~~Magenta~~

  It’s a few moments before anyone speaks. Honestly, it ends up being the Guide who breaks the silence. Despite not looking at the strange phone when the words pop up, I know they’re there and raise the screen to look at it.

  With a start, I realise that the phone screen is now floating without my holding it, staying around eye-level. It floats just close enough to me to be a comfortable read. “Fascinating.”

  The version of the screen I’ve been looking at minimises, revealing four large Icons, then a secondary screen pops out of the phone, the green icon highlighted to show that it is active. The secondary screen is coloured green, but continues to display text which, from context and the way it ‘speaks’, I assume is still the Guide communicating.

  The Map activates automatically, creating a third floating screen. It shows a small round room with a corridor on the top, or I suppose North wall. The corridor curves towards the right side of the screen (East, I believe) before ending in a grey block. The round room contains a small glowing ball that I understand to be our Core, and the grey block I understand to be our entrance. There’s not much else, just a label stating this to be Level 1 and a piece of text on the left side of the map.

  As the guide continues, the Map closes.

  I glance over towards Cyan, who appears to be getting the same basic tutorial. “It’s quite a lot to absorb all at once…”

  I consider the advice. It seems sound, so I follow the suggestion, closing the Message window and tapping on the book icon to open the Compendium. Like the new Messages screen, the Compendium pops out to form a secondary screen, this time in a comforting blue.

  Only two seem to be selectable. Materials, which seems to be the thing the Guide was direcing me towards, and Magic. I choose Materials.

  “What in the world does RCM mean?” I stare at the screen with a blank stare, confused. That is, I stare confusedly until a little question mark appears and expands into a helpful tip. Well, it’s good to know the Compendium can answer questions, although it doesn’t seem to have as much.. personality as the Guide.

  “Do you know what this means?” Cyan slides over to stand next to me, his phone showing the Materials screen I was just on. I gesture to my screen, showing the explanation and his eyes widen in excitement as he reads through it. “What?? Quests? Monsters! Bosses! That’s so exciting!”

  I smile at his excitement. I have to admit that it is infectious. I go back to the Materials Menu and think for a moment before tapping on Coarse Soil.

  “Various Materials… Soils are generally a mixture of clay, sand, and humus. Coarse Soil probably means it has a higher concentration of sand and/or smaller gravel pieces,” Cyan spoke, almost analysing the description.

  I understand most of that, but one thing sticks out. “Hummus? Like… mashed chickpeas?”

  “No, uh, one m. It’s decayed plant and animal matter. It’s basically what comes out of a composter. Chock-full of nutrients and other great stuff. Mixes in with clay and sand on the ground to make up soil, which is then filled up with worms and stuff. Yeah?”

  “Ah, that makes sense… Thanks.”

  “Hey, guide, when we’re editing the rooms, are we creating new material or just moving around existing stuff?”

  “Wait… so conservation of mass and energy doesn't apply here?”

  “Ohhhh. Okay, okay! That makes sense. So, can I split the soil up into its constituent parts?”

  I listen passively, a small smile on my face as Cyan works through some process he insists on going through, almost arguing with the guide about what he wants to do. Deciding I’m not particularly interested in the details of that conversation, I remember that there are more options listed under Materials, and examine those.

  I think about the information revealed, wondering how I would make roots into a resource. Root vegetables are the only thing I can think of immediately. A Monster root would likely be some kind of animated plant being, I imagine it would hang from the ceiling like dangling spider threads and ensnare passers by. Earthworms as a resource… likely used as fishing bait. As critters, I’m not sure I can see their potential, but that might require some lateral thinking. An earthworm Monster might be… something? It could be like a snake, but at that point why not just use a snake? I’m honestly not sure what could be done with Earthworms other than aesthetics, and before I can deeply consider the issue, Cyan interrupts my thoughts.

  “So, I wanted to see if I could get like, uh, sand and clay from the soil. It’s possible, but it might be a little Mana-intensive. But if we can do it, then replicate and enlarge single grains of sand, we could get rocks. And with clay we could make ceramics and stuff.”

  “Why not just… go find a rock?”

  “That’s probably the easier way of doing it, but I still wanted to know.. If there are other things we can't just go out and grab later, it's a good idea to have ways to make them ourselves.”

  I shake my head in amusement, then tap my foot on the ground a few times, feeling an anxious need to move around and explore. That corridor is calling to me. “I think I might explore a bit.”

