Well, that was easy, I thought as I grinned to myself; I had trounced yet another bunch of players who dared to enter my dungeon. These guys were good though, they got to the 178th floor before being utterly trounced by my traps and monsters. Well, no cigar for them, I hooted to myself, ready to log out and reward myself with a bar of chocolate.

  I opened the menu, ready to log out and take off my Neural Virtual Reality gear, NVR for short, but just as I clicked “Log Out”. There was a sense of intense vertigo and the sound of rushing wind in my ears, coupled by an excruciating pain. Then all went black.

  Slowly but surely awareness crept back to me, though something immediately felt off to me, I had issues moving properly. And I felt a pain in places that shouldn’t be there, I slowly opened my eyes and froze, had I fallen asleep with my NVR gear on?

  No, that couldn’t be the case NVR games were supposed to shut down if they detected that the player had lost consciousness.

  Not to mention it would automatically contact the nearest medical facility in the event of unconsciousness or other signs of medical duress. There was no way I was still logged on. Yet as I looked around, this was decidedly the foyer of my Dungeon in the Neural Virtual Reality game Dungeon Masters. A game where you could play as either a Dungeon or as an Adventurer.

  Although some things had changed. Aside from the entrance all the exits were gone and my Core Pillar was here rather in the Core Room some 200 floors below.

  I tried to summon up the menu and was not surprised when it didn’t show up. Yep, not in the game then, not sure why I was so calm about it. … What in the ever living hell was that?

  

  So, essentially, I had a Wikipedia page that would just speak into my head whenever I wanted something answered. That was neat. Wonder if it could answer where in the world I was and what was going on, though.

  .

  Ok, then- it continued before I could finish the thought. .

  … OK then, that explained the where, but not the why and HOW.

  

  That was great, just awesome. Well then, maybe the records could give me a hint on how to proceed from here. I wasn’t new to designing dungeons, but I had no idea how to go from here since there was no “menu” to interact with or anything.

  … Oh, that made sense, I guess. I walked over to the pillar. Thank god that moving around in Avatar form did not differ from moving around in the game or I would have had a problem. I placed my paw on it and focused on returning to my Core Form.

  There was a strange floaty sensation as my physical body dissolved into mist, and my view shifted drastically. No more body to worry about at all. I could see the core that was now resting on the pedestal, and the rest of the room. I had no arms, legs or anything which felt strange. I tried to move forward, nothing. I tried to “will” myself forward, and I moved forward at a walking pace as the floor and walls in front of me came closer. That was simple enough.

  Now how did I change the... no sooner had I thought about it before the menu appeared, no “Log Out”, “Settings” or “Quit” options. But “Inventory”, “Construction”, “Summon”, “Stats”, “Mastery” “Devices” and “Bestiary” were all there... that… couldn’t be coincidence. Even more so since there were menus written in English, in another World. Come to think of it, the foyer had the same Greek-Roman-Egyptian aesthetic that I had used in the game. And I found it rather unlikely such a style would be common in another world. Was that just a coincidence?

   Figures, even if I am highly curious about what the hell is going on, I have no choice but to put that aside from now. I need to secure my Core Pillar and get some defenses up as soon as possible. If any adventurers or wandering monsters showed up now I would be in serious trouble.

  Sure my Avatar might be able to handle them, emphasis on might. But I suspected that my stats would be nowhere near what they used to be in the game. Actually, a quick check on the stats page would reveal that just fine, wouldn’t it? With a sinking feeling, I willed the “Stats” menu to open.

  Dungeon Name: Labyrinthia

  Dungeon Biome: Maze

  Dungeon Level: 1

  DEXP: 0/10

  Depth: 1

  Rooms: 1

  Essence: 300/300

  EP: 2

  TP: 2

  Avatar Attributes

  Avatar Race: Sage Sphinx (Legendary Unique Variant)

  Avatar Gender: Female

  Avatar Level: 1

  EXP: 0/100

  HP: 500/500

  MP: 200/200

  Attack: 155

  Defense: 150

  Magic Attack: 250

  Magic Defense: 250

  Strength: 15

  Dexterity: 17

  Endurance: 16

  Intelligence: 30

  Wisdom: 25

  Charisma: 20

  Skills: Unbreakable Will(Racial), Labyrinth Sense(Racial), Flight Lv5(Racial), Cleaving Swipe Lv1(Racial), Roar Lv1(Racial), Telepathy Lv5(Racial), Akashic Records (Unique), Magical Labyrinth(Unique) Dispersion(Starting), Reformation(Starting), Core Bound(Starting), Blessing of Inlas(Mythical), WBllrdn iie LV1(Special).

