Reborn as a Dungeon Core in Remnant?

[Krak-Quinn]

'What happened to me? I feel like I got hit by a truck… oh fuck…'

He remembered the loud honk that ended as abruptly as it had started.

'Oh, so I'm dead now.'

All around him was a blank expanse filled with hazy blobs of color and he couldn't even see his own body, but he did see a large rolling white cloud approaching him.

As it got closer, he spotted an indescribably beautiful woman dressed in flowing robes standing atop that cloud.

She cleared her throat before speaking. "Greetings, I am the Goddess known as Grace. Listen up, mortals! I am responsible for the management of Celestial Life across every plane of existence!"

'Me! Me! Me! Choose me!'

He screamed in his mind, he had ignored the feelings that realizing he was dead had brought and instead tried to gain the attention of Grace.

'I'll do it! I'll do anything!'

He shouted without a mouth.

His situation was obvious to anyone who was familiar with the concept of Isekai.

"…I literally haven't even explained anything yet. Fuck it, who cares?" She muttered and reached out a hand.

He saw a gray haze move towards the Goddess, and his vision also moved closer.

"Blah blah System blah blah save the Leylines on the planet of Remnant, blah blah any wish you want." She reeled her arm back and flung his body across the endless expanse of infinity.

Everything blurred as he far surpassed the speed of light countless times over, and then his mind shattered as reality cracked.

---

His mind slowly gained back sentience, and he realized he was in a dank shallow cave a few feet from the entrance.

Sunlight was glistening off the small stalactites growing from the ceiling.

'Awesome! I've really been reincarnated! And did she say Remnant? Fucking awesome! Ooh boy, I can't wait to become a walking combat god. Ooh ohh should I get a harem? If I do, who should I make my main girl? Eh, let's leave it up to fate, the first girl I see will have that honor.'

…

'Odd, the entrance seems to be the same distance away even though I just tried walking to it. Uh, how about running?'

…

'What's going on? Why aren't I getting closer? I'm pretty sure I'm moving my body, or is there some lag happening?'

He tried looking down to see what was happening with his feet and the ground, and since he just saw stone but not his feet, he kept looking down until he saw the top of the entrance.

'What?'

He then tried looking at his hands but he couldn't find them, he couldn't even feel them.

He turned and spun around wildly but he couldn't find his body, he couldn't even feel his body.

He couldn't even blink.

'What the fuck is this!?'

[Bloop!] - [The Dungeon Core System has successfully been activated!]

'What the fuck?'

[Status] - [Name: (Unnamed)] - [Rank: E] - [Job: Dungeon Core (Cave) Lv. 1]

[Health: 10/10] - [Mana: 10/10] - [Dungeon Points: 100]

[Skills] - [Ambient Purification Lv. 1: Passively extracts 'Celestial Energy' from the surrounding atmosphere and purify it into Mana.]

[Transmute Lv. 1: Change rocks and their shapes into different rocks or shapes.]

[Dungeon Management] - [Resources: Gravel] - [Production: Limestone]

'No! No no no! This can't be happening!'

Frantically he began attempting to flail about.

Futilely he began attempting to find his body.

Finally he began accepting his reality.

A dead calm engulfed his mind.

'Haaa, what did I expect? Of course my Isekai adventure would suck, just like everything else in my life so far.'

He was mostly just being dramatic, his life had been pretty average, only truly marred by an intense boredom that had permeated every instance.

He had lived in a small rural town, and the only future for him was to follow in his family's footsteps and become a coal miner.

When he became an adult, he was planning on running away to a big city and actually experiencing life properly.

So far he hadn't even had a girlfriend yet, or even held a woman's hand. His town was lacking in attractive girls his age and type.

A second shot at life was just the thing he dreamed about.

A new life filled with interesting things and experiences, not to mention women he could date, and men who he could befriend.

Honestly, he just wanted something he could find enjoyment in.

During his previous life, he only had stories from the internet to get him through the days.

'Fuck!'

He hadn't actually accepted his situation yet, he had just tired himself out and began sulking, but now he had more energy to resist against reality.

'Grace! Grace! I don't want this! Find someone else! I'm not doing a fucking dungeon isekai!'

…

…

The goddess didn't answer his prayers, if one could call them such, and the bright sky outside his cave turned dark.

'Nooooooooo….'

Now he was truly out of energy, and not just in a mental sense, his thoughts slowed to a halt and everything became sluggish.

'W-what'ss ha-happenng?'

[Bloop!] - [Mana has been exhausted, entering sleep mode!]

