Chapter 127: And He Wasn’t Alone – Chapter 127

Finished with the randomness, Doyle turns his attention to creating his first boss. He doesn’t know what to do, but he has a clue. Mainly in the fact that it was displayed in place of his usual random monster choice. ‘[System, I would like to designate my kobold leader as a boss.]’

Of course, while this technically works, it isn’t that easy. Instead of the system doing it all for him, he gets a metaphorical kick to the mind that forces him to look somewhere within himself that Doyle hadn’t even known existed. Then things fall into a familiar groove as he finds a mental tutorial like when he was learning about how to make a new floor.

This one however is a lot more complex and quite a bit messier. Still, he can understand the reason why. Of all the abilities a dungeon core has he had thought things like quintessence and the skill were the most unique part of the race. Creating a boss however beats everything else by a country mile.

Still, despite all the complexity Doyle feels he can manage it. Plus, it isn’t like he can ask someone for help. Though it did explain why the fifth floor is the first boss. Each floor, even in dungeons that aren’t portal based, is a layer of protection against outer beings and general void nonsense.

Doyle shakes his core and refocuses. The first step is a choice. When making a boss, a dungeon can either channel the captured soul into a pre-existing monster or through the creation skill. Both sides have good and bad points like how when creating a new monster the soul will be able to warp the body to better fit itself.

Doyle mostly ignores it for now as the decision was made long ago, at least for this specific boss. Since he will be using a pre-existing monster, Doyle turns his complete focus on Her, finding Her on a throne at the center of the kobold village. Perfect for what is going to come next as She won’t exactly be able to stay conscious for the process. With that in mind, Doyle shortcuts the problem and renders Her unconscious.

Target secured it is time for Doyle to finally experience some true life threatening danger. Doyle’s core extends out a pseudopod made of his soul. Though thinner than the bond with Ally, it contains a mysterious power that stirs up the air itself despite not physically being present. This thread of soul extends outward and pierces through Her on Her throne before it begins to burrow into the very fabric of reality. Floor by floor, the pseudopod transcends physical space and time until it hits the first floor and the movements slow down.

Not from any difficulty in piercing the veil, but rather in caution. From here Doyle focuses on the feel of his first floor’s dimensional weave, looking for weak points. Because of course, making a boss monster isn’t purely about a tougher monster. Though Doyle is mostly certain that in this universe only dungeons and the system probably know of the true reason.

Each boss added to the dungeon is another weakness or loophole fixed in their metaphysical defenses. So with great care Doyle feels across the entirety of his first floor’s dimension. Over this time he discovers a number of problems with the veil between him and the void. Quite worrying, but not something he can fix at the moment.

Instead, he focuses on the most egregious problem. Small gaps and weak sections are bad, but there is one outright hole, leaking his world energy into the void. Not a lot, anyone else would have a hard time noticing it even if they could examine it from both sides and knew where to look. The problem is that the world energy isn’t going to just disperse. Rather, after enough time passes, there will be a large pool of the stuff right outside like a welcome mat.

Not an ideal situation when any visitors are more likely going to try and eat him or some such. All Doyle can do is fix this hole and while seeking a soul for his boss, try and clean up any loose energy out there. Of course, the worst part might be the fact that the hole was completely unavoidable. See, the hole is actually the result of when he first burst out of his core room to create the first floor.

Now though, Doyle really wishes he had known about this all before opening up. Not that he blamed this on Ally. How could she have known? Only the system and other dungeons would know about it, and they aren’t exactly going to share it. In fact, just the thought of sharing it with Ally sends shivers of pain through his core. Not imagined pain either. For the briefest of moments, a literal and very physical crack forms along the edge of his core before healing.

This gives Doyle pause. Not that there is much he can do besides keeping it secret knowing that before he could even attempt to let it “slip”, his core would be reduced to shards. Better to leave such dangerous thoughts forgotten in a corner.

And what better way to distract himself than to continue with making his boss? Doyle refocuses on the hole in his first floor and lets the pseudopod of soul wiggle out into the void. From there things get tricky. No one can really claim to understand the void. Worse yet, the void is a place completely beyond the system’s control. In fact, the only reason the system works in Doyle’s dungeon is the portal connecting them.

If Doyle could figure out how to shut that off, all the systems control over him would drop away instantly. Not that he plans to do that anytime soon. While there are restrictions, they aren’t pointless. Plus, the system would probably be irked at what could be seen as an attempt to slip away with his debt unpaid. Unless he had a guaranteed new universe, preferably sans any kind of system, to set up shop in it would be a fool’s errand.

