Suddenly, I am somewhere else. Where, I’m not too sure, and before I can get my bearing, the System throws me another deluge of notifications.

Congratulations User,

your registration is now complete.

Displaying Status Sheet.

Paradox Core of the End (Dungeon)

Level: 1

Primary Aspect: End/Paradox

Abilities: …

Quests: …

Quest notification:

You’ve received quests!

Quest: Where am I?

Through a strange series of circumstance, your starting locations has been altered and you now find yourself at the End of the Universe. What does that mean? Who knows, but you’re sure to figure it out eventually.

Objective 1: Establish a Dungeon that can withstand being in deep space

Objective 2: Enhance your Dungeon to withstand the ‘last hurrah’ of the Universe

Objective 3: Survive the End

Reward: ???

Quest: Tutorial

Whoops, this should’ve been your first quest. Oh well. As a new User you’re unfamiliar with the workings of the System. Try to familiarise yourself with it.

Objective: Explore System functions

Reward: Assistant

Quest: Burgeoning Dungeon 1

As a new Dungeon controller, specifically a Dungeon Core, you must learn how to build, manage, and protect your new home, the Dungeon.

Objective: Establish a Dungeon

Reward: Burgeoning Dungeon 2

Quest: A Dearth of Adventurers

You seem to have found yourself in a bit of a pickle. A new Dungeon, just starting its journey, yet there don’t seem to be any adventurers around to delve you! And what’s a Dungeon without its delvers?

Objective: Find a way to get Adventurers

Reward: ???

Quite frankly, I was a bit overwhelmed. That is to say, I was not at all whelmed, and most definitely not underwhelmed.

Leaving aside my… interesting, to say the least, Aspect selection, the rest of the my Status Sheet looked deceptively simple. Sure, there were two drop-down menus that I hadn’t bothered with just yet, but still.

One of those was the Skills tab, which would help with my Tutorial quest, and the other was one for that very same quest, as well as others. Not that I expected there to be anything new in that tab, since the System already decided to spam me with a bunch of quests.

Talking about quests, only two of them were even remotely normal. That’s a whole fifty percent!

And as for the other two? What do you mean I have to figure out how to survive the End?! How much time do I even have left? And also, what do you mean there aren’t any Adventurers around?! Is there even any life left? I hope so. And most importantly, why is the reward for those two unknown?

Still, those were all questions for later. Right now, it was Tutorial time. And after that it will be Dungeon Tutorial time. Only then will I have a chance to even start dealing with this bullshit.

So, explore System functions huh. Might as well go one by one and see what all I can gather.

Paradox Core of the End

A Dungeon Core embodying the concept of the End and Paradox. It should not exist, yet its paradoxical nature forces it to remain in our world, causing all of Reality to cry out.

That’s not ominous at all. No. Nuh-uh. Just gonna ignore it and move right on.

Level: 1

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

While for other creatures their level means a variety of things, Dungeon Cores are a bit different. Due to their nature as a fusion of everything – be it physical, spiritual, or anything else – into a singular crystalline core, is much simpler. Similarly to how their bodies and spirits are fused into one, a Dungeon Core’s stats and otherwise are fused into a single number, their level.

Alright! That’s already much better. Although it doesn’t tell me anything about what level one actually means, nor what I need to do to advance.

Primary Aspect

An Aspect is a facet of Reality, an inseparable part of existence. By making one your Primary, you take it and integrate it into your very being, fusing with it and becoming one. This grants power, but often-times also restrictions.

The End

An extremely powerful, if simple, Aspect. It signals the End, the true End, of anything and everything. All shall one day meet their final End and exist no more.

Paradox

An extremely powerful, but impossibly complex and confusing Aspect that, by its own nature, defies understanding and can’t be controlled. A paradox should not exist, and yet it stubbornly remains, ignoring all logic and rationale.

Well, I suppose that explains it, at least a little bit. The System really could’ve told me this sooner though. Maybe then I wouldn’t have chosen the End and wouldn’t have ended up in this stupid situation.

At least Paradox seems to be protecting me from outright vanishing.

Abilities

Any action, be it passive or active, the User can do. Ranging from things that are naturally part of them, learned skills, or even System granted powers.

Now this is what I was waiting for! Though this does make me wonder if as a human I’d have things like walking and breathing listed here.

Ability list:

Create (Dungeon)

Destroy (Dungeon)

Control (Dungeon)

Sense (Dungeon)

Final Stop (End)

Ignore That (Paradox)

Right, so I have the standard Dungeon Core package and then one ability for each of my Aspects. Seems pretty good.

Create (Dungeon)

One of the primary functions of Dungeons is to create. Whether that be the wall of their Dungeon, their Monsters, traps, or even loot, this ability does it all.

…

Alright, so far so good.

Destroy (Dungeon)

One of the primary functions of Dungeons is to destroy.

Hmm, a lot more vague with this one System. I wonder why.

Control (Dungeon)

What’s a Dungeon if there’s no one to control it. Manipulate matter, Monsters, set up loot. What kind of depth can you reach with this?

Alright, alright. Still pretty standard stuff, but I’m here for it.

Sense (Dungeon)

What’s a Dungeon if it can’t sense? All of your Dungeon abilities rely on being able to sense your Dungeon. Provides all five senses everywhere inside the Dungeon, as well as a little more.

Nice! Limited omniscience is always good. And that a little more is probably mana.

Final Stop (End)

You are the last stop, the gate before the End. None are immune to you, none can pass by ignoring you. You affect all equally.

Uh, thanks, I guess? I’ll keep it in mind.

Ignore That (Paradox)

“I always lie”, “Pinocchio says his nose will grow now”, “I travelled back in time and killed my grandfather”. The logic of these sentences doesn’t make sense. But it doesn’t have to. Paradox enables all, even if logic dictates otherwise. How does it work? Ignore that.

That one seems… strange, to say the least. What does it even allow me to do? How can I use it?

Alright, well, that’s all of it for now. Might as well check out that drop down menu in Create. How deep in menus am I now? Two? Three? Feels like menu inception.

*Establish Dungeon*

Materials: Dungeon stone

Monsters: None

Traps: None

Loot: None

Well, the blinking of the Establish Dungeon button makes it rather obvious what I should do. Not that I can do much else, seeing as I only have Dungeon Stone as an option right now.

Maybe the other quests in the Burgeoning Dungeon quest-line will reward something?

Speaking of quests, seems like I just completed the Tutorial.