To Ascend is to become more. To become better. To become closer to what we may consider a divine being. Striving for Ascension is a noble goal as perfecting oneself is an eternal task. Perhaps by reaching those heights that no others before us have we may learn the deeper truths of the universe. Yet I know for fact that the journey towards that goal will most certainly teach you the deeper truths of your own self.
* An excerpt from ‘The Mortal Immortal’ by Philosopher Irepides of Aven
Eternal Dungeon POV
I opened my eyes to a well decorated room, it looked like the living room of a cozy lodge in some cold mountain somewhere. Walls made of wooden logs and covered in the mounted heads of recognizable animals from Earth. A stone brick fireplace with a warm flame that lit up the room. In front of the fireplace was a bearskin rug along with an assortment of comfortable looking armchairs and couches surrounding it. I was seated in one of these armchairs and I could feel the way my body sunk into it.
Wait . . . My body? Something’s not right. I don’t have a body. I felt a strange jolting sensation, the kind of sudden awakening that one gets whenever your heart rate slows too quickly and your body jumps you awake to ensure you're not dying. A sensation that I can only make a comparison to thanks to my memory of it returning in this moment.
I suddenly remember that I had just started my One Star Ascension and find myself looking around with new eyes. Memories of my previous life on Earth come drifting back to me as I do so. Before I could remember some things, but never specific names of people I knew or their faces. It was almost as though everything involving the people I had once cared about was grayed out, censored from my mind.
Yet now I regained some small precious memories. The memory of my grandfather and his hunting cabin in the Appalachian Mountains. A place where all the male members of my dad’s family would gather once a year in order to enjoy quality time together in the wilderness. Hunting, fishing, camping. Every memory involving that once a year one week trip came back to me. Yet some things remained outside of my grasp.
I still couldn’t remember the faces or names of any of my family members. Yet their warmth was still there. I could tell how I felt about each of them with the memories I had. It wasn’t enough forever, but it was enough for now.
I felt a wetness on my cheek and realized that I had shed several tears while going through my memories. I wiped my face with the back of the sleeve of my flannel shirt. I looked down at my human form and realized that I was wearing a pair of steel toed boots, jeans, and two shirts. One plain white t-shirt likely acquired in bulk from somewhere and another much nicer button up flannel.
“Thirty five seconds might be a record.” A familiar voice called out from my left.
I turned to see the familiar form of Seven sitting in one of the armchairs holding two mugs of a warm dark beverage. He offered one to me and I wordlessly took it, staring at him the whole time.
“Is it really necessary for you to be here sir?” Another familiar voice speaks up from my other side.
I turn again this time seeing Administrator Vaxstrom sitting on my other side in another chair. He has an exasperated look on his face and is currently looking past me at Seven.
“Of course it is Vaxstrom. I have taken interest in this young man and you technically have no formal claim over him now that he is a dungeon core. Also beyond that, I’m your boss’s boss so I can do whatever I want.” Seven says with a smile, tacking on the last line as though it was a mere afterthought.
I watch as Vaxstrom’s expression shifts through a range of emotions before it eventually settles into a resigned one. The administrator lets out a heavy and deep sigh before standing up, giving a polite nod to me and a middle finger to Seven and then vanishing.
“Is he allowed to do that?” I ask, speaking for the first time.
“Of course, some minor insubordination is to be both expected and allowed, especially considering the way many of us Number’s act. In fact I personally encourage minor acts of defiance and I permit my people to speak freely so long as they still get their jobs done.” The Outer God explains.
“Ok. What are you doing here and what is here?” I ask, deciding not to dig deeper into that and instead focus on my own issues.
“This is a personal system space for you to undergo any trials necessary for your ascension and I am here because it's a convenient place for us to speak without me needing to waste a lot of time and effort.”
“Good to know. Where are my quests? I’ve been waiting ever since that first meeting with your little warlock and I’ve yet to get any system notification about it.”
“Ahh yes, that. I wanted to watch and wait a bit before doing anything so that I could make sure the rewards I offered actually interested you.”
“That’s fine I guess. If that’s all then can you leave now cause I want to finish my ascension in peace and don’t feel like dealing with you.”
Seven tilts his head to the side and seems to stare into me. It feels as though time slows as his otherworldly eyes bear into my soul. The effect is broken by a wide smile and the sound of his laughter, time seemingly speeding up to its normal pace once again.
“Ya know, I had more to say but fair enough. When you awake you’ll have your quests and I’ll see you again during your next Ascension. May fate smile upon you, little dungeon.” The Number says before disappearing.
I let out a sigh of relief as my body relaxed. I hadn’t expected that to go so well, but I was growing tired of all these people way more powerful than me interjecting as they liked into my life. I understood that technically I was their . . . I guess employee is the best word, but still it was annoying. As far as Wyla told me I was doing a good job as a True Core and should be fine if some random admin decides to do the equivalent of a performance review, especially considering that I was just starting out.
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Worse case scenario I still had that favor from those Executioners, although I really wanted to save that for a rainy day. Although based on Seven’s attitude it seems like he liked me so I’m probably in the clear.
“Oh god, I bet he’s gonna try to recruit me or something.” I mumbled while slumping deeper into the armchair. According to Wyla the Numbers liked to compete with one another by seeing who could contract better ‘employees’. Employees was the word I decided to use since it sounds better than servant or underling.
I took a deep breath and slowly let it out.
“Don’t bother worrying about things you can’t control, Mark. Just finish the Ascension and get back to your dungeon.” I told myself as I stood up from the armchair and began to look around the room.
After several moments of nothing happening I sat back down and was glad that no one else was here to watch that. I decided to try a different approach and attempted to call up my system.
