Duke was awash in the horrors of his own mind as they exploded outwards from him, covering the battlefield in a screaming mass of gaping maws, black claws, unblinking eyes, and tentacles. His last conscious thought before he was overwhelmed was of his companions and the fact that they were not far enough away from this monster of his Id. Then, the blackness enveloped him.
Duke relived the most horrible moments of his life in the barely conceivable shadows that surrounded him. His mother breathing her last rattling breath as the disease finally won, her hand growing colder as he refused to let go with all his hysterical childhood strength. He saw his father slip away in the floodwaters, exhausted from too many rescues and one overstrained rope that unraveled like all his hope.
Duke screamed as the final scene of a simple house, nearly identical to all the others around it disintegrated in a fireball as the opening salvo in a war claimed his wife and daughter as nothing more than collateral damage. He could hear them screaming his name as they burned. His mind and the scene warped yet again.
The blade cut deeply into his shoulder, separating tendon from bone to remove the limb. This was one of the most recent horrors, but Duke’s warping consciousness laughed at it. It was physical pain and that he could endure forever. It was with that thought that his mind pulled itself back together, clamping down upon the horrors and pulling them back inside his mental vault to lock them down once again.
His vision slowly cleared and all he saw was the empty battlefield and a glowing exit. His breathing slowed from the hyperventilation that he had been suffering from and his heart jumped as he looked around franticly for his companions. He did not see them. They were gone. Panicking, he reached out for the mental connection that Greslarnier had created. And found nothing. In his mind, the door of the vault holding back his horrors began to crumble.
“Be at peace, Duke. Your friends are all well. They are worried, but they are all well.” The Overmind’s avatar stood before Duke with an expression that even Duke’s XENOGLOSSIA couldn’t read.
“Where are they?”
“You TELEPORTED them all out of the dungeon when you unleashed your Ability. I have to admit that was far more potent than I had anticipated. It lasted for almost three full hours and absolutely wiped out the rest of the waves.”
“It did? Then the dungeon is complete?”
“Very much so. The completion rewards are yours alone since you are the only one who lasted until completion. If I didn’t know better, I would say that it was a brilliantly clever trick on your part to exclude them from the completion and take it all for yourself.”
“I…I didn’t do that.”
“Well, not intentionally, I’d say. But effectively, yes, you did. But that is not what I wanted to talk to you about.”
“Oh, what now?”
“Here’s the thing. When I broke you away from the Twin Entities, it really pissed them off. Especially since they can’t act against you directly. But they can act against you indirectly and that is exactly what they have done.”
“And what is that?” Duke asked, concern surging.
“When you leave the dungeon, and I mean the whole dungeon, not just this part, you will receive a notification of what they’ve done. I think it’s a costly mistake for them because they have no way of knowing just how far you have advanced since last they saw you.”
“Quit beating around the bush and just come out with it!”
“Fine. Fine. They put a contract out on you. Hunters are coming from across the cosmos for you.”
“Oh, that’s just fucking wonderful. Godlike beings from places I’ve never heard of are coming to kill me. What great news.”
“I think so, yes. You are going to gain experience against creatures, people, and things from all sorts of places. Well, from this galaxy at least to start. It will take time and considerable expense to get to you from further away than that. But such contracts have limits agreed to a long time ago. The most important is the relative power clause. No one who is a qualitative rank higher than you could accept the contract. That means no immortal-ranked beings could take the contract as it was established. The funny thing about it all is that they could not account for the quantitive power increase you will receive from this dungeon.”
Duke shook his head. Great. Now, I have cosmic assassins to worry about. Can I send their heads back in boxes? “Just out of curiosity, what is the price on my head?”
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“Quite substantial, actually. The price is an entire solar system custom-made for the one who succeeds in killing you.”
“An entire solar system! Custom made? What the fuck is that about?”
“I told you it was substantial. Now go collect your rewards and meet up with your friends. They are worried sick about you, especially since you are their ride home.” With that, the Overmind’s avatar vanished, leaving Duke alone with his thoughts and notifications.
Duke went through his notifications.
*** Due to overcoming extreme strain on your mind, your Psyche has increased 100 points. ***
*** You have slain 7,125 creatures of varying levels and tiers. The experience has been split between your party members. Your share comes to 9,236,250. This brings you to Tier 5, level 101.