  Well, it looked like the starting stats I had when I first entered the game and aside from the garbled skill, Magical Labyrinth and the Blessing. I could not make heads or tails on the garbled skill, though. The records refused to acknowledge it being there. Magical Labyrinth would make my maze shift around every time someone not who did not belong to the Dungeon exited, if a certain trap was in it. And the blessing was... silence. Great, well then.

  I pushed that aside for now, answers could come later, what I needed right now was to get the damn Pillar to safety as soon as possible. With that in mind, I started the construction of the dungeon or tried. Turns out there was a snag, Essence. I had a finite amount of it because of the pathetic size of the place, and thus I could only build so much.

  And of course, the only ways to increase the rate of acquisition was to have a bigger dungeon or kill stuff within it. Neither was feasible right now, so a small maze would have to do. A quick calculation later and I realized I could create a small maze with an even smaller room for my core with my available Essence. I would even have enough for a simple trap or two and some minions afterwards too, barely.

  Problem was, I had no traps or summoned monsters. Not surprising at all. I opened the “Bestiary” tab and found that my selection right now was utterly abysmal. I didn’t even bother with the Mastery tab, what I needed now were not some fancy Variants or hyper expensive Boss Monster. I needed something to protect my small dungeon without costing me every ounce of Essence I had in upkeep. I looked at my available Evolution Points, only 2, not great, but not horrible either, I could unlock some basic monsters with that.

  I quickly unlocked the Giant Rat and Dungeon Worm, the best monsters I could afford right now. Not to mention the only other choice I had, given my starting biome, were basic Oozes. They weren’t really useful until I could unlock some variants.

  Especially when compared to the high replenishment rate of the Giant Rat, the Sneak Attack and Burrow of the Dungeon Worm. With my starting monsters selected, I set about building my small maze. It would have been nostalgic, if my life weren’t potentially on the line this time around.

  I finished about an hour later; it wasn’t that big, hardly more than a small play maze. It wouldn’t be too difficult to navigate, at least it didn’t seem that way to me. But then I had Labyrinth Sense, and that granted me access to a small map in the peripheral of my vision at all times. I doubted anyone who entered the dungeon from the outside would have that going for them.

  Then again, if the scaling of the small map was to be trusted the maze itself was 100m long X 100m wide X 10m high. The corridors I was using were only 5 meters wide. The maze was far more complicated than it seemed at first glance, though I was feeling slightly dizzy from my efforts.

  It got much worse once I summoned the Rats and Worms into the corridors; I hadn’t dropped too many of those before I was getting a severe sense of vertigo. A quick check told me what I needed to know, I was nearly completely out of Essence, not good.

  Well, nothing to do now but wait for it to recover. With the Dungeon being bigger, the Essence were trickling in faster too. Although the upkeep for the monsters were cutting into that, so it wasn’t amazing. It was far better than the big fat 0 it had been before I added them. The maze itself had some interesting aesthetics. They covered the walls in slates filled with hieroglyphics, carvings of what had to be my Avatar and extensive sections that were just blank.

  Then there were the critters, there were small critters you would expect to find in a dungeon running around the place. If I were to take a guess, they were food for the Rats and Worms. At least that meant I didn’t have to find a way to feed them, as in the game that entire part had been glossed over.

  My Essence was slowly starting to trickle back up again. I opened the Devices tabs to look at the traps. The status page had mentioned I also had 2 Tech Points. I might as well shore up my defenses even more with some traps if I could find some that were suitable.

  Wall Crushers and Arrow Traps, now that was nasty, but not what I was after, “Small Boulder Trap” a 5mX5m Boulder that will roll down a corridor. Now THAT seemed more my kind of trap. There was the problem of disposal, though. I looked further down. Ah, the perfect solution, Pitfalls, a basic and well-tried combination, not to mention lethal.

  I was about to click the Boulder trap when I noticed something else that hadn’t been there in the game, “Skill Traps” what’s that?

   OK, now I was curious, what in the world was in here?

  There were only 2 available options right now, and both were free to unlock.

