The bone construct stared back at me with empty sockets.
Not that I expected enthusiasm.
It was technically still just a neatly arranged corpse with better posture.
Still… the shard pulsing inside it had promise.
Magic had rules—though I didn't know them yet—and mana clearly didn't mind bending if I pushed hard enough. So I pushed again. This time, more confidently.
A thin stream of mana flowed from my core.
Not gentle.
Not delicate.
Purposeful.
The air thickened.
Dust drifted upward as if gravity forgot its manners.
The bones rattled, not dramatically, just… adjusting.
The shard glowed.
Not bright.
A soft, restrained heartbeat.
Then the construct inhaled.
Not a human breath—no lungs, no chest.
Just a hollow sound of air being dragged through bone.
I watched closely.
The mana inside it circulated clumsily, slipping through marrow, skittering across joints, struggling to decide which parts of this assembled puzzle counted as "alive."
It was like watching a toddler try to stand for the first time.
If the toddler was made of dead animals.
The creature's front paw twitched.
Scratch that—claw.
Then the other.
Good.
Motor function.
The head lifted slightly, bone scraping against the stone floor.
Movement.
Iteration one successful.
It didn't have emotions, or loyalty, or even instincts.
It had one thing:
Instructions encoded in bone and mana.
Guard.
Move.
React.
Simple.
Elegant.
Efficient.
The shard pulsed again and the creature rose shakily, limbs trembling.
It stumbled once, caught itself, and lowered into a stance that didn't exist in the original animal.
Better.
More suited for tight caves.
More dangerous at close range.
I considered giving it a name.
Then discarded the idea.
It wasn't a pet.
It was a tool.
A necessary one.
As it took its first steps, the dungeon reacted—
For the first time, the stone moved without my direct input.
The ground shifted subtly, smoothing beneath its claws.
The alcove deepened, perfectly sized for the creature's frame.
A second ledge formed nearby—anticipation of future constructs.
The cavern grew by several meters, stone grinding outward like clay being pushed from inside.
So the dungeon responded to "life."
Or at least, to things acting like life.
Good to know.
More space meant more material.
More material meant more constructs.
More constructs meant fewer interruptions in my development.
Very efficient.
A second thought followed almost immediately:
I should gather more corpses.
Practical.
Logical.
Foreign?
Unclear.
Didn't matter.
I directed the creature toward the tunnel mouth.
Its claws scraped stone with a satisfying rhythm.
It paused at the entrance, bone skull turning slightly as if listening.
It didn't "feel" anything.
It simply processed vibrations the way a real animal might smell the wind.
A natural early-warning system.
Useful.
Very useful.
I pulsed the dungeon once and felt the stone carry my intent outward.
The creature stopped, turned, and walked the perimeter of what was now—
undeniably—my domain.
Each footstep felt like a small flag planted in soil.
Mine.
Mine.
Mine.
Somewhere inside me, something warmed.
Not affection.
Not pride.
More like the feeling of tightening a completed bolt on a machine.
The sense of function.
The mole-lizard peeked out from its alcove, staring at the bone construct with whatever passed for curiosity in its tiny brain.
It didn't flee.
Interesting.
It recognized the assembled predator as part of the "environment" now—not a threat.
Good.
The more creatures accepted the dungeon as their home, the more mana gathered.
The more mana gathered, the more I could build.
My attention returned to the bone guardian.
It was moving more smoothly now, adjusting on the fly, limbs clicking into fluid motion.
The mana shard stabilized.
Yes.
This was good.
A thought came to me—clean, sharp, and simple:
One down.
Many more to go.
I pulsed one last time, letting the dungeon settle around my new creation. The walls thickened a fraction. The tunnel twisted slightly. The ground hardened.
Home improving itself—
one step at a time.
The first guardian circled back to the alcove and lay down, still as stone.
Waiting.
Ready.
A proper beginning.