Unknown area

I don’t know how long I was out, yet as soon as my mind started awakening, I was hit with pain even worse than before I passed out. I tried to shout, squirm, fight it back, yet nothing could be done to alleviate the pain I felt.

“Finally you’re awake!” someone said with obvious relief, yet I felt as my head is going to explode from sheer volume of it, almost sinking my mind back to the darkness.

“Oh no you don’t! Quick, there is no time! I can heal the damage to your soul, but I must take you somewhere before that. Do you agree?” the voice, rushed to explain with obviously lower volume than before.

“I am a male! And no, damage to the soul doesn’t heal by sleeping! I can heal your soul if you let me take you out of here, do you agree?”. This time sound sounded indignant along with a tinge of panic.

I think before the pain flares again, preventing me from thinking for a moment.

This time I heard an exasperated sigh before the oddly transgendered voice continued with another quick explanation. “I’m helping you to help myself! You understand selfish reasons, right? So do you agree? Time is running out.”. Wrecked with pain as I was, I couldn’t put this out for much longer. I don’t even know what state I am in. I feel like there’s something wrong with this, yet I feel myself slipping away again as the pain intensifies. He said he can heal me from this pain.

Instantly upon saying this, I felt something repulsive burrowing somewhere within me.

“Finally! Alright, I’ll heal you and send you out on your way. This time you are going to sleep for a long, long time.”, voice was tinged of obvious relief and… Anger? Why? Before I managed to form my thoughts, pain flared with far more intensity than before. I felt something being ripped from me, something that I felt was a very important part of me, and my whole being and soul felt as if I was being melted down and darkness started to fill my mind again.

“Damn that idiot! It was ... close … universal … melted … rem....”, as I fell into the darkness I still heard the voice saying something.

* * *

Void between dimensions

“WAKE UP!” sounded like a thunderclap in my mind as I woke up with a jolt. I automatically flinched as I felt spike of familiar sharp pain wrecking me, as I waited for more to come.

“Oh relax, you have been healed along with your soul. Not that they have any difference anymore”, I heard a somewhat melodious, yet distinctly manly voice saying.

“Hey! Calm down, I can answer some questions for you. In fact I think you have a quite few of them. I also want to clarify some things. Like, how in hell did you get in here?”, asked the voice with curiosity.

Sighing, the voice continued, “Alright, this might take more time than I thought. This is the void between dimensions, and I read the thoughts you project outwards, as you can’t obviously talk normally while being a friggin’ crystal ball.”.

This revelation caused a shock run through me as the implications hit me.

I yelled with triumph, growing confused towards the end.

“Yes, different dimensions follow different set of laws and you’re stuck between them. I was returning from front seat section of how one dimension almost went through a dimensional law reformation. So what’s the last thing you remember? And what research?”, voice said with an obvious tinge of gloating for a misfortune of another changing to curiosity.

Taking the whole reading the minds thing with a stride, as it wasn’t that rare from where I come from, I quickly organized the events in my mind. I started recounting with my research and the experiment to meld my soul with a massive mana stone above the merging point of leylines, through the painful process with all the gory details. After that I remembered I woke up for a moment in excruciating pain, heard someone and then… Nothing before this.

“By the ever bountiful, bouncy booty of Tira, I’m impressed of what you achieved. For you sir, I tilt my imaginary hat.”, sounded the voice with small sense of awe. “As for the memory tampering, let me see that.”. As soon as he said so, I felt some flowing, slick, waterlike substance cover me, filling me with trepidation. When it seeped within me, I felt it dissolving something. Feeling a shift within me, the memories of pain and the events filled my head.

Remembering what he said at the end, I yelled out in outrage.

That voice started snickering, before giving in to a raucous laughter. “Ha! First time I hear someone said that about a god of law and order! When I meet Elessaria next time I’ll be sure to prod him with this one. It was his essence that was sealing your memories.”. Hearing what the voice said, I froze for a moment.