  Mirror of Dreaming Imprisonment

  Item Type: Trapped item

  Trap type: Curse

  Material Type: Crystal Glass

  Range: Line of Sight

  Trigger Type: Sight within 2 meters

  Cooldown: instant, but only one target can be trapped at a time.

  Hardness: 2

  HP: 5

  Defense: 0

  Evasion: 0

  Upkeep: -

  Duration: Until dispelled, the mirror is broken, or the minion dies.

  Effect: Gazing into this accursed mirror for too long will lull the watcher into a dreamlike state that will compel them to touch the mirror. Doing so will cause the target to enter the mirror itself and a Doppelg?nger replaces them. The Doppelg?nger will protect the Dungeon to the best of its ability. The target will be held in stasis and can be interacted with by the Dungeon Core. The target can be used as Material for other things if the Core has them available. Though the death of the Material will cause the death of the Doppelg?nger as well.

  … What... The... Hell? How did I have this horrid thing? I had nothing like this in the game. Hell, if something like this was in the game, it would be banned instantly. It would interfere with the NVR players’ ability to “log out” because of a continuous mind controlling effect.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  I probed the Records. . BUT WHAT IS WBllrdn iie LV1?… No answer, though I had the distinct sensation the records were smiling smugly at me.

  Well, putting that aside it was unlocked, didn’t I even need to pay points for it. The 2nd trap that I found in the tab was also nasty looking.

  Magical Labyrinth

  Item Type: Environmental Trap

  Trap Type: Magical

  Material Type: Labyrinth environment

  Range: Entire Floor

  Trigger: Core + Automatic

  Cooldown: 10 minutes or Instant

  Upkeep: 50e/d

  Effect: This trap will randomly move the walls of the maze without changing its layout. The trap will leave an obscured path to the Core, unless the core wills it to be otherwise. The trap will automatically trigger on its own when the last intruder leaves the dungeon, or an intruder enters the dungeon while no other intruder is inside.

  The trap has no Cooldown if activated automatically. Please note that the trap has no ability to detect friend or foe, activate the trap at your own peril.

  Now that was a nice trap, have an intruder just a few feet from entering my Core room and slam the door shut in their faces. Problem was that upkeep was WAY above anything I could handle. With the Maze done I had gotten an Essence gain of 25e/d but the summoned monsters cost me 20 in upkeep. 10 from the rats and 10 from the worms, that left me with a measly 5e/d, putting this in would bankrupt me. That would be bad for my intention to continue living.

  I bought the pitfall and boulder combo; they were free to place and didn’t cost any upkeep. I was, however, limited to how many traps I could have of each type by the size of my Dungeon. Ah well, nothing to do with that limitation, at least not yet. Mastery would allow me to increase that limit, but Mastery Points only unlocked from defeating intruders, of which I had none.

  I hesitated for a moment having placed my allotted 4 pitfalls and 2 Boulder Traps because I could also place 1 Mirror. The question was… should I? The trap was nasty as hell, but could I really condemn someone to essentially a potential eternity trapped inside a mirror? A better question was... could I afford not to? In the game being killed would mean you would lose half your levels and would seal your dungeon for a while so you could rebuild in peace. I suspected that death here... probably would be far more... permanent... far, far more permanent.

  In the end, I placed the mirror inside my Core Room. Right in front of the Core Pillar, facing the entrance, a last ditch effort to prevent my Core Pillar from being destroyed, or worse... Tamed.

  Taming was grave news, it was a Divine Tier Class-skill, meaning it would just ignore all skills that were not Divine tier themselves. So, skills that would usually block mind controlling or other mental effects would have no effect on this horrid skill.

  Taming had also seen a recent change just before I was poofed over here, before it could not tame Avatars of dungeons, only regular monsters. Heck, that stuff happened quite often from classes such as Druids and Rangers taking dungeon monsters as companions. But one of the most recent patches had made it so Cores could be Tamed too, with some hefty penalties for the Tamed Core.

  First, all gains of the dungeon would be cut in half and given to the “Owner” in the form of EXP. That meant all forms of gains, including unlock points. The dungeon could also not harm the “Owner” or the “Owners” party members, or attack anyone the owner had tagged as friendly. The dungeon would also have to listen to certain orders given by the “Owner” in the same manner a normal tamed monster would. It did not sound like a fun experience at all to be on the receiving end of that.