'H—'

---

[Bloop!] - [Mana has been restored, exiting sleep mode!]

Bright rays of sunlight and the eager chirp of forest critters reached his awareness.

Just outside the cage entrance was an entire world of possibilities, and it was out of his reach.

'So it wasn't a dream, ah man, seriously fuck this.'

If he could, he would tossed over and gone back to sleep, however he hadn't even had any dreams so there was no point.

'Haaa, what's sleep mode?'

[Bloop!] - [Sleep mode is a state the Dungeon Core enters when it has no Mana left to form thoughts.]

'Don't I have a passive Mana regen? Also do I seriously need Mana to form thoughts?'

[Bloop!] - [Yes, however Ambient Purification is currently at a low level.]

[Bloop!] - [Yes, every action the Dungeon Core takes requires Mana.]

'Stop the fuc— Haaah, stop the blooping, it's really annoying. Anyway, every action?'

[Yes, every action, such as: thinking, seeing, hearing, and all skills.]

[It is not recommended to switch off those functions, as it could lead to a decline in sanity.]

'I could switch off my thinking?'

…

[Yes. The purpose of a Dungeon Core is to absorb and recycle the excess Celestial Energy of a planet.]

[Grace, the Goddess of Celestial Life, had delegated her task to you, because she considered it to be a hassle to manage infinite planets.]

[However, she required a consenting soul, but you don't need to be aware. In fact, it's rare she hadn't wiped your mind clear, and implanted a desire to serve her.]

[She is exceptionally lazy.]

'Oh, so seriously fuck all this then.'

…

'Are you a person or something?'

[No. This System has no identity, it is just a collection of information created for the purpose of administering the management of Dungeons.]

[Grace is exceptionally lazy.]

[Would you like the tutorial for the Dungeon Core System?]

'Haah, fine fuck it, why not? Let's get this over with.'

He tried not to be disappointed that he was truly isolated in his stone prison, but he couldn't even muster up enough rage to cover for the hollow feeling.

[Welcome to the Dungeon Core System!] - [As a sentient Dungeon Core, it is your duty to ensure your own survival which would in turn ensure the survival of this world.]

The system went on to explain in unnecessary detail the most basic of facts, the kind that any person who has played a game would be familiar with.

And since he kept his memories of his previous life, he really didn't require an explanation.

[Dungeon Points: 100] - [This is the currency required to acquire new functions and items from the Dungeon Shop.] - [1 DP is generated every day, and 100 DP is generated every year.]

'Oh, what's in the Dungeon Shop?'

An endless wall of text took up his entire consciousness and it almost depleted his Mana, but he managed to close it before he entered sleep mode.

After recovering from his near state of exhaustion, he tried again.

'What does the system recommend I spend my DP on?'

[Price 100DP - Dungeon Altar Lv. 1: Objects placed atop the altar can be consumed for Mana or Dungeon Points.]

'Are you sure? Is there something where I get a body and leave the cave?'

[Price 10,000DP - Secondary Form Lv. 1: Manifest a second body that can be remotely controlled.]

'Ugh, fine, I'll buy Dungeon Altar for now.'

A glossy marble-white slab manifested atop the stone ground, it was about the size of a small roomba.

The clear reflective surface allowed him to see himself for the first time, of course he didn't recognize the floating ring of disoriented light as himself for quite a while.

 

[Krak-Quinn]

He wasn't in the mood to ask the system what he should spend the 10 DP he accumulated over the days, so he was just wasting his time.

He had shut off his hearing and instead he spent that Mana to use his Transmute Skill, all he could really do was change the texture of his surfaces.

The walls, floor and roof were all smooth, and the right wall was a little concave. He had tried to expand, but he gave up after three days of getting practically nowhere.

Instead he was making a small hole on the left wall, it was about the size of a large rat.

He also wasted time testing out the other effect of Transmute, to change the type of rock. Occasionally, enough gravel would be blown in by the wind to make limestone, however it was incredibly slow and unbearably boring.

Ten days, that was how long he had spent not interacting with his system. The reason was simple, he was pissed off.

The Dungeon Altar that he bought at the recommendation of the system was pretty cool at first.

The white slab could even be moved along the cave's surface, so it was like a limb he could slowly move, which was pretty exciting.

However, even after struggling for a while, he finally managed to get a stalactite to land on it, but it wouldn't work.

[Dungeon Altar Lv. 1: Objects placed atop the altar can be consumed for Mana or Dungeon Points.]

As it turns out, he couldn't be the one to place an object atop the altar, it had to be someone else. It made sense, but that didn't mean he wasn't pissed.

