《The last Dungeon》 The Awakening of the Last The world had been dreaming. For thousands of years it had a dream that it was free of all true danger, that it would never again face the troubles of a past long forgotten by all who lived on it. It was a dream however and it was time to wake up. Humanity had conquered vast stretches of land fighting against nature itself. It had invented sailing, guns, machines and was beginning to master electricity. With all their great inventions and their grand achievements there was still vast stretches of land untouched by human hands rarely seen by anyone but the lost or desperate. One such place was a vast wild forest sandwiched between the unending sea to the south-east, and the grassy plains of the north-west. Hidden in this forest was a small hill, indistinguishable from the many others like it. This hill was special though, on its west side it had a unassuming cave more ancient than history itself. For few millennium the cave had sat as the last remnant of its heart, a single shard, grew. Hidden from all, it had steadily become bigger, atom by atom piece by piece, the ruby red stone had grown. This morning it was the size of a small fist and was cut in a way that would make most jewelers drool. As the dew began to settle and the birds began to sing, there was an unnatural pulse. It was quickly followed by another, and another each stronger and more confident than the last. Like a war drum the ruby heart beat, screaming for attention but was heard by none. As with most great threats to civilization it was not born with a bang but an imperceptible whisper. - A spark A life A beginning¡­ A light, a bright yellow light. The new life, a child, stared in wonder as the light slowly shifted from yellow to gold, to red and then to an almost black blue. When the light seemed to have stopped changing, it slowly broke from its trance and felt its body. Becoming more aware of its existence and strengthening its sense of self. It was a small, grey tube made of stone with many spikes growing from the top and bottom. At the one end, imbedded in a large damp pillar, was a small perfectly symmetrical red stone that glowed and pulsed slightly. At the other was the blurry dark blue wall which was what had enchanted him before. The child sat and pondered what that was, what it was, and what was its purpose. On one end a glowing stone on the other a light show, out of which it could only make out the blurriest of images. For a while it was content with this existence, however it was not meant to be. Suddenly, the child¡¯s unfocused attention shot towards the blurry light show, something foreign had entered its existence and it felt violated. Still curiosity got the better of the newborn and it observed the small thing as it explored the child''s body. The invader was grey like the surroundings but was much smaller and could move on four legs. The creature was covered in fur with especially long hairs on its nose but none on its long pink tail. It observed this creature as it scampered to the red stone, often stopping and rearing up to smell the air. It honestly thought the thing was adorable and wondered where the creature had come from. Did the creature just pop into existence like it did? The serenity and calmness of the situation was dashed as soon as the creature reached the glowing stone. Once there the creature bit down and began chewing. Immediately the child''s body reeled in pain and horror. It could feel a part of itself being torn away and destroyed. Overwhelmed by the new sensations it lashed back with emotions it did not even know it had. A spike once firmly attached to the top of the cave fell and in one foul blow crushed the small invader. A wealth of knowledge flooded the child and overwhelmed it as it was still reeling in pain, fear and anger. Instinctively it collapsed the opening to its cave to be safe from those things. Slowly the pain subsided and it began to calm down. It still felt like a part of it was forever lost but at least the creature lay flattened under a rock never to hurt him again. it did not know that it could shape its body at all, in fact until now it was not sure it was his body at all. It mentally willed one of the pillars to fall and it fell. With a better understanding of itself, it began to review the new knowledge. It learned that the blurry lights at one end was in fact an opening to a huge space teaming with an uncountable amount of those monsters. It decided collapsing the cave was the correct decision. It now began to understand that it was but a small piece in a larger place and the first thing that found it had been consumed by a desire to destroy it. The creatures¡¯ memories showed it scampering along and suddenly getting an irresistible urge to destroy whatever was is in that cave. It seems as if it was born into a space determined to destroy it. But it was not all bad, it had learned it could manipulate its body. tentative it flexed, and an opening began to form to the right of the pillar that housed its stone. It was as if the walls themselves were liquid as they melted back making a small room just big enough for its glowing rock and the spike it resided on. It then attempted to move the two and was amazed as they glided crossed the surface as if they were not attached to a solid stone floor. The stone slid smoothly into the pocket it had made and stopped when it willed it to. It seemed that it could make a home here, safe from the dangers outside. It would be a grand home and visions of a massive cave structure filled its head.