The darkness. An inescapable eventuality of reality. Humankind can keep it away by shining a light, but sooner or later that light will extinguish and the darkness will consume all. Most people instinctively fear the darkness, the unknown it contains, and I'm no exception. But now…I have no choice but to blanket myself in its comfort…

Panting, my feet give my position away as I keep running in this darkness. Mana surges from my body as information is relayed back to me about my surroundings. Sensing an enclosed space ahead, I pour mana out, summoning a Void creature. Jumping into the enclosed space, I instruct the Void creature mentally to keep running, its footsteps mimicking mine.

Crouching low and covering my mouth with my hands, I made sure not to make a sound and listened, keeping myself as still as possible. My heartbeat loudly thumped as I heard it. A sickening growl, the sound of metal scraping along the ground as I heard a voice pleading.

"R-Ruby…h-help me…"

Shutting my eyes, I held back tears as my mind thought back to how I ended up here. Back to several years ago, to how our decisions led us here.

"Ruby…why did you let me die…"

My heart pounds, nearly tearing out of my chest as I hear Aerith's voice sound out once more.

***

"Midnight? Oi!"

Looking up at the source of the sound, I blinked heavily as my eyes adjusted and Sheep came into view. Rubbing my eyes, I yawned and stretched.

"Deven? What's up?"

"God, Midnight, when you get into something it's so hard to pull you out." Sitting on the opposite side of the desk from me, Deven sighs as he glances at my laptop.

It's been a little more than a month since I locked myself away and since then I had done nothing but programming. Leaning back, I blinked while looking at Deven, seeing nothing but code.

"Full of bugs…"

"Stop looking at me like I'm one of your programs." Heaving another sigh, he places a familiar weapon on the table. Looking at the plasma rifle, I nodded and stored it away behind me.

"I'm also here to drag you out. It's been a month since you've shown yourself and that stab wound has fully healed."

"Ah. Yes, it is. I do need to head down to the server room and install the contribution, shop and media systems."

"Hm? Shop system?"

Standing while packing my dev laptop and equipping a handgun and knife, I nod seriously while looking at the egg which hadn't made a sound since I got it.

"Future proofing. I tied a shop interface in with two profiles, one for adding items and one for buying which a user can use at any time. Each room will have a tablet that has a user version of Night Rose installed and the shop and media system will be default apps."

"Doesn't that mean you'll need to get the operating system working on a tablet then build an image for future tablets?"

Chuckling, I headed to the door before stopping and looking over my shoulder. "That's already done, tested and deployed. All we need now is the materials to build each tablet, speakers and TV for each. Ah, I haven't finished the television operating system…"

"Do it later. We've got a swarm heading towards us and it'll arrive in two hours." Keeping pace behind me as we went down the stairs, Deven sounded tired.

"Don't worry, I got you. I only needed that month, I've got everything ready. Here, you know how to load these programs onto the server, right?" Dumping the dev laptop on him, he gave me a confused look before I smiled slightly.

"You've done enough for now, Deven. Let me handle combat leading for a while, take a backseat and rest up for a while. Diana needs you now more than ever."

"A-ah, I forgot to tell you. She's pregnant."

"Congratulations. Now go upload those programs and then spend time with her. Oh and hide the dev laptop in the usual spot." Waving him off, I headed towards my house and entered. I went down to the basement before turning to Winter's workshop.

Finding a spare sniper rifle on the wall, which is labelled as 'Ruby's', I sling it over my shoulder, grab a radio and clip it to my shoulder. Thinking over plans to move to earplug radios, I left the house and headed towards a newly built building; the communication hub.

"Halt, only authorised peo- O-oh, Madam Midnight, I'm so sorry, I didn't recognise you for a moment."

Seeing the guard react like this my mind spun with ideas. Sooner or later, everyone in the base will be given a choice to evolve. Having security tags for buildings would be a great idea, even more so to deter the possibility of an intruder.

Recalling that I didn't have a notepad to write this idea down, I turned to the guard.

"Do you have a notepad and pen?"

Looking a bit confused, he nodded and pulled it from his top pocket. Grabbing it, I furiously wrote the ideas in my mind down, taking nearly twenty minutes and several pages.

Tearing the pages out, I nearly stored them in my pocket before thinking for a moment and writing one last thing and signing it. Handing the notebook back, I walk past the guard while speaking.

"Show that note to Dawn and she'll arrange some extra meat for you tonight."

