“Who, who…” Matt said half opening his eyes, intent on locating the source of the mysterious voice only to instead see nothing but a bright blue box filled to the brim with text.
Welcome youninto gling to Eden, you have died and been reborn a dungeon core. In doing so you have joined the club of the select few that of the reincarnated ones. Please don't squander it.
‘What, the heck....’ Matt thought, ever so confused as he looked over the text. "I died...."
"Yes, you did, master" The unknown voice suddenly said, seeming to come from everywhere and nowhere at once.
"Who, who said that" Matt yelled, looking around only to find nothing but the blue text box within his line of sight.
"Hi, my name's Bob. I've been assigned to be your system guide by the system itself, isn’t that great, master...” The voice said, Matt's head pounding louder and louder than ever before with every word that the voice spoke.“Shall we get to work?”
“NO! I WON'T GO TO WORK!WHO IN ALL THE FORKS ARE YOU.” Matt screamed, stunned suddenly out of his depth, demanding to know what in all of the 7 hells was going on, all the more shocked when one of his words was abruptly replaced with another.
‘What the fork's Matt thought, attempting to swear only to find himself unable to do so.
“Oh I told you that already master, I’m your system guide, master…..”The voice that had named itself Bob suddenly said.
“OH RIGHT..right..right...” Matt said pondering, the voice’s, ‘no not voice, Bob.’, Bob’s words. instinctively taking in 3 long, deep breaths in and out, attempting to calm himself before continuing any further, knowing as he did that this rage-filled state that he found himself in would only make things worse, not better.
‘In’“HUHHHH…..”
‘Out’ “Hahhh…”.
‘In’“HUHHHH…..”
‘And’“Hahhh…, Ok, give me some answers, please. What is going on. What is a system guide exactly? And how in the hell did I get here? And please stop calling me master it’s annoying.” Matt requested, feeling uncountable with the word’s meaning.'Though most importantly, why in all the forks, can’t I swear'
“Well, master…..” the voice said, Matt, sitting back as it seemed to him like he was going to be here for a while.
----------------------------------------
“So you're saying I died”
“Yes, Master” Bob, the seemingly all-mental voice said.
“And, your creator, the AI-like system who, according to you at least, rules this world and many others like it, saved my life and turned me into what did you call it, A dungeon core?” Matt asked, more than a slight bit unnerved by this whole situation.
“Yes exactly, Master”
“Why do you keep calling me master?” Matt asked, more than a bit unnerved by the whole situation expertly this part.
“Because you are my master of course,” Bob said saying like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
“Yes, Master,” Bob said seemingly unwilling to quit.
‘Ughhhh…’ “Ok, is there any way you can back your claims?” Matt asked. “Not trying to say anything, But it’s just…”’I can’t see anything, for all I know this is some kind of practical joke…’ Matt thought thinking, more willing to believe this than that he’d died and been reborn in another world.
’Maybe there's an orderly somewhere, just waiting to jump out in surprise’ He wondered only to still see nothing but darkness, the blue text box message having long since disappeared from sight.
“I’m afraid there isn’t, Master, I’m sorry but everything I have told you is the truth, you indeed did die, and you are now and forevermore a dungeon core, but if you need more convincing then you need but look over your status page”
“My what?”
“Your status page, it show’s you….” Bob said.
“Yes, Yes, I know what a status page is, I may not be an avid gamer like most teen’s my age, mostly due to my illness, but I have still played a game or two in my time, I’m just shocked to hear the term in the real world.” Matt thought knowing all this could simply be an hallucination, a consequence of the so-called ‘miracle cure’ that the lastest quack doctor, 'doctor Morrigan', had injected him with.
That must be the answer. It was the only rational explanation that he could conceive.
'Yet this didn't seem like any hulsination. At least not like any I've experienced.' He thought, having had many such hulicernations since his first diagnosis. If anything, this is even more real, if that was even possible. ' So that leaves what, that the drug killed me?' He thought, not at all liking that idea yet knowing that to be the only other exploration, since either way the last coherent memory he'd was of the good 'doctor' injecting that vial of black goo into his arm.
“Ok, so, how do we do this, how do I access my status page,” Matt abruptly asked, seeing no other way but to go along for the ride, for now at least, only to be abruptly shocked, as a blue status screen, filled to the brim with all sorts of information, unexpectedly appeared out of nowhere as he said the words.
Name: (Reincarnator)Matthew Tine(….)
Titles:
(Adavanced)Reincarnated one(Legendary)
Traits:
Race: Dungeon core (Archetype:)
Age: 14
(100/50EP)Level: 1
(0/0)Attributes
Core integrity: 1/1
Intelligence: 6
Wisdom: 4
Charisma: 3
Energy: 100/60
Mana: 50
Mental:10
Talent's
(0/0)Skill’s
(0/0)Abilities
(0/0)Spells
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
(Basic)Dungion sight(Common-Basic novice (Basic)Telepathy(Common-Basic novice) (Basic)Create(Common-Basic novice) (Basic)Claim(Common-Basic novice) (Basic)Absorb(Common-Basic novice)(Basic)Sheild(common-Basic novice)
‘Wow!, Ok, I’m either hallucinating or this real’, Matt thought, unable to believe the sight that was before him.
