“Is that supposed to mean something?” The usually silent Ter’fald spoke up.
Duke was torn in how to respond. The Overmind told me that it is a closed world with all its magic contained and inaccessible. If we go there, we may never be able to leave. But someday I will go there. “It is a world closed to magic. A place this ship cannot go and survive. “I need some time in my room undisturbed. Can you keep the ship stationary, Mira?”
“Of course. I can park us here. How long do you need?”
“Give me two hours. That should be sufficient.” Duke went to his cabin without another word.
“What was that all about?”
No one answered Gro’nok’s question. Instead, Lya and Aurelia set off together while Mira started pouring over the data Duke had sifted through. She was not sure what she was looking for, but she had two hours to kill and doing any maintenance on the ship was essentially pointless after Duke’s Ability. She casually called back, “Gro’nok, please take the Steel tusks down to the Mech bay and make sure your mechs are still secure after that bit of jarring we went through.”
When Duke got back to his room, he immediately locked the door and TELEPORTED to the rocky planet he had identified that was only a light year away from the ship. It was yet another barren world. Seconds later, he planted the Dungeon Core he had created and waited for the dungeon to form. It took longer than he had expected, growing slowly over the next fifteen minutes.
When the cave entrance to the dungeon appeared, Duke went right in. Inside the dungeon, it was dark and lifeless. He reached out with his DUNGEON SENSE and saw that the entire dungeon consisted of this small cave that he could barely stand up in, and absolutely nothing else. “Well, that’s not what I expected. What the hell is going on here?”
“The dungeon is starving and dying. Feed it some Mana.”
Duke snapped around to see the Overmind’s avatar standing in the entrance. “It’s been a while.”
“I was not kidding. You have about three minutes before this dungeon collapses entirely if you do not start feeding it Mana right now.”
Duke released 10 Million Mana in a RESTORE that flashed out into the dungeon. He could swear that he heard the dungeon breathe a sigh of relief. “What’s going on, here?”
“You just bought the dungeon about a week of live. Certainly long enough for us to have a conversation. Much has happened since last we spoke.”
“You could say that again. Are we really in the Milky Way? Is that really Earth?”
“Yes, on both accounts but you should not go there, at least not yet. You are not fully ready for returning to this dimension. Your best course of action right now is to leave and return to the dimension you just came from.”
“Just like that, huh?”
“Just like that. You have the Ability to do so. It will be difficult and will tax you but you can do it. I’m sure you noticed that your Mana regen is reduced in this dimension.”
“Yeah, besides the supermassive black hole we popped up next to, that was the first thing I noticed. What’s the deal with that?”
“This is a scarce-magic dimension. You do not have enough weight to your soul to resist its effects yet.”
“So, you are saying come back at Tier Ten?”
“Tier Eleven would be better, but you could survive here at Tier Ten easily. The Entities of this dimension will be coming for you before too long and you are no way ready to face them despite their relatively low rank. And, more importantly, there is not enough of an appropriate challenge here. Things are either laughably weak or Entity-level. There is little in-between for now.”
“For now? Sounds like you have plans to change that.”
“Me? No. But I fully expect for you to do so when you return.”
“So, that’s your advice? Go out and get stronger then come back and remake an entire dimension?”
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“Well, aren’t you ambitious. You have a few things to get through first, but I fully endorse your plan.”
“Cute.”
“The Contest is beginning very soon. I feel you are ready for your role.”
“Are you going to tell me what the Contest is and what my role is supposed to be now?”
“In this dimension, inside a dying dungeon where my Domain reigns supreme, yes, I can finally tell you. Try not to be disappointed.”
“I’ll try my best but that’s not much of a setup.”
“That is true, but here goes. The life of an Entity can get downright boring. A surprising number just give up and fade into nothingness. The older the cosmos gets, the more prevalent this becomes. A handful have been brought back from the brink but many more have simply dissipated their power back into the cosmos. When an entity dissipates, it causes all manner of disruption in the cosmos. For some, it’s a tremendous boon as the Mana density in the area will spike to unbearable levels. For the vast majority, however, the change is overwhelming and deadly. Countless worlds have been lost to this phenomena.
