DungeonFall – [A Dungeon Creation / Cultivation Story]

“After the dimensional-“ A loud snore interrupted the teacher from continuing his lecture. He closed his eyes and rubbed them, before continuing on, ignoring the sleeping student. “These zones are where the portals to other dimensions have formed and then changed the environment to suit the invading beings. At the same time as these creatures and monsters appeared, humans began to acquire our powers to cultivate.”

He glanced at the sleeping student and continued on. By that point, all of the teachers and many of the students had heard the transfer student’s tale. Nathaniel Holmes was a bright boy, one of the brightest if his test scores were anything to go by. Unfortunately, that was just in the more mundane subjects.

He seemed to struggle with any of the more exotic subjects, though that was to be expected after what had happened to him. It had been two months since the attack on the boy, and you could still see the signs of it on him. The massive brace on his destroyed knee, and how much he slept.

The healers had only been able to fix the damage to his leg so much with how frail he had become. With the boy’s wrecked meridians until they were healed, this was his new life. He had gone from a bright future to someone who could barely stay awake in class.

It was a tragedy.

The remarkable thing was that he wasn’t failing any of his subjects, as long as you didn’t count the physical ones, at least. Even in those he appeared to be struggling in, he still maintained a passing grade and showed improvement.

All the teachers were impressed with him and his will to study.

***

Nate hated that all he could do was study endlessly, but he truly had nothing better to do at the moment. The computer on his wrist still hadn’t finished forming, even after all this time. Sure, the outer shell had been done the next morning, but that was all. There had been nothing inside, and even after those appeared, there was nothing installed on it.

So here he was, two months later, still waiting to see what the device was going to be used for. In the meantime, he had used the time he had to study up on his new home, learning how it differed from his old one.

It was still called Earth, and the history was even still largely the same up until the dimensional zones appeared with their portals. Then things got a bit wonky, and traditional physics got thrown out the window. Not that he had a problem with that. Even on his Old Earth, the scientists had begun to figure out that their science wasn’t always correct.

The problem was, the lawsuit had only ended the other day. Even in a world filled with monsters, the judicial system found ways to needlessly drag their heels for every little thing. Though, he guessed two months might have been quicker than it would have been on OE.

Thankfully, the judge had been nice and brought the hammer down as hard as she dared on everyone involved.

The teacher, who had been caught, was, of course, sent to jail. All the money he had been given as a bribe had been handed over to Nate’s family. The school, for their actions in trying to cover it up and overall negligence, now had to foot the bill for all of his school-related expenses until he graduated high school. It made the choice of where to send him next even easier now that they didn’t have to worry about money.

As for the kids involved, well, they got away with a warning, and a fine that would be sufficient to pay his medical bills four times over. Or at least it would have been if they had been able to find anyone willing to make the medication for him. Even the healer who had been working on his knee had stopped coming by.

After the lawsuit happened, he had become anathema to all the medical professionals. The families involved knew they couldn’t attack him directly, so they went after what they could instead. They didn’t even need to touch his parents; this was worse in their eyes.

He had to admit; it was seriously annoying to be stuck in such a weak body even after being brought to another world. All he could do was hope that whenever the computer on his wrist finished doing its thing, it would be able to help in some way.

That was really the only complaint he had about his new life. He had his parents back, and he now lived in a world where magic existed. He had even seen people fly, not in person mind you, but on the TV, and it had been real!

It was part of the cultivation that people practiced now to gain strength and fight the monsters and other beings that threatened to invade. To fly, someone needed to be even stronger than his parents. Which he supposed meant he probably wouldn’t be taking to the skies anytime soon.

Nate shook his head and refocused on the book spread out next to his actual laptop, not the one on his wrist.

Even with the dimensional zones appearing, humans had found time to create computers. The outer shell was made from different materials than he was used to, and the sleek designs were gone. The internal hardware, on the other hand, was even better than what he was used to. With magic backing them up, there was no way they would be lagging behind in that department.

He tried reading the same page a few more times before pushing it to the side and opening the computer on his wrist. The installation percentage meter had been stalled at ninety-nine percent for the last day. It was so close to being finished that he could feel it, and the excitement was keeping him from focusing on anything else.

It was like he was six again and it was Christmas.

Except this had the potential to be even better!

