Chapter 3.1 – Good or Bad Deal

Johns PoV (mostly)

Oh, wow. It does taste like cotton candy….(he thought). It’s like the purple mist is making it easier to condense the webbing over the cracks. Interesting, but I need to seal it or work it back into a ball…. So I continue to concentrate and work on the goal of repairing the orb.

With a horrible shock and a dawning horror the dungeon blurts out “ ARE YOU EATTING ME??! DON’T EAT ME!!! FIX ME!!! HEY, HEY, NO…. THAT’S MY MANA LEAKING!!!!!”

This is getting frustrating seeing more cracks appear as fast as I cover others. I focus my energy into webbing and try to charge it. It is like cauterizing while bandaging at the same time. Maybe if I put more energy into it like a burst it could be like welding and stop the cracks from spreading all together. Well worth a try. I focus, focus more, gather, gather more, and now push as hard as possible…..

White misty web like tendrils sparks as they come in contact with the red orb. It’s leaving the appearance of veins or roots having grown around it. At the same time the remaining orb is packed, or pushed together until it becomes wholly round again. It has become much smaller than what it was. Almost all of the dungeon floors collapse in on itself during this time.

The dungeon lord having done the equivalent of screaming for several minutes is exhausted. The core suffered the equivalent to being smashed, burned, and eaten also requires a few moments to gather its faculties. If a jawbreaker could scream while people suck on it, and squeeze it between teeth then this is what the dudgeon lord felt.

“Are you ok? Did you make it?.... Hello, are you alive?” John kept the pressure on the orb. After a while he is starting to worry that he’s screwed up. Maybe he killed the Dungeon, or saved it, he just couldn’t tell. A little more time passes when John starts to feel the core’s presence. John also felt a little tingly, like his hands fell asleep then started to wake up. It was all pins and needles.

“AHHH!!! What’s wrong with you? ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME?!”

Shocked and startled I tried to drop the orb like a hot potato. But it didn’t fall. It’s like when an ice cube becomes frozen to the skin.

“NOOO don’t drop me…. Please, sorry” the dungeon lord apologizes. It seems not to have caught on yet.

I am still startle “ Ah.. um sorry about that… too. And No I’m not trying to kill you. But you were coming apart pretty bad there so I … I did what I could to try and help…. I think…”

The red orb is the size of a soft ball and it slowly pulses with dark red light while being wrapped heavily with red veins. The presence from the orb feels like it extends back to the room and levitates like it is being balanced in the absolute center of the room. The orbs position is almost as if it’s being held in place by rubber bands from all angles. However it still felt like part of John was stuck to the orb. He didn’t resist the resettling of the Orbs position.

The problem is it feels like I clenched my hands around the orb and I can’t let go…. The more I attempt to undo the feeling of clenching and pull away the more the orb bobs and sways in the middle of the room. Crap shoes… What’s the deal with this thing? And how in the world can I undo or explain this? How can I leave if I can’t let go?

The dungeon lord breaks the silence first with a mixed feeling of lingering pain, gratitude, and grudging acceptance. “I… i…. What I mean to say is, yes. Um. Thank you for saving me.”

With a slight and ever growing concern I keep trying to let go while I respond to the first decent words this dungeon lord has said to me yet. “Well I said I would try and help, I gave my word so ….”

The orb bobs and weaves in the air over and over again as I attempt to detach from the strange sphere.

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My words are cut off with a slightly irritated voice “What are you doing?...”

Oh, crap… “oh, umm, nothing…. I’m just … “

“Just???”

“I’m … stuck a little bit…..”

“Stuck? What do you mean stuck?”

“Ah yea… um.. like a muscle spasm… or a cramp… or a Charlie horse” I start to ramble…

The orb attempts to pull away, while I attempt to pull away only causing the orb to violently bob and weave around the room getting dangerously close to the walls.

“STOP… STOP…. STOP IT… what are you doing? That’s my core! Unhand me!” the dungeon lord exclaims as it flails at John.

“YES, I know that… You drug me here, and you begged me to fix it…. So well it’s basically whole… I’m just …. Stuck a little… Will figure it out… maybe I just need to rest a little…” John tries to defend from the dungeons flailing but shortly snaps and flails back. The lingering dust and purple mist in the room swooshes around in uncontrolled chaotic patterns as the tantrum continues for a few moments before a cease fire.

“Gah? No, you can’t be stuck!! And …..” The dungeon lord falls silent while thinking…

“No I’m not trying to hold on. I’ll let go as soon as I can figure this out. Maybe I just used too much energy… or something..” John ponders through every fragment of his imagination to find some logical reason why he could be stuck.

“quiet” the core said.

“..what? Did you figure something out?” I said in surprise. I could feel the cores deep concern.

“I said shut up… I’m thinking…”

The palpable rise in confusion and hostility and shock suddenly stopped. The Core was obviously emanating consideration and concentration. For several long moments all was quiet.

Nothing comes to my mind on why I can’t let go of the orb. To recap my actions I just took energy and tried to weld or fuse string or such onto the orb while packing and rolling it to keep its sphere shape….

Mean while the ultimate ruler of this dungeon, is considering the events that transpired. It has a tickling feeling that it is missing something absolutely important to solve this issue. Hummm…. With a shudder it remembers being defeated by a terrible, conniving, and ever so nasty group of thief like adventurers. then was hacked at, nearly exploded, and then broke. It lost nearly all the collected mana from the dungeon. It found the spirit, pulled it down to help or eat…. And then suffered that incredible amount of pain…. Wait…

“so, did you figure it out?”

Wait a moment…. That spirit wasn’t going to help…. The dungeon starts to remember how that spirit was stubborn and wanted to make a deal… OH no animal crap… did I really agree?

I asked again “hello, do you got something? Did you figure it out?” John asks as he feels a sudden surge in the dungeons emotion.

“YOU!! Damn it!.. No…. But .. It’s my dungeon… YOU! Damn you!!! Relinquish ALL AUTHORITY OVER MY DUNGEON!!!! RIGHT NOW!!” the dungeon screams as it remembers agreeing to the spirits deal for help.

“What?” I said in shock. Clearly the dungeon’s gone from happy to pissed off.

“YOU HEARD ME!! You might be my master, BUT YOU CAN’T HAVE MY DUNGEON!!!”

Just then it felt like something snapped in John’s consciousness and he got the equivalent to a severe migraine. A voice came through and announced

“Congratulations, (unnamed) !

You have unlocked the title of dungeon master. You have defeated a dungeon and been acknowledged as a dungeon master. While most have sought to capture or destroy dungeons you have done the seemingly impossible and been acknowledged as a master over a dungeon. All authority over the dungeon core, dungeon denizens, traps, tools, and functions of the _ destroyed upper Ice Rock Dungeon_ .

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Damn it, between the screaming core, the announcer, and whatever that pop was this sucks. I seriously need to push past the pain. This is weird. This is game like. But this is almost too much.

“ NO!!! you damn spirit … I told you it’s my dungeon. I’m the Dungeon’s Lord.” it protested, raved, and tried to push John out of the core room to no avail.

John felt the equivalent to being punched in the gut with no warning.

“OUGH! Shut up you noisy ass core! What the hell is your name anyway? And seriously stop jerking me around.” I retorted out of pain and frustration. John lashed back once more to halt the dungeons flailing. With greater effort and focus the dungeons force and jerking of the core came to a halt. He tried to wrap himself around the core with his essence, like restraining someone while in a fit of rage.