“The Contest was devised as a way to prevent this cosmological loss, to keep Entities engaged with the world around them. Whenever certain conditions, which I will not go into here, are met, a new Contest is declared. Each participating Entity then chooses a Contestant, a Champion, if you will. That Contestant will represent the Entity’s interests in the Contest. There are more rules than I care to mention on how and when Entities can interact with their chosen Contestants.”
“Why is that? It seems too strange to not allow you to at least guide me.”
“The rules are based on many things but they are designed to promote fairness. The more powerful the Entity, the less guidance and support they are allowed to provide their Contestant. That is why I haven’t been able to really help you along at all but was left to giving vague hints at best. I have pushed the limits on that one a few times but my interest in you extends far beyond the Contest. I am invested in your success.”
“Because of what I am? A Dungeon Emperor?”
“That is part of it, yes. You are helping me by seeding dungeons in places they have not been before. The more you seed, the greater long-term effect we will have on the Cosmos.”
“OK, but can we get back to the Contest itself? What is the actual Contest?”
“Yes, right. Sort of went off on a tangent there. The final stage of the Contest will take place on a single planet that will be created for just this purpose. The planet will have countless challenges on it. By completing the challenges, you will accumulate points. The Contestant with the most points at the end of the Contest wins.”
“So, it’s like running a gauntlet of challenges. I can do that. Sounds like fun.”
“There are darker parts to it too. Killing other Contestants usually winds up being the most lucrative way to accumulate points as you take all the points they have accumulated.”
“OK, I get it. It’s a planet-sized PK dungeon.”
“PK?”
“Player-Killing. Old gaming term.”
“Apt enough. The formation of the planet is beginning. The earliest Contestants will arrive in the next few weeks but the bulk of Contestants will arrive in about two months. The world will be closed in six months and the Contest will end soon after that. My question to you is this – when do you wish to arrive?”
“I guess that will depend on how I am going to play this out. Do I go the PK route or play it straight-up?”
“Inevitably, you will have to kill other Contestants in self-defense so plan on that happening. It is not uncommon for groups and alliances to form, and it is not winner take all so there is benefit being in the top hundred, even the top thousand will receive something as a prize, but being in the top ten is where you want to place.”
“Oh, I thought you wanted me to win it all.”
“That would be ideal, but you will be facing things that are far beyond where you are now. The weakest Entities have been actively building their Contestants for over a year now. Expect them to be near immortal ranks.”
“So, how do I fight something like that?”
“With absolute aggression and no thought of mercy. Against that level of foe, you will have to hit them with everything you have and hope it’s enough. Or, trick them into weakening themselves against others before striking. There are thousands of ways to take on a foe that should exceed your capabilities.”
“Kill-stealing. Got it. Let’s shoot for the two-month mark where the bulk of Contestants arrive.”
“Very well. You will receive notifications leading up to the time of transit. In the meantime, you need to build up your strength like never before. The average Contestant is going to be at least Tier Seven. There will be some as high as Tier Eleven.”
“Isn’t that in the immortal Tiers?”
“Yes, but not far enough up that they can’t be killed. They just have stopped aging and will not die of natural causes. That is the Tier where you find most planetary gods.”
“What Tier are you?”
“That’s a rather personal question and one I will not be answering. I will put it this way, when it comes to the Contest, I am one of the most restricted Entities. Now, you have a choice to make with this dungeon. You can let it die from Mana starvation, or you can feed it until it hits Tier Two and can sustain itself. I must leave before I leave an impression in this dimension but make a decision and push your power-gain as much as possible in the next month or two.
“Oh, one more thing before I go. Your ship is in the same relative position to the dimension you want to get to so use that knowledge to guide your passage.” With that, the Overmind was gone, and Duke was left with an empty dungeon.
“Do I save the dungeon or let it go? What kind of Dungeon Emperor would I be if I let if die?” Duke started pouring his Mana out into the dungeon, matching his reduced regen rate. A rate that was still over two hundred thousand a second. Even with that much Mana, it took him over an hour to Tier the dungeon up. It took over a billion Mana. Duke felt exhausted as he returned to his room on the ship. He stretched out on his bunk just to rest his eyes for a minute.