Quest notification:
Quest complete!
Fine, I suppose I can hold off on making my Dungeon for a little bit. At least it looks like that that pop-up quest spam was a one time thing.
So, I open my quest sub-menu.
Quest: Tutorial (complete)
Congratulations! You have now familiarized yourself with the basic System functions at your disposal. But, seeing as you are a Dungeon Core, there’s bound to be more, so here’s an assistant to help you with any future discoveries.
Reward: Assistant
Determining ideal assistant.
Assistant found.
Summoning: Dungeon Fairy
Warning: No Dungeon detected. Establish Dungeon to proceed.
Or maybe I can’t hold off on building my Dungeon after all. At least I now know what this assistant is going to be. I should have expects it to be a fairy, to be fair. Most Dungeons get those, in one way or another.
Anyway, Dungeon building.
I once more navigate to the Ability sub-menu and then into the Creation sub-sub-menu. There’s gotta be a better way to do this. Then, with a simple push of the aggressively blinking button, things start to happen.
Dungeon Establishment initiated.
Scanning location
Location: End of the Universe
Effect: Practically no available resources
Missing resources, can’t establish Dungeon
Aborting process
Ignore That activated!
Establishing Dungeon.
Claiming area.
Area claimed.
Empty area detected.
Utilizing Create (Dungeon) to make Core Room.
Missing resources, can’t use Create.
Aborting process.
Ignore That activated!
Core Room created.
Stabilizing Core Room.
Stabilizing claimed area.
Stabilizing Dungeon.
Dungeon Establishment complete.
Quest notification:
Quest complete!
Before I have a chance to even process what just happened, the System continues.
Summoning: Dungeon Fairy
No Dungeon Fairy found in System area.
Aborting process.
Ignore That activated!
Extending search area.
Dungeon Fairy found.
Transporting candidate.
Candidate unable to be moved to present location.
Aborting process.
Ignore That activated!
Transporting candidate.
Oh boy. Seem my Paradox Aspect is really lifting its weight right now. And here I thought it would be, at best, extremely complicated to utilize.
A couple meters off of my Core, a portal, or perhaps a wormhole, opened.
Oh, yeah, did I not mention that? As soon as my Core Room finished construction, I started being able to see again. Well, see is a bit of a misnomer, but more on that later.
The portal was a strange cloud of unreal smoke, the occasional arc of what appeared like electricity jumping around. It was all swirling around, like a small whirlpool. A whirlpool that floated mid-air and seemingly led nowhere.
Out of it came a small fairy. Really small.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
A tiny humanoid, at most 10cm in height, with four transparent wings on its back. It tumbled out of the portal, which promptly closed behind it, and crashed into the ground. Or it would have if there was any.
But, seeing as we were currently in outer space, the strongest gravitational entity was me, and I wasn’t very large yet. So, instead, the fairy simply floated through zero G until it crashed into the wall.
While it recovered, I actually, properly, examined my Dungeon for the first time. I say examined, but really, I’ve been doing that the whole time.
Because, you see, Dungeon vision, and it’s a stretch to call it vision, is not the familiar one set viewpoint. Oh no, not at all. Instead, imagine what it would be like to have an eye at every single point in space. And every single one of those eyes was also simultaneously rotated in each direction, basically 360 degree vision. And then imagine that each of those eyes is also a nose, tongue, ear, and can feel, like skin. That’s how Dungeon vision works, so now you understand why vision is a bad name for it. Huh, that’s probably why the System calls it Sense.
Anyway, I’m getting off-track.
The room I was in, the Core Room, was a simple spherical room with a couple meters diameter. The walls were made of Dungeon stone, I instinctively knew, a strange greyish substance that only tangentially resembled stone.
And I, or rather my Core, was floating in the exact centre of this room, completely unmoving. Almost as if I were anchored in place. As for my own appearance? I was also spherical, but a crystal, so there were many imperfections in the shape, some minor, some major. But if you saw me, you’d still go, “Ah, that’s a ball.”
In the meantime, the Dungeon Fairy looks to have recovered enough, as it was now stirring in place and beginning to look around.
Briefly, very briefly, a disappointed expression came over its face.
Hey! Don’t you dare be disappointed in my Dungeon! I only just established it, alright! It’s not fair to judge someone who just started out.
It lifted off of the wall and flew straight towards me, it’s wings strangely silent and unmoving. Then, once within arm distance, that is to say, within fairy arm distance, not human arm distance, it reached out and touched my crystalline surface.
“Oi, are you even conscious in there? Better yet, are you even aware? Damn, I really hope I wasn’t chosen by some mindless Core,” a voice suddenly boomed in my head. Boomed in comparison to the silence that had been there for the past aeon.
“Oh, uh, we can talk? That’s cool. So you’re a fairy, huh? Never seen one before. Why aren’t your wings flapping? And how are you flying without wings? What do fairies eat? Do you even eat? What’s this whole assistant business anyway? Are you going to be, like, forced to help me? I’m not too sure if I want that. How does one typically go about building their Dungeon? What would happen to you if I refused your help? Would you be sent back by the System? Where did you even come from? Is it nice there?”
“Stop! Stop, stop stop! Just STOP!” the voice once more boomed in my head, this time literally. It wasn’t just a relative thing, the fairy must have put real oomph into that shout.
Then, in a much more reasonable volume, it continued, “Alright, so you’re aware, that’s good. You’ll just have to work on your self control a bit.”
“Ah, sorry about that. It’s just been a while since I’ve had anyone to speak to and this is all so unfamiliar to me. You see, I was a human before this, but then I died. But I didn’t really die, because I was still conscious, which I’m pretty sure isn’t supposed to happen. So I just floated through the void for I don’t even how long, until-” before I can continue, I’m interrupted once more.
“Okay, okay! Slow down!” the fairy sounds a bit exasperated at this point, “We’ll have plenty of time to talk, there’s no need to dump everything all at once. Besides, most Dungeons are something else before they become Cores, so your story isn’t too unusual.”
“That’s good then. So, what now?” I ask.
“Now, you share a bit about yourself and try to convince me to become your Dungeon Fairy, and I do the same to you.”
“So you aren’t forced into this, that’s good. And if we don’t reach an agreement? Does the System send you back?”
“No, not really. Honestly, the whole portal thing came as a bit of surprise to me. Usually we just get a quest that tells us your location. But to answer your question, the System would, at most, force you to open a path to the outside for me to leave.”
“Oh. Uh…”
“Speaking of which, where even is your Dungeon that the System decided to portal me here? And while you’re at it, you might as well begin telling me about yourself. Your Primary Aspect is usually a good starting point.”
An awkward silence hung between us, at least for me, while I hesitated.
“Uh, haha, funny thing. You see, those are a bit connected, haha. And I mayyyyyy also know why the portal was necessary.”