I was so enamored with my success that I rushed through the vending room at a sprint. My hand hit the door at the end less than a minute after the encounter with Young Mord.

  I was greeted by the cave of endless stairs with a smile as I felt the knowledge seep across my mind. I was so elated I started the stairs at a run.

  That was a bad idea…..

  I actually almost tested the ‘what happens if I sleep on the stairs theory.’ I did well on the first thirty or so stairs. My little green bar lasted until about three hundred. I pushed on to five and promptly collapsed. Hitting my face on the stairs wasn’t so bad, like a light Mord jab. The continual taps to the chin once I started to slide were annoying, but in an effort to try not to break my teeth or bite my tongue, I tried to stop.

  I always remember being good at theoretical and applied physics, but not so much as I demonstrated by trying to use my feet to stop. And stop, they did. They stopped so well that I found myself upright…with a bit too much momentum. Over I went. I think I knocked myself out around my third backflip right after the second cartwheel.

  I woke up in a cave, lying on the stairs. I hadn’t made it all the way to the bottom, but I could see the door, even upside down.

  I hurt. I was hurt bad. Apparently, the get knocked-the-fuck-out and feel better function was out of order in this room. I got up. It was pure agony to do so, but I did it. I knew the only way out was up. Either the door was unlocked, or I would sleep and wake up in the first room.

  Every step was a new world of pain. I could hear bones grinding together. I’m sure at least one arm and leg were broken. I could barely breathe; the exertion was made worse by what I am sure were several broken ribs. Eventually, I just became numb to it all. At about the halfway point, I became numb to it all. I took a nap after wedging myself in place with my blades against an outcropping.

  I woke where I collapsed. It took two more ‘days’ or at least pain, climb, and sleep cycles. I was thirsty beyond measure and so hungry even a Vegan place sounded good. Finally, as the delirium began to set in, I saw the door. I started to scramble for it. In my eagerness, I started to slip. New instincts started to kick in. I straight kicked and pushed off a piece of wall I didn’t even see and pushed myself prone on the stairs. I stopped before I lost even a single stair. I did a half push-up on my good arm and leg and, shakily, got to my feet. Slow, deliberate steps edged me close to the door…and safety.

  After what felt like hours, I made it. With zero hesitation, I reached and grabbed the handle. Still locked. I curled into a ball at the foot of the door and waited for the pain to take me.

  I woke up in the gray room. Still in pain. Pain that was rapidly receding. I watched my black vitality bar, which I had forgotten about on the climb, rise from what had been very close to the bottom. My stamina had been full when I woke up. I flopped on the ground and tried to ignore the pain of my bones mending together.

  Feeling your bones heal is not a fun experience. I tried not to let it distract me as I lay there thinking about all that had happened.

  My first thoughts were of Vex, her smiling face, and how she danced around after I gave her the shoes and fishnets. It was the exact vision of a perfect scene: girl, with the right shake in all the right places, super soft skin, tiny…..

  I cut my thoughts before I knocked myself out with a flashback. I focused back on this room and how it cut away the pain. It cut hunger and thirst, too. I had not eaten or drunk anything since I came here. I hadn’t even taken a piss. I thought back to what Mord called this place. It was a recovery room. The big doors probably lead to a boss room.

  So, this was the treasure at the end of the dungeon. It made sense that you had to make a choice. You could probably run the dungeon multiple times, but you would only get each type of reward once. If you only ran it once, well, what kind of adventurer were you?

  Recovery in this place made sense. After a big fight, you would be out of mana, potions, and whatnot. This room would let you rest and recover before you made your choices. The room with Mord Jr was a lesson. An improvement that you had to keep trying until you got it.

  Once my vitality was topped off, I felt pretty good and prepared myself to meet Mord senior one last time. I wondered what the bank was like.

  I casually strolled into the Mord Sr. room and nonchalantly walked past him as he droned on. I was so caught up in what could be in the vault that I almost grabbed the handle without noticing he had stopped his speech.

  I turned back to look at him, and he was looking at me for what felt like the first time. I couldn't place what emotion was behind his gaze. Rage, annoyance, amusement, maybe? I started to ask, as the first time, he seemed not to be a program. He casually raised his arm and flicked his fingers at me in the most epic dismissal I have ever seen. It was kind, yet broached no argument. In fact, I blinked, and he was gone.

  More than that, I was gone as I was in a different room. This was a treasure room, and I mean a Treasure room.

