Re-Carnated

[rested, mana regenerated]

They awoke, refreshed. Sleep was crucial to them, as it would refresh both their body and magic reserves. Despite their love of sleep, it disturbed them slightly. 

As they were enclosed in what seemed to be an underground dungeon, they had no method of keeping time, save for the tiny crack in the roof of the second room. 

They had no idea how much time they had spent in the dungeon, and they had no idea for how long they slept for at any given time, as there was nothing to awake them from their sleep.

Awaking from their sleep, they remembered the ritual. It had seemed that they were able to complete it, and the target item was created without any hitches as they know about.

They quickly went over to the altar, looking to see what they had created.

Going over to the altar, they noticed the rough rock on the floor. Picking it up, to see if the ritual did anything to it, it did.

 On the side opposite of where they would usually hold it, the rough rock had developed a black tip, that spanned about an inch.

Thinking about what the black stone reminded them of, they then immediately saw the answer. 

The color of the black tip, as well as the matte shiny texture was similar to that of the altar. 

[Rough rock has now partially been transformed]

"Sweet, I hope this is some kind of power upgrade for this rock" They excitedly thought. It seemed like everything had been going pretty well recently. 

To continue onto their good mood, they now analyzed the stone, hoping it would bring some change. As much as they had gotten used to living in the dungeon, this didn't mean they liked it. 

"I've been getting complacent with this dungeon" They sadly realized. A life consisting of three rooms and various pieces of junk was no life worth living to them.

They now turned to the stone. The ritual was strange, and it seemed to be a ritual of a high level magic user, so they had high expectations for the rock that awaited them.

Picking up the rock, they turned it in their hand as they analyzed it.

The stone was orange-ish brown, a very smooth stone as well. It was almost so smooth it seemed to mock the classic rough rock.

On one side of the rock, it had a deep engraving of the sigil that they had put onto the wall. The sigil was likely some kind of indicator of what the stone did, but they still had no knowledge of the written language.

Turning it in their hands, it had no obvious purpose.

"I'll try establishing a mana flow into it." They thought that putting magic energy into it would reveal its purpose. 

They concentrated, activated their full body inspell, then isolated their inspell into their left hand like usual.

Gripping the stone, they now attempted to establish a mana flow, like they would do with the rough rock.

When they established the mana flow, they realized something. The rock was already full of mana, the flow was now giving him additional mana. 

Now having a clear feel for the mana flow of the stone, they noticed something else. 

The mana for the stone seemed to be trying to draw to the walls of the dungeon. 

Cautiously, they brought the stone to the walls, bending to its will temporarily.

Reaching out to the wall to touch it to it, they felt... no resistance. 

The wall seemed to start to swallow up the stone, as if the wall were a sideways pool of water, and he was simply pushing the stone into it.

They continued to push it in, and now, they noticed, their hand was going in too. 

Sticking it in deeper, they were now almost elbow deep into the stone wall of the dungeon. 

Despite it flowing into the wall as if it were made of water, it didn't feel like it.

It felt cold, desolate.

But then a warmness spread out, coming from the rock in his hands. It slowly dissolved, the mana dispersing throughout the dungeon. But that wasn't exactly all.

They felt a diverging mana stream. The mana from the rock took the energy from his hand, and used it along with it's own mana, and then spread that combined mana throughout the dungeon. 

They now felt a connection with the dungeon, as if they were one.

As the rock rid itself of all of the energy inside it, completely dissolving into the walls, it then violently pushed them out of the wall. 

Crash

They fell backwards, onto their back. They were lying on the floor.

They were now the only thing lying on the floor in the dungeon.

Step, step, step

This was not their own footsteps. They quickly recovered their stance in fear of the other living thing in the dungeon. 

Their experience with living beings inside the dungeon was less than pleasant, recalling the beast they had killed. 

They put the rough rock into their hand, it had served them well.

Looking around, for where the entity was, from the door to the third room, a pale, grey figured entered out from the darkness, seemingly bringing an aura of death into the room.

The naked, previously hooded man entered the room, no specific expression on their face.

They wasted no time in retaliating. Regaining their previous posture, they started to sprint. 

Hoping to finish off the figure that had seemingly revived, they jumped in the air, hoping to shove the newly black point of the rough rock into the skull of the man. 

Descending on the figure, they fell through it. It was not an entity operating in reality.

"I am still dead." A deep voice stated monotonously to them.

Maintaining their fear of the entity, they quickly looked through the gap into the third room. 

Sure enough, the dead body was still their, the cold, dead feet poking out from behind the tablet still.

Clap Clap Clap

The apparition of the figure clapped, the neutral expression on their face remained. 

"Awaken once more, dungeon keeper."

The figure said adressing them.

[Dungeon keeper status obtained]