Back in the game, I felt the need to experiment a bit. Seeing Erika again after all this time had made me lose my appetite, and I needed to get my mind off of things and focus. The faster I found a way back, the faster I could put Erika behind me for good. Well, I would need someone to actually tell me if what I tried to do worked, which would mean I would need to get a hold of Indella again. Hmm, well, I could try a few simple things and see if it worked out. The most obvious thing I wanted to check was the Real Money store for the game. I had never made use of it before, but I knew it contained things that could prove pivotal for my dungeon. Hmm, no better wait until Indella was around for that, wouldn’t want to waste money. What else could I do? Wait… what if…

About an hour later, the plaque at the adventurer camp showed up again. “Was those extra resources your doing?” Mordred's handwriting. I replied, “Yes.” There was some silence. “Dammit, can’t read this, let me get Indella. Couldn’t read it? Oh, Babel was probably messing with the writing for me, allowing me to read just fine, but who knows what language I was actually writing in. About 5 minutes later, Indella’s editing told me she had taken over reading duty. Actually, I had a few ideas of my own. “Just give me a moment.”

I opened the Real Money store and scrolled through to a particular item. The Magic Mouth, a simple tool whose only effect was to allow the Core to talk to people over long distances. A magical intercom, basically. Indella should be able to use it as well, so we could have a proper conversation. I placed it down, and after a few seconds of fiddling to get it setup correctly, I activated it. “Indella, can you hear me? If so try manipulating this mouth to speak.” It was strange hearing my voice coming out of the stone mouth on the wall. Now all I could do was wait.

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When the mouth appeared on the wall, I became curious. What was this thing supposed to do? “Indella, can you hear me? If so try manipulating this mouth to speak.” Mordred, who had been busy eating dinner beside me, nearly choked as the mouth suddenly spoke in Pearl’s voice. I looked at the thing in shock. What kind of insane contraption was this? Well, if Pearl had placed it, I should be able to manipulate it as well. I focused on it, willed my voice to come from it. “Like this?” I almost fell over from surprise. My voice, for the first time since my transformation, I could hear my voice. The mouth smiled. “Hey, it works. That should make things easier. So, Indella, I am going to try something here. Considering this Magic Mouth works properly, it might cause some strange effects in the dungeon. Just wanted to give a heads-up to prevent panic.” I looked at the others and nodded. Mordred rose from where he was eating. “I’ll pass the message along, you two just keep working on getting this mess sorted out.” He began a quick jaunt towards the exit just as Pearl spoke again.

“Ok, so my first plan is to try an implement a floor wide effect to the 2nd floor, just give me another moment.” An effect to an entire floor? What kind of crazy… . Umm… OK, Archives? . Well, possible or not, I wasn’t complaining. But what did that mean, exactly? I mean Mental Resilience was the aura given off by the totems but… Once again Archives chimed in, helpful as ever. . Well, that was pretty damn useful either way, I turned towards the mouth and focused again. “Whatever you just did, it caused a floor wide Mental Resilience effect to occur.” The mouth frowned before it spoke with Pearls voice once more. “Only Resilience? So, it’s not a direct transfer, or maybe Resilience is the strongest version of the effect on your end, as I just placed a Mental Immunity effect. Well, close enough either way.”

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Indella and I went back and forth on what the fresh additions to my game dungeon did to my Dungeon, and suddenly several hours had passed by. Turns out the Real Money shop was far more limited in effect than I hoped. I couldn’t place a single Immunity aura, and one Blessing could only affect a floor at a time, If I placed a second Blessing, the first disappeared. Obviously, I placed Mental Immunity Auras on all floors, so that they would benefit from Mental Resilience. I also didn’t get any benefits by placing new creatures on my end. I hadn’t really expected that to work, but I had tried anyway. That was all fine, but there was still the elephant in my room. How would I get back there? Indella and I had been discussing ideas with Mordred, Eliandar, Pavol and even Yrsha, giving their own suggestions. But so far, nothing we had thought of seemed promising. After discussing far into the night, I was mentally and physically exhausted. Once Indella pointed out she had fallen asleep, I ended the discussion there. There was no use in trying to force the issue. But when I went to bed that night, I continued to feel as if I was overlooking something obvious.

