If Victor said opening your eyes and seeing yourself trapped inside a blue crystal wouldn’t be considered bad, but then he would be lying. If he could scream, then he would. If he could move or pound on those glassy looking walls, he would. But apparently he could only think. he understood what he saw - trees around him, a forest, and below him a black parchment, like someone burned something.

Maybe I am forgetting something?

He tried to recall memories, but all he could remember was his name - Victor. He had a vague memory of some life before, but when he tried to recall the memories a sudden sadness engulfed him.

Life sucked.

But it didn’t suck more than being trapped inside a crystal.

He didn’t know for how long he waited, but his senses awakened when he heard footsteps. It was strange. he thought he never had hearing.

His sight recognized a blurry figure through the crystal. A man, probably in his late ages judging by his stride. He had a walking stick or something of that sort in his hand.

“You are almost prepared,” the man spoke. “My last creation - awaken Victor.”

His insides shuddered, and he felt a heavy weight placing on his shoulders. The crystals around him cracked, and he suddenly felt his lungs.

Air, I need air…

Victor breathed, and suddenly realized he did have a nose.

Another heaviness settled, and this time his vision cleared for the first time. He felt his legs scrape the ground, and then his knees. he saw soil, and the familiar black parchment, and then his hands.

Hee was alive.

It took him a few moments to calm his breathing. When he looked up he saw an old man with black shriveled hair and bony arms grinning at him. He was wearing a ragged cloth, and beneath it gray robes. In his hands was a staff, with its top curved and pointy.

“Quite the soul I’ve stirred,” he chuckled. “Not very dull for a monster, but not quite bold either. See if you can stand.”

Victor wanted to reply something snarky, but he followed his instructions. His arms still felt…young? They looked like they belonged to a nine or ten year old.

If I only had at least a minor understanding of what the hell is going on…

He could stand up. And when he was fully standing on his two legs, he looked around him. He was inside a forest of some sort. All around him was trees with thick barks and heavy branches with little creatures moving in shadows.

And when he looked down, he realized he was naked.

“Wear this,” the old man threw his cloak. “And come with him.”

Victor grabbed the cloak and wrapped it around him. The movement of his hands felt clumsy, and when he kept his first step, he almost stumbled.

“Where am I?” he asked.

The old man gave a snarky grin. “In Hyra Province, specifically in the Skull Woods. Did you see what you came from?”

Victor turned back and saw a little cracked blue crystal. It was suspended above ground, floating. Below were brown roots spreading to the ground.

“It is your dungeon, and you were born from it.”

“A dungeon?” he had a vague recollection of what that meant. “I own a dungeon?”

The old bastard’s grin didn’t fade. “You are the dungeon. And I’ve shaped you to be human.”

“Why?”

“So you possess intelligence, and you’ll be the monster that I want you to be.”

*

It was a long walk to the old man’s house. His “house” was a cave at the top of a mountain filled with rocky paths, slippery slopes, and a ledge that overlooked the deep abyss. But when Victor reached the top, he saw a sight he never expected to see. The woods spread all around them, with the trees looking the same, but with several clearings and parchments in random places. In these places there were sights of flags or smokes rising up.

But his eyes fixed on the sights beyond the forest. In one direction was a giant mountain rising up, and from the bottom to the top there were temples like structures built on it. At its peak was a giant status of a standing giant slamming a rock down.

In his right all he could see was a large black wall, rising up to cover what seemed to be a town full of people.

In his left, the ocean spread wide after the forest, but it wasn’t so calm. On it was a fleet of ships, at least a hundred of them, all carrying black and white flags as they floated around.

“This is the world you are born to,” the old man spread his hands like he was presenting the final stage of a magic trick. “The three kingdoms on three sides, all vying to get that crystal you just saw.”

“It’s very small.” That was all Victor could say. It seemed dumb three nations would fight for a crystal that size.

“Albeit with great power,” the old man cleared his throat. “But allow him to introduce myself. he am Alzan, a wizard.”

So his thoughts were right. The guy was a wizard. That brought up his excitement. For a moment he actually felt like a ten year old kid.

“So you can cast magic?”

“A sort of magic. But I am in his old age-”

“Show me a magic trick! Make it rain! Or cast a lightning. Or maybe fire is cool…”

Alzan’s frown stopped Victor from continuing.

“How did you get so much energy?” Alzan rubbed the little beard he had under the chin. “Ah, who cares. But I have done quite a lot of magic in the past. My energies lies in the process of creation, and I used the last of my reserves creating you. But I’ll tell the details later. You must be hungry.”

Victor didn’t realize it until he said so.

“Yes… what do you have?”

“Giving you the boiled porridge isn’t an option,” the wizard turned. “Come with him.”

He walked inside to the cave where Victor saw two hares in a cage. They looked at him with innocent eyes.

“That’s your meal,” he pointed at the hares.

“I can’t eat them like that.”

“You won’t,” Alzan sat down on a wooden stool that creaked on his weight. “You will digest. Use your common sense, you should know what to do.”

Common-sense? He had overloaded him with information a moment ago.

