Seth had never really liked insects before he was taken from Earth.

They were annoying, sometimes loud, and an all-around pest.

So having hundreds of fuzzy moths buzz around him like a hurricane was nothing short of torture.

After Rena had grabbed him, Seth found himself flying through a dark, cold, and smelly dimension full of flickering shadows; later discovered to be moths of all shapes and sizes. Thinking that the sensation would only last a couple seconds, Seth did not prepare for himself to be engulfed in all kinds of scratchy carcasses. What seemed like hours passed as Seth spasmed around before finally settling into a fetal position where he thought the insects would not be able to mercilessly assault his face.

He was wrong.

The only thing anchoring him into the present was the stiff, cold hand that had a firm grip on his shoulder still. Finally, after an undetermined amount of time, the storm abruptly ended, and a pleasant warm breeze brushed over Seth. He slowly unclasped himself and opened his eyes to find a scene that did not match the nice feeling of the wind tousling his hair. Before him was a slightly familiar illustration of his past.

Stretching as far as the eye could see was a ruined city full of black rubble. Distant figures roamed the would-be streets that now consisted of dark yellow gravel. It looked surprising like an old photo of a city in Kenya that his mother showed him awhile back.

Seth got to his feet and found that he was currently on the summit of a small mountain range. He turned to look at the other side where he found a large swamp landscape covering the ground. He attempted to look further when a sharp voice cut him off.

“Do not dawdle, child.”

Seth didn’t realize Rena’s hand was still on his shoulder. He turned to look at her before thinking better of it. Instead, he looked in the direction she was pointing to find a large crowd of people on a nearby summit. The sounds of crackling bones erupted from Rena right before a set of dusty brown wings spread out from her back. Seth soundlessly watched as she gracefully flew him over to the crowded area. Soon enough, Rena set him down right before yet again bursting into a cloud of moths.

He fervently swiped at the creepy crawlies, acting like a toddler because of his previous trip here. It took him a moment to realize that the people standing near him had begun to look at him pitifully. Seth stopped swiping the air and quickly righted himself.

Starting off strong I see.

As the random glances turned away from him, Seth cast his attention to the crowd surrounding him. There were quite a few different species standing around. Although, Seth wasn’t really interested in that because an odd feeling was permeating his senses. He activated True Sight and saw that his instincts were right. Many of the people in the crowd were quite powerful compared to the other tier twos he met at Origin. A good chunk of them were clearly already tier threes. Some seemed even stronger than that. Seth continued to analyze the crowd until a familiar presence entered his field of vision.

Seth’s mouth was agape when he saw the hulking figure of Ty standing not ten meters away from him.

Sensing his gaze, Ty’s glare swept over the spot Seth was in. Luckily, right before Ty looked in his direction, Seth activated Specter State and Stalker’s Anthem. He had already withdrawn his anima beforehand, so Seth was positive Ty didn’t see him. He wasn’t totally sure why he had wanted to hide himself, but it felt like the right thing to do.

What are the odds that he’s also here?

Not only did Ty’s presence surprise Seth, but his power level did as well. Back at the facility, Ty had already been a cut above everyone else, but now, looking at him after only a week’s time, Ty seemed even stronger. It looked like he had already crossed over to tier three!

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How the hell is he so goddam strong!?

He finished his tests in only a couple months and ended up stronger than everyone involved in the experiments, but now in only a week he was able to reach tier three while Seth was only halfway through tier two. This knowledge just fanned the flame of Seth’s ambition. If he can do that, why can’t I? With narrowed eyes, Seth skulked farther away from the large man and deeper into the crowd.

Finally sure that he was far enough, Seth stopped and looked up toward the raised section of grey rock where a collection of doll people had begun to form up. As he watched, Rena appeared amongst them and found her way into the small formation. The soft buzz of voices began to die off as everyone turned their attention to the group of black-eyed beings. Everything turned silent and chanting started to emit from the dolls.

A sinking feeling began festering in Seth’s gut and a large hollow myth took hold in the space in front of the raised rock. He let out a muffled grunt as a heavy pressure set upon the crowd and the hovering myth disappeared. Seth knew this feeling; it was the pressure caused by an incredibly powerful anima.

But there is no one here.

Seth still had True Sight going and so far, he didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. But still, he knew something was here. It was impossible to forget the feeling of being so completely oppressed that you were basically sitting at the mercy of whomever the anima belonged to. In a last ditch effort, Seth activated Perceive to see if it would work while being paired with True Sight. Unfortunately, no matter how hard he strained his eyes, nothing would appear into being. The sinking feeling continued to persist though, despite his findings.

What’s going on?

Seth looked around to see if anyone in the crowd had any idea what was going on, only to find that all of them were looking down at papers in their hands. He knit his eyebrows in confusion before turning his own gaze down to his hands. A sigh escaped his lips as he found an identical piece of brown paper sitting in his left hand. He would normally be upset at the lack of context that surrounded this whole event so far, but it seemed like no one else was flipping out, so Seth decided to keep quiet. After a quick glance around, he began to read the paper in his hands.

Hello random denizen of the mortal plane. You have been approved as a participant in what the mortals refer to as The Incubator. Our representatives have traveled across the known existence in search of beings such as yourself. Know that this does not make you special. You are nothing in this endless realm. Take heed, if you are discovered to be a rulebreaker, you will be extinguished. We care nothing for the politics of mortals. Break a rule, and you will cease to live. Furthermore, survivors, or ‘winners’ as mortals describe them will receive nothing more than the experience that we provide. Some see things we provide as rewards, but this is not so. You are entitled to nothing. We will provide our resources for exactly one mortal year. Whether you live, die, stay, or leave is not our concern. Stated below are the rules.

1. Do not speak about what you experience here to outside sources.

2. Do not ask any questions about the details of us or our resources.

3. Do not attack any of our representatives.

4. If you remain within The Incubator after one mortal year, you forfeit your existence to us.

5. You cannot take anything found within The Incubator after one mortal year has expired unless acquired through a quest, taken from another participant, or extracted from a defeated monster.

Stated below are your instructions.

* Each participant will receive a starting position in the pocket dimension of least difficulty to survive.

* If the participant wishes to move to a higher difficulty pocket dimension, they must find the entrance between each pocket dimension.

* Participants are free to move between pocket dimensions they have been to before when in contact with an entrance between pocket dimensions.

* Various ‘challenges’ will be littered throughout each pocket dimension.

* On completion of a ‘challenge’, participants will receive a predetermined ‘reward’.

* Actions outside of the rules are unregulated.

* Infuse the myth below with energy to fulfill the contract and be sent to your starting position.

“What is with all this vague crap?”

Seth scowled at the paper in his hands as well as his past experiences with the vague descriptions of his abilities. It’s like this whole thing is designed specifically with free will in mind. Instead of dwelling on the wishy-washiness of the contract, he decided to focus on the actual content of the paper.

So it’s a pretty standard dungeon crawl type thing. The only difference is that it is extremely general with its “challenges” and “rewards.” Also, it’s super open ended.

Seth stared at the contract for a few more seconds before looking up at the dwindling crowd. People were disappearing at an increasing rate. As he watched swarms of moths disperse in the air, Seth recalled a memory of multicolored portals spawning in a white room.

He heaved one last sigh before becoming engulfed in the rotting smell of the moth dimension.