When I opened my eyes, I found myself in a dark and small environment. The room around me was entirely built out of stone bricks, most of which were too old or cracked to truly support the weight of the rest of the room.
"Where?" I muttered quietly as I pushed myself away from the ground. My voice acted on its own like my body was on autopilot. As soon as I spoke, I stood up and looked down at myself. I instantly recognized that I was male, based on the appendage that was hanging away from my pelvis, though my lean muscles and muscular frame were enough to tell me that already, "Who am I?"
I moved my hand to my head as I tried to remember who I was. My identity, as well as all of my memories, seemed to be completely unknown to me. It was as if my entire being had been destroyed.
Not a single thing was familiar to me. It was like I was just a blank canvas that had just been created. I looked back to the room around me. Then, after a few moments of inspecting the integrity of the walls, I slowly moved to the nearest stone brick to my right and began to run my fingers over its surface.
"It feels real," I muttered to myself as I began thinking to myself, "So I'm not in some sort of dream? I'm not sure if that's good or bad. Was I just created? Is that why I don't have any memories?"
Suddenly, a large glass panel appeared in front of me, hovering in the air. Well, to be exact, three of them appeared. Each of the panels faced me, almost forming a semi-circle around the front of my body. The left and right glass panels were both a faint silver color, like fog at the bottom of a mountain, and had a thick black outline at the edges that clearly told me where the glass ended and the rest of the room began.
The middle screen, however, was completely different. Instead of the faint silvery color of the other two, this panel had an opaque black appearance. Even though the room was incredibly dark, with no source of light to be found, the panels in front of me were as clear as day.
"Wait, if there's no light, how can I see?" I muttered to myself as I realized the room I was in didn't have any sort of light. Wouldn't I be stuck in pitch darkness if that was the case? I shook my head and banished any curious thoughts away and turned back to the center panel.
On the panel's surface were bright white letters, like words on a page. There weren't many of them, but I was still able to clearly read them.
"So I can read, huh?" I muttered, "That's good. It looks like my creator gave me some basic knowledge to survive."
After I took a moment to think aloud, I began to read the letterings on the panel.
﹃
Aureys
Race: ???
Level: 1
HP: 10
MP: 5
AC: 10
Rank: SS
Titles: None
Skills: Appraisal
﹄
"What the?" I muttered again as I read the information in front of me. Specifically, I looked at the top section, where my name was stated, "Aureys? That doesn't sound familiar, but it does at the same time."
I looked to the other sections of the panel and read through them. While I didn't know what level meant, HP, MP, and AC seemed self explanatory.
"So HP is my health, MP is how much mana I have, and AC is how strong my defense is?" I smiled, "So I have mana? This world has magic? That sounds awesome. I can't wait to test it out!"
I laughed happily as I leaned back and rested my palms against my hips, but then I looked back and sighed in disappointment.
"Still. How the hell am I supposed to get out of here?" I wondered aloud as I looked to the walls around me. Each one of them seemed to be an exact copy of the other, which meant there wasn't a door or a window. Hell, there wasn't even a bucket for me to relieve myself in.
I moved back to the wall and ran my hands across as much of the wall as I could. My fingers didn't find anything like a doorknob, so I moved onto the next wall, which didn't contain any sort of doorknob either. It didn't take long for me to feel a sense of hopelessness. Was I destined to be trapped in such a small and broken room forever?
Suddenly, as if some higher being was hearing my call of despair, a fourth panel suddenly appeared in front of the other three. This one was at my eye level, so I instinctively backed away from it as it appeared.
The panel didn't make any noise as it appeared as if it wasn't even there, but the words on the panel struck out to me like a bucket of gold.
『 Dungeon Core forming 』
『 Completion in: 15 Minutes and 5 Seconds 』
『 Do well to survive, Candidate 』
--
﹃
Aureys
Race: ???
Level: 1
HP: 20
MP: 30
AC: 10
Rank: SS
Titles: None
Skills: Appraisal
﹄
--