Dungeon at the End of the Universe

Just as I pressed the Level-Up button, I started to feel drowsy, and shortly after that, darkness began to creep over me.

“Hold on! Wait!” Faellen shouted out, but I was already blacking out, “Damn it, I should have said something about how this works.”

And then I fainted.

I came to in a strange space that wasn’t really a space at all. Out of nowhere I knew that this was my own mind, or rather, a mind-space that was inside my mind, but didn’t represent it. It’s weird and confusing. Anyway, a System message floating in front of me

Level-Up initiated.
One-time use Level-Up enhancement ticket detect. Use?

I quickly gave my assent.

One-time use Level-Up enhancement ticket used.
Initiating enhanced Level-Up.

For a little bit, nothing happened. I productively used this time to bitch about Faellen and how it really could have prepared me better for this. I had no idea what’s to come!

My only hope was to hope that the System included some guidance, if not an outright tutorial.

You have [3] charges.

Enhancement options:
Extra charges
Aspect expansion
Greater control

Alright, so, this told me absolutely nothing.

I had three charges, great. What are they used for? Why would I want more of them? And most importantly, how do I use them?

The same goes for my enhanced options as well, maybe except for the how do I use it. I can already sense that I just select the option I want.

But again, how am I supposed to know which one I want?!

Oh, fuck it, let’s experiment. At worst I’ll just select those extra charges. With that proclamation I mentally clicked on my charges and another selection opened up.

Charge options:
Dungeon
End
Paradox

And while there was nothing to indicate so, I instinctively knew there was another, invisible, window next to this one, where I could drag and drop these options.

Alright, so, is this some kind of mini-game or something?

Cautiously, I dragged the Dungeon option over, but contrary to my expectation, it didn’t disappear from the options box. Now there were two of them, one in options and one in the second window.

Simultaneously, an option to finalize m selection appeared.

Frankly, I was a bit stumped. It was only when I remembered that Faellen said something about gaining an ability during Level-Up that I gained an inkling of an idea.

And it would seem my mind, or whatever, agreed. Suddenly, this weird mind-space once more offered me knowledge. Sadly, it wasn’t of much use, since I had pretty much already figured it out.

Basically, I use my charges to arrange them in some pattern, and that then somehow becomes a new Ability of mine. Yeah, my development is based on randomness. I guess I understand why the greater control option was there now.

So I could either get greater power by selecting more charges, or greater control over what I get, at the cost of loosing that power. And then there’s the Aspect option, and while it’s tempting, I don’t think it would help much with the End.

As difficult a choice as it may have been, I eventually choose more charges. Sure, the end result is up to luck, but I feel like having more power in it will at least narrow it down into something useful. Besides, so far I’ve been pretty lucky… if we ignore where I am.

Extra charges selected.
Choose percentage of enhancement to allocate.

And it turns out my whole deliberation was useless and I can just choose both power and control. So, without further ado I enter both of the at fifty percent and get back to my skill creation.

Gained [4] charges.

I need something protective. Really protective, something that can withstand whatever that ‘last hurrah’ it as well as the actual End. And I may technically be a Dungeon Core, but the whole Dungeon is my body, so I feel I should use that as the centre.

The next part is inspired by what got em into this whole mess in the first place. I drag an End charge over, and then stretch it. This is something I wouldn’t have usually been able to do, but increased control allows me to do this. A bit disappointing, but then again, it was only 50% capacity. Anyway, I stretch it as far as it can go, and once it can’t go any further, I drag another one over and do the same.

Together they form a circle around the Dungeon node, which is just the default circle. Then I do the same with Paradox, but put it in between the End nodes and the Dungeon node.

There, that represents me and my stupid Aspect selection. At the same time, I hope for it to act as a sort of End shield that devour anything that threatens me. What next?

With only two charges left, I continued along the same lines. For these last two, I make one Paradox and one End node. And then I mix them, another benefit of my increased control over this process.

With this mixture created, I form one last layer, between the End and Paradox ones this time. But I’m still not done. From this mixed layer, I extend spikes through the End layer, as well as hooks through the Paradox layer, to anchor the Dungeon node.

While I’m not sure what exactly it’s supposed to represent, it feels good and I have a good feeling about it.

With no more nodes left, I’m ready to finalize my work, but just before make one last adjustment. The default node of Dungeon gets a couple of small extensions along its surface, where the End/Paradox hooks can properly connect. And then I’m done.

Or not, as one last surprise from my control enhancement rears its beautiful head. I get to choose what kind of Ability it should be, so I quickly type in protective.

And then it’s truly done.

Again, I feel like I’m going to pass out, but this time I know I’m really just getting transported back to the real world.