Snorting, the voice said with a flamboyant touch, “Hear ye, hear ye! In front of thy fascinating company stands the god ruling over the lesser domains of shadows, deception, freedom, learning and temptation. Generally known as God of Darkness or as the Ever Charming Rogue, Trendal. I came here from my dimension to gleefully watch entertaining event you caused. And you, sir shiny ball, were royally screwed by the god of your original dimension before you managed to finish that.”.

“Now, before you explode in another amusing tirade about our mutual friend, let me explain some things to you as in what happened.”, as Trendal grew more serious, I held back my grumblings and focused as my interest was piqued. Weird how I can now control my emotions more easily, yet my inquisitive nature got stronger.

Clearing his throat, Trendal began explaining. “You see, what you did wasn’t supposed to be possible. You became something that isn’t supposed to exist in your world, and what you are now, is generally known as a Dungeon Core in my dimension. The dimensional rules in your old world controlled mana differently, in form of leylines and your runic language used for casting spells. What you did, didn’t fit into the laws of that dimension, thus those laws started to break down, before they would be formed anew with a new set of laws that would include your existence.”.

I quickly interrupted his explaining as this disturbed me the most.

Trendal’s voice grew slightly awkward as he explained, “Well… Let us start with last question first. The place you did your experiment, it may have slightly… vaporized. The runic array you made, was an epicenter for a massive upheaval that sent the mana within the leylines to disarray, basically splitting the world along them as they erupted. The mana went rampant as the continents splintered, and the leylines are no more. It would take a decade or two before the mana is settled down enough to form new ones. Your new crystal body was sufficiently reinforced by descending divine energy to stay unscathed during the event.”

I said with a slight regret upon hearing the death of my assistant of twenty years.

“You seem largely unaffected by the consequences of your experiment, even if it was successful. I guess the transformation from human emotions to the one of a dungeon core is faster than I thought. Not that I mind it.”, Trendal said with a surprised tone.

I stated to him matter-of-factly.

With an amused chuckle, Trendal continued. “An amusing point of view, fitting for a weird dungeon core floating in the void. Besides, you had been sleeping for a month since the event happened. I had decided to leave as the show was mostly over, before finding you floating in the void on my way back. Anyways, getting to the point now, as a new existence, you were supposed to ascend as a new god of your kind and govern over a five lesser domains. Yet he couldn’t just kill you with his power, as during the formation of new laws you were protected by the them. Thus he interrupted you during reforging of your soul and body, and struck a deal with you.”.

“Now, when he “healed” you, he stole the power of divinity causing you the pain during the reforging, essentially making you a mortal. Elessaria then threw you in the void while “taking you away”, even sealing your memories about him as a bonus.”. At this point I felt smoldering rage starting to build up within me, and I decided to just go along with it, wenting my rage from the recent events with Elessaria while they were still fresh upon my mind. Raging for a time, not even being aware of how time passed, I felt a familiar slick substance covering me, forcefully suppressing my emotions.

“Now that you have had your tantrum, and finished voicing out the hundredth, yet still amusingly creative, torture method for Elessaria, I’ll proceed with the explanation.”, said Trendal with a chuckle.

“The reason he did was to stop the reformation of the laws and to prevent chaos it would cause. That would have been antithesis to Elessaria, as he controls a major domain of Order, and he would be greatly weakened due the chaotic period when everything would have been over. Also he is the most boring god I have met as his lesser domains are Law, Stability, Runes, Tradition and Contracts.”.

Having my feelings forcibly suppressed, I still felt calm as I pondered upon these revelations. I had a feeling that it wasn’t the whole reason he came at me. With the conjectures I made, I decided to voice my theory to Trendal.

I said with a slightly smug tone, being a mortal capable of what I caused.

Trendal seemed to freeze for a moment before starting to laugh hysterically. I could hear he was extremely amused for some reason. As he calmed down, I could swear I could somehow hear the mischievous glint in his voice. “And how would you like a chance to pay back to him?”.

For a mere moment I almost agreed straight away, but seeing what happened last time I agreed to something a god suggested, I immediately grew suspicious.

