The world was darkness and pain. Ethan struggled against both, as agony lanced through his body. It felt like he was in a bathtub filled with brine made from a mix of pineapple juice and razorblades. He tried to open his eyes, tried to get away from the pain, tried to scream. Nothing he did had any effect. He was trapped in this pitch-black nightmare of pain.
Time passed as he writhed in agony. Ethan didn’t know how much time, but between one silent scream and the next, a blue light appeared in the blackness. The shock of seeing something new after an eternity of blinding pain was almost enough to make him stop screaming, almost. The agony was too severe for him to stop, despite the fact he was no longer making any noise. Ethan’s vocal cords had cracked some time ago, and nothing was coming out of his mouth now but a broken croak.
The light was like a beacon in the darkness. Pulsating gently, it was like a manifestation of hope to Ethan’s tortured mind. The longer he stared at it, the less his body seemed to hurt. It was like a life preserver had been thrown to him and he clung to it with every fiber of his fraying mind. Clinging to it desperately, like it could somehow keep the pain at bay. He didn’t know how long he stared into that gently pulsing blue light, but eventually the flickering light, no bigger than a candle flame, began to dim. It reminded Ethan of a heartbeat slowly fading away into death as the periods of darkness between beats grew. Terror gripped him at that thought, he didn’t know why, but something told him that he couldn’t let that light go out. He had to keep it lit, or else it, and he would surely die.
Grinding his broken teeth together, Ethan forced his eyes away from the weakening light and took stock of his situation. He couldn’t remember where he was, or how he’d gotten here, but he could somewhat feel his body. He was lying on his stomach, something heavy pinning him down, though he could move his head a little. Craning it around, he looked down at himself. His legs were shattered, he could feel that easily enough when he tried to move. His left arm was also shattered, no wait, his left arm wasn’t shattered it was gone. Nothing but a broken stump of bloody bone protruded from his burned and flaking skinsuit.
Wait, skinsuit? That reminded him of where he was. He was on a ship, the Luna. His younger brother had picked him up from his apartment on the moon, all but kidnapping him and dragging him out here to the rift they’d found beyond Neptune’s orbit… only to find themselves in the middle of a warzone. Someone detonated some sort of bomb, or something, and all that followed was pain. The pain, the pain. Ethan’s mind almost broke again as his memories of pain overlapped with his current reality and his thoughts spiraled out of control again.
A weak flicker of blue light was able to recapture his attention, bringing him back to the present. Reaching out with his right arm, his only arm, Ethan let out another broken scream as he struggled to bring his fingers closer to the light. He didn’t know why, but he knew he had to touch that light before it went out. The light flickered again, weaker this time, and the period of darkness between flickers was longer than before. Ethan steadfastly refused to look at his hand, skin chard black and flaking away to show raw, red muscle beneath. He wanted to close his eyes to the sight, but then he wouldn’t be able to see the blue light anymore, and he didn’t think he could stand that.
Time stretched out into an eternity again as the light flickered, and his hand moved slowly towards it. It became the entirety of Ethan’s world, nothing else existing for him apart from that light and the hand he was reaching out towards it. An endless second stretched into two until his fingers slowly closed over the weakly flickering object, he now knew to be a marble sized orb.
Ship core extends contract to become a dungeon boss, accept?
Y/N
Ethan stared at the words that were now floating in front of his eyes, as well as echoing inside his head. He blinked slowly, wondering if he had actually died already.
Ship core extends contract to become a dungeon boss, accept?
Y/N
The question repeated itself, this time seeming more urgent than before. Ethan couldn’t maintain consciousness for much longer, nor could he understand what was being asked of him. All he knew for sure was if he didn’t accept the prompt, he would die. As the light flickered off again, Ethan mentally selected Y, before losing his fight with the blackness.
* * *
When Ethan opened his eyes again, his surroundings were illuminated by a steady gleam of blue light. Light that was emanating from the orb he still clutched in his right hand. Looking at it, Ethan could tell instinctively that it was stronger, healthier, than it had been before. It still felt weak to him, but it no longer felt like a guttering candle on the verge of going out.
