Where… am I? Everything is so dark… I can't feel my hands. Or my legs. Everything feels so fuzzy… what happened? I was walking to school when I heard a noise, so I turned to look then… nothing. Wait, am I dead? That would be so lame. Come on god, gimme a second chance! I wasn't a bad kid or anything!

  Then sensation begins to return. First comes my sense of touch and hearing. Am I not dead? I hear the soft drip drip drip of water on rock. My arms and legs feel fine, and so does my tail. Wait, tail? I don't have a tail. Then the rest of my senses return. I find myself inside a large cavern. Stalactites jut out of the roof. They are stalactites, right? Or is it stalagmites? I can't remember, and I don't care all that much. There is a huge wooden door with metal hinges blocking the entrance to somewhere else. The cave is largely empty except for 2 things. 1:A small river flowing through the side of the lake. The water looks clear, far clearer then water has any right to be. However, it's the second thing that catches my eye. On the opposite end of the cave is an orb. Its about the size of a human torso and shimmers a soft golden color. Slowly I approach the orb and realize something. I'm walking on 4 legs. Looking down, I see 4 legs covered in dark grey scales. My claws are a sharp, gleaming black, like shards of obsidian. I raise a claw up to feel my face, I realize very quicktly what I am. Am I a freaking lizard? It would be nice to know what the heck is going on.

  {Name:???

  Level:1(Dungeon boss)

  Species:Grey dragon(F)

  Skills: Bite(F), tail swipe(F), identify(F), dungeon core control(EX)

  Dungeon points:1}

  Oh. That helps. It helps a lot, actually. First of all, I'm apparently a “Grey dragon”. Thats just plain awesome. But why doesn't it know my name? My name is… is… What is my name? Why can't I remember it? Might as well give myself a placeholder till I remember…

  …

  …

  I have just come to realize that I am not good at naming things. Much less people. Maybe something simple… How about Zero? That sounds cool enough for me. The dungeon points thing is confusing. I'm going about this way too fast.

  Strangely enough I remember my past life very clearly. I remember my school, my family, my friends, my favorite foods, everything. But when I try to remember the names and faces of people I feel fuzzy…

  It's not worth thinking about right now, is it? I sigh, a low growling noise I didn't expect to be able to make. It sounds strangely right to me. That aside, I walk up to the big ol’ orb. It emits a soft humming noise, like a piece of active machinery. It's vety obviously important. Another thing is it is at least partially attached to the wall. The orb sits on a grey brick pedistal with golden lines invading downwards from it. The wall its u against also has golden lines going up along is, out of the dungeon. Interesting. So, how to figure out what this is…

  {Dungeon core(F)}

  Oh. That worked. That's gotta be my identify skill at play. So, that's good information to have. Skills can activate intentionally or unintentionally. So, this dungeon core control skill should do something. Hesitantly I place my talon over the core. I seem to be the size of an adult male, likely not that big for my species. I'm only level one after all.

  {Dungeon panel: Cavern systems(F)

  Layout

  Spawns

  Loot

  Rank up

  traps

  view dungeon}

  Good stuff, but also confusing stuff. Looking over the options, each is fairly self-explanitory. The layout otion lets me affect the setup of the dungeon. It lets me change where tunnels go, how each is built, and where tunnels lead. The only rule seems to be that it has to end up at my room. Seem's I'm the big bad that adventurers come to slay. Sounds unfun.

  Next is spawns.

  {Spawns:

  Turantula(F)

  Poisonous scale lizard(F)

  Slime(F)

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  Purchase spawn

  New spawn

  Upgrade spawn}

  What catches my eye is the slime spawner. So this is an honest-to-god fantasy world. I mean, I’m a dragon now, even if I don't feel any wings on my back just yet, though it doesn't feel too real yet. I can also get more spawns of the monsters I already have, purchase a new type of spawn, or upgrade what I already have. Lets try upgrading the lizards to see what happens.

  {Upgrade “Poisonous scale lizard” to E grade for 1 dungeon point? Y/N}

  Lock it in, system!

  {1 point consumed. Choose evolution for “Poisonous scale lizard”}

  3 options pop up. This reveals 3 things to me before even reading it. First of all, dungeon points are what I use to purchase things. Second of all, my spawns can evolve. Third of all, the little F is the grade. E is a grade above, which implies a C, a B, and an A grade. Well, my dungeon core skill is EX grade. I have no idea whether thats good or bad. I hope good. Anyway, onto the options.

  {Venom thorn lizard: The poisonous scaled lizard, already toxic in its own right, obtains pointy protrusions along its back and up to their foreheads which can inject poison into foes, along with teeth that can inject the same.}

  This seems interresting. But it sounds so violent. I guess it makes sense, this is a dungeon, and a dungeon wants to protect the core, so it will evolve defence mechanisms in the form of the monsters guarding its core.