“Ha! Growing smarter already, are we? Good!”, Trendal said with a mirth in his voice before growing more serious. “You see, Elessaria only prevented your divine energy changing you any further, but your soul still has what it managed to absorb before he got to you. I’d say you have a third of what was supposed to be yours. Now, the rest are most likely sealed somewhere, as not even gods can destroy divine energy.”.

Trendal reaching this point in his explanations, I felt that this stank more and more.

“Ah, now you get to the point. You see, my pointlessly shiny friend, you can’t grow to a divinity in your original dimension anymore. And as a part of your contract you made with him, depending how you interpret it, his “healing” and “taking you somewhere” means he can just keep your divine energy, and throw you out of the dimension. This way he can keep the dimensional laws stay the same as you stay “healthy”. But there is also a catch to it. If you become a divine, there is nothing for him to heal, thus the contract will become null.”

With a clearly growing excitement in his voice, Trendal continued, “After the contract is voided, he can’t keep your divinity away from you anymore. If you deign to choose the correct domains upon your return, causing the stopped change of dimensional laws to begin anew, you could possibly kill him when he is at his weakest. If you play your cards right. With your partly divine soul, you can create binding contracts with divines by making them agree to a proposed deal or vice versa. As a dungeon core, you can only be contract individual mortal souls coming to you in person. This is to prevent you being enslaved to a vague concepts, such as organizations or groups as a whole. Of course, breaking a contract will cause direct harm to your powers, or even destroying your soul, depending of the clauses in the contract.”.

As he started growing more excited, I got more worried about his motivations.

I don’t know how, but somehow I knew he was grinning gleefully with a wide smile. “But why else? I get to benefit from it as well. As a tidbit I’ll tell how divines gain power after ascending. They act according to their lesser domains, and the bigger the effect, the greater the power gain from it is. As for me, this whole thing works directly with 3 of my domains, maybe 4 if I get lucky. But those are just bonuses for me.”, as he stopped for a dramatic pause, I waited with bated breath to know what is more important for gods than power.

“It seems like it would be interesting! After a few thousand years, life of a divine can get quite tedious without a proper source for amusement.”, Trendal finished with a cackle.

It doesn’t make sense to me that a god would do something like that out of a boredom.

As I voiced my opposition, he started with a mock tone of hurt before explaining his version of this grand fable. “But it would be a great story! Besides Elessaria is a prude, always hampering all of the fun things others come up with. Like you! You would make a great story among the gods. How you, a mortal broke the wall and attained godhood on your own. Yet a scheming hermaphrodite god cheated you of your power, and cast you to the void. How you began your road of vengeance, went through multiple challenges to regain the power and freedom that should be yours by all rights! After regaining your power, you would break down the foundations of the Evil Prude, reclaiming the rest of your powers before bringing down the hammer of vengeance upon him!”

I swear, this guy sounds like a bard, I thought and asked with an interest.

“And then you decapitate him. Or seal him for eternal torture, depends on your tastes.”, he finished with a shrug. It is starting to get annoying how I just know what someone does even though I don’t see anything.

I thought for a moment about his gains about this.

“Ah yes, about that. You must regain your divinity in another dimension as you are now. As you got interrupted during ascension, you are still for all purposes, an eyeball sized newborn Dungeon Core. Even though you might be something special with your partly divine soul.”, Trendal finished sounding a little unsure.

“Huh, so Elessaria even stole your physical body that was already infused with divine energy as well.”, Trendal said with interest.

“Not that it matters before you ascend. Anyways, dungeons are basically underground labyrinths that are filled with treasures, traps and monsters. They have multiple floors, and the deeper you go, the more dangerous it gets. At the bottom of the labyrinth is the Dungeon Core controlling everything.”, he explained.

, I questioned.

“You could consider that their job is the same as leylines in your world. They draw up the mana from underground, refine it, and the excess gets released to the outside. Reason for their growth and methods as a dungeon, are their instincts as well the way they spread the mana to the outside. As the adventurers visit dungeons, they kill monsters, gather resources and regain their mana, they’re circulating it along with what circulates to the air from the entrance to your dungeon.”.

