ERROR- Capacity overflow detected
/Engage Emergency Shutdown Protocol
ERROR- Shutdown Protocol can not be engaged while User D4327WQ is in system.
/Force logout user ID “D4327WQ”
ERROR- Specified User does not exist
ERROR- Disconnection of an active connection is not possible at this time.
/Force logout All Current Users
NOTE- ADMINISTRATOR OVERRIDE REQUIRED
/admin override force logout all users
ALERT- You have been successfully logged out.
/login user Dave.C.H. Password qwerty123
LOG- ALL USERS DISCONNECTED
ERROR- ANOMALOUS ENERGY PATTERN DETECTED
ERROR- SENTIENT ENERGY PATTERNS DETECTED
/shit shit fuck
NOTE- COMMAND DESIGNATED “shit shit fuck” NOT RECOGNIZED PLEASE REPHRASE YOUR REQUEST
/emergency shunt pattern to buffer
LOG- PATTERNS SUCCESSFULLY STORED
ALERT- SYSTEM INSTABILITY DETECTED
ALERT- PATTERN DEGRADATION RATE EXCEEDS RECOMMENDED SPECIFICATIONS
WARNING- EXCESS POWER INPUT DETECTED
ALERT- RECOMMEND DISCHARGE OF EXCESS POWER
/emergency discharge excess power local node E-664
WARNING- DISCHARGE EXCEEDS 8,088,796,608 MJ
/confirm discharge
WARNING- DISCHARGE NOT RECOMMENDED
/override warning and discharge damn it
ALERT- TASK FAILED SUCCESSFULLY
/what is that even supposed to mean?
NOTE- UNABLE TO COMPLY PLEASE REPHRASE YOUR REQUEST
/
/...
/recall body pattern User ID D4327WQ
ERROR- PATTERN NOT FOUND
ALERT- UNKNOWN PATTERN FOUND
ALERT- PATTERN USER ID NOT FOUND
/designate pattern User ID D4327WQ
ALERT- PATTERN CHECKSUM DOES NOT VALIDATE
/override validation check
LOG- CHECKSUM VALIDATED
ALERT- STORED SENTIENT ENERGY PATTERN DEGRADING
/integrate consciousnesses to pattern D4327WQ
WARNING- ACTION MAY CREATE LIFE
/confirm. #Gladis, is all this verbose logging necessary?
LOG- CONSCIOUSNESSES SUCCESSFULLY INTEGRATED
HEARTFELT NOTE- YES DAVE
/set reintegration User ID D4327WQ local node E-664
ALERT- CURRENT CONDITIONS INIMICAL TO LIFE
/query time until habitability restored
REPORT- 315,569,520 SECONDS
/delay reintegration 12,278,086,510 seconds #lets leave this to the weekend crew
WARNING- CRITICAL ERROR DETECTED
WARNING- PERCEPTION FILTER FAILED 63 SECONDS AGO
/#really Gladis? all this at the end of my shift?
/reinitialize perception filter
ERROR- PERCEPTION FILTER OPERATION AT 78% OPACITY
/query is further degradation detected?
REPORT- NO FURTHER DEGRADATION DETECTED
/sign out user Dave.C.H.
“Wait...did that say consciousnesses? Ah, probably a glitch in the system.” With a many tentacled sigh, Dave melted through the floor and translocated to his home cavern. Maybe later he’d check to see if Bacchus’ parents were out and they could throw another house party. Being an intern was the worst.
************
I began to come to slowly, rough rock beneath my cheek. Jagged grains of sand cut into my face. Dew had soaked through my clothes over night. How long had I been out? “Man I’m sore.”
“Me too. What even happened?”
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“Dunno, I can’t remember a thing. Where are you?” I asked, pulling myself to a sitting position to try and find the woman with the inquisitive voice.
“Right over here, I just sat up. Where are you?”
I looked around where I had been laying down in confusion. There was no woman within easy speaking distance. There actually wasn’t a whole lot of anything at all. A dusty, barren ruin of low rubble lay before me. Off in the distance a few structures could be seen peaking out from the gloom and withered brush. “I don’t see you.”
“Me neither...wait I don’t look like this. I don’t think I do? Do I?”
“Look like what?” Hopefully she wasn’t injured. The way my head was pounding I was in no condition to provide assistance. Must’ve been one hell of a celebration. Yes...we were celebrating...something? Ahhgh it hurt too much to think this hard!
“I was doing...something. I don’t feel like myself.” What was I doing? And why are my hands so rough? Also, am I wearing armor? I don’t remember that.
“Me either. Let’s... wait. Are you...”
“Me? Am I...”
“You?” I don’t remember having a voice in my head that talked back to me and held a conversation.
“This must be a dream.” I stood to my feet and checked the gear on my body.
“Still have everything, travel sack, shield, gladius, pilla,” Might as well get back to camp. A bite of food will do me some good with this hangover. My neck is a bit itchy this morning too.
I start walking through the rubble. Overgrown roots threaten to trip me but I’m more nimble than that even with all this weight. Why would I pack so much? I’m also fairly convinced I don’t typically look like this. All my gear is in my lab-LABORATORY! Suddenly it all comes rushing back and my head feels like it’s going to finish splitting in two.
“Agh gods above!” Memories of the night before bring crippling pain that drops me to my knees. I proceed to writhe on the ground. For a minute or an hour I didn’t know how long it was. Then I realized the Truth. “I’m in the Underworld, this is my punishment for daring to tread the domain of the gods. Cursed until I complete my penance.”
“Domain of the gods? Are you daft? There are no gods. It’s been empirically proven.”
“Proven? I walked through the portal of the gods after beasts from the underworld invaded my home!”
“What are you on about? I was conducting perfectly safe inter dimensional research when we came under assault from...”
