrated trait. It makes your monsters fight harder, if an invader actually means you harm, and it also prevents your minions from being subverted magically. That makes it quite good to get early on.”

He read over the other choices but none of them really spoke to him. He decided to take the Curse of Lost Manhood, and spent several moments first going over the others. Some of the others did seem useful, but he expected many of the last five could be interesting. However the more he thought about, the more he felt that she had given him a good recommendation. Making the decision, he took dungeon loyalty as his second free trait. Giving him a grand total of four at the start. That seemed good, even if two of them simply came because he was a lust circle demonic dungeon.

As soon as he made his choice, a window showed up confirming his choices, and then it closed. Followed by a second window, that gave no choices. It simply congratulated him on being ready to start his dungeon, and to consult his patron for a tutorial if he needs it.

She smiled at him happily and said. “Alright, as that window says, you are ready to start your dungeon. First, though there is a tutorial, that covers the basics of dungeon building, and how to use the system. I have plenty of time, so I can wait. Do you want to start it now, or would you like to try and figure things out on your own.”

He never really played games, and the system was striking him that way. So he chose not to try and figure it out on his own. She began with teaching him the basics, and one of the first things she had him do was to pull up his status. It proved to be simple enough, all he really had to do was think about it with intent. 

“This is your status screen. It shows important things about yourself, like your name and race. Along with your level, and how much experience you have. Right now you are only level one, but you won’t need much to get to level two. Just note that the amount of experience you need increases with each level. Now HP is a measure of your physical health. If it hits zero you die. Now damage uses a simple formula taking into account where a hit lands and the force behind it. A hit to a finger won’t cause any meaningful damage, but a strike to something more important like the neck will. Some status conditions like bleeding will deplete your hp over time. Next are shields; these are very important. Unlike HP, shields don’t measure your physical health. Shields absorb attacks directed at you and they take the full hit even if it only struck your finger. Also, they don’t benefit from your physical defense or resist stats either. So they also take more damage as well. However, damage absorbed by your shields is damage not taken by you. Consider them to be a lot like a second hp bar, and they can be improved to better protect you and to resist damage more efficiently.  Now defense measures how well you resist damage from physical sources. While resist does the same as defense, but for magical sources instead. In both cases the higher the number the better. I am sure you noticed the M ATK stat right? That is your magical attack. It is determined differently for dungeons from people, but it determines how damaging your magical spells are. Now there is also magic resistance, also known as elemental resistance. That determines how much you resist a specific element or magic in general. A resistance of fifty would halve the effectiveness of a spell. Before all other considerations.”

The young man had been listening and was a little confused. “Why do I have a Magical Attack stat? I thought dungeons were immobile floating rocks?”

“Well as dungeon your minions are not your last line of defense. All dungeon cores have one final option to protect themselves from adventurers who get too greedy or want to harm them in some fashion. I’ll cover it more later, but you have an innate magical attack, and its power is determined by that stat. In the meantime, we should cover the dungeon menu. This is the menu you will use for most of your dungeon management. Opening it is the same as your status, so go ahead and give it a look through and then ask me any questions you may have.”

He focused a moment, and soon after being prompted was looking through the dungeon menu.

Dungeon Menu:

Dungeon Overview

Dungeon Store

Dungeon Builder

Skills

Contracts

Boss List (locked)

Pet manager (Locked)

It was a rather simple looking list, with a number of options. He didn’t take long figuring out how to open an option. The young man simply opened the first, and got a large blue window.

Under the window were more windows with pages of information. The first window merely covered the most basic of information. There were enough pages to make his head spin, but thankfully most of it was blank. The overview menu would let him track just about anything related to the dungeon. He found a page for viewing floor layouts, and another that kept track of his monsters. With another separate page that kept track of pets, slaves and basically captured adventurers. Everything he could think of was kept track of here.  He ended up asking Dewari a number of questions about this menu, and even about simple things like resources.

Eventually he got to the Skills list, after some prompting from Dewari. When he opened it a long list similar to the dungeon menu opened up before him. Reading through it he quickly found himself a little confused about them.

Skills:

Core Shields: Magic shields that protect the dungeons core. Provides shielding dependent on the cores available mana, and its level. Costs 25 MP/minute to regenerate and 10 mana a week to maintain

Crystal Ray: Magic ray fired from the core. Ignores resist. Single target. Lasts five seconds and deals M ATK +50 damage each second. 50MP

Claim territory: The dungeon uses mana to claim new territory. Cost 1 mana per meter cubed.

Claim Creature: Claim a creature or monster as your own and gain control, cost depends on rank. 10 MP for G, 100 for F, 1000 for E and so on.