, I kept questioning, while feeling sceptical upon these “normal” practices.

Trendal sighed and continued with explanation, “Ah well, as a mortal Dungeon Core, you’ll have these instincts as well. Maybe a somewhat weaker due your intelligence and ego, but they’re still going to be there. I also suspect that the forceful removal of most of your core, that Elessaria did, will have some effect upon you. Main reason for luring adventurers is that they release their refined mana when using it, replacing it with the raw mana of your dungeon. They then refine the mana for their own use like they do outside. Also when they die inside, you get stronger boost of mana, and some other benefits.”.

“As for why Dungeons have an entrance, you could think a Dungeon as a chimney and mana as a smoke. As there is somewhere for it to go, the rate you gain mana gets faster within the dungeon domain. Spreading your influence requires a higher density of mana than what you’re claiming as your own, released by the the lifeforms within your dungeon, as well what you gather as the raw mana seeps from below. As the density grows, you can keep expending deeper, towards the higher concentration of mana. Without entrance you can’t sustain a large dungeon domain as the flow of mana grows sluggish, limiting your area of influence and power as a dungeon to a minimum. If you just keep gathering mana without making a proper dungeon, almost anyone can just walk in and take you out, as they sell you as a mana stone.”.

I disdained the idea of being used as such.

Trendal started snickering. “That would be impossible. All sentient races project a soul field within Dungeons that prevents Dungeon Core using mana against them as a part of Universal Laws. Dungeons have control over their area of influence, thus the need for protection against it for sentient beings. When in Dungeon, they have a field around fifty meters around them so you can’t suddenly create traps, spawn monsters or anything like that within that area. This field prevents the dungeon core directly controlling the mana that forms the dungeon domain, as well as increasing the amount of mana you need to use for any action within the immediate vicinity of the domain. The walls infused with your mana drastically dampen the effect of the soul field, nullifying it almost completely after going through twenty meters of solid materials.”

I could feel the pity Trendal was projecting onto me, obviously from my constant attempts of trying to stay in isolation.

With a mocking sniff, he continued, “Seems like you’re aiming to spend thousands of years alone, in the dark damp earth, waiting for some hero destined for greatness to claim you as their personal mana core.”

“Enough of that line of thought, the reason you want to do that, is to have symbiotic relationship. You give them stuff, they keep coming while donating mana by using it or by dying within the dungeon. They also bring new knowledge and other goodies for you. And most important reason of them all, they keep you sane as you have something to do, instead of observing a wall of stone for hundreds of years.”, Trendal finished with a serious tone.

“Dungeon Cores are usually born in a blank state, with no mind of their own and only instincts to devour and grow. In universes with them, there are spiritual beings that need mana to survive and seek them out for a contract. Some seek partners, others seek a slave to control.”

“As a Dungeon Core, you can understand intentions of the words even if you don’t know what the words mean. Like a simplified version of what the other is saying. Those seeking a core for their own uses might use flowery language while highlighting positive parts of the deal for the newborn core, trying to trick it to agree for a soul contract. Those tricked dungeon cores are actively trying to get their helper killed and might form quite malicious dungeons, lashing out to surroundings by sending their creatures out of dungeon. Some become malicious if they experience a serious injury from ignorant beings early on.”

With a yawn Trendal droned on, seemingly very bored already, “Most of the helpers are spiritual beings, and try to actively help the dungeon. This also leads them to form their own ego and thoughts, leading to a specialized and more complex dungeons. Sometimes Dungeon Core can also form a contract with the sentient races under the protection of divines, yet this is exceedingly rare as it requires them to throw away their divine protection for their soul, essentially damning their soul in the cycle of reincarnation for a few cycles. Dungeon Core can house the souls of those it has made a soul contract through the connection they share, if they happen to die and Core chooses to do so.”

, I ask with a puzzled tone.

