Slowly rocking back and forth, I knocked my head against the back of the coffin. Not in a, I had lost it and needed a padded room way. More like in a, I couldn’t believe this shit was happening sort of way. Sighing, I sat back up before getting out of the coffin completely for the first time since this craziness started.

I was stuck here and had no way or one to contact about getting out. I should be fine for a few hours, a day even if it came to it. I dreaded missing a call from my lawyer or the police, but circumstances being what they were. I rubbed my head as I couldn’t remember, but I could have sworn there was an emergency cut off if your body reached critical levels. That would take months sadly with the nanites. I prayed to God that didn’t happen, but it was a potential out in the long term.

Focusing back on the present, I couldn’t overdo it on the moving. Small movements were fine, but anything more extreme would result in muscles popping and skin tearing. One of my fingers was hanging loose thanks to my nearly mummified body. I’d rather not risk an entire limb coming off. The good news, however, was that I didn’t feel pain from the injury and thus felt that the game was mostly functioning like normal now.

Carefully sliding to the ground, I landed on my feet carefully testing them in the process. When it looked like they were going to be fine, I stalked along the wall to check if there might be a hidden passage or small entrance that I might have missed. I’m not sure, but I felt it took me almost half an hour to check the entire room with how slow I was forced to move.

My inspection complete, I returned to my starting point. Now then… I needed to get to the surface! That way I could get some moisture in my body then I should be able to make an emergency call. I wasn’t sure which way the surface even was, but it shouldn’t be too far. Surely… Hopefully… I shook my head and thought about how to go about reaching said surface.

Dungeon cores. What exactly was a dungeon core? It wasn’t something I knew much about. I had played games of course and knew that dungeons were usually places for challenges that players attempted to get loot, gear and whatnot. But I didn’t know if that was the case for this game. Certainly, it wasn’t the torture people sort of dungeon. I felt pretty confident about that fact.

Leaning back against the wall of the room, I pulled the menu up again and stared at my options. I had a few magics, but I couldn’t remember for the life of me how they worked in this game. Did I need an incantation? Reagents? Runes? I decided to leave those alone for the time being. That left me with only one real option.

Tapping the Dungeon Menu while crossing my fingers that it worked properly, a deep breathe escaped me when another screen popped up. Sadly, it wasn’t very helpful.

--

[Dungeon Core: Vampire. Owner: Aurora Nightingale]

Total Mana: 0/100

Absorb.

Create.

Destroy.

Summon.

--

I tapped on the absorb not really sure what it would do. A second later, I was falling back as the wall vanished. Unable to react in time, I landed on my butt with at least four or five more tears all over my body. I groaned and glanced at the wall. A sphere of it was now missing. I thought it was around a meter total in radius.

Pulling myself back up proved to be a challenge. Whatever had torn had been in my right leg and it no longer operated properly. With a few stumbles and groans later, I had finally got back to my feet. I checked everything again once I was standing to find the core’s mana had risen by a point.

I limped to the nearest section of the wall and used Absorb again. This time it was centered on my hand so a bit more level with the floor. I kept it up more because I was fascinated by the smooth edges more than for any other reason. When I saw the core’s mana reached ten, I finally managed to make myself stop.

There was nothing to really destroy other than the coffin and I wasn’t sure that I wasn’t going to need that in the future. If this lasted more than a few hours, I would need somewhere to sleep after all. I could remember that the sun was the number of enemy of vampires in this game, though only barely.

When I hit the Create option, an empty list popped up. Well, not completely empty. I could create stone and dirt. The two things I had absorbed from the wall. I tapped on dirt and a small box appeared. I stared at it before tapping it. A keyboard appeared. I couldn’t help but think that this was all rather immersion breaking. I went ahead and just put in a one.

Dirt exploded from my hand quickly burying my legs before I could move. I panicked and swung my hand causing the dirt to cover most of the room like a blanket. A few seconds of this, and the dirt finally ceased being created. I groaned before attempting to move, only to find I was completely stuck, the dirt being up to my waist.

Shit! I didn’t risk absorbing it as the sphere would be centered on my hand. I’d rather not fall again. I really didn’t want my left leg to end up in the same situation as the right. I resigned myself to digging myself out at least partially but first, I decided to try the summoning skill. If it created something that could help me dig myself out, then great. Even better was if I can have it contact a Game master for me.

