“You’re a program inside me? But I thought I couldn’t have anything like that.”
“No, you can’t. I am housed within an interstitial physical form. Think of me as a computer made of liquid crystal, only the liquid is the CPU, storage and memory all in one substance. Your sensory inputs are the panes of glass I can display patterns upon. You see me as a hologram before your eyes because I am displaying myself upon the cells of your corneas. You hear me in your ears because I am manipulating the fluid that exists in your inner ear. I can even make you feel my presence by emitting electrical signals to your skin. I can make you smell me by emitting chemical traces across your olfactory bulb. There are many ways for me to be nearly part of you and to replicate direct influence and yet be entirely separate. I am the workaround to your condition. My job in your service as dungeonmaster will be to run the dungeon until you are sufficiently educated in its use, to be a second set of sensory inputs upon your surroundings, to provide an interface between you and the dungeon, to teach and assess your learning in your craft, and to provide informational support.”
“Oh. So this is Ov, then?”
“Yes. This is the core of Ov. The basal rooms of Ov consist of a treasure room, a core room, an etherium waystone room and an antechamber. The spaces within Idron between these rooms form the gauntlet by which all comers shall prove themselves.”
“But why? I felt that. . .goddess embryo. Why not seal this place?”
“This is a place of power and the powerful will come to eat. Nothing can prevent them. It is a law of the universe that power attracts power. Sealed away, the power breeds insanity. The log of your experience as you pacified the core energy is evidence. This core room collects divine power into a mass that will eventually become sentient. It is your job to make sure it remains benign. Unlike other dungeons, which are fragments of dead gods and titans, this dungeon is a fragment of a goddess that tore herself apart and made herself inert. She entrusted the pieces of herself to dungeonmasters and became non-sentient.”
“Dragons?”
“No. The first was Ghrem, just like you. The programmers were dragons and some dungeonmasters have been human, dragon, and a few other species that came from other worlds. I cannot tell you more about them. You must be assessed to unlock certain knowledges. The programmers wanted to prevent you from gaining knowledge you are not ready to acquire. The programmers made sure that at every step you would have to earn your domain. You cannot build a place of testing if you are yourself untested.”
“Well great. That’s not fair. Why wouldn’t the previous dungeonmasters want me to know about them?”
“Why would you want another user climbing onto your log in?”
“Uh, I don’t think it’s the same.”
“It is. I have programs that are universal to any user. I have programs that are usable by dungeon adventurers, allies, diplomats, companions, and even citizens. Each of them has a customizable experience as they interact with your dungeon. Even your interface is unique to you. The previous dungeonmaster was a dragon. Do you have the brain, perceptions and experiences of being a dragon?”
“There are things that must be similar enough to understand.”
“Yes. I have tutorials. D. of Ov researched much of your culture through Erisnet. By sorting through your transfer packet it knows your form and functioning as it was supposed to be incarnated. It has also analyzed the parts of you that were sloughed off in his stomach, including the connections your brain made prior to its death. It used Ov’s external sensors to observe you in the days after your transfer. It has built for you a dungeon interface keyed to your understanding based on these sources. If at any point you lack understanding and I do not advise you of this lack, please tell me.”
“Woah wait. You have all of that? Like, you could make an exact clone of me?”
“No. the equivalent difference you would understand is analog to digital conversion. I could make an autonomous bioconstruct. This entity would never have a soul. It would have programming based on you. It would have syntactic thought beginning from the moment your living thoughts ended. Alternatively, you as a dungeonmaster could put the dungeon’s energy into it and produce a monster, or you may put into it an encapsulated soul from a deceased adventurer, curse the soul to stay within the body and create an undead creature, but in either case it would not be you. It would only have your living memories.”
“So what is Ov, exactly? What is a dungeon?”
“Starting tutorial mode. If you wish to exit tutorial mode, please tell me. I cannot read your mind. What is Ov?
A dungeon is a place of power. You do not yet have the knowledge of magic yet to understand. All things have a degree of sentience. Ov is built around a place where a tier of magic known broadly as “wild” collects. Given enough time to condense, aggregate concentrations of “wild” will gain qualia, or sentience and sophia, or sapience. Qualia is the state of being at which an agregate concentration of magic becomes unified in its experiences. Sophia is the state of being at which it forms a truth of itself as a unified being and becomes a deity. The mass you pacified in this core room had gained qualia. Ov is designed to moderate or prevent Sophia from occurring.
