《Babel: The Ancient Dungeon》


 Notice

    Sorry for the inconveniences.


    The series will be rewritten again, hopefully for the better as I felt that the deleted chapters wasn''t going the way I wanted. This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.


    Seven chapters will be released today. Events will be revamped. The core of the setting and lore will be the same. Also characters will not change.


    This had happened because I had not planned throughly. But now I have.


    Also the first arc of the rewritten will be slow burn as it will set up the lore, setting and power system of the series. It will be within 30 chapter.

 Chapter 1

    Year 1453 Of The Third Age,


    Somewhere In The Arav Desert,


    Arava Peninsula.


    The Arav desert, a vast spanse of dry, hot tropical semi-arid desert that covers the entirety of the Arava Peninsula was one of the most dangerous and unexplored wilderness in the known world of Terra. The Arav Desert was tainted with a corruption called miasma everywhere, giving rise to many undeads and corrupted creatures. Even it''s normal creatures were not to be trifle with for Arava was hell on earth and even the smallest inhabitants of hell was a demon in their own right.


    In a particular region of central Arava, a creature was breathing it''s last. It was a corrupted beast, a mongoose to be exact. It was daytime, so it had hidden itself in an abandoned den underneath a big boulder. The corrupted mongoose was twice larger than its base, with black fur and furious red eyes. It''s stomach was bulging and glowing green, every now and then.


    The corrupted mongoose had been driven out from its pack after it got corrupted and killed several of its kind. It had been roaming for several day and it was at its last leg for unlike undeads, most corrupted beast dies shortly after they get corrupted. However, it''s death was being brought on by mana poisoning not miasma.


    In Terra, there were three different type of energy. Prana also called life force, which was the base energy, found everywhere and in everything. Mana, which were refined prana used by living creatures to create magic or strengthen their body. Miasma were corrupted prana or mana, which rot and corrupt everything.


    Mana and Miasma couldn''t coexists. They were poisons to one another. In a battle between mana and miasma, quality not quantity wins most of the times.


    The source of the mana in the mongoose was a dove egg size crystal gem inside it''s stomach pouch. The crystal gem came from a snake the mongoose had eaten two days prior. At that time, it was just a small crystal with little prana. In just two days, the gem had grown that much, eating the miasma and what little prana the mongoose had.


    Crystal gem like this are formed underground but this one was above the ground. Chance and fate brought it above the ground. The Story of the crystal gem journey began with a little burrowing mouse. The mouse had unknowingly eaten a small gem that was not bigger than a grain of sand. The gem remain in the mouse stomach for several days as the mouse could neither digest nor excrete it. In it''s stomach, the gem grew.


    One particular night, the mouse decided to venture above ground to search for food but instead of finding food, it became the sustenance for a desert viper.If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    The viper ate the mouse whole, this the gem, which has grown a little bigger was ingested as well. The gem, like before did not get spat out along with the mouse remain and instead remain in the viper''s stomach.


    As fate will have it, two days later the snake was killed and eaten by a corrupted mongoose, who in its hunger and madness did not think of chewing it''s food but instead wolf down the viper. Thus it ended inside the mongoose stomach.


    The miasma in the mongoose was weak and sparsely distributed. However, the mana that was poisoning it was concentrated in a crystal gem inside it''s stomach with a qualitative superiority over the miasma in its body. Thus, mana had become a poison for the miasma and hence the mongoose.


    With a plop, the mongoose belly exploded, guys, flesh and blood spewing everywhere inside the single chambered den. The crystal gem shoot out along with the guts, hit the wall above the entrance and then fell to the ground. As the gem touch the floor, a wave of mana got released, dispersing into the chamber. The released mana burned the miasma in the chamber, cleansing the area.


    It roll towards a corner and stayed there.


    The crystal gem was colourless and oval in shape. Dots of tiny milky white flakes with a dim glow were floating inside, moving towards the centre of the orb seemingly attracted by a unknown force of compulsion. These were prana.


    The orb was no ordinary gem. It was a dungeon core, a special and valuable object, especially in the mortal realm.Some regards them as demonic and some regards them as holy. However, many agrees that a dungeon core was a precious treasure for it creates dungeon from where prana can be turned to mana more easily and also contains lots of treasures.


