“This new universe has little to no mana, when the Vortex door opens, send a representative to each planet to make a deal. It's been a long time since we’ve had such good recruits.”
-Top Secret memo intercepted by wraiths
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Inside the safe room, Thomas was practicing with his first skill. Using telekinesis to pick up books, and turn the pages even if he couldn’t read the language it was written in. Turning the pages without tearing them was quite difficult but after nearly shredding an entire book in the process. He had to consciously use a gentle touch with his power, too much as the paper would shred to pieces in his mental hands, too little and the page would only flutter softly.
Book after book was placed in a pile to the right of where he still sat in the chair. The tower of knowledge that he couldn’t understand reached higher than his head. Nearly every book was paged through. The circular shelf was nearly emptied and as Thomas’ invisible hand slid the next book free, the remaining slid to the side and nearly fell off the shelf and onto the second wider shelf below. A frown stretched across Thomas’ face as he looked at the books that had slipped, he thought that his control was better than that but at the same time he should’ve been able to catch it. His reaction speed would need to improve before he ventured out tomorrow for food.
At the mere thought of food his stomach howled in rage. The gurgling sound filled the otherwise silent room like the roar of a dragon. Without a clock to tell the time with, there was no way to tell what time it was to see how long it had been. The hotel manager had made a new rule a few weeks ago to put everyone's phones in a box at the beginning of their shift last week in order to keep people from wasting company time, they said. Thomas had smelled bullshit and it was probably illegal but the labor board hadn’t come to put a stop to it by the time all this shit happened. No phone, no food, and no way to tell what time it was besides how exhausted he was getting.
The need for food and sleep had invaded his mind which had been kept at bay by fear and the ever present hanging lights but it had been so long without an incident that they were resurfacing with a vengeance. There was no way he’d be able to force words he didn’t understand into his head and yet sleep wouldn’t come on its own. Slowly the book that floated in the air near him fell to the ground with a soft thunk. If he couldn’t eat then he had to sleep even as thousands of variations to a foreign script floated through his mind alongside ways to use his two skills.
Water armor could protect him while telekinesis could be used to throw objects, crush things, or even a facsimile of flight. As he began to drift off to sleep he concentrated on water armor. Sleeping a little wet for a while was better than dying without it, sleeping comfortably might take a few days without any incidents in the safe room.
By the time the water fully condensed over Thomas’ body he was completely asleep. The slightly deformed armor covered his entire body and kept it safe as the sound of light snores filled the room. Hours passed, outside the room predators woke up, fell back asleep, and the sun rose and set. Recovering from the physical and mental trauma of the day was quite the ordeal and he had hoped to be better rested when he woke up.
It turns out sleeping in water was a bad idea. When sleep finally released him from its clutches it was to a feeling of cold that seemed to penetrate his very soul. Muscles so tight that fiery lines of pain wracked his body even as his entire body shook to try and keep warm. With a thought water armor dropped, and his entire body was soaked from head to toe the bellhops uniform sticking to his body once more as the mud that was caked on was knocked free.
When his body finally stopped shaking, he began to stretch out the tight muscles even as the cold made it feel as if they were about to snap. As horrible as he felt, the most overpowering feeling in this body was that of hunger. He had to eat today before the feeling of weakness in his bones began to sap his strength further.
In the warm light of the safe room he pushed himself up and looked around. The water armor falling apart had ruined several of the books that had sat on the floor in the tower that he had made. With a shrug he turned to survey the place again. The books still towering over the rest of the place in their column that he had made, the glass jars now fairly clean filled with mud and green things, and the tipped over books laying there with a single loose paper sticking to one of them.
Just another thing I can’t read. Thomas thought to himself as he picked up a few of the books and placed the piece of paper on top of them. Then he nearly dropped them in surprise. Words in English began to appear on the paper in front of him.
“If you’re reading this then I am most likely dead.”
It was almost quill like scratches the words scrawled across the pages. Written by an invisible hand and quill. Thomas nearly dropped the books again but managed to make it to the table as more words began to appear.
“This dungeon is meant to be my end. The Triumvirate captured me on the field of battle, stripped me of my weapons, and tossed me into this wasteland. I spent too long cursing my neglect of the physical side of battle, I simply lack the physical strength and the necessary resources to defeat the exit guardian and return to wreak havoc on the enemy even as a masterwork crafter of the alchemists guild. I cursed the day I took my gifted path and locked the doors of my fate forever for many years, but now I shall compile my knowledge for those who come after. I leave this note for those who follow after me or those who end up in this wretched place. I have enchanted this paper to be read by any sentient being in their native language and unlock the code to my journals that detail my knowledge of this dungeon and my alchemy. I hope the laboratory suits whoever finds it. Pursue knowledge over everything, and that will be your salvation. Use my own knowledge to further your own path. Bind this note with blood and it will all be yours.”