“Oh, master this is certainly real,” Bob said.
“What, how, you, You” ‘You read my mind, you can read minds’ Matt thought, thinking the words instead of speaking them, needing to be sure.
“Yes master, how do you think we’ve been communicating all this time, certainly not with a mortal’s tongue, you don’t have one anymore, I can assure you of that, master.”
----------------------------------------
“This world, like so many others, was formed by a random flux in the quantum realm, however small it might have been, though some worlds, part of the flux, stayed open, forming a one-way portal, what are known in the multiverse as quantum conduct’s.With Energy flowing through the conduit. The energy levels of Eden slowly began to rise. Giving way to the different forms of energy. Till, finally, the different energies in the world grew so great that they began to crystalise. Creating Eden’s first dungeon cores. Though, non were like you, master.
No. These core were ones with no self-awareness. no control. With only instinct to guide them. These dungeons began to take in the energy of the world and create life as dungeons tend to do. Till suddenly one core encountered And before long a war began as cores began to fight over the words energy. The 1’st energy war as some in the collective call it.
,With Dungeons battling each other for the energy of the world. Before, finally the system. May its wisdom be infinite. Arrived and took Eden into its guiding embrace. And so you see energy is the lifeblood of dungeons. And yet without a mind to guide it, what are you?" Bob continuously rambled, continuing to speak about the origins of the world, energy and the people that lived within it at large, like he had been doing for the past how many hours and days or perhaps who knows even months since he’d first started, ever since Matt had made the unfortunate criminal mistake of curiosity.
‘Aghh, what I would do for some decent headphones right about now...’, Matt thought in clear pain, Blocking Bob’s voice out with with the help of his own thoughts, not for the first time missing the modern earthly comforts of home;’ Not that would help much in my current state. Still, they would be nice to have…………’,
It had been, well a while since he’d first woken up and in that time he had come to hate the sound of Bob’s all too annoying mental voice and his lecturing way’s both.
"MASTER!" Bob shouted, suddenly mentally screaming the words across the Mental bond that they both shared, forcing Matt out from his meditative thought retreat and back to the land of the living.
"What, what, I'm awake, You didn’t need to shout that hard!", Matt thought/said, his head pounding with intense pain due to the abrupt mental pressure Bob’s sudden mental shout had suddenly levelled upon him.
"Yes, master, I see that...", Bob said, surprising Matt with his sudden sarcasm a thing Matt hadn’t thought to be possible of him as till now Bob had always spoken in the same robotic-like manner that he'd used ever since the very beginning.
“Bob, I’m sorry, I'm just so bored, can't we just do something else?” Matt asked, hopeful as hell that Bob wouldn't be his usual self and could, mayhap, just this once, possibly move on to talk about something more interesting.
’, Honestly, anything would be better than these boring lectures of his that he keeps giving.’ Matt accidentally thought, so, so, tired as he was of Bob’s constant rant-like lectures that could go on for days at a time, filling Matt with nothing but plain boredom, with the occasional practical dungeon-core life lesson in between. ‘Agh, why can’t he teach me something more fun and exciting I just don’t know.’
“Like what, Master, what would be more fun and exciting than my boring lectures?” Bob so sarcastically said, Matt thought’s instantly filling with rage as his words came out, Bob having so plain as day read his thoughts,
’Ugh’, ”Bob! Don’t do that!” Matt mentally yelled, so filled with anger that he was that he screamed instead of softly whispering his words through to Bob’s side of the mental bond that they both shared.
“Sorry”, Bob said, saying the words yet not meaning them, with any sincerity, whatsoever, something that Matt knew to be true from the many past experiences he’d had, this exact scenario having repeated itself many times before already.
Bob would read his thoughts, as he had just done, doing it continuously, again and again, matt speculated only to stop, having been caught in the act, attempting to apologise as fast as he possibly could only for it to happen all over again, sometimes even the very next day.
Matt was sick of it. Sick of it.
It was his mind, his thoughts, his secrets, the things he wanted to keep hidden at all costs that Bob read. They were his and his alone. At least they had been.
But now Bob. Bob could just stroll inside, sit down, have a coffee, and look around, inside, right into his mind, thoughts, whenever he damn well pleased, with Matt non the wiser and Matt could do nothing to stop him. Nothing. Nothing whatsoever. And that fact terrified him, Terrified him to the core.
'Oh, sure, he say's he can only read surface thoughts but does that make me feel safe, no. How can it? Oh, how I wish for the ability to stop him. But sadly it’s impossible, it seems.’.Matt wishfully thought, filled with such hopelessness that he could not help but want to act on it.
“Master”, Bob said, his words appearing out of nowhere as they always did, lifting him out of his self-pitying-filled mood and back to the land that was reality.
“Yes,” Matt said, wondering what Bob wanted now, ‘Does he want me to sell my liver, my kidneys, my balls, well too late they're all gone!’
