Being born is commonly known as a happy experience, full of happy people and love for the people related to the newborn. This experience is one of the most transcendent events for every sentient species on Aethal. Whether one is an Elf, Dwarf, Gnome, Human, Orc, and even the AetherTouched, none felt nothing at a new member of their community.

  In a world filled with monsters, evil gods, ancient curses, sentient disasters, and psychotic mortals, that little bit of light that new life brought meant new possibilities.

  The profound birth that happened on this night was an event many looked upon with dread in their hearts.

  Falling out of the upper atmosphere, a giant crystalline spike around sixteen feet long from tip to tip glowed with an inner prismatic radiance. Flames tore at the crystal as it fell, tinting the light it emitted a sinister red with the power it was exuding. Every second that passed as it fell took off more of the crystal, but not dimming its radiance.

  When the Crystal finally impacted the ground, it shattered into hundreds of tiny pieces, each carrying magic that faded seconds after they stopped moving. One by one, the shards lost their magic, with most of the power vanishing into the ether. Some small bits of it, however, reconnected with the main source of the crystals’ power and flowed like leaves on the wind. The magic floating down into a crevice that the Meteoric strike by the crystal unveiled.

  At the bottom of the crevice, the largest piece still glowed with the radiance that the whole crystal had mere minutes ago. The strands of light undulated in the air as it flew towards the uncut gem that was around three inches thick at its largest point. With each new strand of rainbow light that entered the crystal, the light reduced in intensity, and the clarity of the crystal increased.

  As the last piece of light entered and the crystal became almost transparent, the irregular and hewn facets of the crystal became suffused with a clear and calm light. The glow didn’t release enough light to illuminate the entire space around it, but was like a peaceful light.

  The Crystal that now sat at the bottom of a tunnel in a deep underground space metaphorically blinked to clear itself of a sense of dread from moments earlier. It had survived, and that was all that mattered to the YoungCore as it focused in an attempt to clear away its thoughts.

  It had gained consciousness during its fall from the sky, and its first thoughts were absolute terror.

  As soon as it calmed itself, the Young Core was met with a flat blue plane that covered a small portion of its center vision. On this floating pane of a calm and nice plane were white scribbles that took up only a single line in the center of the screen. It did not know what the scribbles meant if they meant anything at all, but it did not have to wait long.

  There was a strange feeling in the back of its thoughts, like a loud bit of piercing white noise that made it hard to think for several long moments. Then it cleared and the core found that now the scribbles had formed into something called words, a medium of written and spoken that allowed for communication.

  In this case, it allowed the Young Core to understand what the blue plane in front of it was telling it.

  After he could understand the blue screen in front of it, the screen winked away, and another appeared in its vision.

  Just under that screen, another appeared underneath, slightly overlapping the last one at the bottom.

  Not having a reason to say no, the Young Core thought ‘yes’ at the floating screen, and both vanished.

  A moment later, another screen appeared in front of the little Crystal’s shape, and the text on it looked long.

  Not having a mouth to speak from, the Young Core thought really hard at the prompt, saying Status repeatedly until something happened. After several tries, the last prompt blinked closed, and another took its place, this one formatted differently.

  Statistics

  Skills:

  Another one of these screens appeared just as he was wondering what any of this was supposed to mean.

  The Young Core read over these two prompts over and over again but still found himself a little confused. These prompts have been answering a few questions so far but still left him with more questions. What was Mana? How did he level? And how does a Core start to create a Domain because that sounded fun?!

  That was when the next floating screen appeared.

  For the first time in its very short life, the Spirit Core felt excited. In the deepest parts of its crystalline form it wanted to create a Domain, it wanted to expand itself out and learn about its surroundings.

  The Core took a long moment to think about that tutorial suggestion. Thinking about it, the Unnamed Core realized that it already had an idea of what it was supposed to do. It wasn't quite as plainly described as these windows, but it still had an idea of what to do. So why shouldn't it at least try by itself first? Especially of it could just ask for the tutorial, or whatever this was called, to come back.

  To that end, the Young Core told the screen no and watched it wink out.

  The Young Core waited a moment to see if another of these screens would appear but none did. So it turned to the task at hand and focused on the idea of creating its Domain, the knowledge of how to do so coming to it. Taking it’s mana, the slowly forced the magic out of its gem and into the air around it. The air took in the power easily, just as it should, giving the Young Gem the name of what was around it.

  Oxygen, Carbon Dioxide, Nitrogen, and water vapor. There was a pretty good amount of it in the small bubble around it, even a small puddle of it laid under the Spirit Cores gem. It took some time to sort through the elements in the six inch dome of air that surrounded it. Little specks of dust, which appeared to little specks of barely noticeable earth, floated down through it’s little area. Underneath the Core sat a little puddle of water that was tickling the edges of its area.

