I woke up with a start. Everything was immediately strange and unusual. If it was morning, there should be some sunlight coming through the windows of my bedroom. The room, however, was enveloped in a deep, pitch black darkness. Even in the dead of night, my house did not get this dark. I was well-versed in the midnight bathroom run.
My vision felt strange, but I could not identify the problem due to the lack of light. Instead, I tried lifting myself up out of the bed but found that I could neither move nor even feel the bed. I had a sudden realization--I may be suffering another bout of sleep paralysis. It was a condition I sometimes suffered while sleeping where my mind would wake up before my body. It felt like a dream state where I was lying in place and could not move no matter how much I exerted. In fact, I had had it happen to me enough times to often realize what was happening. Even though instincts pushed me to try to desperately move, the rational part of my mind knew that the easiest way to deal with it was to simply wait for me to wake up for real.
I stop fighting to move and wait to wake up.
I wait some more. The paralysis continued; the room remained shrouded in deep darkness.
This was taking too long. Panic once again started to rise in my mind. Am I truly in a coma? Am I now a “Johnny Got His Gun”--my face, arms, legs, all blown off so I can’t sense the world around me? No, Johnny could feel his body and at least move his head. I tried to move just my head to the side, but it was futile. I tried banging my head against the pillow to make “SOS” but nothing happened. There was no resistance or pain when I tried to move; there was no feeling at all. It was as if the phone was disconnected.
Was I in a coma? No, that didn’t seem right. It felt as if my eyes were working even if strangely.
My panic reached its highest level, a fevered pitch. Was I dead? A lost soul floating in the abyss. That wasn’t true either. Despite the complete darkness, I could feel that I was in an enclosed space, a room with no windows or doors.
I pushed my senses further and confirmed that there were walls, a floor and a ceiling. The distance on all four sides was equal, meaning I was in the exact center of the room. How was I seeing four sides of a room simultaneously? That was impossible!
I realized I was not seeing the room, I was sensing it somehow through my mind’s eye. This was why things were so disorientating; a human being was not used to perceiving things so fully.
I picked one side of the room and tried to focus on that, trying to ignore the other directions. The wall appeared more clearly than before, as if I was looking at it through some glasses that brought it closer. There are no windows on the wall like there were in my bedroom. The wall is made of solid stone, perhaps, that is perfectly smooth and flat. There are no seams, lines, or mortar to show the masonry work. Although I couldn’t tell if it was a block or carved out, whatever method that had been used was completely perfect.
I am definitely not in Kansas anymore. To be fair, I had never been to Kansas. I definitely was not in Rhode Island anymore.
My vision suddenly shifted incomprehensibly, as if I was now suffering an out-of-body experience. The room was still pitch black dark and yet I could see everything clearly, but from a skewed perspective. The room appeared to me as if I was completely immersed in a game that was played in isometric. I could rotate my view in every direction and angle. The view felt oddly comforting, suggesting that this was supposed to be the natural way to see things.
With my new perspective, I could see that there was more to the room than just the walls. The wall opposite the one I had first looked at contained a doorway. The door’s frame was made of stone blocks put together so neatly that the seams had no gaps and appeared only as thin black lines. The top of the frame was arched with stone, and a keystone jutted out at the top.
The inside of the portal was completely black. At first, I had assumed this was a door, but upon inspection I realized there was no door, it was an open entryway. I could not penetrate through this blackness and see the other side, which was quite strange.
Leaving that mystery for now, the only other feature of the room was the middle. In the center of the room rose a pedestal, made of the same stone as the walls, floors, and ceiling. The pedestal rose to approximately half the total height of the room. Sitting on the flat top of the column was a glowing spherical stone. I felt an emotional connection to that stone that defied all logic and reason. I felt that I was looking at my own body, if not my very soul.
Suddenly, in an instant, something pushed at my mind and entering my strange view:
WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF URO
A message in a strange box! I can still see all corners of the room I am in, but this message appears clear as day in the forefront of my mind’s imagination. While I was confused by how I was perceiving things, that confusion was subsumed by the contents of the message. The world of Uro? I have never heard of such a thing; in fact it sounds like some sort of fantasy . . . oh.
The thought had been only momentary before, but now it came back more strident and painful than ever. I didn’t want to think that thought, but I could not put it away. Did I die?
My last memory before waking up was, naturally, when I went to sleep the night before. I could also remember things that I had done that day. It was a Tuesday, I had gone to work and came home like I had been doing for years. I had dinner with the family and spent the evening on my computer. Everything was as ordinary as could be.
I was a relatively healthy--if not a bit pudgy--middle-aged man. If I died, I must have died while sleeping. Maybe I died by natural causes, but I felt this was probably the wrong answer. It made no sense, but flukes were known to happen.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Ultimately, if I really was in a new world, there were only two ways I got here. Either I died and was transported here or I was still alive and transported here. I had no hints as to which way was correct. I hoped it was the latter, of course.
I pushed away the big question for now because there was more to the message I had in my vision.
WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF URO
The world of Uro is a planet imbued with vast amounts of mana. Mana is intrinsic to the planet’s very being and is the means that those of this world use to achieve power and greatness.
You are a special type of being–a “Demesne Core.” As a Demesne Core, you are a vital element to the cycle of life. Mana is the source of your life and the means for your own growth and the growth of what is within you.
But be warned! Your demesne also protects you. There are those of this world that would seek to use you, consume you, or destroy you and yours. Use the mana of this world to not just grow, but protect and defend yourself. You are your Demesne.
Uro is not allowed to assist you directly; however, you are not alone. You carry within you a companion who can help guide your growth, provide companionship, and is a powerful defender in their own right.
Good Luck!
The message answered a lot of my questions, left many others unanswered, and generated a bunch of new questions.
First, it was not clear that I was no longer on Earth. In fact, if the message was to be believed, I wasn’t even human any more! I was a demesne core? I was a good nerd and knew my fantasy story cliches, this one included, so I wasn’t completely blindsided by what that meant. I think this might mean the same thing as a “dungeon core?” Or maybe there was a difference, and I would have to figure that out.
The popular literature called this seemingly absurd phenomenon “transmigration.” However, that word seemed strictly incorrect, at least in my circumstances. After all, the word ‘migration’ implies some agency on the person doing the migrating--they choose to migrate for one reason or another. I had no choice in either coming to this world or in becoming a dungeon core. No god or benevolent entity met me and offered me any options. One day I was on Earth. The next day. I was here--Uro.
No. If anything, I considered myself to be a “transrefugee!”
Semantics aside, the letter provided the answer as to my strange perception and inability to feel my body. I didn’t have one. Instead, I now knew that I was that baseball sized orb sitting on the top of the pedestal in the middle of the room.
On Earth, I was little more than a corporate drone. I had worked ten years at the same company and the same position, commuting five days a week to a drab suburban office building where they used blinds to keep you from looking outside and daring to dream. In that respect, I decided that being a Demesne Core was actually a step up. Congratulations to me for my promotion!
I had read many “dungeon core” stories over the years, and they tended to be some of the crunchiest fantasy stories, usually involving a System with stats, skills, etc. The Letter didn’t mention anything about game mechanics, but I felt confident they were there–after all, there was a game-like message right here!
Hm. I lacked a mouth or vocal chords so saying “status” or other words would not work. Therefore, it had to be some sort of mental command. Fortunately, my internal monologue came to my rescue. I thought the words “status,” “dungeon core status,” “dungeon status” without anything happening. Undeterred, I tried “core status” and was rewarded with the sudden appearance of a new box of text.
Unnamed Demesne
Level 1
Mana 99/100
Demesne Traits: Outworlder
Demesne Skills: Demesne 1; Absorption 1; Landscape 1
Creature Data: Cave Flora 1; Cave Fauna 1; Undead 1
Demesne Points: 3
The first thing that jumped out at me as I looked at the status screen was the first line: “Unnamed Demesne.” My ire rose as I was absolutely sure I was not unnamed! I clearly have a name, and that name is . . . that name is . . . my name . . .
I can’t remember my name. Why can’t I remember my name? I went back and brought up my memories of my old life on Earth. Most of my memories were there and I had no difficulty with them--faces, places, events seemed easy. I could remember the names of my family--Theresa, my wife and Samuel, my son--as well as the names of friends, relatives, and even coworkers. I definitely remembered that my boss, Terry, was a total dickwad. However, no matter how hard I tried, nothing I remembered showed or said my name; when I tried to focus on my name I only got a haze that made me feel dizzy.
“I’ve been transmigrated, a dungeon with no name . . .”
No. I am not going to spend my new existence without a name. I will get my name back. I will choose my name and I will choose it now. The only time I had to choose a name was when my son was born. My frame of reference for children’s names initially came to his many classmates. Jayden? Kayden? My son had too many middle school friends with names like those. No thank you. I preferred something simple, something classic. Augustus? Socrates? Nebuchadnezzar? No, that’s going too classic.
I refused to concede my lack of name. I thought long and hard about what name I wanted to give myself. I ignored everything else until the issue was decided. After all, I figured, how can one live (even as a dungeon) without the sense of self that a name gives? Impossible!
Finally, I decided on a name: George. Simple. Class. The way I figured it, Saint George killed a dragon, and since I definitely am not a dragon, I can at least be the second half of the classic combo. George the Dungeon.
My name is George! I shouted in my mind. I checked my status again and saw no difference. My name is George!! I shouted with as much mental exertion as I could. Again and again I screamed silently. Suddenly I felt something “pop” into my mind and a new text message box appeared:
Skill Obtained: Demesne Interface 1
My mental exertion resulted in a new skill! I quickly check my status one more time hoping that the reward indicated success:
Necromancer’s Gorge Demesne
Level 1
Mana 96/100
Demesne Traits: Outworlder
Demesne Skills: Dungeon Zone 1; Absorption 1; Landscape 1; Dungeon Interface 1
Creature Data: Cave Flora 1; Cave Fauna 1; Undead 1
Demesne Points: 3
What the hell!?