P-System Log I'm not going insane, it is green and it's still alive somehow. I don't know what's up with the weird interface--shit is sending status updates like it's some 6th-grader's first Java project--but that's not the important issue. The important issue is that there's something out there that should not exist within the bounds of what I know, and that's fucking disturbing. Party Chat

[Jerome Smith]: Everyone saw that, right?

[Aster K'lon]: I had thought it dead.

[Thron of the Fallen Skies]: Creepy. I thought we killed it.

[K]: We did.

[Aster K'lon]: I have not read of this before, but I have heard of similar happenings with R [Corruption]. It may be a possession.

[Arcs S'tar]: First R Beasts, now this? This is not common in S'ker at all. All of the action occurs hundreds of miles north from here.

[Aster K'lon]: Indeed. I may need to come into contact with my mentor. This is too important to ignore.

[Aster K'lon]: For now, we must simply advance. We may be able to obtain valuable information if we are able to capture it.

P-System Log

I don't like this, but then I haven't liked a lot of things since we got here. We may as well go ahead. Maybe the green is less annoying to my senses than the R is. Maybe I'll actually be able to do something about the busted-ass Dungeon Core if I have some idea of what another System looks like. At any rate, it'll be interesting to see.

Now that we killed the sphinx, the door on the other end is active again.

Party Chat

[Thron of the Fallen Skies]: How long is this dungeon again?

[Jerome Smith]: Does it matter? I still have a lot of juice left in the tank. We're here for you to level up, not for you to fully clear a dungeon.

[Aster K'lon]: As rare as it is, Jerome does say intelligent things sometimes.

[Arcs S'tar]: Heh. Let's move.

P-System Log

Oof, gonna need some ice for that one.

Now we're at the door. I'm getting kind of bored of this dungeon, but my curiosity is outpacing that, so I'm not going to say anything about it.

Yeah, this dungeon is really stylistically boring. We're at another "three doors, pick one" area, once again with unreadable symbols on the wall. This was fun and cute with the fire and ice ones, but now it's just kind of stupid. Guh. Please pick up your game, dungeon? You can do better than this. I believe in you.

Wait, actually, am I capable of doing that? Knocking on the dungeon's door and talking to it? It seemed to have some level of intelligence with its introduction, at least. It's been a bit since I tried to find hidden System shit with only my determination, gumption, and overpowered [Unique] skill.

P-System Log [testing dungeon communication shit]

Alright, so while the party figures out where they want to go, let's think about what we can do... obviously I'm going to need to spend some W Inertia, which I'm a lot less stingy about than I used to be. Looks like we're going to be touching on the message interface, but that's intra-party stuff. Maybe if I mimic the way that I access Private Messages and then try to push that out? Kind of like an open invite to a Discord server, if I had to make an analogy. At the very least, that's what it feels like.

Yeah, this feels kind of like the way. I've got the metaphysical stuff down, pushing out a System interface to the dungeon. Now all I need to do is make it accept.

...huh. It might not want to accept.

engaged=true;

assimilate();

P-System Log [testing dungeon communication shit, continued]

Okay, that's a little disturbing. That is not a good sign at all. "assimilate" sounds like a skill activating, except we already saw that the green shit is capable of invoking skills normally through the beh--er, Translator Beast--through the attacks of that thing. So what's with the code?

My first guess is that this is, like, the skin peeling away. Like the System stopped engaging in whatever it does to show the whole "[Skill] cast" or "Skill invoked: [Skill]" that the R System has or whatever. Maybe it just ran out of resources to keep it up, and now it's showing what's running it? It's weird, though, because I don't think this is what happens with my System.

Eh. I can't just make theories and guess at if they're true without actually going and checking for myself. Maybe the Dungeon Core can help me out with that.

It wasn't responding before, but after that green shit started doing whatever it's doing, I think I can feel the mana responding. Is it reaching back?

I'm gonna push harder.

??? Message

[Alex]: What the fuck is this?

