The party stepped into the portal, its swirling gold, blue, and black hues fading behind them. At first, darkness enveloped them. Only two floating crystals flanked the altar ahead, their pale light barely piercing the heavy shadows that clung to the cavernous chamber. The glow they cast was faint, spectral, painting long, flickering outlines across the smooth stone floor. The silence was absolute, so dense it pressed against their ears, making every breath, every rustle of clothing, unnaturally loud. Each footstep rang out with eerie clarity, as if the dungeon itself were listening. The vast emptiness around them felt untouched, waiting.
"This is it?" Kyle's voice broke the silence. "Kinda empty."
Fahleena grinned and raised her keyblade dramatically into the air. "Behold! The altar of eternal destiny! Should we… sacrifice Kyle upon it to awaken the ancient power?!"
"Pfft, HAHA!" Jessica doubled over, her katana clanking as she fell to her knees, laughing uncontrollably. "Stop, stop! My stomach..."
Sakura burst into giggles, unable to hold back. Even Gabyola, ever the poised one, covered her mouth, shoulders shaking delicately.
Kyle sighed, arms crossed. "Not funny."
"It's a little funny," Sinryo whispered to Adiw.
Yuuna ignored the chaos. Her eyes were locked on the altar, simple stone, round base, and a shallow groove at its center. From her magic bag, she pulled out a black crystal orb: the Dungeon Core. Lucretia had given it to them before they departed.
"This is dormant," Yuuna said. "It needs mana and the Staff of Creation."
Fuhiken stepped forward, staff in hand, moving solemnly. He carefully planted the base of the staff near the altar. Yuuna raised both hands and channeled her mana through it.
The white crystal at the top of the staff began to shine. The altar responded, a pulse of light ran through it as the black Dungeon Core shimmered, shifting colors from jet-black to deep blue. Slowly, it floated up, hovering above the altar. The light in the room intensified, pushing away the gloom. What was once a dim cavern transformed into a spacious dome bathed in soft white light.
Gasps followed.
"Whoa," Adiw muttered. "Okay, this is better."
"It's like… a holy place," Gabyola said.
"This is the control room," Yuuna stated.
"The what?" Kyle tilted his head.
"Think of it like… the dungeon's brain. Everything starts from here. Floor management, structure generation, mana channeling, it's all done from this core."
A soft pulse radiated from the Dungeon Core, like a heartbeat made of light. It spread outward in a perfect ripple, brushing over the walls and floor with a faint hum. A moment later, luminous magic circles flared into existence beneath each of the party members, intricate patterns of glyphs and runes swirling with soft blue and gold hues. The light shimmered gently, surrounding their feet like halos, as if the dungeon itself was acknowledging their presence and beginning to understand who they were.
"Scanning," Yuuna said simply.
Fahleena immediately struck a flamboyant pose. "Yes, scan my mighty fate-altering aura!"
"You're seriously doing this during a system scan?" Jessica chuckled.
After a few seconds, the glowing circles disappeared. The Dungeon Core projected a translucent magical screen in the air. Symbols danced across it like living script.
Yuuna nodded. "It needs design data. Sketches are enough."
"Sketches?" Adiw repeated.
Fahleena dropped to her knees with dramatic flair, rummaging through her magic bag with the intensity of someone about to unveil a sacred artifact. Her twin tails bounced with every motion as she dug deeper, muttering to herself in exaggerated incantations. With a triumphant gasp, she yanked out a thick, neatly bound bundle of pristine drawing paper, so thick it looked like a small book. She raised it high above her head, the pages fluttering slightly from the motion.
"Behold!" she declared, voice echoing theatrically through the chamber. "One percent of my archives! The sacred scrolls of fate await our design!"
"Why do you carry that much paper?" Yetsan asked, impressed.
"For destiny!"
---
Soon, the group settled onto the glowing floor, forming a loose circle around the Dungeon Core. The soft ambient light made the space feel otherworldly, like artists convening in a divine studio. Each elf unrolled their paper, brushes and pencils in hand, their usual banter replaced with rare, focused silence. The air thrummed with creative energy.
Fahleena moved first. With a dramatic flick of her cloak, she unsheathed a brush from her bag and dipped it into ink with the care of a calligrapher. Then she began. Her brush danced across the paper like a leaf caught in a summer breeze, elegant, wild, and fluid. Swirls became staircases, curves morphed into endless corridors, and sharp lines gave birth to towering doorways. Her sketch emerged into a surreal black-and-white masterpiece: a labyrinthine floor of impossibly tangled architecture. Twisting paths defied gravity, doors stood suspended in midair, and spirals led nowhere and everywhere at once.
