Graverra sat up with a gasp and immediately cringed as if to ward off a blow. That was how being picked up from unconsciousness always went; Your head throbbed, your lungs ached, and you got a lecture on how you could have done better with a side of rhetorical questions of your own intelligence. Graverra was just thankful her thoughts no longer projected outwards; the internal barrage of conditioned I told you so’s were more than enough for now.

Or… Wait. She didn’t have a party to do that to her anymore.

Graverra froze, then cocked her head as she glanced around her. She was alone. Completely alone and in a foreign room, tucked into a foreign bed. Immediately after that registered, she went to feel her face; Squishing her cheeks between her palms before dragging her hands down over her throat and chest. She pulled her hands back with an affronted gasp as she felt the unevenness of a scar starting at the top of her clavicle.

That bastard really had split her in two and let it scar!

She threw back the covers, for the moment ignoring the suspicious fact it was an awfully luxurious bed - sliding off the edge to move towards the full length mirror nearby as if she had always known it was there. She didn’t. She had no memory of any such place, nor, more importantly, where her clothes had gotten to.

Before that frantic line of questioning could begin, the surface of the mirror lit up with a prompt similar to what her grimoire used.

Customize Core 66.5 ’s Avatar?

[Y] / N

“Is that me?” Graverra whispered as she accepted. Looking beyond the glowing lettering was just plain eerie. Of course, it was her; The woman in the mirror moved when she moved, had asked the same question she’d asked, and yet… She was paler, fuller, her eyes glowed the same bright mana-blue that the core’s had, there was white in her hair now.

More words filled up the mirror, making staring at herself a bit harder to do without feeling cross eyed.

Core 66.5 (SECONDARY)

Dungeon Core | Rank 147th

Location Undetermined | Dungeon Unnamed

Mana Reserves: 3,000 (7%/1hr)

[See further dungeon info]

“Secondary?!” She didn’t whisper that time. It wasn’t as if she had forgotten the events that had transpired before this, but Graverra made much more of an effort to remember the conversation now. She had hoped even if she did share the dungeon with her core, she might still be considered a whole one herself. That’s what he had promised, hadn’t he?

At least that seemed to be a reliable sign she really hadn’t been stuffed into a dungeon all by herself after all. The fact that this was all the interaction she’d had since waking up unsettled her, though. And more unsettling than that, none of the walls or anything else in the room was made of flesh or bone. The bedsheets were a particularly bloody shade of red silk, but the walls were stone. The mirror was some fancy bit of ironwork as the frame, maybe gothic in nature, but not exactly something that screamed built by a dungeon core with an affinity for the grotesque…

Graverra tried to press in on [see further dungeon info], but was met with a warning flashed onto the mirror.

Unable To Process Request While In Customization Mode

Please Finish Customizing Core Avatar

“But where’s my dungeon core?” If talking out loud had pulled up her own little core stat sheet, then maybe… But all the mirror shows her is the customization screen again.

“Fine.” She grumbled. It really wasn’t such an imposition… She’d always had a running list of things to change once she could afford them as an adventurer. Honestly, if the core wanted to tempt her quickly, he should have started there.

The options that followed were more than Graverra had thought allowed. And that was just what she could do to a humanoid form. Evidently a dungeon core could be anything. Absolutely anything it wanted. She skimmed her way through options of skin tone, muscle mass, eye color, hair style… Everything. Horns, wings, tails, hooves, a third-eye, extra limbs, tentacles…

Her first order of business though, had become dealing with the scar running down her sternum. Graverra shuddered at the notion of how it got there.

Chest Tear - [LOCKED]

“Hang on. It’s my avatar isn’t it?!” Graverra sought out the rest of these [LOCKED] attributes. Fine, maybe the scar made sense, but…

Base Form; Female Human - [LOCKED]

Ghostly Pale Skin - [LOCKED]

Chest Tear - [LOCKED]

Breast Size: Large - [LOCKED]

Shock of White x2 - [LOCKED]

Mana Blue Irises - [LOCKED]

“Oh, come on!” She tugged both stands of white hair forward as she leaned into the mirror to look past the projected text. “This is such a cliche!”

She tended not to fight anything that might fall into the undead, necrotic, or otherwise lich-y categories - her own skills didn’t do quite as much against them, obviously but she couldn’t begin to count the number of necromancer adjacent mobs, bosses, or just other adventurers who had played into the trope. And how many times that had already caused her plenty of grief…

“Core! If I find out this was you!” Maybe that was why he hadn’t brought up the whole avatar customization thing…

“ ‘I’d really like for you to keep your body’, uhg!” Graverra mocked before scoffing anew at another set of changes. They had most certainly not been that big the last time she saw them… Nor had her hips been quite so round.

