The sun sits high in the cloudy sky. Beneath it lies a swamp, populated by a variety of plants and animals. In the center of an aquatic swamp region sits a stone building. One wall is broken apart, leaving a hole with which to peek inside. Within the building is an old woman, a girl, and a sleeping boy. The old woman is explaining something to the girl.

  "Dungeon cores are sentient crystals which have evolved to shape their surroundings. They often build dungeons to house themselves, hence the name 'dungeon core.'"

  "Why don't they just seal themselves in stone? It would be a lot safer than a dungeon."

  "Well, they did that at first. Fortune seekers would hunt them, using tools to dig right to the core. This almost always resulted in the core's death."

  The girl goes quiet at that. The old woman quickly fills the silence.

  "Fortunately for the cores, they adapted. Instead of hiding away, they provided valuable resources to those that sought them."

  "Wait, then why are they making dungeons now?"

  The old woman chuckles, her words laced with bitterness.

  "One day you'll learn just how cruel humanity can be, child. The generous cores of old lacked protection, therefore humans easily culled them when they desired their crystalline body."

  The girl pales. The old woman continues.

  "The surviving cores did not take any chances after that. They set up gauntlets, guarding themselves from the humans. This inevitably led to more dungeon core deaths. Humanity felt outraged when their resource providing possessions rebelled against them."

  "Are dungeon cores... sentient?"

  The old woman nods slowly.

  "That's horrible! They were enslaving the poor cores!" The girl shouts.

  "Indeed. Human greed knows no bounds. Thankfully, the dungeon cores of today have struck a balance with humanity."

  The girl's face lights up at that. She's paying even closer attention now. The old woman smiles at that, finishing her explanation.

  "Dungeon cores provide valuable treasures which humans covet, yet they place these treasures beyond a gauntlet of traps and monsters. The core gets protection and sustenance whilst the delvers get glory and wealth."

  "Delvers?"

  "Yes, delvers. They're humans skilled in delving into dungeons to extract treasure."

  The girl purses her lips. Considering what she's just learned, she will likely be expected to build a dungeon of her own. One with ways to fend off invaders, and treasure to be pulled from its depths. The girl is stricken with a mixture of fear and excitement at the prospect.

  "This is a lot to take in..." The girl sighs.

  "Indeed. I trust you'll get a handle on it in time, dear."

  The old woman gives the girl a comforting pat on the back, a gesture reminiscent of a grandmother comforting her grandchild.

  "Any ideas on what kind of dungeon you'll build?"

  The girl looks past the old woman to eye the surrounding swamp. She smiles a little as inspiration comes to her. The girl turns to regard the old woman once more, her tone lighter.

  "I don't suppose you've ever seen an Indiana Jones movie?"

  "Can't say that I have."

  "Well... I'll be taking inspiration from the franchise."

  The old woman nods without understanding the girl's words. She turns suddenly, looking out at the swamp. The girl watches the old woman walk toward the break in the wall. The old woman takes long strides, her cane thumping against the stone floor. The girl calls out to the old woman, her voice laced with anxiety.

  "Where are you going?"

  "Out. There's something I must do, and I've been putting it off for too long."

  Without breaking stride, the old woman steps out through the gap in the wall and onto a waiting vine. The massive green appendage lifts the old woman like a living elevator, helping her move over the water without getting wet. The girl hurries over to the hole in the wall. She shouts her plea to the departing old woman.

  "Please come back to visit!"

  The girl watches the old woman wave her cane in acknowledgement of her request. The girl flinches when several giant green vines uncoil themselves from her house's exterior. These slithering vines retreat from sight, likely following the old woman.

  I never got her name...

  ~

  Wiping sweat from her brow, the girl surveys her handiwork. An immense stone pyramid, with a fifty meter by fifty meter square base. Hours spent converting water and earth into mana, then converting that mana into stone. Currently the stone pyramid is smooth and featureless.

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  "Hm. Needs some big flat steps. Stairs, too."

  The girl carves away at the stone with mana. The smooth straight slopes of the pyramid are quickly chiseled into square blocky tiers, each one roughly five meters deep and tall. She adds four sets of functional stairs leading up all four sides of the pyramid. These steps are made purposefully uneven, their non uniform construction making the climb more inconvenient for any would-be robbers.

  Needs more detail.

  A chip in the stone here, a crack in the rock there. The girl attempts to make her swamp pyramid look more natural. After chipping away at the task for several minutes, the girl finally gives up on doing things manually.

  Instead, she creates a meter wide rock above the pyramid. The huge stone falls after being brought into existence, degrading the pyramid's sharp edges as it tumbles down into the water. Giggling, the girl creates a whole quartet of boulders to weather her pyramid.

  Thump. Thump. Splash!

  Each boulder rolls down the pyramid on a unique path of destruction, leaving plenty of marks to give the pyramid an aged look. The girl removes the submerged boulders before promptly creating a new batch at the top of the pyramid. She watches with childlike glee as the large rocks bounce down her pyramid and into the water.

  The sun is a little lower in the sky when she finally stops throwing boulders at her pyramid.

  While she appreciates the weathered look her pyramid is sporting, she doesn't approve of all the loose debris lying around her pyramid. No ancient temple would still have so many pebbles on its exposed surfaces. To remedy this problem she employs water.

  An immense deluge appears above the pyramid as per the girl's mental orders, washing away small rocks and debris. The whole structure glistens in the afternoon sun as the water drains into the surrounding wilderness.