"This… is the Floor of Fate," she said, eyes gleaming. "And this door here... the Door to Tomorrow!"
Kyle raised an eyebrow. "Pretty sure you need high luck to escape from that."
"Or a brain not cooked by imagination," Sinryo added.
Sakura's drawing came next, and it was, at best, an imaginative interpretation. Her page was filled with uneven lines that overlapped in odd angles, random swirls trailing off the edges, and a large lopsided circle dominating the center like a sun drawn by a toddler. There was no clear structure, no defined layout, just a chaotic sprawl of what could generously be called "expressive." Despite its abstract nature, Sakura beamed with pride, clearly seeing something within the scribbles that the others could not.
"It's a food stall," she said proudly. "With a healing spring."
Jessica leaned over, blinking. "Are you sure this isn't just a magical baby chicken?"
Orchid clapped. "That's amazing, Sakura! I want to eat at your stall!"
"Even if your food gives you 'Mild Confusion' status?" Kyle mumbled.
Orchid's drawing was cheerful and dreamlike, a bright white castle perched high among soft, fluffy clouds, its towers topped with heart-shaped flags fluttering in an imaginary breeze. The walls sparkled as if dusted with sugar, and a smiling sun beamed down from the corner of the page, complete with blushing cheeks and little cartoon eyes. Nestled on the castle's side was a whimsical restaurant terrace, complete with tiny tables, umbrellas, and even a line of chibi stick figures waiting to be served. The whole scene radiated warmth and happiness, like something out of a fairy tale written by a pastry chef.
Jessica's sketch was calm and serene, a bamboo forest bathed in moonlight. "This is the night floor. Silent, mysterious."
Gabyola presented a sketch of a refined mansion interior: chandeliers, velvet chairs, tea tables, and a fluffy giant teddy bear sitting with a tray of teacups. "Tea party floor."
Fuhiken's drawing was minimal: a square courtyard with training dummies and a tidy kitchen off to the side. "Simple. Efficient."
Adiw's floor design was a sprawling colosseum, massive and imposing, with towering stone walls and tiered spectator stands encircling a brutal combat pit. Within the arena, mannequin golems stood frozen in mid-action, some mid-swing with colossal greatswords, others locked in defensive stances with heavy shields. Scorch marks, shattered weapons, and mock blood stains littered the grounds, hinting at relentless, unforgiving training.
It was a battlefield crafted not just to test strength, but to forge warriors. "Perfect place to sweat... or die," Adiw said with a satisfied grin.
Yetsan, ever the practical one, drew a smithy. At the center stood a suit of armor shaped like a janitor. "It cleans the floor with elbow grease."
Gigih's sketch was chaotic, layer upon layer of intricate magic circles. "Trap and spell test floor," he said.
Sinryo's drawing was every adventurer's fantasy and every thief's dream come true, a vast chamber overflowing with mountains of gold coins, glittering jewels, and ornate treasure chests stacked haphazardly like building blocks of greed. Ancient artifacts, golden goblets, and gem-encrusted weapons poked out from the piles, hinting at untold stories and forgotten empires. At the very peak of this gleaming hoard lay a massive wyvern, curled lazily atop its spoils. Its wings were draped like a regal cloak, and a slow puff of smoke curled from its nostrils, as if even in sleep it dared challengers to try their luck.
"And this dragon?" Jessica asked.
"Security system," Sinryo replied.
Kyle hesitated before placing his drawing down, the edges of the paper slightly smudged from his meticulous work. His sketch was dark and imposing, towering black spires pierced a crimson sky veined with cracks of lightning, casting jagged shadows across the landscape. Rivers of molten lava snaked through the charred earth, surrounding a colossal fortress that loomed like a cursed monument. The castle itself was a fortress of despair, all twisted stone, sharp angles, and looming statues with hollow eyes. Thorn-covered walls and spiked gates guarded its entrance, and claw-like towers reached out as if trying to grasp the heavens and drag them down. It was a place where hope went to die, a domain fit only for a final boss.
"It's… the Demonlord's Castle," he said. "Final floor."
"Of course it is," Adiw muttered.
"Final bosses are cool," Kyle added.
