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Earth's First Dungeon
Chapter 2: In Fire and Peril

Chapter 2: In Fire and Peril

Reginald swore softly as he took in the massive destruction, and then ran for his truck. His truck wouldn't start at first, and his phone seemed to have shorted out, but eventually, he was glad that he had an older vehicle as it did manage to turn over and he managed to drive off the lot and headed to his home, which was in the direction of where that truly humongous crash had come.

On his way down the hill, he saw that there was a huge trench dug in his back yard, so he put the gas down further, doubting that anyone would be around to pull him over for speeding at this moment. He pulled into his driveway and floored it, taking the long stretch at nearly seventy mph, the fastest he's ever done this stretch. He pulled up along side his house and took the track around it to the field that was turned into a crash landing site. When he got there, he found that it had crashed in at his pool, and the 30' depth of the water had helped greatly with quenching the heat and fire from the crash.

Of course, now he was going to have to repair his pool and refill it, but at least it kept the place safe, he thought. He hopped out of his truck and took his huge maglight and turned it on, before following the slightly steamy tunnel that the meteorite made. When he got to it, he found what looked like a massive black cube with a glowing green pad. He approached the metal case and gingerly reached out for the glowing pad, which gave off a chime as his hand connected with what felt like cool glass.

The glowing green pad flickered to red, yellow, blue, orange, and back to green before there was screeching from an opening door which hadn't been oiled or opened in who knows how long, and then grinding before a ble-bleep from the pad as a very dense and heavy air pushes out of the cube, sending Reginald sprawling in the stream flowing from his pool. He started coughing and was unable to get a decent breath for almost a minute, making him very, very light headed when he noticed a floating robot with a giant crystal in it's core in front of him.

He grabbed his head as it tried to communicate, a bunch of screeching and squealing appearing directly into his mind, making him howl in pain and writhe on the ground. It cut off immediately afterward and about a minute later it reconnected.

>System Updated! Language: English. Wireless Data Source: Connected. Scanning...

>System Error... Current Owner: Unknown. Location: Unknown. Would you like to claim?

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He groaned and blinked at it. "What?"

>System Updated! Language: English. Wireless Data Source: Connected. Scanning...

>System Error... Current Owner: Unknown. Location: Unknown. Would you like to claim?

Reginald stared at the floating bot. It looked like a small orb, about the size of a human's torso, floating in the air with a gorgeous spherical crystal about the size of a pearl shone inside it.

"What are you?"

>Unit Identified as: Centralized Construction Core Model 18394754-382-001. Would you like to claim?

"Huh?"

>Unit Identified as: Centralized Construction Core Model 18394754-382-001. Would you like to claim?

"Sure...?"

>Please hold out your right arm.

Reginald did so, and the orb floated over to his hand and injected him with the crystal, pinning his arm in place as it carefully rebuilt his hand with the crystal in the center of the palm. Reginald, of course, passed out from the pain.

***

Reginald came to about five hours later, with absolutely no pain.

>DNA Analyzed. Bonded Species: Homosapien (Human). Sub-Category: Caucasian (White).

>Location Set: Tarmac, Oklahoma, United States of America, North America, Earth.

>Mana Density: Low. Detected Increase in Mana. Would you like to release Mana Reserves?

"Define Mana?"

>Mana is the primal energy of the universe.

"That doesn't help... What does Mana Reserves do?"

>Increase in Mana Density, allowing for the fast alteration of local environment and spawning of mobs. Mana Density will reach acceptable levels in 6 days, 18 hours, 30 minutes, 25 seconds at current increase rate. Would you like to release Mana Reserves to increase Mana Density?

"No!" Reginald suddenly panicked.

>Mana Reserves remaining: 100,000 gallons of condensed Fluidic Mana.

>No other Construction Core located. System requires establishing at least One (1) Core Mana Zone. Would you like to establish CMZ?

"No!"

>No other Construction Core located. System requires establishing at least One (1) Core Mana Zone. Would you like to establish CMZ?

"No!"

>No other Construction Core located. System requires establishing at least One (1) Core Mana Zone. CMZ will be established using the Emergency Module as the Centralized space.

"Damn it!"

>Please locate Deity Shrine to register Centralized Construction Core Module 18394754-382-001 so that it cannot be stolen.

>Emergency Module aerisolizing 1,000 gallons of condensed Fluidic Mana to speed up Initialization and Localization of Deity Shrine.

A huge blast of extremely dense air flooded the corridor, shoving Reginald backwards and out towards the pool and the entrance.

>Warning! Detecting atypical biological reaction to heavy mana!

Reginald cried out in pain, passing out as the control sphere which the construction orb had implanted draws his mind into it, and is pulled to the center of the heavy mana zone. The tunnel collapses and the cube sinks deeper into the ground.