  The good thing was, nothing had ever conquered my dungeon since the change. I had little doubt if they had I would have been on the receiving end of a Taming attempt if they had managed it. “Conquering” a dungeon would leave it helpless for a while, giving them enough time for one attempt before the system would kick them out.

  With that in mind, I returned to my Avatar Form and did the only sensible thing I could. The building had taken some time, and I was not in any danger, so I needed to kill time for my Essence to replenish. The best way to do that would be to sleep. Something my avatar could do, luckily, as I lay down and curled up my lion tail idly tickled my nose. I couldn’t help but wonder if this was some kind of surreal dream as I slowly fell asleep.

  Something woke me up, a strange but urgent sensation in the back of my mind. It took me a moment to realize where I was and what was going on. Right, trapped in a small dungeon, with only a handful of monsters and even fewer traps to protect me. And if this sensation was right, I had just received my first bit of company.

  I dispersed my avatar and focused myself towards the entrance of the dungeon; I wanted to see what I was dealing with. A woman, bruised, dirty and in shredded clothes were in the process of stumbling into the Dungeon. She looked behind her shoulder with a scared expression as she did. Either she had no idea she had stumbled into a dungeon. Or she was more afraid of whatever was chasing her, I silently hoped it was the former as the latter would likely be unwelcome news for me.

  Shortly after 2 people dressed in loose fitting black robes and with cloaks obscuring their faces entered after the woman. They had their weapons drawn; they did not just hurry further into the maze but were cautious; they knew where they were then good to know. Meanwhile, the woman had been taken care of; I had commanded a Dungeon Worm to restrain her, not kill, just restrain. She was unarmed and not a threat if the busted shackles were any indication. But she could give me some information about where I was, at least. In difference to the records, who either answered that they couldn’t answer or just remained silent.

  For a skill that was supposed to be able to answer practically anything I needed for it, it was surprisingly unhelpful. The woman was obviously in a state of utter panic, and I can’t say I blamed her. Though she seemed to relax a bit as she realized the worm was not trying to eat her. Meanwhile, I dealt with the intruders in a more direct fashion. Rats and worms were nice, but these people seemed to be quite experienced. I would not waste the only troops I had on them. This required more… direct approach, I decided.

  The two intruders didn’t notice as I materialized in the hallway to their left, though they decidedly noticed as I unleashed Roar LV1 on them. Roar Lv1 was a skill that deafened the targets unless they passed the save. And they would take a decent chunk of damage from the magically enhanced sound as well.

  They staggered away from me as my roar hit them. One of them dropped their weapon and clutched their ears, screaming in pain, the other kept barely holding their weapon. They were looking up at me now with more than a small bit of fear, can’t say I blame the intruders for that reaction. I was almost twice the height of a grown man from foot to shoulder. So, I would cut for a rather impressive figure in this cramped hallway, cramped to me anyway, as I couldn’t unfurl my wings here at all.

  The hallway I had materialized in was the hallway leading to the woman. I needed her alive and thus couldn’t let these two find her, not in her helpless state. The other way leading deeper inside would be a dead end with a pitfall, meaning if they intended to get out of here alive they would have to retreat. Or, so I hoped they would do, I was not ready to outright kill someone myself yet. Scare someone away, sure, kill, I hoped I would not have to figure out if I was capable of that.

  I took a menacing step towards the two intruders, just as the other intruder staggered back on their feet. The two looked at me, dead end and the way out. I took another step and growled. It was a low, deep sound, like that of a furious lion or tiger, only far louder. The two intruders glanced at one another and took off back the way they came. I made a show of chasing them, I could have caught them easily, as I was far faster than they were just from my sheer size alone. But then I would have to kill them, that would be a last resort, I decided, yes my dungeon needed Essence, desperately so, but killing? Ugh, I didn’t like the idea, didn’t like it at all, should I or should I not?

  .

  Well then, that eased some guilt I would have for killing these two. Then there was also the fact that having a demon worshiping cult know my location didn’t really sit well with me. I had no traps here and no monsters within reach... dammit, either let these deranged lunatics go and probably condemn another person to death down the line. Or I crossed the line here and killed them. Not a simple choice at all, even so a choice had to be made. It was an obvious choice to me in the end, I didn’t like it, but it was necessary. They had to die.

