The small orb was the last item on the floor, and the one that beckoned him most strongly. It was curious, and nothing like either of the two orbs he had seen before.

Deciding to just get it over with, Nate grabbed the small marble.

Unlike the larger orbs, this one didn’t break apart in a flash of light. Instead, it slowly sank into his skin. A rush of heat spread throughout his body as energy poured into him. He enjoyed the feeling while it lasted, knowing it would be gone soon enough. With his broken core and meridians, the energy wouldn’t be able to stick around for long.

As the feeling began to fade, he pulled up his stat screen from his main dungeon menu. A grin spread across his face as he noticed that his energy had increased from four point three to four point five. He didn’t know if that was a lot, but it would certainly help when he began reforming his core. The more energy he had, the better the grade of core he would get later on.

Nate glanced down at his new knives and then to the screens he still had up, displaying the last monster still in the dungeon. He really wanted a shirt or a pair of boots. He wouldn’t say no to some more energy either, or whatever else it might be able to drop.

He had only just scratched the surface at this point, and he was eager to explore what else it could do. The fact that it could help him cultivate energy was already a major help. How many people were able to cultivate during their sleep, or in his condition?

The traps could wait a little longer, he decided. He had another beast to help get rid of first.

The last monster in his dungeon was a giant rat. He had already seen them before. They were large, with strong quick tails, and had slightly acidic spit. It would be annoying to deal with, but wasn’t a problem if he approached it properly.

Nate touched the new weights on his thighs for reassurance and took off at a jog. It didn’t matter that he didn’t know how to properly use them, just having them was a comfort all unto itself.

It was a comfort that didn’t matter. As soon as the giant rat saw him, it lost control. The long tail flicked out and struck the closest wall as it screamed at him. Unfortunately for the rat, the wall was a spike trap and skewered the tail on contact.

The sudden burst of pain sent it rolling about the floor and onto another spike trap. And just like that, another beast had been eliminated.

A moment later, a single glowing white orb was all that remained of it.

Nate tapped it with a slightly complicated expression. He didn’t feel as though he had really done anything to help this particular monster along to the afterlife. Yet, he also wasn’t going to say no to the pair of comfortable-looking leather boots that it had dropped.

Finally, he didn’t have to feel the chill of the stone through his bare feet anymore. Of course, he still didn’t have any socks, or other undergarments, or even a shirt, for that matter. But beggars can’t complain, he would just have to put up with the uncomfortable feeling of barefoot sweat.

Shaking his head at the odd turn of events his life had taken, Nate turned around and headed for the entrance to the dungeon. He needed to fix the trap there first. All the monsters were getting stuck there because they could tell a trap was waiting for them.

That wasn’t good. It was exactly what he didn’t want to happen. The idea was to make everything as invisible as possible, so the beasts walked right into their doom.

The problem was that he didn’t know what they were seeing or sensing. When he got there, everything looked fine to him. Whatever it was the beasts saw was escaping him for the moment. Which meant he would need to wait until later to fix it.

If nothing else, it would serve to keep the monsters inside the dungeon. Even if it didn’t kill them, it at least kept them inside, where they generated energy for him. That was something that he couldn’t complain about.

Putting that matter on the back burner, he moved a few rooms back and began working on the traps there.

He didn’t want to end up with a similar situation to the exit again. Which meant he had to make sure to choose a room with different sorts of traps in it this time. There were no spike walls or spear floors to be seen. In fact, this room was rather simplistic. There were only arrow walls in it.

He began by extending those all around the walls and then began tweaking their firing angles slightly. Nate wanted to ensure that there were no blind spots to be seen in this room whatsoever. He was sure there was more he could do, but that was all he could think of for the moment.

Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

When at last he had everything designed to his satisfaction, he sent the order through to have it built. He glanced at the screens he had up until he found the current beasts inside. It was another of those leopards with three tails. They were strong and smart, not something that he felt like dealing with at the moment.

Deciding that he’d had enough excitement for one night, Nate left the dungeon and fell asleep properly.

His mother woke him with a shake the next morning. “Come on, get up. There’s information about the structure that appeared on the news.”

“Already?” He groaned. “Didn’t the expedition sleep at all last night?”

“This isn’t from the expedition, but a satellite that finally got a clear image.” That perked him up. He had never seen the outside of the dungeon before. “Come on, hurry up.”

It took him a moment to shake the sleep from his head as he followed his mother downstairs to the TV.

