The hand scuttled out into the dark interior of the crypt, each fall of its bony fingers leaving a soft thud against the stone floor. The skeleton watched it disappear before letting her gaze drop, returning to the stone floor. Now, all that she could do was wait and think. Which brought her to a question that had been on her mind since she had awoken.

  What am I?

  There had been something before this. She knew that much. A life lived was there on the edges of her mind, tantalizingly close and yet firmly out of her reach. The details just... escaped her. She supposed that she must have been dead for some time. If her tomb was anything to go by, she had been important enough to warrant a personal resting place yet not so much as to deserve a lavish burial. Perhaps she had held a minor position of power? Her surroundings certainly didn't scream 'Tomb of an Empress.' Not that it mattered any more. Now, she was just a corpse. Or at least, something between that and a living being. Still, some small part of her desired to remember. It might explain where she was or what to do. Information was her most lacking resource right now and, arguably, the most important outside of the mysterious 'anima' that she used to improve her dungeon more directly. The more she learned, the more equipped she'd feel she was to handle this place and the more questions she'd have, leading to her seeking more knowledge. To begin with, she needed to understand her current capabilities.

  I suppose that, for now, I am The Master. It is my title, after all. She stared at her status for a long time, trying to glean anything new from it. This wasn't her entire status. Something told her that much. There was more to this strange system than immediately obvious. Attempting to bring up a new menu was, however, fruitless. And eventually she let the subject drop in favor of the notification that had appeared.

  Expedition - Scouting Party complete. New Expeditions unlocked.

  The Master's eyes flickered as the hand returned, examining a new window that had appeared - this window held a small map of her dungeon and its surroundings. The following room wasn't as large as she had expected, but it was still around five times the size of her tiny core room. She hoped that there was still something out there to reap experience and anima from, or she'd be sat here for quite some time. The skeletal hand entered the core room, meeting the third spawn - oh, another had appeared while she was thinking - and motioning to it before starting to patrol around the coffin. The Master opened her expedition menu.

  Expedition Menu

  - Scouting Party [Reveal new territory adjacent to your dungeon or explored territory.]

  - Hunting Party [Procure resources by slaying creatures or capture a live creature.]

  - Scavenging Crew [Procure resources through foraging and scavenging. Additional minions may be sent as guards.]

  A hunting party was what she wanted... and she wasn't taking chances to see if she could gain anima if something died outside of her domain just yet. There would be time for experimentation later. Sending the two hands back into the crypt with orders to bring something of use back to her, she began to pace around the room. She stopped when her vision landed on the spider that had been watching her for some time now. What if..? Lurching forwards silently, she slammed her bony palm into the wall. She had crushed it in an instant.

  You have slain a Spider.

  New pattern revealed. Progress towards unlocking pattern - Spider: 33%

  A pattern had revealed itself, but no anima. Why, She wondered, Was the spider too small? Perhaps, but she doubted that. The rats were small, too. There was something else here that she wasn't understanding, clearly. She had gained nothing from the spider beyond some progress towards a pattern that, likely, wouldn't even be useful. What would a spider pattern provide, weak as they were? All that she could do was crush creatures to death and earn a pittance in response, if even that, and it irked her to no end that the opportunities to truly learn were so limited. Still, a small amount of knowledge was preferable to none. Meticulously inspecting and absorbing the webs that clung to her tomb's walls, The Master soon found another and crushed it with ease. The rest had fled.

  You have slain a Spider.

  Progress towards unlocking pattern - Spider: 66%

  There were no more spiders. She spent a minute dissolving the rest of the cobwebs with her absorption ability, though she didn't receive any units of 'web', nor anything else, for doing so. With nothing to keep her occupied, The Master took her seat above her core and waited for the hands to return.