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Though one benefit that Doyle notices right away comes directly from this loss of system assistance. While skills and such are mostly a measure of one’s own understanding, that doesn’t mean there is no assistance. And through this one critical weakness is revealed. Like a switch was flipped his territory control losses cohesion for while not all of his territory has to be covered by his soul, everywhere with his soul is his territory.

Under the system’s control, his territory is kept in a nice little package. Now, as his soul extends into the void, this essential part of his being begins to get fuzzy along the edge as it ebbs and flows, just out of his control. Without the system, Doyle does not have any sort of fine detail control. Worse yet, any of the bits that go too far away escape his control and fade away.

If it wasn’t for the system, this would be true for the edges of every single floor. This would represent a massive loss of world energy and for a young dungeon would represent a danger of starving if not enough people came along. While now wasn’t the time to play with Doyle files it away as something he needs to work on quite heavily. Because while a new dungeon would starve at a rapid rate, a mature dungeon with many large floors might just become a desiccated husk if they weren’t prepared for it.

In fact, this lack of control puts a limit on how long Doyle can even keep this pseudopod extended beyond his dungeon’s realm. With that at the back of his mind, Doyle explosively extends the pseudopod outward. After a moment of this, though, it splits into two. Then further extension only for the two to both split and then further out to split again. So on and so forth until A terrifyingly massive area of void has been covered by a net formed by his soul.

And he wasn’t alone. All around him an uncountable number of other dungeons are also extended, searching. Over this area of void that lacks any true way to be measured or understood, there are countless universes. Some smaller than his own, others much larger and older than Doyle even wanted to believe possible.

Besides fellow dungeons and other assorted dimensions, there are horrors. Beings that no dimension can admit to existing with powers that can snuff out everything that Doyle can currently reach. Only the fact that such beings are incapable of noticing something on Doyle’s level allows him and his fellow dungeons to reach into the void.

Besides those beings, if things of that scale could ever be considered as such, the smaller horrors of the void are almost unnoticed. While they are the real threats to his existence right now, they just aren’t capable of doing anything on the scale Doyle is currently working at. Swarms of voidborne beasts that would be capable of consuming his home dimension if they found it are like small specks on the backdrop of the counterplay between reality assert itself against the void which would reduce even nothing to non-existence.

During this expansion of Doyle’s awareness that very awareness is simplified and broken down. From a human mind to a being spread out over a distance that defies such origins. A good thing too, as at this point some strange structure within his core joins with his soul. Like the missing piece of a puzzle, this segment completes the puzzle that was a human in a dungeon.

Now there is just a dungeon, though some would question if Doyle was still Doyle. This wasn’t a problem for him as even before the system this sort of thought experiment had been a simple thing for him. Doyle is Doyle, now and forever. All those stories with evil clones or magical doubles wanting to be the so-called original had never bothered him. Doyle was Doyle, whether there was just one human or an infinite number of copies in any number of bodies. Doyle was Doyle, Doyle is Doyle, and now Doyle will always be Doyle.

This small segment was not some special addition from the core. It wasn’t even related to being a dungeon core at all except for the fact that when the system took over this piece was excised from him, nearly causing his death. The real cause for why he woke up so late. Something that was never supposed to be and yet being a part of him. 

Though the segment wasn’t some cheesy “past life” or similar nonsense. No new memories flood his mind, and he doesn’t gain some voice to explain the world. It just represented a pure and unstinting belief, no, knowledge of being Himself. Where others might have felt down about how his life was turning out pre-system, Doyle had seen through the nonsense and understand himself in a way that prevented him from getting along with too many others. The masquerade that modern life nurtured was hollow to him in a way that would not allow him to join in.

Now once again this absolute trust in himself, that belief that bordered on being a self actualized truth, had returned to him. For a moment his soul flashed in a color representing true understanding of oneself before returning to normal. Of all that was in the void, only his fellow dungeons bore witness. Understanding spread through their own soul nets and was passed on through the weft and weave created by this complicated network of momentary void delvers. Then as if it hadn’t happened everything returned to normal. While other dungeons would know of him, the chances of ever meeting in a way that would allow communication was near impossible. Besides, with how the void can mess with time and space there is no telling if he might meet one of them before they experienced this. Being an interaction fully of the soul alone, so many restrictions on time and space are lifted that there is no telling what might come of this.