The Castle in the middle of nowhere.

Hrrin'a was terrified. This was it. She would die today. Once more, she futilely tried to break free from the chains.

But to no avail.

The old castle walls cast longer shades with every passing minute. The old graveyard in the courtyard was still silent. But once the sun set, the undead would awaken. She knew the stories about this twisted place. The old count had made a pact with forces of darkness here.

She tensed and rattled the chain, trying to break the rusted links, but no matter what she did, the enchanted steel held tight.

With tears in her eyes, she heavily sighed and kneeled, praying as her last resort. She was classless and low level, but perhaps some God would reply to her pleas.

After minutes of pointless praying, she started screaming. She was so stupid! Why, oh why, did she venture into these parts!? Three weeks ago, she found a little village where she met wonderful people. They gave her shelter and food after the elder talked to her. Hrrin'a should have listened to the inner voice that wanted her to run. But nooo.

They just fattened her up so she would become a better offering to the Vampire Scion of this dungeon. And just before the full moon, they had used sleep magic, and she woke up chained to the offering altar in the middle of a crumbling and defiled cathedral.

The last of the sun's rays shone over the remains of the once majestic roof. With the setting of the sun, the end would come to her short and miserable life. A few more minutes passed, and she heard, or thought she heard, a very distant scream.

But that was not her problem. Her problem was much closer. From somewhere near and, she just knew, from below, Hrrin'a heard the creak of an opening stone sarcophagus. She saw an alert.

She held her breath while tears moistened her dress. A dress? Those bastards in the village had put her in some fancy dress.

Funny what stupid details your mind clings to when you are about to die.

"Fuuuuuuu" The distant scream was louder and louder but still barely audible when she saw the vampire scion.

•••

Vu-lanti, the vampire scion of The Castle of Blood Dungeon, came from the basement where he was sleeping during the daytime. His dungeon was very specific about that, and Vu-lanti sometimes wondered why. However, the dungeon core was nearby, and he was glad to be around to protect it as the most powerful level 97 scion of The Blood Dungeon. He heard a faint scream from above and smiled.

The servants in the village had once more pleased The Core. When he entered the defiled cathedral, he saw a young half-elf woman chained to the altar. The altar that was a hiding spot and a source of power for the entire dungeon. With a simple move of his hand, enchanted chains lifted the terrified woman into the air and moved her to him.

•••

Hrrin'a was terrified as she was floating through the air straight towards her doom when the screams became very loud and close. She saw a man falling from the skies with some strange weapon in his hands. With a loud:

"uuuuuuck!"

He landed on the Vampire Scion, dealing massive damage, mostly from free falling, but the strange weapon that was shoved right into the Scion's mouth when they locked up was decisive. The Vampire crumbled into dust after a brief moment. But the strange man was once again in the air after bouncing off the Vampire. He landed heavily on the altar, smashing it into pieces. When Hrrin'a saw The Castle of Blood Dungeon's Core, she simply fainted.

•••

A few minutes earlier.

Of course, I was falling. Why couldn’t they simply spawn me on the ground like normal, sane people would do? I never once in my previous life enjoyed the height. Not to mention parachute jumps.

Without a parachute.

I wanted to scream, but I discovered I'm doing that already. Good job I guess.

Nice. I was still sarcastic. Looking around, I saw the landscape of what I guessed would be my neighbourhood. Some mountains, a river, a plain near a vast forest and coastline? Or maybe a large lake. Close.

As close as a fucking old castle.

"Fuuuuuck!"

I hit something squishy. Then I hit something hard.

"For fuck's sake... That hurt like hell!" I yelled towards the sky, where that fucker for sure was having a good laugh.

Ok. I guess... I was dizzy. I wonder why. Hmmm...

MAYBE BECAUSE SOME DICK THREW ME DOWN FROM HEAVEN?!

I dunno. That might be the case.

I was too stiff right now to even turn my head around. But I made a deal with the Angel and that local god or whatever to ummm... To save the world? Protect something? I must have hit my head hard.

Whatever.

I focused on the text right in front of my eyes.

And I fell asleep.

•••

Hrrin'a regained her consciousness, still floating in chains. That was not good. However, she was alive, which was good.

Before her eyes floated a screen of the World's Words with very confusing text on it.

She was confused. How was this even possible? She saw a leg in the corner of her eye but couldn't turn her head around. But she could see a pile of dust where the most powerful scion she'd ever heard about lay dead.

•••

"Hey! Dungeon! Hello?" I heard a distant woman's voice.

"Five more minutes..." I answered faintly, trying to find a comfy spot on my bed, but it was hard and cold as a rock. I opened my eye in a vain attempt to find my blanket, but I discovered that my bed was a fucking rock floor. I stood up with a painful cry.

"Aghhhh..." I started with full conviction. Then I got a brief, but emotional, flashback and I quickly patted myself all around.

Head? Check.

Hands? Not broken.

Legs? Still working.

I lifted my shirt and saw abs I had never once had in my previous life.