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. However, something was wrong, and the red stone began to dim. It could feel it losing the ability to think and perceive and was frightened. It did not want to die so soon after its birth and lashed out it every directing in fear before losing consciousness. A spark A life A beginning¡­ A light, a bright yellow light. The child stared at the light as the events of before poured in. In its rage it had destroyed most of its pillars and spikes. By chance it had created a small opening in its blockade at the entrance. Although it did not notice it before, it could feel it now, something came from that opening. Flowing like a liquid it filled the cave and permeated everything. When it reached the glowing stone, it was consumed and converted into something else. It assumed that this process was the mechanism that give it life and the bigger the opening to the cave the more power it would have. It could not be safe it could never be safe. To survive it had to be exposed and to be exposed meant death. At least the damage to the red stone had begun to disappear, but it was nearly out of rocks to throw at anything else that may enter it. It needed defense and it needed it fast if it wanted to survive. The simplest plan was to build more spikes and make the glowing stone hard to reach. Which it did by creating many random juts and spikes, far more than it had before. It also affixed the pillar which housed its stone to the ceiling. Even with all of this it knew it was weak and it was afraid. It wished it had one of those monsters that attacked. If it could have one of those it could at least fight on equal terms. As if by its command one suddenly materialized in the middle of its cave. It reeled in horror screaming for the creature to leave. To its surprise the creature listened. The small thing scampered as fast as it could and leaped out the opening. After which the creature promptly dematerialized. Understanding washed over it, it did not know why but it knew instinctively that creature was not real. The creature was just a part of it. Just an afterimage of a once living being that it could now recreate and command. It made as many copies of the creature as it could make before it felt exhaustion creep in and ordered them to protect it. It seemed it had a limit to how many creatures it could make before getting tired, but anything created by it listened to it. Twenty-five of the grey things began to petrol the entrance and it secluded itself, content to watch its creations work. They scampered in basic patterns or sat very still watching the entranced in a way that did not quite seem natural. They did their job though and it felt much better with them around. While he was musing about his grey defenders a small green wiggly tube slithered through the hole. Instantly the grey things attacked and while a many died to the green things bite it was no match for the sheer numbers. When the green thing finally laid still it was down to only 10 grey things, a massive loss. It tested its ability and like before with a single wish he could summon them. It now had a small army of green and grey things numbering at ten green and fifteen greys. The single invader had taken out over ten grey things and it was glad the green thing on its side now. For days it continued like this, with the only real challenge being a black flying thing that had taken a long time to kill because his newborn¡¯s creatures struggled to reach it. Only after a lucky spike drop that damaged the left wing did it finally kill the thing. That all changed however when two small fleshy appendages, reached in and began dismantling it wall. Whatever this thing was it frightened it but it was also excited at the prospect of getting something so large. A massive head peaked in and its previous excitement was turned to dread as it realized just how big and scary this was. The strange thing pulled more rock lose and began to climb in, it ordered all of the creatures under its comand to hide and be ready to strike. As soon as the strange thing entered fully it minions attacked. The thing flailed and fought back with terrible screams and powerful blows but was no match. It watched as the fight slowly left the thing and decided to drop a spike to end it. The fight was a lot easier but far messier than it imagined, and it was a little disappointed. It did not know what it was going to do with such a large body in its cave. The child however was not prepared for the wealth of knowledge that flooded it, foreign ideas such as language, names and society. It felt bad for killing such an intelligent creature, it now knew as a human child. However, the child had held information it did not even know it needed and may have very wall saved its life, it thanked the human kid. It began cataloging its creatures and its new ideas. It had snakes, mice, bats, crickets and many more, but what was it. It did not know; the kid had no information about anything like him. What the it did know about was humans. Humans scared it, human creations scared it, most of all firearms scared it. It could see the aftermath of a great war, it could feel the pain and fear the kid felt when his mother and father were killed in front of him. It did not fully understand the reasons why war existed or how the kids mother and father were ¡°traitors¡± but it was terrified by a species that could kill its own kind so carelessly. It could now understand why the kid had fled to a cave which housed who knows what. It decided that it would do anything in its power to survive against an enemy so savage and frightening. First it needed a name, and in memory of the child''s help, it decided on the human kids name. From now on he was a he and he will be called Johnathan, and Johnathan was determined to fuck up anything that entered him. F@*$ birds Johnathan, he did not know if he liked that or even if he liked the thought of being a he but for now it would have to do. From sorting through the child¡¯s memories, he determined a few things. For starters he was not a normal existence, he could create and move things in ways that the child had never seen or heard of. He also had an incredible ability to absorb information and make it his own, it only took a split second to sort through all of the child¡¯s memories. Although this had its limitations, while he could sort through information at a breakneck speed compared to what humans could do, but his ability to make decisions and to apply said information was similar to a humans. It was strange to comprehend how humans viewed things. While he was constantly aware of his body and nothing else humans had a thing called sight, which while limited in field of view, could see outside the cave clearly. He envied this ability, for anything beyond his cave was nothing but a blurry mess. He dreamed to see the thing called a star or a sunset or an ocean. He dreamed to see anything but his own dripping cave and small army of defenders. ¡°One day¡± he said more to himself than to