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System Wasteland
Chapter 0021

Chapter 0021

October 30th

Alastar

Alastar woke up with a fox’s nose in his face. “Oh, Vajra, we have to work on your breath.” He said, grinning as he pushed them away.

I do not have bad breath. The fox said with a slight pout on it’s vulpine lips. It was odd how easy it was for Alastar to see the body language of the little fox, it was a creature, a magical being, and yet Alastar could understand it nearly perfectly with just a glance. Besides, you needed to wake up. You were having a nightmare, I could tell by your psychic eminence.

“Nightmare isn’t exactly the right word.” Alastar said, frowning. “I mean, it wasn’t the most perfect dream, but whoever that was was clearly important. I needed to get in touch and contact with whatever thing, being, god? Was haunting my dream.”

You would not have been talking to a god. Vajra said. Gods are not simply on the power level of your earth religions. Think less zeus with lightning, and more an elder god who’s very dreams shape reality. Those are what the gods truly are. Though they do act like zeus sometimes.

“So… are there demigods? Some little baby catullus? Do we need to worry if someone wants to eat our planet?”

Uhh… probably not? Vajra said, with an odd waver in their voice. I mean yes there are demigods, but those are more like the demigods on your human idea level it’s just that their scale is a lot larger because the universe is bigger than you could imagine. Your world though… it’s unlikely to be used as a cultivation resource, consumed or smoked or whatever, because it would just take too much work. I assure you there are many people watching your planet right now with a vested interest in what this world will turn into, and through those people you are protected… at least from other schemes that will act on a larger scale.

“So what you are saying is that I’ll have less to worry about the fate of the world, but more that some god has given power to an anti-social neo-nazi.” He shuttered for a second. “Wait, are there quests to storm the capital now? What kind of crazy shit is going on among the proud boys? What could be happening in Trump Tower?!”

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Hmm, the first seems possible, the second I couldn’t guess, and the third… it’s a dungeon. Vajra pointed a paw at the wall in the direction of the tower in question. I can sense it from here. It’s… going through flux. It’s a gaudy dungeon, for sure, but likely a lucrative one once it’s done being created. It seems to want to mimic true towers.

“Towers?” Alastar asked as he got up and walked down the hall to get some food. “Are those like dungeons?”

It’s honestly gratifying to hear that you don’t instantly know something for once. I hate how… well informed you humans are about the multiverse. I think you… must have some kind of magic in this world. Or maybe as a species? I’m uncertain and need to see more test cases. But you all seriously have so many correct guesses in your fictions as to how the multiverse works, it’s only the idea that these things are universal where you fall flat. Those are not true, nothing is universal, but you have many correct works of fiction about what the multiverse works.

“Okay, I get that, it’s probably some feature of the system. There’s a book I read about where that was a thing” Alastar said, liking the start of the conversation but needing to get them on track. “Still, what is a tower, you didn’t cover it.”

Ah, right. Well towers are similar to dungeons, you are right about that. But unlike dungeons, which are self contained, towers are almost… worlds in and unto themselves. Dungeons may have safe rooms, but towers have entire areas equal in size to a dungeon that are safe. Towers may have whole safe levels, or levels of insane difficulty. Basically, a tower is like a bunch of dungeons stacked on top of eachother in a line.

Alstar nodded, understanding as he started to eat the last of his food. He needed to get some more food. Most places were likely looted by now, but Alastar might be able to do some trading? Not with anything in the museum, he wouldn’t let the collection be so easily separated, but-

It was at that moment when Alastar felt a loud boom. It wasn’t a sound, it was almost within his soul, it was like someone was knocking on the inside of his skull and asking to be let in. “What is going on?!” He asked, trying to focus on the feeling of pulling up a window or something.

It seems you have a visitor. Vajra said. Following their nose, Alastar saw a person in a wheelchair not too far away. They were behind glass and a gate, but Alastar could tell they were knocking on it intensely.