The Man woke up in a brightly lit room that seemed to be made entirely of gold. There were chandeliers on the ceiling with all manner of gemstones. The walls were ornate, coated with various pictures depicting epic battles between all manner of fantastical creatures. In between the various scenes were marble pillars, carved with all manner of fantastical creatures. It was the picture of opulence. The man almost didn''t notice that standing in front of him was another man, in an ornate outfit. He also almost didn''t notice that instead of a regular body, he appeared to be some kind of spherical object. What?
The man was confused. For one, why was he a sphere? The next question he had was, where was he and who was this strange man? The man in front of him chose that moment to speak up.
"Ahh! I see the summoning was a success! Welcome to my humble home! As you can see, you aren''t exactly human anymore! But fear not, that isn''t a bad thing! You are now a dungeon core! Capable of doing so much more than your pathetic human body ever could!"
The man, now a dungeon core, thought that whoever this man was, he was kind of full of himself.
"Ahem. I can hear your thoughts you know. And overall, I find your demeanor very rude. After all, I am giving you another chance at life! A better one!"
Really? A better chance at life? How am I supposed to know that? Now that I think about it, I can''t remember anything about my previous life to begin with! I can''t even remember my name! How am I supposed to trust that?
"Well, some memories of yours did have to be... removed to facilitate the transition. And I understand how you could be... hesitant to trust me. However, this can all be resolved! After you... integrate successfully as a dungeon core, your memories can be returned to you. It would... complicate the process in a negative way that would be dangerous to you. As for a name, allow me to grant you one to be used... temporarily."
So, my memories can be returned after some time? What kind of negative consequences are we talking about here? I would highly appreciate an explanation here.
"Is everyone from your world so difficult to work with?" The man sighed and then shrugged his shoulders.
"Very well. So as for the negative... consequences... as you put it, if you retained your memories, it would cause you to shatter into a million pieces as your memories of your past life would destabilize your psyche. The instability would cause your mana to go haywire and mana overload would cause you to explode. As it were, I''m assuming you wouldn''t want that to happen?"
That.... is a fair point. I don''t know much about my current situation but exploding sounds bad.
"Exactly! I''m glad you see what I''m saying here! Now, about letting me give you a temporary name. With your permission, I''d like too just get moving along here."
Hold up a minute. I''d like to know a bit more about what is going on. You said I''m a dungeon core now? What does that mean? What am I supposed to do as a dungeon core?
"Okay. Still a bit difficult to deal with. This is fine. So! An explanation of what a dungeon core is! And I suppose I can introduce myself as well, humble and generous as I am! To start with, I''m a system that oversees various different worlds! In these worlds, mana and magic exist as a matter of fact! I, being the benevolent system that I am, utilized this mana to implement a system that allows people to grow stronger through the form of levels! By fighting various monsters, doing tasks, etc, people gain experience points used to level up. Gain enough experience points, and you level up, granting various benefits! Now, there is a small issue that in order to do this, there is a bit of a conversion system to turn mana into the raw power that can be utilized as what is referred to as experience points! That''s where dungeon cores come in! You take in mana, convert it into monsters, materials, etc, that can then be used by people to gain these experience points to level up and live better lives! Simple really. Now, hopefully that explains everything. Any questions?"Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Okay... I think I''m following everything, and it seems to make sense... So... How am I supposed to do all that stuff you said I should be able to do?
"Well, that''s really simple. It starts off with me integrating you into the system. Which I would love to do by the way. I love working with new people. As a side note here, what would you like me to call you? It''s fine if you want to figure something out. I just hate having nothing to refer to you by."
Why are you so insistent on me letting you call me a name?
"Well... that''s really simple. I can''t integrate you into the system without a name."
Okay? I''m confused here. Why didn''t you just tell me that to start out with? Why all the roundabout ways of trying to get me to allow you to name me? It just feels really off to me.
"I wouldn''t really worry about.... WAIT! NO!"
At that moment, the man felt a shimmering field appear around him, and next thing he knew, he was somewhere else.
The new room around him felt oddly, sci-fi. He was in what appeared to be a strong, plexiglass container. The walls were all metallic, there was strange equipment everywhere, and several people in lab coats running around frantically. At that moment, a woman in a lab coat looked up from a control panel.
"We got them! Success! Transfer them to the decontamination chamber! Quickly!"
Wait. Where am I? What is going on!
Four people in what looked like bomb suits swarmed the container. Lifting it up and transferring it into a strange apparatus that had four glowing crystals surrounding it.
The woman that spoke up earlier spoke into a microphone.
"I know this is all very confusing, but I promise we will explain everything. We just can''t explain it now. Time is of the essence here."
As the woman spoke those words, the crystals started to hum to life, circling the dungeon core.
"Initializing cleansing in 3... 2... 1... Now!"
Right as the woman spoke the word now, arcs of lightning arced from the crystals into the dungeon core, and the man felt a connection to... something sever. The crystals hummed down.
"Alright. We should be good to go now."
The man felt even more confused now than he did when he appeared in front of the man claiming to be the system.
"Just hold tight for a bit. I''m sorry, but we can''t explain anything right now. We need to do some more stuff, and it will take a bit. But I promise, once everything is all over, we will explain everything. Just hold tight and trust me."
A bit turned out to be a whole day. The crystals started up again, and every now and again, they would shoot lightning at him again, and each time, the man felt a connection sever. How many connections did he have? And why didn''t he notice them until the lightning hit him? After a day, no more lightning came out of the crystals. He figured all the connections must have been severed. The four people, the woman, and the various other people who he could only figure were scientists, had stayed around him the whole time. After the last lightning had struck him, it took another whole day of what he could only figure was them running various tests before the woman finally spoke up to him again.
"Alright. All the connections are confirmed to be severed. The core is safe now. Get him out of there."
Finally! I was starting to get a bit concerned there! Now could someone explain to me what is going on?"
"Yes. I will explain everything. First things first, let''s get you out of there and into somewhere more suitable for this explanation. Just hang with me for bit"
With that, the four people withdrew the container the dungeon core was in, and opened the container, placing him inside of a cushioned, metallic box. They then closed the lid. After 10 minutes, they opened it, took him out and placed him on a pedestal on a table in what appeared to be a meeting room with the same kind of metallic walls. The woman sat in front of him with clasped hands.
"Well. I said I would give you an explanation. Let''s get started."