Guardian core (Book 1 of: potentially many)

Day one

((A/N)-first comment. ;P)

When I woke up, the sun was beginning to rise, and I felt groggy and confused. I looked around, only seeing dirt covering my face and a crack beneath me. I was so confused- I couldn't even feel my body. Then I remembered and froze- mentally, since my body wasn't exactly available for the job at the moment. I recovered after a minute, and couldn't feel anyone nearby- luckily, it seemed this wasn't exactly a common spot for visitors.

I began to expand my territory again, pausing when I felt a need from... the crystal seed I'd planted. I hadn't known I'd feel that... I felt at it, considering it and trying to understand what was wrong- only to suddenly know. It needed water- fresh water- to grow, and it was growing sick without being able to grow.

I immediately ate a decent chunk of earth under it and made a tunnel from there to the empty pond out in front. I didn't know if what I was planning was possible, but I had to try. I took a small ball of the rock I'd just eaten, then used magic and infused it with almost all that I had, using the enchantment feature to enchant the rock. I could tell the enchantment wouldn't last more than a year, and would degrade over that time, but until then It would do what I needed it too.

I placed it in that underground pocket, making a small alcove and connecting 'pipe' to the room as well, and soon the rock- acting like a spring, began filtering any extra salt around it out of it's surroundings and sending it straight to me. I then made a small portal in the ocean water outside and into the small pocket. It quickly filled and was purified while beginning to spread to the pond and the special alcove, giving the seed the water it needed.

I felt pretty proud of myself, and a bit confused about why that had come so naturally to me, before I suddenly got a notification that a quest had been completed.

Crystal garden I

Plant a crystal seed and give it what it needs to grow. You need crystals to make permanent enchantments after all, and those won't grow themselves! Well... now they will.

Reward: Element imbuement. You may now imbue objects with elements. As long as they are near magic, they will absorb it and create that element. Added to the enchantment section.

I stared, then dismissed it. This thing was weird... I prayed I wouldn't have to be here too long... maybe they'd been kidding and this was a test? Yeah! That made sense... I must be being tested. Well, I'd gather as much data about being a dungeon core as possible and show them I was a fantastic employee!

With that goal in mind, I began slowly expanding my territory again, my magic recovering quickly, but not fast enough. That frustrated me... you'd think I'd have managed to start with a better magic score...

Thinking of my start made me realize something. It had clearly been more than two hours since I'd passed out- why hadn't I leveled up like the stupid prompts had said I would? The simple answer appeared when I checked my level after pulling up my status screen. Apparently, unless 'idle mode was active, I didn't absorb magic unless I was awake. So I'd wasted all that time asleep. Why would I ever even have that off?

I activated Idle mode and noticed my magic stopped replenishing- meaning my mana regeneration was only active when I wasn't absorbing magic as experience. That... actually explained some things... I turned it off- not needing it while I was awake- and kept expanding. I finally reached all the way down the sword path- it had been a very long path filled with random caves, small spaces, narrow halls, and stretches where I assumed I'd put traps later on.

It ended... suddenly. In a large room that was completely empty except for a small stone chest that seemed to grow out of the ground. It was hollow, and seemed to be empty for now. I supposed it was my job to fix that... but not now. I began expanding my territory down towards the last tunnel- the process going slightly faster now and letting me realize that my mana pool was seeming to grow along with my territory- and the larger my mana pool, the higher my mana regeneration.