"T-thank you, Madam!" Waving to the cheery noise behind me, I entered the building and walked through another door. As I enter the second room, I'm met with a row of desks, four radios on it, two people assigned to each.

Quickly finding a pair that looked nervous, I quickly made my way to them, drawing their attention to me. Seeing them quickly straighten up, I didn't waste time and spoke.

"What's the situation?"

"A patrol noticed a large group of Husks approximately two thousand strong along with two Hydras and a massive snake heading in our direction. They haven't changed course."

Thinking quickly, my thoughts planned out the best way to handle the swarm. It wasn't strong, but would prove difficult if it reached our walls.

"Organise Aerith's magician group and Lemon's heavy armoured group out to meet with them. Tell the patrol group to delay and confuse the approaching swarm from range but they are not to engage.

"Also arrange for Dawn's group to flank them from behind, get them to depart now and have them work their way around. They are to cut off their escape but are not to chase anything, only kill what they can. I approve of maximum force, do not hold back on ammunition and grenades, the faster we decimate the group the better."

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Seeing all of the radio operators quickly relaying my orders, I finished off my orders.

"Finally arrange for two communication relays, one with Dawn's group and one with me. We will watch from afar and I will deal with any threats."

"Yea, Madam."

After heading south, it took about an hour to fully eradicate the swarm. There was minimal damage done to our teams, the most that happened is someone tripping a rock.

Aerith had been training her magic, mainly mana control and because of that her spells became very refined, easily being able to walk through the battlefield freezing her surroundings. Lemon wasn't to be trifled with either, he easily mowed everything down, acting as an unstoppable force.

Dawn's team barely assisted due to the Husks mindless nature of just running to attack. The Hydras and Python realised the danger and were swiftly dealt with when they ran into Dawn's team. All in all, the swarm was dealt with easily without me having to do more than lift a finger.

"Get the hydra and python back to base, their meat is still good." Turning to the comms team behind me, they nodded and relayed the order. The hide and bones of these monsters proved to be very good for use in weaving and armour smithing.

Watching over the teams as they finished loading the monsters, I turned to the comms team while heading to the humvee that we used to come here.

"Let's head back."

"Hold a moment, Madam. A report is coming through from the base."

Frowning slightly, I moved to the pair. "Another swarm?"

"No." Shaking his head, one of the pair listened through a pair of headphones before nodding and turning to me.

"The exploration team has found an abnormal Dimension."

"Did they elaborate?"

"We're trying to clarify, but the exploration team's leader is saying that only a Vice Leader is to receive the information and only in person."

Jupiter, is it? For him to restrict it to Vice Leader only means it's a big discovery. Or he isn't sure what to do.

"Understand, get his details and I'll head there. Arrange for pick up by one of the teams coming back in."

After locating where they were based off the map we had and the description the other side provided, I jumped into the humvee and made my way there. It would take about 7 hours to get there, thankfully we had improved our radio network.

One issue we face is gasoline. We were still using what we could get from the town, but thanks to the fire burning most of it down the only petrol station remaining had dried up. While we had enough to get around and explore, we were running out and fast.

We planned to switch to solar energy, but other than the current setup with the solar panels we had no idea how to convert cars to electric. Which is why our focus had turned to using magic as an energy source.

After an hour of driving, I saw the location that had been reported along with about 4 cars and fifteen people all standing guard. Upon seeing my car, they quickly stood on guard but after a quick radio check in, they stood down.

Getting out of the humvee, I'm greeted by Jupiter who looks rather confused.

"I was told a leader was coming but to think you're out and about. Are you feeling well?"

"Yea, injuries are all healed and I'm back to full strength. Tell me, what did you find?"

Jupiter nods before leading me to the centre of the encirclement. There, a crack presented itself, except something felt different about it. Frowning and not waiting for Jupiter's prompt, I checked its information.

The Great Dungeon of Xala'Yuk

A seemingly impossible endless Dungeon, the Great Mine used to be a grand possession, giving its owner access to wealth beyond one's dream. However, tired of being slaves to Xala'Yuk, a group rebelled and as the battles wore on between each side, the rebelling group sacrificed themselves to curse the legendary dungeon. Now it stands still, monsters always spawning.

Dimension Restrictions:

No weapons.

No Class Points can be earned.

The floors are ever changing, mapping is impossible.

