Jake had been having a great day. He had managed to get a decent chunk of change at the pawnshop, and his favourite dealer had halved the debt from Jake ripping him off the last couple of times. Jake didn’t have any money left from requisitioning his brother’s T.V., but there was some pony in his pocket, and now Jake was practically debt-free. He’d just found a door unlocked by the bus station, and it appeared to lead to some new basement area beneath the station. Jake figured that was just more of his hot streak coming into play because while this area wasn’t the fanciest place he had ever snuck into for a night, it looked relatively comfortable, was clean, and had comfy couches on which he could lie down.

As Jake prepped the needle and tied off his arm, a hint of guilt crept into his conscience. His brother had let him stay over again after pulling some similar stunts the last time John had opened his house up to Jake. His brother did have a decent paying job, but that didn’t mean that Jake taking the T.V. and pawning it wouldn’t cause him a bit of a headache. And as much as Jake appreciated what John had done for him, ever since their parents had passed, Jake had had many more problems controlling his impulses and had backslid into addiction. He knew of one cure for a guilty conscience, though, and felt a sense of irony as he moved the needle towards his veins. He felt a sense of bliss for a couple of seconds before his blood suddenly felt like it had fire spreading out from the injection point, and his body began to convulse, and his vision went black.

John felt annoyed as his brother made his way down into his first Room. And from the way he was behaving, it looked like Jake had pawned John’s T.V. and used it to score some drugs. John knew you couldn’t altogether blame an addict for their behaviour, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t upsetting to watch them after they had negatively affected you somehow. Watching his brother prepping the needle and tie off his arm was incredibly frustrating, knowing that Jake had abused John’s trust and stolen from him only to end up feeding his habit. However, the sense of anger and frustration was quickly morphing into a desperate sense of fear and horror as he watched Jake’s reaction shortly after the drugs entered his body. John frantically began trying to absorb the needle, the drugs entering his brother’s veins, even the blood itself, as his brother’s body convulsed with some apparent adverse reaction to whatever was in the needle. However, his new life’s rules wouldn’t allow him to affect anything attached to or directly related to his brother. John let out an anguished howl as he watched the convulsions on his brother’s body begin to slow. He felt a sense of reassurance trying to come across Gwen’s connection, but it did little to calm his growing rage.

Gwen had been reading through The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Rings. It was a different experience reading the book after watching a film, and she figured the experience would be similar if she read a novel after seeing a play based on it. However, costs would have made that idea expensive back on Urth, and most people wouldn’t want to spend the money on a book after seeing a play. She found the experience different than reading most other books, as she had an idea of what the characters should look like that had been influenced by the film. She was also interested in how viewing other movies or the T.V. shows John had mentioned would be affected when they shared the same actors. It was also interesting seeing what had been removed from the book while making the movie. John had mentioned that he was glad that Tom Bombadil had been removed from the film due to how tonally different he was, but Gwen thought it would have been fun to watch him sing his songs.

As Gwen read about The Fellowship’s trip through Moria, she felt someone enter the Dungeon. A sense of excitement began to grow in her as the Dungeon was about to have its first adventurer. She was slightly confused by the sense of annoyance she felt coming from John, though she figured it must be because he thought the Dungeon wasn’t ready yet. Weirdly, the person stopped inside the First Room and didn’t appear to intend to enter the Dungeon itself. They then pulled out some kind of cylinder that seemed to break their skin, after which they seemed to have some type of adverse reaction. This series of events seemed extremely upsetting to John, probably because it looked like this could be the first person to die in his Dungeon. Gwen tried to send a sense of reassurance to John, but it didn’t seem to have that much of an effect on him. She could sense a growing sense of rage coming from John. Deciding that he would likely need her support soon, Gwen decided that she would bring her consciousness into John’s perspective to give him support, though her body would remain in the Soul Space for now.

John felt the sense of reassurance coming from Gwen shift into more active thoughts, and he realized that her presence was now alongside his consciousness. It wasn’t taking away any of his anger, but the fact that she was there for him helped him not wholly spiral out of control, though his emotions were very close to overtaking his more rational side.

Gwen’s voice sounded in his mind, saying, “I know this must be hard, John, but some people will die in your Dungeon.”

“I understood the possibility, but that’s my fucking brother, and I can’t do anything!” John said with a significant amount of anger coming through his voice. He knew Gwen meant well, but platitudes wouldn’t do much good in this situation.