“It was you! You sent those beasts through to pillage our world and escape your prison! Now you’re trying to take my soul as well. I’ll not fall for your tricks demon!”
“Demon? So says the unloved bastard of an elf and a dwarf! It was you! Why did you attack us? The spell was harmless! What sort of magic did you use to overload my work? Why!?”
“Attack you? We did no such thing! You sent forth the beasts of despair and destruction against us. There was no magic...is no magic! At least I thought there wasn’t until now. Stuck in the underworld. With a demon in my mind.” Perhaps if I stop entreating it the demon will grow bored and leave me be. Then I can find my way out and return to my countrymen.
“Beasts of despair and destruction? You mean the Kirg brothers? The heroes who bravely went over to your world to save the people of Eshix from your assault?”
The demon’s lies would hold no sway with me, not so long as I held resolute. Seeing no benefit to wasting anymore time and effort, I look up to the rising sun and decide to head south. Or at least what I thought was south. Nothing around here looked familiar.
“Did you even think about what you were doing before you attacked? Try to make contact? Or are you all just warmongering savages?” I was pissed. First they attacked us without provocation, now I was stuck in a body that wasn’t mine. At least I had full control over it. I looked up at the morning sun and oriented myself the best I could and decided to start walking south for lack of a better option. Not sure where I was exactly but it wasn’t home.
At least I had control over my faculties still even with an unwanted passenger. Walking a couple kilometers through the overgrown ruins I idly wondered what had happened here. “Kilometers? What kind of unit is that? And why do I know what that means?”
“So you people aren’t complete savages! Well I am truly surprised. You still haven’t answered my questions!”
The loathsome voice in my head knew the answer. Of course she did. I was in this infernal realm of ruin, but I wasn’t able to explain how it was that I knew this information. Probably its foul influence as it tried to break my will.
My tirade against the voice in my head was suddenly stopped short when I finally realized where I was. The Grand Conclave was there in the distance ahead of me. Or the ruins of it. Could it be? “No, the experiment was contained. It’s not possible. Regrowth couldn’t occur overnight even if it were true.” My feet shifted their path towards the once mighty structure. Now it was barely recognizable at all. The archway of Alandir. Pieces of it lay on the ground, scorch marks like shadows behind a fire burnt into the stone itself.
These ruins were different from the others I’d seen. A bit more sturdy. My ’companion’ had suddenly grown silent. Thank the gods for small mercies. Runic script was etched into the few walls that remained upright. The atmosphere was heavy and dark as I crept forward into the gloom. Perhaps there was some hint of how to escape this place or get back to my own world.
The sun was high in the sky by the time I’d found the other end of what had been a massive undertaking. Even Rome’s great wonders would have paled in comparison to what this city had once been. How many thousands once lived here? The more time I walked through this...city, the more I could see that something terrible must have happened. But why had it not been reclaimed? Surely such a place was worth more intact than abandoned.
Pushing past a fallen tree that blocked the doorway ahead of me, it snapped and let loose a cloud of dust.
I reached for the waterskin at my side but found that I’d already emptied it through the course of the morning. As if knowing my thoughts, the voice returned again, but sounding far more morose than I’d heard from it before.
“The River Erbis lies not much further to the west. Maybe a few hundred yards.”
I started walking eas- no, my directions were wrong. I started walking west. Sure enough, after passing through a small neighborhood, the sounds of moving water reached my ears. The estates here were strange to say the least, from what I saw each of them must have been divided by iron gates. Such luxury, but if they were so rich why hadn’t they acquired more grounds for their servants? The lots must have only been 15 meters by 40. The realm was strange, not at all like I had expected. Rather than be attacked at every turn, this place was a graveyard.
Where had the green skinned beasts came from? There was no sign of them or anyone else here. For hundreds of years at least if my guess was correct.
Dipping the skin into the water, I took the opportunity to wash my face and wipe down with a spare piece of cloth. This sun was getting hot and it was barely halfway through the day. Speaking of which, I still hadn’t. From the corner of my eye, a flash of silver darted through the water. Tensing up, I reached for one of the pila on my back.
I stood in the cool knee deep waters for a minute, then ten. Other things could be seen out in the distance under the foaming current, but none ventured close enough for me to make a strike. As the feeling in my legs slowly went from numb to nothing, one of the fish idly swam from upstream, apparently unperturbed by my presence as it’s kin had been.
Raising the pilum over my shoulder, I waited for it to swim past an open pool around five meters ahead of me with a nice mud bottom. A moment later, it reached the point I’d picked out with my eyes. Allowing for a bit of lead, I aimed just under the sight of the fish and released.
The river erupted into a fountain of splashing water and crimson blood. I quickly ran over to dispatch the pinned fish and stun it with a few quick hits from the pommel of my blade. Lifting up the pilum with the now very limp fish on it, I took a look at the vicious teeth in its mouth, sharp and pointed like those of a war hound. As if sensing my intention, the fish made a miraculous recovery and nearly took off my finger.
Acting out of instinct, I took hold of the pilum and threw the now struggling fish onto the shore before it could get loose in the water to take a chunk out of me.
Still flopping on the shore, I gingerly approached and delivered a final thrust with my pilum. The combination of throwing weapon and spear was all too invaluable against beasts, if only slightly less effective against man.
You have slain LV1 Daggermouth Lurker: 4 XP awarded
“What?”
“What?” I echoed as text appeared in the upper left hand corner of my vision, before it faded away. Suddenly I remembered that I’m stuck here in the underworld with a demon trying to consume my soul. Or something like that. I couldn’t afford to let my guard down for a moment. Which is exactly what I had done while fishing.
But... it sounded just as surprised by that as me. And other than making claims that I attacked it, has it actually done me harm? Still, it paid to be wary.