In his spare time, he browsed the Dungeon Shop and even stumbled upon a Monster Summoning Skill that he could've gotten instead. The more skills he browsed the more pissed off he was at his system for the dud he bought.

There wasn't any real point, he was aware the system didn't have a consciousness, and that technically the responses were no different than his Status or the Dungeon Shop.

'Well, whatever, I've had enough. Funny, I always imagined I could last longer than ten days of isolation, but I'm ready to switch off my thoughts.'

…

The system didn't respond, as it wasn't directly addressed.

The Goddess didn't respond, she would probably never interact with him ever again, she wasn't benevolent, she was lazy.

'Let's do this.'

…

'Hgh, I'm ready.'

This could probably be classified as a form of suicide, so he didn't think anyone could blame him for his hesitation.

Even though he didn't have a heart, he could feel the phantom sensation of it thumping anxiously in his non-existent chest.

Perhaps it was a miracle, or simply good fortune, whatever force or concept responsible, he was extremely grateful when his suicide attempt was interrupted.

A small dirty girl, covered in dirt and leaves, and, more importantly, she had brown wolf ears and hair. She was dressed in rags and wearing a large metal shackle around her neck as she stumbled into his cave.

"Haah-hah-haaa-ha." She panted desperately, her sweat mixing with the dirt on her skin and forming light mud. She was clutching her side in pain and wiping away an almost endless stream of tears from her eyes.

Unfortunately, she was rather young, she probably hadn't even experienced puberty.

He would've preferred the first woman he met to in this world to be a mature woman with a great body, however he couldn't really bring himself to complain about what he preferred at the moment.

The small dirty girl was in pain, crying, and as she staggered in the cave, she left bloody footprints where she had stepped.

It was rather uncomfortable, his dreams didn't really include a lost child.

'She's a Faunus right? What's with that collar, is she an escaped slave or something? I doubt she was a prisoner.'

While he was distracting himself, the young girl reached the back wall.

Her body bumped into it and she fell backwards, she yelped during her fall. She continued to groan on the floor for a while, but then she looked around to all the walls and began crying a bit louder.

Tears, snot, and blood were smeared onto the ground beneath her.

He almost switched off his vision and hearing, he really didn't want to deal with an injured lost girl.

"Sss-sorry e-everyone." She mumbled through her sobs. "I c-couldn't d-do it, you all died for nothing."

'Ah sure, go ahead, just make me feel even more uncomfortable.'

There wasn't anything he could do, and he wasn't a fan of watching someone in pain.

'If you die here, I'm definitely killing myself.'

He couldn't imagine watching her corpse decay, he would rather die.

She sobbed some more before she went silent, he almost switched off his consciousness before he heard small whimpers from her.

'System, what should I do? How can I help her?'

He tossed aside his small grudge, but unfortunately he didn't get a response, he knew why; the life or death of the young girl didn't affect his existence as a Dungeon Core.

If it didn't matter, then he shouldn't care about it. However, before becoming a Dungeon Core, he was a person, so he couldn't just accept ignoring the young girl.

He was reincarnated in another world, something he could only dream of, and even though it sucked so far, he still didn't want his dream tarnished by the death of a child.

He admired the heroes in the stories he's read, and it was time he stepped up and followed their example. Which included saving the innocent.

"Ah! AAAH!" She suddenly spasmed and began screaming in pain, her hands shot up and gripped the buzzing metal collar on her neck. The buzzing lasted for a while, and so did her pained screams.

He searched through the Dungeon Shop, but there wasn't anything helpful in his price range.

'C'mon think! Think! How can I help an injured girl as a Dungeon Core?'

He cleared his mind, and began thinking intensely, his entire focus was on helping the young girl, but he couldn't come up with a plan.

However, after realizing he had just used a lot of Mana to form complex thoughts, he also realized he wasn't exhausted yet. The skill hadn't leveled up, so that meant something else was at play.

He only needed about a minute until he realized he was siphoning the young girl's Aura.

'Duh, obviously. I almost forgot a basic part of Remnant, the people here have physical souls. And Dust, which is probably powering that torture device around her neck.'

He shut off everything unnecessary, and he focused his Ambient Purification skill on the Dust inside the collar. The skill was supposed to be passive, but this wasn't a game, so what did that actually mean in regards to the real world?

As he felt Mana being spent and generated, he could also feel it rapidly reaching his cap, so instead he used the unspent Mana to expand the hole on the left wall he was making earlier.