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  Looking at its little dome of held mana, the Young Core took a moment to think about this. It’s Domain wasn’t complete yet, it could tell that by the feeling of strain on its slowly draining magic levels.

  Instinct told the Young Core that it needed to do something to finish off the growth of its Domain. Something that would seal the magic shut and make the area its own. The power it was spending on the area should not be continuous, it should be spent, locked tight, and then the area would be its to influence.

  The Core thought about this conundrum for several minutes before somehow feeling its mana tick down a point. It couldn’t just think about this until it ran out of the power needed to maintain the area. So, the Core did the first thing it thought of, It simple thought really hard at the universe or whatever was sending it these Screens and said, ‘mine!’

  It waited a moment to see what would happen but only the small but steady drain on its mana proved this method wrong. Next, it tried putting another point of mana inside the small area it was trying to claim and waited. Yet again, the Core was wrong and it wanted to do nothing more than scream.

  It did nothing of the sort, however. Doing so without anyone to hear its complaints felt rather pointless. If telling the area that it was now its and just putting in more magic didn’t work, it would have to try poking it next. So the Core took a point of mana and poked at the edge of its soon to be Domain.

  Now something seemed to happen, the point of mana that had touched the border of the space seemed to flow into the edge. Feeling at the area, it was almost as if it became more defined. An intangible border between what was his area and everything else.

  The Core poked at a few of the other places that were less tangible areas of the dome that made up its Domain. With one point of Mana remaining, the Core finished setting up its little Domain with an audible little electric pop.

  An instant later, the Young Core’s mind was filled with information. It could feel the air move through its Domain, it could see some distance around its Domain, and it knew that the ambient temperature around it was on the colder side. What was more was that it sensed that now its other skills could be used in the area of its Domain.

  More of the screens appeared in its vision, two to be precise.

  This was exciting; the Young Core’s crystalline body practically vibrated in its puddle as it felt the rush of expanding itself. Compared to the non-feeling that it had mere moments ago, this felt sort of… prickly but good.

  After a moment of initial joy, the Core wanted to continue with its use of its abilities. Pulling up its Status Screen, the Young Core looked over its page.

  Statistics

  Skills:

  It had indeed gained a single point of Karma that had been added to its Status. The level that one of the previous screens had also mentioned was also reflected here. Next to it was a percentage number set at a perfect and absolute zero. It took the Core a moment to realize that this percent number was how close it was to its next skill level up.

  This idea was confirmed when it saw that its personal progress to level 2 had advanced by 33.3333 percent.

  The Young Core poked at the water with two points of mana, much in the same manner that it put mana into its Domain’s border. The poke produced mixed results with a single point sinking into the water. Watching the result for a moment, the Core found that the point of mana was remaining in the water but it was just sort of… laying there.

  And so, the Young Core decided to use this prompt as encouragement. It poked at the puddle underneath it with a point of mana, letting it sit there and blend. Then it did so again, watching the reaction with interest as the mana got denser inside the puddle. After the fourth poke, the mana inside seemed blend with the water and merge with it.

  It started at the beautiful, yet disorienting sight of the mana filled water just sitting there. It took the Core some time to discover why the sight felt wrong to its sight. The Core was viewing the water and the mana inside it separately but at the same time. It felt easy to do but staring made its crystalline form ache.

  Luckily, another prompt appeared.

  The Newborn Core read and reread the prompt several times to make sure it understood. This effort wasted several minutes of time where the Core simply stated at the short message, completely flabbergasted. It felt like a bit of context information had been left out, or a prompt message had been misplaced or something.

  How was it supposed to access the mana? What does willing something mean? And how does any of this help it? Learning all this was interesting and had moments of excitement, but this was just starting to feel irritating.

  Grumbling inside its crystal, the Newborn Core focused on the puddle underneath it and tried ordering it around. Unsurprisingly, the water did not respond in any way to it being told to be absorbed. Next the Core asked nicely, the result being the exact same as a minute earlier.

  The Core kept going, trying different words, phrases, and vocal tones to try and get the water do what it wanted. But either the water was not impressed or simply talking to it wasn't how this was supposed to work. Annoying, but not unexpected. The Core just hopes that an easy solution would have been applicable this time.

  The Core was simply staring at the puddle full of its mana for some time before something occurred. The mana inside the puddle was it's own, that could mean that the puddle was it's now as well. The Core focused on that thought as it stared at the puddle, its attention on both at the same time. Then the Core concentrated on the idea the tutorial prompt had said, accessing the mana and ordering it to break down the water.