“Ah yeah, those buggers that throw away their divine protection spend a few lifetimes reincarnating in one of those hellish dimensions, not that they always suffer from a poor fate either. Some of those have gained enough power as devils or demons to rise above the common rabble over there. Normal soul is wiped clean from any memories as they die, while those with, even partially, divine souls keep their memories.The reason Elessaria threw you in the void, instead of a random dimension, was to keep you eternally sleeping instead of dying and reincarnating.”, Trendal answered with an off-handed tone tinged with disinterest for the subject.

As I wanted to keep questioning Trendal, he suddenly perked up. “Hey, instead of harassing me with this shit, I’ll help you to find a contractee with previous experience! He should be able to answer all of your boring questions. So let us start with the main issue. I’ll move your core to a nice location and help to find a contractee, if you allow me to follow what happens in your Dungeon Domain. Do you agree?”

I felt shivers going through me as Trendal asked my agreement and I felt something touching my soul, as if asking a permission to proceed. It felt only slightly warm, and honestly I thought that this deal is a good one, yet it leaves too many loopholes for my tastes.

, modifying the contract, I felt it shift slightly where it was touching my soul. Suddenly the more neutral feel it had before, turned to a more warm, positive feeling.

, I exclaimed with an amused tone.

I felt Trendal raising his eyebrows as he chuckled. “Now this is how you should do the contracts. As a rewards for learning this point fast, I agree to this contract of yours.”

As soon as Trendal said so, I felt the tendril burrow into my soul and settle in there. Somehow I could feel what the contents of the contract were when I focused upon it, as well the backslash it would cause to my soul when the contract is broken. I also felt the revolting feeling of my previous contract with Elessaria, confirming that the bad feeling I had when meeting him last time was due the bad contract.

“As a congratulations for learning significance of them, I’ll give you a hint while you’re still under the calming effect of my divinity. How much of your runes do you remember and understand?”, Trendal said with a snicker.

It took me a moment to register what he said, and I started going through my memories. I remembered studying runes, using them, devising new methods and doing my research, yet I couldn’t remember how a single rune looked like or the meaning of any of them. I couldn’t even remember how my face looked besides my beard! As soon as I thought this, I felt my rage flaring up for but a mere moment before it was mostly suppressed again.

, I said my voice seething with the anger I was still able to feel through the suppression.

“From my point of view, it may actually be better that you lost your memories about the meaning of the runes you used, instead of the methods how you apply them. The runes you know are not the same within my dimension, meaning that knowledge would have been a hindrance to you. Besides, I think those memories are bound with your divinity, or he wouldn’t have been able to steal them. You’ll get them back when you reclaim it anyways.”, Trendal said with an unconcerned tone.

Conceding to his point of view, I begrudgingly reply,

“Now, as a dungeon core, your emotions as a human are toned down considerably. Things like lust, pity, regret and such are such. Now what you still have, weak as they are, are things like curiosity, greed, rage and such. They are basically a set of emotions Dungeon Core needs for survival. Having a previous experience of controlling variety of stronger emotions, that should be easy. Now as I have kept yours suppressed, I have also been probing you around with my power.”.

I froze from this revelation and promptly imagined the slippery thing covering me being covered with small, slimy tongues trying to burrow into me...

“Stop you pervert! Nothing of the sort! Keep those imaginations about my divine power to yourself!”, Trendal started to vehemently protest with a voice filled with a nausea. “Don’t go mixing me with the deviant gods that like that stuff. It’s my shadow that’s wrapping your core. Not a frigging monstrosity of a tongue or tentacle.”, he finished with an offended tone.

“Look, I just scanned your soul aura and core. I was curious as you’re the first one with partially divine soul I have seen. I just noticed that you seem to have a space within your soul like us divines, but a smaller one. It should feel like a small hole to somewhere else within your soul.”, Trendal explained his findings.

As soon as I focused on it, I felt my mind drawn to a dark space surrounded by a white sphere, with a tinge of gold and purple on it. Within the middle of the space, I could see something floating. I tried to hurry there, but couldn’t feel anything what to move as I didn’t have a body. Frustrated I focused upon my target and felt myself suddenly moving according to my thoughts, before stopping in surprise. Again focusing upon the the target, I reached it almost instantly this time. Most startling thing was that it was just a badly mutilated corpse with nothing intact and blood spattered all over the remains. As I circled around it, an idea hit me. Was it my corpse? That beard looks familiar. Why would I have my old body within my soul as a mutilated corpse? Was this some sick joke by Elessaria?