Floors 1-2 are suited for Classless. Floors 3-5 are suited for LVL 1s. Floors 6-8 are suited for LVL 2. Floors 9 and 10 are suited for LVL 3. Further floors have yet to be explored.

Safe floors are 3, 8 and 10.

"Hot damn no wonder why you called for a leader. A Dimension to a Dungeon and there is no dungeon break timer?"

"Mm, what interests me is the unexplored floors. Doesn't that mean the System doesn't know what's on those floors? How is that possible?"

That was indeed strange. In the past, we theorised that the System only knew of events thanks to the previous iterations. Would that mean the previous iterations found this Dungeon but never explored past Floor 10? Is it due to a lack of interest, or is there a hidden danger there that prevents any exploration…

"Also no weapons…so only mages and fist fighters can go in? Interesting…" Pondering, I wondered if this Dimension could be of use for us. Then again…

"If the monsters inside provide monster cores and meat, then this is an opportunity we can't pass by. The rewards from within might be good, but we can do without. Alright, let's get two others and go in. I want to see the danger level and if it's worth it."

Jupiter and I, along with two others, entered the Dimension. Like the last time I entered one, there was a flash of light before it faded, revealing that we stood on a large piece of land, desolate with nothing but a hole in the ground. Checking my waist, I frowned and I found my handgun and knife had indeed disappeared. Slowly approaching the hole, I saw a staircase leading down into darkness.

The four of us descend, with Jupiter and I holding a Fireball to light our surroundings. As soon as we arrived at the bottom of the stairs, the Fireballs were proven to be not needed.

A large, winding corridor awaited us, lit up with bright blue and green gems the size of my upper body. Pacing down the corridor, I found that the walls at certain points seemed to have been dug into and looking closely appeared to have been done by man made tools.

"So people have been digging here? Is it recent then?"

"No, it's not. Here and here, you can see the erosion of the elements, mainly air, causing the exposed dirt to be similar to the dirt along the walls. It's been some time since the wall was dug in." Once one of the two we brought along pointed it out, we easily saw what they meant.

Deciding to investigate later, we continued until we saw a figure in the distance. Looking with Hawkeye, I saw what I could only describe as a cow, but instead of normal skin it seemed to be made of earth.

Raising a finger, I focus and create a small Fireball at the tip of my nail and fire it off. It strikes the cow, burning a hole the size of a basketball through it, killing it instantly.

Approaching it, I squat down and found that past the earthen layer there is indeed meat, though it's got specks of dirt and rock throughout it. Locating where it's heart should be, I use my raw strength and easily plunge my hand in, pulling out a magic stone the size of my fist.

…When did I become so insensitive to doing things like plunging my hand into a cow to rip its heart out…

Shaking that thought out of my head, I checked the stone and found it to be an Earthen magic stone, similar to the ones we found before. Making a conclusion after seeing this, I stood up and looked at Jupiter.

"We're seizing this Dimension and building a second base here. This place is too good to give up to others. Contact the base and tell them to send a crew out."

***

The scrapping soon passed by but before I could move a blood curdling scream sounded out, as if right next to me but also far off in the distance. My heart beat soars, pounding painfully at the scream as the fear in my chest threatened to choke me.

What have I done? I got them all killed. Geralt, Sheep, Aerith, Ghost…even Lemon, who was deathly afraid of death. I didn't even know if Rebecca lived, I can't teleport to her side, nor can I sense her. But the way she disappeared at the start of this nightmare…Bek…

Gritting my teeth, I climbed out of the small hole and slashed the air in front of me with my bare hand once again. A crack opened in the air before me, as if the very air had been cut. Plunging both hands into it, I ripped the crack open and dived in. I had to keep pushing, at least to get the others out safely and to find her. I can't die yet, not to whatever this monster is, I'll do it by my own hand if she's dead, just as I always promised myself.

Quickly looking around in the darkness of the void, I found a stable void path and started sprinting down it, hoping that this time I can find the exit. The path comes to an end as I swipe my hand upwards, repeating my actions and diving out.

Sending a pulse of mana out, I felt despair sink in. There, right in front of me, is the same hole I just climbed out of. Again, for the 278th time, I've ended up in the same place, unable to escape this nightmare. I felt my mind become cloudy as I started to lose my sanity, unable to accept that I can't escape, forever trapped here. Falling to my knees and hugging my chest, I laugh and laugh in despair as the sound of metal scraping the ground sounded out from the distance.

Someone, anyone, please, kill me!

[You have Fallen.]