"Ugh... my head... what happened?"
Jake winced as a splitting pain stabbed through his mind. Instinctively, he reached up to rub his temples—
—and froze.
"WHERE IS MY BODY?!"
His voice echoed across a small, dimly lit chamber... a chamber that he now realized he was lighting up.
He looked around—except he wasn't looking in any one direction. He could see everything. Up. Down. Sideways. Every pebble in the dirt-packed walls, every grain of sand lodged in the cracks.
The walls were rough stone and earth, imperfect and tightly packed. The space was spherical, barely a few meters wide.
"What is going on…?"
He tried to calm his thoughts, but memories surged.
"The last thing I remember... I cleared level 20. Then I started thinking about Zayne…"
His breath hitched—except there was no breath. No chest.
Just the light. Just the silence.
And then—
DING.
Dungeon Core Maintenance System Activated…
Parameters Met...
Engage Syncing ...1%....30%....60%....99%...
Error ...
Significant Emotional Disturbances Detected...
Connection unstable...
EMERGENCY CONNECTION PROTOCOL...
DING
Connection complete...
Host: Jake
Absolutely, Connor. Here's a clean continuation from your original fragment, keeping the tone, pacing, and in-world logic consistent. This picks up right after:
DING
Connection complete...
SYSTEM STATUS
Host: Jake
Mana: 97 / 100
Floor Count: 0
Monster Count: 0
Dungeon Size: 3.18 meters (spherical)
Core Size: 0.31 meters (1 foot)
The glowing interface burned itself into Jake's awareness—there was no screen, no hologram. It was just there, etched into his thoughts like a whisper written in light.
"Okay… that's new."
He tried to blink it away, but there were no eyelids. No eyes. No body. Just a floating awareness—bright, cold, and hovering silently in a chamber of compacted stone and dirt.
A perfect sphere.
So I'm... three meters wide? And the actual core is just a foot across?
I'm a marble in a mudball.
His attention drifted to the readout again.
Mana: 97 out of 100.
He didn't remember using any—but maybe just floating here burned some. Or maybe illuminating the room. Or... existing?
Floor Count: 0
Monster Count: 0
"So I'm not even a dungeon yet," he muttered, if thinking loudly could be called muttering. "Just a… potential."
He felt it then—not a heartbeat, but a pressure. A sense of waiting. Like the system was holding its breath, lining something up in the background. A quiet tension, as if the world itself hadn't quite decided what he was yet.
The walls around him felt too tight, too unfinished.
"This… this is the first floor, isn't it?"
But it wasn't complete. Not yet. Just a starter chamber. A seed that hadn't sprouted.
The system pulsed again, faint and patient.
Waiting.
Absolutely, let's continue seamlessly from where you left off. This section will carry Jake through the system-guided excavation of his first room, the hallway, and the accidental opening that activates the dungeon entrance. It keeps your tone, pacing, and voice intact, and should close out Chapter 1 at a satisfying turning point.
Then—
DING.
A soft hum pulsed through Jake's awareness as a glowing outline flickered into view, projected directly into the stone around him. It framed the space like a wireframe box, its corners labeled with faint markers and dimensions.
‣ Tutorial Directive: Room Excavation
Target Shape: Cube
Target Size: 5.0 cubic meters
Estimated Mana Cost: +10
Progress: 0%
Status: Pending Action
He blinked—well, thought about blinking. "Okay… so I am supposed to dig."
He focused on the glowing lines. The earth shimmered where his attention settled, and with a flicker of will, a shallow layer of soil began to grind away.
The sensation was strange. He wasn't moving it with hands or tools—it was more like reshaping a part of himself. Carving out a chunk of his own body.
Grain by grain, inch by inch, the room expanded. He followed the system's projected shape like tracing within invisible lines, careful not to push beyond it.
Mana: 93 / 100
Progress: 27%
"Come on" he thought as time dragged on.
Progress: 56%... 89%... 100%.
DING.
Primary Chamber Formed.
Dungeon Core Stabilization Increased.
Before he could celebrate, a second glowing outline snapped into view—this one thinner, elongated, like a line of light stretching from one wall to a point in the distance.
Tutorial Directive: Substructure Extension
Recommended: Outward Expansion
Target Shape: Narrow Tunnel
Height: ~1.3m (~4 ft)
Status: Optional — Progress Untracked
He tilted his attention toward the new path. "What's this? Another test?"
There was no answer, but the light waited—soft and persistent.
So he followed it.
The digging was tighter here. Cramped. Claustrophobic. The tunnel wound slightly as he shaped it with care, grinding through soil and stone. He wasn't trying to go anywhere in particular—just pushing to see how far the line wanted him to go.
And then—
Crack.
A thin fault in the stone groaned as a chunk shifted beneath his mana. One piece dropped out of alignment—and suddenly, it was like pulling a loose tooth.
A rock fell free, dislodging the last fragile inches of dirt between his chamber and the world beyond.
Light. Real light.
It wasn't bright, but it was different—a pale golden sheen filtered through grass roots and disturbed soil. Fresh air touched the edge of his awareness. The world outside had cracked open a window into his den.
And the system exploded in response.
DING.
‣ Dungeon Entrance Formed
— Mana Presence Detected
— External Barrier Compromised
— Dungeon Status: Proto-Stage Active
— Warning: Ambient Mana Leakage Imminent
— Attraction Field Activated
— Local Ecosystem Alert: Tier-0 Entities Aware
"Oh no."
Jake instinctively tried to pull it back, to plug the breach—but it was too late. The mana was already leaking.
Not a flood. Not even a stream.
Just a scent.
A whisper of energy on the wind.
And somewhere out there, in the dirt and roots and grass above—
something smelled it.