As I withdrew myself from the space, I was pelted by intense waves of curiosity.

“Heeee… Interesting. You seem to have your avatar body within you, but from the condition you said it was in, it wasn’t able to draw in any divinity. I wouldn’t recommend taking it out until you grow in power and knowledge to fix it, as it will take large amount of mana to do so if you don’t have any divine power. And I’m just projecting my feelings like you project your thoughts.”

, intrigued, I continued my questioning.

“You could think the soul domain the divines have as a kind of personal space we can use at will. Also, as a divinity, we can create avatars when we want to descend down and pla- err, meet those with mortal a body. We usually imbue them with divine power so they’re harder to kill, as without it, your avatar is only a normal mortal. As for what you can do with it, you can control a living, mortal body again. Some dungeon cores may create a monster that they can possess, with no mind of its own. Although they can’t fully fuse with the body, controlling them is not nearly as smooth as they could move with a proper mind. You should be able to fully fuse your mind with your avatar, yet I don’t know how it’ll affect your functions as a dungeon core. You’ll have to eventually try it out on your own.”, Trendal finished with a slight interest, before rushing to change the topic.

“Now as you clearly don’t have enough mana to take out your avatar as a beginner dungeon, and you don’t have any divine power, so that’s that! I’ll send you down to a place where you can survive, and after that I send some contractee for you! How does that sound like?”

Apparently he has grown bored enough so I can squeeze anymore out of this strangely helpful god.

“Tch, so sly. Fine fine, I’ll send you to a nice mountain some distance away from a civilization. As for other stuff like language and knowledge, ask when you contract your helper. As it would ruin my fun to reveal you too soon, I’ll wipe the memories of you from the potential helpers that got axed. Now let us get this show started!”, As soon as Trendal finished with a relieved sigh, I heard a tearing sound. Feeling Trendal grabbing my core before moving through a membrane of something. All I could make out during that short moment, was that it felt far more violent than the energy Trendal was using to cover me.

As soon as I was on the other side, I could suddenly feel everything in my surroundings within a ten meter radius. As I focused on this feeling, my focus suddenly shifted and I could see again!

As soon as I did so, I turned my attention towards Trendal. He looked like an average height man with lean muscles, curly black hair reaching his stubbled angular jaw. He wore black leather armor with a hooded, dark green cloak reaching his knees. He had prominent cheekbones, slightly hooked nose and piercing black eyes. At this moment he was contemplating something with a playful smile upon his lips while looking into a distance outside of my vision range. Suddenly he chuckled.

“Ah, I found you a nice place. Sorry, can’t take you there directly or other divinities might sniff you out too soon. So, I’m going to give you a short time blessing against physical damage, and throw you to that mountain range down there.”, Trendal smirked while bouncing me from hand to hand, causing me to feel slightly nauseous if I didn’t focus on looking at something within my area during the movement.

Ominous feeling crept over me, maybe I shouldn’t have probed him with so many of my questions.

“Well you see, or not. We’re above the planet called Peltas, and the distance to the mountain is around 2000 kilometers, give or take a few. And without me throwing you, you’d just get stuck on some paltry crack in the ground on the surface instead of a small and cozy, sealed cave in the bedrock.", I saw a slightly manic grin to form upon his face as he went drew his arm back.

"Now just relax, you will be just fine, This won’t hurt at all. I’ll just need to add a little spin to my throw to hit the exact spot...”, Trendal said with a sickly sweet voice despite my vehement protestations.

“I’ll see you later!”, Trendal yelled as he threw my core, with a promised spin. As I couldn’t focus my sight onto anything, an intense sense of vertigo assaulted me. For the first time in my life I wished I could vomit just so I could feel a little better as I fell through the skies of my new home, Peltas, cursing the now cackling God of Darkness for acting like a juvenile. I only asked a few questions from him.