  Taking another look at her handiwork, the girl frowns. She thought this was everything, yet she can't shake the feeling there's something missing from her pyramid.

  The girl's eyes wander from her pyramid to it's surroundings. Murky swamp water. Oversaturated loamy soil. Gnarled looming trees. The girl stops, her gaze resting upon some vines hanging from a tree. The girl slaps her fist atop her open palm, exclaiming her epiphany.

  "That's it! Vines!"

  Riding the high of her realization, the girl thoughtless glances at a nearby vine before attempting to replicate it onto her pyramid. An abundance of mana drains from her core. She starts, her eyebrows raising as the vine consumes more than twice as much mana as the stone did.

  "Wait a minute... I made life?!"

  The girl shivers at the implications of what she's done. She unknowingly crossed a line, and it didn't even strain her! It simultaneously imbues the girl with a sense of pride and fear. After all, if she's capable of replicating plants, then why not animals? People, even?

  Let's just cross that bridge when we get to it...

  Pushing that aside, the girl decides its high time she adds an entrance to her pyramid. She moves above the tip of the pyramid. Using a surge of mana, she flattens the tip of the pyramid into a platform. She carves a massive stone door into the platform, a two meter by two meter slab of rock. Beneath the door she carves a staircase.

  She ends the staircase three meters down--roughly a story of a modern building.

  The girl carves a square corridor along the interior perimeter of her pyramid. This tunnel starts at the staircase, and spirals down the pyramid. She ensures the floor of the corridor is at a consistent incline. She finishes the basic layout of the dungeon by ending the corridor with a spacious chamber.

  "Okay, now for the fun part!"

  A manic grin spreads across the girl's face as she carves pit into the floor of the corridor. At the bottom of this hallway spanning pit, she creates an array of stone spikes. She tests the effectiveness of the pit by dropping a ball of dirt into it. The results are... messy.

  The girl removes the soil from her pitfall trap. She considers the trap a success, and duplicates the same design throughout the corridor. Hopefully these plainly visible spike pits will serve as an effective deterrent.

  Now that the stick is in place, it's time for the carrot.

  Deep beneath the earth, far below the girl's core, she can sense something shiny. She examines the pretty mineral before duplicating a chunk of it atop her pyramid. Seeing it in the light, she can say with certainty that its gold! Real gold, too, not pyrite.

  The girl creates a plain looking stone vase, carving an alcove into the side of the corridor for it to fill. Inside this vase she places several gold coins. Each coin is marked with a pyramid on one side, and an alligator's head on the other.

  More alcoves are carved into the walls of the winding corridor, each one at an even distance from the others. Inside, she places random assortments of vases. The vases come in several shapes: tall, squat, tiny, and large. Inside theses vases she places more of the golden coins. She is careful to put larger sums of money in the deeper vases, and lesser sums in the shallower ones.

  Inspiration strikes. She knows what kind of treasure she can put at the end of her dungeon.

  The girl floats down into bottom of her pyramid. She enters the large chamber at the bottom, and creates an intricate stone pedestal. Atop this pedestal she places a watermelon sized lump of gold. She carves, expending a trickle of mana as she turns the lump of gold into a proper idol. It resembles an alligator standing on two legs, it's round shape giving it a chubby appearance.

  What a wonderful treasure! I'm sure delvers will adore you!

  ~

  The trilling of birds mingles with the croaking of frogs. A man walks through the swamp, his leather boots keeping the mud off his clothes. His keen eye continuously scans his surroundings. A short sword hangs off his belt, it's scabbard slapping against his thigh softly as he walks.

  He steps out from behind the trees to look across the slough. His eyes widen slightly as he looks beyond the snags to see an imposing structure. Partially surrounded by water, the massive building is nothing like he's ever seen.

  "Oi! What're you standing around for, Carter?"

  The shout of his friend shakes Carter from his reverie. He turns, giving the armored man a wide smile as he gestures over his shoulder.

  "I found our dungeon, my friend."

  The armored man approaches with a raised eyebrow. His jaw drops when he sees the massive structure looming over the slough. It's thrice as high as the nearby trees, and comprised entirely of a dark grey stone.

  "By the gods, what madness is this?"

  "I've no idea, Hugo. It's nothing like the tomb back home."

  The two men stand there for several moments, appreciating the view of the overgrown pyramid. Their remaining party members join them. The priestess is quick to comment on the strangeness of the structure before them, her voice like the ringing of a clear bell.

  "It's beautiful, in a way. Reminds me of the cathedral back home."

  "Does it? Feels a lot more ominous to me," Replies the party's mage.

  The priestess nods, her golden locks bouncing with the motion.

  "That's true. I can sense the dungeon's domain, and it's... terrifying."

  The four stare quietly at the pyramid a bit longer before Carter starts walking. The man leads the group around the edge of the slough, eyeing the pyramid when he's not busy watching his footing. Upon reaching the edge of the pyramid, Carter puts his hand up to signal the party to stop. They quietly wait as Carter approaches the pyramid's steps cautiously. He scans the ground with his eyes, searching for anything amiss.

  He finds nothing, and tells his party as such.

  "It's not trapped. We should be safe to climb it."

  Hugo chuckles lowly, amused by the situation.

  "Never thought I'd have to climb so many stairs to get into a dungeon! Hah!"

  "Neither did I, my friend."