anyone else. From the memories he understood that humans, while sentient, where violent. Even if he could negotiate with them what good would that do if anything he provides would immediately disappear once it leaves the cave. Even if they could take items what if they got greedy and wanted the glowing red stone that was central to his existance. He was no longer na?ve, he knew he was in danger and the only option was to get stronger. First off was to close the entrance to the cave, restricting the animals allowed in. He hoped that this would also help him avoid human contact until he was ready. To do this, instead of violently destroying rock or pulling jagged spikes from the ceiling he instead tried to be more delicate. He willed the rock to slowly knit itself together becoming one solid mass that still resembled a pile of rocks. He then had his army carry more rocks to the opening slowly closing the hole to about the size of the child¡¯s head. Which reminded him about the childs body. He could feed it to his army but he doubted they needed or wanted to eat. Instead he peered at the child and began to pull at him more out of instinct than reason. The child¡¯s body began to glow and slowly dissolve into little bits of light that slowly wafted to his stone. Upon reaching the stone and being absorbed he felt a burst of power and strength the likes of which he had never felt before. Killing felt good, he felt good, but it was not long until reason took hold again. Killing all that entered his cave immediately would stop people from entering or worse force them to kill him. He needed to seem to be fair, to bait living things into him but at the same time be completely safe from attack. This was no small task but he had a few ideas from the child. first though he attempted to pull apart the other dead creatures within his cave. The mouse and the snake gave him almost nothing but the bat did provide some. It seemed the longer something remained dead and the smaller it was the less he got. Either way he was much stronger now, he had not even realize how weak he was before. With this new energy he would begin to expand further and deeper, to prepare for the time when he would eventually have to fight off humans. He had not learned anything about death traps from the human child but he had learned about mazes and how good rodents where at them. He had no idea how to make a good maze but he had plenty of time and plenty of rodent test subjects to test them out.You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. After three days his stone was safely hidden further back but he had still not created a maze that the rodents could not solve. That was until his 267th try when he tried something new. See all mazes had a simple solution, follow one side and you will make it to the end, but what if the end was in the center and the center and outside walls did not connect? What if that was repeated many times until it was nearly impossible to solve with the exit randomly placed? It may not be enough to stop a human but it was enough for his rodents and it was the best he can do. He began to sculpt the stone itself to build the maze and was surprised at how second nature this had become to him. While he did this he ordered his army to use a few rodents as bait to lure in more species of animals. They did this by laying near the entrance of the cave and pretending to be injured. It seemed that his creatures did not need to eat, sleep or do anything for that matter. It made sense though as in truth they seemed more like solid ideas than living beings to him. Nearly four weeks have passed, with him exhausting himself multiple times having to wait as that something from outside flowed to his stone and was absorbed. As far as he could tell the stone was like a heart and a stomach, it took whatever was in living things from outside and converted it to power he could use. He needed to protect this stone and thus had hidden it in his maze along with an new army of defenders. His maze looked drab and uninteresting, much like the original cave with dripping spikes and no light but to him it was beautiful. He had also learned much, for one creatures killed in his cave by an outside force can be taken from his cave without dematerializing. The implications of this where both good and bad, on one hand he could trade on another he could be exploited. Second birds are and forever will be thieving bastards that stole his mice and left him with nothing in return. It was only through shear luck that he managed to trap one with a few well placed bats and then killed the bird with a hidden snake. His reward was a creature that was nearly useless in his cave yet he was still satisfied at having one of those dam thieves. He gained a lot of new creatures too, such as things called turtles, cats, dogs, and lizards. He only knew what the kid knew so he could not identify the lizard but it was about as long as a turtle and as high as one too. These new creatures made up the backbone of his defense and he felt finally ready to open up to more dangerous invaders. Before doing so though he had one more important thing to do, but had been putting this off until now. He attempted to create a human and to his delight he managed to make a human child exactly like the one which had given him his name. However something was off, the child was lifeless only breathing slowly. He felt cheated as a human would be a great boon to his defense but he could only stare helpless as the created human slowly died for reasons he could not tell and was reabsorbed. It seemed more intelligent creatures needed something more, but what it was he did not know. Despite this setback he slowly and deliberately opened the hole large enough to fit a small child but not large enough for an adult. Now to set the bait, he did not have money or items but he knew that the area around his cave was war torn and in desperate need of supplies for the war effort. A pair of clothes or shoes could go a long way. With that in mind he created a simple pair of shoes, identical to the one the boy was wearing earlier. One placed at the entrance visible to all and one placed just inside the cave. All he had to do was wait. It did not take long. Creation of a monster Samantha was tired, tired of running, tired of living