“I repeat, this is breaking news! Exclusive to our channel. This footage was obtained by a private satellite. Which means that others have likely already seen the structure in detail as well and just not reported it. You can see behind me-“ Nate tuned out the talking head and focused on the structure they were showing.

Judging by the size of the trees closest to it, the building was maybe three stories tall and not all that large. Certainly not big enough to house everything that was going on inside. He had to suppress a giggle as he thought about the old line of it being bigger on the inside.

That described the dungeon to a ‘T’.

Unfortunately, from above like this, they weren’t able to see any of the awesome signs he had put out for everyone.

It was too bad the satellite feed wasn’t live, or he might have been tempted to write a message on the roof just for fun.

“It looks like a typical building to me. I’m not seeing why everyone is so freaked out about it, yet?” Nate said, already walking towards the kitchen to get some breakfast. “I mean, sure it’s interesting, but has anyone even stopped to think that maybe who put it there doesn’t want people touching their stuff? If they’re strong enough to make something around the portal itself, then they’re strong enough to wreck most people for annoying them.”

“I think everyone is still focused on the thought that this is the next stage of evolution for the dimensional zones.” His dad replied from the couch.

“Well, they can think what they want, and I’ll think that they’re idiots in turn. People are assuming that the dimensional zones are part of some kind of planned invasion, which is stupid. They’ve had years to do that, and they haven’t succeeded yet. Which means either poor planning; not likely for beings that can cross dimensions and set something like this up. Or there is something else at play.”

Nate finished putting the sandwich he was going to eat for breakfast together and turned to face his parents. “What?”

They were staring at him curiously.

“Nothing, it’s just you’ve changed a lot since you were attacked, you know? You were always smart, but ever since they did that, and you lost your memories… I don’t know, it’s like you’ve been making up for lost time or something. It’s not a bad change, just different.” Nina said, while leaning against her husband.

“As for what you said, you’re not the first to suggest it. Some people think it was simply our world’s time to join some galactic network of worlds, and this is a rite of passage. Who knows for sure?” Niall told them while flicking off the TV. “What I do know is that you need to call a certain young lady today.” He waggled his eyebrows suggestively and laughed.

Nate rolled his eyes and grabbed a plate for his sandwich. “As if something like that would ever happen between her and me. You are right that I need to call her though.”

Upstairs, he activated the dungeon screens for a quick moment to see how everything was going before grabbing his phone. The new trap was performing well, it seemed, all of the resource counters had increased during the night. Plus, there were no beasts stuck at the entrance.

The new trap might not be enough to kill them on its own, but it would hopefully injure them. From there, they could be finished off by the last trap at the entrance. Really, any of the traps worked, but that was what he imagined was going on.

It was what he had changed after all.

Glad that the dungeon was doing well, he pulled up his contact list and remembered that he had never gotten her information.

With a groan, he tapped on George Trellow’s name. He would have to find another way to get her number. He hated going roundabout ways like this. It would have been better if he had gotten her number the day before.

Oh, well. It was too late for that now. All he could do was ask a mutual acquaintance for her number and hope that she answered.

“Nate, is that you?” George asked as he picked up. “Is something wrong?”

“No sorry, I hate to disturb you during the day like this, but I went to call Angie and realized I didn’t have her number. You’re the only person I know who also knows her, so I was hoping that you might have her number.”

Nate could practically hear the older man roll his eyes as he snorted. “I did tell you to take her deal, but to think you had walked away from her at the school without even getting her number. I’m not sure whether to be impressed or disappointed. She is a rather good-looking young woman, you know. I would think you would want to collect her number for that reason alone unless, of course, you prefer men. I know fellows I could introduce you to, if that’s the case.”

“No, I like women,” Nate said, not feeling like getting into that discussion at the moment. “I just had other things on my mind during each of our encounters. I won’t deny that she’s pretty, but so is her friend. Plenty of girls are pretty. It isn’t hard to find a pretty person these days. Cultivators all tend to be good-looking after all.”

“You’re an odd one for sure, Nate. You aren’t wrong, but few your age would ever think like that. Even beyond the initial similarity that drew me to you, I find myself growing keenly interested in you as a person.” George remarked.

“I don’t know about that; I think I’m pretty normal.” He lied. Nate was well aware that the way he viewed things had changed since coming back. He had never been this mature as a teenager before. It would have been nice if he had been, but he had been ordinary back then.

He hadn’t started to change until he got sick.

There was a laugh. “Well, you keep thinking that. Anyway, let me get you her and Lindsay’s number, just in case she doesn’t answer a call from an unknown number.”