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“Erika, I keep telling you, this is a horribly bad idea. Her apartment has state-of-the-art security. Some of it is almost as nasty as the damn program protecting your profile.” I looked over at Robin. He was good with security systems, but far too skittish for any big jobs. “I don’t care, all you need to do is to give me access to the Biolock for the main entrance. It’s not like you need to break into a vault or something.” Robin looked at me with ha skeptical expression. “Erika, do you have any idea how hard it is to add someone’s biometric data to a Biolock without the security system throwing a fit?” He shirked away from my stony expression. “Robin, I am not paying you to complain, I am paying you to do it. Get to work or I will find someone who can.” He looked at me for a few more seconds, before returning his focus to his screen with a shrug. “I will get it done by tomorrow. Just don’t blame me when you get dragged kicking and screaming out the door by Security.” Pfft Robin was always overreacting. What was the worst that could happen?

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Waking up felt weird. I had become so used to sleeping on a hard stone floor that waking up in a bed was making me feel all kinds of off. Breakfast was miserable. I wasn’t in the mood to do any cooking, and bread with cheese really couldn’t measure up against Lienru’s delicacies. I wanted to go home, badly. Well, complaining about it wouldn’t get me anywhere, now, would it? I hopped back into the pod as soon as I had finished eating, eager to continue to find a way home. I still had a few ideas on how to accomplish it, but it would still take a lot of testing.

Several hours later, I was getting frustrated at my lack of progress. It didn’t really matter what I tried to do. I kept just hitting a brick wall with how to get myself back and it was getting on my nerves. The portals had been promising, but no, they worked as intended and transferred whatever I sent through them as you would expect. It was so effective that I actually copied the portals and placed them on all my floors, a job that took the better part of an hour to complete. Just as I finished, a group of players entered the dungeon, ugh I was not in the mood right now. I opened the portal on the 180th floor and sent in a group of Minotaur Gladiators, intending on just stomping them out. The moment they entered the portal I had a severe sense of vertigo. I changed my view to floor one and… where were the Minotaurs? I double-checked the portal. Hang on a moment… I ignored the players, they would get trounced soon enough anyway, besides I had other things on my mind right now.

I hoped I was right as I quickly contacted Indella, hoping beyond hope. But I this was also confusing, I had tested the portals before, so why did this happen now? Then it hit me. I had opened the portal just as if it was a portal back in the dungeon, without using the game system! Now, if only… “Pearl, what did you do? There is a group of Minotaurs standing on the first floor being terribly lost and confused.” My heart skipped a beat. “How many Minotaurs?” The reply was almost instant “5, now, mind explaining what’s going on?” I laughed, and I cried as I couldn’t believe it. I had found a way back by falling into old habits. “Indella, I might have found a way home, though I will keep testing for a few more moments, and there is also something else I want to check.” A thought had hit me when this happened. “My dungeon, and this game one had a link. This link let me place items here to get them back in my Dungeon, to some extent, and it even served as a gateway back as well. So, what if...? I looked over at the Magic Mouth with a determined expression. “Indella, do me a favor and head to the core room, I want to test something.” As I moved myself over to the 5th floor, I noted the Striders had torn apart the players on floor 2, not much of a surprise there.

The fifth floor of my game dungeon was without a doubt a nasty one. Not to mention that it had to be unbearably hot in there. Volcanic Caverns, a mutation I had gained several years ago and had replaced the cave floor with. Just entering the floor meant any invaders would face a heat hazard. I looked over at the floor and used the Pay store to buy an Entrance Relocation. Now let’s see how this would work out. I grabbed the entrance to the floor and moved it a few centimeters, if my guess was correct then... The sensation of vertigo returned and I almost blacked out for a few moments. I felt drained beyond words, but I was pretty certain that it worked. Too bad I couldn’t contact Indella in the core room since this side of the dungeon didn’t have Latra. Well, I was pretty certain Indella would contact me if I waited in the Adventurer's camp, besides I was feeling a little light-headed.

