Ow, ow, ow, how long was I out? I asked myself. The long ‘flight’ down was fun, but the landing? The landing SUCKED. And what’s this little thing flashing in the corner of my vision? I mentally ‘clicked’ a small plus sign in the lower portion of my vision, and was startled by a voice.

  “Greetings, new dungeon. I am an assistant assigned to you by the Dungeon God, you may call me System,” the voice droned on like it did not want to be here. “I am here to help you get started with your new life as a dungeon. Would you like to view your status?”

  I did the equivalent of a mental blink, caught slightly off-guard by this weird voice. “Ah, yes, please. How do I do that?”

  “It is quite simple, all you have to do is think ‘status’ and the window should appear,” it replied, sounding very depressed.

  It took me a moment more than I’d like to admit, but soon enough I was looking right at my very own status screen. Feeling a little experimental, I turned myself to look in the opposite direction from where I’d woken up, and noted the screen followed my vision as I did so.

  “Oh, wow. That’s kinda neat,” I exclaimed. “What do these plus signs do?”

  “Simply focus on them, and you will open up a submenu that will display the relevant information!”

  “Thanks, System,” I did as it suggested, going for the Skills/Traits option first, as I had a feeling the Inventory tab would be empty right now.

  I uh... wow. Them’s some neat skills and traits! I’m not going to complain about the name-change for the music skill though, I’d go insane without my tunes! I mentally chuckled. And with the last one noting specifically that I am being watched for the tech, things will be interesting. I’ve got so many different fictional universes to draw inspiration from, this new life will be a blast! Alright, now on to the Magic tab.

  I was, to put it mildly, shocked at the amount of options available. I have a sneaking suspicion that I have such high affinity levels with Fire and Water because I asked for Spatial. That... unnamed? Affinity sounds like it will be VERY interesting way down the line, but I wonder why it’s unique? Perhaps... no, best to think on that later when I have the ability to use it, or are close to it. For now, I think System is waiting.

  “That’s... a lot of information, thanks for letting me know how to access it,” I politely stated. “Two questions now, the first being whether or not I have a timetable to open up to the outside world, and the second... How do I dig?”

  “You simply have to will the stone around you to form into the shape you desire,” replied System. They sounded slightly offended for some reason.. “If you will it in the form of a tunnel --which I highly recommend a downward slope due to the unique position we are currently at-- the stone will gradually be excavated away and stored in your inventory. As for a timetable, you currently have One Hundred and Sixty Hours remaining before the entrance is opened.”

  I slowly nodded, idly wondering how I could when I didn’t have an actual head anymore, and began looking around for a suitable spot to begin digging. I settled on an area that seemed just a little lower than the rest of the room, and tried using the method System explained.

  This isn’t working, I thought to myself after half a dozen minutes had passed. I could feel something happening, but other than my available mana ticking down by two points, there were no noticeable differences yet. Hmm, maybe if I try something else?

  I stopped glaring at the spot and took a moment to think. One ‘AHA!’ moment later, the tunnel started growing slowly in small chunks. Heh, imagining myself as a guy swinging a pickaxe is the trick. A little mentally exhausting, and it’s draining my mana a fair chunk, but at least I can dig now!

  I happily swung away until my mana had depleted and I was now looking at a hole in the ground. It was five feet wide, four feet long, and two feet deep. Yeah, I’m gonna just have this as a small entry pit for now. Gonna make it a few feet deeper, then go outwards from there, probably slope it down some too.

  While I was waiting for my mana to regenerate slowly, I looked over my menus. Hmm, that’s... a lot of stone. Didn’t realize that forty cubic feet of granite weighs three tons. Plus side, stone doesn’t take up too much inventory space, yay!

  Since that was the only item I had in my inventory, I decided to check up on the creatures I had available to make. Noting that I had no organic resources, and only one type of inorganic, I just opened up the Golem menu.

  “Hmm, now that’s kinda neato,” I said aloud. “System, I’ve got a question for you.”

  “Ask away, dungeon.”

  “Can... can I use one of my specializations on the [Golem] category?”

  “One moment,” System replied. One moment turned into a minute, which turned into ten, and I was left bouncing my metaphorical leg in anxiousness.

  “Thank you for your patience,” System finally droned out. “There are currently zero dungeons within the world that have taken the [Golem] Category as a specialization.”

  “Ah, I see,” I replied in surprise. “I’m going to select that as my first specialization, and if nobody else took it, the [Construct] Category as well.”

  “Searching for [Construct] Specialization availability now, this will take some time.” I swore I heard a hint of annoyance in System’s voice.

  I opened up the menu again, and noted the new costs to both golems I had available. Well, at least I’m not going to be waiting for seven hours to get one golem anymore... I think I’ll try out a dirt one later, when I have a garden of some sort. For now, I'm gonna wait till I can make a stoney boy or two.

  I guess the specialization worked, I thought to myself. Interesting, looks like the minimum amount of resources needed to make a golem was halved, though the upper limit wasn’t touched.