"UNFILLING. EAT DUNGEON." Thought the eldritch horror as it hung in the abyss between universes and around the dimension which intrude into it like bubbles on the surfaces of realities. Remembering the sting from last time, it shifted around so that no entity would hit it in it's tonsil again. Good thing that even with the prior attachments of the bigger entity, the small entity didn't hit very hard. Otherwise it might have vomited up the whole body of Dungeon of Woe. Unlike which, Library Dungeon wasn't defenceless but someone had tossed chum in the water, waiting around wasn't an option anymore. While it would be an effort to finish cracking through its outer walls, better that than risk some other colossus challenging itself for the meal. Speaking of, he noticed something else in the abyss and looked towards it. A mere smaller eldritch being, which turned around and fled from itself.
"So that's the situation? It's like that, hey?"
"I SURPRISED!" And indeed it was, that this tiny entity was not utterly erased after having devoured its soul. "HOW STILL THINK?"
Within the creatures mind, massive hands reached out and wrapped around its. "As I thought. A tiny mind."
The entity felt fear in the first time in more years than can be expressed. Having successfully avoided anything larger than itself for the past 3 eternities, or whatever word a universe uses to describe the length of its existence. "HOW?!!"
"I didn't stay in your mouth," Lauri's mind boasted as it started to strangle this things mind.
"EXPLAIN PROPER."
"Well, I was essentially trying to use my mind to stop you from devouring my soul, to the point that my mind was going to break and shatter. So, I moved my mind out of the way. Sure this means our souls merged as one but my mind is unchewed. In fact, I'd say you're basically screwed, now." Lauri waited for a reply but as he gained vision through his eyes he wondered if there was anything left of the previous consciousness.
As Lauri stared through the hole in the dungeon wall at himself, he, himself stared back into the void. "Wait, no, that's the wrong way around." Refocusing his perspective, as Lauri stared into the void, the void stared back. "That's better. Ummm. You can leave now... creature... thing. Lovecraftian horror?" The colossus turned and started to float away. Its dumbed mind stirring as Lauri drew a line between himself and it. "SORRY. I LEAVE. THANK YOU, SPARE ME."
"No problem. No offence but I didn't really want to live as an eldritch horror floating through the endless void anyway."
"IT GOOD... I MEAN, BAD EXISTANCE. YOU NOT WANT. THAT RIGHT."
"It's what you know so I'm sure you like it but it's just not for me. We can still be friends though."
"SOUL BOUND IS... FRIENDS. SURE."
"Sounds like marriage but I'm so not calling it that."
[Upgraded profession to Level ? Enslaver]
Soon the creature was gone but Lauri had learnt that there could be more, as well as that Library Dungeon was somewhat vulnerable. Moving his fingers he could tell that all the magic had drained out of his body while his mind was away. He tried to focus to see if he could draw magic back into himself. Suddenly Lauri found himself having fallen to the floor. Only by struggling could he move and not enough to stand up. Library Dungeon messaged him ["Thank you. I am spared only because of you. I really thought it was all over just then."] The message flickered in front of Lauri for a few seconds before it became solid. Technically is was a transparent blue, not a solid colour, but it was clear and more importantly not flickering. Magic flooded back into Lauri as he leapt to his feet, "huh, that's better."
[Warning: Human called Lauri Williams may be puppet entity. Are you 'you'? Yes or No]
["Yes. I'm me. Who else would I be?"]
Red-Light appeared beside him. "Are you okay?"
"Barely."
"Oh no, is that a hold into Blank?"
"As in the void? Yeah."
"Void? No, the void is a vacuum between plants and stars, often called space. That's... um... you can call it a void, sure. I just realised you lack any good words for... that."
"Abyss, maybe. It's scary."
"You don't know the half of it. You see the back of that Elder Horror? Not that it would ever notice you but if it did you'd be instantly dead. No, worse than dead."
"I think I learnt the half of it, actually."
"That smaller critter fleeing, I'm guessing you fought it away? You're fortunate to have survived even that. With your mind intact, that is."
"I didn't fight that critter. It came over here, saw what you called the Elder and scrammed with all haste."
"Ah. I see. Still fortunate to have your mind intact."
"Are they bugs?"
"What do you mean?"
"Like, when asking the system for help there's an option to indicate whether it involves a bug or not. I didn't know what those were. So, are those things in the void bugs?"
"When they get into the System hardware they are."
"Hardware?"
"Artifacts."
"Huh."
"Speaking of, I have lots more translations for you to do now that you finished your first."
