Steve Falch has definitely had some bad experience being a tattoo artist next to a biker bar. Usually nothing more extreme a guy throwing up or passing out drunk mind session under the needle but he didn't think it would have all ended like this. Two rougher men from the club stumbled in demanding I put a spider on the taller man's face. With a shake of my head I tried to deny the guy knowing that letting him get that drunk would mean getting my ass kicked once they sober up. That's when the gun came out of the short mean looking one's pocket.
At gun point I worked trying to control the shaking in my hands when disaster struck. My hand slipped jabbing in and causing a curse and sharp flinch from the guy I was working on. His intoxicated friend lost his cool pulling the trigger and put a round into my side. Panicking the men ran out letting me bleed out on the floor. The color faded from my vision and I started floating from my body.
I honestly can't remember how far or for how long I floated, years or seconds I couldn't tell until I heard something. "Well I don't seem to have much choice so you'll have to do" an ethereal voice shattered the silence like an explosion. Suddenly a massive shape of swirling energy was before me in the vast gray expanse. It had no form but looking at it gave off the feeling of vast power and primal intelligence. "my realm is in need of guidance and shepherding if is to stand against the both the horror and wonder of the greater universe " the great being shouted yet some how whispered. "You will be that shepherd " as it finished a small whisp of energy flowed from it into my body before everything faded once again.
When I regained awareness my mind was flooded with arcane knowledge and well as basic knowledge about my new world? Steve stopped in his tracks because when he thought about his new "world" he knew that somehow that definition wasn't correct. The realm he was in was actually three planets twisted together with spacial tunnels intertwined them. "Stop" Steve shouted trying to halt the flow of information. Getting control over his mind once again Steve went over what he knew to keep himself sane.
He instinctively knew that he needed to stabilize the realm so they wouldn't collapse into each other. Why he knew that he had no clue but he did know how to solve that problem. He had to create dungeons to help stabilize the space and wild energy having the planets intertwined was causing. Latching onto that thought a forth dimensional map popped into his head showing hundreds of possible dungeon locations but there was a problem, he could only currently place three dungeons or one on each world.
Frustrated and seriously confused Steve selected a random location for each world. Seconds after a new pop-up asking for dungeon type appeared above each location on the map. With a mental curse Steve didn't see any options. A feeling in his mind was screaming at him that the realm was becoming unstable the longer this took so Steve thought of his early gaming days and entered goblins for all three. With rising panic a new pop-up asking for a primary and secondary path to power almost made him cry. The primary had four choices the physical abilities, energy control, universal mystery and an option to make your own path. Steve set each dungeon with a different primary path before looking into the secondary path options. Thankfully the second option had the three previously none selected choices but right before he randomly chose a stroke of inspiration hit Steve and on impulse he entered tattoos.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
With a flash of light calm washed over Steve as the scene of doom hanging over him vanished from his mind. Now that his new realm wasn't literally collapsing in on it's self he could slow down and try and absorb the torrent of information locked inside his head. After taking his time over the next couple of hours Steve started to get a grasp on what was happening around him. He was the guardian of the realm giving him some control over the reality he's found himself in. The purpose of the dungeons is to first stop this this artificial subspace from destroying itself and using the energy produced to better the residents of the realm grow. All life in the subspace will naturally grow more powerful from exposure to the energy but the dungeons will increase the process exponentially.
Knowing all this Steve was excited to check out his new dungeons. The dungeons are supposed to be fully autoimmune but Steve will able to control or change them if needed. Looking at the first dungeon he noticed that it was the physical abilities dungeon. Looking in he saw muscled gray skinned humanoid creatures with various types of tattoos covering their bodies. Focusing on a particularly strong looking goblin with tattoos of his own skeleton a window pop-up with information about him.
Grug goblin dread fist level 5 , a strong and resilient fighter for his basic species his bone tattoos make his skeleton extremely difficult to damage.
Looking around all the goblins were between level 2 to 5 and each of them had a tattoo that physically enhanced them in a different way from making them quicker or stronger to the stranger abilities like being able to hold his breath for 15 minutes without any side effects.
Flashing over to the energy control dungeon the levels were similar but the goblins were all different colors. I focused on a blue goblin with two ice cubes on his forehead.
Null goblin frost touch level 3, dangerous but fragile his very touch causes frost energy to flow into his enemies.
Moving on to the universal mystery dungeon I was surprised to see regular green goblins. Besides a few strange tattoos I couldn't tell anything interesting about them until I looked at a goblins window
Ash goblin mystic level 2, this goblin mystic can summon his tattoos into the physical realm be it the dagger on his arm or the snake on his back.
Despite being a lower level than the other two goblins I investigated he somehow seemed the most dangerous. I'm extremely curious to see what they can do.