He was sick from pushing his stupid body too hard, and now he was paying the price. In other words, he was confined to his bed for the rest of the day, instead of being allowed to go to school.

Oh, no, it was such a terrible punishment! Nate would have rolled his eyes if he had felt any better. As it was, he completely understood how stupid he had been. Pushing his body for hours to finish that avatar; had not been a smart choice on his part.

He felt like crap, but that wasn’t going to stop him from messing around with the dungeon creation system. He had no interest in watching any of the TV shows this world had to offer or playing their videogames, not when he had something potentially better on his wrist.

Nate pushed the sole button on the side of the wrist computer, turning on the screen.

He briefly thought about looking at the two options he had yet to explore, but decided it made no sense. They were most likely empty, and besides, he had already set a goal for himself. He wanted to explore what it meant to create a dungeon.

Though, he did find it somewhat curious that the selection for ‘Avatar’ was still on the menu. There might be more in there now that it was created. However, that could wait until later.

First, the dungeon.

He pushed the selection for the ‘Dungeon Creation’ and sat back as the screen on the computer suddenly began to expand. No longer was it confined to just his wrist and the small, but incredibly detailed display. Now, he was seeing everything in at least forty-inches wide-screen mode, from two feet away. It was the perfect size for him to still touch mostly everything without straining.

That would have been useful last night when he was designing his avatar.

Nate was just glad no one was home. He already knew no one else could see or even feel the computer on his wrist. How that worked, he had no idea, but it did. Even his clothes acted like it wasn’t there.

What he didn’t know was if those same rules would also apply to the giant floating screen in front of him. He imagined they did, but there was a little tiny voice inside that made him wonder.

The screen began to populate with a series of locations that he vaguely recognized but couldn’t understand why.

‘Welcome to the Dungeon Creation system, you are currently limited to one dungeon at this time. So, choose the location of your first dungeon carefully. These are the currently open incursions to your world, colloquially known as ‘Dimensional Zones’ and their associated portals. Please make your selection from these options.’

Ah, that was why they had looked familiar. There was a map of these on the wall at school, but he could have sworn the number of zones wasn’t nearly this many. He dismissed the thought but memorized the locations, regardless.

It was information he would look into the next time he went to school if he remembered.

Nate made the familiar pinching and spreading motion to zoom in and out, just like he did on his smartphone. He already knew where he wanted to build this dungeon. His parents had mentioned that the area was fairly safe, which meant it would be a good spot. At the same time, it would also help to keep them safe.

It was a win, win in his mind. He just had to find the right incursion, as it had been called first.

Luckily, since the map matched what he had seen at school and was already familiar with even before that, it wasn’t hard.

A moment after making his selection, a new screen appeared.

‘Incursion Zone selected- Are you sure this is the area where you would like to create your first dungeon?’

Nate felt a burst of apprehension run through him, as he double-checked the location to make sure it was the one closest to them. The stupid warning had needlessly sent his heart racing.

Still, before he selected ‘Yes’, he checked again, one last time. It was like when you locked your car door and you had to keep checking to make sure it was actually locked. It was that stupid little annoying voice that constantly asked, ‘what if?’

The screen changed, with the map of all the different incursion sites disappearing.

‘The Dungeon Core is now being constructed. During this time, build a dungeon using the resources available at your disposal. The goal is to protect the Dungeon Core first and prevent access to the outside world second. As the dungeon and its Core grow in strength, it will be able to merge with the portal and create additional levels inside their world.’

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

He swiped away the message with a gulp. As soon as this thing appeared it was going to cause such a stir. A chuckle rumbled up from the depths of his frazzled mind. Maybe he could even have some fun with that. Create some signs on the outside that lambasted the families that had hurt him or refused them entry.

He would need to see what he could actually do with it.

A timer appeared in the upper right-hand corner of the screen, telling him how long he had until the core was finished. He had no idea how powerful the monsters from this portal were, or even what kind they were. They could have been humanoid, beast, or something else entirely.

Suddenly, he regretted not asking his parents more questions about their job.

No wait, he had seen the bodies on the news before. He strained to remember what they had been and vaguely came up with an image of beasts that were reported to use nature attacks.

That would help. He couldn’t have anything nature based in the dungeon if he was right. That was a big chance to make for something like this. If only there was some kind of device, he could use to search for more information like this.