He stared, transfixed, at the clear, glasslike orb as the blue light radiated out from its core. So caught up in the orb for long minutes he did not see his own hand holding the mysterious ball. When he finally did, Ethan let out a gasp of shock.
Healthy pink flesh, like that newly grown after an injury, covered his once charred black fingers. It gradually lightened before his eyes, until only his normal skin tone remained. Without thinking he brought his left hand up to feel his fingers, only remembering after his perfectly intact left hand came into view, that before he passed out it had been nothing but a broken stump. Looking down, he took in his legs, both whole and healthy. Feeling giddy, Ethan tried to sit up, only to discover he was still trapped under a heavy weight.
He frowned, shifting his shoulders around and testing the extent of his miraculous healing by pressing against the weight that pinned him down. With a grin, he discovered that he could move it, and wrapping his fingers protectively around the glowing orb, Ethan pushed against the weight pinning him down with all his might. Sitting up, pain free and with a smile now on his lips, Ethan looked down at the object that had held him down and froze.
“Mark?” He said, mouth gone suddenly dry at what he was seeing. “Mark are you ok?” Lying beside him on the battered metal floor of what he now remembered was the bridge of the starship Luna… was the body of his younger brother Mark. Only, he was in even worse shape than Ethan had been before. Not only was his skin charred nearly to the bone, but his legs were crushed, and his left arm was…
“What happened to him?” Ethan asked aloud, looking down at his brother who sported injuries that looked suspiciously like the ones he had suffered from not so long ago. He didn’t expect anyone to answer, so he nearly jumped out of his skin when the words appeared again, across his vision and inside his head.
Dungeon boss was fatally damaged. Ship core used the most suitable resources available to fix the Dungeon boss.
Air system is compromised. Recommend creating oxygen producing organisms. See list?
Y/N
The message winked out of existence as Ethan clambered to his feet and the orb dropped from his numb fingers. He took one step, then another, before he lost his footing and fell to the ground, stomach doing its best to empty itself, despite the fact there was nothing in his system to come out. That didn’t stop him from trying however, and for the next few minutes he heaved up his guts until he couldn’t breathe through the tears, snot, and bile flowing from his eyes nose and mouth.
He didn’t know how long his fit lasted, but eventually, Ethan cried himself out. Wiping his face clean on the remnants of his space black skinsuit, he staggered back to his feet and turned to what remained of Mark. The taste in his mouth was awful, but he didn’t have anything to rinse his mouth out with, nor did he have the desire to, once his eyes fell again on the battered body of his little brother.
He was no longer paralyzed by shock and horror, his mind numb from crying and was able to look at the body objectively. A foot long chunk of shrapnel, as thick as his wrist, had pierced through Mark’s chest, going right through both the front and back plates of his combat armor. It didn’t take long for Ethan to figure out what happened. His brother had shielded him from the explosion with his own body, paying the ultimate price for his bravery.
Ethan sighed, looking down at the mangled body illuminated only by the soft blue glow of the marble he’d let drop in his earlier terror. Ignoring the orb for now, Ethan slowly walked around the ship’s bridge, his mind already hard at work rationalizing away the similarities between his earlier injuries and the sorry state Mark was now in.
“We were in a system wide explosion,” he muttered as he moved around the small room. “The whole damn planet blew up, it’s hardly surprising we’d have similar injuries…” his words trailed off as his mind slowly replayed the last memory he had before darkness and pain had claimed him.
* * *
Ethan had walked unsteadily onto the bridge of the Luna, helped along by a medical exoskeleton robot that supported his fragile body. Mark was standing with Sven and Cherry, two members of his ten-man team. They stood near Mark’s command chair, right in front of the command console, which projected a Holo screen that took up the entire nose section of the thirty-foot-wide bridge.