"No Master, of course not. Why would I ever ask you to sell a liver? That would be quite an impossible feat Master..." Bob said, not seeming to catch the sarcasm that was involved in his words.
‘Hah, I Got him’ Matt thought, internally laughing, filled with slight joy at the fact that he’d finally gotten one over on Bob, accidental as it was.
“Agh that was what humans called a joke,” Bob said a second or so later, Mat's thought's having seemingly let him in on it.
“Yes, Bob, yes it is,” Mat thought/said internally laughing as hard as he possibly could, happy beyond all joy that he'd finally gotten one over the mighty Bob. As, as accident and jock-filled as it was, it was still something.
“Oh, Ok, master,” Bob said with the same business as usual look that he always seemed to use whenever Matt talked to him, the jock seemingly having not fazed him in the east. “, Anyway, as I was saying there does exist a way”
“A way, a way to do what, Exactly?” Matt said, wondering what the hell Bob was talking about.
“A way to block my mental probes, of course," Bob said. “Who knows perhaps it could even get rid of that nasty status effect of yours, the one you brought from your home dimension, what was its name again, dirt was it? Silly name for a planet really, I could think of some far better names like Zeno, Pro, Peno, Zeus” Bob said, rambling away..
“That’s possible?” Matt asked, shocked, amazed by what Bob had just said, wondering why Bob had never told him that this was even possible before now. ‘Why did he never tell me’ Matt accidentally thought.
“Because you never asked, Master.” Bob suddenly said, seemingly having read his thoughts yet again without asking.
“What?” Matt asked, slow on uptake, unable to comprehend what Bob had just said.
“Because you never asked,” Bob suddenly said, repeating himself word for word. “That’s why I never told you”
Why would that stop you,” Matt asked, confused. “Surely you could have told me at some point in the past…well however long we’ve been together,” Matt said, unable to place the exact amount of time that had gone by since his eventful awakening as a dungeon core, his lack of sight having long since prevented him from counting time through the sky’s cycle.
“1 month, six days and five hours,” Bob suddenly said.
“What?” Matt said, a slight bit stuck on the download.
“14 months, six days and five hours, that’s the amount of time that has passed since you first arrived here, master.” Bob said, going totally and utterly off-topic as he tended to do as was his nature. “As to your second question my priming only permits me to answer questions and things that are of relevance to you as a dungeon core, and till now this topic was not of relevance, and as such, I could not tell you that there was a way to Block me when you asked me.And so” Bob said, seemingly attempting to drag out his explanation as far as he could take it like he had done so many times before.
“Translation you can only tell me things that don’t relate to being a dungeon when I ask you to, yeah, ok, I get it!”, Matt said, filled with slight annoyance/anger for not seeing it sooner, interrupting Bob before he could go on any further.
“Simple but correct, though there….” Bob said, attempting to go into yet another rant.
“Oh, Ok,” He said, stopping Bob in his tracks before he could attempt to start up yet another rant. “So how do I do that?
“That….” Bob said seemingly confused.
“Yes, How do I block you?” He excitedly asked, Matt, filled to brim with excitement, wanting to get started as soon as possible.
“Oh, that’s simple master, You simply need to create a mental barrier. “
“A mental barrier?” Matt asked with rapid attention, now hanging on Bob’s every word.
“Yes, master a mental barrier,” Bob said, going into further detail. “A barrier made entirely up of mental energy, its purpose being to protect one from mental attacks, affording the owner of said barrier certain protection from certain mental status effects that may come one's way”
“Certain. Not all?” Matt asked, picking up on Bob's choice of words, slightly worried that Bob might be trying to trick him in some way.
“Yes, master, mental barriers are not perfect, if put under enough pressure, mental or otherwise, they will break, But trust me this will work. Well, it should”
“Should. Should. That’s not good enough Bob.”Matt said wanting more assurance than just should, suddenly filled with a deep unknowable rage, coming out of nowhere only for it to abruptly disappear twice as fast as it had come.
“I’m sorry master. That’s all I have. It’s either this or nothing” Bob said, matt having no way to tell whether he was telling the truth or not.
‘Goddammit’, “Ok, I believe you, but this better work, Bob,” Matt said, directing his words through to Bob’s side of the bond as fast as he possibly could, wanting as he did to have this whole business done as fast as was mentally possible.
“It will, master. It will. Trust me”
“It better,” ‘Or I will find to kill you if it’s the last thing I do!’, Matt unintentionally promised to himself, not really meaning the words but yet thinking them anyway.
“Yes master,” Bob said seemingly not afraid of Matt's non-threatening threat.
“Ok So how do we do this?”
“Ok, so there are two ways you could do this, master, there’s the slow where you gain the skill naturally through curfull meditation and guidance, but seeing as to how you're seemingly in a hurry to get this done we’ll go with the other way, the fast route, where we use a Mod point to modify your shield ability,” Bob said, going on to explain to him what needed to be done. “Okay, so first off, before we can do anything you need to bring up your status page. master.".
“Oh, Ok, here goes nothing” ‘Status’