"I am male! 100 percent, definitely male! I. AM. MALE!"
Like he was trying to convince the heavens themselves, no, convince himself, he repeated it over and over until he felt slightly better. There was still the chance he was wrong about the gender thing, but he refused to even consider it. Admitting that would hurt his pride too much and even change his mentality, why will he be the one receiving the rod of apocalypse instead of... Of giving it?!
"Besides, if I'm wrong, does that make me a… genderless cave rock or female cave? No thanks."
He still had no resources to build anything useful, so he stretched out his tendrils and started eating away at the wall at the back of the cave. The process drained mana, about ten points for each chunk of space.
At least it wasn't painfully slow. In one minute he could dig out a fair bit of dirt and stone, but he would run out of mana in ten minutes and be forced to wait for recovery.
Each chunk of digging gave him stone and dirt, which he quickly stored inside his core. While doing this, he confirmed that his mana recovered at one point per minute.
"This is just pitiful slow," he complained from inside his core. "At this rate, even a snail with a shovel could out-dig me."
Meanwhile, the panther-like beast that owned this cave noticed its home being altered. It stood on guard, ready to pounce. The dungeon core didn't miss this, and although he kept a brave face, he was deeply nervous. With his mana feelers gone, he had no way of directly slapping the creature back if it attacked.
Not wanting to stay defenseless, he quickly made a pitfall trap between himself and the panther. As quick as a rookie dungeon could, anyway.
The ground surface looked unchanged, but beneath it was a hollow space with a cover. Anything stepping on it would fall straight through into the polished walls of the pit.
The dungeon wasn't stuck with basic traps, either, he could enlarge, shrink, or modify them at will. But all of that ate mana and materials.
Since the beast was quite large, he expanded the pit, spending nearly thirty mana to make it wider and deeper. There was no way this panther trespasser was escaping.
He also discovered that his willpower could press on others. It didn't hurt them, but they could feel his presence.
When he tested it, the beast gave a low growl and stepped toward him. That was when the floor gave way. The panther yelped in shock as it plunged into the hidden pit.
This was its territory, its cave. It wasn't a smart creature, but even it knew something unnatural was happening.
"Success!" Zach the dungeon core cheered, doing a mental victory spin. "Eat dirt—literally."
The trapped panther clawed and roared, but it couldn't escape. Zach shut the lid, leaving the beast in darkness, scratching at stone in vain.
Finally safe, he continued digging out the cave's back wall, creating a room. His storage filled up quickly, only fifty units. He dumped them in a corner, which made the space cramped.
To fix this, he had the clever idea of using a pitfall trap as storage. Instead of mining, traps "ate" the dirt and stone, hiding it away. He quickly built one and shoved all the bulky stone blocks into it.
Now he had nothing to do for over an hour while his mana recovered. Bored, he checked on the beast again and opened the trap.
The panther glared up at him, frightened but refusing to submit. Zach stared back with smug satisfaction.
"Now do you know who's boss?" he asked, pressing his presence on it. Hint: it's not the guy stuck in a hole.
Still unwilling, the beast roared and clawed at the walls.
Zach, now with more mana, decided to test out a spike trap. He placed it on the inner wall of the pit. In a minute, twenty sharp stone spears shot out, impaling the panther. It whimpered a few times before going limp.
[Forest Panther killed!
+20 exp]
He was happy but also annoyed. Reloading the spike trap cost mana—five points per reload. Mana was literally his lifeblood.
With nothing else to do, he opened his menu and poured his exp into leveling up.
[100 exp used to level up.
Lv. 1 -> Lv. 2
Accumulated skill experience bonus:
Mining
Internal Resource Storage
Mana Control
[New skill unlocked: Humanoid form > Host can take on a humanoid form for 20 minutes once every week.]
---
Status
Species: Dungeon Core (Dungeon Master: None)
Name: unnamed
Mana: 4/200
Exp: 20
Level: 2
Abilities:
Dungeon Creation
Mana Control
Dungeon Control
Dungeon Facility Construction
• Biomass Converter – 100 mana
• Breeder – 50 mana, 20 biomass
Basic Dungeon Construction
• Scan – 10 mana/m3
• Blueprint Creation – 0
• Blueprint Manufacturing – 0
Trap Construction
• Bait – 5 mana, 5 biomass
• Spike Trap – 20 mana, 10 stone
• Pitfall Trap – 10 mana
Internal Resource Storage
• Physical Material – Stone (24.420), Dirt (8.090)
• Liquid Material – none
Mining
• Basic Material Identification
Humanoid form
Resources:
Stone – 176.224
Dirt – 28.902
Biomass – 10.014
Monsters:
None
"Yes! I got a humanoid form! I'm back!" Zach yelled loudly even though his voice came out somehow odd, who cares?
It would have been a strange scene for anyone who unluckily was around to be a box like thing floating midair yelling in a mad scientist like voice but thankfully no one was around to witness it.