"Wait a minute..." I heard my once again young voice. I looked around while a single idea was bonking inside my head. 'I was supposed to be a dungeon.'

I was in a cathedral of some sort. I was Catholic my whole previous life, so I could tell such things. This is a cathedral for sure. I was not ready to guess what pagan God was worshipped here, but I guess he's one temple short now. Then I looked outside and saw a massive graveyard.

And Zombies.

For fuck's sake...

However, I had a strange feeling that these zombies were part of me. Creepy.

"Excuse me?" a very melodic and enjoyable woman's voice tried to gain my attention. When I turned around, I saw a very peculiar view. A young woman was hanging in mid-air, chained in a strange manner.

BDSM. Yeah. That was it. Or not? She was still wearing clothes. I'm almost sure that kinky stuff requires being naked.

"Oh, I'm sorry, miss. I don't want to interrupt." I tried to awkwardly retreat from this situation, raising my hands. I noticed chains rising when I moved my hands up.

"What? No! Please help me with these chains!" She tried to move her head toward me.

"Umm, sure ... How?" I asked while walking toward her. Now that I was standing in front of her, I could tell she was not human. The pointy ears were a dead giveaway.

In my opinion, she was very good-looking. She had long, fiery red hair combed into a braid. But her big green eyes held her anxiety and fear. Looking down... Well... She certainly has a body worthy of all the TV stars I knew from my old life. She looked at me with an open mouth and a strange gaze. I tried to ask her again. "How can I help you?"

•••

Hrrin'a looked at the muscular man before her. He was absolutely gorgeous, and he was taking her in as well. By his smirk, she was sure he liked what he saw. She rolled her eyes. But his repeated question made her focus.

"Try to find the Blood Dungeon's core and threaten it with destruction. It should release me from these chains."

•••

Yeah. Cool. That would be me. Or no. She said a Blood Dungeon and I'm sure as hell I am not a Blood Dungeon. I have standards. So how was I supposed to release her?

*Release her!* I ordered with a dramatic inner voice, trying to look like I had an idea of what I was doing. However, the chains delicately put her down.

"Neat. Ok, so you are free now." I saw her rolling her eyes again. Her freckles looked cute in the morning light.

Yeah. It was morning. But surprisingly, I was not tired at all. With the supposed elf set free, I had to face a second problem.

"Thank you, sir! But we must escape. This is the most murderous dungeon in the entire kingdom!" I looked at her blankly as she tried to stretch her stiff body after spending God knows how long suspended in those chains. I also noticed the entire flood of some .... Uuummm system messages? I read the brightest one aloud.

"You have vanquished the Castle of The Blood Dungeon. What the fuck?" I asked, concerned, while the elf looked at me with eyes full of shock.

"You vanquished the Dungeon?! That's impossible!" she gasped.

"Dunno. I'm not local. But I guess I destroyed it. And since you don't sound like someone concerned with the fate of the previous dungeon, I'm pretty sure no one will be. Here, let's check out this place."

I outstretched my hand toward her since she was looking a little weak to walk alone. And after a brief hesitation, she accepted my help. We walked toward the exit when I got overwhelmed with system messages and groaned.

"Argh..." my poetic statement brought the attention of the cute elf.

"What's wrong, Mr Vanquisher of the Castle of The Blood Dungeon?" she asked mockingly, but with true concern.

"I think we have to sit for a few moments. I'm so overwhelmed with system messages it is kinda painful."

"The system messages?" I heard her concerned and puzzled voice. My entire field of view was covered with different status windows and notifications. I tried to read everything, but it was so goddamn boring.

"You know... This text, the one that floats in front of you when you obtain an item or skill." I said with uncertainty while reading about building skills that I somehow got at level 5.

"You mean World Words!" she gasped.

"I guess? This will take a while, so I think you can take a breath..." I sniffed the air. Ughhh... Zombies. "But not too deep since the air reeks of zombies..."

I heard her sigh and felt her warmth when she sat near me. But I was focused on my HUD. So first thing first. I figured out how my status and skill chart worked and how to open and close it. So from the system info, I figured out that everything would cost me mana. More or less, that was my currency.

Name: Theon

Bla bla... A ha! Here it is.

Mana: 15000000/10000

The area of dominion is 1 square kilometer in a regular shape.

Three spawners working.

Zombie spawner- courtyard graveyard.

Vulture spawner- prison tower.

Slime spawner- basements.

I turned off the rest of my status sheets for now. I started wondering how and where my borders were. So in the end, I was the dungeon.

While I was looking for the map of my dominion, I felt the soft touch of the elf woman on my shoulder and heard her steady breathing. She fell asleep. Fine by me.

Oh... Map.

So I saw that I'm a castle. Ammmm... A very rudimentary castle-like structure. Ummmm ... This is bad...

Man, what should I even call the keep that was placed near this cathedral? Everything was encircled by castle walls. Two gates. And a tower with a prison in it. That's it. And they called it The Castle.

Seriously? What moron has built something so useless and called it a castle?! No no no...

