Dungeon at the End of the Universe

Dungeon work is boring work. Long, boring, and gruelling work. You’d think it was fun and full of wonder, but no, nada, no such thing. Just repetition after repetition, always doing the same thing over and over again.

And it’s not just with enchanting! Even expanding the Dungeon gets boring fast, as I discovered the last time I tried to upgrade my walls. It’s so utterly, soul drainingly boring.

I can finally understand what the purpose of gossiping (and later on podcasts) is. There simply must be some kind of distraction when doing this sort of work. Absolutely no way anyone can power through the mind-fog this induces.

Ah, might as well bother Faellen. Not like it’s doing anything productive. Actually, hey! How come I am the only one working here!

“Hey,” I start, “what are you doing?”

“Working,” is the only answer I get.

“Working how, exactly? Because to me it just looks like you’re sleeping,” I press on regardless of the brush-off.

“Various ways,” and once again, my attempt at connecting is unsuccessful. Perhaps some more… drastic, measures would be appropriate.

I quickly Create a shoddy little stone stick. Then I Control it and poke Faellen in the side.

Nothing.

I poke the fairy again. And again. Still nothing.

Poke. Poke, poke. Poke, poke, poke.

Poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke.

“Wyld forsaken Dungeon, will you stop that already!” at last, a reaction.

“Hey,” even without a face, my grin must be apparent.

“What?!!!”

“What are you doing?”

Okay, maybe I was pushing it, but come on! I have to work myself to the bone here while my supposed assistant gets to nap all the while? No, unacceptable!

“What do you want?” asks said assistant, “I really am busy.”

“I’m booooored,” yeah, I’m not going to comment on that whine. “Isn’t there anything else I can do other than enchanting?”

“Not anything useful. At least, not before we have a mana cycle going. And for that you need to do enchanting,” is the unfortunate reply I get. But not for long, as it seems fortune does smile even on from time to time. “Although,” my hopes rise, “I suppose you could finally name yourself,” and are consequently dashed.

But a name, huh. I haven’t even thought about that for a very long time. Like, longer than my time spent in the void. Now that I think about it, my relationship with names has always been a little bit weird.

I’ve sort of just never… understood them? At least, not on a personal level.

Sure, if you meet someone, only come into contact with a person on occasion, or just anytime you don’t actually know someone all that well, in those situations I understand names. And I can even admit they can be quite useful. But other than that?

I don’t know. It feels almost disrespectful to call someone by name when I’m close with them. Sort of feels like I’m reducing them, shaving off all of their personality and slapping a label on them. Then again, it may just be a quirk of my mind. I find that I simply don’t store memories of other people under folder with their name on them.

It’s more like a loose cloud of experiences, that’s how I think of other people. But how do you take all that, take the grand weave of someone’s life, their everything, and distil it into a single simple word. It just can’t be done.

Constricting, that’s what names are. And I cannot imagine willingly binding myself with one.

“No.”

“Huh, sorry, you went silent for a hot minute there. What do you mean, no?” Faellen replies, well, asks.

“I’m not naming myself, nor will I accept a name from someone else. I refuse,” at my last words, a strange sort of ripple, one that I can barely perceive, ripples forth from me.

This is apparently interesting even to the fairy in front of me, as instead of continuing sensibly in our conversation, it says, “Hold on, what? Repeat that.”

“I refuse a name. I refuse any name,” I speak my truth with conviction. And the rippling effect happens again. Perhaps even stronger this time?

“Yes!” shouts Faellen, and now I’m the one confused.

“Yes? What’s going on Faellen?”

“Yes, yes, yes!” Only after finishing its celebration does it answer me, “Quick, finish the enchantments! Oh, this is just wonderful. Quick, quick, I’ll explain soon!”

With that, I am almost physically launched out of our mental conversation. I didn’t even know we could do that! I really need to figure out this whole End shebang, so that we’ll get at least one moment of peace for me to ask all my questions.

Be that all as it may be, the distraction proved itself fruitful. Not only as a distraction itself, although it was great at that and allowed me to rest a bit. But also it was great at providing me some much needed motivation.

Perhaps now with a goal, even if I don’t quite know yet what’ll happen once I finish, I’ll be able to properly focus. For a little while, at least. Yes, let me give this a proper, second shot.

The enchanting will be done in no time at all. And after that, well. Hopefully something less dreadfully boring.