Chase stood over the heart of the dungeon, his heart, and shifted until he was knelt on the sand.

To the side, his God stood there, attentive… and unhelpful.

The sun was setting, casting the sky in dark streaks of orange and yellow, and the duo had spent far too long arguing… or Chase ranting at his God, the world, the general state of existence, the desert, the bright sun, the desert, his God…

Well. Let’s just say that being a ghost who doesn’t lose their voice by strain means that his ranting was… lengthy.

As such, it wasn’t until the light of the day had started to fade that they realized they hadn’t… actually done anything.

The Dungeon core hadn’t been turned on yet.

After… another, much shorter, rant, Chase had decided to turn it on.

Now, as he knelt over the core, he placed his spectral hand on the crystal and focused.

He took a deep breath… that actually didn’t do anything, but it was comforting, and gave a mental push.

And then his form vanished, flickering into gold and brass light that flowed into the crystalline heart.

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The God watched…

And waited…

And waited some more.

And some more….

The God glanced up and blinked.

Was the sky still turning black? How long did the sunset last in the desert?

His attention was drawn back down, as the sand around him shifted, and the gleaming core of the dungeon began to sink!

“Oh, very interesting indeed.”

The sand around it was slowly changing color, floating up in particles as it dissolved into gleaming golden energy, the golden edges spreading out like cracks in ice or the slow spread of flames eating away at cloth as it wove between and around the sand, before it slowly began to sink down, the sand vanishing into energy that drifted back and was drawn into the gleaming amber heart of the core, glowing as the mystical structure awoke.

The sand itself was being… consumed was perhaps the correct term, turned to energy that was then drawn inwards to the heart of the Core and processed.

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As he watched, however, the God did notice that digging a hole in sand was… somewhat of an exercise in futility.

As the sand vanished from the ring around the core, lowering it down, fresh waves of sand began to run into the hole from the edge, falling into the void and forcing the core to consume the loose particles, slowing its descent into the earth.

It was a cascading effect that made every measure it took to go deeper, forcing the edges of the hole to widen in response.

Turn by turn, the golden light would clear a ring, and then move to go deeper only to be caught up in freshly poured sand in it’s space… but the the golden light in the center was slowly stabilizing, shifting from a random crackling light that ate outwards into something almost like a flowing spiral of golden energy. The cycle of digging and stabilizing shifted into something that began to swirl.

Round by round, golden waves washed around the core, consuming the sand like a massive drill bit as it dug deeper and deeper…. Before it began to slow, leaving only the outer edges of the drill to speed up until the falling waves of sand finally stopped, smooth sandy slopes reaching up and out from a freshly revealed clay floor.

The core was settled in the center of the ring of clay forming a circle around it, clearing the sand away.

And then the golden energy returned inwards, revealing cracked and dry clay, uneven and rough..

As the golden light condensed, the ground below the core itself began to rise, until it was sitting on a mound of solid sand-colored stone, roughly circular in shape- before the golden light washed over it once more.

With a final pulse, the light began to sink back into the core, and the God approached a sleek pedestal. Circular in shape, it was lined with slender spiral etching, flared rims and a grasping cradle interlacing with the ‘spine’ of the core, its ironwork ribs splayed to the sky, the gem casting soft shadows against the sandy walls of the pit.

With one last pulse, the golden light twisted and pushed out opposite the God, before turning into the silhouette, and then actual form of Chase.

However, he looked exhausted, his hair loose and ragged and the faint glow of his body flickering in some patches..

“Chase! Are you well?” The God paced around the pedestal and knelt as Chase fell and let his arms splay out across the clay, eyes closed and chest rising rapidly, despite the lack of need for air.

“Turns out, controlling a complex magical artifact that consumes and recreates matter is fucking exhausting.” Chase looked up, watching as the dark sky, stretched with unfamiliar stars, moved overhead slowly.

The God... Couldn't help but blink incredulously, leaning over his chosen's head and meeting his tired gaze. “...You did that manually?”

Chase locked eyes on the confused God. “...Manually?”

The God blinked.

“Of course? It is only the initialization of the core that must be manually performed by you. The actual crafting should be accessible through the interface.”

Chase closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and opened the dungeon interface

And… yep. A crafting menu was now unlocked.

With a flex of will, he closed the menu, not even taking in any of the details.

Looking back up at the stars, he just… sat there.

The God began to fidget.

The God had only been with Chase in the void for a few weeks, subjectively… But the God had gotten a good handle on the young man’s mental states. They had even formed the first connection with Chase because of it! The young man had ended up in the void through a flaw in reality, and even as the man had begun to die from exposure to the fabric of the universe, he had been swearing and fighting back the best he could, calling out for anyone, anything to aid him.

Seeing Chase still and quiet was unsettling….

As the tension rose, the God finally spoke up. “Perhaps, Chase it-?”

And then, of course, Chase took a deep breath and let loose a scream of frustration so loud that he accidentally buried his avatar’s head under a landslide of fresh sand from the pit walls.

The God gave a soft sound of relief.

'Well, it seems like everything is going as smoothly as expected.'