October 21st, 2023

9:13 PM EST

Alastar

“Well, that’s concerning.” Alastar said, staring at the blue box that took up his vision.

“What?” Dale asked, a clear tone of confusion in his voice. “I didn’t think cereal was that bad.” Alastar blushed, realizing that he’d completely lost track of the conversation.

“No, I mean, my quest…” Alastar’s voice wavered as he spoke, embarrassment clear. All of his friends and coworkers were staring at him, and it felt weird to have the whole room stare at him like that. Well, most of the room, out of the corner of his eye he could see Dexter still playing around with the little wisp.

“Oh, that makes sense.” Singh confirmed. “It’s clear to me that these quests are telling us this world is… concerning. It’s going to be dangerous at best, and deadly at worst.” He waved his hand at his hip where his knife hung, it glowed a soft silver. As Alastar saw that he noticed that several other things were also glowing, such as the bracelet around the man’s wrist.

“Yeah, dangerous is right. It’s telling me I need to get a weapon. Didn’t it say monsters wouldn’t spawn for a few days?” Alastar asked, confused.

“Yeah, that’s right.” Dexter’s light replied confidently. “No monsters around except those like me.” It glowed in its best approximation of gesturing at itself. “But, beasts are already getting quests just like you. They are a bit more instinctual, I’m sure, but they will be growing in power at a rate equal to you humans. Which means the strongest of them will quickly be able to kill the weakest of you.” Its tone was condescending, and yet there was a lot of good information in there.

Alastar, Dexter, and the rest of the room all seemed to be focusing on the light. It glowed and preened in the attention, continuing what it said. “There are also dungeons. Most dungeons are considered uncontested land right now, that means you humans own it. However, if it isn’t officially claimed in the system then a dungeon core will form and beasts or monsters will try to claim it. You have three days before that happens, so be worried.” Its glow darkened a little. “There are also dungeons that already exist, they are there because the entities that owned them agreed to become dungeons on the arrival of the system.”

“What entities?” Alastar asked. “I mean, I didn’t get asked if I wanted to have a dungeon.”

“Like your broke ass owned any land anyway.” Dale said, patting Alastar on the back heavily.

“Well I’ve got a house on Staten Island, I didn’t get any prompt like that.” Shai said. They were rather quiet today, for whatever reason. Alastar wondered if they were being overwhelmed by the entire situation.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“You humans didn’t get the choice, you could now if you officially claimed your land, but there has to be a level of cultural… importance. It’s a complicated calculation, even I don’t have the specifics.” The wisp looking creature floated to the top of the room and sounded a little embarrassed at the admission. “No, there’s an odd legal precedent that allowed some very large entities to create hundreds of thousands of little dungeons all over the place. Starter dungeons that haven't appeared on most newly integrated planets. These are called swarm dungeons and they actually have a fragmented core that allows them to-”

“Get on with it!” Nalini shouted. She wasn’t talking much, but it was clear that she was frustrated with the light’s waffling.

“Oh, right. Uh… yeah, so legally your world has given personhood to corporations… Legally they were given the right to decide if they wanted to become dungeons. And, well, most of them are now.” The light seemed taken aback by being interrupted. It was probably worth this entire conversation just for that attitude adjustment.

“So you're telling me that right now all the dungeons in the world are in the back of, like, 7-11s?” Alastar asked.

“Any town, any time. Pop a ham and cheese in the microwave and feast on a turbo dog.” Dexter quoted just loud enough to be heard over the soft noises of the museum.. “Or I guess go in to fight monsters.”

“Pretty much.” The light said, flashing again. “A whole bunch of dungeons to practice in. That’s not exactly safe or sane, but I just know you humans are gonna do it. It’s something about your species that’s consistent across the multiverse. Some of you always like danger, action, and the possibility of death. No matter how ridiculous it is, you are willing to do anything for power, even that modicum that you get through exploring the lowest level dungeons.”

“Well, it’s clear that we are going to need to protect ourselves. What else should we do?”

“Practice. Train. Cultivate.” The light said, sounding a little annoyed. “You don’t know how good you’ve got it. A three day grace period to train. The tutorial to give you all the little things your heart desires. You could be anything or anyone, and the system will make it happen. Hell, Dexter just wanted information, and the system popped me out. Do you know how it feels to be the prize in a gotcha game? Sigh.”

“Did… did you just say the word sigh?” Dexter asked, seeming taken aback at his summon’s exasperation.

“Well, I should go get a weapon.” Alastar said, standing up. “I’m going to break a rule. Please don’t report me.”

“Hmm, that’s not a terrible idea.” Nalini said, catching on. “I’m going to have to… go. I need to complete these for my own safety. Besides, I think the floors can deal with not being waxed for one day.”

Shai nodded, smiling a little. “We were almost done, so we should both go. We’ll see you around.”

The two of them pushed their chairs back from the table, standing up in unison.

“You’re just gonna leave us here?” Alastar asked, frowning a little.

“Yeah, about that.” Dexter hedged. “I also have to go. I need to get my next quest done, and the closest place I can think of is in Brooklyn.”

“Well, glad you told me.” Alastar said, admittedly grumbling a little. “I’ll go grab that… thing for my quest. I’ll see you all around I guess.”

“Oh, add me on discord.” Dexter jumped to say. “Before you go I mean.” He opened his phone and quickly allowed Alastar to get the information down. Alastar sulked as he walked down to the depths of the museum, ignoring the others as they talked.