“Oh… I’m sorry, John. I didn’t realize why you were so upset.” Gwen said, the regret about the situation evident in both her voice and feelings.

“I understand, this situation is not your fault. It’s always something I knew could happen, but I didn’t think that I would have to sit by, watch, and do nothing if it happened in front of me.” John was sure that his frustration and building sorrow was evident to Gwen. As he finished saying this to Gwen, John felt a rush of mana enter him, completely replenishing and expanding his mana supply. John realized that this must be due to his brother finally passing, and his sense of despair grew. However, he felt something else begin to pass through him and had an intuitive knowledge that this was his brother’s soul. Something about his brother’s very soul being taken away from John caused his anger to resurface, and he began fighting the process. John could feel a tension building, and as it began to reach a final swell, John let off a yell, saying, “Fuck you, he’s my brother!”

There was a flash of white, and John was once again facing Mahaytar, who had a droll smile across Tom Holland’s visage. “John, it’s been a long time, two whole days, I believe? Most people go whole lifetimes without running into Gods or Administrators.”

John wasn’t sure why he was back in an extradimensional realm, much less what he had done to summon Mahaytar. He directed a confused look towards Mahaytar, who responded by saying, “You have another choice to make John.”

“What is it this time?”

“You have a choice to make about Souls, including your brothers. Your world does not currently have a Soul Repository, so anyone who dies in it will be sent directly to their afterlife or brought into the multiverse for reincarnation. So none who dies on your world has any way of being resurrected or reincarnated in this world. You have shown the ability to hold onto Souls, so you would be eligible to become your World’s Soul Repository, which would be a significant responsibility. You would gain some new abilities, though, and I will grant you another Boon.”

“How important is this job; what are my responsibilities, and is there a danger to it?”

“It is not extremely important in and of itself, and one will eventually develop. However, until one develops, your world will not be able to link to souls already in the afterlife. Communication will still be available though it will be much harder, and only the quickest forms of resurrection will be available. Summoning spirits from the afterlife and most forms of reincarnation will not be available, along with it being much harder for souls from other parts of the multiverse to migrate to your world.”

Mahaytar pause led for a second, and a considering look crossed his face. “You will not have any personal responsibilities, though to get some opportunities, you may take on certain responsibilities. For example, if you act as a kind of Purgatory and try to help Souls cleanse some of their sins before moving on, you will gain access to them as a kind of workforce. You may also gain some Souls as permanent residents if you choose to act as a kind of afterlife. However, you would then have to deal with some Souls who have unsavoury personalities as you try to reform them. As to the danger this would put you in; currently, it would be almost no danger. In the long run, it may gain you the attention of certain malicious entities. However, simply growing in strength as a Dungeon would also eventually attract these entities’ attention so that you wouldn’t be taking on any extra danger.”

“So essentially, accepting this request wouldn’t cause any undue burdens, would give me more opportunities, and allow me to stay connected to my brother? This offer sounds a bit too good to be true.” John said with a significant amount of suspicion in his voice.

“Well, you had to have a powerful desire related to Souls to be considered for this, and you did just have some horrible luck over the past couple of days. Consider it the System correcting your Karmic balance or something.”

“Okay, sounds good. Now about my Boon. I know that going through my Dungeon is eventually going to become a hazardous proposition. However, if possible, I would like to avoid permanently killing people, except on cases of those who are truly evil, commit heinous crimes, or wish to do me or those close to me harm. So I would like to request some kind of Checkpoint system. Before someone enters into my Dungeon proper, they would have to use this Checkpoint. This Checkpoint would register them as they were before entering the Dungeon and would allow them to return as they were before entering the Dungeon if they perish in it. The System would result in a net gain in mana for me, but I would get less mana than if my Dungeon completely consumed the person.”

“Another pragmatic request that will increase the abilities of society at large and generally increase the good in the world by giving non-evil people more opportunities for strength. I should be able to set something up. Again, remember that this System will likely be available for other Dungeons on your world and eventually possibly for other Dungeons in the multiverse.” Mahaytar said while his droll smile became more approving.”

“It only seems fair.”

“Okay, I likely won’t see you again for a long while, so good luck John,” Mahaytar said as he began to fade out of view, and the white expanse faded towards a black.