He didn't have a proper sense of time, but as he felt the Dust inside the collar completely disappear, he switched on his vision and saw that it was nighttime outside.

He wasn't in the mood to think much, the young girl was shivering in her sleep as she laid in a dark cave. Even if he removed the power source of her pain, it didn't heal her injuries or comfort her.

And as he was struggling to imagine another way to help her, he saw an odd creature crawl into his cave.

A small white and black scorpion with a glowing yellow stinger.

'A Grimm! Seriously!? Fuck.'

The Deathstalker was pretty small, no bigger than a mouse, and yet even smaller non-magical creatures could have fatal venom.

As he began panicking, twisting and turning his sight, searching for something to protect the girl with, he saw the Dungeon Altar resting in a corner.

He used a bit of Mana to move it, and then he zipped it across the smooth ground. The white slab crashed into the small Grimm, and it dragged it over to a wall, where he repeatedly squished it until it faded away.

He had forgotten about the Dungeon Altar during his panic, but if the young girl survived, she should be able to offer things up to him. So now he had a more tangible reason to save her.

For the rest of the night, he was playing a close game of almost exhausting himself keeping watch, and then restoring his Mana from the ashes of the Grimm he had defeated.

 

[Krak-Quinn]

It stung.

Bright light stung her eyes even though her eyes had been closed, and even though she had been asleep, the bright light had stung her eyes to the point that she was forced awake.

Her eyelids fluttered, struggling to open fully, having almost been sealed shut from the gunk that had covered her face.

As she attempted to reach up and clear her eyes, the sudden movement alerted her brain of her horrendous injuries by sending a colossal shock of pain up her nerves.

A mental defense had previously blocked the pain from her consciousness, but the dam overfilled when she tried to move and her body was flooded with endless torment.

Her scalp was still in pain from having a chunk of her hair yanked out. Her left canine-ear dangled from the loose skin it was barely attached to.

The electric-burn marks on her neck occasionally sent phantom shocks up her almost dead nerves. Her throat spasmed and she struggled to swallow air.

The infected nail beds of her declawed fingers and toes were rotting away her flesh. Almost every joint and bone in her right arm had been broken.

Her creaking spine and cracked ribs screamed at her with every movement.

A wave of dark red and green, of bright yellow and white, exploded out from her throat with enough force to send most of it out of her nose instead of her mouth.

Her only respite was the ability to breathe once more. The act of vomiting had also made her eyes bulge out their sockets.

'Ahh.'

Her body and mind found peace as she stared at the world outside.

Through the small entrance of the cave she was about to die in, she saw a bright blue sky white pure white clouds and a brilliant yellow star shining.

Her one wish, to see the beautiful sky before she died, had been accomplished. Acceptance numbed the pain and fear, she was ready.

'Mother, everyone, I'm sorry. This is as far as I could make it.'

As her consciousness wavered, she suddenly found herself remembering the past, of times she thought forgotten and lost forever.

A blue sky, one just like the sky she just saw. A figure she couldn't remember, a person she couldn't see, her father carried her on his shoulder.

She couldn't remember his words, but the sentiment was engraved on her soul. She was loved.

'So it wasn't the sky.'

The last thing she wanted to see, the missing memory that haunted her dreams, it hadn't been the sky afterall. She just wanted to see her father.

What a worthless daughter she was. Mother had been enslaved alongside her. Mother had sacrificed her life to let her escape.

She didn't know how many others had also thrown away their lives to ensure she could make it out of the Dust Mine she had grown up in.

It had all been for naught. She would die, not even satisfied in her final moments.

If… if only she had found joy in her captivity, something dark was born in her dying brain. She had Mother and a whole host of other people who cared for her, and yet she wanted freedom?

She had been loved, why did she want more? Why did she dream for more?

Mother's warm embrace had always cradled her. Regardless of the beatings either of them had endured that day, at night she could forget about pain and be soothed by Mother's lullaby.

Her bones grew cold. Blood was leaking from the various wounds that littered her body. Her mind grew foggy.

Why wasn't she happy enough?

Sure, she had been abducted and enslaved before she could even walk. Nearly beaten half to death almost every week before she could even talk. And assaulted before she could bleed.

But she was never hungry.

'Ah.'

That's right, she had never been hungry. Mother always ensured she had enough food to never feel the pangs of hunger.

Scenes flashed through the forefront of her mind, she had always covered her eyes and closed her ears, but that didn't mean she couldn't hear Mother screaming in pain.

What a worthless daughter she was.

She recalled even more. When Mother was physically incapable of acquiring food, others would chip in to feed her instead.

