I found myself adrift in what appeared to be the endless void of space, countless shining specks of light surrounded by a pure black. As my consciousness drifted peacefully away I felt a tugging of my being “Go away I’m trying to sleep” I mumbled, my mind barely aware. Suddenly the tugging became a violent pull, a force that sent me hurtling through the vast cosmos fast enough to jolt my mind straight into panic mode.
“AHHHHHHHHH”
I screamed into my own mind as I was bombarded with thousands of foreign feelings experiencing a sensory overload that finally rendered me unconscious. “Wake up you wayward soul, no more drifting for you” a strange voice spoke out to me. It sounded like a young masculine voice, one I might hear from a college student or one of the new interns. Wait interns, where are these memories coming from? I begin to remember things about myself, my life, and with those memories also comes panic as I realize I don’t have a body.
“Whoa there buddy, calm down. Here let me help” The voice speaks up once again and I feel my emotions settle down as a sense of calm washes over me. “Where am I? Who are you? What’s happening?” I speak rapid fire questions doing my best to project these thoughts without a body.
“Easy there, I have plenty of time to answer your questions” The voice says as I once again feel another wave of calm overcome me. “You are in my administrative domain. I am Administrator Vaxstrom. As for what’s happening, well you died, and I managed to intercept your soul before it left for the standard cycle of reincarnation. Frankly you are lucky. If your world wasn’t slotted for systemization I wouldn't have caught you in time.”
That’s a whole lot of information that I don’t know how to process. I take several moments just to think through everything said to me and try to piece together some semblance of understanding. “So I am dead and you stopped me from reincarnating?” I once again project my thoughts towards the voice of Vaxstrom. Wait, how do I know how to do this?. I’ve been projecting my thoughts like speaking without a body and I know from my memories that was not something I could do before, before my introspection can continue the voice responds to me.
“I didn’t stop your reincarnation, I’m just here to give you some better informed choices as opposed to the random roll of the dice that is the normal cycle of reincarnation. One of the System's many functions is to ensure the security of all souls under its care.” I begin to ask more questions but am quickly cut off by Vaxstrom. “Before you start questioning me for hours on end, at least let me get through some quick explanations, it's part of my job and I need to do it.” I stay silent to convey my agreement to the Administrator.
“Good. Now as I said I am a System Administrator and as part of my duties I am here to give you a selection of reincarnation options. Some basic things you should know is that you can never be reincarnated into the same Plane of Existence twice in a row but you will always be reincarnated into the same Dimension you were born in, unless you get sent to Elysium but that’s an explanation for another time. Now as a new soul under System authority I will inform you that you must select a reincarnation option offered by the System as you are no longer eligible to return to the standard cycle of reincarnation.” Administrator Vaxstrom finishes his little info dump and goes silent as I process what he’s told me.
“So I am able to be reincarnated still and I’m now a part of a System? Like System apocalypse LitRPg blue boxes kind of System? With magic and monsters and such?” I ask my question after pulling from the knowledge of the many books I enjoyed reading in my freetime. Vaxstrom seems to pause for a moment before I feel a sense of being watched, like my very being is exposed to the world around me. I shudder before once again feeling a wave of calm wash over me.
“Apologies, I needed to scan your soul for a better understanding” Vaxstrom says in what seems to me to be a genuinely apologetic tone. “Yes, a System like what you’re thinking of. It's good that you have previous knowledge like this as that speaks volumes for how well the rest of your Plane will eventually integrate.” Vastrom sounds like he’s . . . pleased with the knowledge I just provided him.
“So can I be reincarnated with OP abilities and all my memories?” I ask, deciding that I might as well try if I’m going to be reincarnated anyways.
“Well actually there is a single option that could provide what you’re looking for and it’s actually one of the options available to you, if you’re interested?” Vaxstrom says. Oh come on, he KNOWS I’m gonna want to know more after that!
“Definitely interested, tell me more” I say trying to suppress my excitement at the idea of having overpowered god like abilities
“There are beings known as Dungeon Cores which help to increase the mana levels on worlds and the System always needs more volunteers to sign on as True Cores” Vaxstrom explains and I can already feel my excitement increasing. Dungeon core stories were always some of my favorite ones to read and the idea of being able to be the equivalent of a real life Dungeon Master was incredibly enticing.
“You see the System brings with it mana as its purpose revolves around mana. The basics of it you need to know is Mana is “Created” by sapient beings, the stronger they are, the more mana they output. The job of True Cores, and all dungeons, is to increase the ambient levels of mana on a world so that the local life forms are encouraged to grow stronger and use mana themselves.” Vaxstrom explains but I get the feeling he’s not exactly telling me the whole truth of things. “Hey if I’m going to be doing this can’t you at least tell me what’s actually going on with the System and Mana?” I ask, coming off a little bit too childish, but eh whatever I want to know.