  Piles of gold rimmed the room, containing coins and bars of varying sizes and shapes. It wasn't just gold, either. I saw copper, silver, and… and I'm not quite sure what the other metals were. Some were a whiter silver, almost titanium in color. Others were so dark like iron. Scattered within the piles were hundreds, maybe thousands, of jewels.

  I was so taken in by the piles of treasure that I missed two key things about this room. First, the table in the center with three leather sacks about the size of my head. Second, I wasn’t alone.

  I didn't notice Mord behind me until he spoke, and he promptly gave me my first heart attack of this new reality.

  “Do you like the room? I wanted a certain appeal.”

  “Um…yeah, it looks like I might be rich if I ever get out of here.”

  “About that…..” He kind of trailed off guiltily

  “What?”

  “Two things, really. Let’s get the disappointment out of the way first. Grab that coin.” He pointed to a stray coin that looked like it had fallen off one of the piles. I took a few steps over and bent down to get it.

  My head and hand hit an invisible wall at the same time. It hurt. What hurt more was Mord’s laughter. I felt at the wall and realized that it wasn't a barrier but the room’s rear wall. All the riches were fake.

  Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

  “An illusion?”

  “Quite! And on your first go, too! Good for you. I thought it would be easier for you to find out for yourself rather than me telling you.” He came off like a grandfather with a patronizing yet loving tone.

  “I take it the second is about me getting out of here?”

  “Again, on the first try! I can see why she chose you as a paragon.”

  “I'm a man of many talents.” I raised an eyebrow with that one.

  “As you are well aware, you are trapped here. It was an unintentional side effect of your goddess’s interference. My patrons have decided to take mercy on you. Well, mostly on the nouveau Death. She probably didn't realize you would be trapped. The God of Dungeons added the sleep reset at the landing of the exit only because he didn’t want you to die. A Paragon dying in the first few days would be bad business for the……well things. As for getting out, you can exit when someone completes the dungeon. Knowledge has allowed me to tell you certain things. I can only tell you the basics and maybe give you a few pointers. There are ru…” he kinda froze up a little at the end.

  “Restrictions?”

  “Yes…’ Restrictions’. That’s a good term. I'm also limited in how often I can help you, and I can only inform you but not advise you. For example, I can inform you that the sustainment and regeneration field that exists in the Room of Recovery only exists in that room. I cannot advise you to spend much of your time outside that room, or you will die.”

  “Wasn’t that last part advice?”

  “No, because you already made the connection that there is no food or water here, as you almost starved to death on the stairs. Twice!”

  The twice part concerned me, but I was willing to bet it was the first time and that I was kept asleep by something as they decided my fate, so I let it pass.

  His brows furrowed in a purely human gesture that made me think he truly was human, at least at some point.

  “There is so much to tell you and so little time.”

  “So start with the beginning and a crash course on the basics?” I asked.

  “Keen choice, maybe not the best, but it should work.”

  He made a grand gesture as he began.

  “In the beginning, there was Void.”

  “Ahem…in the beginning there was Void,” a little louder this time and with a little more finger flourish. I wasn’t certain what he was getting at, so I began to repeat.”

  “In the begin….”

  “No, no, no, don't repeat me. Gods, we would be here all day. This isn't some silly mantra. I was trying to create a visual. You are just going to have to use your imagination!”

  I closed my eyes and repeated in a low breath as I tried to imagine.

  “STOP…” his voice broached, nothing but adherence.

  “No repeating. Also, don't try to imagine the Void. You probably could, and that's something neither of us can deal with right now. All that existential dread and you wouldn't hear a word I said.”

  I took a deep breath and sat down cross-legged in an apt pupil pose. He stared at me for a second and, after a thought, mimicked me.

  “After the Voi….after the beginning, reality became a thing. It probably wasn't a good idea, but there wasn't anyone around to complain, so it just was.”

  “Skipping over that,” he took on a whimsical tone.

  “And that”

  “And definitely that.”

  “And so we had the Titans, the founding pillars of our universe. There were fewer in the beginning, but with the Titan of Order, we ended up with twelve. The twelve primal forces of existence. I name them, but in the interest of time, we will focus on the last. That is the Titan of Order. Some have he or she was a god or goddess…, you get it. Some say that he was a god who finally figured out how to ascend above the S tier and become a titan. With him came what is generally called the system. He organized us into tiers based on power and formalized the universe into discrete concepts we call….concepts or aspects depending on how you look at them.”

  “How should I look at them?” I felt this was a poignant question and also one that showed I was listening.