off nothing, tired of it all. She missed her bed, she missed pancakes, she missed her old life. She even missed school of all things. It was not that she resented her parents, no, she resented people. People had started the war that took her father¡¯s leg, people had come and taken her family''s home to continue the fight, people had refused to give her mother a job and forced them to live like animals. She was mad and angry at the world which had given her so much and then in one moment took it away. Even nature had it out for her and her family, of the few sets of clothes they managed to bring she only had a pair of jeans, a pair of shoes and two bland shirts left. Her mother Martha had only a dirty light blue dress and Francis her father had two pairs of pants and a ripped white button up shirt. Food was also a constant problem as her father could not hunt. Tonight, she had gone hungry like most nights, her mother barely able to find anything to eat out in the woods. They said once they made it to the city everything would be all right, but she did not believe it. The world had rejected them, why would the city be any better. She could not help but sit and sulk as her father, a tall and brutish man, would order her mother, a taller but slender woman, around attempting to do what little she could to make things better. Soon enough it was time for bed and reluctantly Samantha got into her sleeping bag under the hung patchwork sheet that was her tent. A luxury that her mother and father did not share, having to sleep in their bags in the wide open. At this point it she had become accustomed to this routine, her father was bitter and angry when he came back from the war. Samantha did not know why but he took it out on her mother when he thought Samantha was asleep. She heard them talk one night, when they thought she was asleep, how the frontline was closing in and that even the city was at risk. She did not know what the frontline was but she knew it took her father¡¯s leg and that it had to do with the war. She was determined to prove she was helpful, to prove she was a big girl, to make her father happy again. She just wanted to stop the fighting, because if she lost her family she would have nothing left. So, after her father began to snore and her mother stopped stirring she snuck out. She was 10 after all, she was practically a grown up. If her mother and father could not provide food, then maybe she could. She couldn¡¯t help but she imagine the smiles her parents would have if she could find some berries or maybe even some apples! They would have a feast! Such merry thoughts where quickly brushed aside as she left the light of the fire. The moon bathed the entire forest in an eerie glow, she was more than once scared by a rodent darting from one funny looking pine tree to another. She wanted to turn back many times, but was determined not to give up. After a few minutes she found it a small tree with bright red berries and deep green leaves. The fruit looked kind of like small raspberries, so she figured they were safe. Humming and smiling, she began to fill up her shirt with the berries. The fear of the night was completely dispelled by images of her father smiling and her mother hugging and for the first time in a long time she felt true joy. If only she knew it was this easy before, she would had done this a long time ago! When her shirt was about halfway full she felt¡­ something. An invisible fog slowly expanding across the ground, crawling up her spine and demanding her attention. Like a deep primal instinct, she knew, she did not know why but she knew she had to find source of this and kill it. In a daze like trance, too young and too exhausted to fight back, she dropped her berries and began to walk towards the source. For a while it continued like this slowly wandering more on instinct than thought. She was broken from this when she saw the most peculiar sight a lone shoe in front of a small cave. It was nothing special just a small black shoe made of leather and obviously for a male, but it was about her size and was in a lot better condition than hers. She decided to try it on and to her surprise it fit, it was a little big, but it fit. Now if only she could find the other, so as not to walk lopsided. She looked around the cave but found nothing. Out of desperation she looked into the cave, and she saw it just barely inside the cave, a small shoe illuminated by the moon. She wondered why such a thing was here, but it did not matter, if berries where a prize new shoes where a dream. A dream she had long ago given up but was now, finally, just in reach. All she had to do was crawl into the cave and get it. As she crawled, she reasoned that after she got the shoes she could go back to picking berries. ¡°Wait!¡± she said with shock, why was she here? when did she get her? What was that feeling? All these thoughts where cut short. - Johnathan was surprised at how fast his bait had attracted a human, what was even more surprising was how willing the human was to enter his cave. After the human, ¡°she¡± he surmised by the long hair, grabbed the first shoe he ordered his army into place. Most of his creatures were useless against a human, but the snakes with their poison and the turtles with their powerful bite could easily take out a child. He had a turtle wait at the bottom of the entrance, attempting to look like a rock and the snakes to the side hidden from view until it was to late. The idea was that the turtle would go for the neck and the snakes would go for the arms and legs. He watched hungrily as the child finally began to slowly crawl into his cave. Closer and closer to her demise. He could almost feel it. ¡°Wait!