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It had been many years since the Labyrinth had felt the pinch it did long ago. This time, however, the pinch had turned into a drain. Not a huge drain by any measure, but a drain just the same. Monster respawn rates had to be adjusted. Treasure respawns slowed a bit and even some virgin connections to newly formed dungeons had been dropped to adjust for the change in experience consumption that the Labyrinth had suffered, like before the Labyrinth flexed its will. This time, however, there was no effect. This forced the sentience that was the Labyrinth to concentrate on only one thing for the first time in a long while.

Tracing the pain back to its origin, the Labyrinth focused its senses on the area in question. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. There was just an empty cavern. Analyzing the area with more powerful spells, the Labyrinth detected the remains of a temporal disruption. That explained why it could not detect the source of the pain. It also explained why it wouldn’t be able to stop whatever was siphoning off its experience as it was both here and not here. The Labyrinth had the ability to control and modify temporal flows within itself to some extent but could not affect this temporal disruption. Unable to affect this end of the siphon, the Labyrinth traced the energy flow and discovered that it entered another Universe through a very small rift. It analyzed the other side of the rift and noticed immediately that any magic it sent through ceased to work as soon as it crossed the threshold. The rules in that Universe seemed to prevent magic from being part of the fundamental makeup of that Universe which was extremely uncommon. It had connected to thousands of Universes, some with very low magic densities but had never encountered one with no magic. Its understanding of the Multiverse precluded such Universes as so rare as not to be realistically possible. As it thought about the issue it realized that while a universe without magic was theoretically possible, the simplest solution was probably the correct one. The Universe it was investigating probably did have magic but that magic was being suppressed or drained away somehow. Even so, it would need to find a solution that would allow it to address this situation.

None of its normal responses would work under such conditions. Any monsters that it sent through would weaken and die rapidly away from any gate it created and such gates probably wouldn’t last long. It noted that energy seemed to be able to enter, so long as it wasn’t bound by magic. It tried one of its mental spells and was satisfied when it was able to connect to a young human. Having made the connection, it analyzed the human. The Labyrinth realized that the boy, Johnathan, was wearing the ring that was siphoning the experience away from it. Investigating further, it realized that the rules of Johnathan’s Universe didn’t even allow him to know that he was gaining experience and leveling. The mental spell the Labyrinth had cast had caused Johnathan to faint. Almost immediately, the spell fell apart. Even the Higher Powers of the mental sphere of magic could not overcome the rules set in place in that Universe. The Labyrinth considered for a moment, then made its choice. Focusing on its intent, The Labyrinth invested a small portion of its soul into a construct made out of pure energy. Very quickly It moved that construct into the stream of experience and watched as it passed through the rift. The Labyrinth was infinite in both power and duration; all it had to do now was watch and wait.

The Construct, while not fully sentient, was aware at a fundamental level and rode the stream of experience through the rift that had it enter a ring and then the wearer. Unlike the spell The Labyrinth cast, the construct was unable to access Johnathan’s Personal Interface. It paused for a moment before taking action. It moved towards the mind of the being it was in and attempted to attach itself. Something blocked it. Well, its master was no novice when it came to infiltrating and converting targets, so it used a tried-and-true tactic and moved into the mind’s subconscious. As suspected, the host had no defenses in this area, and it was able to implant itself. Much like a computer virus being implanted into a computer operating system, the construct set up a network of feelers that would allow it to access information and watch passively. Once everything was in place the construct started inspecting Johnathan’s mind and was immediately overwhelmed by the insane number of prompts being created. The constructs’ original function tried to activate and was shunted to a stream of prompts that were constantly being created that started with, “Congratulations!...” The message was added to the growing queue, all waiting for the hosts’ acknowledgment. Investigating further, the construct realized that there was no conscious connection from this portion of the subconscious to the host's consciousness. The host was not seeing any notifications or messages. Like its creator, it was programmed to be patient. The construct realized that it might be a long time before that was possible; new prompts were being created every 139 seconds, 140 seconds, 141 seconds, and so on. The construct would have to wait until the host consciously delved into its subconscious. As fast as the host was leveling, it wasn’t a question of if the host would do so, just a matter of when. With nothing better to do, the construct began reviewing the memories in the host’s subconscious and began to learn about the Universe it now found itself in. It had memories from its creator of other minds and infiltrations. Compared to those minds, this one’s memories were much more organized with better clarity. It started reviewing those memories as it waited.