Far From Vanilla: Modded Game Reincarnation

Crack!-Crash!

The point of the pick lodged itself into the wall and a twisting motion to pry it free was enough to aid the building fissure into becoming a large crack.

Crrk!

The crack that grew from the final hole slowly began to inch towards the other notches, the miner’s weight making sure that the fissure ran around the seven points of the shape. Eventually the slab of carved stone gave way.

Bang!

And it fell down into the bottom chamber hidden underneath the tower. Hyun looked over the crack and noted the deep expanse of the chambers below, noting that it was about three stories down.

“That…” He pointed out, words trailing off into silence, his gaze fixated onto a swirling cube in the center of the room. “It's a dungeon, right? It looks different from the one’s in the source.”

The Journal peered over his shoulder, watching as he tossed down a torch. “Yes, the structure you call a dungeon is not cubical in shape in this reality, but is an intricate building with a miasmatic core in the center.”

“I assume that there is some treasure underneath there, right?”

“That depends on what this structure was used for, it could be many things…”

“But you can’t tell me.”

“I’m glad that you’ve outgrown your naivety, but if you offer up that cube to me, I can tell you more.”

The player looked at the journal with a raised eyebrow. “I can do that?” He asked, but after he was met with a blank stare from the journal he only returned his gaze back to the cube in the center. “I’ll have breakfast first.”

It was already the sixth day, one day until his promised meeting with Frederick Mercury. He had an inkling that that cube was a key to getting stronger because…

“I didn't grow much this week…” he clenched his fist, feeling only a level of growth in it.

“Did you honestly believe that you can grow just from the essence of monsters in a short amount of time?”

The player chewed the dried meat while looking down, somewhat forlorn. “No… but I got better at what I already knew. I didn't expect to grow that much stronger, but it would have been nice…”

“Then I shouldn't have to comment. You know why don't you?”

I got stronger at killing living people than the undead, because the living were worth more to the world in comparison to the dead. The thought filled his head and even as he descended into the great room below on the rope he brought along, it wouldn't leave his mind.

The journal knew that and so he continued speaking despite the former’s silence, “Why would a pestilence wrought upon a world allow the punished to profit?” He asked a question, “Even with the laws in place of equivalent exchange– strength for strength –why would the damned make the living stronger?”

“So there is a slight growth because even if the undead were carrying out their punishment, the act of defiance itself from the living allowed them a chance to survive– the right to choose…”

“To fight, to live, or to surrender, and die eternally.” The journal explained, “That is rewarded, albeit slightly. Morn considers life precious.”

Thunk!

His rubber shoes touched the floor of the room with a soft landing, and he rose up armed with only his warhammer and a torch. "I've been wondering…” The player made his way over to the center of the circular room, holding the torch high overhead to properly illuminate the floating cube. “It's all perspective isn't it?”

The light graced the surface of the cube, a block dedicated to some kind of ritual, inscribed in all sorts of glowing sigils that allowed the cube to spin on one point. "To someone from earth who played Source, this would be called a Core, an environmental challenge a player might encounter when they’re out adventuring.” He brought the torch closer to the cube, watching as its glowing lines waned as if it recoiled from the light. The player sent down the torch near the cube and walked around it. “But it must be different here… why are they constructed in your world?”

The light coming from the cube was concentrated on the point furthest from the torch, making a light strong enough illuminate his face. “It serves a purpose higher than that of a simple structure, but I suppose you can tell me, won't you?”

The journal floats overhead and into the open hand of the player. He wasn’t speaking to the book nor the cube, but to the information yet to be extracted from the cube. “Tell me your secrets–”

Whoosh!

The Journal’s eyes shoot open, covers flying apart to reveal the flying pages infinitely scrolling by. Slowly the light that was gathered on the side of the cube began to leave the core and flow into the book like particles of light. They shimmered like purple glitter.

At the same time, as the knowledge flowed into the book so did it flow into his brain, a surge of power transferring from the particles to the head of the grimoire’s wielder–

“Ahh–” Hyun let out a surprised gasp, a sound closer to a moan of shock, head thrown back as his eyes rolled backwards into his brain. His body went slack, falling backwards but was kept up by his arm holding fast onto the flow of power.

Almost instantaneously, decades worth of history stored within the cube began to play in his head, a repetitious cycle.

Woosh!

