Three months later...

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

Stanley took a sip from his thermos, cautiously so as to avoid burning his tongue on the scalding coffee. After the obligatory 'aww' he put it down in the cupholder and put on his sunglasses. He looked to his right at Caffeine who was curling up in his dog bed on the passenger seat, well used to the routine by now.

"Let’s roll," he said. The dog only looked at him with big brown eyes.

Stanley took a deep breath, closed his eyes and reached out with his mind. In his mind’s eye he saw the truck around and beneath him, rumbling gently with the idling engine. He sent his mental focus down below his feet until he got his power to wrap around the frame of the vehicle and grasp on. He opened his eyes and looked through the windshield at the sun drenched truck stop. Seeing that he was clear to move, he released the parking brake and instead of shifting into gear left the truck in neutral. His Mind or maybe his Will, Pushed against the frame and the truck lurched forward out of the parking spot then jerked to a halt as his foot shot to the brake pedal.

Stanley let out a breath and looked sheepishly over at Caffeine who was now sitting up and staring at him nervously.

"Sorry Caf. Gotta work on my fine control," he said. "I’ll wait till the interstate."

He shifted the truck into gear and drove towards the truckstop exit. A few minutes later he turned onto the freeway ramp and shifted into neutral. Before the truck could slow down, he reached out with his mind and grasped onto the truck once again and Pushed. The truck accelerated up the ramp toward the freeway and then immediately decelerated to merge onto the crowded interstate.

Stanley looked at the clock and sighed. “Not even noon yet and already rush hour... stupid northeast...”

"Meh. No big deal. It's better training in rush hour anyway," He told himself. After a few minutes he settled into the flow and picked up his Bluetooth headset. He pushed the button on the headset and said "Call Lee." After a moment he heard in his ear “I don’t see a Leah in your contacts. Who would you like to call?”

“Son of a... piece of shi... garbage trash. I said Call Lee!” he growled into the headset.

“I didn’t get that. Who did you want to call?”

After some cursing Stanley waited for the rush hour traffic to stop long enough for him to tap on his phone to manually call his brother. The phone rang for a bit then went silent and disconnected. Stanley sighed and took off the headset.

“Stupid cell network. Oh well he probably got a missed call so he’ll call back.” In the meantime, he turned on his satellite radio only to have no signal.

"Damn solar flares," He thought. Or at least that's what the government was blaming for the increasing blackouts and wireless disruptions. Stanley didn’t buy it. Something was coming. Something big that would change the world . He was sure of it. That day in the mountains had left him with that feeling, as well as the power that he now wielded to push his truck down the highway.

He had seen something that day. Something he couldn’t remember now but he still retained the feeling. He had also come away with this power. He knew that he had done something to gain the power. Had sacrificed something else in order to keep it. Stanley had decided to trust the decision he had made in the past even if he couldn’t remember the specifics of why or what.

He had been pushing his new ability to the limit every day since then. In the beginning he could barely move a pen before a headache would shut him down but now he could push his forty ton semi down the road for hours and today he intended to push it all the way until he parked for the night. Since the radio wouldn’t work he plugged in his phone and put on some music. Something was coming and he wanted to be ready.

San Diego, California

"Moving is always a pain," thought Lee. There was always so much more stuff than you thought you had. But at least it was almost done. He had been carting everything up three stories and was exhausted. Granted he'd used the elevator so it wasn’t that bad but still, it was a lot of stuff. He finally took a break, after hours of work, and sat down on one of the plastic bins that was full of stuff he was certain was important, although he couldn’t remember why at the moment.

Lee looked at his phone and saw a missed call from his brother. “Huh, must have not heard it ring while I was carrying shit.” He could see that his cell phone had no signal in here but that wasn't a big surprise given what had prompted him to move here in the first place. He looked towards the center of the room where he couldn’t see anything but he could feel 'It'. The reason he had picked this place. He closed his eyes and let the feeling wash over him. It felt like power. Pure power that he didn’t know how to grasp yet. It felt good, very good. It reminded him of something he had felt on that day when he and his brother had almost died.