    No one knows how they come into existence or who wills them to, considering that the existence of deities were not a secret affairs in the mortal plane. Maybe even the deities does not know as no deities has ever claimed oneself to be patrons of dungeon. This, dungeon core was a really special and mysterious existence.


    The mana in the dungeon core was weak and such, the core was still asleep. If it had not taken such a long journey and the mana inside it had not fought with the miasma of the now deceased corrupted mongoose then it would have already awakened. Yet fate did not let the little dungeon core to have an easy life. It had stored a pocket amount of mana for the last few days but that was all spent in its struggle with the corrupted mongoose. All that remained was a few hundreds unit of prana.


    In order to awake, the prana had to condense in its centre, get refined into mana and form a mana ring as a dungeon core was an existence that was purely maintain by mana. Until then, it will remain as a sleeping dungeon core or more like a fetus, still not having been birthed out yet.


    The prana in the dungeon core moved towards the centre in a rapid speed. The dungeon core unconsciously took it prana from the surrounding. The den was filled with prana as the last mana surged had purified and broken down the miasma of the corrupted mongoose into prana.


    By dawn, a small, greenish ring formed in the centre of the orb. The first mana circle had been created in the dungeon core.


    A few flies and insects had entered the den, lured in by the scent of the mongoose flesh. The flies laid their eggs in the flesh. A few beetles and wasp were doing the same as well.


    By noon, the den had turned into a battlefield as predatory insects got attracted by the huge traffic of flies, wasps and bettles. Spiders had woven webs in the entrance, scorpions dug trap in the sand and ants were scavenging from the flesh. Soon, bigger creatures will be attracted into the den.


    Unbeknownst to the insects, something was stirring in the little dungeon core. The rich supply of prana had led to the mana circle to develop faster at an unprecedented speed. The dungeon core began to glow green and then a flash of light colored the dark cave in green for a second before it subsided. In the corner, the dungeon core was glowing bright green.


    The Dungeon Core had awaken.

 Chapter 2

    "Babel has fallen."


    The words were delivered in a matter of fact mannerism yet everyone in the command centre could feel the despair and anguish in the commander''s voice, no matter how much he tried to hide his emotions underneath his steely and cold straight facade.


    In the far distance was a fortified city, nearly tens of kilometres away with a black tower made of metal reaching the skyline. Something bright and fast was approaching the city from the north.


    The land around the city was dead, charred black with no signs of life except for the corpses and carrion birds.


    "Turn the convoy back to Megiddo," ordered the commander, through the communication and with a solemn tone, he said, "To Megiddo, the final bastion."


    The people in the command centre, which was also the cockpit of the airship began to work quickly. Some were punching in coordinates, some were on the flying aparatus and some were relaying the orders to the other airships that were following it.


    Amidst all the commotion, a person wearing a modified priest habit to accomodate armors and weapons sent the room into a frozen state with his words.


    "And they gathered them together to the place which in Hebrew is called Har-Magedon,"a voice that belong to the convoy chaplain echoed throughout the command centre of the main airship, "for the final battle, Armageddon."


    As the dozen airships turned around, the fortified city was struck by the shining projectile, enveloping it in a dark, mushroom shaped cloud. A huge shockwave of sound and energy burst through.


    Many of the airships were caught in the shockwaves of the nuclear aftermath including the main ship, which went crashing down.


    The last thing he saw was a red sky and missiles raining upon them along with ashes and fire.


    .........................................................................


    It awoke with a start. It had a dream. No, a nightmare, it corrected himself. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    What''s a dream? What''s a nightmare? It didn''t know but it seems to like the former and fear the latter.


    What was that nightmare? It could not make head or tail of it.


    What''s a head and what''s a tail? It knew but it feels that it shouldn''t know. It was a newborn afterall. However, it did knew what a head and a tail was.


    Another thing it knew was that it was a He not an It and obviously not a she.


    What''s a he, it and she? A he had a penis, used for procreation and a she had a vagina, also used for procreation while an it had neither or maybe some it did. It didn''t knew much. It just knew that much.


    At that moment, he felt a slight tremor. Something had touch him. His vision and sense of touch, taste and hearing came back.