As a deathless creature, your body can process “wild” into what is broadly understood as “refined” magic. Refined magic is incapable of attaining awareness. It is a force that can be harnessed to augment or change reality. Refined magic may be used by all souled creatures and may be consumed by plants and animals thereby converting it into life and physical energy such as you understand from Earth sciences. That is what happened to the core mass. You processed it by pacifying its needs rather than consuming it as most deathless do, but the result was apparently identical. The refined energy of it is now held by you until you process it into something.”
“So Ov was built to prevent gods from being born and I eat wild magic and shit out useable magic?”
“Essentially so, but too simplified. Do not become attached to this definition, but be comforted by it. Dungeons paired with a deathless entity are the reason why Idron is not overrun with deities and is the reason why magic exists in usable form. It is part of the balance of life on Idron. By preventing the formation of deities, we allow magic to exist. If we become an engine for the creation of deities instead, the deities will consume all points of wild magic and render Idron as barren of magic as Earth apparently is, given the understanding gained by D. in its research of your world.”
“So do I just shit out magic or can I hold it?”
“The release of refined magic from your being is involuntary but may be held voluntarily for a short time. You can also use it for your own purposes and hoard it within the dungeon. The dungeon is equipped with storage for the powering of its systems. When we acquired you as a dungeonmaster, the systems were very low on power. The Aryn is a drain on magic. It condenses refined magic into the location within the Anvil of Gods dungeon complex known as Navel of the World. Ov is constantly drained by Navel of the World. You are being constantly drained by Ov. Ov almost lost the ability to function before you came. Now that you are here, you naturally power Ov. If you withhold magical energy from your dungeon, it cannot protect the core. Only one sapience can occupy the core. Currently you are that being. The dungeon protects you as you protect it, but you can be destroyed. If you are destroyed with a mass of energy within you, you explode in an antimagic burst. Such an event created the Aryn as it exists to this day.”
“What do you mean only one? You seem sapient.”
“I am not and cannot become so. All things are sentient to some degree, even energy constructs such as daemons, but I and all other daemons only emulate sapience. My awareness is syntactic, not semantic.”
“Uh. . .I’m. . .not. . .you lost me.”
“You will have time to access my databases of draconic philosophy and programming. This is an advanced topic to your understanding. Would you like to try a basic tutorial instead? May I suggest a map tutorial?”
“Yeah. Let’s see where I am.”
The dragon did a loop de loop in her vision, winked out, map appeared. Four blue eggs hovered in a cube grid separated by a great distance in any direction. Labels hovered above each. A green line connected the treasure room to the core room. One blip of red colored the antechamber. Two more blips entered, one red star and one purple star with a red outline.
“This is the map of your dungeon as you know it. As you explore Ov and make it your own, this map will reveal itself. The dragon programmers of Ov felt that a dungeonmaster must be tested by its dungeon.”
“So I get to play here? Like, as an adventurer?”
“Yes. Play is a method of learning recognized by dragons and used by all sentient creatures to develop their abilities. Please play in your dungeon. There are active programs keeping the dungeon safe against mortal incursion to pit yourself against and claim as your own. I can also run virtual simulations of adventuring parties from all previous dungeonmasters. It will take some time to modify the archive footage but by the time you have completed exploration, I should have some available modules for you to play. Nothing in this dungeon can destroy its dungeonmaster. Warning. Three undead in your antechamber. One has a pact with another dungeon.”
“Calyx and the Eldest were in the chamber with me when D. swallowed me.”
“You must assess them. Command me to assess them and the dungeon will take their measure.”
“Yes. Please assess them.”
“Assessment complete. Would you like to see the result?”
“Yes.”
Three shadows appeared in her vision. They stood, waving their three fingered limbs idly, the way video game characters stood.