"Oh, um, I think my mind is wounded. Can that happen? I'm just so mentally exhausted. My flesh is willing but my spirit is broken."
"I think you mean 'the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak,' right?"
"Maybe. Before the System returned I was prone on the floor barely able to move."
The being Lauri had nicknamed Red-Light circles around Lauri once before offering "if you're unable to continue I can remove your access as a moderator."
"Sure. Might as well. I'm just too mentally exhausted."
"Excellent."
"Huh?"
"Of course you're completely drained. If you were acting like you were fine, or worse, overly keen for System access, then I'd be worried. A possibility of incursion is why the System brought me here, after all. Take some time to recover and I'll leave you as a moderator. It could be difficult to return your access later if I removed it now, while under suspicion of compromise."
"Huh. It's really okay if you remove my access. I don't think I'll ever need it, so, no problem."
"You poor thing. Your will really was crushed... But you'll recover. Not everyone does but I believe in you."
"Oh. Well... Okay then."
"Ah, only the faintest light of hope but a sign of recovery none-the-less. Good luck then." With that, quick as he came, Red-Light was gone.
"By the way, I got this quest earlier and I was wondering if you were the one... and you're not even here anymore. I suppose you're a very busy light-thing."
On a whim Lauri used See Invisible and to his surprise he could see Red-Light again but decided to act ignorant. As he headded to the exit Lauri stopped by a bookshelf and talked to himself, "I wonder if I can repair multiple books at once? Same as when I identified those arrows." Trying to target the bookshelf and all its books, Lauri activated his Renew Item ability and was momentarily pleased to see all the books, and the bookshelf itself, all looking a bit better. The reason he was only pleased momentarily is that a terrible headache hit him. He fell to his knees and grabbed his head in his hands, trying not to cry out. After a moment he stood back up, a little dizzy, and leaned against that same bookshelf. Red-Light nodded to himself (or 'itself'... or maybe 'herself' but nobody knows yet) then opened an invisible portal that he walked through. Lauri checked his status and saw that his Power was at 137 out of 4,250. "What did I spend so much power on today? Wait... that's roughly the amount of power I gained due to the increase after Agility was combined into Strength."
["System, please separate Strength and Agility back out."]
{
Class: Ritualist
Professions:
- Level 10 Sealer
- Level 1 Unrestricted
- Level 90 ????? [Amnesiac Subconscious Potential]
- Level ? Enslaver. Warning: Overriding too many potential levels with professions other than Enslaver may result in consciousness being overwhelmed.
Effective Level: 11, EXP 42,980/60,900
HP: 55,000, PP: -13/4,100, MP: 40
Strength: (59) 269/341, Toughness: (50) 550, Agility: 31/330, Memory: 155/330, Reasoning: 158/330, Charisma: 330, Luck: 11/22, Destiny: 44
Available Attribute Points: 5
Skills: 13
}
"As I suspected. The System miss-estimated my Power and allowed me to spend more than I could comfortably afford." With that he left Library Dungeon and the academy building, finding Sophie and Sarah out front. He accepted the stop-watch back from Sophie. "I chased away the thing that was making the banging sound. It's all good now. Hello Sarah, did you bring a message?"
"Hello. No message, just wanted to see you."
"Okay. I'm going to head into a dungeon once everyone gets here but until then we can hang out."
"What happened to your hair?" Sarah blinked at it.
"My hair?"
Sophie stepped in. "Your hair has turned white."
"Oh. My 'Blonde Hair of Power,' yeah it's an augmented body part. Might have lost its colour because I'm all out of Power. Don't know for sure."
"But you had so much power, how are you out?"
"Don't know. I haven't used many abilities today but said abilities chew through as much or as little power as they need to get their job done. I suppose chasing that thing away used up a lot."
"What was it?"
"It seemed Lovecraftian."
"What's that?"
Sarah shuddered. "Surely not?"
"There's an other-world author called Howard Phillips Lovecraft. H.P. Lovecraft for short. I don't know if the creature was the same as any of the ones he wrote about but, aside from lengthy descriptions, there's no better way to describe that thing."
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
"So is your hair the reason you have such a high max Power?"
"Now that you mention it, quite possibly. I'll check the description."
[Blonde Hair of Power: Blonde hair is recessive and any two people of any hair colours can potentially give birth to a child who has blonde hair. Because of this many blonde children have been rejected by their fathers and subject to mistreatment. Not that it doesn't go the other way as well, with many examples of blondes placed on pedestals of falsehoods. This said, people of all hair colours have faced false praise and prejudice. For example, those with black hair are viewed as Isekai Heroes and their desendants. Specific abilities remain unidentified.]