Nate chuckled and reached for his regular laptop. He couldn’t believe he had almost forgotten about this. Why bother trying to remember something when he could get the actual hard facts as they were reported?

It only took him a few minutes to confirm that this particular zone only had beast monsters. With each running the gamut in size and species. Thankfully, his parents hadn’t been lying when they said this area was fairly safe. The monsters this zone produced were pretty weak in the grand scheme of things.

Of course, that still meant they were enough to take care of any regular person without a problem. Only cultivators at the fourth or fifth realm, ‘Core Refining or ‘Foundation Establishment’ stood a chance against them. Considering how many realms there were reported to be, that was actually pretty low.

Still, it presented a problem to him. How was he supposed to create a dungeon that could stand up to them?

All he could do was open up the creation menu and see what he had to work with. Maybe something would come to him.

Nate shifted around on the bed as his body ached anew. He really had pushed it too hard the night before. He would need to be more careful in the future.

It was time to focus on creating the dungeon. He had all the basic knowledge he could think to get, and he was on a timer. Who knew what would happen if the dungeon wasn’t ready in time? Maybe nothing, or it was possible the core could just appear completely unprotected in the zone and waste his one chance.

Either way, he wasn’t going to gamble on it.

A series of basic building components, reminiscent of the old RTS games he used to play, appeared along the right side of the screen underneath the countdown. Each one had a number listed next to it that let him know how much he had access to.

The menu for building the dungeon was the same as the old games he was thinking of. He could drag and drop the pre-listed options. Or using the search menu at the top and the holographic keyboard that would appear he could design his own.

Nate started by creating a room around the portal, sealing it off from everything else. A lone reinforced door served to slow down anything that came through. He couldn’t lock it, but he could make it, so they needed to turn the knob to open the door in the first place.

Unfortunately, the system wouldn’t let him place a trap inside the room with them.

Gradually, he built up the dungeon, keeping an eye on his building components the entire time. Each wall and floor took a certain amount, as they needed to be strong enough to withstand the monsters. Thankfully, that was something he didn’t need to take into consideration this time around and was done automatically.

Instead, he just needed to worry about the overall design and material management. He was quick to realize that with his limited funds, the size of the first dungeon wouldn’t be anything impressive. Especially if he wanted to include traps and other functions meant to injure and disable the roving beasts.

Not to mention that he still needed to find some way to hide and protect the core.

Nate found himself removing the initial layout and starting over three different times before deciding to approach this in a different manner. He needed to be more logical and thorough in how he approached this. He couldn’t just do whatever came to mind.

The dungeon needed to be planned out properly, or at least as properly as he could manage before he ran out of time.

He started out with the same small room around the portal, only this time, he created three different doors. Each was trapped, the same as before. The main difference this time was in how he designed the rooms. It was more of a labyrinth now, with the portal contained in the middle.

The core would be in the upper left, with only a single, trap-filled passage going to it.

The opening that would lead out to the dimensional zone was in the bottom right corner. It wasn’t nearly as confusing or trap-laden, because frankly, he didn’t care if they got out just yet. He knew that the cultivators could take care of them if they did.

If these beasts destroyed the core, though, then everything for him was over. What could be potentially his only chance to make something of himself would be gone. And that was something he couldn’t allow to happen. So, until he knew more about this dungeon and how everything worked, the cultivators protecting them would have to keep doing their job.

He silently apologized to his parents for not being good enough.

It was hard creating something for beasts you knew next to nothing about. Even more so when you also knew nothing about the strength or capabilities of the building materials you were using. Hopefully, the walls would be strong enough and the traps deadly enough. But who knew if that would actually be the case?

Would they be able to smell the acid in the traps, or would it be able to melt through their skin? What about the spears and fire he was using? Were any of them even going to be useful?

Unfortunately, he wouldn’t know until it was too late. He had done his best to maximize what he could with the resources he had available. Now he just needed to know how to get more.

The last item he had on his list that he needed to complete before the countdown finished in the next couple of minutes was the signs. Each one banning the families of the members who had attacked him. He didn’t think he would be able to enforce it, but it would still cause quite the stir, if nothing else.

Besides, they would be stupid to enter this far into the dimensional zone.

Nate somewhat felt as though he had raised a flag by thinking that thought but shook off the silly feeling.