You now have 2,148 Characteristic Points to spend.
You now have a choice to make on your Tier 5 Ability. Your choices include:
Ability Evolution
DUNGEON PRESENCE
DUNGEON TRANSPORTATION
DUNGEON CORE CREATION
You have until you reach Tier 6 to make a choice.
Your body has now undergone the Tier 5 transformation. You no longer have many of the restrictions of biology such as the need to breathe air. Your need for sleep has been significantly reduced and you need almost no nutrition to maintain your life. You do, however, have a need for Mana and your body will slowly decline without a constant influx of Mana.
***
Duke paused in his reading to process all that. Over 2,000 Characteristic points was an immense number and he wasn’t sure how he was going to allocate them. But the biggest thing was his Tier 5 Ability choices. He had already seen Ability Evolution in previous Tier-ups but he was not particularly interested in doing that this time. The other three options seemed more interesting to him. He delved into their details.
***
DUNGEON PRESENCE – You are continually surrounded by the aura of a dungeon. For most, this has no noticeable effect, but for you as a Dungeon Emperor, you will be able to make use of your dungeon-related Abilities such as DUNGEON MANIPULATION within that aura. The aura is based on your Psyche and extends out one meter for every point of modifier/multiplier you possess. Note that there will be additional side-effects to this Ability such as randomly spawning dungeon creatures within your aura.
DUNGEON TRANSPORTATION – You are able to transport yourself from any dungeon you have planted to any other dungeon you have planted instantaneously.
DUNGEON CORE CREATION – You are able to create a new dungeon core at will. These cores will be mature enough to plant and will grow and sustain themselves as any other dungeon would. With a high enough rank in this Ability, you will be able to define parameters of these dungeons such as style and monster type. Each core will require an infusion of 5 million Mana to create. The infusion need not be immediate and can occur over time, but you must maintain focus on the core until it is completed, or it will dissipate.
***
Duke weighed his options carefully. First off, I can cross Ability Evolution off the list. It was cool when I wasn’t getting such cool Abilities, but I can forget about it for now. DUNGEON TRANSPORTATION would be useful if I had dungeons scattered across the galaxy but for now, I can TELEPORT to any of my dungeons whenever I want so I don’t need that. That leaves the final two which are the coolest of all.
DUNGEON PRESENCE is downright awesome. Having an aura that is over four hundred meters around me would allow me to do anything I wanted. DUNGEON MANIPULATION is essentially reality control within that area. How can I not take this Ability? Because it’s going to randomly spawn dungeon creatures that will attack everything and everyone around me. I’m not going to forget about this one though. Maybe if I get the rank high enough, I can control that sort of thing?
And finally, we have DUNGEON CORE CREATION. It takes more Mana than I have right now to create one, but not that much more. I could plant dungeons all over the place and that would accelerate my power growth significantly. I wonder if there is more that I can do with a dungeon core than just plant it. That’s another thing I’m going to have to speak with the Overmind about.
His decision made, Duke stared longingly at the DUNGEON PRESENCE Ability but ultimately selected DUNGEON CORE CREATION.
*** You have gained the Ability DUNGEON CORE CREATION. As this is a Class Ability, it starts at Initiate 1. ***
One thing more to do before I grab the dungeon rewards and get out of here – allocate my points. If there actually is an assassin waiting for me outside, I have to gain every edge I can before setting foot outside the dungeon.
After thinking about it for a few minutes, Duke brought his Psyche up to 3,000. It took more than half his earned Characteristic Points, but it did exactly what he had hoped – brought his maximum Mana above 5 million. Next, he brought his Strength and Endurance to 1,000 each, followed by his Intuition. The final 289 points went into Reason to keep it from falling too far behind. He looked over his stat sheet and smiled at the numbers.
Still smiling, he approached the dungeon exit and the chest next to it. Without a second thought, he picked up the chest and headed towards the exit. There was a sense of resistance as he stepped towards the exit carrying the chest, as if the dungeon did not want him to leave the area with the chest. He paused, thinking about the situation briefly before shrugging and stepping through the exit.
The first thing he saw was the rest of his team seated at a table with drinks and food. They were all turned to face him and sported looks of extreme relief at his appearance. Then he noticed that they were not the only ones in the inn. There were six other tables filled with patrons who all looked over to see him standing there with a large golden chest in his arms.
“Well, shit.”