“Ethan, quick get over here,” Mark called excitedly, his bald head turning towards the door as it opened. His words were accompanied by a welcoming grin from Sven, and an annoyed cluck from Cherry. Ethan ignored them both as he made his way slowly across the deck. His breath was already coming in gasps from the short walk from his cabin, and he knew his time was almost up.
“What is it, Mark?” He asked, the annoyance at his own weakness and Cherry’s disdain making his words come out in a snarl. He flipped a few switches on the exoskeleton and dropped from its embrace to sit tiredly in his brother’s command chair.
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“Look,” Mark said undaunted by his attitude, as he pointed at the holo screen with a smile. “We’ve made it to the rift. See that tear in space there? It leads to a whole new solar system. A solar system that is loaded with dungeons. I’ve heard there is even a dungeon world over there. One filled with so many dungeon cores that the entire planet is practically one giant dungeon.” He looked at Ethan than, eyes filled with excitement that softened Ethan’s expression. “We’re almost there bro. The mana from a dungeon can heal almost anything, it can cure you Ethan, I know it.”
“Right,” Cherry said with a scoff, flipping her long brown hair over one shoulder as she spoke. “Except it only works when you absorb kill energy from something in the dungeon’s domain… and not to be rude or anything, but your big bro doesn’t exactly scream monster hunter.” She added, brown eyes boring into Ethan and tone showing that she was definitely trying to be rude.
The smile left Mark’s face, the look that replaced it was equal parts threat and promise. His eyes now looked like chips of blue ice glaring out from above high cheek bones. It was a look Ethan had seen many times on the holo screens, back when his brother had been Markus, pro gladiator champion of the moon for three years running. Back before he shattered his right elbow and wrist and was forced to retire.
“Enough, Cherry.” He said the words softly, but there was nothing gentle in his tone. “We will handle the dungeon monsters, and Ethan will absorb the energy. I won’t hear another word about this.” He said, flexing his dungeon healed right arm in a habitual motion he’d picked up after the limb was restored.
“…sorry boss.” Cherry said in a near whisper, before turning away and leaving the bridge, her head down and shoulders slumped. Ethan watched her go, torn between hate for the woman and the knowledge that she had a point.
“She’s just worried boss,” Sven said clapping a hand on Mark’s shoulder to ease the growing tension. “You heard the rumors too; I know you did. The Terrans and the Martians… wars been brewing for decades. Both sides have been sending ships through the rift since it was discovered. I know you want to save your brother… but…”
“No buts,” Mark said forcefully, shrugging his best friend’s hand off and turning to the smiling man. Ethan studied them as they looked at each other. Where Mark was tall and well-muscled, muscles acquired from many hours of swinging a sword and shield. Sven was short and slender. He looked like a stiff breeze would blow him away and his long, dexterous fingers and lithe frame gave him the look of a musician or a surgeon. None of the disparity in size mattered when the man picked up a rifle though. Where Mark was built to fight in melee combat, Sven was a born sniper.
“The moon has remained neutral in the conflict between earth and mars. Lunarian vessels won’t be targeted in any conflict… and the disease is worsening by the day…” Mark added softly, eyes flicking Ethan’s way. “We can’t wait any longer, we have to do this now or else…”
“I know boss, I just wanted to remind you why Cherry was so stressed.” Sven said with his winning smile.
Ethan’s cheeks burned with shame as they talked about him as if he wasn’t standing right there. He turned his attention to the holo screen as the ship entered the rift, doing his best to forget his brother was better at him in nearly every measurable way. A system renown athlete, who became an adventurer, who not only ran his own team, but owned his own, admittedly small, ship at the young age of thirty-three. While Ethan, who was closing in on thirty-six, drove a cargo shuttle for a living and spent his free time playing low gravity VR games back home… or he did anyway, until he’d been diagnosed with the wasting disease. A disease that affected a growing number of the moon’s population every year and had no apparent cause or cure. Now he couldn’t do anything without the aid of the medical exoskeleton his brother had bought him, since he’d refused Mark’s offer of prosthetics. He was going to die soon anyway, why waste so much of his brother’s money?
