So after what I presume was a few hours of listening to Voice 1 expound on the Dao of massacring my enemies, I found a reprieve. I managed to convince Voice 1 to start making a table of the plan to subjugate the world. Since “we” are living in a crystal without any limbs or mechanical interface, that should keep Voice 1 occupied for a while. Hopefully forever. And with Voice 2 being considerate enough to actually leave me the fuck alone when I want some privacy, I can actually reflect some more on my current situation.
Previous occupation: lazy college student. Current occupation: dungeon. I have no idea how I qualified for this job change but I appear to be stuck with it. To be fair, I am not even entirely sure I am a dungeon. But out of the two possible options that a crystal buried underground can be, dungeon is more favorable then sentient crystal trapped under solid rock for all of eternity. What can I say, I am optimistic at heart. I studied physics, which doesn’t seem helpful right now since none of the laws of physics can describe how this all came to be. For now, all I can do is try to remain calm and analyze what I can. I can’t actually see anything right now which makes me glad I am not afraid of the dark. I can still feel though.
I feel that I am surrounded by a hard material that is pressing against me on all sides. I can only presume that this is rock and I am buried underground. Which makes me sad as I never thought to get over my fear of being paralyzed and buried alive. I honestly didn’t think I would have to confront an unlikely fear like that. So that’s a lesson learned; plan to experience every fear you have at some point. Thankfully I would like to say I am somewhat adaptable. I can take things in stride, as evidenced by the fact that I haven’t gone insane yet. Let’s ignore the fact that I am hearing voices and talking to myself. Anyway I can also feel myself from the inside which is definitely a unique experience.
It’s like being able to feel electrical signals going off in your brain… that’s the closest analogy I can relate it to. It’s not something you should be able to feel normally. I feel flesh and energy enclosed in crystal. I feel the different filaments and structures that form the crystal. I am not sure how but I know it’s a crystal. I feel everything in this crystal as if I were brushing against every part of it. My structure seems rigid yet brittle. Overall my core feels to be about the size of an apple. I also feel a bit empty inside like I am missing something. This emotion isn’t quite hunger, its more indistinct and at the back of my mind. But this feeling is increasing. While that’s happening I can feel something else changing on one of the crystal filaments too. I have no clue what it is. Outside of the crystal however, I don’t feel anything and paired with being blind, I can’t tell what’s going on around me.
To say the least there is a lot I don’t know right now. Living under solid rock has that effect. And as far as I can tell there doesn’t seem to be any magical computer interface to help me along. This was done through exhaustive testing. I yelled “Status” and “Customize” a few dozen times to see if a window would pop up. So no status window or dungeon store as far as I can tell. Which figures, I suddenly become a dungeon yet I don’t get any OP mods or even a helpful status window. It would be too much to ask for a simple notification window, right? Just a window to give me useful information when I say “Status.”
*DING*
Notification: new window formed. To view, open attachment.
…huh? How am I even seeing this when I can’t see? And did a new window pop up because I said status? Why the fuck did it not happen bef— you know what I am not going to focus on that right now. I have my status window. Let’s just open it up. Open.
…
It’s taunting me, isn’t it. Please open. I just want to see my status and try make sense of what is going on. Oh magical window please open for this humble dungeon core.
…
Voice 1: “Master you do not beg others for help. They should consider it the highest honor of their pitiful lives to be of service to you.”
Me: “Hey we agreed upon this you would not talk to me until you finished that table laying out how to conquer the world.”
Voice 1: “The great instrument of destruction and doom is in need of assistance. To implement the impending plan, I shall gladly assist you. Together we shall cleanse this world and bring death to all those that oppose.”
…I do want to see that status window… and he is offering to help… Is this what a Faustian bargain feels like? Voice 1 isn’t even demanding anything yet it still feels wrong. Maybe Voice 2 can help…
Me: “Hey Voice 2 any chance can you help me figure out how to open up this status window?”
Voice 2: “Oh divine one to spread your divine grace, you must first grow. And to grow you must struggle. I will not hinder your beautiful development. Struggle. Survive. And Thrive. Bring your grace to heathens that walk this world and show all your glory.”
So that’s a no from voice 2. Fuck it. I know this is going to go wrong but knowledge is power. Let’s sell my soul and see what the devil gives back.
Me: “Alright how can you help, Voice 1?”
Voice 1: “When rivers of blood flow, the corrupted shall know that this was the day when their reckoning began.”
(shiver) please be worth it status window.
Voice 1: “The new window does not exist outside as you would like to perceive it. It is inscribed on your soul so you will intuitively understand it. But simply saying open will not suffice to use it. It exists inside you. You must have felt something change inside of your crystal. That was order slowly being imposed on raw chaos. You need magic to truly understand that order. Find your true core to access the magic. Use it to truly feel yourself and the world around you. Then you will be to access that new template and do so much more.”