Vaxstrom goes silent as though actually considering my request. “Very well, since I do need more True Cores to fulfill System Quotas I suppose I can tell you. All sapient creatures have a soul and all souls generate an energy that we just call Soul Energy. Mana is created from this energy and the System’s job is to harvest it to make more. To do this it creates an endless loop that turns all sapient creatures into mana batteries.” Vaxstrom explains before pausing
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“You know what since you want to be `in the loop` I’ll just directly give you the relevant information so you can make an informed decision on everything instead of asking me every question you could possibly have'' Vaxstrom says with the satisfied tone of someone who just figured out a solution to an annoyance.
A tone that I definitely don’t like as it implies that he considers me an annoyance. I feel a sudden and intense pain as information is directly placed into my psyche filling my head to the point I lose consciousness again.
As I come to I hear a voice ring out inside my head “Class B Support System version 102.03 has finished full integration. 16.7 yottabytes of information have been locked behind the Support System in order to preserve user. Active emotional regulation has begun in order to preserve user. Welcome to the System user please select a name”.
Uhhh what?! That jerk Vaxstrom just dumped all the info into my head! Seriously, that's more information than the entirety of the internet!
“User please select a name before one is assigned to you” The voice breaks me out of my train of thought with that line.
Right a name, I know I had one, what was it? I try to go through my memories but for some reason all the names are missing. That’s so strange, why is that? WAIT. I don’t have time for this, I need a name before one is chosen for me.
“Mark” I say to the System, it's a bit plain, but something about the name feels right.
“System user ID:Mark has been successfully registered. Releasing memory file ID:Reincarnation_Options” A much more manageable infodump is released into my mind that I begin to sort through. There are a lot of options, but none of them call out to me.
Reincarnation Option Standard Class: Local Sapient
The user will be reincarnated into a system world as a local sapient creature.
No special requirements or advantages
Reincarnation Option Special Class: Hero
The user will be reincarnated into a system world as a specialized hero in order to deal with an existing issue that plagues the world
User will be required to fulfill any quests marked as HERO Quests
User will receive special advantages based on the problem(s) that need solving
Reincarnation Option Special Class: Disaster
The user will be reincarnated into a system world as a world class disaster in order to cleanse the world of certain lifeforms.
User will be required to kill all marked targets
User will receive extreme support including access to special classes and accelerated leveling
User must complete annihilation metrics within the given time period
After looking through them all for what feels like hours I eventually get to the one that Vaxstrom was telling me about.
Reincarnation Option Unique Class: True Dungeon Core
The User will be required to be a True Dungeon Core for a term of at least 10,000 years in order to ensure local stability.
True Dungeon Cores are low level Local Administrators giving them limited system authority and lessened restrictions.
In order to ensure local stability all True Dungeon Cores are rendered immortal and invulnerable and cannot be destroyed except by a high level Administrator.
True Dungeon Cores have a responsibility to increase the local mana levels and will be given extra rewards for meeting other goals, included but not limited to: Increasing average level of sapients in their domain, Increasing the mana production of their domain, and maintaining a stable population of sapients in their domain.
Sheesh, this reincarnation option sounded more like a job than a life. Then again that was just the bare bones of what it was telling me, looking deeper the system provided me a lot more information about it, including the fact that I would essentially be a god of the area I was given.
Each world needs a set number of True Dungeons and each True dungeon gets a percentage of the world as their territory. The larger the world, the more True Dungeons on it, and the higher the levels of mana there were. The only real restriction on what a True dungeon could do in their territory was that you couldn’t kill all the sapients as they were needed to generate mana. True cores also got an absurd amount of mana generation because they were directly linked to the World Core. This means that as a True dungeon I wouldn’t have the largest two worries that normal dungeons had. Which were being killed and running out of mana.
The main thing keeping everyone from signing up was apparently the mandatory 10,000 year time you had to sign on for, especially since if you wanted to leave after that time was up you had to find someone to replace you and then they also had to sign on for 10,000 years, and most people who were willing to be True Dungeons would rather get to start their own than manage someone else's. As such it was very rare for a True core to ever re-enter the cycle of reincarnation.
Personally this didn’t bother me all too much. In my opinion the pros outweigh the cons. I mean will I get bored? Maybe. But there's just an endless amount of things to do as a True Core. Plus I’ve always loved building fun adventures and the best chance at doing that is as a dungeon core.
I looked over my other options one last time just to make sure nothing stood out, but my gaze kept drifting back to the True Core option. Oh who am I kidding? I already made up my mind.
“System I choose to be a True Core, specifically a new one.” I made sure to clarify that I didn’t want to pick up someone else’s dungeon.
“System has acknowledged user Mark’s choice, prepare for reincarnation as True Dungeon Core on Plane B-11 on the World Aven.”
With those final words from the system I felt my consciousness fade once more, when I next woke up it would be as a True Dungeon Core.