  With a CLICK that was audible to the Core, the mana inside the water reacted to his command. The mana inside the water condensed, compressing the water with it over the course of several long minutes.

  The Core watched how the mana interacted with the water and how it started to convert it. With the puddle shrinking, a strand of blue light streamed into his Domain, vanishing into its area. It was oddly fascinating to observe how its will and mana had caused this reaction to occur.

  It watched until the puddle underneath it was gone and the last bits of mana had flowed into its Domain. With it, a new sense came with it, almost feeling like something was poking the back of its mind. But what it was became clear a moment later with the next prompt.

  Curious about the subtle change it had felt within itself, the still nameless Core opened up its Status to see the change.

  Statistics

  Skills:

  This was good, not much different, but good. This increase in its EXP meant that it was close to reaching Level 2, whatever that meant for it. Though it didn't really matter, the Spirit Core was just excited by the prospect of growing.

  The Core finished reading the prompt, humming to itself as it thought about it momentarily. That moment lasted only a few seconds as joy filled its crystal. Finally, a tutorial that it was sure that it understood. It would not have to stare at the blue screen for an unknowable amount of time trying to understand; now it could just do something.

  So the Core practically vibrated with joy as it got to work.

  Luckily, it could still feel that point in the back of its crystal that poked at its… mind. Yeah, mind. That sensation had been there since it had gotten that water imprint, so it only made sense that had been there.

  Following the sensation in its mind, the Core found information of the Imprint coming into its mind.

  Okay, so now the Core had the Imprint fully in mind. Next, it had to channel a point of mana into it in order to use it. So the Core kept the imprint held firmly in place as it took a point of mana and shaped the mana.

  The Core was elated when something finally came naturally to it. The animate Crystal barely had to work to keep the process in place as it put the mana to work and created water within its Domain.

  But the Core was immediately surprised when four fluid ounces of water dropped on top of the Core's body.

  The Young Core wasn’t sure what it wanted to do. It knew that it wasn’t interested in choosing a core type yet, why would it? It was just happy with the powers it had and it just wanted to spend some time spreading its Domain and playing with its power. It wanted to do more than splash around a little water and have a Domain bigger than a foot in diameter.

  So, for the moment, the Nameless Core dismissed the Prompt. Happy thoughts of using and growing its powers for a while making it vibrate with joy. The next two Prompt surprised the Core.

  Unsure, the Core had no idea what this meant. It had no frame of reference, and without it, the Core was confused about how to proceed with this decision. To that end, though, it was a rock that did not dither on making choices. Well, this was only its third choice in its life, but still, it didn't want to start.

  So, the Core willed the Prompt to spend 10 of its points and allowed it to close. Another prompt appeared.

  With an inaudible sigh, the Core dismissed the Prompt and almost immediately got to work. It had regained a point of mana while it was dealing with this Karma point stuff and put it into expanding its Domain.

  The invisible sphere expanded by a little, and the Core noticed that the earth beneath it was inside its Domain. Excitedly, the Core started looking beneath it as it considered the possibilities.

  For the next many hours, the Core steadily expanded its Domain as it explored its powers and all of the area it expanded into.

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  Approximately sixty miles away from the site of the Spirit Core's landing, the hamlet of Patrov sat in a prayer-filled silence.

  It was nearing dawn, and many of the nearly two hundred Humanoids of the settlement were wide awake and praying. It was many hours earlier that a star that shined with pale light fell from the sky, and many viewed it as an omen.

  Most ignored the event as a simple star falling from the sky. The sort that children could wish upon and adults view with wonder while it passed. Many viewed it as an omen of ill fortune, a pure white light falling from the heavens to signal bad tidings. A few believed it to be a sign of good things to come, the light showing the way to great wealth or power.

  But a few saw the event for what it was and practically saw the money. They would have to confirm that it was a new Dungeon Core instead of something else falling from the sky, but that was a few days of travel there and back for a large finder's fee. But that was something they planned to do a few hours after daylight started; preparation was needed for the trip.

  Looking upon the Hamlet from the distant tree line, a group of sixteen humanoid creatures with crude weapons drawn. These creatures had also seen the light falling from the sky as an omen, but an omen told them it was time to act upon the Humans. However, it was only an hour ago that they had gotten the order from the Raid Leader to attack this settlement instead of some other, easier target. Karmic revelation had struck the Raid Leader, and she intended to take the chance.

  Their orders had been simple. Leave none alive and find any that escape, then they'd make the settlement theirs.

  There would be a fight, but this group was ready, and the next was on their way.