  “As both depending. When it comes to internal things, think of them as Aspects or parts of a greater concept. As for external things, think of them as concepts or parts of a concept made real. Note I said ‘real’, not ‘physical.’ Think of an apple. Actually, think of it this time. Come to think of it….do you know what an apple is? Do you have them in your world?”

  “Apples?… Do you mean the red or green fruit that grows on a tree and is good to eat? Then yeah, we have apples.”

  He clapped his hands together with a giddy grin.

  “Excellent, and I see you already described it as part of greater concepts like ‘green’ and ‘fruit’ and even ‘food’ in general. Those are all concepts, and combined little pieces of those truths make up the reality of an apple. Define it and give it substance from the energy of the universe. Even concepts like ‘life’ and ‘growth’ play into it. Though ‘growth’ is partly a ‘sub-concept’ of ‘Life’ and…. I dunno….’ Change?’ maybe? What matters is things are an amalgam of concepts, little bitty pieces of bigger things coming together to make a whole. Lower concepts can be part of bigger concepts, and eventually, you get into the one thousand and one, rumored, mind you, true high concepts. From these, you get the twelve primal concepts. Coincidentally, it believed there are 1,001 gods. Makes sense?”.

  I thought it over, and honestly, it seemed upside down. I figured I’d tell Mord that way.

  “I think I get part of it, but it makes more sense to me the other way around.”

  “Explain….”

  “A dozen primal forces that combine in parts and pieces in an infinitely complex way to form universe in a billion different ways. Everything is a tiny puzzle of all these pieces coming together in a perfect combination to form an apple. Or a person, or a rock, or a planet?” I may have mentioned that last bit just to get confirmation.

  Mord's face showed a slight shock, which eventually morphed into a sigh and a head shake. I felt as if I'd missed the mark.

  “We are most definitely teaching it wrong. It took me almost a hundred years to see it as you, who has been exposed to it for five minutes, does. Or you are a prodigy. Given the paragon status you carry, both are actually possible.” Apparently, it hit a bullseye.

  “You have mentioned paragon status a few times. What is it?”

  “Good question, jumping a bit, but we can go back. A paragon is the one, amongst their champions, a god thinks will embody their will the best. They are almost always powerful and at the center of great events.”

  “So Vex painted a target on me, didn’t she?”

  “I wouldn’t say that…”

  “What would you say?”

  “At the center of great….” I glared

  “Okay, you're somewhat of a target but a powerful one. You will be the leader of her champions, exerting her will in the game. Nope, I can't tell you that,” he clammed up.

  “Vex already mentioned a game…..” I tilted my head a little and gave him a pleading look, but it did not work.

  “Moving on. Tiers. You are now an E-tier outworlder. That is someone who has been awakened and….. Basically, Vex unlocked your soul and gave you access to your version of the System. Do you want to go over tiers or cultivation first?”

  “Let’s hit up tiers; it sounds shorter.”

  “Ok, below you is F Tier, often called ‘Mortals.’ They are basically everyone you know. They will live and die knowing the system exists but never directly benefiting from it. Of the one in every thousand or so that can even be awakened, only one in a hundred of those have the natural talent or bankroll to fully unlock and aspect all six loci in their bodies. Yes, I will get back to that in cultivation. Those that unlock and aspect all six are called ‘Ascended’ or D tier. While many awakened will gain an aspect or two and some of the powers with them in their hundred or so cycles of life, they pale in comparison to Ascended, even ascended, who do fully unlock all their powers even in the three hundred-ish years they have to try. Those rare prodigies that do are the ‘Willful’ or those that have formed an Aspect Core. A great source of power. I was once one of those. I created a great many things; a few still even stand today….I hope,” He added with both pride and regret.

  “So if you were Transcendent, C tier, I'm guessing? Does that mean you are a B tier as a dungeon and are working to an A tier?” As I mentioned it, I saw an infinite sadness across his face.

  “You are partially correct. I am a B-tier. We are the ‘Fallen,’ the failures. You see, the step from C Tier is directly to A. But those who fail. And no, I won’t go into it. Become B tiers and are doomed to an eternity as something else. I ended up as a dungeon. I guess it could be worse. But I was there, and I could taste it. I almost made it to A tier. I tasted divinity, and it was snatched away. A tiers are demi-gods. They all embody a concept, or aspect as you will, and serve one of the thousand and one god, rumored that is.”

  “That sucks.” I reached over and grasped his hand, which I hoped was a genuine gesture. He looked up at me with a sort of pride and compassion. The look was over in a moment as his resolve returned.

  “Anyway….moving on to the important part. Cultivation!”