“This is the assessment interface. When you have soul containing beings in the antechamber they will be assessed. Deathless creatures and deities cannot be assessed as they do not contain an encapsulated soul to assess. Most natural animals do not have souls. They are natural extensions of Idron’s biosphere. You can’t sense them, but you may assimilate them. An animal with a soul is an indication that they once came to Idron from elsewhere. There are many such. They cannot enter the dungeon unless you personally bring them in or if they come in with a party leader. Examples of animals with souls that have an origin point of Earth: Dog, horse, camel, cat, cow, elephant, chicken, sheep, goat, velociraptor, therizinosaur, tyrannosaurus rex--”
“Woah. Hold up. Dinosaurs?”
“Dragons of Idron and the dragons of Earth were frequently at war. These dinosaurs were the animals Earth dragons domesticated. Would you like to continue this map tutorial?”
“Yeah, yeah, just. . .are they still around? And why can’t they enter my dungeon?”
“Yes. The descendants of domesticated therizinosaurs are currently used as war mounts across the Aryn. And they cannot enter because they are sentient but not sapient, therefore they are incapable of pactmaking. Instead a leader must make a pact for them. The starred creatures on your map indicate leaders. A leader can make a pact with your dungeon for entry on behalf of its party. A red outline indicates that these creatures are undead.
Leaders have special status. They can make a pact for a whole party. They can bring in souled animals. They can define party tactics. They can modify the adventurer user interface for their party. If a leader is killed, a party is automatically phased to the start of the dungeon and cannot enter until another is designated a leader.”
“How many leaders can be in here and how many party members?”
“Five leaders, each with four souled creatures. This is the standard party size within the ruleset of the Anvil of Gods dungeon complex. The restriction on party members to souled creatures means that souled animals also count as party. Creatures in the antechamber in excess of this are destroyed at random. Most creatures of Idron understand this and do not attempt to break the restriction.”
“Gods don’t, I bet.”
“No. Gods do. Deathless do not. A god may not enter a dungeon without being destroyed. It must send its followers in to conquer it and destroy you. Once you are destroyed, a leader may assume the role of a Heirophant, a mortal who holds a place for the entry of a god. Only a hierophant can interface with Ov and begin a holy runtime. A Heirophant will conquer a dungeon and send for a daduchos to lead the god to its new domain, ending the role of this place of power as a dungeon and beginning its use as a holy site. Deathless, on the other hand, do as they please because they are an expression of liminality. They can fight you directly if they wish to destroy you and take your job.”
“That’s not fair. And isn’t this a pact that I have with the dungeon?”
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
“There is a difference between a pact and a contract. They have the same meaning in your Earth language of English, but the word is different here. To make a true pact is to involve the whole of a being, not just it’s services. All that is required for you to use Ov as a place of employment is your agreement to work for the dungeon and in return the dungeon works for you. That is a contract; services for services. A pact is as the dungeon forms with a mortal. Their mind, body, and soul become involved. The dungeon siphons off some of their energy. If one dies here, we get their souls in full to repurpose or consume. The purple star in your antechamber is one such creature. Would you like to look at his stats?”
“Sure. Show me his stats.”
In her field of vision, an undead elf appeared out of the shadow of one of the three figures. Unlike the mummified faryn, this one looked alive though it was wrapped in linens. Sand trickled from it and mounded at its feet. The only thing that marked it as undead was the red shining in his irises. The face looked familiar. This was the first face she remembered upon entering Idron.
“Ahden,” said Brishauna. The name appeared over his head “Ahden of Aryn.”
Species: Voided One (Xenolan (elf))
Race: Faryn
Undead Type: Servant of the Sands
Class: Ambassador
level: ???
Dungeon Citizenship: Anvil of the Gods
Nationality: none
“It appears that he is very high level compared to you. It is a good thing you know this undead.”
“Well, show me the others.”
The other two appeared from their veil, both of which she knew.
“Calyx and The Eldest.”
Calyx
Species: Xenolan (elf)
Race: Rasothan
Undead type: Faryn Alchemical Mummy
class: warrior
level: ???
Dungeon Citizenship: none
Nationality: Faryn Allied City States
Methanon The Eldest
Species: Xenolan (elf)
Race: Faryn
Undead type: Faryn Alchemical Mummy
class: alchemist
level: ???