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As I landed in the core room, I couldn’t help but wonder what sort of crazy idea Pearl had come up with. As I was mulling over different theories on what Pearl might be up to, a sudden bout of extreme vertigo overcame me, forcing me to my knees. Then the area marked as the teleporter that would take you to the next floor lit up. What in Rubolgs name? Well, the answer to the question was simple, Pearl had done something. Huh? What was Archives on about? I opened up the menu showing the overall stats of the dungeon. Nothing seemed out of the or- wait what? As I watched, the numbers for the total floors in the dungeon were changing, radically. 5 floors, 6 floors, 7, 8, the number was climbing and FAST. Just what in Rubolgs name had she just done? As soon as I asked that question, I suddenly felt light-headed and dizzy as I fell to my knees once more. Dammit, Pearl, what did you just do? Before anyone or anything could answer the question, the world went black.

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I almost lost consciousness as the feeling that had started when I replaced the entrance kept intensifying, but I held on, barely. I couldn’t afford to fall asleep now, not when I was this close to secure my dungeon fully, well, if my suspicion was correct, at any rate. Now I just needed to hear from Indella to confirm if what I had attempted had succeeded or not. But if the vertigo was the sensation of something passing from the game and into my Dungeon… Well, only time would tell. I would, however, want to know the answer to that before I did anything else. All I could do now was wait. And wait I had too, as it took 3 hours before Indella finally manipulated the Magic Mouth at the Adventurer Camp, long enough for me to get worried. “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?” Well, not what I expected as a reply, but I wouldn’t say it surprised me as I moved to answer. “Well, if things happened as I hoped, I just added the missing floors of my game dungeon to the one over there.” There was silence for a while. “Archives says that there are a total of 200 floors, but they are all empty, no creatures.” Well, that made sense, since creatures didn’t seem to pass through that easily. “I know, and I have a way to fix that, but it will take a while.” There was more silence. The next bit didn’t come from the Magic Mouth, but was written in Mordred's handwriting. He was always quick on the uptake when it involved magic. “You mean to use the portals.” Well, that made things easier. “That was the plan, yes. And if I am lucky, I can also use the portals myself to get back. It will have to wait until I have transferred everything else, however. As I do not know if the connection will stay put once I leave.” There was more silence, then Indella’s created letters showed up. “More dungeon is good and all, but will it involve more of that damn vertigo?” Oh… “It affected you as well?” Indella’s reply removed all shadow of a doubt that was the case, oops.

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Robin looked up from the screen. “There, it’s done. You should be able to get in for the next three hours.” I looked at the little nerd. “Three hours?” He shrugged. “Best I can do, the system resets at regular intervals, purging all external connections and temporary access accounts like the one I gave you. If I tried anything else, the system would have fried my hardware.” I looked at him with a sour grimace. Three hours would suffice, but I had hoped for something more. Now I could at least get Pearl to talk to me. I dropped the credit stick on his table and hurried out. Better hurry if I wanted to get to Pearls apartment before the hour was out.

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Transporting all my creatures through the portals was slow, really slow. More so because they would arrive at the other side extremely confused. On the upside, the layout of the dungeon on the other side was identical to the layout here, so I had the infrastructure to keep them all going. The main issues were keeping them all from freaking out, considering what was going on. And also the god damn vertigo every time a creature passed through the portal. The more was walking through at once, the worse it got. However, I would transfer everyone. These creatures had saved me from utter despair over the past 8 years, and while they weren’t alive here, they would be on the other side. I would not leave a single one behind. It was the least I could do for them in return, Indella had reluctantly agreed with my reasoning as I explained it to her. The transfer was still an emotional hell, but one that was temporary. To make sure the transfer would go without being disturbed, I had moved Minos to the foyer of the 1st Floor. Any adventurer group unfortunate to set foot inside would wind up at respawn fast. It wasn’t the first time I had done this to keep people out when I was redoing the layout, so players would usually get the message fast. Finally, after nearly three hours of work, the only ones remaining in my entire dungeon was me and Minos.