¡± she exclaimed suddenly and froze laying halfway into his cave. Johnathan did not know why she screamed but he was not going to allow his prey get away this close to success. He sent the command and immediately his minions jumped into action. The turtle removed part of the child¡¯s neck with a loud hungry snap followed by 15 snakes pouncing and biting all at once. What was left was a swollen bleeding spasming mess that resembled nothing like the child it used to be. Overkill? Yes, but he would be damned if she was going to escape. He felt her knowledge, Samantha¡¯s knowledge, fill him but he did not touch it yet, he had plans for it. He had the turtle grab her and pull her in greedily dissolving what was left of her body and blood. He felt the same intoxicating power rush he had felt the first time. If killing a child felt this good imagine killing a adult human! Still he could not kill all who entered, his first and only goal was to survive at all costs and that meant allowing some to escape or to think they beat him. Now it was time to experiment, he had found something from Johnathan the child¡¯s memories. Something that his mother had told him. A body was a vassal that housed a soul and a consciousness. The soul contained the will and the consciousness bridged the souls will to the body. At least that¡¯s what he understood, Johnathan¡¯s mom had only said ¡°A soul is who you are, and your consciousness is how you express it¡± when asked what a soul was. Johnathan surmised that when he created a creature he could recreate the body perfectly. However, because the body was still technically him it shared his soul and his will. Because he had not tried to give them a consciousness the body only had instinct to react on. For lesser creatures this was enough but for more complex creatures they would need an independent consciousness and potentially an independent will.This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it This is where Samantha¡¯s knowledge came in, to him it was a tangible thing he could peal away to learn about the person it once was. Once it was apart, though, it could never go back together, either becoming part of him or disappearing forever. He wondered if this was really all it was, knowledge, what if it was the consciousness, or at least part of it. The only way to know was to test it but the possibilities excited him. He recreated Samantha¡¯s body in front of his stone and examined her body. She was slender with black hair and brown eyes. Her nose was a bit bulbus but her eyebrows thin and well-shaped. This was his first time really looking at a human, and while he was no expert, from what Johnathan the child had taught him, she would have probably been a good-looking lady when grown up. Finally satisfied he tried to shove the consciousness into it. At first it seemed to work, as she slowly opened her eyes and looked to the stone. But his dreams were dashed as she immediately began to spasm, screaming in pain with white foam at the mouth. He dropped a spike on her head out of mercy, returning her consciousness to him and splattering blood everywhere which he quickly absorbed along with the body. It seemed his will alone was either not enough or too different to her to be compatible with the original consciousness. He could try to modify the consciousness, but he feared he would destroy it, so he had to go with plan b. He already knew he was going to regret this. See Johnathan surmised that the stone was more than a heart or a stomach, but a soul made real and the storage of his consciousness. The core of his will and being. His core which allowed him to shape his body to his desires. If this ¡°core¡± was a solid soul, then it stood to reason if he put her consciousness into a piece of this it may remain stable. Johnathan called a mouse over to his core and with some hesitation commanded it to bite a piece off. Immediately his body was racked with pain. He screamed out in agony as he felt another piece of himself separate, but unlike before it did not disappear. Just as he hoped he still had a connection to the piece, so long as it was not consumed, but it was no longer truly a part of him. He used this connection to slowly force Samantha¡¯s consciousness into the small chunk. As he did so the piece went from a roughly cut slowly pulsing red stone to a deep blue finely cut cube that seemed to feed off the same life force that his core produced. The results were interesting to say the least but he was not done yet. After making sure he could feel Samantha in the small blue cube, he created another human body and commanded the mouse to place the stone on the body. Once the stone was placed and the mouse had left he willed the stone and the body to merge. He really felt a bit like one of those mad scientists Jonathan the child had loved so much. The stone glowed bright blue and began to pull power directly from his core. At first it was not so bad but as the stone sunk deeper into the body the drain steadily increased. He was really frightened at this point as he could feel his strength leave him and his mind blur. He attempted to stop the process, but it was too late, and before he could fight back he sunk into darkness. A light. A bright yellow light. He awoke from his dream with a start, he had dreamt about the sunset he had seen from the blurry memories of Johnathan the child. He was determined to one day see such a sight instead of having to view it from imperfect memories. The events of the other day slowly creeped in and he quickly looked down at what he had created. There looking at his core where two beautiful deep brown eyes housed in a grotesque green body with pointed ears and sparse hair. He could only surmise what such a creature would actually smell like but he imagined it was not pleaseant. He was about to kill it and start again when it spoke. ¡°Wh.at ¡­ amm.. Iii...¡± a deep broken up voice spoke. It looked around ¡°w..where .. am I¡±, after a pause tears began to fall from its left eye as the right tear duct seamed to not work. ¡°Where .. is . Mom¡± its words becoming steadier with each try. - Samantha awoke slowly from her nightmare, she had dreamt she had run off to pick berries and found a strange cave. She shivered as she recalled what happened after she entered the cave, it was unlikely she would soon forget the feeling of her neck being removed. Then she dreamt it was all blackness for a while which was suddenly broken by a light with terrible pain. This was ended by a sudden smash taking her back to darkness. She was glad it was over though, she was going to tell her mom all about this and swore to never run away again. That was until she opened her eyes, she was still in a dark abyss and something was up with her body. She lifted her hands in front of her face and took a sharp breath in shock. These where not her hands, they were green and unshapely. Her fingernails where now inch long black claws attached to misshapen fingers. She sat up and immediately felt a presence emanated from a glowing red stone to her right. She turned to it and felt it eyeing at her. ¡°Wh.at ¡­ amm.. Iii...