As soon as the words written on the paper registered in his mind. Thomas glanced at the column of books sitting on the ground and frowned. This long dead alchemist had kept these books safe for god knows how long and a few of them were now soaked with water and probably ruined. The knowledge within them might never be recovered and the answers they might have held were lost possibly forever.
Bind the note with blood? Exit guardian? Thomas’ shoulders sagged as he read the note backwards and forwards. He was in a dungeon and there was an exit to escape from however this guardian must be strong. Fear of death no longer drove him, but hope of escape. To make it back to the hotel, and never go back inside a dungeon for as long as he lived.
A quick survey of the room had him bemoaning a lack of sharp weapons. Even if he was proficient with his telekinesis skill he wasn't quite sure how to go about making a blade or even if it was possible. Without any sharp tools, there was only one thing left to do. Thomas raised his thumb to his mouth and bit down. Sharp pain flooded his mind, biting into his own hand until he tasted copper. There was only one way forward now, and to survive this place he would need information at any cost.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Small drops of blood splashed on the paper as it began to glow. The words that appeared on it previously vanished as the red liquid surged and began to form the English alphabet. Even more blood splattered onto the page as Thomas took his thumb and pressed it against the magical note as he spat out the skin of his thumb that had been sliced off in his mouth.
Letters in the same language as the books began to write themselves onto the paper next to the alphabet. Dark crimson lines etched above the now golden paper as before his eyes it began to grow smaller. The paper itself shrinking before his very eyes, the words disappearing as blood continued to seep out of his thumb.
“What the fuck is happening? I need that code!”
Thomas’ voice shook with fear and desperation. He needed that information more than anything. Those journals were priceless to him. Tears streamed down his face as the page continued to shrink. There was only one thing left to do, his finger ripped free from the page. The blood already had slowed and new skin was growing in its place. However from the spot where the glowing paper lay, an arc of light stuck to his fingertip.
The blood mixed with the golden light that seemed to reenter his body as the page shrunk down to a speck of light which became nothing. All evidence that such a paper ever existed was gone as was all the information that it could have given him. The chair squeaked as Thomas sat with such a heavy burden. What a cruel joke to play on him at a time like this. A paper that promised help but disappeared into thin air when marked with blood.
Despite it all, maybe the golden light that entered his body had done something. It was from a masterwork crafter after all. A bloody thumbprint marked one of the pages of the first book on the stack as Thomas picked it up. If he didn’t have a code, then maybe he could brute force it. There was no title on the spine, but it wasn’t like he would’ve read it if there was anyways. When the bloody hand opened the book, he understood what had happened.
Dungeon Ecology a journal by Elindu
The title stared at Thomas mockingly as he read it as if to say ‘What you thought a magical paper would just disappear like that?’ Uncontrollable tears fell down his face as he began to laugh. It would’ve taken forever to decode the books themselves but somehow Thomas was able to read it as if it were English. It was a miracle, no it was magic. Flipping the page revealed a rambling scrawl that detailed the basis of what dungeons were and Thomas began to read.
It took three hours to finish the journal from cover to cover. Elindu, the man who had been the bones sitting on the table, was as much a rambling genius as he was naïve. Each entry contained some new information as well as old ramblings about what might have been going on outside the dungeon and he was clearly unable to stick to one subject matter. It was quite clear that the man had been put in the dungeon from a different place where Thomas himself had entered it and had been here for a very long time. There was so much information packed into it Thomas’ head started to hurt halfway through but he got the gist of it.
Dungeons usually had multiple floors, but this one only had one. There were three types of monsters in this dungeon: the cats, the crabs, and the birds. Dungeons had no need for normal ecological processes like waste processing or other complex ecological issues that might arise from no animal eating plants or not having insects.
The cats like the one that attacked him usually hunted in packs, so Thomas thanked his lucky stars that he apparently met one of the rare lone hunters. They nearly exclusively hunted the gigantic birds that rested in the treetops. He didn’t quite understand how big the birds were but if Elindu was telling the truth some got to the size of a ten story building. Thomas and Elindu’s saving grace was that they didn’t come down to the ground very often, the mud would trap them and the crabs would eat them. Which apparently the crabs were linked through some sort of small range hive mind or telepathy?
It was going to be tough to get out of here Thomas knew that now better than ever. However not a single page mentioned the exit guardian, not what it could be, what it might be able to do, nothing. Which was odd, but as he put down the book and looked at the sheer amount of information he could now search through he had hope that it was in there somewhere.
A rumble bounced off the walls of the room as his stomach rebelled. It had been almost 18 hours since he last ate, and while he wasn’t as thirsty because of water armor it would probably be a good idea for him to have a sip or two of water. Especially because the more he read about dungeons the more he wanted to get back out there.