The screen flashed with a myriad of intense colors as the small ship passed through the rift. Ethan didn’t think he could explain what he was seeing, beyond that it was mesmerizing, and it seemed to have captured Mark and Sven’s attention as well because they went silent beside him.
“Amazing…” he wasn’t sure who said it and didn’t have time to figure it out. As, soon enough, they exited the rift into a system wide war being waged around what the holo screen labeled as the dungeon planet. There were thousands of ships, hundreds of thousands. Both earth and mars must have sent every ship they owned out here for there to be this many.
“What the hell…” Sven cried out in shock as the ship shuddered under what could only be weapons fire. “We need to get out of her…” Before the slender man could finish speaking, a flash of light blossomed in the holo screen as the planet itself detonated with a silent rumble, and Ethan felt himself being hurled to the floor by a familiar set of strong arms as the ship’s nose behind the holo screen blew inward in a spray of twisted metal.
Shaking his head, Ethan banished the memory that had overtaken him. He’d been slowly working his way around the destroyed bridge, the once thirty feet by thirty-foot room had boasted twelve-foot-tall ceilings. Now, it looked like a giant hand had grabbed it from the outside and crushed it. It looked more like a crumpled sphere than a square room. The ship’s shattered nose, which had been facing the explosion when it happened, had somehow closed in on itself to seal off the compartment from the deadly vacuum outside. Ethan looked around at the shattered crates and piles of debris, as he remembered what happened. When realization washed over him in an instant, he looked down at himself in awe. Hands that didn’t shake worked their way over his body, starting with the brown fuzz of hair he kept cut short since he couldn’t take care of it after he got sick. Moving them down he felt muscles that had once gone slack and withered from lack of movement. Only now, they were full, and felt even larger than they had been at his prime. Ethan gasped in wonder as he realized he was no longer suffering from the wasting disease, and even better than before.
A smile threatened to split his face in half, until he walked around a pile of crates that had been shattered by the explosion to find Sven, just as blackened and burned as Mark was, and he himself had been. The smile dropped from his lips as he took in the man’s cracked and blistered face. He couldn’t see it clearly, as the only light came from the glowing glass orb which was still on the other side of the crates. Still, he knew without a doubt Sven was dead.
With a sigh, Ethan moved back around the crates, his newfound energy having seemingly abandoned him, as he was finding it increasingly difficult to breathe. Reaching down, he picked up the glass orb, intending to take it with him to light his path as he searched for a way out. When he touched the orb, words appeared before him again, only now they flashed an insistent red.
Warning, air system is compromised. If action is not taken dungeon boss will suffer irreversible harm. Recommend creating oxygen producing organisms. See list?
Y/N
Ethan frowned, not sure what was happening, but unwilling to die now that he had regained his health… at the expense of his brother’s life. He mentally selected Y and looked as a list appeared in his vision. It wasn’t a very long list, considering it only contained two entries.
Ficus pumila = also known as creeping fig. A vine commonly grown indoors as decoration.
Quercus alba = also known as white oak. A common hardwood tree on earth, grown in small pots on ships as a good luck charm against misfortune.
“That’s it?” Ethan asked aloud as he stared at the list in shock. “A couple of house plants?... come to think of it,” he turned his head towards the bench Cherry normally occupied. Sure enough, he saw the small pots that held her precious plants, now empty. They had been bolted to the table underneath a small grow light. She cared for them like they were her own children, even telling Mark off when he’d brushed against the “bonsai,” whatever that was. Ethan looked around the small space in confusion but couldn’t find them anywhere.
A new warning flashed through his mind, and he put the mystery of the plants on hold for the time being and turned his attention back to the list. After a moment of thought, he settled on the creeping fig, figuring it would grow the fastest, and selected it mentally. He felt a tugging sensation deep inside himself that he couldn’t find words to describe. All he knew was some energy or life force was pulled from him. Weakness overcame him as it felt like whatever force had animated him was sucked away again, and he once more lapsed into unconsciousness.