    How does a dungeon core taste as it had no tongue? It can taste the air in its claimed area, moreso the prana and mana. Other than that, more cannot be said as the core in question didn''t knew.


    The first thing it saw was a world draped in black and white in 360¡ã. It was in some sort of a cave. On three side of its vision, it saw walls of mud. It saw darkness below it. Above he saw the roof of the cave, a rocky roof. Several webs were on the corners of the roof.


    In the front, as it recognises the position it saw a rotten corpses of some creatures was swarming with small flying insects. It recognises the small flying creatures as flies. There were also large insect, a dozen times larger than the flies in the vicinity with hard, shiny carapace. Beetles, it registered.


    There were another flying creatures as well, larger than the flies but smaller than the beetles with sharp jaws and stingers. Wasp.


    The most numerous were the little creatures that had six legs and were coming in and going out of the cave in lines. Ants.


    It also sense another two types of creatures.


    One types were hidden in the sand and the other above. In the cave, it senses three of the former and five of the letter. Scorpions and Spiders, respectively.


    To it, the creatures look black in color and so did the walls.


    It nearly jump but couldn''t as it saw a large, black spider with many legs and eyes above it, clutching a cocoon. It was this spider that had touch its surface.


    On realizing that the spider meant no harm, it calm down. It started looking around curiously. It saw dots of white flakes floating in the air. These flakes look appealing. He wanted to eat these white flakes.


    It tried to stretch itself towards the closest white flakes but it couldn''t move. Instead, something came out of it and caught the white flakes. It was a green tentacles like tendril. As soon as the tendril touch the white flakes, the flakes got absorb into the tendril and travel swiftly into it (Orb).


    As soon as the white flakes enter its body through the tendril, it squirmed in delight. The white flakes tasted sweet. It also learnt what it was - an unit of prana. It wanted to eat more. More tendrils shoot out, a dozen or so. These tendrils caught all the prana with a feet from it but the tendrils could go no further. It didn''t mind. It felt full.


    It view it''s surroundings with newfound curiosity after having eaten it''s fill. It saw a beetle drag into the sand by a scorpion with its claws after stabbing the beetle with its stinger, the ants carrying away bits of the corpse, flies and wasps getting stuck in the spiders'' sticky webs and the spiders roll the trapped insects into cocoons.


    Prana got released into the air when something died it noticed, though only in minute amount. Most of the prana remained in the corpse of the dead. A new question came to it?


    Will it die as well like the insects?


    It didn''t knew. At the same time, another question appeared.


    What was it?


    It focus its vision upon itself. And for the first time after awakening, it spoke.


    "Crap, I am not even an insect.

 Chapter 3

    It was hit with a brief moment of existential crisis upon learning that it was just an existence inside a glowing gem. Suddenly and out of nowhere, Information flooded it''s brain. It knew what it was.


    It was not a he or a she but an It. It was neither living nor non-living. It was not a creature nor a thing. It was a special existence. A Dungeon Core.


    It was still stuck on the notion that it was not a living creature but a gem. It felt like it was a living creature before, a creature called human. It''s entire being screamed that it is a human.


    Thus it made a decision. It created its own identity, both rejecting and accepting it''s past and present.


    "Ozymandias. My name is Ozymandias. I am a He. I am a Dungeon Core with a human soul."


    The core had no mouth but his words echoed in the dome. It was a voice created by mana. A vocal intent.


    The sudden outburst from Ozymandias caused the creatures in his domain to buzzed out. A few seconds later, the creatures calmed down and resume their normal activities again. These were insects after all. As well as bugs and arachnid.


    Ozymandias felt into a silent meditation. He accepted his new reality. But at the same time, he wanted to have a body, an organic body not just a gem.


    Ozymandias realised at the same time that he was strong compared to the critters in the den but weak compare to what lays beyond. He knows it and how he knows that, he didn''t care for that was the truth. Thus,he wanted to grow strong.


    However, as a dungeon core, his first and foremost duty was to create and maintain his own dungeon, which he didn''t have right now. He look at his surroundings.


    This will do. My dungeon first room.