  They never stood a chance against me. They still had another 15 meters to the safety of the stairs when I caught up with them. I charged into them and crushed them like the little mice they were. The sheer weight of the impact killed the one that had failed to resist my roar outright. As the cultist hadn’t heard me coming and so hadn’t been able to brace for the impact. The impact sent the cultist face-first into the wall with a sickening crunch; the impact killed them instantly. The other one fared only slightly better. They had turned around and braced against the impact, but the resulting hit had clearly done some serious damage to the intruder’s back. I forced myself to look the intruder in their eyes as I slammed my paw down on them, claws out, killing them. I felt sick, yet simultaneously strangely elated, I wanted to throw up, yet I wanted to dance around in happiness, yet I did neither, I had other things to do.

  When the woman noticed me, her relaxed posture instantly turned to one of panic. I can’t say I blame her as I was covered in the blood and gore from my earlier kills. But going all the way back to my core to disperse and then reform seemed... far too excessive, I really need to get Remote Dispersion as soon as possible.

  I looked down at her; she was saying something in a language I couldn’t understand, probably panicked begging. Great, now what do I do? . That... was useful. Good thing I had level 5 and not the usual level 1, now how to use it...

  Seeing as prior experience meant I would have to “will” it to happen, I tried to will her to hear my thoughts. “Can you hear me?” she stiffened, before she looked up at me, slowly. “Y-yes” she answered, hesitantly... English, what the heck? Hmm... Probably some form of translation effect because I now “knew” the language? It was the only thing I could think of and the Records remained silent, so I guessed I was correct.

  “Do you even realize where you are?” I asked her. She seemed willing enough to talk. And I was not so stupid as to let go of a marvelous thing by revealing I was as utterly unprepared for this as she was. I had no idea how she would have reacted if she realized.

  “Y-your dungeon, Great One?” she seemed confused by the question. I sat down in front of her and without even thinking about it, I cleaned my paws and arms of the blood covering them. “Yes, my dungeon, so that makes you an intruder. Luckily for you, however, I am in a pleasant mood. I might let you go to live another day. All I want is for you to answer some questions for me,”

  The girl stiffened. “I-I am afraid I lack the wisdom to attempt to challenge your riddles, Great One, please forgive me” she closed her eyes and lowered her head. She probably expected to be killed immediately.

  I mentally ordered the worm to release her and it slithered away and burrowed into the ground once more. It was no longer needed, anyway. The woman could not flee, and we both knew it. “Not riddles, little one, simple questions about the surrounding area. I have been... out of touch, with the world at large for some time and as such have little to no idea of the goings-on in the surrounding region. If you answer my questions to the best of your ability and I let you go, I don’t even care if you cannot answer. As long as the answer is honest that is all I care for and you may go, I give you my word”

  The woman deflated in front of me, now openly crying in what I could only surmise was relief, I let her cry in peace; I was not in a hurry. After about 15 minutes the woman sniffled, took a few deep breaths and looked up at me, no more fear in her eyes, only determination and relief. “What do you wish to know?”

  Three hours later the woman left the dungeon, I was sitting outside it watching her go. I had given her as much of the equipment from the dead intruders as I thought was safe. The dungeon had absorbed the two along with their gear. So, it had been a simple matter of dumping it from my inventory and on the ground in front of the woman. She had been a veritable font of information, one upside of being a Merchant, I suppose. But I was a bit worried now.

  The nearest town was only a few hours walk away. And if what the cultists had said when she was a captive were true, then their camp was even closer. However, the 2 cultists I had killed were not a bad haul at all, sure I had gifted most of the gear I had gotten to the woman. But then I didn’t need that right now, I had gotten what I needed from the cultists already.

  A bunch of Essence and Mastery points, 2 of them. I had spent one Mastery to unlock the ability to roam within 200 meters of my dungeon entrance. As a Sphinx I needed some space to move, back in the game I had maxed the Outdoor Exploration, giving me a range of up to 16 kilometers. So being trapped underground without being able to spread my wings had been torture.

  The other point I had spent on Depth Increase, which increased passive regeneration from the size of my dungeon. It also increased the size I could make my current floor and allowed me to expand downward by placing another staircase somewhere once I got access to a Staircase room. With the Essence I had gotten from the cultists, I had immediately expanded the maze. And with the extra regeneration, I nearly tripled its size before running out. Hallways were efficient Essence gainers because of my Biome, and the depth increase had only strengthened that. I still could not place a Magical Labyrinth. But I could place more monsters than the handful I had had when I started out.