Not the dying part...

But instead a half remembered dream of pain, of power, of endless possibilities. He had seen his twin in his mind, had very nearly been his twin in that moment. Lee had seen Stan burning, felt himself burning alongside him. He had seen so much that couldn’t be explained, couldn’t even be described. Then it all got blurry and when he woke up, it all felt like a dream that he couldn’t quite remember.

This power surging forth in front of him pushed against his mind and body. With his eyes closed he felt like he could almost see something flowing past him. He reached his hand out towards it, searching for the source, and touched it!

Immediately he felt the power pouring into him, flooding his mind and body with pure energy. Too much energy! He pulled his hand back and the rush subsided. Yet his body still felt like it was overflowing with power. It swirled and danced like waves crashing back and forth inside him. Lee felt the hairs on his arm standing up. His heart raced and he panicked for a moment, mind flashing back to that day he’d almost died.

"Idiot," he berated himself. "Just stick your hand into the unknown fountain of energy."

But the panic subsided quickly as he realized that this felt much different. It felt good and right, as if he had been dying of thirst and had just drunk a whole pitcher of ice water. Too much ice water to be sure but oh so good. He just needed to bleed off the excess somehow.

Lee thought back on how his brother described using his power. “A matter of will and focus,” he always said. He held his hand up to point at a cardboard box on the floor and tried to picture the energy flowing out of it and pushing the box across the floor. His hand was trembling but nothing happened.

He closed his eyes and tried to focus inside on the swirling, crashing chaos. He could barely see something. Blue glowing water in a black ocean. In some areas it was still, in others it rose and crashed against unseen barriers and some of it spiraled around in little blue whirlpools. He tried to grab a handful of the stuff with a mental hand but it spilled through his fingers. Like trying to grab a fistful of water.

But he did have an effect! He felt some hope at seeing this. There was a way he just had to figure it out. He stood there in his new living room with his arm outstretched and shaking. He forced his will and intention against that energy and pushed again. There was a roar and something threw him backwards onto the floor.

Lee opened his eyes as he sat up and saw a cone of destruction before him. Plastic bins and cardboard boxes had been thrown aside and a patch of carpet had been ripped away exposing the concrete underneath. He looked at his hand and then at the destruction. "So much for my deposit," he thought. But a huge smile was on his face. “That was awesome!”

His arm was tingling and a bit numb as if it had fallen asleep. He shook it and wiggled his fingers. “Seems okay,” he thought as he waited a bit while feeling returned to his arm. Once it felt more or less back to normal he stuck his hand back into the seemingly never ending well of power in his living room. Once again the power poured in. This time he pulled back before it started to hurt. He walked out onto his third floor balcony and pointing his hand up into the sky once again forced out the power with an echoing boom, this time without the property damage. “Oh yea. This is awesome,” he thought. “Forget unpacking, I’m going to figure this out.”

Sometime later he was sitting on the floor, his whole body twitching and trembling. He held his hand up against an undestroyed box and focused. The box shook and then slid across the carpet for a few feet and stopped. He grinned. “It’s not so hard.” He said to himself. Sweat dripped into his eye and he blinked. “Maybe time for a break though.”

Lee looked around his apartment. It was a mess. Boxes were strewn around, some half ripped open and spilling their contents on the floor. He realized with some surprise that it was getting dark already. “How long was I at it?” he thought. He thought about what his efforts had accomplished as he struggled shakily to his feet.

In his experiments he had discovered a system of veins or channels inside his body that the energy seemed to prefer to move through. And right now those channels felt burnt and raw. “Might have overdone it.” He thought. “But I couldn’t resist. All this time watching my twin do awesome shit and being unable to do anything myself. I can’t wait to tell him about this!”