"Its description didn't really help. Any of you know what an Isekai Hero is?"
Sarah nodded, "yeah, they're other-worlders. Usually summoned from Japan. One was from a place called Scotland but they're usually from Japan."
"Huh. Considering how many other-worldly items there are I should be less surprised. It's just that I thought the Goddess enacted rules preventing contact with the people from other realms."
"Wasn't Akari of the Red Plumbs in the Survivors Guild with you?"
"I didn't meet all that many of my guild-mates but I've heard of him. What about him?"
"He was from Japan."
"Huh. I didn't know that. He got trapped here did he?"
"No. He stayed to end slavery or something."
"And failed?"
Sarah paused for a moment then mentioned, "your dad is looking for a slave to be your housekeeper. Are you moving out?"
"Yeah, seem so. Wait, a slave? For me?"
"That's what I heard."
"Please tell him that they'd better be 18 or older."
Sarah blushed, "and female?"
"What? Oh... male then, so there's no rumours."
"I'll chase him down and tell him right away." Sarah smiled as she moved to run off, endeavouring to prevent a potential future love rival.
"Hang on one moment Sarah."
"Yeah?"
"Just in case, you deserve to know... Sophie and I are hooking up."
Sarah's face went pale. "I... see..."
Sophie smiled and winked. "It's not a serious relationship, I don't even know why he bothered to mention."
Sarah swallowed hard and gave a weak smile. "They you won't mind when I steal him away from you?"
Lauri raised a hand to interrupt, "save lines like that for after you've come of age. Until then I only see you as a minor."
"I'm 18 next month!"
"Then you're naught but a minor in my eyes for another month."
"We're born on the same year."
"You're a minor right now and that's a massive wall which says I can't have any romantic relations with you. It's out of the picture. Don't even try to compete until you're 18."
"Lauri you jerk, why didn't you wait?"
"I had considered waiting but I realised you'd never asked me to. So I'd be throwing away the present on an assumption? That would be stupid."
"Do you care about me that little?"
"As a friend I care about you. As a minor I have zero eyes for you. Might as well be invisible. That's just the rules."
"Than in a month I'll make you see me for sure!"
"Sarah, no matter what, we'll always be childhood friends. After your 18th birthday, good luck but don't play dirty."
Sarah ran off to find Joshua Williams, Lauri's father, while holding herself back from crying.
Sophie watched her run off then looked at Lauri, "I feel like that was a bit too mean."
Ken had walked up quietly behind Sophie and she was startled as he started talking. "You? Feel? I thought you were a psychopath."
Lauri shook his head. "Ken, that has to be inaccurate."
"After what she's done to you?"
"You should be calling her a sociopath."
"Sure. Is there a difference?"
Sophie stuck her tongue out and winked at Lauri. "Do you think I'm crazy too?"
"All I'm saying is that psychopaths are either born that way or experienced brain damage at some point. While sociopath are a result of environment and upbringing. Since you grew up starving on the street and later whoring yourself out for food, I simply feel like your personality is more likely the result of the life you've had to live."
Ken could be seen to relax his shoulders as he took in this point. "Fine. She still tried to kill you though."
"No she didn't, Ken."
Sophie gave Lauri a confused look. "Yes I did."
Lauri sighed. "First, why ever confess to that? Second, did you really know Hero was going to kick me down there?"
"No."
"Were you going to push me down the cliff if he hadn't?"
"No."
"Okay. Then how were go going to kill me or how did you know I was going to be killed?"
"I... supposed I didn't. But I asked you to go kill all the bugs, using my seduction spell."
"A spell which can't compel suicidal actions and a task trivial to me if first allowed to properly equip myself. So, did you really try to kill me or is it that you're capable of a guilty conscience?"
"Well if you put it like that then I didn't try to kill you."
Ken tensed up again. "You're just going to forgive her?"
"For her actual actions? Only if she apologises and asks me to."
Silence hung in the air until Tim arrived. "Hello."
Ken had been waiting for Sophie to say something and with the silence broken asked "are you really not going to say sorry?"
"What have I interrupted?"
Lauri chuckled. "Hello Tim. Sophie was about to say sorry to me for seducing me but she froze up or something."
Tim looked Sophie up and down. "I may be gay but given the sexy leather and nipple tape, should she also be apologising to every straight man who looks her way?"