¡± a voice not her own spoke, it felt like her throat had never been used before. ¡°w..where .. am I¡± she suddenly realized as she looked around the dark abyss only illuminated by the small stone. Suddenly a thought occurred to her and she began to cry ¡°Where .. is . Mom¡±. For a while nothing happened and she just cried but eventually the stone pulsed and from within her being she felt a ancient voice ¡°I do not know what you are or where your mother is, but you are a part of me now and you are safe I promise¡± She didn¡¯t feel better with these words. - Johnathan had fucked up, he had fucked up real bad. He had tried to play god but instead he created an abomination. What was worse was this thing was linked to his soul and was essentially a part of him now. He could feel its pain, its desire but he didn¡¯t know why he promised it safety. Consoling it felt like the right thing to do. He had caused this mess and while he may have been a callous killer before, this thing was a part of him. It was not as easy to see himself as food like he could see others. Slowly she stood up and walked expertly through the maze to the door, as if she could see. When he questioned her she simply said, ¡°I¡¯m going home¡±. He thought that was a good idea because she would probably just dematerialize. Even if she did not, something else could wipe out his mistake and that would be fine by him. - Samantha left in a rush, she did not know how she knew where to go, she just did. She somehow could feel the walls of the cave as easily as one could see, like a sixth sense. While the words of the glowing stone had attempted soothed her, she could feel that it wanted to get rid of her. She knew she had to get out of here. So, she headed to the exit she could see with her mind¡¯s eye, towards the exit towards her family. She already hated the cave and its low ceilings, its odd turns and its damp drippy spikes placed just a little too often to be natural. She especially hated the things that hid in the shadows staring at her like she was some monster. She would get out of here and get her dad to call in the whole army to destroy this place. Then her mom would get what was done to her undone and she could finally forget this nightmare once and for all. She eventually got to the exit, and immediately rushed out. The sight of the sun and the breath of fresh air filled her with relief. This was short lived, as she was meet with the horror that was her body. She was misshapen, green and her toes ended with black claws like her hands. She felt her ears which where almost as long as her face and were pointed. Her hair, god her hair was ruined, it grew in patches, if it grew at all, and it was so greasy. She did not have time for this, her mom would know what to do. She sprinted to where her family last camped out, rushing past the dam tree that started it all. She called to her mother when she was near, but the camp was empty. They must be looking for her! All she had to do was wait and they would come back, and her parents will surely know what to do, or so she hoped. That hope was dashed when a sudden shriek to her right woke her up from thoughts. It was followed by an earth shattering bang after which she was shoved down with a violent force as something struck her body. A sharp pain racked her body and she could see dark red blood seeping from a hole in her side. She slowly sat up to face her attackers only to see her own parents. Her father with fear and tears on his face, holding his gun, had shot her with the only thing he kept from the front lines. She was about to plead with her crying mother when another bang violently shoved her into the blackness again. The discovery of magic Johnathan was quite surprised when Samantha passed through the cave opening unharmed. Although the more he thought about it the more sense it made, she was different from the rest of his creatures, she had something close to a soul. Still he knew embarrassingly little about his existence and why some things worked and others did not. It was really something he should have done in the beginning. Oh well, hindsight 20/20, he would just have to do it now while he still could. First off was the abomination, he had done everything right, gave it a soul, a body, and even a mind but it still came out distorted. He suspected that it was because he did not use her original soul but his. A soul and a body while separated were still bound to each other. If a soul was distorted or altered it could potentially alter the rest. While it made sense, he could not really test it right now, so he put it on a shelf and marked it for later. Next was his creations, what were they made of? How could he create them? Johnathan selected a random mouse and carefully pulled at it. To his surprise it was not made of solid matter like his cave but something else, something familiar. With a start he realized it was just a condensed form of the mysterious substance he had been calling his life force. It seemed to be less dense than the invisible fluid like substance that flowed into his cave and fueled his core. Now that he was looking for it he noticed it filled his whole cave and was consumed by his creations. it bellowed out of his core like a steam engine and flowed lazilly like a fog to his entrance. Unlike the substance that fed his core however, it seemed to be more substantial and bent to his will. It also seemed to have an incredible ability to shape matter, as demonstrated by the fact that he was able to excavate half a kilometer wide maze in a matter of days. IIt seemed that these creatures were just mindless creations of his will made real by this substance. Almost absentmindedly he created another mouse to restock his army and was taken aback by the sheer amount of the substance was needed just to create it. All of the substance within a meter of the new mouse was almost completely gone. Even though the space filled back up quickly Johnathan knew that he could not create indefinitely. The high cost to recreate these creatures and the fact that they passively consumed the fog like substance