Fingers, bruised and bloodied, with skin so tight to show off even the ridges of their bones, they handed her food. Even as their skin squeezed their rib cages, they fed her.

A kaleidoscope of memories overlapped. People collapsing on the spot. Corpses never waking up.

'How many? How many people died of starvation because of me?'

She couldn't recall, by the time she could form solid memories, she couldn't recall how many mothers sang their last lullaby as they held her.

'Mother…'

The features of countless women swam over the blurry mirage she called Mother.

What a worthless daughter she was.

She hadn't wanted freedom, she just wanted to escape. To run away from the beatings, but more importantly, to run away from the eyes of the people who thought she should survive.

Those desperate blood-shot gazes, they demanded she run, that she escape and find happiness.

She was happy, she was loved, but she couldn't be happy as a slave, she needed to be free to be happy, right?

Free at last, bleeding in a cave, she had probably unconsciously attempted to symbolically return to the depths, but unfortunately this was a shallow cave.

She hadn't expected to awake today, she had planned on dying in her sleep somewhere deep.

What a worthless daughter she was. No, she accomplished her mission. She escaped, she was free now.

The people back home could eat their own meals. The people back home could die satisfied that they helped a young girl find freedom.

The dark thing in her mind died, she no longer had any regret after she came to understand why she had been kept alive for so long.

As her mind began drifting away from her body, the numbing coldness of the stone and her bones made it difficult to comprehend where she ended and the cave began.

Her muscles relaxed as she released command of them.

The faint echoes of countless voices singing the same lullaby reached her ears.

'Mother, can you hold me once more?'

She could almost imagine countless arms reaching beyond the boundary, open and beckoning for her to join them.

'Mother… I'm sor—un—'

Her final thought was interrupted, something just sent more pain through her body. Opening her bleary eyes, she didn't immediately spot anything that could've hurt her.

She had definitely felt the familiar sensation of being kicked in her side or something, when she lost focus during her lazy attempt to mine, the overseers would occasionally punt her a bit.

'…Mother… I—UN—'

Her entire body was shoved a few inches. "Ow, fuck!" Her voice was surprisingly clear. A wave of confusion circulated within her brain. "What?" She asked as she held up a hand before her eyes.

She had no trouble moving, the only pain she felt was from the odd shove from a moment ago. As she sat up and inspected her body, she couldn't find the single hint of any open wounds.

If her rags and skin wasn't absolutely caked in mud and blood, she would've thought the whole thing a dream or figment of her overactive imagination.

She looked around, searching for whoever kicked her.

'It wasn't a dream, I really was dying, but now I'm not, I've been healed somehow.'

The only explanation that made sense was that someone saved her, but no matter how much she searched the small cave, she couldn't find anyone. But they couldn't have gone far, they had just kicked her awake.

"But seriously, what a small cave. I think my cell was bigger than this." Her words carried a hint of disappointment, she had definitely gotten attached to her cell back home.

Her taste wasn't small or large rooms, she preferred a middle size that allowed her to play around in while staying safe.

"What are these?" She poked at the odd protrusion coming off the ground, and there were even some on the roof. After drawing back her finger from the moist rock, she wiped dry on her messy rag. "They're so gros—AH!"

Something slammed into her hip and sent her tumbling. Her body ached in a fresh wave of pain, but she forced herself to stand.

She slammed her foot down at an angle on one of the spikes on the ground, and then she snatched the odd stone spike that was sent spinning through the air.

Ferally she swung it around her immediate surroundings, each swing had enough force to break bone.

"I don't care if you healed me, I'm done with the whole being kicked around thing."

She was free now, and alive too. Sure, she was grateful for being saved but she was also sort of pissed off, she had almost been reunited with Mother after coming to peace with her life so far.

'What's it called again? Oh yeah.'

"Stop being invisible and face me head on! We could talk, or something." She tightened her grip on the rock she was wielding.

Her eyes began scanning the ground, searching for footprints or anything of the sort to give away their position. And then she blinked once her brain understood what she was seeing.

Some sort of white stone slab was zipping around in what appeared to be frustration.

And as she calmed down, she also noticed something else.

[Status] - [Name: Luna Eisenclaw] - [Rank: E] - [Job: Dungeon Manager]

[HP: 78/100] - [AP: 681/1000] - [STR: E] - [END: E] - [AGI: D] - [MGI: E] - [CHA: E] - [LUK: E]

[Skills] - [Co-Existence Lv. 1: The life of the Dungeon Core and Manager are linked together, when one dies, they both perish.] - [Dungeon Management Lv. 1: Manage the Dungeon and the Core.]