  As I placed the monsters, however, I noticed a tab in the Monster Menu I had not noticed earlier. “Gifted Monsters” was a new one, I was certain that was not there before. And again, it was a tab that didn’t exist in the game. Out of curiosity, I opened it.

  I froze, there, as the sole occupant of that menu, was... my masterpiece, my most beloved Boss Monster. The only player created a boss monster that had gone undefeated since its creation. The only Unique, Legendary Tier, Named Boss Monster in the game.

  Name: Minos, Guardian of Labyrinthia

  Race: Emperor Minotaur (Legendary Unique Variant)

  Gender: Male

  Level: MAX

  EXP: MAX

  HP: 1M/1M

  MP: 500k/500k

  Classes: Warrior LvMAX, Berserker LvMAX, Dark Knight LvMAX, Warlock LvMAX, Dark Champion LvMAX, Beast Warrior LvMAX, Weapons Master LvMAX, Reaver LvMAX, Blood Mage LvMAX, Necromancer LvMAX, Dark Shaman LvMAX.

  Attack: MAX

  Defense: MAX

  Magic Attack: MAX

  Magic Defense: MAX

  Strength: MAX

  Dexterity: MAX

  Endurance: MAX

  Intelligence: MAX

  Wisdom: MAX

  Charisma: MAX

  Upkeep: 100000e/d, Unless Throne Room of the Minotaur King is built, in which case Upkeep -

  Non-Class Skills: Monster King(Special). Monster Lord(Special). Core Guardian(Special). Eternally Loyal(Special). Edict Holder(Special). Edict Keeper(Special). Guardians Edicts Lv9(Special). Slaughterer(Special). Rager(Special). Life Eater(Special). Immortal Spirit(Unique). Indomitable Will(Unique). Relentless(Special). Tireless(Special). Vigilant(Special). True-sight Lv5(Special). Protector(Special). Ultra-Speed Regeneration(Special). Maze Teleport(Special). Labyrinth Sense(Racial). Charge(Racial).

  Class Skills: too many to list.

  That there were too many class skills to list didn’t surprise me. He had mastered every skill within his classes, thanks to constant training and enhancement by me. Minos alone were worth more than the rest of my 200 floor dungeon combined back in the game. And he had lost nothing if the list were telling the truth. The main issue was, the room I needed to summon him was an expensive unlock in the mastery tab. And the room served no other purpose but to 0 the upkeep of Minotaur’s and all Minotaur Sub Species and Variants.

  Minos himself was another free unlock I just had to nab whenever I felt like it, so that was nice. But unless I wanted to kill myself, where was no way I could place him without that room. And that was far off yet, given how many prerequisites it had to be unlocked for purchase. It required, among other things, a Minotaur King, a rare Minotaur Variant that I could not afford right now. As I neither had the EP to unlock nor Essence Gain to support a single Minotaur. Not to mention the Mastery needed to unlock the Minotaur King Variant was really damned steep.

  I shook my head out of the reverie I had been in thinking back to that incident. No point in dwelling on that. It was nothing I could do about it right now, at any rate. I looked out across the plain I was sitting on, even as stone walls were slowly starting to erect themselves within the area I could wander in. Because of my Biome, any area of the surface that I could wander in would fall under my “Control” and so take on the likeness of my primary biome.

  In my case, the ground was becoming a Maze. There was enough space around the entrance and several other rooms around to support a take-off and landing for me. But other than that, there would be a slow and time-consuming job indeed to maneuver through this, to find the entrance to my dungeon once it was complete.

  That was good because I had little doubt that word of my dungeon would leak out. Either from travelers noticing the growth of my Biome on the surface. Or the Merchant telling someone, I had told her not to tell anyone, but I had no way of knowing how reliable that was. I had no way to enforce that command, meaning only her good-will would stop her.

  Well, nothing to do with that now at any rate I decided as I walked about and enjoyed the sensation of wind in my fur. NVR was amazing in its ability to replicate sensations. But compared to the actual thing it was like I had been wearing a layer of wool on everything while in the game, this was downright pleasant.

  Having stood there for a while and just enjoying the sunset and the wind I walked down the stairs again and returned to my Pillar, I needed to sleep. I had spent all the Essence I had available, and I needed the rest as I had been hard at work practically all day. First the interrupted nap with the woman and the intruders. Then further building and expansion after the questions. I needed... a nice... long nap... I was asleep before I even had the chance to lie down.