System Notice: Initial Assessment Trial Complete, User may now reach up to level 20.
So Seven was right, I had passed. That seemed really easy, I barely remember even taking a trial. I mean I guess my memories were a bit fuzzed up for a bit but other than that it wasn’t really much of a challenge. I guess the One Star Ascension is just supposed to be easy, I mean it is the first one after all if it was too hard then people would be getting stuck at level 100.
“So can I go now?” I question aloud hoping that the System can hear me. I’m still not sure why the System Notice didn’t just immediately pop-up like they normally do.
Does the User wish to leave the Trial Area? (Please note that once you leave this area you cannot return until your next ascension)
“Yes, I want to leave.” I affirmed in a slightly confused voice. Why would I want to stay here? There wasn’t anything here to do other than sit around and stare at the fireplace. Maybe other people had more interesting trial areas? I’ll ask Wyla once I wake back up.
Confirmed. Exiting Trial Space.
I felt a strange pulling sensation and felt a pressure pushing in on me. It felt strangely familiar yet I couldn’t quite remember what it reminded me of. I saw pinpricks of light swirling around me and then the pressure lessened as I surfaced back into my conscious mind to the pings of system notifications.
One Star Ascension Complete!
Level increased to 11 (New Perks available)
New Personal Quest Received!
Mythical Quest: Aiding Fate (Chain)
The First of Fate, Seven of Unity has tasked you with helping one of his Warlocks with a task. Expand your Aura to the Northern Wastes in order to observe the environment there.
Quest Reward: Aura Upgrade
Your Partner Wyla is ready to Ascend
Your Titled Creature Bellator Aeternus (The First Warrior) is ready to Ascend
Your Titled Creature Aika Aeternus (The First Protector) is ready to Ascend
“Welcome back Mark.” Wyla’s soothing voice graces my senses as I finish going through all my system notifications. She sends me the equivalent of a warm hug through our bond.
“Good to be back. How long was I out?” I ask after returning her expression of warmth in kind.
“You were only gone for a few days. I suspect it kept you under that long in order to spare you the pain of growing your core so much at once.” She replies, drawing my attention to where my core floats.
My once transparent aqua tinged crystal has grown to be about two feet in diameter. In addition it is now impossible to see through it as the core is filled with the swirling colors of each of my affinities, each moving about my core as they are pushed by the currents of mana. In areas where the clouds of affinity mana are thinnest I can perceive a dense, solid looking core of pure aqua mana. Unaligned mana in its purest form.
I decide to stop viewing myself from an outside perspective and get an actual look from within. My core is no longer a simple crystal brimming with mana and housing a soul. Now it almost resembles a tiny world in and of itself. The swirling currents of my affinities are like water resting atop the much more potent core of pure mana, a core which I can now also tell is spinning very slowly. Its rotations pull more and more mana from my connection with the World Core and my mana then gently flows outwards and into the ley lines.
I stretch my senses to the full extent of my aura and find that the ley lines directly around where my dungeon is are slowly growing larger, the mana density of the surface slowly increasing. It's an amount imperceptible to anyone without my incredibly potent mana sense, yet it is still an increase nonetheless.
I take a few moments to simply observe the way that mana flows through my dungeon core body. My attention is captured by every little interaction between the different mana types. I even notice how the swirls of affinity aligned mana draw small amounts of pure mana from the surface of my aqua core and then realign it to create more of itself. I carefully use some fire mana to heat up an experimentation room and watch how my pure mana now rapidly feeds into the red cloud before exiting my core as newly aligned fire mana.
“I don’t mean to interrupt your observation, but do you think you can handle the dungeon for a bit while the rest of us perform our own Ascensions?” Wyla’s voice breaks into my thoughts causing me to return my attention to her.
“Oh right. Of course.” I respond quickly, recovering after remembering that I have three people waiting on my approval before they can perform their own One Star Ascensions.
“Will it take as long as mine did?” I question Wyla before she’s able to start her ascension.
“It shouldn’t. Mine may take a similar amount of time since I’m also a system entity with dungeon core abilities, but Bellator and Aika should only take a few hours, the same as any other mortal.” She easily responds without an ounce of annoyance.
“Ok then, see you soon.” I say giving my affirmation for her to begin.
“See you soon Mark, don’t get lost in your thoughts while I’m gone.” Wyla responds with the impression of a grin before I sense her consciousness fade away into slumber.
Partner Wyla has begun an Ascension
“Cheeky tree didn’t even let me respond.” I grumble as I turn my attention back to the dungeon.
I use a quick spell to bring Bellator and Aika into my core room before telling them to go ahead and start their ascensions as well. Neither of them wastes any time and they start the moment that I assure them that I’ll watch over their duties while they’re gone. It seems that everyone is pretty excited about getting stronger.
Titled Creature Bellator Aeternus (The First Warrior) has begun an Ascension
Titled Creature Aika Aeternus (The First Protector) has begun an Ascension
Ok, guess I’m the only one watching over things for now. Reminds me of when I first started out not too long ago. It hasn’t even been a full year, just a couple months since I woke up in this world with barely any idea of what I was doing. I still don’t have everything figured out, but I like to think I’m doing pretty well for myself.
I pull up my menu and drop my single new perk point into Enhanced Capacity bringing it to level 2 and making my new dungeon creature level cap 121 thanks to its now 10% increase. With that done I turn my eyes to the dungeon and begin to check over everything that happened during my ascension.
I also spin off a thought process in order to start going through my quest log and deciding if any of them can be easily accomplished with my current resources. It’s about time I started getting some stuff done beyond just my dungeon.