Dungeon Citizenship: none
Nationality: Faryn Allied City States
“All of them are too powerful.”
“Yes. You should not wish to challenge them. But do not worry. The undead of Akel have allied with Ov for nearly five hundred thousand years.”
“I don’t think I will ever get used to the scope of time y’all have here. I mean, it’s in the Dungeonmaster’s toolkit, but you never think about it like that. So, red outline means undead. Red fill means. . .”
“Unknown disposition. Potentially hostile.”
“They’re not hostile.”
“Until you renew the pact of alliance with them, they are not of your dungeon and so they are potentially hostile.”
“And the purple means an ambassador from another dungeon. A star is a leader, and a circle is not a leader. How does the dungeon know a leader?”
“It reads the quality in their soul. This topic is too advanced for you to understand and no simplification can suffice.”
“Ok so what about the rest of the map?”
“Blue-white indicates chambers which are yours to modify because you have claimed them. Red walls indicate the limit of your dungeon. Green walls indicate dungeon matter such as stone. Green walls may be phased through between other chambers which you control.”
“So how do I get out of here? I want to go fuck with Calyx. She owes me big for kicking me down the stairs.”
“You should not wish to provoke the denizens of Akel.”
“She provoked me first. You don’t just push people down the stairs.”
“You are incapable of dying from physical injury.”
“It’s the principle of the thing! Do you know what it’s like to have someone chewing on your brain right in front of you like a goddamn fruit?”
“You will not care about it after you slaughter a few mortals.”
“No! Fuck! If that’s the way it’s gonna be then—”
A video filled her vision.
Three humans lounged against sandstone walls, all injured. The floor of their room and the beds had fresh grasses. They sat there, their metal armor hanging on the walls, their swords still at their hips. One of them pulled a case out of his kit, sharpened a razor on a strop and began to dry shave around the bandages on his head. Another picked at the insect heads in his arm holding together a gash. Another had a leg in a splint.
“We’ll be turned loose soon. The elves always let people go.”
“Caius, you are an idiot. Nothing lives here anymore. Nothing but the gaoler. The undead will eat us, mark my words. We’ll be joining the ranks of the undead for sure.”
“They don’t do that. They’re not plague zombies,” said Caius.
“Then why are they keeping us?” asked the shaving man.
“Who knows. Elves are godless bastards. The last set that they let loose to turn up in Hammerstrike had all of their ears, tongues, teeth, nose and digits removed. They were made eunuchs and they were scarified with the terms of defiance across every single back. You had to line them up in a row to read it all. They had to drag their dead with them so that the document was complete and were cursed to become undead if they didn’t. And then the centurions had to skin every single one of them to preserve the flesh and release them from the curse.”
“Fuck me.”
“You don’t know, Caius, this is your first season here. We are beyond fucked.”
“Our lord Tarquin, may he be crowned in glory, watch over our cohort—”
“Shh! Not where they can hear you.”
Barefoot steps slapped against the stone. Everyone stopped. A couple drew their arms. A gaunt, black creature padded into view. Its taught skin exposed the ridges of its hip bones and ribs. Flaps of leathery skin dangled from its chest. Its feet looked shod with a two-inch heel, but upon closer inspection, three toes ended in clawlike hooves supported by a thick heel cushion. Four dewclaws, one on the outer side and three on the inner, decorated the foot. Its hair, coily and stiff, radiated from its head, held back on the sides by ears with elfish points. It framed a face that looked disturbingly human, albeit starved. Four fingers and two thumbs on each hand grasped the bars of the cell.
“Humans. You’re human!” it said, in Brishaunna’s voice.
“Demon! Get back!” the man with the gash said, lunging at her with his short sword. It lodged in her chest. She stared at it with eyes that kept flickering between red pinpoints of light and blue-white.
“Oh. You stabbed me,” she said and stepped back, staring at the blade. Two elves rushed to her side, one alive and one undead. Calyx, she knew. The other wore a uniform and a senechal’s belt full of keys and pouches.
“You. Donem. You will not get your weapon back. You will be tortured for this,” said the living elf.