As he blinked awake and sat up, Ethan didn’t have time to berate himself for passing out again, because he noticed the changes to the bridge. Staring in shock, he looked around the room. The ship wasn’t very big, and the bridge had doubled as a place to store cargo. With the crumpled walls and shattered crates, the room had somewhat resembled a cave. That image was more prevalent than ever now, as everything was completely covered with creeping fig vines. The floor, walls, and ceiling. Even the crates were covered with the small, green, white-edged leaves.
Ethan gaped, remembering stories Mark had told him about the magic he’d seen on his adventures. Magic that caused monsters from legends to be born from thin air, and natural resources that grew from the walls faster than they could be harvested, but… that would mean, he looked down at the orb in his hand with new eyes.
“Could this be?” He wondered aloud; disbelief written all over his face. “It almost has to be,” he continued muttering, remembering how the words in his mind had said ‘ship core’, and called him a ‘dungeon boss’. He knew what those things were, but with everything that had happened recently he just hadn't put two and two together.
He’d barely raised his head after waking up, and again he found himself slumping back down against the stack of crates. Only it wasn’t physical weakness to blame this time. He was just too busy wracking his brains for everything he knew, or thought he knew about ship cores to stand up.
Frowning, he thought back to his grade school history classes. It was hard, considering it was close to twenty years ago. If he remembered right, it was 2020, or 2030? When archeologists digging in Antarctica found the first dungeon. They didn’t know what it was at first, they only knew that they had uncovered a jungle cave filled with dinosaurs of all things. Dinosaurs that were aggressive to a fault. Eventually, they’d sent in the military to wipe them all out. That’s when they found the dungeon core.
A thinking crystal that could create objects and living creatures with magical force. The people of the time had dubbed it mana, and it was the discovery of the age. The core was hostile, and fought them, Ethan couldn’t remember how exactly, but when they finally pulled it free it was like it had done a hard reset. Its intelligence and much of its power was wiped out. Resulting in the entire jungle dying off almost instantly. Scientists flocked to Antarctica after that, and over the next years they found several more dungeons. Learning that they had a sort of domain they could control, as long as they weren’t moved to far anyway.
Within the next fifty years, Ethan couldn’t remember exact dates, some scientists somewhere experimented with using the core and its mana as a power source, creating the first mana engine. Within another fifty years they learned to harness the core’s domain power to make closed containers, and with the help of mana engines created flying ships. It wasn’t long after that when they began experimenting with space exploration. Something like one hundred fifty years later, they had spread to the moon and mars, where they found more dungeons, fought succession wars, and were now three independent entities. The Republic of earth, the lunar kingdom, and the empire of mars.
Ethan frowned, trying his best to come up with something, anything else he knew about dungeon cores, or ship cores as they were known after they had been removed from their dungeons and forced onto a ship. That was something he supposed. Wild dungeon cores got smarter the longer their dungeon was left alone to grow. Ship cores were the same, except they were more accommodating. An analogy his teacher had used once was that dungeon cores were wolves, while ship cores were like domesticated dogs… not that Ethan had seen many of either, growing up on the moon.
Still, it was surprisingly little information, considering humanity was only able to leave the atmosphere and begin colonizing the solar system because they had discovered the cores. He knew mana engines were human creations, but they didn’t function without a ship core’s mana. Without ship cores, humanity would still be traveling exclusively with fossil fuel powered locomotives. So, why was there so little information on them? Did he sleep through his classes, or was the information deliberately suppressed?
Shrugging, Ethan stood back up, ship core still in hand to finish looking around. He didn’t know anything useful about ship cores, so he decided to focus on the here and now, rather than ancient history he had no way to research right now. Picking his way back around the shattered pile of crates, Ethan raised the orb up to better inspect Sven’s body.
“What the hell?” He said, looking down at an empty skinsuit with a small pile of gear strewn around it. “What happened to the body?” No sooner had he asked the question, text started scrolling across his vision and through his mind once more.