I danced through the field with Revic, his smile as wide as my own, his crimson eyes brightened as we relaxed and danced. We spun, wove, and twirled around each other. Each step flowing into the next, following a pattern only we saw. It was almost like we were weaving a spell, with each step so fluid and precise. Even though we weren’t constructing a spell, I still only wish that we could stay like this forever. Forever at peace and in safety here in a world of our own, filled with joy and love.
I leaned into Revic as our dance ended with the fading golden light and thought, ‘If only we could stay here forever.’
~Memory of a Past Now Lost
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Welcome to the World!
I stared at the blue screen in front of me, incredulous of the message on it. Welcome to the world? If this was a world, then why was everything black and why in the world would someone (something?) announce that like this.
The message itself only made sense in a couple of scenarios, one I’m in a new world or two someone was playing a trick on me.
In the first case I could assume I died and was transported here through means unknown or I didn’t die with the same effect. In the latter case it would take a relatively powerful mage to project the message to me with other mages to keep this entire effect up. No this couldn’t be a trick as this would be too power intensive to keep us for long, making the first scenario more likely.
Which brought me back to the question of whether or not I was dead. I didn’t feel the need to breathe. But now that I was focusing on my senses I could feel something pressing on me from all angles and a hunger? While concerning, those two sensations were good enough currently to decide I was alive. Since I was alive, I should test and see if any of my old abilities came with me.
First, my magic. I tried speaking before I came to the conclusion that I was an idiot for even trying when I couldn’t even breathe. So magic was a no go for now as I had no way of channeling it without my voice.
Second would have been my wreathe skill if I could have seen anything beyond that annoying blue screen. I wish it would get out of face now that I’d read it. Surprisingly it did disappear after that thought. Was it controlled with mental commands? Would it even respond if I gave a command?
It was worth a shot in any case. Maybe location details? I would like to know where I was at least. But how did I have a phrase the command so that it told me? A bell chimed as a new screen appeared.
Location: Underground
Further data unavailable until conditions are met.
Apparently just asking was enough to prompt the messages, but that was essentially useless information. Although it did confirm I was alive, but buried underground. If I was underground then I couldn’t be a human or anything that need air to live. Just what was I?
Name
Unnamed
Species
Dungeon Core
More useful than the previous information, still not helpful since I don’t know what a dungeon core is. Oh well, I’ll try some other stuff with the screens later. Dismissing the screen I tried out the last practical skill I had, alchemy. I wasn’t good at it, but I wasn’t terrible thanks to Revic. Same concept as magic, different application of power. I gently pulled a small string of power to fill the material around my body then changed it into base energy to absorb and store. The pressure on my body (core?) vanished before a new screen materialized with a bell’s chime.
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Condition met, summoning helper.
A helper? Thank Vera, I won’t be so confused now. I don’t know how long it’d take though for the helper to get here. Maybe I should make something for them to see by, it had to be dark in here with no light source. But what could I make? It had to be simple, a candle maybe? No, I wouldn’t be able to light here without any air. Actually, that’d be a good thing to add right now. The helper would probably need that. Using some of the base energy I generated enough air to fill the chamber around me and the rest of the energy I released into the air slowly from my body. It dyed the air with a soft golden light allowing me to see myself for the first time. I was a crystal.
I wasn’t sure how to describe myself. I was a chunk of crystal, growing in every direction. I was purplish and had an odd inner glow to myself. It explained a few things however. As a crystal, it made sense that I grew in the ground and didn’t breathe. Yet the hunger was still a bit disturbing, what in the world did I eat?
Just how much longer would it take for the helper to get here?
Helper summons have been received. Helper will arrive within 6 hours.
Six hours at least until he/she arrived? I checked the amount of energy I had left before I decided that I didn’t have enough to sustain my current output. I stopped letting it leak out and instead started to use it to carve out a larger room and make it all around more comfortable. The existing light would fade in a little while, but I had enough to start designing what I wanted the room to look like.
As I teased out another small string of power I could feel my soul begin to strain from the power. I stopped pulling anymore and utilized what I had. I was worried about the strain on my soul from using so little power. Had my soul degraded? Or was this the result of under-use? Rather, how long has it been since I was human? I shook myself mentally, it wasn’t constructive to think about that right now. I began my work to pass the time. One hour passed, then two, then four before I heard the increasingly familiar chime.
Your helper will arrive in 5 minutes.
Five minutes huh, I finished up with the section I was working on and started lighting up the room again. I had discovered after the first hour that I could feel where everything in the room was perfectly and that had enabled me to work efficiently. It was a useful skill to say the least.
Now that my helper was almost here I was getting a bit excited and anxious. What would they be like? What kind of race they would be? Realization struck me then, if they were a different race, would I even be able to understand them? In fact, how were these message prompts even in Hashir? This was a different world than my old one, so there shouldn’t be any way for these messages to appear in my native language.
A voice interrupted my escalating panic, “Hello! My name is Eris and I will be your dungeon helper from here on out!”
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Spoiler: A/N
So hi people, the prologue was pretty short so I'm making up for that with this one. Anyways I'm planning on a weekly release rate. Hopefully I can keep to that. This chapter was originally twice it's current length before I decided to make the other half into a different chapter as it started to drift into another topic at about this point.