[Dungeon Core's Mood: Dissatisfied! Dissatisfied! Dissatisfied! Dissatisfied!]

'Ah, words… right? I probably should've paid attention when Mother was trying to teach me to read.'

"Still, the outside world is pretty freaky." She attempted to touch the rectangle but her fingers just passed through.

'This is uh… glass, right?' And the weird stone-like thing was probably an insect or some such.

 

[Krak-Quinn]

'Fuck! Fuck! Why did I fucking do that!'

The girl had been dying, and he didn't want her to, so he begged to the System for a solution, and the only one within his price range of 11DP was to assign a Dungeon Manager.

Now, instead of just having his dream ruined and being turned into a Dungeon Core, he was also now under the management of a young girl.

'Fuck! Fuck!'

He expressed his dissatisfaction by wasting Mana to flail around his Dungeon Altar.

His attention was caught when the girl began speaking again, having now lowered the stalagmite she had been swinging around.

"Hello? Is anyone there?" Her eyes, a pair of dark green, looked around as she scrutinized the cave she had just insulted.

There wasn't really a point in ignoring her, and even if he was severely dissatisfied, he still needed her to offer things to his altar, so he needed to push past his negative emotions and attempt to communicate with her.

'What, did she not understand the deal from the system pop-up? What am I saying, I doubt that's even a concept here, or that a slave would've even read about it.'

He bumped his altar against her foot lightly.

She kicked him.

Her bare, mud blood covered, foot swung harshly against the edge of the altar. The white slab was sent flying across the cave.

'You bitch!'

He didn't feel pain, but it felt a little weird to be moved without inputs, and the disrespect struck hard at his mind. So, he utilized the momentum she had given him and swung back towards her feet.

She sidestepped his return strike with ease. "Whoa."

He maintained his speed and swung back, he was almost definitely wasting Mana but he didn't really care.

She continued to dodge until he lost a majority of his speed, and then she swung down the stalagmite she had broken off, which had also felt odd.

[Luna Eisenclaw offers a 'stalagmite club', would you like to accept?]

'Yes!'

Without a second thought, within the span of a moment, he accepted and watched as the stone club that had impacted him melted and was absorbed instantaneously.

[Gain 1 DP!] - [The offering wasn't worth much since the materials were from this Dungeon.]

'Ha! Fuck you!'

He traced the figure of an L in front of the stunned girl. Who, after a minute, knelt down and poked him. He zipped away.

'Watch it! Hands off!'

Even in his last life, he wasn't a fan of other people touching him, especially not little kids covered in mud and blood.

"A-are you alive?"

'Duh!'

He traced a circle, hopeful she would understand.

Luna stood up and pointed at a corner. "Go to that corner if you understand me!"

'Oh fuck you.'

He wasn't a fan of being bossed around, but still he went to the corner.

She swung her arm and pointed at the dungeon entrance. "Go to the back wall if you understand me!"

If he could sigh then he would have, but he was also a bit satisfied his manager wasn't completely dumb. Testing his awareness by using contrary body language and instructions seemed like an intelligent thing to test in his mind. So he went to the back.

"Wow." She seemed surprised, but she quickly regained her composure. "Do you know who healed me? Uh, return to the corner if you do."

He did.

"Are they still here? Stay there if no and move to another corner if yes."

'Fuck, why can't you just tell me to bob up and down or left to right?'

He moved to another corner.

"Are they invisible?" She didn't seem to give him some answering conditions as she eyed another stalagmite.

He moved away slightly before slamming into the corner, he successfully managed to catch her attention.

She blinked as he understood his answer. "Then where are they?"

He moved the white slab to the center of the dungeon, directly below his hazy exposed core.

The girl, Luna, took careful steps as she moved to the center, and her eyes widened when she caught sight of his core, she reached out to him with amazement.

He bumped into her feet to keep her away from the small glass-like ball glowing a faint blue.

A few minutes passed in silence.

"Why did you save me?" She asked his Core.

Again, he bumped into her feet and after she looked down, he zipped over to a stalagmite. He bounced between the two, using increasing force against the stone.

"Do you want me to break that?" She asked in confusion.

'At least you catch on quickly.'

He zipped over to the 'yes corner'.

"Uh, sure, I guess." Luna walked over and successfully kicked off another small stone spike.

As it flew through the air, he dragged the altar to land beneath it. And he was able to get another single DP from recycling his own material.

He zipped over to more stalagmites and her feet and continued to feed, and when the floor was clear, he moved on to the roof. Luna only had slightly difficulty breaking off the stalactites, but she did get them all.

