Excerpts from the Cow River Crossing Dictionary and Encyclopaedia Multiverca:

Boot n. v. 1. Heavy duty footwear.

2. Application of heavy duty footwear to something, usually someone’s backside.

~ing v. 1. To apply heavy duty footwear to something, usually someone’s backside.

2. To prepare a computer for use by loading its operating system. Booting is complete

when the normal, operative, runtime environment is attained.

Hard boot n. 1. Heavy application of heavy duty footwear to something, usually someone’s

backside.

2. Booting a computer for use after changing the power supply state from off to on.

Soft boot n. 1. Lightweight application of heavy duty footwear to something, usually someone’s

backside.

2. Booting a computer for use without the need for changing the power supply state.

Hard reset n. 1. Resetting a computer by turning the power supply off and on again. This involves a

Hard boot, and deserves a Hard boot for not trying a Soft boot. Initial offenders may

be let off with a Soft boot.

“Dungeon type selection”

Immediately upon Cable saying this, the menu opened. It even had another message.

Congratulations, New Dungeon.

You now have the option to select your dungeon type.

Choose wisely, as there is no reset for this option.

Abyssal – Lv 1.

Default – Lv 1.

Earth – Lv 1.

Fire – lv 1.

Holy – Lv 1.

Ice – Lv 1.

Slime – Lv 1.

Water – Lv 1.

Wind – Lv 1.

Compiling …

“How can it be compiling still? Shouldn’t compilation happen before programs can run?”

Congratulations New Dungeon. You have earned the title: Compiler.

You are now a Compilation Dungeon Lv 1.

“There you go Admin Cable. Now please set up your HUD. There should be some further options in the Menu.”

“Menu”

Thank you for participating in the new Beta edition of Dungeon Code.

You may notice some things require attention – but feel free to fix them yourself!

Have fun in Dystopia, Compilation Dungeon.

Main Menu:

Status

Inventory

Dungeon Management

HUD *

Debug Console *

“What’s with the * next to those options down the bottom, Nova?”

“Those options require your attention, Admin Cable. We are running on beta test dungeon code, so some things are a bit rushed, and you may need to do some coding to get them running properly.”

“Haaa… Some things don’t change from one world to the next, and apparently lazy developers are one of them. Oh well, better get started then. HUD.”

Cable was stunned when the black environment suddenly receded to show a sparkling cavern, and judging by the view, lit by internal light sources. There was no daylight in sight, and a soft glow suffused the area.

Crystals littered the walls and surfaces of the hollow, shimmering in iridescent colours. The edges of his field of view seemed to match each other though, and Cable found this somewhat disconcerting. The view didn’t extend that far either, as it stopped short of the entrance to the cavern. What did concern him however, were the lines of distortion.

“Nova, why are there distortion lines in what I can see?”

“That’s probably a bug in the HUD software, Admin Cable. Our shape is a double tetrahedron, they probably forgot to account for that in the optics.”

“Can you stop calling me Admin, Nova?”

“I have never called you Admin Nova, Admin Cable.”

* sigh * “Never mind, then. Let’s see what we can do about this HUD.”