The eclipse shone outside my window, illuminating my meager dinner with its harsh light. I sighed at the microwaved pile of calories, purchased using the crumbs of my thankless paycheck from a shouty boss, and ate away. Halfway through Mimi the dark little floof hopped on my lap, her smoker's meow pausing my annoyance. Annoyance at my job. Annoyance at my singleness. Annoyance at the useless meat between my legs. My sole escape from it all was an ancient edition of a decade-and-a-half old game, modified so heavily it obscured the original look and felt like olives on the pizza that vanished down my throat.

"c'mon Mimi, let's improve the mob farm" I uselessly invited, picking up the little black blob in my arms. Her paws crossed happily, blissfully unaware of my life's grind, and she stared at my oversized screen. She knew only that interesting shapes appeared whenever I was here, and not about the escape they meant.

The launcher opened. The world was selected. Familiar machine noises played as they loyally ground up ores into more metal than I could conceivably need. Mana sloshed around, shooting through sparks and condensing into pools. Monsters died en masse, spawned in boxes of dark stone and funneled into a diamond-toothed grinder. Cables hummed with power trying to fuel it all, and in the basement a reactor rumbled, turning ingots of draconic power into human-usable, electrical power.

And I was home, in my maximalist mess of power.

Smiling for the first time that day (not counting the facade i put on for my boss), I set to work optimizing the flow of monsters into their loot-producing death. New spawners joined the ranks of their brethren, monsters inside pacified with a golden apple to the cage.

The night stretched on as I routed the influx of goods. Enchantment fodder, Titled gear, flesh and bones for the undeath generator. Due to my... dereference for waste, everything was given a use, no matter how inefficient. All while the eclipse set, moon catching up with the sun and turning the world a weird shade of blue-grey.

At half past midnight, I took a break to shower. The warm water was supposed to lull me to sleep, especially if I didn't look down too much, but all my mind could do was wander my castle of dark stone and blue wood. plot out where and how to grow it. The mystical farm could always be extended downwards, and the resulting replacement of the stirling dynamo room below was hardly a loss. I could always place it near the reactor as power flowed up that cable anyway, but then I'd need to rebalance cables again to ensure power was evenly splitting...

My thoughts ran as the hot water did, trailing off at the same time and leaving me to speedrun soaping under the chilling spray. I trudged to my room, little cat nowhere to be found, and almost fell into bed. I was determined to get this one solution made before I slept, Sunday lunch rush tomorrow be damned. Catching myself on the chair I spun it around, not caring how the towel fell off in the process. I wasn't skilled at many things, and damn it i wanted to be good at something before being yelled at for not being good enough.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

My mind was a hazy blur of speed as I told my storage system how to make the components. Grey essence harvested from hundreds to thousands of monsters, set to craft itself up the colourwheel from grey to blue to gold. The essence wasted no time as it slid down the chute to the infusion pedestal, four nether and four dragon scales stars ready to channel their power into the essence.

"Awakened!" I quietly celebrated, yawning at the mass-produced endgame material as it flowed into my linked crafting pouch. It, dirt, and a hoe was all I needed, steam dynamos swept aside with an overpowered pickaxe to make room for another layer of farm. I placed down the first few blocks, checked my inventory for more, and felt the agonizing slowness of the process set in.

"I'm going to start this farm, if it's the last thing i..."

I felt my eyelids grow heavier. Shaking myself awake. Trying to ignore how eight minutes had passed while I zoned out. But I had eight times eight awakened farmland in my inventory. I started to place them all around this new room, going back to repeat the process for seeds of all the good stuff. Seeds, diamonds, emeralds, gold- all to make dungeon loot seeds. I closed my eyes, letting myself rest, just for another ten minutes, while everything crafted itself into place

And woke up half an hour later, having to wiggle my mouse and enter my password again. All the loot seeds were in my hand. All I had to do was plant them. One at a time. Let them grow...

I needed a distraction while my plants grew rare enchantment books and customized items. A real fight. Stabbing monsters with my sword customized to hell and back would be a good pastime. I touched the teleportation obelisk and warped hundreds of blocks and a dimension away, growl of zombies music to my ears.

I swung, alerting the horde, and with half a brain of power clicked on every blocky undead. Drops magnetized to my inventory, dumped into storage, but i hardly cared. Within minutes, I emptied the large fighting chamber. took a second to look around at the dimly-lit stone walls. And took a breath in satisfaction.

When I opened my eyes, my vision was sharper. Clearer. No longer warped by glasses. The feeling of tiredness had escaped me, allowing me to plan with barely any inhibition.

"I must have hit fullscreen while I was sleeping" I rationalized, clock no longer visible at the bottom corner of my vision. When I looked there, all I saw was more cave. More stone floor from every angle.

I flexed a finger to move; nothing. I tried to stand, to pry myself away from this excess immersion; nothing. I tried to open my mouth, to call out, nothing.

"What am I..." I lamented, fearing I had become a block in my own game.

Greetings, Dungeon #395

I gasped surprise, as I was no mere block. I was a Dungeon.