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The door opened without a hitch. The moment I touched the handle the lock disengaged, just as Robin had promised. At least the fool wasn’t completely useless. I had hoped to find Pearl on the couch or something, but the apartment seemed empty. Had she gone out? Hmm, nah, Pearl had never been a person who enjoyed being outside, even at the best of times. I should probably look around some more. Maybe she was in another room or something. It didn’t take long to actually locate her, considering she had a really fancy NVR Pod. Top of the line newest model. Bloody hell, Pearl really was rich, wasn’t she? Even I couldn’t afford this sort of expensive BS. The key problem was that the pod was running, which meant Pearl was inside. There was no way for me to actually talk to her until she came back out, unless? I looked around the room. Surely, there was a spare NVR headset for when you just wanted a quick dive, right?

After rummaging through the room for a bit, I found one. It was old, really, really old. This one looked like it hadn’t seen use for the better part of a decade. I dusted off it and moved towards the pod. There should be a slot where others could plug in to join the one playing inside the pod. However, just as I slotted it in the entire pod suddenly gave off this massive flash of white light. I slammed on the headset and activated it to escape the insanely bright light. The moment I did, the world went black, and I was falling, falling... falling… into… darkness.

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I sent Minos through the portal first. That way, if something happened to me or if I failed to pass through, then the others would at least have Minos to help them out. I looked around the game dungeon one last time. Then I remembered something and quickly grabbed an item from the Pay Shop it was one of the most expensive items the shop offered. But it would be necessary if I were to have any hope of dealing with the Lord of the Void, provided it even worked at all. I took the item out of my inventory and lobbed it through the portal to be sure I wouldn’t lose it. Then, just as I set foot in the portal myself, I heard a message, followed by some kind of light inside the portal. “Player 2 Connect-” The rest of the message cut off as I stepped through and everything went black.

Consciousness returned slowly, and my entire body ached. I sat up and looked around, well, I tried looking around, but something small and human shaped collided with my face and blocked my vision. A familiar knot of emotion in the back of my head told me all I needed to know. “Nice to see you too Indella, now, do you mind letting me go? I can’t see and you are also making it difficult to breathe.” Indella let go and stepped back a few paces, blushing ever so slightly as I looked at her. I quickly noticed that I was inside the dining room. Odd, I am positive I had taken the portal to the first floor. “How did it go, did everyone make it through?” Indella looked over her shoulder and I followed her gaze. There staring daggers at Rael and the rest of the party and single-handedly preventing them from moving past, was Minos. “Let them pass, Minos, things have changed since your last encounter.”

As I finished speaking, he turned around, and all but led the resulting charge over to me. “Mistress!” Minos’ voice was far deeper than I had expected. Then again, I had really no idea how I had imagined his voice to be. In the game, Minos, just like every other monster, had been mute outside of roars, snarls and grunts. “Mistress, how I have longed for this day once more.” Was he… crying? He stretched out a massive hand and gingerly touched my paw before he collected himself. He got down on one knee, slammed his left arm into the floor, and put his right hand over his heart. “Mistress, I, Minos apologize for my inability to properly protect you before now. However, I beg you, allow me to guard your Core from now on, despite my earlier failings I will not do so again.” Yep, that was more akin to what I had expected. When I created Minos, I had maxed out his sense of honor and as seriousness.

