It''s foggy. Not outside, just in my head. I feel a dense fog filling my skull, my mind slow and crude compared to how it normally is. How is it normally? Fast? I don''t remember. All I can do right now is think. I''m sure that if I try to sleep I won''t wake up. But it''s so cold.


    The frigid cold seeps into my bones, and I feel like I''ll split apart at the joints from how cold it is. Joints? Wait. I don''t have those right now. I can''t move. There''s something nibbling on my ear. Stop. I hate it. Get off. Get off!


    GET OFF


    Oh. It''s gone. I can''t feel it moving. It''s dead. What? What is it? Something I hate. But I feel safer now. I think I can sleep. Good night. What''s night? Night is the time for sleep. Good night.


    _______________________________________


    [A Quiet Island, Day One, Sunrise]


    I groggily try to blink away the blinding rays of the sun as it rises, only to find that I can''t blink. Actually, now that I look closer, I can see in just about every direction at once. I think. Half of me is buried in some kind of black sand. The gentle roaring of the ocean waves lapping at the shores of whatever island I''m on brings me out of the deep confusion I was feeling, reminding me that I need to be doing something.


    Okay, so I''ve got black sand under me, the ocean is… that way. I guess. I don''t have a left and right anymore. In the opposite direction of the ocean, the beach continues for a while until it meets a small cliff of dirt that''s been carved by the waves into a concave shape. Beyond that is a dense jungle, and beyond even that, a smoking mountain peak towers over the rest of the island. A volcano then.


    As for where I am… I turn my attention inwards, or rather, direct it towards myself, and my perspective shifts. I see the black sands of the beach and buried halfway in the sand is a heart sized gleaming obsidian orb, polished to a fine sheen and shining iridescently in the sunlight. When I look at the orb, I get a feeling similar to peering into a mirror, so I''m pretty sure I''m the rock.


    I sigh in exasperation as I realize the situation I''m in, but a sudden flicker of light draws my focus to the sky. It''s suddenly filled with a gentle spattering of glowing blue specks. I spot one nearby slowly inching away from me as I breathe out. I immediately shift to inhaling deeply, and see the small particle float towards me. As I continue inhaling, I remember vaguely that I''ve read a few stories where the protagonist is in a similar situation. Hmmm… I guess that means that whatever I''m pulling towards me is “mana” then? It fits the description I''ve always read.


    Ah. The mana particle is almost here. I wait patiently for the particle to touch my surface, and when it does a feeling of ownership overcomes me. The mana is mine now, and I control it. I eject the small particle by exhaling, nothing that it''s a deep glowing purple now, and find myself enraptured by it as I move it around. It moves however I want it to, following my thoughts exactly, drawing a grin across my… mind? I don''t have a mouth anymore. I try using it to bat around another particle, only to find it pass through the unclaimed mana.The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    It isn''t like nothing happened though. The unclaimed mana stirs like a fluid, slowly following the claimed mana before losing momentum and slowing to a stop. The fluidity gives me an idea, and my claimed mana immediately begins tracing a small swirl as fast as it can, the unclaimed mana following and being drawn to the space in the center, forming a small ball of mana after a few minutes. I draw it towards me and absorb the ball of mana, finding that it contains nine more particles to control.


    I gather all my particles into a slightly bigger ball of mana and repeat the process, this time tracing a vortex shape around my core. The unclaimed mana begins to follow, and I continue the pattern, eventually seeing the stream of mana gain enough momentum to continue the pattern on its own. By that point, I feel full, as if I''d just eaten a big meal. Okay, now for the next part. I''m pretty sure that I am a “dungeon core”, so I should be able to control the land around me to a certain degree.


    I try willing the sand under me to form a pedestal, but nothing happens. Next I try sending a stream of my deep purple mana and trying to push the sand along, which does leave a trail in the sand, but not enough of one to be the way I actually control things. I hope. Next I try pushing my mana into a grain of sand, and feel a faint resistance before I suddenly feel the grain snap into place and become mine. I try moving the grain, and find that I can move it with enough force to drag itself across the sand, but not enough to fly around.


    At this point, I feel even more saturated by mana, the vortex surrounding me refusing to let up, only getting bigger. And I''m certain that when I claimed that sand I didn''t feel my mana return. I think I could pull it out if I want, but I don''t really need to do that. So that''s one way to “spend” mana. I try infusing my mana into the beach, feeling more and more sand become a part of me. It only takes a few seconds, and once I collect enough sand to form a large mound that I can move around on, I stop.


    I try melting the sand into a solid stone, and it merges into a roughly human sized slab of obsidian. I try bending it and twisting it, finding that I can shape it freely. Another idea crosses my mind and shape it into a vaguely humanoid form. I leave the hands and feet as giant spikes and bend over, the head of the body wrapping around me and embedding me in the center of its face.


    I can still see though the backside of the head, so I guess that whatever I''ve claimed is something I can use as an extension of my senses. I start walking the stone body towards the jungle, a plan forming in my mind. If I''m going to be a dungeon, then I''m going to be the coolest one. There will be no others like me. The stream of mana follows me into the jungle, but now that I''ve left the center of the vortex I don''t feel as much pressure as I did before. But it''s still a lot. I still feel too full. So I infuse everything around me, using as much mana as I can as the stream continues to grow.


    I leave a trail of purple light behind me as I trudge through the trees, my spiked legs stabbing into the ground to keep me upright. By the time the trees thin out and the land transitions to mountainous rock, it''s noon. This island is small, but even a small island is still an island I guess. I''ve had to use my extended perception to guide my mana to infuse places farther and farther away from me as the stream of unclaimed mana has increased its pressure. The slopes of the volcano are steep, and quickly become steep enough that I can''t climb them, so I claim the rocks around me and create footholds, shaping my vessels limbs to slot into them securely as well.


    I know for certain that nothing would be able to climb this mountain without the proper tools or assistance, closing up the footholds behind me so nothing can follow. Dungeons have to protect their core, right? And given the heat I can sense on the back of my head, the mana stream won''t take kindly to any attempts to block it. Luckily I can absorb it before it does any damage to the obsidian, but I don''t think it''d go very well if I wasn''t doing that. Anyways, that means that a volcano like this would be a great place to hide my core, especially because of how difficult it''d be to climb it and because of the easy access to the sky.


    I just have to keep it from exploding, and I can probably do that by using the magma as a source of building material. I reach the peak of the volcano by the end of the day, and peer over the edge of the crater down at the giant pool of lava hiding a bit deeper inside the mountain. Yes, this''ll do nicely for a base. There are a few problems though. Namely the ever growing pressure of the mana stream behind me.