“Status is welcome, agreeable, pleasant, & hard to obtain in the world.” -- Buddha

  The concept wasn’t really foreign to me. I may have been on the older side for the gamer community, but I’d had my chances to explore video games (mostly old school PC RPGs in solo mode) and had been into D&D as a teen. The screen before me wasn’t quite like any I’d seen before, but it had enough similarities to make me suspect some divine adaptation to help me follow it. The question was, what kind of system was I looking at and how much information would it provide?

  No better way to find out than to just start exploring! Sure beats watching worms, anyways.

  [Status] [Primary Stats] [Skills] [Traits/Titles] [Active Quests] [Creation Blueprints]

  Name: Unassigned. Please choose a name for this existence.

  Race: Dungeon Core

  Subtype: Divinely placed, sapient, transmigrator

  Level: 0 Create a core room and connect to the surface to advance to level 1.

  Size: 1 cm (radius), with 50 cm (radius) sphere of control

  Color: Pale blue with gold and black elements

  Well, that’s something. I guess I’m a dungeon now? Who knew that was a thing?

  Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

  And why don’t I have a name? I know I had a name, but now I don’t. I guess that’s one way to force a clean break from my past personal life. I have little sense of my personal identity or relationships, but a lot of specific knowledge and trivia. I feel like I should be more upset about that than I am. I guess I can pick one – I've always thought Morley had one of the coolest names for an archaeologist, so let’s go with "Sylvanus" or “Vay” for short, at least for now. I can always change it later, if it feels wrong.

  Let's try applying some systematic, logical reasoning, since there's nothing else to do. The subtype raises some questions. I appreciate the nod towards my sapience, but does that mean it’s not a given? Transmigrator is an odd word, but the etymology is clear enough - “to wander, change country”; that would be the whole brought from another world thing, one assumes. “Divinely placed” - that’s maybe the most concerning, and the implications are confusing. A) Most obviously, some god put me here, specifically, wherever HERE is. I knew that somehow, but it’s still scary! B) By inference, not all dungeons are placed by the gods. Does that mean they arise naturally? Are created by people? Demonically placed? Without knowing the other options, this one’s tough to assess. C) That divine placement suggests there’s something special about this spot, and that could be good or bad. It would really help to know WHICH god put me here. One I’m familiar with? Or more likely one from this world? Are they the same or affiliated? A monotheistic creator god? Or one from a more specialized pantheon? D) Leaving that aside, WHY was I placed here? I assume this has to do with my mission, whatever that may be, but is that a safe assumption to make?

  I suppose that may become clear eventually. One can hope.

  Returning to an assessment of my status, a level of 0 says I’m starting from the beginning (and that this world has the concept of zero). At least they’re giving me the metric system for size, though again, is that for my convenience or does it fit some local equivalent? Is it still based on the distance from the pole to the equator? I think I’m pondering irrelevant concerns to stop myself from freaking out. *Deep nonexistent breath* What’s next?

  Color? I’m assuming they have some significance, but I’ll be damned if I know what. File that as another thing to worry about later, I guess.

  *Wholly inaudible and hypothetical sigh* So much I don’t know and no obvious way to find out. Guess I should move on to the other tabs.