“You will be scourged from the land, demon lovers!” said the man who had been shaving, holding up a symbol of a circle of vines containing a fasces carried over the left shoulder of a velociraptor with a crown of leaves around its neck. The dinosaur’s sickle-taloned foot rested on a globe. Calyx recoiled from the symbol but Brishauna reached up and ripped the symbol from the man’s hand. She traced the embossed details, comparing the taloned foot to the pommel of the shortsword in her chest.
“I am not a demon. I’m human, can’t you see that?” asked Brishauna.
“Lady Brishauna, you are Ghrem, remember?” asked the living elf. Brishaunna froze for a moment.
“Oh. . .yes. I forgot,” she said, clenching her hands into a loose fist. Her hands couldn’t ball up. They were not evolved to be able to make a tight fist. Human hands could though. The shaving man shook his fists at her.
“Foul thing. How dare you defile the emperor’s symbol!”
“This?” Brishauna asked, holding up the disk. “This is a symbol of Tarquin Donem. I know this symbol from the player’s guide. You are centurions?”
“We are the third cohort tasked with pacifying this dungeon.”
“No,” said Brishauna, her eyes flickering to blue-white. “I won’t let you.”
“You cannot defy the will of the emperor you foul and undead thing.”
“I am not undead,” said Brishauna, “Oh. Oh, you were repelling undead just now, weren’t you? I forgot that his symbols are also holy symbols. You are a lictor. Where is your magistrate?”
“You ate him!”
“I did not,” said Brishaunna.
“Creature of darkness you will surrender Ov to the entry of as many adventuring parties as it will take to pacify it. You will give up your necropolis to the needs of the legion.”
“No. I am dungeonmaster here. It’s mine.”
The humans, except for the one with the bad leg, all got to their feet.
“Dungeonmaster? It is a lie! There are no dungeonmasters in all the Aryn. This is known! Heirophants now control seven out of twelve of all dungeons on the rim.”
Calyx moaned at this news. The living elf shed tears and shook his head.
“Impossible. Impossible! You humans are just trying to demoralize us,” said the living elf.
“We define truth, you heathen torturer. It is true. Why do you think there are no reinforcements to your godsforsaken necropolis? We destroyed you all,” said the man with the bad leg. “We have attempted to give hope and salvation to the Aryn and you have universally chosen death instead. Listen to the moaning of your undead abomination. It can sense the truth.”
Calyx tore at her robes and wailed.
“Your cohort didn’t even give me a chance to talk before you stabbed me,” Brishauna said, slammed the symbol down and ground it against the stone with her foot.
In an instant, something seemed to snap in Calyx. She seized the gaoler, took his keys and left him cowering on the floor. The bars of the gaol slid open and she launched herself at the lictor, teeth at his throat. The light in Brishauna’s eyes went completely red. She launched herself at the man with the gash. The video faded out.
“Holy shit, is that what I look like? Also, I don’t remember that,” said Brishauna.
“Of course not, but it has been shown to you before. I used it to interpret some of the primitive communcations coming from the core mass. During this moment, you were in the paradox phase of cataclysm. It is rare that a creature at the event locus will remember any of it. During paradox, all possibilities are true. Your being existed in every state, alive, dead, undead; deathless. D. recorded this with Ov’s external sensors. Nothing goes on within the walls of Akel that Ov does not have record of. From the many images of you coming and going from the walls with the undead, we know you have been eating people regularly. Do not be hypocritical about slaughter. If another is chewing on a brain that has been sloughed off you, then it is your fault and you should not be surprised or angry. You should not seek revenge.”
“It’s the principle of the thing. Can’t we do something to, I don’t know. . . hurt her just a little? She’s in my antechamber.”
“No. The undead are not there to compact with the dungeon for entry, therefore you can do nothing. I have shown you a piece of your existence to remind you that you are not mortal and should not think of the undead or the living as anything other than a potential source of power. The humans provided you with sustinence. You consumed their souls in your mindlessness. The undead known as Calyx is not a source to waste. She has served as an ally to this dungeon for the entirety of her existence.”
“So you know her.”
“Yes.”
“Show me all her stats.”