This no-nonsense behavior was what I had hoped for and frankly what I needed right now. I looked at him as I sat up myself. Even kneeling, the massive form of Minos was almost as tall as me when I was sitting upright. “You shall Minos, and more than that. You have never failed in your duty, though circumstances forced us apart, now that you have returned you will once again guard my core. However, certain events transpiring means that there are far more than just guarding to do, I trust you are up to the task.” Minos grinned, revealing several razor-sharp teeth as he nodded once. Right, Minotaurs were carnivores. How easy that was to forget. “Good, now did anyone see a compact bundle coming through the portal?” Indella pointed to the corner of the room. Good, it had made it through.

Just as I was about to continue, there was a rumbling sound. Indella and the rest had barely enough time to scatter across the room as a literal tide of Kobolds led by Ssatassha flooded in from the entrance. They fell on me in a scaly tidal wave of hugs, followed by a scent that caused everyone in the room to drool uncontrollably. Lienru entered the room, followed by a dozen other Kobolds each carrying platters of food that smelled beyond divine. “The Great One has returned, I demand a celebration!” Ssatassha declared from her perch atop the pile of Kobolds that were still busy hugging me. I tried in vain to move, to speak to do anything, but the Kobolds would have none of it for another few minutes. By then the rest had eagerly joined in on the party as Lienru and her assistants carted more and more food in. Where were they storing, let alone cooking all of this?

I decided it didn’t matter, not now. I was home again and this time for good, if I had anything to say about it. The only thing I did before I joined the festivities was to put the package into storage. Better not lose it, or have someone activate it by accident, that would be bad. Hopefully, the tens of thousands of credits I had paid for this damn thing was worth it. Then again, it was a moot point. I didn’t need Credits anymore, and if it didn’t live up to my hopes, it probably wouldn’t matter. As the party wound down a Duergar entered and said something to Indella, then saw me, smiled briefly, bowed and hurried out. What was that about? Indella looked at me and motioned for me to follow her. A chill went down my spine at the news. Had another player somehow gotten into the dungeon and through the portal?

Then I remembered the message I had received just as I stepped through. Player 2, how in the world had someone connected to my Pod? Well, the best way to find out was to speak with the person in question. Indella explained as we moved towards the stairs. Just as I was about to respond, however, there was another who until now had remained quiet, but finally said hello. To call Archives loud would be an extreme understatement. It was like someone was yelling into my ear, and if Indella’s reaction was anything to go by, Archives had not thought this through at all. It was nice to have Archives back too. The rest of the trip to the Duergar fort went with little in the way of issues.

However, as I arrived, I noticed a few changes here and there. There were several smaller tunnels in the large valley in front of the fort. 52… oh right, the Bottomless Chasm. It made sense. That place was better suited for flying creatures. And since migration wasn’t a thing in the game but was here, many of the creatures from the game would move to floors that suited them better. Hopefully, without causing too much of a fuss. Three days? And no one felt the need to tell me that sooner? No wonder I had been so damn hungry. Indella gave me an apologetic smile as we entered the Duergar Fort. There was a party going on here as well, with a bunch of greyish-black Goblins dancing around and making merry with the usually more stoic Duergar. Their music was a strange mix of the Duergar’s brass and the Deep Goblins’ bone instruments, but it wasn’t bad to listen to, not at all.

Finally, we reached the hut that they had cooped my mysterious passenger up in. I looked inside and froze. There, sleeping soundly on a small cot was the one person I hated the most in the world. Ironic that if it wasn’t for her betrayal, I would never have made this place. I didn’t even think twice about it as I spent the points to unlock the Prison and placed one at the back of the Fort. Indella didn’t look surprised as I ordered her moved there and kept under strict guard. She had felt my sheer hatred for her easily enough. I am not sure what expression I had made, but the look of horror on the guard’s face told me I should probably calm down before I confronted Erika. I doubted she knew what she had gotten herself into. There was no way she would have willingly followed me here. It was just bad luck on her end that any player connecting using the pod of a friend would spawn just in front of them. This would have put Erika inside the portal as she appeared in the game, sending her hurtling through space and time the moment she spawned in. I returned to the party for now, I would decide what to do with her later. Revenge was indeed a dish best served cold. The thought gave me a wicked smile indeed, according to Indella.