Undead monsters born from the miasma of a parallel dimension would be channeled into this one, providing an outlet of all the miasma at regular intervals. This was achieved through a powerful but constant release of the captured energy that would erupt from the cube’s faces, sprouting miasma-borne monsters on each side.

The dark-energy that would then create six monsters, be expended and replenished– the cycle repeating endlessly for millennia, only until it failed a few hundred years ago. Instead of ejecting the energy into six concentrated clumps, it would release it deep into the ground and into the surrounding earth.

“Ah–” A greedy gulp of air entered the player’s mouth as the power that had been collected became his own. His eyes snapped to consciousness and the book’s energy flow to the cube snapped to a end.

Thud!

He sat on his bottom, shocked at the experience. If it could have been described, it was a balanced mix of ecstasy and suffering, a hefty serving of power.  “Oof, that was weird.”

But it was power nonetheless, and the feast of power came with the horror of the knowledge gained. “Welcome to the world after the Spiritual Separation.” The Journal greeted, “This is how Humanity has survived after the destruction of the Cycle of Reincarnation. Instead of simply accepting the existence of Miasma within the shadows of the world, they created conduits in which this force could be concentrated…”

“And death with…” Hyun gulped, “T-This place– it’s a grinder!” 

The Player's face turned ashen pale. The place he discovered was in fact more than just that of what he knew, from a simple structure to that of a place that allowed the populace of the world to survive. “But considering that there are still undead roaming about, these facilities didn’t work all too well, didn’t they?”

“No, they were effective.” The Journal sighed, “The people in charge of them were simply better.”

The player picked up the torch and began to survey the room as the Journal shared the knowledge he had unlocked. He slowly walked around the circular room, using the torch to see what the darkness was hiding. 

“What you call a Dungeon were once security cores, created within areas of their own jurisdiction, each having their varying capacities– all in the effort of safe-keeping entire regions from the nightly terrors of the undead.”

The walls were adorned with intricate carvings of soldiers, learners of some kind of martial art besting monster on monster that sprouted from the cube.

“They worked for a long time because countries came together to develop them for everyone's survival. Like you discovered earlier, one can grow stronger because of these cores and they were eventually used as training facilities. ” The Journal’s tone turned annoyed, “Obviously only until they become liabilities.”

The carvings then turned violet. They were murals that depicted learners becoming full fledged warriors battling humans instead. The player looked confused, “Why? If they were so effective then why–”

“Because of the People’s inherent greed!” The Journal answered simply, “The Night Hordes aren’t the only monsters that exist in this world, but with their numbers reduced to a negligible amount, they aren’t a threat anymore because of these facilities.”

The scale depicted on the carvings became small, each dot now representing a soldier, two large masses meeting each other at the center of a battlefield. “Therefore countries could focus on other matters, so what better way would an opposing country do to another that would cripple it from inside its own borders?”

“Target these facilities.”

“Yes, these tactics then turned assets into liabilities, academies into battlegrounds, and developed areas into war-zones– each point that once protected a country was turned into a wound in which they eventually bleed out from within.”

And once he made a full revolution of the room, the carvings ended. It was unfinished but the wall held signs of conflict. Whomever was targeting this core succeeded and the traces of slashes and craters were proof of it. This was all found near a door that was half-cracked open.

“So the soldier-undead from the first week,” Hyun swallowed thickly. “Were cadets?”

“What else could they have been? You would’ve died from properly trained soldiers, even in their undead state. If they weren’t, then they were the enemy soldiers felled in the defense of this facility.”

“I should survey the surrounding forest, surely this place would have some traces of history.” The player slowly made his way over to the door to leave, an unsettling feeling settling deep inside his stomach.

“If that were true then there should be ruins nearby if they weren’t already buried by the shifting elements over thousands of years.”

“But something’s not right… all the signs point to the fact that they got in…” He looked at the scratches on the floor, “So why are there two sets of marks? One was when they forced their way in…”

Creak…

Hyun pushed the door open to look at the empty hallway. A second of silence passed, not a single groan from a zombie or a tingle from the bones of the undead skeletons, but something told Hyun that there was something in the large hallway.

Puff!

A hot cloud of air exited the nostrils of something a few meters away, two red eyes glowing in the dark following it.

“Dodge!” The Journal bellowed, a flash of steel coming from the enemy.