Pulling the menu open once more, I tapped the summon skill. A list appeared much like Create. Since there were more entries, a grand total of five, I took a second to inspect each option before committing.

--

Summoning

Dungeon Imp Ghoul Bat (Vampiric) Demon (Lesser) Worg

--

I tapped a finger against my arm for a few minutes before I realized that I had no where near enough mana to summon anything other than the Dungeon Imp. Even the Bat cost a full fifteen mana points. With nothing more to lose than a few mana, I tapped on the Imp option.

A cascade of options opened around me. Just from the few screens right in front of my nose, it looked like I could almost completely design the creature as I saw fit. I rubbed my hands together as something interesting and not day ruining finally happened. The artist inside me rearing up to take charge.

An hour later, I was done with all the settings, and I hit the summon button. A small portal or circle appeared on the ground as a figure rose into the air. When the light show was over, a short creature stood in front of me. He looked sort of like a fox and a man that had been fused. He wore a red and black suit with a pair of glasses that were prefect circles. His skin was a perfect white, not pale but almost like alabaster.

The Imp bowed at a perfect ninety-degree angle and exclaimed excitedly. “Hello! My wonderful master! Thank you for summoning me! The Dungeon Imp Losa at your service!”

I clapped since I couldn’t say anything. He was exactly as I pictured. I did design just about everything about him after all. I was pleased with the gentleman that stood in front of me. The colors blended well and his suit, suited him to a tee. He looked up when he heard the clapping.

“My dear!” He ran circles around me. “My dear! You are in rough shape.”

I shrugged since I couldn’t really see more than my limbs. I knew my clothes were about ready to fall off but other than that, I was at a lost. Going from the look of my limbs, I had to think my face couldn’t be that nice to look at either.

He made a few sounds of consideration as he looked me over. “Vampire. Been asleep… three hundred years?”

“…” I shrugged again. It should only have been four years unless the company that made this game decided to move its development up. That still shouldn’t have affected my body.

“Alright.” He tapped his chin. “We need to fix this. One-way conversations get old fast!” I nodded rapidly even risking my neck, but I wanted to make sure he knew I agreed with him. He snapped his fingers. “I have just the trick up my sleeves. It helps that you were a vampire and thus Chthonic in nature. They like to play with minds. I’ll just spend this ability point real fast and… done!”

I tilted my head at him as he went on his strange ramble. “Ramble, my dear master. I am exactly as you imagined me. Why, one might even call me your son!” He retorted wagging his finger at me.

‘You heard me?’ I thought with surprise.

“It’s a bit of a jumble, but yes. I could hear that thought as it was directed at me. The more directed at me it is, the easier it is for me to hear. Like that I hear quite clearly.”

‘Thank God! Emergency Game Master call!’ I thought with as much force as I could.

“Master? Has the revelation that I might as well be your son make you lose it?” Losa asked cautiously. “There are no gods, and what is a Game master?” he asked before snapped his fingers and realization flashed across his face. Silently I prayed it was the system kicking in. “You mean a Colosseum master! Yes, Yes. Master must have great plans for her dungeon. Good!”

‘NO! A Game Master. A GM! Game Staff! Emergency Stop!’ I started thinking of absolutely everything that I could to make it work, but… nothing did. After about five minutes of shouting my thoughts at Losa, I leaned forward collapsing on the dirt that entrapped me. I would have started crying if it weren’t for the fact that my body was completely drained of moisture at the present.

Losa was looking at me like I was broken, which might not be far from the truth. If I couldn’t contact a Game master through an NPC, then I couldn’t see myself getting out of the game before my body hit critical levels of dehydration in a few weeks. I DIDN’T WANT TO BE A MUMMY IN REAL LIFE TOO!

“Master?” Losa asked though there was clear trepidation in his voice.

‘What Losa?!’ I demanded not looking up from my folded arms. I knew it wasn’t his fault and it wasn’t fair of me, but I couldn’t help taking my anger out on him.

“Clearly I am missing some critical piece of information. Could you tell me what is wrong?” he asked kneeling in front of me. “Perhaps, I could lend proper assistance if I knew what was going on.”

Tell an NPC he was an NPC? I couldn’t remember what happened in those cases before. There was usually an unspoken rule among players not to do so, as it broke the immersion. I sighed and pushed myself to a proper sitting position. ‘Take a seat.’