He stared at it, willing it to move on to one-hundred and complete the process already. Finally, after he had been staring at it for ten minutes, that is exactly what it did.

With a soft chime, the computer on his wrist restarted and displayed his vitals alongside a menu screen.

That was not what he had been expecting… not at all. Well, his stats were, they sucked, they were abysmal. The computer being some kind of dungeon creation tool, though was not anywhere in line with his thinking. He didn’t even know what one was here. Were they the same thing as the old tabletop games he had played on OE?

He had never heard of dungeons here before, and it wasn’t like the governments kept information restricted. Far too many people went through the zones and portals trying to keep the world safe for that to even be remotely viable. At least not for the more common items.

Nate yawned and turned off the screen. Other people couldn’t see the computer, but he didn’t want to accidentally roll over while he was sleeping and start hitting buttons. He had already learned there was no point in fighting his body’s need for sleep.

“He’s pushing himself too hard. We keep finding him asleep at his desk instead of in bed.”

Nate awoke to the concerned whispers of his parents standing in the doorway of his room.

“It’s alright, I’m up.” He mumbled, pushing back from the desk, and stumbling over to them. “How was the patrol today?”

“It was fine, just the usual weak monsters that we always deal with. Luckily, the zone closest to us is a weak one without much variety a lot of the time. Whenever a new monster appears, that is when we know we need to worry. A boring day, with the same old weak monsters, is a good day.”

Nate listened to his dad speak while following them downstairs to the kitchen for dinner. The last two months had held a sort of normalcy to them that he absolutely loved. He got to spend time with his parents again, and just listen to them talk about work.

In his old life, he would have been bored to tears, and he still was, truth be told, but now he knew how precious these moments could be.

A little later, Nate found himself at his desk again. This time, he was wide awake and ready to finally explore what the computer could do.

Turning on the screen, he was presented with the same information and options as before. He was tempted to go directly into the ‘Dungeon Creation’ option but felt that might be biting off a little too much. It was better to ease himself into whatever strangeness this device had in store for him.

With that in mind, he selected the second option instead, ‘Avatar’.

‘Welcome to the Avatar Creation tutorial. Would you like to begin?’

Nate blinked in confusion at the words. He knew what they meant and even what an avatar was in a broad sense. What he didn’t know is why he needed one, or what purpose it would serve. Information that would have been useful when designing an avatar.

Somehow, he doubted this was something that many other people would be seeing. Which meant its existence served another as yet unknown purpose entirely. Unfortunately, without more information, all he could do is treat the creation process as seriously as possible and hope that was good enough.

After a brief hesitation, Nate selected ‘Yes’ and began the process of creating his avatar.

The number of options was mind-boggling and absolutely destroyed any ideas he might have had to its purpose. If it was meant to look like him, then he would have had a couple of guesses. Now, though, he could change the avatar’s race, gender, and everything in between. It was every gamer’s dream, and his nightmare.

What was he supposed to do with this?

Did he hold to his plan of creating something serious, with his own likeness, or go for something fun? An Elf, perhaps, or a jiggly slime thing? He could even make a skeleton avatar if he wanted to, though that sounded overdone in his opinion.

There were too many options. Finally, he found a hint at the very bottom of the screen, written in tiny letters like you would find on a warning label.

‘You only get to create an avatar one time. Make sure you are happy with all aspects of your creation before confirming all modifications to your ethereal avatar.’

This was meant to be his ‘Ethereal Avatar’. That also meant it was connected to his spirit, or at least to him in some way. That decided it for him. He didn’t want any weird slime behaviors trickling through an as-yet-unidentified connection and influencing him. It wouldn’t be so bad if he got the agility of an Elf. It would be another thing entirely if he got their pointed ears.

Elves were one of the races that had appeared with the dimensional zones. If his ears suddenly changed like that, he would be killed, or worse, shoved through a portal.

No, thank you!

His only option was to model the avatar after himself. Well, maybe with a few improvements. Surely no one would begrudge him for making himself a little more handsome or adding the sixpack he currently lacked. You know the little improvements that every male wanted.

Nate stayed up late into the night, making sure the avatar was perfect. The fight to stay awake against his weak body during that time was a struggle. However, he was determined to finish before going to sleep, and he did.

When he finally fell into an exhausted sleep in the middle of the night, his avatar had been completed.

Nate didn’t wake up the next morning.