meant that if he was not careful he could get stuck in a situation where he needed more than he had. He looked at his cave and realized that a lot of redesigning would have to be done. For one weaker creatures could no longer be created in mass, he would have to focus on getting stronger creatures using the weaker creatures as support group. He would also have to try and make choke points, focusing more on strategic fights than a long war of attrition. He also noticed some troubling facts, even now the substance was noticeably thinner at the entrance. All of his creations, almost 100 strong, consumption was taking a toll and he suspected that he could only create a few more before problems arose. He attempted to increase the size of the cave opening but the rock moved slowly. To dissolve even a simple stone he had to expend almost all of the invisible fog in the entrance. It was just not enough, he needed less creatures and he needed to produce more fog. He began to dissolve his mice, which by far were the most numerous but also the weakest. He continued this reducing his mice from nearly 50 strong mouse battalion down to a much more reasonable size of 15. He continued with this lost in thought about the implications of these new discoveries until one mouse resisted. It did not resist much, he could still easily pull it apart but the fact that it had done it at all warranted his attention. The more he looked the more strange the mouse seemed. For one it had a scar on its side, presumably from the fight with the invading snake, and it also seemed to be a bit larger than all his other mice. He knew that killing something gave him power but now he began to suspect that some of that power also went to the creatures that killed. He left this mouse, absorbed by his thoughts he began to focus on his core. If his creatures could grow stronger and larger, then maybe so could he. Maybe he was not limited to this measly amount of creatures, maybe he himself could also grow. He had seen his core heal over time but never really considered possibility that he could grow. At first he was disappointed, his core did not appear bigger nor did it seem any different than it was when he was born. He kept looking closer and closer, getting more and more determined. It was not until he could almost see the atoms themselves when he saw it. Small crystalline growths sprouted from his core and ever so slowly began to stitch themselves together forming an incredibly thin new layer around his heart. From this new layer more growths sprouted in the same fashion as before. This was it, he could grow, he could get stronger but it took time, lots of time. It was at this point, mid thought, he felt it. It''s not easy to describe the feeling of death, most things only get to experience it once and unlike so many stories it was not pleasant. It was the feeling of pain, fear, and the struggle to live reaching a grand crescendo followed by sudden and immediate nothingness. He had been ignoring the feelings coming through his connection with Samantha but this could not be overlooked. While Johnathan should have felt nothing but happiness at his mistake being wiped off the earth, he could only feel sorrow. His connection was not gone though, he could still sense her presence floating in the void. In his moment of weakness he reached out a mental hand to the girl, determined to give her a proper burial and incorporate her knowledge into his own. At first nothing happened, but on his second attempt a familiar sensation greeted him. Power was being pulled directly from his core, he tried to stop it, now aware of what he had done, but it was too late. He was stupid! He had felt compassion for a human, for one of his creations and now it was going to cost him. Johnathan continued to struggle but the drain just continued to grow until he was pulled under into the darkness of unconsciousness. - Samantha awoke in an all to familiar black abyss, illuminated by nothing but a small pulsing red stone. She hated that stone, she hated this cave and its stuffy interior. She wanted to die, she had died TWICE! Her parents had betrayed her like everyone else, no one wanted her, there was no place for her and so she just wanted to die. However this dam cave had other plans, and just like everything else she was powerless to stop it.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Or was she? That stone seemed to be the center of this place, if she could just smash it maybe she will finally be free. Silently she looked for a loose rock and found one about the size of her hand near a small puddle. Excited now she walked to the core and swung her arm with all her might. ¡°STOP!¡± A deep voice reverberated through the rock itself causing everything to stand still, even the water seemed to drip slower. Samantha''s hand was stopped just millimeters above the core. Her face was distorted in pain and discomfort as she tried to move her hand but it was no longer hers. It was then she realized she was not free and she could never be free. This was not a cave but a place of endless torment and suffering, this was a dungeon. - Johnathan had come back from the darkness to the monstrosity swinging a rock at his ruby core. He had screamed at it to stop and, with just millimeters to spare, the hand came to a halt. In shock he began to process what had happened, Samantha had woke up before him and for some reason had decided to attack him. If that was the case why did she stop though? If she was truly trying to kill him no amount of shouting would have stopped her and he would be dead. Did she have a change of heart? He doubted that, he could feel the hatred and anger flowing through the connection between them. On a whim he tried something. ¡°Put the rock down gently where you found it¡± he commanded. He watched Samantha''s face distort with rage, fear and then acceptance as her hand slowly lifted the stone away from his core and walked to a small puddle at the back of the hallway. After placing the rock on the ground she sat defeated, he could feel the despair slowly fading to apathy. His will could overpower hers but she was still separate being who had hopes and dreams. She needed a reason to live and he did not know if he could provide that. ¡°You will defend this cave and my core with your