Lee found his phone on the counter where he had left it. He tapped the screen to wake it up but nothing happened. He tried a light switch. Nothing. “Shit. I hope whatever I was messing with didn’t cause this,” he thought. "Probably just forgot to charge my phone." He walked to the porch and looked out. There were still some city lights visible but he felt like there should be more. This was San Diego after all.

He leaned out over the rail and looked south, towards Mexico. He could see the lights of Tijuana easily visible in the rapidly fading twilight. He blinked and could have sworn a patch of lights winked out. "Huh?" His eyes felt gritty. He rubbed them and felt his stomach growling. “Damn it! I forgot to go food shopping after the unloading!”

He trudged over to the small kitchen and opened the fridge hoping that maybe he had gone shopping and just forgot. It was dark and empty. “Well if there’s no power maybe it's good I didn’t go shopping…” He started going through the boxes strewn around as best he could in the dim apartment. He thought of going to his car to go shopping or just grab some fast food but he was so tired. “I’ll go tomorrow,” he decided.

After some mostly blind searching he found what he was looking for. A can of beans and a spoon. He peeled off the lid and settled onto the small couch. “Ahh a dinner of champions.” He said as he dipped his spoon into the cold beans. "At least these have jalapenos in them." Nevertheless he couldn’t help but grin. He could still feel the power flowing around him from the… he froze with a spoonful of beans in his mouth.

Lee could see the energy source now! It was faint but very obviously there. A small point of blue light like a tiny star was hovering in his living room. Small flashes of blue light streaked away from the little star and vanished while other ribbons of light rippled and spun in random directions. He watched the dancing lights, mesmerized until his spoon scraped the bottom of the can. He set it down and considered grabbing another as he was still feeling a little hungry. But he was so tired. It had been quite a day after all. He lay back on the couch and watched the pretty lights as his eyelids slowly drifted shut.

[World Quest Failed!]

Lee jolted upright from the couch. He reached out for his phone to turn off the alarm. His hand waved about for a moment before he peeled his eyes open and saw the glowing blue star before him. Memory came back to him slowly as he tried to rub the sleep from his eyes. He opened his eyes and looked around the dark apartment. As he looked away from the star hovering in the room he saw the words floating in his vision.

[World Quest Failed!]

As he focused on the words they shifted and a new message appeared, echoing the words right into his brain.

The (Human) species has failed the Quest: A Civilized World.

[Failure Conditions]

[Mana Capacitors at Maximum Capacity]

[Achieve >90% Unity] [Failed]

[Achieve >90% World Peace] [Failed]

[Failure Penalty]

[Application to join United System of Civilizations] [Denied]

The Species [Human] designation as [Civilized(Sentient)] [Denied]

The Species [Human] designation: [Monster(Sentient)]

The World (Earth) designation: [Dungeon (F Rank)]

Mana Saturation of (Earth) has begun.

Due to [Monster(Sentient)] lifeforms on (Earth) initializing [Dungeon System]

“What the…” Lee thought. “Humans are monsters? Huh. I guess that’s fair.” The lights in the apartment flickered to life. Lee jumped a bit in surprise. He heard shouts from somewhere in the building.

[New Quest Issued]

[Quest: Defend The Dungeon](Repeatable)

[Portals will bring invaders to your Dungeon. Protect the Dungeon. Defeat the invaders. Grow strong. Become undefeatable. Conquer the Universe.]

He jumped again when the new message appeared in his vision. “That can’t be good…”

[Dungeon System Initialized]

As a (Sentient) you may choose your own Class.

As a [Human] your Racial Trait: [Adaptable] unlocks all Class and Skill restrictions.

If a Class is not chosen before the Dungeon opens you will be assigned the Class with the highest Affinity.

[58:35...58:34...58:33]

A timer appeared in the corner of his vision and started ticking down. At the same time a new screen popped up.