  Oh? The Master stared at her status as the anima ticked up to four. She could gain anima over time, it seemed. In fact... hadn't this happened before, now that she thought about it? That certainly made things easier. It seemed, then, that she wouldn't be trapped until something wandered into her home or ran into her minions. Still, it had been a long time for just a single anima. She hoped that the hands would return with something useful. It wasn't long before a startled squeak echoed throughout the crypt and she rose to her feet. A minute later, the hands entered the room. One had the rat in a tight grip while the other slowly pushed it forwards with its body. With the rat safely within the room, she gave the command. Kill it. Again, one of her skeletal hands squeezed the rat until its body gave in and was promptly absorbed.

  A rat has been slain.

  1 Anima was absorbed.

  Progress towards unlocking pattern - Rat: 75%

  1 unit of [Bone] has been added to your stores.

  No experience again, which was frustrating, but the final anima she required was enough to mollify her. With a mental flourish, she expanded her domain to encompass the larger room. The pressure in the room seemed to change as she walked through the glowing threshold, taking in her new territory and feeling a rush of power enter with her echoing steps. Another door lay at the end of the room, this one made of a different material. It's wooden, she noted. It had rotted slightly, a small hole at the bottom explaining the presence of the rats. The room was filled with three orderly lines of four sarcophagi each, empty sconces decorating the gray brick walls. Her vision zeroed in on the only one that lay open. Almost predictably, more words appeared alongside the notification she'd been ignoring.

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  Step 2 of 3 complete in [Quest: Dungeon Genesis.]

  Spawner - Skeleton - Inert

  Claim? [5 Anima]

  Well, a full skeleton would be more useful than simple hands, that was for sure. Unfortunately, she was completely dry on anima. With only one exit leading to a new area to expand into, The Master sent two of her hands to scout and checked her minion count. Four hands out of five. She brought the newest hand into the room with another mental command before setting it to work clearing out any spiders that it could find on the floor. The Master would search closer to the ceiling. Together, they made short work of the pests and the cobwebs.

  You have slain a Spider.

  A Spider has been slain

  A Spider has been slain.

  A Spider has been slain.

  A Spider has been slain.

  Although The Master had ceased hunting the spiders once their pattern unlocked, she left the hand to its job of cleaning up the vermin and took her seat on a stone slab. Opening the Bestiary, she selected the newly unlocked pattern.

  Hm... not as useful as the hands, then. Not that she had really expected them to be. It was easy to kill them and they didn't put up a fight, while she suspected the hands could at least harm their opponents before being destroyed. Perhaps they could be useful later, when evolved, but at a fifth of her total anima it wasn't worth it to spawn many. Not right now. The Master simply sat in thought, checking her quest progress.

  Quest: Dungeon Genesis

  A new dungeon has appeared in the world with you as its master. This quest will be completed when you have achieved a basic understanding of the most crucial mechanics required to control a dungeon.

  Step 1: Designate Core Room - Complete

  Step 2: Expand Your Domain Once - Complete

  Step 3: Evolve A Creature To Rank 1 Once - Incomplete

  Reward: ???

  Perhaps she'd spawn a single spider and see if it could evolve quickly enough. She'd regenerated a single anima over the time she spent carefully examining her quest. Upon willing the critter to spawn, she found a translucent blue version of the arachnids she'd slain floating in mid-air. She could easily adjust its position with her mind, even rotating it, but if a part of it was colliding with an object or wall the entire spider immediately flashed red. Attempting to spawn the spider while it was red resulted in nothing happening and so she shifted it a few centimeters upwards, removing its legs from the ground, and spawned it. She felt a small tug at her chest, where the crystal had once floated. And then, with a flash of cyan light, a spider appeared. A nearby hand regarded it for a moment, sensed its connection to the dungeon and proceeded to ignore it.

  Interesting. As it was part of her dungeon, the hand didn't automatically attempt to cleanse it. The spider stood still, its many eyes focusing on the skeleton that had created it as if waiting for a command. The Master thought for a moment before giving her order.

  Go and do whatever it is that you do. If you are capable of becoming useful on your own, pursue that goal. Do not leave my dungeon. I will experiment with you later. I will find a use for you.

  The spider skittered off behind a coffin, out of view. It was a disappointing little thing, unable to assist her or defend her, but the pattern had impressed upon the critter's potential. It was supposed to grow to be useful to some extent with time. And if it didn't? she would pick it apart and study it closer. Either way, the spider would serve some purpose.

