Alex quickly casted his only spell, Thunder Shock, to kill the stupid bird but that feeling didn’t go away. It was like every nerve in his being was vibrating and echoing. He checked the health of his dungeon core but discovered that it was more damaged than it should from a small bird’s attack. He checked the crystal of the dungeon core and found that, despite the puny attack of the small bird, a noticeable chunk had fallen off.

The rest of the early attack ended quickly, no other birds or animals had the agility to evade his trap or the fortitude to survive it. He managed to gain over fifteen soul points from this attack, though in the game another attack would come soon. He had almost twenty soul points now, barely enough to do anything.

He turned to his dungeon fairy and demanded, “Where am I?”

The hologram hesitated for a moment as if puzzled before answering, “In your dungeon.”

“No, where am I? Why am I here? How did I get here? What is going on, why is everything like a game I played? What is going on?”

The fairy froze for a moment like a glitch before returning to normal and replying, “You seem confused and don’t remember. You are a Dungeon Lord brought to this realm to cause chaos and misery to the naive and peace-sick denizens.”

“How do I get back home? Do I need to finish the game to get back home, is that how this is going to work?”

“I don’t understand what you mean, but if you want, I can distance you from the power and influence of the dungeon core. It will give you time to think and recollect. Would you like that?”

“Will that take me home?”

“It is the closest I can take you to your home with my abilities.”

“Then, yes,” Alex said without realizing the mistake he made.

“Alright. A new wave of enemies are coming but I will try my best to give you as much time as possible.” The hologram clapped its hands and Alex felt like he was drugged. Sounds and sensations became more distant and he lost the ability to keep track of where he was or where he was supposed to be.

Alex became lost in a void, in a place between dreamless oblivion and reality yet he was still conscious despite wishing not to. Time moved far slower than it should as he waited a long time to return back to his dungeon.

As moments stretched and bled eternally into the next, he was given plenty of time to think and contemplate. This void was absolute proof that he wasn’t in a dream, more so than the strange pain he felt, and out of sheer boredom he was able to clear his thoughts and memories about what happened to him.

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He didn’t know how he got into this world or how to get back home, all that he knew was that he wasn’t in charge. The way the dungeon core and his dungeon fairy had shown to affect him told him that he needed to play along with what they wanted else suffer the consequences. The fairy didn’t answer him about how he became a dungeon lord, either out of ignorance or purposely. In either case, it was a waste of time or dangerous to ask questions.

He forced himself to try and remember his last moments on Earth. It was like trying to catch wind in his hands, fundamentally hopeless, but this void helped his mind in ways he didn’t understand. Slowly, he unearthed his final moments from his memory but didn’t discover anything helpful.

He had been playing Dungeon Heart late into the night, determined to finally beat a campaign on hard mode. He kept hitting his head on the pavement stone that was the final boss of hard mode, known as the Hero’s Party, trying everything he could to kill them. After another failure, he was about to go back to sleep when inspiration hit him and he was able to beat the Hero’s Party. The high of victory did little to keep him awake when his head hit his pillow.

Then somehow he ended up here. He was a stranger in a strange world, trying to fight or deviate against people and things he knew nothing about would probably get him killed. He had somehow ended up in a world greatly resembling the game Dungeon Heart, at least during the tutorial. He had no idea how to get back home. He had no idea whether his dungeon fairy was his friend, foe, or indifferent.

He was still in the void, forced to think in circles to pass the time. If he weren’t in such a panic, he could see how this would be calming for psychopaths and asylum patients. He prayed and begged to return back to the dungeon, swearing he would do anything and act any way to be free from nowhere.

More eternity passed. Finally, after almost giving up any hope of returning from being trapped with himself in this empty hell, the sensation of limbs returned to him. The null around him was replaced with light and air and feeling.

He looked down at himself and realized for the first time that he didn’t have flesh or blood anymore - instead he was a semi-transparent shadow floating slightly off the ground. Joy at returning and despair at what happened to him filled up his spectral body but he had no tear ducts to cry.

“Dungeon Lord, a second wave of animals has assembled and is ready to attack the dungeon. Are you ready?”

Alex pondered the question as the calm high from his hellish experience kept him thinking clearly. He didn’t know if anybody was going to help him; he didn’t know if there was a god or higher being willing to save him; the only person he could rely on was himself.

“Yes, I am ready,” he replied and started amending his trap. The original trap he created was small and already full of carcasses, something that in the game was a detriment to the effectiveness of a trap. He wasn’t sure if that was the same in this reality and he didn’t have the time or bravery to check.

He didn’t have anywhere near enough souls to make a sophisticated trap; in the game he was rewarded with soul points for surviving a wave but that didn’t happen here. There were certain challenges in Dungeon Heart where soul points were scarce, so he had a few ideas of what to do.

He created a large pit without spikes and compressed the path towards the dungeon core, creating a choke point that only small creatures could comfortably traverse. He twisted the paths so that birds that could glide or slip through tight spaces, like the one that chipped the dungeon core, would have more difficulty. The spike trap was left as it is, a good enough defense for now.

Saving the few soul points he had left, he waited. He didn’t have to wait long, as the second wave of animals and creatures started their attack on his dungeon.