Mark Pet: Mark the target as a dungeon pet 50MP, target can’t leave dungeon without the dungeons permission, target must be tamed afterward. Target must be subdued to work. 50 MP

Brand Slave: Makes the target a slave of the dungeon. Target must be subdued to work. 100 MP per level of the target

Demonic Ray: Fires a beam of pure demonic magic at the target, ignores resist. Single target lasts five seconds and deals M ATK +100 damage each second. 50 DE

Analyze: Displays info on the target

Contact Dewari: reach across realms to contact your guide and patron Dewari.

Telepathy: Speak to the minds of others

“Your skills are most important, and they help you perform certain tasks. Most cost MP or mana to use. So do put some thought into using them. Now I mentioned earlier that you had an innate skill to protect yourself as a last resort. As a lust dungeon, you technically have two. Demonic Ray is quite powerful, and is a skill innate to demonic dungeons like you. Anyway, your most important skill is claim territory. It allows you to expand your territory. It is simple to use. Go ahead and use it. Focus over there, and keep claiming until you can see the outside.”

He looked in the direction she had pointed, and briefly wondered why she pointed that way. Having no reason not to trust her, and feeling curious he focused on using the skill. The skill responded quickly enough, and he felt a curious sensation, and it really felt like he was growing in the direction he was claiming. Not only that but his vision was growing to cover the new space. He did find that he could focus on a particular area, making the detail shaper but he would lose awareness of everywhere else. The sensation was very strange in fact, and while not painful it was slightly unpleasant. So he slowed down a bit, and that seemed to help.

Before long he could see outside, and he stopped like she had suggested. He stopped a moment to admire it, and then turned his attention back to Dewari. Curious he asked, “What’s next?”

She smiled, “Well now we get to the fun part! As you will soon notice expanding has increased your mana regeneration. Now we will need to start building your first floor. The dungeon builder menu has a number of useful tools in it to help you do just that. However, as you get more experienced you will be able to build a floor without those tools. Oh, yes, and you got lucky. It seems there is a ley line under your territory. At the moment, it will only give you a slight boost to mana regeneration, but later when you can afford it you can build a mana well to tap the ley line for a significant boost in mana. Anyway, go ahead and look through the dungeon builder.”

He was interested in a mana well, but curious he opened the builder. Opening it he was immediately presented with an overview of the floor, with greyed out options to select lower floors. On the left-hand side was a long menu with various options. The options included things like digging tunnels, adding doors or hidden passageways. Even traps and treasures could be placed through the tools. There were a few options that were either greyed out or too expensive. Dewari let him look through it and play around with it for a while before she began to add her input.

She started by explaining the basics of a good dungeon layout and giving him advice. Before he knew it he was digging out tunnels, and building rooms. A process that was unfortunately accompanied with sensations he could only call growing pains. At least they were tolerable. He ended up spending hours designing and growing his first floor. Dewari gave him tips on trap placement and floor design. The overall final result was rather simple, it was basically a straight path to the core room, although it actually twisted around some. Along with a few turns of the main path. These side rooms all had treasure in them, but also came with traps of their own. Once his floor was essentially completed, Dewari then moved on to the subject of monster summoning.

“Okay, now about monster summoning. It is a rather simple process. As a dungeon, the spell is pretty instinctive to you. Before you summon a monster, simply think of the monster you want. First, you choose the race and intended role in your dungeon. When summoning a monster the floor will determine how strong your monsters can be, but you can still decide how strong the monster will be as long as that strength is valid for the intended floor. There are other things you can decide when summoning a monster, and that does extend to things like their appearance. Keep in mind that you are limited within the bounds of their species. Now once you have finished customizing your intended monster, your spell will draw the requisite mana from you, and then pull a suitable soul from the cycle to you. Then the body is constructed, and the soul placed inside, albeit with no memories of its previous life, but all the required skills for its role in the dungeon. If the monster dies, she will go back to you and after some time will respawn. You will lose a small amount of mana for each respawn, but lower than a new summoning. If a monster no longer suits you, after it dies you can choose not to pay the respawn cost and it will return to the cycle. Now go ahead and try summoning your first monster.”

He thought for a moment, and then found that the process came to him easily. He soon lost himself in the process of designing his first monster, and before long a small Lesser Demon Girl stood before him. She was cute, but that was about all that was special about her. Before long he was summoning more monsters, and she eventually ended up being one of the bosses for his boss room. With Dewari’s help, he was able to set up his rooms, and after looking proudly over it he turned back to Dewari.

She seemed proud, and said, “Congrats on completing your first floor. You should be level five by now. Most of your future experience will come from achievements, defeating adventurers, and most important to you corrupting adventurers. It may be a few days before your first adventurers show up. I’m going to leave you be for now. If you need anything feel free to contact me through your skill, and I’ll drop by from time to time to check on you.”

With that, the goddess left, and he was left alone. To consider his new life as a floating rock. Internally he sighed, not sure how he felt on the subject. At least, he thought to himself it was better than the alternative. He did, however, mourn the loss of his body. Little did he know the future that awaited him.