So destroying things gives me mana. Okay then...

Let's reshape this mess. First walls. This poor excuse of a wall is out. Keep... Also out. You know what? Everything gets the fuck out...

Ok. So now I have a lonely hill in the middle of a plain. For fuck’s sake. Who builds a castle in the middle of a plain when you have a nice river fork a few kilometres away?!

I can't relocate myself there. Ughhhhh... Fine. So now let's build the main castle. Nothing pretentious. Let's say... 70x50m? How about three stories tall?

25000 mana. Okay. I can pay that much. A small courtyard, a moderate garden near it with fruit trees, a moderate agriculture garden for vegetables, a small pond connecting both gardens, and a water well.

Huh... 10000 mana? What a bargain.

So now the first wall layer. Nothing fancy. One gatehouse with a garrison for 100 soldiers. Five towers- the gatehouse, bookended by two and three at the outer wall.

Huh? Free building available for the next 34h? Better hurry then.

I want a basement under the main castle. Ummm... Two stories deep?

5000 mana?! Ughhh fine...

So after flattening this old excuse of a castle, I was at 16 million mana. Now I'm 40000 short...

Where are my walls? Oh... I can choose from all kinds of fancy materials. All sorts of stones or wood- I like enchanted stone. I can upgrade my castle and other defensive structures? Oh yes, please...

1 million mana?! Ok. Looks good. My walls are 5m wide and 10m tall. The battlements look nice and yup they have machicolations.

So, now for the middle castle. Smithy. Whoa... 100000 mana? I guess... Alchemy lab? Yes. I can build one. Next 100000 mana.

Hmmm... Magic tower? Sure. 500000 mana... Servant's quarters? Duuh! A big one, please. 500000 mana. Huhuhu... Engineer workshop? There, please. 500000 mana.

So far, so good. My castle looks like some European gothic styled castle from Earth.

Second water well, please! 10000 mana. Why did it cost this much? Well, I still have 13 750 000 mana to spend but ... Oh! I levelled up and now I have 20000 mana capacity in total.

So I plan to leave some space here. This is fun. My castle-building interface looks mostly like the Stronghold game from Earth.

Oh shit. Where is the elf girl?!

There she is! In the master bedroom of the main castle sleeping on the king size bed. Hehe- if you know what I mean, as a wise man once said.

Fine for now. Anyway, the clock is ticking and I don't want to check what changes when my free building period ends.

So wall time!

Seriously?

Three gatehouses with garrisons plus eight towers, and you charge me two and a half million mana? It would hurt if I didn't have this much mana. That's probably one of those cheats He mentioned.

I'll place a chapel for him.

Cost 0? That's a fair price, I must admit. Hmmm... Near the pond you go, then. Which costs 25000 mana. I'm not going to comment on this.

I'm now about a 1km x 1km circle in size. Which sucks since I don't have more area to build on.

System? Is there any free real estate near me waiting for me?

Ummmm... Okay... I can spend 2 million mana and buy a 250-meter wide stripe of land around my castle. Pfff.

Ding!

Ok. So I'll leave it empty for now. So wall time. Oh? A safehouse?

A building that can be built by a dungeon that wishes to give safe respite for adventures delving into its domain. Can be upgraded.

Looks cool. I want one. Let's see. Can I upgrade it? Tavern or hostel? Pfff, of course, tavern. 500000 mana? I'm a generous dungeon. A two story high tavern with an open hall on the ground floor and bathrooms and ten guest rooms on the second floor.

Where was I?

Wall time! Damn... Boi... 3 million mana? I guess I want a moat. 2 million? Pffff... Fine! 4 gatehouses, twenty towers and drawbridges. 700000.

Huh? Time flies... I only have 20h left for free building.

Okay. Spawners. First thing first. Zombies are out. What can I do with them?

Downgrade to skeletons? Haha sure. Skely bois are fine. And you go to the lower castle... Stop. Sections, please, walls.

Ok. Now I have ten zones and it cost me just 25000 mana since I used regular stone in the same light grey colour as enchanted stone.

So now, system, please, show me the evolution tree of my skelies. The previous dungeon was such a noob. He'd gone for zombies when he could have knight skelies?

Pfff noob.

So after all gains and losses, I'm now at four and a half million units of mana. Okay. Huh? I can build a cemetery. It generates mana over time... Zone three in the lower castle you go. Mausoleum with an underground level and there will be a skeleton spawner. I'll dump some mana to get skeleton knights.

This is fun. And I still have 4.4 million mana.

Vultures. Screw vultures. Can I have crows? They would match my skeletons. Dang shame... Ohhhh... Eagles.

That's good. Oh shit... A million mana... Fine. Fine. Screw vultures anyway. They were on the prison tower.

Shit. I know I forgot about something.

Okay. I have a prison in the middle castle now. And the elf girl is awake. I can see her walking in the gardens and sitting near the pond. Tsk. She will need food. Can I plant anything?

System?

Huh. My groceries got isekaied?