Aurora

I managed to tell Losa the entire story. At some point, I basically dumped all of my emotional baggage on him. Everything from the fraud charges to the fact that I had been overworked for months beforehand. How I hated my parents, well, the feeling was mutual. How I had no friends. Like I said, everything.

He was an excellent listener for an NPC and only interrupted to ask questions on a few instants. When I was done, I leaned back against the coffin, wishing I could cry. I thought it would have been a good release.

“Well. That was quite a tale!” Losa said, jumping to his feet. “Don’t get me wrong!” he waved his hands before I even thought of thinking about taking it the wrong way. “I believe you. Thanks to my ability, I can more or less tell if you are telling the truth. The only problem is that I have no idea about some of it.”

I tilted my head to the side in confusion. ‘What do you mean?’

“Well, for starters, you say this is a game. Even when you were yelling all those things at me earlier, nothing clicked. I was born a grand total of forty-five minutes ago. I have no idea about the world's situation. Even if you say that it should have only been four years for your body, the degradation of your body matches that of a three-hundred-year-old vampire. Something I have a bit more knowledge about. I only have a blank on the time issue.”

I reached up and took his hand. ‘It's okay. You’ve already helped out. I would probably be going insane if I was still by myself.’

“Since I can’t help you with your problems. Let me help you make a good dungeon.”

I stared at him before I nodded. If Losa didn’t work on the command front, then there is a good chance that any monsters I summoned would have the same issue. It could be due to the fact that he was summoned after whatever happened to the game. I still held out hope that a longer established NPC might be able to aid me. For that, I needed to get out of this cave.

‘Can you find the surface?’ I asked, getting excited now that a new goal had formed in my mind.

“Sort of. If you head straight up, it is about a hundred meters. West and North are about four hundred meters. South and East are close to a kilometer. Normally, I would recommend going either South or East to protect your core.”

I looked at the ceiling before I wrote it off. I had no way to physically get up there. Even if I made a ramp or something out of dirt, there was a perfect chance that I wouldn’t be able to keep my balance at the higher levels. That sort of fall would totally destroy this body. I turned to the West. I liked West.

I stared at the wall for a long time before I looked to the other side of the cave to the East. This was a horrible first day, but I enjoyed Losa’s company. When I managed to get out, I wouldn’t be against coming back into the game once whatever error was fixed. I’d really hate to shot myself in the foot by developing my dungeon wrong.

‘I’ll go East. First, we need to clear all this dirt off me so I can move,’ I sent to Losa while gesturing at the dirt around my legs.

“Why not absorb it?” Losa asked with a confused tilt of his head.

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‘I’m afraid to take the floor under my feet with it. This body isn’t exactly stable,’ I replied.

“When you absorb, just think about what exactly you want to absorb beforehand.”

I raised an eyebrow but did as he said. I focused on the dirt around my legs and concentrated on just the loose soil. I also tried to think about it absorbing a bit slower than instant. The dirt turned into motes of light from the top layer and worked its way down. I found that I got a fraction of the mana that I spent to create the dirt. Something to take note of in the future.

Once all the dirt was gone, I took a stumbling step forward, enjoying the freedom. “Great! You got that pretty fast.”

‘Wasn’t too hard. Thank you for helping,’ I sent back.

“Seeing the whole package, you really are in rough shape. We need to get you some blood. I am excited to hear your voice,” Losa said, doing a few laps around me.

‘Let’s get outside then.’ I ambled over to the southeast spot. Might as well go at an angle. I concentrated on the shape as I touched the wall. The stone and dirt flowed into my hand, clearing a rectangle-shaped hall about three meters tall and a meter deep.

I felt like a zombie as I walked forward a few paces without lowering my hand. The wall would be absorbed to add another section to the growing hall, then I would step forward again. It was easier to hold my hand in place the entire time than to raise and lower it over and over. About two hours passed before I had cleared a fifty-meter section of the hall.

‘This is going to take forever,’ I sent to Losa, who was walking behind me. He already caught me from falling once.

“The carving part can be a bit tedious. If you had enough mana, I would recommend summoning some monsters to do the digging for you. You just absorb the dirt as it comes.”

I checked my status and found I was at just over fifty mana. That was enough for two bats or a single ghoul. The bats didn’t sound very good a digging. I could also save up for another fifteen points and grab myself a demon. If they were anything like Losa, I might have someone else to talk with. Though they likely wouldn’t have telepathy.

Turning back to the wall, I got back to work absorbing the material. This wouldn’t be nearly as bad if I could move my body just a bit faster. I took another step forward to continue carving, then another. I was at about seventy-five meters when I went to step forward again. My hand crumpled against an invisible barrier, thoroughly crushing the limb.

The impact also sent be falling back. Luckily, Losa caught me before I totally collapsed. He helped me back to an upright position. “What’s wrong?”

‘I hit something. Ruined my right hand,’ I replied, looking at the crumpled mess that my right hand had become.

“We must have hit the edge of your territory. That’s strange, though. Your avatar should be able to go outside the dungeon.” He tapped his finger against his chin in obvious confusion. “Excuse me.” He moved around me and carefully walked to the edge. Right where I hit the invisible wall, he paused then stepped further. It looked like he didn’t have any issue going outside.

‘Lucky,’ I sent with a pout. Not that my face could make the expression.

“This is truly strange. For now, let us summon something to continue the tunnel. I recommend carving a room here for a place for them to place the dirt.”

‘Okay.’ I was depressed that I was apparently trapped here. That would make my life that much harder. I turned to the side of the tunnel and started absorbing sections to make a room. My maximum absorption was four meters by four meters by one meter. Nothing I did increased that amount.

When a reasonably sizable room was carved out, I checked and found that my mana was full. I pulled up the summoning menu and selected Demon. Another list came up that showcased various Lesser demons that I could summon. Since I wanted something that could dig, I went with a red skin toad thing with large claws and a big body.

There was a smell of sulfur as a circle formed on the ground. The pictured demon crawled out of the circle like it was coming from the pits of hell. Which might be the case. It looked at me before its tongue shot out and licked its own eye. I shivered a bit at the disturbing sight.

‘Start digging. Bring the dirt back here.’ I ordered with a thought. It stood there without moving.

“He needs to know where,” Losa advised. I would have blushed if I had any blood in my body. I pointed at the end of the existing tunnel, and he moved off. His claws tore pieces from the wall in rough chunks. It was definitely going to take longer than if I could have just absorbed the wall myself, but he could leave my field.

‘I don’t have time for this…’ I thought with a sigh.