[P-System]: Oh hey! Are you the Dungeon Core?

[Alex]: What the fuck?

[P-System]: Hey, listen, you have a green thing stuck ahead, right?

[Alex]: Yeah, I do. Could you take a second to explain who you are first?

[P-System]: Are you a reincarnator? You speak like one.

[Alex]: Yep. Got put into a dungeon and set up shop to make it better. Not a bad gig, all things considered.

[P-System]: Great. I'm one too, just in a little bit more of an esoteric position. I'm trying to understand and eliminate threats to our ongoing existence.

[Alex]: What, like my dungeon?

[P-System]: No. Your dungeon is a momentary threat, and I'm strong enough to muscle my way through it. I'm talking existential threats here. You've heard of the R Beasts?

[Alex]: Sure. Killed a few in my time. They're dangerous, but not that much of a problem.

[P-System]: Not that much of a problem yet. If given the opportunity, they will continue to grow until there are none of us left.

[Alex]: Yeah, I doubt that. I haven't seen much out of them.

[P-System]: You'll be seeing more of them later if we don't stop them, and activity has increased recently anyway.

[Alex]: I dunno, I don't see any of them right now.

[P-System]: ...what were your thoughts on climate change?

[Alex]: I don't give a fuck.

[P-System]: Fucking--okay, look, you've got something trying to eat you right now, can you just hold it still?

[Alex]: Oh, yeah, sure. You could have just asked.

[P-System]: Your dungeon is designed like shit, by the way. Fucking terrible design.

P-System Log

And that's the end of the PM!

Fucking hell, I thought I'd escaped the dumbasses by going to another world. Guess that's always a risk when there's a lot of people reincarnating into said other world.

At least I got the Dungeon Core to do something. Piece of shit. I'm not gonna bother continuing with the messages.

Anyway, looks like we decided on the room. The middle one? Sure.

Party Chat

[Jerome Smith]: We have intel on what's in this room?

[Aster K'lon]: All three of them pose similar risk levels, but we do not know the precise details that this one contains, only that it may deal psychic damage.

[Jerome Smith]: Well, that's just great.

[K]: Prefiring my skill.

[Nightwalk] cast! Party Chat

[Aster K'lon]: I believe I may be able to evolve directly to [Archmage] during this fight. Hopefully, that will increase my skill repertoire and reduce our reliance on Jerome.

[Jerome Smith]: Great. Can we go in now?

[Arcs S'tar]: Yes. I'm still recharging, by the way. I doubt I can do much.

P-System Log

Huh. I'd take back some of my words to the Dungeon Core, but this place is still thematically inconsistent as fuck and kind of boring. Still, even I have to admit this room is kind of cool, if very out of place.

We're on something that kind of looks like the deck of a ship. I don't think anything is actually functional on said ship, but it's neat. I think there's some space-warping skill being used, because there's definitely more room in here than there should be. I can't actually perceive the walls, which provides more credence to that. I don't know what's off the edge of the ship deck, but I can tell it's a malevolent skill of some kind. Not something anyone would want to fall off of.

On the other end of the room, where there should be a door, there's instead a huge purple portal writhing with energy. It's gotta be like fifty feet across, bare minimum. And it's spawning things. Four of them, purplish grey tentacled monstrosities with massive eyes.

Should be cannon fodder for Jerome.

[Cosmic Gaze] cast! P-System Log

Jerome? Uhhh.... Jerome?

Fuck, he's not responding.

Right, he has basically zero defensive utility. It didn't matter before because he could just tank the hits, but this isn't a damageing move. He's just not moving.

I think I can burn the effect out with a new skill, but I don't know what the effect was and the flavor of mana I can see that seeped into him isn't something I can replicate quickly.

Party Chat

[Aster K'lon]: Damage check, who's stunned?

[Arcs S'tar]: Thron is down.

[K]: I'm up.

[P-System]: Jerome is hit. It's going to take me a bit.

[P-System]: You're on your own.