- From “An Exposé on Dungeons and their Psychology” by Expert Mage D. Bradley

  Consciousness returns to Alex as a wave of pain washed over their mind. A headache worse than anything experienced before muddies their thoughts. The pain resembles what one would think having their brain scrambled with a spoon might feel like. Wincing in pain, Alex discovers an even more alarming matter; they don’t appear to be able to move. After a few minutes, the pain of the headache begins to recede, yet the situation before them becomes ever more confusing. They don’t recall their room being this dark and quiet. There would always be light leaking through the windows from the street outside, and a fan would always provide an ambient hum to the room; but now, Alex cannot hear nor see a single thing. As the anxiety begins to rise in their chest, a loud *ping* sound interrupts their thoughts.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  Alex stared confused at the stream of text that overlaid across their vision. “Data transfer… What the fuck is going on?” There was a tickle in the back of their mind as if something was probing around inside of their head. Then again, a sharp pain pricks their mind for a split second.

  A loud *ping* sounded in Alex’s mind as a question appeared before them.

  “Query? It’s asking my what my designation is, like a name? My name is… Alex.”

  Another question floats in their vision.

  “My purpose? What the hell is with all of these questions!? I thought sleep paralysis was supposed to have demons, not... questioners.”

  Alex taxes a moment to breath before returning to the floating screen.

  "Purpose. How am I supposed to know? Isn't that one of life's greatest mysteries, or something? I guess right now I'm just a student, so that's the best answer I can give."

  “What do you mean ‘Acceptable?’ Am I being graded!? Oh God, I can't even escape tests in my dreams.”

  “What’s with all the questions, directive? What’s the difference between a directive and a purpose? You need to start adding flavor text or something, cuz I don't know how to answer that. I already said I was a student as my purpose, so maybe my directive would be what I'm studying? I guess that would be physics then.”

  Before Alex could comment on their apparent deviation to whatever the correct response should have been, another sensation encompasses their mind. Unlike before, this sensation was rather relaxing, like someone was pouring warm water directly into their brain. After a few minutes the sensation halted, and they were met with another message across their vision.

  Alex stared wordlessly at the screen as a realization dawned on him.

  “System, packages, Dungeon Cores, commands? I think I spent too much time reading novels last night. There is no way this is real, right?”

  After a few seconds of waiting, it looked like no more text was going to appear in their vision. Seeing as nothing was happening, Alex decided to take this time to properly assess their situation. They tried to look around them, but the darkness around them was all encompassing.

  “I’ve lucid dreamed maybe a handful of times in my life, but none were as vivid as this. However, every time I’ve realized I was dreaming I’d been able to wake up, but I can tell that this is different. I'd love to pinch myself, or check my watch, but it appears that I can't move, and I also don't have a body. Now that I think of it, those are the same problem.”

  As anxiety began to rise in their chest once again, Alex decides to distract themselves with something else.

  “Help.”

  “Status, inventory... I've always dreamed of being whisked away into another world, but now that I'm here... I don't really know if I'm up for this."

  “Status.”

  “There's also one more issue I have with this. Of all the things to be turned in to, from a mushroom to a goblin, a dungeon core has to be one of the worst options. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a good dungeon core story once in a while, but who would really want to be stuck in a room for eternity. I know that most protagonists seem all to happy to just do dungeon stuff forever, but I find it kind of sad in retrospect. Like self inflicted Stockholm syndrome. I also don't believe myself to be so sadistic as to find that just because my form has changed I can just let go of my morality."

  “Whatever, it's too early in the game for these thoughts. At least I’m not a tree or something of that sort, being a dungeon core should give me some leeway in changing my fate. However, everything else can wait until I figure out what my situation is. Although I’m not sure about the plausibility of my current condition, it’s best to err on the side of caution and treat this as if it is reality.”

  Alex turns their attention back to their status window and gives it a proper read.

  “Active and Passive skills, that should be rather straight forward. Identify and Summon are activated manually while Mana Sense should be a passive skill. Although, it's super dark in here. Is there no mana? or am I just too low level to see it clearly?”

  Staring past the window into the darkness surrounding them, Alex begins focusing closely on the space ahead, trying to see anything in the void. Before long a sparse static begins to fill the space, appearing like tiny motes of dust in a dark room. AT first, they though it was just their eyes playing tricks on them, but the motes bagin to become clearer as their gaze is held.

  “Ah-haha, I see something! Although it’s rather disappointing. I was expecting glowing orbs or streams and wisps of pulsating energy, not… dust. Is this really mana?”

  The particulate matter before them appears as a dull dray hue, ever so slightly radiating a hazy light around it.

  “This is the perfect opportunity to try out Identify!”

  “Easiest? That means it must be possible to see even smaller pieces with my ability, right?”

  Focusing back on the dust surrounding them, Alex tries to focus even closer on the stagnant surroundings. Right before they were about to give up on this fruitless endeavor, a subtle movement in the air caught their attention. A small speck, revealed by the tiniest glint in the dark makes its presence known for the tiniest instant. But that's all it took.

  Edits:

  Class section in status as I don't think I will be using it

  Download Complete System message