But when Victor stared at the creatures, an idea occurred to him. It almost came as natural instincts. He extended his hand at the creatures, and imagined him digesting them. He was looking at a food and thinking how good it feels inside his mouth.

And it worked.

Small roots sprung out from the bottom and dug into the creatures. It drew out blood, and even the skin too. Right in front of Victor’s eyes, their skin withered, their eyes lost their energy, and the animals turned into nothing but skeletons. He didn’t know what to feel about it. But it did feel good inside his stomach. he never had a taste, but it felt good to feel their strength inside him.

[2 Souls Gained]

[Affinity: Innocence]

[Skill unlocked: Building]

[Skill unlocked: Expansion]

“What was that?”

He almost heard them inside his head. No, he felt it. It was like the words were engraved in his mind.

When he looked back the old man was carrying a large book.

“The personification of the dungeon core to a single being was a hard task. So I had to separately craft a mortal conscience and separate your predatory skills and ability to evolve. What you saw moments before was your predatory skills. You can consume human food, but what will grow you as a dungeon will be living beings. Souls to be precise. Strong species have more souls, while mindless animals, unless of a strong type, possess only one.”

“This,” the wizard continued, raising the book. “Is your evolution. It contains knowledge on how you’ll evolve, and what abilities you’ll unlock as a result. Take it. When I am not here, this will be your guide.”

“What do you mean not here?” he barely knew anything about this world. And despite looking like a man dragged through hell, Alzan was the only person he could learn something from.

“No one is immortal.” Alzan grumbled.

Victor picked the book, and checked its pages. It had at least a thousand, each carrying some information.

“It is crafted with magic,” Alzan said. “The index page will always show you the skills you have, and in side of each, you’ll see the page number you should refer to about that skill. You don’t have to turn pages, just think.”

Victor turned to the index page, where he saw a list of information.

[Self]

[Souls: 2]

[Area: 1]

[Skills:

- Building

- Expansion]

[Affinity:

Innocence: 1%

Predator: 0%

Chaos: 0%

Ruler: 0%

Warrior: 0%

Mage: 0%

Undead: 0%

Demonic: 0%]

Victor focused on the [Building] skill, and the pages immediately swirled until he got a page with the word ‘Building’ in large heading.

[Building]

[Ability to develop the dungeon’s body. Manipulate your environment to molding stone, earth, and even magical energy to create your architecture.]

There was more, with details on what material he could use, their strengths, and what sort of natural disasters he would be resisting.

The book was an encyclopedia.

“So I can build now?” he grinned.

“Yes, and that’s the last trick for the day.”

*

“Digest, store, build,” Alzan raised three fingers. “Those are the basic foundations that will keep you alive.”

They were back at the forest where they started.

“Think of this as your heart,” Alzan pointed at the crystal. “If anyone destroys it, moves it, or steals it, your existence will perish. The human body you have will be gone forever. So protect it with your life.”

Victor nodded. He felt some sort of magnetic attraction to the thing. It was almost like a part of him was inside that thing.

“What about the build part?” he asked.

Alzan sat down on the ground. he saw the strains of weariness on his face. The old man seemed to be at his limit.

“It’s up to you,” he said, leaning on the staff. “Your first objective is to protect this core, and then you can expand. With time you will have the ability to create your own monstrous entities. You will span large enough to conquer this entire forest, and then the three forces surrounding it. You will keep growing and consuming until you have enough souls to create Abaroth.”

Victor shivered at the name. It sounded like a curse.

“Who’s Abaroth?”

The old man gave a sneaky grin. “You’ll see. But first, focus on building.”

And that’s what he did for the next hour or so. It was hard at first, and the process requested immense concentration. It was like building structures in a game, concentrating on the position, and then on the material, before finally building it.

But after one hour he had built a wall seven feet tall wall that spanned a little section of the forest’s left side.

“That’s all?” he looked at the pages of the book where the new Soul count was shown as 0.

“That’s the limit of your souls,” Alzan said, rising up with a groan. “In the coming few days you’ll need to consume more souls, grow more of your strength until you form a strong perimeter around the crystal, and then you can focus on creating the beasts.”

Victor started following him, giving one last look at the crystal. For some reason he felt like he was leaving a part of him behind.

“You still didn’t tell him what Abaroth is.”

The old man was trudging slow without looking at him. “Abaroth is a dragon, a creature that the size of that entire fleet of ships you saw. Once released it will wreck havoc on this world.”

Victor shivered. “Isn’t that bad?”

Alzan turned. “Victor, who said I was a good wizard? I am hiding in this forest because of grave crimes I committed. I casted a plague over a city of innocents, mass murdered an entire sect of cultivators, slew the bronze fleet of the sea with a kraken, assassinated at least thirty different royals, and slept with half of the women in that kingdom including the king’s wife. I will die soon, and I don’t want to die without leaving my mark on this world. Therefore, you, my final creation, will be responsible for doing what I never could.”

“And that is?”

His toothless grin was scary as ever. “Destroying the three kingdoms, and making sure this world burns in hell.”