Karl began his tour, his objective clear: find the dungeon's core. He'd read enough webnovels and manga to know how these things usually worked. He moved through the cold, stone hallways, lit by those eerie torches that never seemed to dim. Bones were everywhere, scattered on the floor, tucked into alcoves. Rusted armor fragments and broken swords lay mixed in with them.
These weren't just trash, Karl thought. These were reusable resources. His engineering mind, even in this undead body, immediately saw the potential. Every broken piece, every bone, could be something else.
He walked down a long hall. On either side, numerous rooms opened up, each one filled with multiple coffins. This felt more like a crypt than a dungeon, he mused. A very large, very old crypt.
The hall finally opened into a vast chamber. A narrow stone bridge, barely wide enough for one person, stretched across a deep, dark pit. The pit seemed to go on forever, swallowed by shadows. Karl picked up a loose rock and tossed it in, listening intently. Thirty seconds passed. Sixty. Three minutes. Nothing. No sound of impact.
"Yeah right," Karl thought, a wry smile that no one could see playing on his skeletal face. "Everyone saw a dangerous pit. He saw a bottomless trash bin, for trashy people who will visit this dungeon soon enough." He eyed the narrow bridge.
An idea sparked. He summoned a skeleton. The bony figure appeared with a faint purple glow. Karl ordered it to cross the narrow bridge towards a large, inviting entrance on the other side. The skeleton walked carelessly, its bone feet clattering softly on the stone.
Mid-bridge, a huge axe swung horizontally from the side, a blur of rusted metal. It hit the skeleton squarely, instantly reducing it to scattered bones that clattered into the pit, disappearing into the darkness.
"Predictable," Karl said, completely unfazed.
He summoned another skeleton. This time, he positioned himself right behind it. As they stepped onto the bridge, the axe swung again. Karl reacted fast, pulling the skeleton back just in time. He wasn't about to waste minions. They waited, timed their movement to avoid the axe's return swing, and then dashed across. They reached the other side without a scratch.
"Who designed this thing?" Karl muttered, shaking his head. "Seems so dumb to design a trap. The designer could've just instead of horizontal drop swing, a vertical one would be best, aligning to the narrow bridge, it would eliminate anyone crossing the bridge." He sighed. "Never mind."
Karl entered the next chamber. It was dusty, thick with cobwebs that hung like ancient, grey curtains. At the far end, a crystal orb sat on a stone platform, glowing faintly. He noticed more bones, rusted armors, and broken swords scattered about, but then his gaze landed on something specific: a broken staff, its gem cracked and dull. He picked it up.
The System immediately displayed:
[ Found Item: ]
[ Lich's Broken Staff (When Equipped) ]
[ +4 Command Limit: Skeletons ]
[ +80 Mana ]
"Yeah right," Karl thought. "I guess this was mine, or the previous owner's." It felt surprisingly natural in his bony grasp.
Karl's attention returned to the glowing orb. He approached it, a strange pull drawing him closer. He reached out and touched the crystal.
[ Dungeon Owner Designation Confirmed... ]
Then, a flood of information from the System:
[ 💠 Dungeon Core 101 ]
[ The Dungeon Core is your base's magical heart. ]
[ It powers everything: traps, rooms, monster spawns, even the soup warmers. ]
[ How to charge it: ]
[ Magic Stones = instant juice ]
[ Visitors = passive regen ]
[ Fighting, shopping, dying = bonus energy ]
[ Drama = overclocked mana intake ]
[ Use Core Mana to: ]
[ Build, Modify and Upgrade rooms ]
[ Spawn Monsters ]
[ Make the dungeon look less like a cave and more like a killer theme park ]
[ Warning: ]
[ If the Core runs dry, the lights go out… and does your monsters. ]
[ Critical Warning: ]
[ If the Dungeon Core breaks, everything inside the dungeon collapses, so protect it like you would with your dog or someone will chase you with a pencil. ]
"So this was the core," Karl mused. "What a witty explanation." He couldn't help but critique again. "The designer could've just placed the core outside and said 'I'm the core, destroy me.'" He acknowledged its importance, though. "He guessed this was the lifeline."
An idea sparked. "Can I place it someplace else?"
Karl ordered the skeleton to remove a block of stone from the nearest wall. The skeleton, lacking much in the way of muscle, struggled, its bony fingers scraping against the rough stone. Karl sighed, acknowledging its feebleness. Together, with a combined pull, they managed to slide the stone block aside. It revealed an open space, a perfect square niche, large enough to fit the glowing core.
Karl carefully lifted the Dungeon Core. It hummed slightly in his grasp. He placed it into the newly revealed slot. It was a perfect fit. They pushed the stone block back into place, but not quite all the way, leaving a slight, almost invisible mark. Just enough for him to find it again easily.
"If I can't protect the core," Karl thought, "might as well just hide it."
Karl continued his tour on the current floor, finding more coffin rooms, empty and still. At the end of another hall, he discovered cavern networks, dark and winding, promising more space to expand.
In the middle of the current floor, he found stone stairs leading upwards. He climbed them to the next level. This floor was an expansive area, primarily a large cavern network with only one way leading towards another set of stairs to the floor above that.
The floor above that is a maze of traps. Fortunately, they are currently turned off due to the dungeon running out of "juice"—Core Mana. It took him a bit of time to navigate through the deactivated maze, his skeletal fingers tracing the outlines of pressure plates and tripwires.
"Next time," he thought, already planning, "i'lljust build a hidden door towards the end to avoid the hassle of finding the way, and make the maze a bit more harder and expansive." He shook his head at the thought of visitors trying to get through it.
He finally reached the top floor. It was quite large, with many organized rooms and halls, still made of stone and lit by those infinite fuel torches. He followed the main path until he finally found it: the dungeon entrance, leading outside.
Karl stepped out of the dungeon. He found himself on the side of a mountain, with a dense forest stretching out below. The mountain wasn't particularly tall, but it was rugged. He looked back at the entrance. It was cleverly covered in the mountain wall, requiring a specific angle from the forest below to even see it. No wonder there had been no visitors. The dungeon was pretty much dead.
He noted the forest is conveniently close, full of trees that would make good lumber.
"At least for now, the tour's over," Karl thought, taking in the fresh, if slightly dusty, air. "Now it was time to build."