In the end he was up to 19DP, he had actually managed to make up for the cost of saving her life.

Unfortunately, when the cave was cleared out, he only now realized the difficulty spike in communicating with his manager.

He slowly circled her feet and lightly bumped into her.

Luna sighed, then she stepped on top of him and closed her eyes.

[Luna Eisenclaw offers herself, would you like to accept?]

'Uh, not entirely?'

He didn't want to kill and absorb her, he was already putting up with touching her filth-covered flesh, he definitely didn't want to feel her corpse even for a moment. And he still needed her alive to offer things to him.

[Gain 140 DP!]

The filth covering her from the tip of her ears to ends of her toes was absorbed completely. Something vague within himself informed him that he received the most points from the blood and the collar.

Luna opened her eyes after she was cleaned up, her hands reached for her neck and she failed to find the collar she had been wearing.

And after she got over that, she inspected her clear skin, and she appeared mesmerized by her sharp claws. She also played with her clear hair for a bit.

"Uh, thanks?" Her tone sounded odd as she looked at the altar beneath her feet.

'Get off!'

He yanked his altar out from beneath her and she stumbled before standing upright. Then he circled her feet again, and zipped over to the entrance before zipping to the center of the room.

Luna offered several interpretations of his actions, so he was able to familiarize himself with the 'no corner', until she finally found the answer. "You want… me to go outside… and come back… with more food?"

He raced over to the yes corner.

She sighed, and quietly walked out of the cave. She squinted harshly as her eyes took in the sunlight.

With her temporarily gone, he was able to shift his focus elsewhere.

'Okay System, what should I buy now?'

He had gotten over his grudge after his altar actually proved useful.

[DP can now only be spent by the Dungeon Manager.]

'…what?'

 

[Krak-Quinn]

The words weren't hard to understand, and in fact it made sense, but he was still pissed off.

The small girl, Luna, was now the Dungeon Manager, and he was just its Core. It was like she was the brain and he was the heart.

A heart could affect the body, but it couldn't give orders, it was controlled by the brain.

A few minutes passed in relative silence after she left, that was unless his thoughts could be vocalized, then the cave would be echoing curse words.

Of course, he had assumed she would be in a position of power once he assigned her as his manager, but he at least expected that he would still be able to have some freedom.

Now he couldn't even spend the 159 DP he had.

He sulked for an even longer time as he impatiently waited for Luna's return.

'She's not running away is she? Damn! Fucking damn it!'

If she didn't return, he would have to shut off his thoughts, because that's all he had in this damn cave.

He couldn't be sure, but he would guess about three - excruciating - hours had gone by until she returned.

Luna walked in with an armful of dead rabbits, her hands and chin were caked in blood. "Uh, hey! Is this enough?" She asked out loud, her question echoed slightly as she looked around.

'Is that enough? For what? For me to be happy? Or to pay me back for saving her? Does she think this is over! Fuck that! You aren't leaving me here to rot!'

Still, he did slide his altar underneath her arms and absorbed the offerings. There were about seven rabbits, and in total they were worth 61 DP.

'Great, now I have 220 DP…. Not that I can even spend it!'

As he was whining again, something else popped up.

[Dungeon Manager: Luna finds the current state of the Dungeon (cave) unsatisfactory.]

[Dungeon Manager: Luna has purchased the Skill 'Dungeon Construction' for 150 DP!]

[Dungeon Construction Lv.1: Spend DP to create structures immediately.]

[Dungeon Manager: Luna has purchased 'Tunnel' for 5 DP, and 'Room' for 10 DP.]

Before he could react to this information, he saw the back stone wall morph and turn into a large tunnel that let out into a large room.

He also short circuited and blew a fuse, his rage at the unnecessary expenses had sent him over the edge, and he wasn't even conscious enough to control his altar.

…

He had probably blacked out to some extent, because he had definitely missed her walking down the tunnel into the room.

The next thing he knew was that he was reading another screen.

[Dungeon Manager: Luna had moved the Core into Room#2!]

"Thank you!"

Luna was suddenly looking at him, her body was lit up by a blue light.

Oh, it was him. He was slightly glowing a blue light.

[Dungeon Core: Has Gained 10 EXP!]

Oh…

Well, now he can't be mad.

Since he probably got EXP because the Dungeon expanded.

"I really appreciate you making a room for me! But… is it really fine if I stay here? I… I can just go if I'm being a bother."

'Fuck that!'

The white slab slid across the tunnel and almost smashed into her toes.

