*Susan*

  I didn’t sleep for very long, I don’t think. The dungeon is filled with magical light, so there is no way to tell time, but it certainly doesn’t feel like it has been long. I woke up to a burning smell, and opening my eyes I scream.

  How else should I react to a glowing skeleton holding a torn and burned corpse of a peryton? The weird bird-deer hybrids were already strange enough without this to set the stage.

  “Food… Eat…”

  By the gods, they had tried to cook me a meal- and failed horribly at it by the looks of things. Still, I was too hungry to be picky right now. Still, a knife and fork would have been appreciated.

  The meal was… Disgusting, but I at least appreciated the thought.

  “Thank you.”

  It was the thought that counts, right? I should at least try to be polite. The skeleton does not respond, which is incredibly awkward… But I am not dead.

  “Who… Chase…”

  I guess it was asking about the people after me, but I don’t know anything about them…

  “I don’t know, they seemed to know my mother, and they- they…”

  I can’t continue, I just start crying- I should be stronger, but I can’t be. My whole family is dead, one week ago we were all happy together looking forward to a new life in a new town. Now here I am, in a cave with a skeleton, with men coming to rape and kill me. It is surreal.

  “Will… Ask… Later… Rest…”

  It seemed a struggle for the skeleton to speak, but I understood it at least. I am grateful- perhaps they really are my ancestors, why else would they be so kind to me?

  *Core*

  I watched the girl grimace, but she still thanked me- or rather my skeleton, for the meal. So despite its obviously awful taste, she must have some manners. The question of when I can actually get useful information out of her is a hard one though.

  That said, I am quite happy that she has people pursuing her. Assuming they don’t kill me and my minions they will fuel the growth of this labyrinth floor, and that most assuredly makes me happy. It is quite interesting to note that thoughts of growth and power do seem to be the motivations I have as a core, but fortunately I am smarter than those instincts.

  Probably. I mean, if cores are like humans then they are really good at rationalizing, which means that I might just be making up reasons for my actions that are not actually related to the real reasons. But that is a rabbit hole I am not going to go down, it never fucking ends.

  It will be interesting to see how well my preparations work. Ah, here they are.

  “Oi, the tracking spell shows that she ran in here!”

  “A dungeon? Unless she is tougher than they told us, she probably is dead in the entrance.”

  “Nah, the spell would fade then. She is still alive.”

  “I hope she is in good enough condition to fuck!”

  The group laughed at that as they stepped into my dungeon, well Specy these ones you can kill.

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  “Yes… Lord…”

  Four men, equipped leather armor and heavily armed and one in the middle with a staff. Well, if the stereotypes of my world still work, that one is a mage of some description. That would explain the whole ‘tracking spell’ thing.

  “Well, let’s clear this place and add the drops and crystal to our profit for this job!”

  “Yeah, if she can make it through this dungeon it must be real easy!”

  “Trespassers..!”

  Oh, now that is a nice voice for intimidating people! Good job Specy. The skeletons formed and pushed forward and the archers attacked. Let us see how it goes…

  “Fuck, undead!”

  “Archers at the side, watch for them and don’t get shot!”

  “Son of a bitch this fucker is tough!”

  The mage stepped back behind the other fighters and pointed his staff at Specy. “It is a Spectral Warrior, its resistant to normal weapons- let me take this!”

  Would you call that a fireball? It didn’t really explode, but it did burn through Specy. Probably a lesser magic then, again assuming this follows the ideas from my own world.

  All in all, they only managed to bring down one of the invaders before they were taken down. Well, all except the archers, the mage blew one of them apart and they just left the other behind. Annoying, I had expected to do better than that.

  The good news is that my trap at the intersection worked well enough, and they even took the wrong route and ended up fighting a respawned skeleton on the way back! Well, if I survive this it is a decent proof of concept.

  “Fuck this place,” I listened to the soldiers, perhaps assassins? Talk. “I have never heard of a dungeon here before, and since the bitch made it through I thought this would be easy.”

  “It must be some ancestor of hers, she just lucked out.”

  Now that is funny, they think I am related to her? How funny. Still, it has certain implications about other dungeons. Clearly I am odd compared to others, but then I was odd compared to people to I suppose. Makes sense I’d be an odd dungeon Unfortunately, my dungeon was not very large yet.

  Wake the girl and tell her to move into the core room.

  *Susan*

  I wake up when I hear the clacking of the skeleton approach, my heart nearly jumps out of my throat until I remember where I am.

  “Danger… Go…”

  The skeleton was pointing deeper into the dungeon, the danger probably meant those people chasing me… I think the core room is after this one- if this room falls both the core and I die.

  “No, let me help.”

  I want to kill these bastards myself. I was still terrified, but now that I was allowed to eat and rest, I was also furious. I hate them, I want to feel them die by my own hands!

  “I can fight too!”

  “How…?”

  Well the skeleton was not outrighting refusing at least.

  “I am a bard,” Not a good one, but the skeleton didn’t need to know that. “My songs can increase the strength and defense of your forces.”

  The skeleton said nothing at first, I guess if you don’t have a brain it takes a while to think.

  “Lord… Accepts…”

  “Then I will be supporting from the back.”

  I scramble to the back of the room and clear my throat. Some bards can rend the flesh off their enemies with their voices alone like banshees, but I am not nearly so skilled. But I can buff their resistances and strength…

  “Well lookie here,” the men were here. “Looks like we found the little bitch.”

  “Don’t think because Nemmy died we are gonna take any less time with you, we all will take an extra turn!”

  “Should take a few, didn’t get any time with her dear mom after all!”

  They laughed, and I did my best to ignore them and started to sing. Skeletons swirled up from bones and they stepped forward to fight.

  I could hardly watch the fight, I was focused on my songs… But things were not going so well- they were injured but not dead.

  The skeleton’s glow faded as its skull was crushed and my voice faltered. I guess this was the end.

  “You made this harder for us than it had to be, so you don’t mind if we give it to you harder as payback right?”

  Oh gods, maybe I could somehow kill myself…

  But there was an orange glow that came from the corridor behind them and then an explosion. I flew back and slammed into the wall, before slumping to the floor and things went dark.

  AN: Thank you for reading! Want to read the next chapter early? You can! Donating to my Patreon allows you to read the next three to four chapters early, and you can find it here:

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  “A Broken World” Releases: Thursday and Sunday

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  “Pathos” Releases: Saturday

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  “The 212 Crisis” Releases: Friday

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  “The Illuminating Heroes” Releases: Monday

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  “A Dungeon Core”

  Releases: Tuesday

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