The same old messages about my Dungeon Establishment scrolled by in front of me. This time, however, something new had intruded onto the familiar scene, something – or rather, someone – that really shouldn’t have been there.

Faellen.

And maybe that wouldn’t have been a problem, after all, we did have that timeless bond. Except that the System messages did not stop once they reached the end of my Dungeon establishment and continued onto a set of similarly familiar messages.

...

Transporting candidate.

A portal formed, and I held my breath. Would two of the same person existing in the same time be bad? Could I help mitigate it if it was? I didn’t know, and the anticipation was killing me.

Perhaps fortunately, nothing was coming through the portal just yet. Maybe the Universe was trying to figure out what to do.

As I so often do in these situations where I’m completely clueless, I turned to Faellen, “So… that’s the portal you’re supposed to be arriving through right now. But for some reason there’s a delay.”

My fairy assistant, in the meantime, was frozen still, standing and staring at the portal. Not even a single muscle on its body moved and its face had an expression of terror on it. Or at least I think it was terror. I never was good at telling body language apart.

Before much else could be said, a loud whomp reverberated through my Dungeon. Which is weird, because I hadn’t filled it with air yet since this loop began.

Anyway, the portal bulged, appearing as if something was trying to push through the other side. If horror storied have taught anything, it’s that it is never good when an unknown thing is trying to break through an entrance. And when said entrance is supernatural, like a portal? Oh boy, we were screwed.

Whatever was trying to force its way here (and I doubt it was a version of Faellen), must have doubled down as the bulge in the portal doubled. But the barrier still held.

“Dungeon, listen to me! You have to prevent it from getting to me. Build a small dome for me to hide in, and then create a cage around the portal. It’s going to get through soon, at which point you have to kill it, understand? You have to kill it,” my fairy tells me and quickly flies off to the opposite end of the room from the portal.

I do as it says, Creating a seamless dome of stone around my assistant, and then a similar one around the portal, except that one I make sure has some gaps in it.

Next, I need something to deal some actual damage to whatever monster comes through. The crude constructs I’ve managed so far aren’t up to the task, so I get to work on making a new model.

While I’m moulding the body for my magical robots, I throw an off-hand remark to Faellen, “You’ll finally owe me a proper explanation after this, I hope you realize.” Then I ignore all else and focus on my new construct.

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Since the creature will be trapped in the cage, my best bet is to go for a ranged build, something that can attack it from outside the its constraints. I don’t have much to work with, Faellen itself said what I’m doing can barely be considered enchanting. But I don’t need much.

It’s simple, most likely not very powerful, but it should work. What stands before me is a block of stone, which mainly acts as a weight, and an arm attached to it. A proper arm, or as close I managed to get to one. To complete it, I Create a spear of Dungeon Stone.

There, that should do it. It may be primitive, but that’s how humans began too, so who cares. My spear thrower will have to do.

I just about begin imbuing it with mana to finish the process, when the portal shatters. When stands in its place is a thing of nightmares.

Perhaps it was supposed to be humanoid, standing on two feet, or maybe it once did so. But only an echo remans of it now. A monster, a beast, an utter abomination stands caged within my Dungeon. Drops of an oily, iridescent substance drip off of it, once by one, but as soon as they lose contact with the creature they begin to rise instead, and then dissipate into nothing.

The main concentration of that substance is however on the thing’s back, where it forms four long pointy spikes. Or tentacle appendages, I quickly find out when they start squirming about and smashing into the cage around it. Worst of all is the head. It’s not there, but it is. It has no features, and then the next there’s just one big mouth filled with rows upon rows of serrated teeth. It almost hurts to look at.

The beast roars despite the lack of air, and my ears hurt despite my lack of ears.

I don’t know what is happening, I don’t know what that is or what it can do. But I do know if I want to survive I’ll have to kill it.

With haste like never before, I make mana to grab and force it inside my dormant construct. As soon as I register even a hint of movement I check my Creation database, and when I see the new entry I get to work spamming them throughout my Core Room.

My attention is fast divided between two things. Creating more constructs and Creating more spears for them to throw. A few second later I divide it once more, this time focusing on repairing the cage the portal beast is locked in.

Minutes pass, and I get into a comfortable rhythm. Turns out when faced by the endless production machine that is a Dungeon, even such an abomination isn’t much of a threat.

This does give me the time to check up on what that traitorous System did to me at the end of the last loop.

Secondary Aspect

An Aspect is a facet of Reality, an inseparable part of existence. Unlike Primary ones, Secondary Aspects do not become a direct part of you, and thus don’t force you to embody them. This makes them grant lesser power, but lesser (if any) restrictions.

System

A meta-Aspect of artificial make. Some call it an entity, some a large enchantment, but all of them are wrong. It’s power lays mainly in versatility, growth, and analysis.

System Anchor (System)

Unranked Unlevelled

Thanks to your nature you are capable of housing small node upon which the System can anchor itself and thus be dragged along. Provides you with increased access to the System, as well as higher Authority.

Note: Additionally provides semi-periodic Quests

Oh, well that’s just perfect, isn’t it. Okay, maybe I shouldn’t be sarcastic, this may actually be a good thing, but it could have at least asked me. What it I can only have one Secondary Aspect, for example? Am I just stuck with this now?

And what’s with the ‘Unranked Unlevelled’ beneath my new Ability? Is that part of the increased System access? And what about that quest, why haven’t I gotten one yet? And most importantly, when will this portal monster die??