Each dungeon race had some kind of alpha or boss of some kind besides the overall exit guardian. Elindu said that the crab boss was nearby, and the cat’s alpha was a few trees over. Defeating these unique enemies gave you points, or weapons and armor with magical properties. The dungeon itself rewarded the death of those special monsters. Thomas was scared to fight, he had never really fought something with the intent to kill. The cat hitting the tree had been pretty lucky, all things considered and so was running from the crabs.
What made him more confident about the crabs was the fact that all the crabs were tiny. Sure there were a lot of them but he could just crush them with his telekinesis while being protected by the water armor. Plus crab legs sounded so good. Thomas had only eaten them a few times with his parents but he remembered them tasting good. So with one last look at the journal he stood up from the chair and walked slowly towards the door. Nothing had made it in so far but that didn’t mean that there wasn’t anything waiting out there for him.
The door opened smoothly without creaking even a little bit. Actually, come to think of it, the door didn’t appear to have any hinges at all. But again it was the safe house of a masterwork crafter so it was safe to assume that there was something magical going on.
Having read all about it made the outside less scary than it was just yesterday. Thomas knew not to wear any shoes because bare skin would let him move faster in the mud, there was no need for him to worry about parasites either which he thought was nice as he stepped off the wooden platform and onto an invisible one. It was time to hunt some crabs and try to find that alpha for some rewards.
The telekinetic platform lowered slowly until it was only a few inches above the mud. At that height he had to think about whether it was worth it to step into the mud or to try and stay above it. Telekinesis was his only strength for now and there was no reason to find out he had some kind of stamina limit in the middle of a fight no matter how nice it would be to not get his feet covered in the mud and it wasn't like water armor could help him that much. With a plop Thomas dropped down into the mud, it would suck to get tired in the middle of a fight and have to spend the rest of his points or die.
Mud once more stuck to his feet as he traversed the swamp. Keeping his eyes peeled to spot the crabs that could hide just below the surface waiting for an ambush. He walked out towards the edge of the root system. Elindu had said that the crabs were more common in the outer areas of the trees since that's where the cats were most of the time.
Even with how closely Thomas was looking for the signs of their camouflaged forms he almost missed them. What looked like a gentle disturbance on the surface of the mud between two of the roots near the edge of the tree was what he was looking for. A slightly raised mound of brown muck was actually layer after layer of crabs laying almost on top of each other just below the surface, almost two thousand strong. Ready to swarm anything that got too close usually the cats but today they were the prey.
Only twenty feet away from the mass, Thomas decided to focus on protection first. Using water armor with a thought as water condensed into the protective plate armor to encase his body. The mud around his legs dried slightly before getting mixed back in with the rest of the muck. To his surprise it actually did push the mud off his feet and kept it at bay even if the water itself was quite cold.
Now completely protected he was ready to attack. He took a steadying breath and held his arms out. This would be the biggest thing he had attempted to construct with his mind and he needed some help to visualize it properly. Two massive hands formed in his mind, each one ten feet wide and large enough to crush half of the crabs beneath it. A sharp breath through his nose was the only sound in the small clearing beneath the tree before the hands came down and the entire world exploded.
Several thousand pounds of force descended on the crabs like the weight of an angry god. More than half died in an instant as a geyser of mud and crab viscera flew into the air, the thunderous impact of Thomas’ power surprised him as the mud and bits of crab slammed into his armor. Water turned almost white as the wave of mud settled, the crabs that did survive scuttling towards him to end the threat. Just the sight of it was almost enough to make him freeze up in fear. Memories of what happened the last time he froze up shot through his mind, he started this and he would end it.
Turning on his heel, a wall of force turned with him sweeping up the mud and the crabs still trying to make their way to him through it. At the speed of thought the wall curved into a tube and wrapped up the crabs trapped within the mud. Getting smaller and smaller as the crabs within tried to make it to him with a mindless fervor until it was too late. The invisible power shaped the world right in front of his eyes as the crabs were crushed into a paste that mixed with the mud as it spewed from both ends of the tube and crab that splattered all over his water armor. Small pieces of shell found their way through the gaps of his watery face plate but not a single living crab touched his real body. It was effortless to destroy the crabs that lay in ambush, Thomas’ power had grown by leaps and bounds since lifting a cup of mud yesterday.
As Thomas reveled in his newfound power a saddening realization hit him. All the crabs were crushed so there would be no crab legs. His stomach grumbled in frustration as he looked around the mud splattered roots and failed to find any crabs that had made it out alive. Getting the drop on the ambush predators had made the fight easy. Even if he missed out on food, the next time he would make sure to spare a few and take their legs off. With that parting thought he began to trudge through the mud once more. Thinking of crab legs and the loot that the alpha might give him.