    He let out his mana not in tendrils but in waves. His mana spreaded through the walls of the den, claiming the den as his dungeon but by bit.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    In order not to depleted his mana, Ozymandias grab the pranas in the air. Pranas also get drawn and enter his body without his goading like he had his own force of attraction towards the prana.


    But the amount of mana expended was greater than the mana gained. So he tried a new way to gain greater amount of prana to fuel his mana production.


    As his mana claimed most part of the den, tendrils shot out of the floor and start to latch on the now purified but rotten corpse of the corrupted mongoose. The tendrils began to absorb the remaining prana from the corpse. The place where the tendrils latch on began to dry up and crumbled to the ground like dust.


    The prana from the corpse were of better quality than the one found freely in the air.


    With renewed strength, Ozymandias speed up the claiming of the den. By dusk, he had claimed the entire chamber. Then, he moved to the tunnel. It took greater amount of mana as the tunnel, though only one way and small was thrice as long as the den. He also noticed smaller holes in the tunnel but he didn''t bother. For now, he claimed only half a feet into the soil with his mana and that alone was taking a toll.


    When morning broke, he had reach the outside world. Though he cannot see far from his own peripheral vision, his mana brought snips of images of the surface.


    The images were dyed in black and white as usual but Ozymandias didn''t mind. He saw boulders and sand everywhere. There was no sign of the thing called tree or grass though he did see something called a cactus.


    The outside world didn''t excite him as much as he thought it would. The only exciting thing about the outside world was the amount of prana present freely in the air.


    Should I claim part of the outside?


    Ozymandias tried but found that it was a hard task. He lost much more of his mana trying to claim above ground than he did underground. In trying to claim a patch a land just outside of the mouth, he lost nearly half of his mana reserve. And thus, Ozymandias decided to not take claim the outside.


    Having completed claiming the first room of his dungeon, Ozymandias focus within, that is the insects. He wanted to claimed some of the insects but which ones. He fixated on one. The Spiders.


    But it was a tough experiment. He didn''t knew how to claim a creature. The first three spiders died as soon as his mana infused into them. The fourth survived but instead of being a creature under his command, the spider became maddened as the mana turned to miasma and attacked the core.


    In self defense, Ozymandias had to killed the spider by using his mana tendrils. Only one spider remained in the den and three more in the tunnel. This time he tried a different approach. Instead of forcefully injecting his mana into the spider, he injected the mana into his captured prey subtly as he didn''t want to create corrupted creatures.


    He also injected mana into the eggs that the wasps and flies had laid inside the corpse but in miniscule amount every now and then. When noon approach, he noticed that the spider had eaten one of the prey injected with his mana. The mana that was injected into the prey had transferred to the spider but was not harming her.


    Thus, he decided to experiment further. He subtly injected some mana into the spider every now and then. By dusk, he noticed that the spider had moulted and grown twice its former size. It''s carapace look shinier and harder. It''s body had less hair. It''s eyes had a different glow than before. Also it had a tiny crystal made of mana, bearing Ozymandias signature in its abdomen.


    Upon looking at the spider, Ozymandias learnt what being happy and excited meant as he felt these newfound emotions. He felt a link of connection with the spider. He had succeeded. After working hard for two days straight, he had succeeded in claiming his first dungeon and dungeon monster.

 Chapter 4

    For the next two days, Ozymandias had done various experiments with his mana. He did not claim any further domain. He solely focused on the creatures inside his dungeon.


    After many different attempts, he had gotten the gist of the task on how to interact with the creatures.


    1. If the creature had no mana beforehand in their body, the creature will die upon sudden injection of his mana into it. The creature will explode.


    2. 5/10th the mana will be corrupted into miasma and hence, the creature will become mad and attack everything without abandon.


    3. Corrupted creature are most likely to attack something with mana first i.e. the dungeon core.


    4. Creatures can build initial mana by ingesing mana filled food or being exposed to the dungeon core for a long time. However, if a creature does not have a mana storage(dubbed as a mana core), the gained mana will be broken down into prana.


    5. Forcefully injecting a creature, even if said creature has mana in its body will either corrupt it or kill it. 1/10th will be corrupted.


