Margot sat at her desk and took a sip of coffee. After looking at her console, and briskly scanning the readings and log reports for the universes and artificial multiverses that their division was focusing on for the day, she looked at one particular profile that she and her husband had set aside.
She double-checked the Gigantas Profile’s set of logs and reports to confirm that all was as it should be. Then with a warm smile, she wished her son luck, then she pressed the command the would fully activate the control nodules for the Grand Dungeon of Gigantas and transferred control over to her son.
The worlds of Gigantas all shook as a majority of the universe’s stars all vanished. Then the lights in the sky returned, replaced with nodes of extradimensional energy. Then as the grand dungeon finished its final setup and check-up sequence all the sapients within the universe received the same message.
“[The Grand Dungeon Is Open]”
For the most part, most of the inhabitants of the world Gigantas would have no clue what to make of the announcement. Despite, the Division of Cosmic Artifice having met with the mortal and immortal leadership of the worlds, and despite the Division doings its best to make sure that the mortal common folk were informed of what was coming, a lot of the leaders within the worlds would still do their best to leave the commoners in the dark.
Those mortal and immortal powers-that-be still remember the chaotic restructuring that followed after the common folk learned to make effective use of the system. Which lead to them wishing to keep the common folk in the dark for as long as possible so that the leaders and their families could gain a strong footing in the coming new world order so that the aforementioned new world order could end up looking a lot like the current world order.
Officially speaking, the Division had no issue with this. Unofficially, the programmers of both the Grand Dungeon and the System had ensured that a full and easily understandable explanation was provided in the system’s help files. With a link to the file immediately proffered after the Universe-wide bulletin.
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Tau Kaylan, here again, I was currently seated behind a desk that felt far too large for me. While going over paperwork and reports whose sole purpose was to confirm that all was as it should be.
A lot of stuff changed for me, once the Grand Dungeon was open, but then at the same time, in the quiet moments when I’m not pulling out my hair from trying to herd extradimensional cats, it feels like nothing’s changed.
Despite how it might have sounded, the Governor of Balance and Judgement wasn’t some kind of law enforcer. The rulers and hegemons of Gigantas were still very much in charge of their worlds. My authority fell solely upon the Grand Dungeon, all its entrances, and all the business and governance therein.
It occurs to me now, that I might have done a better job of explaining what the grand dungeon is. In simplest terms, the grand dungeon is a calamity magnet. However, since that makes it sound like the grand dungeon is something that “causes” calamities, it might be better to say that a Grand Dungeon is something that attracts and absorbs all the calamities taking place in the universe in which the dungeon is hosted..
This was something that my Mothers and my Father invented. They figured out this new method of partially digitizing a reality that was similar to what they did whenever they installed a system, but the process was far less drastic then what took place when they had to pull a universe into a cosmic console.
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Then after some joint testing that they did in cooperation with the House of Antipodes and Terminus-Earth’s Department of Paranormal Authority and Administration, it became a major part of what all three organizations did.
The reason the Grand Dungeons became such a big deal was that they were a tool that allowed the Division, the DPAA, and HOA to intervene with the problems taking place in a universe, without having to take too many actions or interfere with the universe too much.
This was good on the level of dealing with the various authorities of the worlds they were trying to help because the lesser-interference made the worlds a lot more willing to seek and accept help.
The Grand Dungeons would then basically extract all the calamity taking place in a universe, and well, make it into a dungeon. Afterwhich, it would be the responsibility of the world’s inhabitants to deal with the calamity on their own.
So long as the world’s inhabitants and powers-that-be did their job and I did my job, the grand dungeon was essentially a machine built to turn cosmic lemons into delicious lemonade. The dungeon would be cleared by the locals and they’d gain strength from it that way, and we the administrators of the dungeon would gain a percentage of the calamity’s value in resources and energy during the dungeon’s construction.
My main duty was to make sure that people weren’t misusing the dungeon and that the Grand Dungeon wasn’t turned into a catalyst for secondary, even greater calamity. I also was serving as a sort of Universal Inspector, to note whether the rulers of the worlds were still mismanaging the worlds after being assisted with the first set of calamities. In which case, more intervention might be needed.
That might like seem like a lot of authority to just have dropped onto one’s lap, especially as a punishment for fucking up and being irresponsible, and...it was. I’m honestly, not sure what my parents were thinking, but at the very least I had several sets of superiors looking over my shoulder on the Grand Dungeon program alone, not to mention the Division as a whole, so maybe it wasn’t ‘that much’ authority.
Maybe this job was less like suddenly being made regional manager of a business, and more like being put at the helm of a single branch. It was still a lot more authority and responsibility than I was used to, but it wasn’t like I was completely flying solo with no one to turn to if I screwed something up, or needed some guidance.
While I was busy trying and failing to not get stressed out, by the enormity of the tasks that had been placed in my lap, I felt a pair of hands close over my eyes.
My first instinct was to channel an explosion of kinetic energy through my shoulders, to send my unknown assailant flying. I’d been warned that the locals might attempt to take me out thinking they could usurp my power but I didn’t think that they’d strike this soon.
Just before I retaliated, the hands removed themselves.
“Chill, chill, it’s me, babe,” said a light, familiar, voice.
I canceled the attack and then turned around to see a familiar face. A pretty egg-shaped face, with large blue-eyes, and purple hair. A face not unlike the many other faces walking around the Grand Dungeon’s inner-offices.
In the generations since the FC-fleet and humanoid FC-Units’ initial creation, the machines that my father had created to assist him in his work, had rapidly become their own people, albeit a people dedicated to my father’s service and cause.
Thus Monika Aster went from being a true childhood friend to me after years of working in my father’s labs as an assistant to the secretary units.
“It’s you,” said I.
“Yeah, it’s me. Uh, were you about to blow me up just now?” said Monika. Wearing a wry smile.
“Yeah, because a strange person put their hands on my face and I’m currently a target for assassination, so I freaked out, excuse me for overreacting,” said I. Frowning, but half-sincere in my apology.
“True….But didn’t you think the other units walking around would have done something if I were a threat?” said Monika. Nodding towards all the other FC-units that were milling around.
“True… So what are you doing here? I thought you were back home in Terminus-Earth,” said I. Sighing. Realizing that I might have been a bit too tense.
“Young Mistress Flannery helped me get a quick n’ dirty transfer…” said Monika.
“Oh, that’s cool. Why didn’t you tell me you were coming?” said I. Making a mental note to thank Flannery and inwardly wondering how I’d failed to catch on to what was happening myself. My connection to the akashic might not have been as strong as my father’s but I still had a knack of knowing things without knowing them.
“I figured I’d surprised you,” said Monika. Mentally tossing my systems the data-packet that explained how she’d hidden what she was doing.
“Oh, neat…So it’s Monika and Tau partners-in-crime again?” said I. Profferring my hand.
She gave me a high-five and smiled.
“Hell yeah, it is. Monika and Tau, partners-in-crime,” said Monika.
I smiled as I looked at the desk and console, that was filled with assignments and issues for me to see to. The sudden appearance of a friendly face made the task that I had ahead of me suddenly feel a whole lot more manageable.