She doesn’t mind the paler skin - despite insults slung back and forth between herself and Valerae, but Val’s was always on the verge of sickly translucent, this was different - but she finds she minded it even less with perfectly airbrushed blush and the best smokey eye she’d ever been able to find.

Still, her screeching and mocking gained no response, even with the pause to do her makeup, leaving Graverra to fall back on the anxiety of being alone. She hurried back to the beginning of the customizations, still happy to adjust what she was allowed, but even more eager to see what else she had access to after that. If this was just her own physical appearance, what was she allowed to do to a while dungeon?

Most things available to Graverra were of a tier she might have never been able to afford outside of making a deal with a dungeon core. There were no mechanical properties attached to any of it - not the armor or clothing, and definitely not the cosmetics, though those never had any to begin with - but they all still looked like the highest tiered gear and then some.

Equipped: Strexhin’s Sacrifice (Robes)

Equipped: Bone Tyrant’s Regalia (Armor Set)

The armor wouldn’t do anything, obviously. But she’d never been able to wear any before and the bedazzled set of ribs as chest piece and skulls as paldrons seemed fitting, while not clashing with the robes. Like most clothing meant for casters, the robes weren’t really robes, though this skirt was much longer than her previous one. The slit up either side and the cut outs above her hips made up for it. For once, a plunging neckline frustrated her. It showed off too much of the new scar. Graverra guessed, though, that if that really had been the core’s choice, he might appreciate it at least.

The spiderweb veil to replace her witch’s hat though, that was for her. She had a title now and an image to maintain and something somewhere had agreed with her. She’d married a dungeon core. She ran a dungeon now. And she looked really good doing it too.

Confirm Customization Of Core 66.5 ’s Avatar?

(This can be changed with the use of mana)

[Y] / N

Absolutely, she would revisit everything at some point - she owed the dungeon core some locked changes of her own - but for now, she needed to try and summon her grimoire.

Rather than appearing in Graverra’s hands, the tome dropped with a thud onto a table she hadn’t noticed before. Or maybe it just hadn’t been there until that moment… Either way, Graverra frowned at it a moment. The way everything was almost but not quite right set her ill at ease.

Welcome New Core!

Achievement - Customized Core Avatar!

Achievement - Set Up Core’s Chambers!

Achievement - Build Entrance!

Achievement - Summon First Mob!

Achievement - Expand Dungeon!

Achievement - Regenerated Mana!

Achievement - Demolished Unnecessary Expansion!

Achievement - Dealt Damage!

Graverra shrieked, accosted by achievements without even having to open her grimoire all the way. They were in her head now. The rush was vertigo inducing, causing her to lean on the table for support as she tried banishing them all as quick as she could. They would probably all be there for her somewhere later, to go through at her own pace.

Core 66.5 (SECONDARY)

Dungeon Core | Rank 147th

Location Undetermined | Dungeon Unnamed

Mana Reserves: 3,000 (7%/1hr)

[See Further Dungeon Info]

Core Avatar

‘Graverra Greame’, Bride of the Dungeon Core

Appearance: Drethiaq Necromancer

She meant to press in on [See Further Dungeon Info], but paused to grumble again, “Okay, but why secondary?”

In answer, the grimoire’s pages flipped for her and more text began to fill the page.

In rare instances, a dungeon, delve, or maze may require the maintenance of two cores. Due to the nature of such locations, one will always maintain a primary core - The core that originated with the dungeon, delve, or maze.

“Well. Fine. I guess he was here first. That does mean he’s still here, right?” She waited for the grimoire to answer her like it had before… It doesn’t.

Graverra growled and rephrased her question. “Where is the primary dungeon core?”

The page flipped again and a map filled in. A tiny map that at first only showed the dungeon entrance - just as bare bones as she’d left it - but after that filled in, two other rooms connected to one another, but completely disconnected from the dungeon.

Primary Core’s Lair - Secondary Core’s Chambers

“How come he gets a lair and I get a chamber? Maybe I want a lair.” It probably didn’t mean anything, but Graverra was starting to sense an interesting pattern here.

Remodel Secondary Core’s Chambers?

Cost: 5,000 Mana

Y / [N]

“Oh! No! No, no, no.” Graverra shut the grimoire and picked it up to carry with her on her way out of her chambers and into his lair. So she’d have to be a bit more careful with what she said, if the entire dungeon was listening to her now - which admittedly was already a marvelous feeling, but before she made any major changes it probably would have been best to touch bases with the supposed primary core.

“Don’t you dare!” The dungeon core’s voice boomed through the room. The startle launched Graverra into the air with a squeal and on through the doorway to defend herself.