[Tutorial Dungeon ] Optional Build

Chapter one) Not the man for the job. Or, Wrong place, and the wrong time.

It felt like I was being woken up from a deep sleep as I heard some murmuring sounds turn into voices in the darkness around me.

Where the heck am I?

“...I don’t care if we get in trouble, this guy is being revived in the ambulance and I had already sent his soul on to reclamation. We got to pull it so I can send it back to Earth.”

The guy sounded like every terrible incompetent poop stain of a boss I had ever had. But, revived? I was dead? I don’t remember… Shoot, I thought I had a few more years yet.

“But it’s going to throw off every soul in the queue, they'll all get sent to the wrong jobs.”

The second guy sounded like every snarky jerk who loved to tell on people to the boss, in other words, the two of them were the perfect pair to make an already bad job a complete hell.

The first guy spoke up again. “Everyone from Earth is slated for service jobs, it don’t matter if they’re any good at the jobs they get stuck with. The Humans just have to put in their time, pay off their debt, and move on. Nobody cares.”

Earth? Humans? As in there are other options?

Then it was back to the silence before a soft, questioning voice spoke up. "I guess I'm not the one getting revived."

There was a wicked sounding laugh, and then a woman mentioned. "Yeah, I knew I was out of luck when they said 'his' soul. I guess we're all dead people here, anyone got a clue what they meant by a debt?"

I thought it over as others began to deny any knowledge about a debt. From the sound of their voices, it sounded like a pretty diverse group. Maybe a dozen or so people were here with me in the darkness.

“Hey” Someone called out, with a bit of panic in their voice. “I think we’re moving.”

There was a whoosh sound, and then the same voice yelled out “Oh, cool…” as it faded away into the distance.

The woman spoke up again. “Huh. I guess anything that gets rated as ‘cool’ can’t be too bad.”

So… Time limit. "My name is Carl Szoke, eighty one, retired janitor. I don't think I ever did anything that would have run up a debt for me in the afterlife. Also, I don't know how I died. I'm from Planet Earth, the United States of America, Texas, and I’m a human on the off chance someone here is something else. Anyone here that any of that doesn’t sound familiar to?”

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

The woman was the first to respond. “Hey Tex! Terri Greer, forty nine, professor of economics. Clark university. Good thinking on sharing information, and it’s the same for me on the unknown if I died or not thing. It sounds like we’re from the same place, or at least the same world.”

Some of the others introduced themselves, most of them from the US, all of us strangely calm, and without any memories of how we died, how we got here, or where here was.

Plenty of speculation. Hell, purgatory, downloaded brains waiting to be inserted into a simulation.

Then Terri called out again. “I’m moving, and… It’s red…” Her voice trailed off.

I felt a bump. “Shoot fellas, I think I’m next. It was mighty nice to meet you all and I hope we all end up somewhere good.” I felt myself toppling over the edge of something…

I could see a vast, endless field of dark, flat stone under a red cloudy sky. “Oh… Hell…”

Then I was falling.

I just had to hope the word ‘Hell’ was enough to warn the others that not all of us were going to someplace ‘Cool’ and that ‘Red” was a warning. Not that a warning was going to do much, other than prevent this from being a surprise to anyone else getting sent here.

Now they could dread what was going to happen to them instead.

Shoot. Maybe I should have kept my mouth shut.

Looks like whatever my debt is, it might be a bit worse than… Crap on a stick it isn’t my debt is it? The guy that got revived might have been right in front of me. I’m getting stuck with his or someone else’s debt and getting stuck with their service job.

And whoever was behind me in line was getting mine.

Lucky dog. They would be getting off light, after all, I was nearly a saint. If the term nearly was being measured on a generous scale.

Well, at least I'm not going to be stuck washing floors and cleaning toilets in the afterlife.

As I was falling, I could see a small figure standing way down below me, and just before I hit the stone floor right in front of her, splattering her with my juicy bits, I came to a slow stop.

And sort of bobbed slowly up and down in place, at about eye level with the harassed looking silver haired young woman with a dark tan in a loosely draped golden gown. She was holding a shiny metal pad the size of a clipboard in her off hand.

Also, I don’t seem to have any bits. Juicy or otherwise. Trying to wave my hands around in front of me or turn my head just makes me bob around a bit more.

In the back of the woman’s pad board thing, I could see a blurry reflection of a dimly glowing ball of blue tinged light moving up and down in sync with me.

Oh. I’m a ball of light.

Momma always said I was her little ray of sunshine.

Momma was a little delusional.

"Hi, I don't think I'm supposed to be here."

The woman sighed and gave me a mild glare. “I know. No one bothered to tell you what to expect, but the creators of your world screwed things up there pretty badly. It was supposed to be a group project, but they fell out and nearly ruined the place with their bickering.”

She rolled her eyes. “Moderators had to be called in as well as contractors, and now you’re stuck paying off the debt for all of that, even though it should be on the idiots that are supposed to be responsible for you working it off. But nope, the rich kids never have to pay for their actions.”

Narrowing her eyes at me, she tapped at her tablet. “But the two times your race managed to wipe themselves out, once through poor hygiene and then a war with atomic weapons, those required a reset that drove up your race’s debt. Those were all on you, and now you can’t afford another do over.”

Well, shoot… Things weren't going all that well back home when whatever killed me done did me in. Not a 'fly my pretties’ but with a nuke's level of terrible, but things weren't exactly going in the right direction.

“Oh I don’t mind paying my debts miss, even ones incurred on my behalf by my creators, although that does seem a mite unfair. What I meant was I’m not supposed to be doing this particular job.”

She tilted her head to the side, her eyes gone all narrow like again.

“Someone yanked the guy somewhere in front of me from the queue, and it put me and everyone else behind him into the wrong jobs. Is there someone you can call before anyone else gets dropped into something they aren't meant for?”