The boss's death ended the event, and with the end of the event, Dan received the notification.

🔷 Crystal Notice 🔷

Attention! Event: Wolfbat Rumble has ended. The shattered zone will now return to normal.

Be warned: With the event's conclusion, new monsters and stronger variants of previously seen monsters will begin to appear.

Be on the lookout for further events!

🔷

Another aspect of the event's end was its aftermath. Around half of Dan's forces were killed, though honestly, he was not worried about that. He knew that he would eventually respawn them all. What worried Dan was the sheer power displayed by D-Rankers, more specifically, the sheer power that he held by being able to create such entities.

Dan started thinking about the possibilities he now had in his non-existent hands. He had been worried to some extent about the rest of the areas in the zone. However, now he was more than assured that even with his current ranked monsters, he could easily take most of the zones over. In truth, they wouldn't even pose much of an issue. Heck, even when it came to the green camp and the hills, Dan wasn’t as worried. Even with the shards, there wasn't anything that could stand up to him anymore.

As such, the real issue came when he still felt rather powerless. These were his lands by all accounts. He had seen that he could reshape the very world around him. Yet, looking back at the battle that had just occurred, he truly hadn't been in control. He could have fought the invading monsters in a hundred different ways without ever putting his forces at risk. He could have opened a giant pit underneath them and trapped them in there by reinforcing the walls. If not that, he could have made lightning rain from the sky with mana and simply demolished the horde of beasts. However, he hadn't done any of that.

Something had taken hold of him and guided him to fight the battle in the manner he had. Dan had-had some control, but it was like he had tunnel vision to fight the battle in the way he had.

Dan's thoughts went down this line of thinking and how everything in the area felt like a training zone for him. He knew that there was a chance that the World Crystal was intervening in this zone, but he didn’t think that the large piece of glass would be able to control him in such a manner. There was simply no way. Dan had read and felt the contract they had made. So, after thinking about it, it all pointed to the one entity that could do such a thing: Mother Infinity. Of course, just as that realization hit him, everything went dark.

----------------------------------------

Dan came to with a start.

Being a crystal dungeon entity was odd, and after knowing where everything was at all times, only being aware of his immediate surroundings was something new and annoying.

He stood floating on an empty dark void. Well, most of it was empty. A humanoid woman stood in front of him also floating in the dark space. Just like the last time he had seen her, her skin was that of the universe. Dan saw galaxies and distant stars slowly floating across her skin, which was colored by the literal light of the universe.

What was more unbelievable than the deity of the universe was what said deity was doing. In front of the deity were hundreds of floating screens. Each screen showing different scenes from all over reality. One showed an exploding star, another an Eldritch God feasting on a World Crystal, and yet another showed a World Crystal slowly forming a planet around itself. These were all sights that Dan couldn't help but stare at since they were the most eye-catching.

However, there were other screens displaying what Dan would say were less than exciting things. These were usually random individuals in the cosmos doing a multitude of things. From cooking to killing monsters, Dan spotted a variety of entities doing an even wider variety of things. Dan wasn’t sure why the creator of everything was watching such events. He remembered that she had said she would be watching him, but she had actually meant that more than he thought she did.

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Entranced by the sight as he was, Dan slowly floated toward the woman, her long universe-filled hair moving to winds Dan did not feel. Once he was next to her, she looked over at him with her two glowing star eyes and spoke with a sweet voice that Dan had not expected.

“So, what do you think?” Mother Eternity said as she motioned at the screens, one of which switched to a live image of his crystal back in the shattered zone.

“A very interesting hobby, I suppose. Though honestly, when you said that you would be watching me, this is not what I had in mind.” Dan said rather calmly as he spoke to the super god.

The goddess giggled and Dan saw her skin grow brighter as reality brightened for just a second. “It's fun. So, many possibilities out there, and it's always fun to see new, unexpected things, like your situation.” The goddess answered with a smile on her lips.

“Really? How rare is something like me?”

“Believe it or not, you are very rare. Not a human becoming an Eldritch God, mind you. A human blessed by a World Crystal who then became an Eldritch God. That alone is incredibly rare. You are maybe the second one I have seen. However, to see that Eldritch God die while trying to eat a World Crystal only to end up with both of them working together. Well, the odds of that happening are almost impossible.” The deity answered with a soft chuckle.

“I don’t know. It doesn’t seem so far-fetched when you have eternity. Also, what about our little system thing? Is that new?”

“Hmmm, I guess you only really have your mortal mind right now, so let me put it into perspective a human earther can understand.” She stopped for a second, supposedly thinking before speaking up again. “All right, so the odds of your scenario happening is as rare as someone on your planet winning the lottery 100 times in a row. You have to understand that many things in reality end up repeating themselves, which is why I like finding those that don’t. At least, that don’t repeat that often. Like I said in this run of the cosmos so far, you are the very first I have found in your scenario. On the other hand, something like your system is nothing new. Many planets out there have already done something like it, probably better.”

“Damn, okay.” Dan said a bit dejectedly before he continued on,” One thing I don’t understand, though, is if you can see all of time and space, how can something surprise you?”

“Well, that's easy; I just don’t,” she answered with another giggle.

“Now, as much as I have enjoyed this chat, that is not the reason why I brought you here.”

And, of course, like magic, Dan suddenly remembered the things he had been thinking about before coming here, and some anger flared up within him.

“Are you just using me!? Am I some kind of pawn for your game!? Does anything that I am even doing matter!?”

“Yes. Yes. No.” The deity answered, not bothering to look at him at the latest. The happy entity he had seen a second ago had disappeared.

Shocked at the answers, Dan wasn’t sure what to do. He had been expecting her to deny it or something, but having her agree somehow made everything much worse.

He wasn’t sure how long he spent in silence as the goddess seemed more than happy to keep watching the ever-changing screens. However, there was still something that still didn’t make sense. If he was really just there to be a pawn for entertainment, why had she bothered to bring him here into this place at all?

“Why bring me here then? Why speak with me?”

“Because, Dan, I wanted to give you a sense of how I operate. In truth, I don’t care if you save that world or not. The only thing that matters here is me. My fun and enjoyment. To that end, I thought it would be fun to play dungeon master to a dungeon master. So, yes, you are in the starting area. I am letting you learn the controls. If I want you to cheat and open a hole under your enemies, I will let you. If not, then I won’t. In return, I will let you make your dungeon as you envision. Think of it as a gift from me. This means allowing you to do some things not in your contract but seen as the contract, which means little to me. There is nothing you or anything can do to stop me.” She answered without an inch of malice. These things were just a matter of fact.

“So, what's the point then? If nothing matters, if you can just send some high ranker whenever to destroy me?”

“Well, first, I can destroy you with less than a thought, but that's the point. I won’t. I just want you to know that this is all a game to me. To that extent, I will set some rules that I will follow just for the fun of it. Will I intervene? Probably. How? That's for you to find out and for me to enjoy.”

“What happens afterward? What happens if I beat your game or you get bored?”

“Well, if you beat the game, then you are the winner, and you will continue existing as you have been until that point. If I get bored, well, I will stop watching. As I said, everything has been set up. All that is left is for you to play it. Again, I must remind you that I have no real limits. Reality is my playground. You can conquer half of the universe, and with a simple wave of my hand, it all returns to zero.”

“Will I still have the system?”

“Yes, of course, that's one of the things I will keep and let the World Crystal manage. I can’t be bothered with that. Now, carry on. You have areas to conquer.” The deity said as she waved her hand, and once again, everything went dark.