  Expedition - Scouting Party complete.

  It hadn't taken long. The Master offered the hands a brief glance before diving into the menu. It seemed that the door led to a small stairway. At the top of the stairs, it opened out into a large hall referred to as 'Church - Interior'. The map was incredibly basic, giving little information of the state of the church or what lay inside of the hall. She really hoped that there was a way to upgrade the map. This time, the expansion cost was slightly larger.

  Expansion Options

  Church - Interior, Ground Floor - [10 Anima]

  That was... immensely frustrating. She couldn't even hold that much anima at once and she couldn't pay it in increments. That meant that there had to be a way to raise her anima capacity. But how? Pacing through the crypt, her mind found itself prodding away at yet another problem as her pack of hands, now four in number, wandered the dungeon. She watched them with interest, analysing their natural habits.

  The way they moved was not unlike that of a spider, although their gait was altered to accommodate three less 'limbs'. Occasionally, when passing each-other, their wrists would twist in a deliberate motion before they continued on their way: some sort of silent communication, perhaps? An acknowledgement? There was more to these creatures than she initially assumed - they were unintelligent, yes, but they followed orders well and seemed to act more akin to animals than lifeless body parts. Although, perhaps they followed her orders because she was a dungeon master. When left to act naturally, they appeared to wander alone rather than in a group but they seemed to harbor no ill will for others of their kind. At least, they didn't as her minions. There was also the matter of perception. How did they see the world around them? Was it magic or did they use another sense? Some kind of powerful proprioception? Mentally commanding a hand to stay still, she snatched it from the ground and began to inspect it. Fundamentally, it was similar to her own hand... yet as she looked closer she found a series of small differences. Its fingers bore an extra segment, an extra 'phalanx' according to a thought that distinctly did not belong to her, each finger terminating in sharpened claw-like points. The ulna and radius, parts of the wrist proper, ended abruptly where the bone would have needed to be snapped off of a normal skeleton to result in just a hand. As for the hand itself, almost imperceptible shadows appeared to bind the bones together... although, that appeared to be the same for herself on closer inspection. Likely the magical bindings that allowed them to stay in their form without collapsing.

  [Skeletal Hand] knowledge rank has increased!

  So, it seemed that merely studying the hand had increased its knowledge rank. That was sensible in her mind. The Master took a moment to curse herself for not opening its pattern sooner. Now, she had no way to tell what was different between a first and second rank pattern other than attempting to compare it to what she knew of her others. She swiftly opened the pattern, intent on learning what she could.

  She closed the window as she heard a pair of footsteps approaching the door.

  Well... there's chapter 2. I've found the preview ability which I'm 90% wasn't there when I posted the first chapter but I'll be making use of it now. If anything is hard to read, let me know and I'll do my best to edit accordingly. Currently, I plan to upload at least one chapter per week and two if I'm able. I should usually be able, but life does what life does. I'd like to offer a quick little note just to 'temper expectations'. The dungeon will not be limited to undead creatures with every spawner, nor will every new expansion guarantee her a new spawner for free. The first set of expansions will give her a new creature to play with - allowing a fledgling dungeon to defend itself - and then she will only gain a new spawner when expanding under specific circumstances that will be discovered in the story. So while it's not an issue right now, don't worry about getting overloaded with new monsters every time she expands, I've planned for that!

  thought it, y'know? So I'm just here to let people know that it won't be a recurring theme that every single expansion is rewarded with an entirely new monster and spawner. With that said, I sincerely hope you're enjoying the story and the next chapter will be released around the 18th. I do have a few chapters written up and 'ready to go' as well as the first act solidly planned out, but I end up editing quite a lot before I post. So even if I have everything pretty solidly ready, I need the energy to actually put it up. Fortunately, I've got some medication for my current ailment and it should be cleared up by Wednesday next week. Failing that, I'll need to go to a specialized clinic and that might complicate things. But, uh, we ball.