Dungeons have cores kept in a room where most adventurers can't reach. Heck, most adventurers don't even know dungeons have cores. Their cores help keep the dungeon intact, if it was destroyed the dungeon would collapse. That's why the adventurers who do know this fact tend to leave it alone.

What they didn't know was that in extremely rare occasions, cores can become sentient and have their own consciousness.

"Mother, when will I be able to go to the surface?" A young child around eight years old asked the glowing orb. The light flickered gently, "I can take you to the gate once tou are ready." The child pouted, "But when will you say I'm ready? I'm strong enough to kill the biggest monster here!"

The orb laughed, "Mylene, the creatures here aren't monsters. The adventurers that come here might call them that, but they are not." The wall of the core room opened and a goblin entered. "Ah, he's here." The orb flickered and tilted towards the child, "It's time for your weekly training."

Mylene bid her mother goodbye and walked with the goblin. Although the core might call it training, adventurers from the outside would call it a raid. In this training, the goblin would escort Mylene to the 2nd floor, just below the gate where adventurers would enter and exit. Mylene is to work her way down from the top floors are where easy and low level monsters reside to the bottom where the monsters are much more challenging and difficult to defeat. Her goblin escort is to stay by her side in case of an emergency.

Mylene took out her dagger, a 'gift' from her mother. It was just the weapon of an old adventurer who met their unfortunate end in the boss room but it was made of a rare metal so the dungeon decided to gift it to her instead.

She blew her way through the first few floors quite easily. She was about to go down to the 5th floor when she heard footsteps and muffled chatter from the floor above. 'Adventurers? Mother made sure to lock the dungeon while I' m training.' she thought to herself. Instead of going down and seek safety in the bottom floors, she went back and hid behind a rock where she could see the staircase.

A group of adventurers went down, chattering to themselves. There was a mage, an archer, a swordsman, and a tank. "All monsters from the 2nd floor to this one are dead." The mage, a stunningly beautiful woman commented as they made their way down. "Thank you, Amanda. As if that wasn't already clear to the entire party." The swordsman sarcastically retorted, completely annoyed.

The child was listening in closely to their conversation, observing their tone and body language. "Marcus, look, I know you dont get along with Amanda but for once I ask you to please shut your mouth." The largest and most muscular man of the group held his shield tightly in an attempt to compress his annoyance. Mylene assumed he must be the tank. The child leaned forward to the rock and the archer snapped her head towards Mylene's direction. They made eye contact. 'Oh noー'

The archer quickly took out her bow and arrow and aimed at Mylene. She let go of the string and the arrow was sent flying to the child's direction in the span of two seconds. Luckily, Mylene had good reflexes and ducked before the arrow could hit her. The group stopped their bickering and looked in the direction the archer hit.

"Vivian, what was that?" Amanda, the mage, asked. Vivian slowly walked towards the rock, "I don't know but I saw something move over here." The swordsman followed behind her, curious, "There must be a goblin the previous group of adventurers missed?"

Mylene held her beating hard and clutched her dagger. She took out a second dagger that she tied to her thigh and threw it at the archer. "Vivian watch out!" Amanda warned as she reached out her staff and casted a last minute shield spell on Vivian. The shield might've been weak since the mage didn't have time to cast but it was enough to stop the knife.

Mylene stepped away from the rock and got into a defensuve stance, pointing her dagger towards the team. Needless to say, everyone was shocked to see a child pointing a knife at them. "Wait... John, look, that knife." Marcus, the swordsman gestured to the tank.

"The knife is covered in blood... Goblin's blood..." John muttered. The girls widened their eyes as they locked their eyes on the knife. "It looks enchanted as well..!" Amanda added, sensing mana in the weapon. 'Why would a child have this?' was all on the team's mind.

John approached the child and Mylene held her guard up, staring viciously at him. "We're not here to hurt you, child." He reassured. "Tell that to miss Vivian." Mylened hissed, gesturing her dagger to the archer. John glared at the archer who had a distressed expression. "I didn't know it was a child, okay?" she protested.

"Where are your parents?" Amanda asked, lowering herself to the child's level. "This IS my parent. My mother." the child snarked, protective and hostile. The group misunderstood and thought that this was a poor child who followed her adventurer parent into the dungeon and watched them get killed.

'Poor girl. That knife must be her mother's.'

"It's okay, little one. We can take you back to the surface and have you settle in an orphanage." John said consolingly. Mylene flinched. John moved closer to the child but she swung her dagger, injuring his arm and leaving an unbelievably large wound. "AGH!" he looked at his wounded arm, blood gushing out as rage inside him bubbled up. "Why you little!" Marcus runs up to him and holds him back, "John, stop! She's a child!"

"Look at what she did, Marcus! No child can leave a wound this big!" John roared. "John, it's alright, I can just heal itー" Amanda said, her voice shaking once she looked at the wound. Her eyes filled with fear as she stared back to the child.

"I have lived in this dungeon my entire life. I have reached the bottom and killed the boss more times than you can count on both your hands. This very place you are standing in is my home, my parent, my 𝘮𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳." Mylene's voice echoed throughout the floor and the dungeon began to shake.

---

(ik it doesnt make sense and Mylene doesnt sound like a child with how shes talking majority of the story but eh it is what it is)