  {Stone spike gecko: The poisonous lizard does not need to hunt its prey. Their prey can come to them. The poisonous scaled lizard develops a scaly texture similar to that of stone, developing small spikes on its back to inject lethal poisons into whoever steps onto it.}

  So first we have glorified poison hedgehogs, now we have poisonous spike trap geckos. Honestly, this one is kinda cool, I have no problem picking it. But I need to think sensibly. This likely wont be the first time I upgrade it, so I need to decide what I want the lizards to do for my dungeon.

  {Noxious pore lizard: The poisonous scaled lizard has begun to tread the path of becoming a war crime in their own right, developing the ability to spray paralyzing gasses out of the pores between their scales and out of their mouth. Gasses are highly flammable. Gasses are innefective against allies with affinity for poisons or toxins.}

  And now I have a walking violation of the geneva convention. I need to consider this. None of my other monsters are alligned with poisons… wait, are they? Turantulas have poisonous bites, right? And don’t slimes corrode prey within their bodies? Am I a poisonous dungeon or something? I don’t have any poisonous powers I don't think. But this might work out. Might as well punch in the Noxious pore lizard!

  {Noxious pore lizard chosen. Evolution has begun.}

  I select the option to view the dungeon and feel my senses carried away. I should have done this from the start. The dungeon is a long series of tunnels and caverns, going down a mile from the surface. The second of 4 caverns has the Turantulas inside. They are definitely not normal sized turantulas. They would give anyone arachnaphobic a heart attack, a stroke, and a seizure at once just for existing within the same planet as these things. Their cavern is full of webs to ensnare prey, and the cave is even designated as a Spider den upon inspection.

  The first cavern has the slimes. Why am I reading them out of order? Because screw you thats why. They are a dull purple color, slinking through the round, flat cavern they call home. They make one huge puddle, threatening to drown anyone who enters in slime. This is considered a Slime house. Heh.

  The final room is the lizards quarters, which is calles the toxic den. The caven looks empty upon a glance, but further inspection reveals the walls are full of holes and crevizes the lizards slink into in order to hide. All of them are asleep. Originally they were short, stubby grey lizards. Now… they are slightly less short, stubby PURPLE lizards. Big improvement, ey? Well, that’s cutting it a bit short, I guess. The normal lizards had round jaws with short teeth. The new ones have more square, bulky jaws and wicked teeth, along with even wicked…er(?) fangs. Focusing, I can see tiny cracks between their scales that clearly are capable of emmiting gasses from it.

  There are 2 notable things to do with this. Firstly only around half of the lizards evolved to E grade. The rest are still F. Second, there is a flashing exclamation mark beside the “Noxious Pore Lizard” name in the menu

  {Noxious pore lizard(!)}

  I click on the exclamation mar, curious.

  {Create miniboss? This monster will be a rank above the chosen species, and will take control of future evolutions for its charges(Creatures 2 evolutions below and less). Minibosses are completely loyal to the final boss and will not betray you. Cost:20 DP}

  A miniboss, ey? At the very start? I have no dungeon points though, and have no idea how they are obtained to guide my choices.

  Thats when I feel something enter the dungeon. Another discovery is that I can detect when someone enters. Shifting my view as far from the cave as I can, I see 3 individuals. One is a tall, thin man holding a notebook and looking around. The man has a cloak obscuring the features, but my dungeon sight lets me ignore it and see the pointy ears, blue eyes and long gold hair behind. This is the most steriotypical elf in… ever. The other two also look like they were dumped out of a comic book. One looks to be a human swordswoman with a basic sword and padded leather armor. She has short purple hair only going down to her ears in a tomboyish way. The third is either a dwarf or the shortest human alive. Big axe and shield, brown beard, gruff old guy vibes, he has it all.

  This gets me curious. Why are they here? They can clearly tell this is a dungeon. Do I send an encounter their way?

  Hesitantly, I order a single slime up through the tunnels to the group. The moment the party see the monster they seem to get into position, the dwarf up front, the swordswoman in the middle and the elf at the back. Before I can do anything, the dwarf slams his axe down on the little goo boy and it explodes. Slime mostly covers the dwarf, corroding his clothing a bit, but a little of the slime gets onto the other two.

  “Shit” The swordswoman says, swiping the slime off of her armor before any can corrode.

  “‘Apologies, miss.” The dwarf nods to her. She glares at him.

  “Be more careful. Slimes are corrosive to cloth and flesh alike, no matter how weak they are.”

  “Stay focused.” The elf cuts in. “We are here to investigate this new dungeon and determine its rank. If it is merely F rank as we assume, we should be able to kill the final boss and destroy the core before it can grow out of control.”

  I freeze up. These people have come to kill me specifically? Why?

  {+1 Dungeon Point}

  What? Where did that come from? Was it when they killed the slime? Or was it the slime's damage to them? Also, why can I understand them? I need more DP if I'm going to survive. And these three seem to be able to get me lots of it. So… I wonder if I can change things a little while these guys are still in here.