life¡± it was not much but it was something. - ¡°You will defend this cave and my core with your life¡± she knew these words were coming and she knew that she would not be able to resist them once spoken. She could feel her will to fight wain as tears fell down her face. Everyone had abandoned her, her own father had shot her and left her to the clutched of a monster who could command her body as if it was not her own. Her body aimlessly wandered around the dungeon, mindlessly following the stones¡¯ command. She no longer cared, she didn¡¯t want to feel, she didn¡¯t want to exist. The days began to merge together with the only breaks being the ocasional fight with whatever creature randomly decided to enter the cave today. She hardly noticed when a large body of a man began to crawl into the cave, or the frantic orders shouted by the core. She didn¡¯t see the shiny revolver he carried and if she had she would not have cared. Her body moved, following the orders of its master, and it attempted to slash at the man with its claws. BANG! A thunderous clap sounded down the dungeon, causing her ears to ring. Pain she felt a familiar pain in her side, triggering a memory. A bubbling insidious rage filled her very being, waking her from her daze. How dare her father shoot her, HER! How dare he pretend to love her! He was the true monstrosity not her! The air around her hands began to crackle with pure energy and emotion which illuminated the room in light blue glow. She poured all of her power and anger into one outstretched hand and aimed it directly at the mystery man. 3 spears of pure energy quickly formed around her hand and launched themselves at an incredible speed directly into the wide eyed man''s chest. ¡°Ha¡­¡± with satisfaction plastered on her face she felt exhaustion pull her back into its dark embrace. - Johnathan could not believe what he had seen, up until now he thought he was the only one who could manipulate the fog but it seemed she could too. He felt the sudden burst of anger and the sweet taste of satisfaction samantha had felt just before she passed out. He did not have time for this now though, she was bleeding out and he had to help her. He focused on the wound on her abdomen. Thick red blood poured out at an alarming rate, if he did not act fast she would die and he would have to go through the unpleasant process of revving her again. That sent a shiver down his spinemetaphorical spine, it¡¯s not that it was painful but it definitely was not pleasant. He tried to stitch her wounds together but she resisted. It seemed he could not modify a body that still housed a will, even if it technically was originally his will. There was only one option left he would have to do it the old fashioned way. He had a little information about first aid and had memories of seeing a doctor stitching a wound. With nothing left to lose he attempted to summon a needle and thread, which thankfully appeared, and began sowing. He willed a mouse to grab the needle with its mouth and another mouse to thread it. He then used the first mouse like a makeshift hand and two more to push the wound closed while he worked. It was slow and imprecise but when he was done the bleeding had slowed considerably. He then used a dog to flip her over. The bullet had gone clean through and the second wound was a little larger than the first. It took four mice just to pull it closed enough that the first mouse could stitch it together but like the other side the bleeding slowed tremendously when he finished. It seemed the mice were more useful than he had imagined but if she died now after all of this it was not his problem. He then focused on the dead man, he had 3 gaping holes in his chest. He greedily pulled at the body and like before it dissolved into small white specks which floated to his body. The familiar power rush sharpened his senses and he could physically see his core grow. Some of the specs floated to samantha and upon absorbing them completely the bleeding stopped. Johnathans dismay about the loss of power was cut short as strange blue shapes began to glow on her skin and her body began to shift. Her skin moved, her hair grew more evenly on her head, her bones stretched. It was as if her entire body was reshaping itself but before it could complete the glowing shapes on her skin dimmed and the processes stopped. She didn''t look too much different but she looked more refined. Her hair was less patchy and her body less deformed, she didn''t look human but she looked less like a monster. Johnathan now focused on the newly acquired knowledge. He had been spent the last few days revamping his maze, complete with choke points and ambush rooms, and was almost done when he had been rudely interrupted. He had two choices he could tear it apart and learn more about the world or he could create another monster to defend him. Seeing as how much trouble Samantha was he decided that learning was the best option. He ripped apart the new mind and was fascinated by the new information he acquired. This man was part of the army and had come to inspect rumors about a monster. The man did not believe in such stories but if his presence could help calm down the civilians he did not mind. So he had walked around trying to look busy and important when he felt it. A slow creeping fog which made his skin crawl and his hair stand on edge. He traced the source down to a small unassuming cave. He had entered the cave with his gun in hand ready to kill whatever he found but he could not prepare for what he saw. A monsterous green midget charging at him in a fashion that would be almost comical if it were not for the inch long nails clearly intended to take him down. He immediately shot the creature in panic. This only served to anger the beast and he watched, frozen in fear, as the air around the monster began to glow and small bolts of lightning shot from its hands. The once empty eyes only held pure seething rage as it pointed a hand directly at his chest. He began to pull the trigger but it was to late, three blue spears formed around the hand like magic and flew straight into his beating heart. Something clicked in Johnathan''s head. Magic, the fog was just like magic from those children''s stories. Samantha was magic, he was magic, he could turn power of life into magic.