Sugar Plum hisses at the strangely intertwined tendrils that coat the walls of the temple. I ignore the fae and focus on the alien machinery's screen. Tlokbur had given me instructions about how to use computers and based on her descriptions this seemed to be an incredibly advanced version of such a device. It did not seem to have a keyboard or any other physical way to directly interact with it, so I am forced to improvise if I am to interrogate it for what I need to know. Tlokbur's teachings were not just about what I could learn in the moment, but also things that had then been beyond me. Like how one could access certain machines with one's Interface if their control was adequate enough. Since I am now stronger than I had been then, I think it would be reasonable to try. Therefore, I stretch out with my mental senses and try to touch the machine.

Error: Foreign attempt to interfere with the Reality Containment Facility detected, deploying countermeasures/vector test.

Before I could say or do anything in response to the words appearing before me on the screen, I was hit with a barrage of signals. It took me a split second to realize that the situation had turned and that I am in grave danger, thankfully, I have the presence of mind to throw up my interface defenses while rousing my beast. The signals hit me and with it, the very fabric of reality in the room starts flickering.

My flimsy defenses are torn apart like they were nothing and I can feel my beast scream just as I hear the alien cry of pain from Sugar Plum. Thankfully, my dreamborn creature shielding me with its body gives me enough time to try and put up my defenses again. I push against the constant waves while trying to let mana flow into my defense if that is possible. It becomes apparent that trying to block whatever this attack is, would be like trying to hold the tide still.

As I feel the pulsating waves from the alien machine ripple out and cause reality to shift with it. My screams joins the ones of my monster and the faerie, but through the utterly incomprehensible pain of it all, I attempt something incredibly foolish and desperate. I lower my defenses and let the waves hit me and my monster directly before I then try to reflect them like one would with a scrambling assault.

And just as suddenly as the assault started it ends. I collapse onto the stone floor of the temple as the strain of merely standing is too much for me in my current state. The cold rock is comfortable for me as I feel a strange heat swelling through my body as I lie there. System notifications about the damage I have taken are summarily dismissed by me as they only add to my headache.

What makes me rise up is a ray of annoyingly bright light that intrudes upon my dark abyss. I open my eyes to see that the screen connected to the machine has adjusted itself, so it is easy for me to read from my position down on the floor. My head is so blurry that it actually takes me several attempts to read the text on the screen. I have to blink bloody tears out of my eyes and wipe away dirt from my face before I actually become capable of reading the text.

VECTOR TEST: Passed

Minor Access to Reality Containment Facility Granted

Interfacing device detected: establishing connection....Connection established

I feel a click in the back of my mind and it is almost as if an entire layer had been added to my brain. With the power of my mind alone I can reach out to touch this layer, and presumably the machine itself. The experience is not entirely foreign to me, as it is similar to the bonds I develop to my summoned servants. Yet this feels entirely different at the same time, so it takes me several long moments before I attempt to touch that connection.

With my first tentative touch I attempt to ask the machine a question: "What is your purpose?" But rather than having the screen change itself in any way, the information from the machine is directly transferred into my mind. Apparently this machine is actually the entire building, with the stone temple being merely a form of concealment. It's role is to contain "reality anomalies", and ensuring that the species on this planet capable of accessing or developing reality anomalies do not do that. I then try to inquire what reality anomalies are, and it explains that reality anomalies are phenomena that comes from universes outside of this one. In essence events, energies, objects, and species that operate on different rules of reality that things from this universe.

The next logical step is to try and find out who created this machine, but apparently my access level does not allow me to obtain that information. As there is no helpful knowledge transference from the machine after I tried to ask that question. I move on to ask it what my access level does allow me to do. The machines reply is court and frustrating in the content department. With my current access level I am not allowed to actually touch the energies it contains or change any core directives of the machine. I can only access surface information about it and it's purpose here as well as change a few basic directives.

A lesser being than me would be extremely dissatisfied by this change, but I realize that there is one thing that I can do in addition to merely asking questions. I attempt to access the blueprints of the complex machine and make it transfer that information to me. It feels almost like I am running up against a wall this time, as if the machine is uncertain as to how it should respond. This emboldens me and I push all of my will against this wall and repeat my request over and over and over again.

CONGRATULATIONS! You have just learned a new Blueprint: Reality Matrix(???). This machine allows you to directly interface with the laws of reality. Note: Insufficient skill levels to build or properly learn this blueprint in: Energy-Work, Magical Engineering, Mystification of the Mundane, Computers, Technology.

A veritable bomb of information is detonated in my head as countless complex material requirements, foreign concepts, and strange instructions are uploaded into my mind. The blueprint of this machine is far too complex for me to even contain the ideas within, it is all I can do to not be lost to the churning river of knowledge. I push past it and ask my final question of the machine, namely, what caused it to be built here. The answer is simple, apparently a disturbance in the dimensional boundaries was detected and with it an intrusion of energies and extra-universial creatures. In response to that this facility was built to contain the residual energies from the event and the potential in the creatures to develop such energies.

This answer is the last piece of the puzzle I need to understand what must have happened to transport the goblins here. A goblin wizard or sorcerer must have teleported their tribe here and the massive power that caused such an event, attracted the attention of the architect of this machine. With the machine built and this universe's hostile approach to magic, the caster would be depowered and the Goblins as a result were trapped here. Without any other sapients on this planet to surpress the Goblins, their ilk spread over here and could finally fulfill their potential.

With my initial questions answered by the machine, it would be pointless for me to linger here any further. I rise up gingerly from the cold stone floor and turn away from the screen. On the floor behind me lies Sugar Plum and the cat looks subtly different. I activate my Occult Eye spell to examine the cat and what I see both amuses and annoys me. Clearly, the machine must have altered Sugar Plum with it's attack, because Sugar Plum has now been given a title. "The Unremarkable Cat, Sugar Plum" I see the two Eldritch mantles marked into the deepest part of it's soul, defining the Fae forever. It's true shape has been utterly destroyed as the illusion of a cat that it manifested must have become true flesh and blood now. The Faerie will be besides itself with rage when it wakes up, and while it is tempting to just kill it to avoid listening to it's whining. I realize such an action would be foolish as the Fae tend to value the lives of their own far more than other entities.

I pick up the little cat with a sigh and place it in the bag that I always carry when wandering through the jungle. The damage caused by the Reality Containment Facility is making walking significantly more painful than expected, so my journey from the temple to the camp is a far more strained affair than I would have prefered. Thankfully, I find my old mount on the way and bind it to my will, so I don't have to walk for too much of the trip.