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Me: “This hippie stuff you are talking about actually sounds useful. Is there any reason you didn’t mention this during the hours you went on about slaughtering our enemies?”
Voice 1: “We must first plan to destroy our enemies before we can actually decapitate them. We must be prepared to end all existence. Then you can learn how to enact that plan.”
…Just ignore it. Voice 1 wants to get you angry so that you will be ruthless to your prey. You made a deal with the devil that is Voice 1. There will be discomfort involved. Let’s just move on and try this magic thing. I have already felt the energy inside my core. Since I am a dungeon, I might as well call this energy mana. But I just don’t know how to access my mana. The key is apparently finding my true core. Annoyingly cryptic but it’s a start at least.
I have been assuming that everything inside the crystal was all a part of my core. However, the demon known as Voice 1 implies that assumption is false. So let’s get all touchy feely and find my true self. Examining myself again I didn’t feel anything new. I felt crystal, I feel mana, and I feel flesh. Thinking about it, the fleshy part is probably the best candidate for being my inner core since it’s the most “alive” from the given options. And I would like to hope that I am still alive. I can even feel it convulse back and forth slightly like a weak heart-beat. Focusing all of my attention on the flesh, I could feel my perception of everything else dim. Before I could feel crystal against my flesh and flesh against my crystal body equally. Now it was almost entirely the sensation of crystal against my flesh. I could barely feel the rocks against my crystal self anymore. But I could feel my mana a lot more clearly now.
My flesh was a container for mana. It felt like having an ocean of mana yet also a pitiful amount at the same time. I felt more control and a closer understanding of it. The way the mana weakly flowed along through each tendril of flesh and arced to the surrounding crystal. The mana moved in a circuit around me; starting at a junction of tendrils it moved to a tendril, then to the crystal, and back to another tendril to reach the node of tendrils again. And some mana was lost to the surroundings each time. I understood this was unavoidable consequence of the mana circulating. I was tempted to try to stop this circulation but I could feel the way my cells buzzed with life and joy when mana passed through them. I would probably die if my mana stopped rotating. But still I was losing mana.
I could feel some mana being drawn towards my flesh, replenishing my reserves. But it wasn’t enough, slowly my great “ocean” of mana will evaporate. Eventually I will run out of mana. I had assumed that even if I didn’t immediately figure out what has happened to me, time was on my side. I was wrong. From the looks of it, I probably have a few days at most. That hunger like sensation I have been feeling was me desiring mana to live. Now more than ever I need to understand what is happening. And opening that status window is my best shot at that. So back to concentration. Right now I desired control.
Voice 1: “Control is always necessary, to survive you must dominate.”
And I focused my efforts on that. I could focus on other the mysteries of mana later. I felt I could learn to control mana by itself but that might take too much time. When the muscles in my flesh convulsed, I noticed it coincided with the flow of mana. I could use that. I could feel how my flesh moved. I could control that. Not to stop the flow of mana but to redirect it. It would be faster than learning to control mana directly but it would still take practice. Each mistake brought frustration and some worry. Mana was being lost faster, bring me closer to oblivion. It was like learning to walk for the first time, it was unfamiliar at first but over time it grew more familiar. My muscles were falling under my control and by extension so was my mana. It was probably slower and less precise then controlling my mana directly but it saved time spent learning.
Once I felt I had a passable amount of control on my mana, I shifted my perspective back to the entire dungeon core. I focused on the crystal filament that was now “ordered” compared to the rest. My mana control had decreased somewhat now that I was no longer focusing on my flesh but it was still enough. Mana pulsed through the filament and echoed back to the rest of the core. I could feel it activate. The long desired status window was opening.
*DING*
[table=red]Our Plan for global dominationGrowKillRepeat[/table]
No. Just no. That’s not my status window. I want my fucking status window.
Me: “Voice 1, what the fuck is going on? What is this?”
Voice 1: “It’s the table with the plan for world domination, that you asked for.”
Me: “I noticed… Where is my status window?”
Voice 1: “Status window? Those things don’t exist naturally, you have to make them from scratch with your knowledge. Knowledge isn’t magically given to you, it has to be learned. None of the doomed inhabitants of this world know that their end is nigh but they will soon learn.”
Me: “So I just wasted precious time to ultimately gain nothing from it. Voice 2 were you in on this?”
Voice 2: “To grow you must struggle. You must make mistakes so that you become the glorious dark sovereign of all that exists. You will reach perfection and bend the heavens to your will.”
(sigh) I sold my soul and the devil made me put a noose around my neck in return. I deserve this…
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And that's the first real chapter a bit of a long one but I wanted to get all the details in.
Comment if you have any questions, criticisms, or compliments.
Thanks for reading...