Sophie giggled at this but then composed herself and gave Lauri a serious look. "I'm sorry that I used my Seduction spell on you and compelled you."
Tim took a half-step back as he gave a shocked double-take. "Oh!"
Lauri nodded, "apology accepted. I understand you'd only just gotten the spell and were keen to test it out. So I forgive you."
"Well isn't this a fun party?" Tim chuckled. "I've got a main party so, just a heads up. Also I'll pay my own entrance. We ready?"
Lauri looked around. "Still waiting on Billy. It's one of my dungeons so nobody in a party with me need pay an entrance fee."
"Dungeons, plural?"
"I have two."
"Bit young for a guild leader."
"I still need to register my guild, actually. I'd better get on that soon."
[Purchased 20x Greater Potion of Power for 10,000SP]
[Purchased 1x Absorbent Towel for 1SP]
Billy could soon be seen walking over. "Hey everyone. I'm here early yet I still seem to be the last to arrive. What'ya drinking?"
Lauri's hair turned blonde again as he drank a potion. "Greater Potion of Power. Restores 5,000 Power at a cost of 500 SP."
"Don't minor ones restore 100 power for 2 SP each?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Then why not use those and only pay 100 SP total?"
Lauri considered this and came up with a diversion. "Because my Agility Potion drops each raise my Agility by 1." He started withdrawing and drinking them, one after another.
"How does that answer my question?"
"You've never gotten full drinking potions before? How many minor power potions would I need to drink?"
"Ummmm.... 50 I suppose."
"Yeah. Then I wouldn't be able to drink as many Agility potions."
Tim was watching and asked "just how rich are you?"
"The Agility Potions drop when I kill Ankhegs. I didn't buy these."
"But you could sell them. For about 8,000 SP each."
Lauri stopped drinking, holding one in his hands he stared at it for a moment. "All up I may have drunk half a million SP worth."
Tim started nodding, "that's a lot." Lauri put away the potion he was holding. "Not going to drink that one?"
"Nah. Let's get going."
"I still get an equal share of loot, right?"
"Equal share of anything not on level 2, plus one special reward in exchange for that caveat."
Entering the dungeon they started walking between the shelves when the books hiding above them were disturbed, all coming flying down to start bludgeoning everyone. Lauri used Sleep only to find that books don't sleep. [10 HP Lost], [11 HP Lost], [10 HP Lost], [9 HP Lost], [11 HP Lost]. "Sophie, shield please." [11 SP Lost], [10 SP Lost], [9 SP Lost]. "There's too many of them. Sophie, can you explode them?" A Tiny Explosion was cast but didn't catch nearly enough of them. "Cast a full sized explosion, please." [10 SP Lost], [10 SP Lost], [9 SP Lost]
"You mean Fireball? I don't know that spell."
"Just cast Tiny Explosion with more manna, up the containment, compress it to 5cm instead of 3cm and put lots more flames into it. I read the original spell so I know that should work." [12 SP Lost], [9 SP Lost], [8 SP Lost], [10 SP Lost]
"You can't just make up new spells."
"Of course we can. The scrolls only tell us what other people figured out and the System lends a hand but we don't actually need skill-books or spell scrolls. Give it a try at least." [10 SP Lost], [11 SP Lost], [10 SP Lost]
An explosion hit everyone [1200 SP lost], killing all the flying books and dropping silver coins. "Oh my goddess, it actually worked."
Lauri saw the books on the surrounding shelves burning and focused for using Renew Item on all of them. Once Lauri put the flames out with a towel he used Renew Item on the books again. "Phew. My idea almost destroyed these books."
"Where did you get that towel from?"
"I swapped my bag for an Item Box. It's not physically present."
Tim was sick of being surprised, as his jaw dropped. "The 20 billion SP, Item Box?"
"I soul bound it when I first found it and never looked up its value, so who knows."
"You must have been very lucky. Any other shockers you're holding back on?"
"I had negative luck at the time, actually... Hey look, this book is an analysis of The Heroes Journey. The goddess mentioned that to me. I should read it."
"Goddess spoke to you? Oh wait, you're that recently famous liar? Lying Lauri."
"Yeah. That's me."
"Oh man, you got me, so many times. What potions were you really drinking?"
"I prefer to tell the truth than have people believe me."
"What does that mean?"
"It means I was drinking Potions of Agility and I'd only say otherwise if I wanted you to believe me."
"This is fun. I just wish I hadn't figured it out. Ruins the suspension of disbelief and all. Now I'll just be like 'yeah yeah, sure thing.' What a spoiler."