The foremost question I had now was the question of building short-term versus long-term. In other words, building something that would be defensible now but would require substantial rework, or building the pieces to a more complete vision and saving mana. The lack of information on how my mana worked and how to get more was extremely problematic in that regard. I needed to balance learning new things with saving my precious resources.

First, I needed to assess what I had to work with.

I didn’t have eyes, but I could see, in a way. Everything in my demesne I could sense. From a humanistic perspective, it probably would be strange and disorientating, but for me it actually felt quite natural.

What I saw was . . . not much. There was some empty space and my demesne’s edge seemed to coincide with the walls of a rectangular-shaped room. I was confident the walls were artificial because they were very straight and flat, although there was no stone masonry. Well, three of the walls were that way. One of the walls looked like it had collapsed inward and a landslide of rock and debris had stopped just short of where my Core lay on the floor.

That was it.

I decided to start with the absolutely most basic thing: my Demesne skill.

First, I kept my status on and then simultaneously centered my mind on trying to expand my demesne in no direction in particular, in every direction rather like blowing up a balloon. I felt a mana streaming out and my demesne started expanding beyond the room and into the rock walls and rubble. I pushed harder and the rate of expansion increased a little bit, but I started feeling strained. I kept going until I saw my mana level tick down by one, and immediately stopped. When I did, the headache–coreache?--immediately went away.

So what did I get . . .

I estimated my demesne had expanded in every direction by about a couple of feet. It didn’t seem like much, but I understood the cubistic style of expansion meant I had taken on quite a bit of space. What had I gotten for it? A lot of rock, dirt and . . . oh, interesting!

In two separate places, the stone rock was thin, a few inches, but still uniform and without seams or masonry work. Beyond these two spots were further empty spaces. The first thin section was actually door-sized and located in the middle of the room opposite the collapsed wall. The second section was a small square in the floor near the center, just next to my core, in fact.

What an excellent opportunity to try more directed use of my Demesne skill. Which one to do first–the trap door, of course!

I once again start pushing my Demesne out but only where the empty space below the trap door is. I followed the contours of stone and I quickly realized it was a steep staircase that curved as it went further down. I used the opportunity to shape my Demesne space to match the staircase as I went down, each step being just a little easier than the last due to the repetition.

Demesne 2 obtained.

Excellent. The skill-up, while nice, also confirmed important information. First, increasing skill levels was independent from my own Demesne level (although in some stories I had read, there was a related skill cap). Second, I could raise a skill separate from spending Demesne Points, by either using the skill a lot or, as in this case, by utilizing a skill in new or more sophisticated ways.

I kept going down, down, down until the stairs reached a short landing. It was short because only a few feet from the stairs was another wall and an actual door! The door was made of sturdy wood that had stood the test of time, but the iron handle and hinges had severely rusted. A good kick would probably easily knock it over, but the door was no impediment to me anyway. I just pushed my Demesne through it and into the empty room beyond.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

I burned more mana and expanded into the room. The room was larger than my starting room, about twice the width and even the ceiling was higher too. As my demesne pushed through what was the middle of the room, a sharp, disconcerting tingling sensation hit me, though it passed quickly. The reason became apparent: there was another door in the middle of the room.

It was a door–no, door frame in the shape of a half-oval. It was made of some strange black material that even now, felt a little weird, a little off.

Oh my god. Oh. My. God.

It looked like a stargate. It looked like a stargate! PLEASE be a stargate!!

I poked and prodded the mysterious black gate, but received no feedback. I tried to closely inspect it for any writings or runes, or marks, but there was none of that either. I even tried to will up an Inspect, but that was also a complete failure too. What this thing was, it was pleading the fifth.

There was still hope though–I had another tool that could be of use: Absorption.

Even though I was extremely excited by what I hoped that thing was, I took a moment to reality-check myself. It was just as equally likely that that thing was dangerous or bad. I had no way of knowing. Did I want it? Yes, yes I did. But first, a few tests of my skill were needed.

So far, I had only absorbed the skeleton that I had made, not any material that made up my home. So, using the skill again, I absorbed the stone trap floor that led to the hidden stairway. It was actually cool seeing how the rock slowly faded from reality until there was nothing there. I instinctively knew that what I had absorbed was {stone}[1], but that knowledge did not extend to the molecular or even granular level. It was as if I was a guy who looked at the stone floor and said “I know that floor is made of stone.”

Next, I absorbed the wooden door at the bottom of the staircase.

Absorption 2 obtained.

It felt good to see my numbers go up (except my mana, which did not go up). As for what I got from the door, it was basically {wood} and some rusted {iron}.

With the basics of my Absorption skill determined, it was time for the other door.

I started absorbing the door by working on one end, but the blasted thing completely rebuffed my attempt. Undeterred, I tried again and pushed Absorption stronger. This time, there was a stalemate and I once again felt that strange feeling–a cross between a record scratching and the sound of static on a television–once again came back. Only the more I pushed my skill onto the black frame of the strange door, the sensation got stronger too.

I kept pushing my skill, and started feeling around the door with Absorption. More and more I surrounded the stargate with the power of my skill, but still, it would not be taken. Eventually, I had completely surrounded the thing with Absorption and the sensation was becoming overwhelming. Losing the ability to think clearly, I did the only thing I could think of and started to crush the black stone with my skill.

Then, suddenly, the estranged sensation reached out from the gate and touched me. My very mind locked-up as I felt the intense scrutiny of something extremely powerful, extremely alien. Worse, I felt an incredibly strong sense of wrongness about this presence–it could easily crush my very soul out of existence. But equally suddenly, the feelings disappeared and a new, strange, notification came into my mind:

Do you wish to absorb this portal?

Yes / No

Um. Ummm. . . .

Yes.

The option box disappeared and immediately all resistance from the black gate also went away. But the gate didn’t just fade from reality like the other materials. It coalesced into a small mass of ephemeral dark, eldritch energy. The ball shot like a bullet upward, through the stone and went straight into my core. A spike of searing pain bore into my soul like I had been stabbed with a spear made of molten metal covered in lightning. My very being was ripped and torn open as the energy dug further into me. I couldn’t even comprehend what was happening, but it was already too much. I lost consciousness and blackness took over.