Yuuna was the last to present her work, unfolding her drawing with quiet precision. Unlike the others, her sketch wasn't immediately recognizable as a "floor" at all. It resembled a complex blueprint drawn by a mad architect, an intricate labyrinth of corridors within corridors, where every pathway twisted into recursive loops, false junctions, and layered chambers that defied spatial logic. The walls bent at impossible angles, staircases folded into themselves, and some hallways led directly back to their origin without warning. Hidden symbols and trap mechanisms were embedded throughout the design, requiring not just memory, but calculation to escape. It wasn't a dungeon floor, it was a riddle carved into reality, a trap for the overconfident, and a monument to Yuuna's silent brilliance.
Everyone stared blankly at it.
"…I'm lost just looking at this," Kyle said flatly.
"Function over form," Yuuna replied.
The party queued up to submit their sketches to the Dungeon Core in order: Fuhiken, Gabyola, Yetsan, Jessica, Sakura, Yuuna, Fahleena, Sinryo, Orchid, Adiw, Gigih, and finally Kyle.
Scanning proceeded smoothly at first. As each party member placed their sketch before the Dungeon Core, the magical system glowed in acknowledgment, absorbing the data with gentle pulses of light. Fahleena's design was accepted instantly, the Core shimmered once, almost reverently, as if enchanted by her theatrical vision. A perfect sync.
Then came Sakura's.
The moment her scribbled masterpiece touched the pedestal, the Core flickered uncertainly. Its glow dimmed, then brightened, then dimmed again, as though trying very hard to interpret what it was being shown. Runes along the walls blinked erratically. The floating display sputtered out lines of unreadable code. For a moment, the Core emitted a faint grinding noise, like a person clearing their throat before asking a very awkward question. The scan took far longer than anyone else's, as if the system was reprogramming itself just to make sense of Sakura's chaotic creativity.
"It's trying," Yuuna said as the core buzzed and blinked wildly.
"It's struggling," Kyle whispered.
Sakura looked worried. "I can redraw, "
"No," Yuuna said. "It's… adapting."
Finally, it confirmed the upload, though Kyle noted the system's magical screen blinked like it had just eaten a very spicy meal.
Then came Yuuna's. The moment her intricate maze was placed before the Dungeon Core, everything stopped. The magical lights dimmed to a low hum, the display screen stuttered, and then, silence. Total, absolute silence. The Core stopped pulsing. The runes along the walls went dark. Even the floating crystals flickered uneasily before going still. It was as if the entire system had locked up in confusion, trying to process a structure that broke every rule it understood. For a full hour, the Core remained frozen, suspended in a comatose state of pure computational agony. The party sat around awkwardly, occasionally glancing at Yuuna, who calmly read a book while the Core fought for its life.
"I think we broke it," Sinryo muttered.
"No, no," Yuuna replied calmly. "Just... computing."
After a long silence, the core came back to life. A new screen popped up, showing Yuuna's sketch translated into a labyrinth of madness.
"Well," Kyle said, "remind me to never enter that floor."
With all the sketches successfully uploaded, the Dungeon Core emitted a deep, resonant pulse that echoed through the chamber like a heartbeat made of magic. The floating crystals flared brighter, and lines of glowing runes rippled outward from the altar's base. A radiant magic circle bloomed beneath it, etched in intricate patterns that shimmered with layers of gold, blue, and violet. The altar vibrated slightly as crystalline structures emerged from the floor, rising and folding around the core like blooming petals. Within seconds, a transparent but solid-looking crystal casing formed, encasing both the Dungeon Core and the altar in a protective shell. It hummed softly, like something entering deep sleep. The lights gradually dimmed as the system sealed itself, signaling the beginning of its long, silent labor.
"Hibernation," Yuuna said. "The system will process the designs and construct floors over time."
"How long?" Gabyola asked.
"One to two years. Nothing we can do to speed it up."
Kyle groaned. "All this work and no dungeon yet?"
Fuhiken clapped his shoulder. "Patience."
"I sacrificed my dignity for this!" Kyle snapped. "And possibly my spleen!"
"Still alive," Adiw noted.
As the group turned to leave the chamber, the portal shimmered ahead, ready to take them back to the surface.
Later that night, under the full moon, the dungeon entrance beneath the Mana Tree stood still. A gentle breeze stirred the air, carrying soft mana particles like fireflies. They drifted toward the portal, drawn in like whispers to a dream not yet born.
The dungeon was waiting. Its heartbeat had begun.
---