    6. In order to avoid no.5, mana must be injected into a creature subtly and gradually until a mana core forms.


    7. After a mana core forms, the creature can take some forceful injection of mana to some extent.


    8. Injecting mana into eggs and younger creatures are more efficient and effective.


    9. Flies are the worst at receiving mana. Scorpions are the best.


    10. Lastly, mana and prana are compatible but miasma are not compatible with either. Mana is superior to prana in terms of energy. Miasma is hard to study.


    Having organised his thoughts, Ozymandias focus on the task at hand. This time, he wanted to expand his mana storage. It had been hard for him to multitask with such a low amount of mana in his core. His initial ring was bigger than before. At first, he was able to store only about a hundred unit of mana in his ring but now, he was able to store three hundred units. Also, ten unit of prana can be converted into a single unit of mana. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    Having experimented on the creatures, he had found that an additional ring of mana can be created. The first that was able to create a double ring was a scorpion from the tunnel. The first ring of the scorpion could only accomodate ten unit of mana. On exceeding that limit, the scorpion asleep for a day and when it woke up, it held a second ring. Now that particular scorpion could hold twenty unit in the first and triple that in the second. Also, the mana in its core had significantly got better and more distinct than the others.


    As of right now, three scorpions, two beetles and one spider had managed to create additional second ring. There were three spiders, seven beetles, five wasps and two scorpions in the first stage. As for flies, Ozymandias found that trying to create mana heart in their body was not possible for him, yet.


    The mongoose carcass was swarming with maggots and flies. It was all mushy and gooey now except for its bones. Thankfully, Ozymandias did not have a olfactory sensor yet or else he will have to run out of the den in order to breathe which he couldn''t do as he didn''t have legs.


    The den was wrapped in his mana. Still prana from the outside world and those released by the creatures in the den were still present, floating towards him like moth to a candle. Yet this wouldn''t do.


    His focus landed on the maggots. These weren''t ordinary maggots. These were maggots filled with mana and look fat and disgustingly juicy.


    Ozymandias had learnt how to kill. A dozen maggots got stab with green tendrils and quickly turned to dry husks, before turning to dust and crumbling away.


    He tasted the mana. Though the mana was taken from him, it became different once the mana entered a creature. These were crude and unrefined but still acceptable.


    At that moment, he sense a new presence in the tunnel, something he had not seen yet. He felt a sense of danger and dread.


    Without wasting any moment, he directed his vision towards the tunnel. A creature had intruded into his domain. It was different than the creatures he had seen so far and much bigger.


    The creature had a slender body with silky dense fur, a pointed snout and a scaly tail that was one-third of its entire body length. Large and round sparsely haired ears. Small, black and somewhat protruding eyes. Black dorsal fur with white underside. It had four limbs, each with sharp claws. Its mouth was armed with sharp teeth. It was a mouse, six times the size of the dungeon core and about 6 inches long.


    It''s eyes were focused on one of the scorpion that was living in the tunnel. The scorpion was also the strongest in the entire dungeon and the largest. It was the scorpion that had created the first second ring.


    But the scorpion was of no match to the mouse. The mouse was twice its size though the scorpion was longer. Furthermore, the scorpion most lethal weapon, its stinger was of no help as the mouse had strategically incapacitated the scorpion by biting off the stinger first. It happened so fast that Ozymandias had no even managed to send his remaining creatures to fend it off. As if shouting it''s victory over its slain for, the mouse howl.


    "Argrrrrrrrrrrrrr".


    It was a long, loud and mournful high pitch howl. It was a terrifying sound for most creatures.


    As if the mouse sensed that it was not safe to stay longer, it dragged the slain scorpion into a hole. Ozymandias didn''t bother sending any of his mouse to chased after it as he knew it will be futile. The mouse had incapacitated his strongest creature in an instant. The rest had no chance of defeating it. Moreover, chasing it into the hole will give it a home advantage.


    Something awaken in him. An emotion but it was neither anger nor despair. It was desire. He wanted the mouse for his own.


    Now is not the time. I need to get stronger first.


    Ozymandias was logical. In order to claim that creature, he had to have a better and bigger supply of mana. Thus, he resume his tasks of gathering and refining mana.


    The mouse didn''t appeared again. After killing more than a hundred maggots, ants and flies, Ozymandias knew it was time. He felt full and drowsy. It was time for the next evolution.


    Thus, darkness set in.