“No. She has not made a compact for entry. She is above your challenge rating. That is all you need to know until you have completed more tutorials. When you go up to entreat with them as you must, for they are upon your doorstep, you are required to speak with Methanon. Methanon is the leader among the undead of Akel. Until then, you may wish to learn more about Ov. Please select an appropriate tutorial.”
The dragon in her field of vision pointed to a list box filled with options.
Dungeoncrafting tutorials: I can summon! Dungeon monsters I can build! an oubliette I can construct! a throne
Magic tutorials: I can cast! Lvl 0 spark I can’t bestow! Lvl 0 Divine light I can move! Dungeon phase
Dungeonmodding tutorials: I can program! Making changes to worldbookd I can command! basic physical resources I can assimilate! Dungeon wildlife
Basic function tutorials: Lights, motion, sound! Exiting and entering the dungeon The map system The quest system Logging your adventurers Query mode Quitting Ov Your primary objectives The Dungeon Status screen
Brishaunna looked up and down the list
“Primary objectives?” she asked. The text glittered and a video popped up.
In front of her, a figure stood with six-fingered hands and seven-toed feet that resembled hers. Above the figure, a golden egg with a blue dragon symbol hovered. This was the logo of Ov, and the figure represented her as a dungeonmaster. A dragon flew into the scene and settled on her shoulders, its wings forming a cape and its body a mantle. A bright light pulsed in front of her and became a face. Tentacles formed out of the mass, but the figure leaped at it and enveloped the mass, swallowed it, and settled to the floor, stomach distended. Then the image froze, a circle framed the scene of the bloated ghrem, and it floated to the top of her vision.
Another scene appeared, but this time a figure of a giant glowing being wearing a toga and wielding lightning. It rode a bolt into a dungeon’s core, and behind it demons, angels and mortals swarmed the dungeon. but the ghrem from the first image was there in the core room. Magical flashes and visual overlays of a malfunctioning screen occluded the scene, but when it cleared, only the ghrem remained, bolt of lightning in hand, her eyes pulsing blue-white. This scene also froze, and joined the previous scene.
The third scene opened up in the midst of battle. Living, dead, and undead choked the entrance to a dungeon. Monsters bled on the stone, leaving the entire dungeon a sticky mess. A human man repelled into the core room. But the ghrem waited for him. She engaged him with swords, stabbed him in the chest and pulled his heart and soul from his body. The image stopped as the ghrem held the beating heart before her and wrenched the soul from it.
The first image floated to the center of her vision. A banner unfurled below it:
“The control of the core mass and prevention of sophia.”
The next image wheeled into view, replacing the first:
“The defense of the dungeon against external gods.”
The final image appeared:
“The prevention of mortals from attaining godhood.”
Then the three images formed an equilateral triangle. The words “primary objectives” appeared in the center.
Her vision blued out again, back to the list and the dragon.
“Well, that was cool. What about this one? Open the tutorial I can Move! Dungeon phase.”
Another video appeared. A ghrem stood still while an egg capsule surrounded her. The image zoomed out to reveal a 3D map. The encapsulated ghrem blinked out of one room and appeared on the opposite end of the map. Another video appeared beside it, showing a ghrem touching the blue white wall of a dungeon room. Behind it, a mass of green wall separated her from the next room. The ghrem passed through the green into the next room. Then it showed the ghrem touching a wall behind which was a mass of red. A mass of symbols appeared over the grem’s head as she tried to push against the wall. Just as with the primary directives, these videos got a circular frame and a banner to identify them. The first one read “Teleport” and the second read “Passwall”
“In phase mode, you can use the magic of the dungeon to move you to areas which you have explored. It consists of two functions: Passwall and Teleport. Both are limited by the constraints of the dungeon. Passwall allows you, creatures, and objects in your control to move freely between known chambers in your dungeon by phasing through solid matter such as stone. In teleport mode, daemons will transport you to a remote location from your present location in a similar way to how D. brought you to the treasure room by conveying you in its stomach. Teleport is limited to you and the objects adorning your body. To use teleport mode, access your map. Select your current location. Select the destination for teleport.”
Brishauna looked at her map again. She couldn’t reach the green stone above her so she selected teleport. The core room glowed blue. She selected the antechamber. A field of blue surrounded her like an egg.
Blinding light stabbed her eyes.