Luna hopped back, and he used his altar to block the door like one might block an air-hockey puck.

"Really? You really want me to stay?"

Fresh tears dripped from her eyes.

He circled her feet.

'Stop crying. As if I could let you leave.'

Five days passed without much progress towards regaining control of the DP shop, and Luna occasionally chatted with him, but she never said anything that caught his attention.

During the night she would sleep, and during the day she would hunt.

And he couldn't do much, aside from using his Mana to try and carve words into the walls, but he gave up on that after learning she couldn't read.

Luna would occasionally gather about an average of 50 DP per day, it would probably be more if she didn't also need to eat.

As he was slowly drifting his altar in a lazy circle, he heard the sound of her voice as she approached.

'Finally! Do you know what time it is? Where were you? Do you know how worried I was?'

"Is this the place?"

That wasn't Luna's voice.

"Yeah, that's my home."

That was her voice.

Luna walked in dragging a dead bloody deer, and beside her was a boy holding an old-looking hunting rifle.

The boy had stark white hair and milky white pupils, his grip tightened around his gun and he pointed in the direction of the floating orb.

"Is it there?"

His voice was shaky.

"Yeah."

"Wow, I've never felt this before, I would've thought that a terrifying Grimm had somehow turned a cave into its stomach if you didn't tell me it was a Mountain Spirit."

The Dungeon decided to stop draining the boy's Aura since he still had a gun and could probably shatter him with a single bullet if he felt threatened.

The boy blinked and looked around with his white eyes.

"Didn't you say there was glass as soon as you stepped in?"

"Can't you see it- sorry- feel it with your thingy?"

The boy flushed slightly. "It's my Semblance: Mind's Eye, so please don't ever call it my 'thingy' ever again. And no, I'm not sensing any glass."

"But it just popped up in front of me, and you, how can you not sense it? It's right in front of us?"

"Really? Sorry, I'm not saying you're lying, or that I'm lying. I can sense your telling the truth, but I just can't sense it."

"S-so, can y-you tell when I'm lying?"

Luna's hair bristled as her ears perked up.

"… yes, Luna— But! I didn't want to bring it up, since I can sense you weren't trying to trick me for a bad reason. I… I could sense that you were scared of me, but you sounded so happy when you thought I was blind and you lied about being human."

"You're not mad? Or disgusted? I thought all humans hated Faunus' as much as they hated Grimm. I was told I'd be hunted down if I was found by a human."

"Luna… I don't know what happened, but I'm sorry. I'm sorry that your life was filled with the kind of people who made you terrified of your identity."

The boy stepped forward and hugged Luna.

Who, for her part hugged him back and started sobbing.

Uh, yeah, that was enough for him to decide to ignore them as he switched over to the Room#2.

[Dungeon Manager: Luna has bought the Skill: Dungeon Assistant!]

[Dungeon Manager: Luna has given the Skill: Dungeon Assistant to Simon Dawn!]

[Status] - [Name: Simon Dawn] - [Rank: C] - [Job: Hunter Lv. 3]

[HP: 100] - [AP: 1000] - [STR: E] - [END: E] - [AGI: D] - [MGI: E] - [CHA: E] - [LUK: E]

'Ugggggggghhhh. He's blind! He can't read or see the screens! Get someone who can help me!'

After they had calmed down, Simon cut off some deer meat, then he wrapped it up and stored it in his satchel.

Then Luna had dragged the rest of the deer on to the Dungeon Altar, it was worth 96 DP.

They talked for a bit, and then Luna revealed her real desires.

"I want to free everyone else back in the mine I was in. I can't sleep at night when I think of their faces. Will you help me, Simon?"

"Of course, but it might be difficult. This mountain range is known as Purgatory, they say only certain death lies in what for those who venture too deep into the unknown. You said you ran for an entire day's light, right?"

"It was raining so I could be sure where the sun was, but I ran until it got dark, yes. I don't… even remember what direction I was running."

"Okay, then the first thing we need to do is investigate the nearby cities and discover who's running that mine. I think we should head north and towards Rudolf Striker's domain, I hear he's a pro-Faunus slavery."

"I… I can't. Just thinking about being surrounded by humans is making my spine shiver."

"It's okay, that's not a problem."

Luna sniffed and wiped away her budding tears as she stared at Simon, her face was flushed slightly, which he probably noticed since he flushed too.

'Uggghhh! Get out! Leave! I don't give a fuck about your rom-com drama! Bring me points! Give me freedom!'

The Dungeon Core couldn't take much more of this life.