[Class Selection]

[Runic](Legendary)[85% Affinity]

[Enchanter](Uncommon)[81% Affinity]

[Mage](Common)[70% Affinity]

[Fire Mage](Common)[70% Affinity]

….

The list of class choices scrolled down with just a thought. After a long list of various elemental mage classes, there followed more esoteric names like Gravity Mage and Time Mage. "What is that?" He paused at the last two but then continued scrolling down.

More variants of mage such as Sorcerer and Wizard all with their own elemental versions. As he scrolled down the Affinity also reduced. He passed by random classes like Engineer, Librarian, Farmer and more. Eventually the Affinity reached 0% but the list continued, seemingly endless as he scrolled faster and faster. Lee stopped scrolling and looked “It’s just gibberish at this point.” He thought. Lee didn’t want to select anything just in case it stuck him with a random class. He looked at the timer in the corner of his vision.

[51:34...51:33]

“I shouldn’t be wasting time.” He thought about the beginning of the list and in a blink it was back at the top. Lee looked at the first choice. As he thought about what it might mean a new screen appeared.

[Runic](Legendary)[85% Affinity]

The Runic Class is a class created by the (Unnamed Sorcerer) on the dungeon world (Alklass).

A primarily Defensive Class specializing in Runic Enchantments on Items, Structures and Creatures.

The Runic Enchantments utilize Massive amounts of Mana stabilized by the Soul of the Caster.

The Fortresses defended by the original creator of this Class and his Apprentices remained undefeated until a god personally intervened and destroyed the planet. There are rumors that the Fortresses still stand and even now roam the Void searching for the aforementioned god to seek revenge.

[Class Level Effects(Initiate)]

+5% Rune Strength(Scales with Intelligence and Soul)

+5% Liquid Mana Capacity of Core/Channels(Scales with Intelligence)

[Class Restrictions]

Requires (Liquid Mana Core)[N/A(Adaptable)]

Requires (Liquid Mana Channels)[N/A(Adaptable)]

Requires Minimum 10 Soul [N/A(Adaptable)]

Select Class [Yes/No]

Lee read over the class. “Not a lot of information.” He thought. He wished he could talk to his brother about this and at the thought realized he could feel him. He turned his head towards one of the walls until it felt right. “That way,” he thought. “But far away… and asleep… how is he asleep?”

He focused back on the information in front of him. He was getting a strange feeling about this whole thing. Lee knew he should be freaking out at least a little bit but this felt oddly familiar. Almost like Deja Vu, as if he’d seen this before. "It requires Soul... What does that even mean?"

He looked to the next Class.

[Enchanter](Uncommon)[81% Affinity]

The Enchanter Class specializes in exacting magical inscriptions carved onto Items and Structures that channel mana to create a specific effect.

This Class is a General Non-Combat Support Class.

[Class Level Effects(Initiate)]

+2% Enchantment Strength(Scales with Intelligence)

-2% Enchantment Mana Cost(Scales with Intelligence)

Select Class [Yes/No]

"Kind of boring... basically magic programming," he mused. Lee looked back to the first option again.

The class seemed to focus on staying in one place and fortifying. Lee knew Stan could fly himself back here and likely would when he woke up. “So I can hunker down until he gets back. Shouldn’t take too long…” Though for some reason he had a feeling it wouldn’t be that easy. But this class was calling to him in a way he couldn’t describe, almost a memory, but more of a hunch. Lee thought back to a conversation he’d had with Stan shortly after that “Day” where Stan had said something about hunches and clues but couldn’t pin down anything specific. It felt right. It also didn't hurt that it was tagged as Legendary. That was probably good, right? Before he could second guess himself he chose.

[Yes]

[Class Chosen]

[You receive (Initiate Runic Dictionary)]

[Mana Core Adaptation Initialized]

[Mana Channel Adaptation Initialized]

Lee tried to scream as the pain washed through him but his muscles locked up, the room tilted around him and everything went away.