  Cyan turns back to his conversation with the guide, nodding slightly as he does so. While he’s not facing me, somehow I know he’s paying attention by the way he tilts his head. “Okay, have fun! I’m gonna keep playing around with these menus and see what I can learn. I’ll check out the Magic stuff and let you know what I find.”

  I turn towards the corridor and begin to walk. My hand brushes against the wall, and I can feel the texture of the soil. It’s comforting to feel the soft give of soil against my fingers. It doesn’t take much time before the outside world comes into view. Packed soil steps lead up to a landing, and at the top of said landing is a stone archway. The arch resembles a Lancet arch. Through the archway, I can see outside the Dungeon, and that takes my attention before I can examine the entrance hallway any further.

  A quiet nighttime symphony begins to fill my awareness as I approach the archway. It’s literal music to my ears, and as I reach the stone and place my hand on its cold surface, I begin to identify the individual players. Nearest to me is the gentle song of several different species of crickets, trying to find a mate of their own kind. Further off I can hear the serenade of frogs, probably saying much the same. The frog’s croaking is accompanied by the gentle lap of water far off. I hear the hoot of an owl, and a few moments later, the call of a coyote or something similar. I imagine that if I listen long enough, I might hear wolves howling. I take another step forward, my feet on the threshold, then step through.

  I’m standing in a meadow filled with so many wildflowers and wildgrasses that it's almost overwhelming. In the near distance there are trees - it’s not a terribly massive meadow, and the trees lead my gaze upward to the sky.

  If the sounds of nature were a symphony, I’m not sure what to call the stars. A masterpiece would be an appropriate word. There’s a greater magnitude of stars than I’ve ever seen, and I reach up as if I’d be able to touch them. For a while, I’m not sure how long, I stare up into the sky. My eyes travel across the sky, landing upon the brightest thing in the sky, the moon. It seems to be a half moon, half in shadow and half in light. The moon is not Earth’s moon, although it has a similar silvery glow. It feels a little bigger than the moon I’m used to, but more notably, the dark areas are in the wrong shape. I know the moon and it has a rabbit on it. This moon does not have a rabbit on it.

  That would have occupied me for quite a while had I not noticed that the moon has a friend. As the moon crosses the sky, a second, apparently slower moon seems to emerge from behind it. The second moon is smaller and darker, with an almost reddish tint to it that reminds me of Mars. It doesn’t have a pattern of dark areas like the brighter moon does, but I do notice a lighter patch at what I have to assume is its pole. Now knowing there are two moons, I look around the sky with a new curiosity and I see the third moon. This one is almost blue in colour and darker than the other two, making it harder to spot until I notice the lack of stars. “Toto… I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.”

  I feel a moment of amusement at the idea before I realise we’re not even in some Oz equivalent. As I recall, Oz is supposed to be in some undiscovered corner of Earth, while the presence of three moons clearly indicates we are not on Earth at all. Instead, this seems to be more like some kind of Narina, a totally different place which has different rules for how things work. For example, Dungeons (and magic) exist.

  I crouch down, considering the situation as well as my place within the universe. It’s beginning to hurt my head a little to be honest. I cast my mind back to the beginning of this entire situation. My apparent death on the operating table is a good place to start. Of course, I have to consider the idea that this is all a dream that my unconscious mind has come up with. I disregard the idea fairly quickly, knowing that any dreams are unlikely under anesthesia, let alone ones as vivid as this. I know that from the removal of my wisdom teeth. I fell asleep in the dentist chair and my next concrete memories were in the car on the way home, no dreams between.

  Ruling out dreams also probably rules out hallucinations. This leaves little doubt that I did probably die and end up here. I briefly wonder what my funeral was (or will be) like, but turn away from that stream of thought as it makes me uncomfortable. Simply considering my own mortality was always a difficult thought, and it’s no easier now that I’m quite certain I’ve passed that threshold into the beyond. I consider that this may be some strange version of heaven, but then I remember the Guide said something about Reincarnation. That’s a Hindu concept, I remember learning about it in my highschool religion class. If that’s what has happened, then although my original body is likely dead, my soul was preserved, and returned to life in the form of a Dungeon Core.

  I consider Cyan. He looks almost like me, but about six years younger and with an obvious masculine aesthetic. I consider the fact that I feel a little younger myself, but I don’t linger on the thought. Why would the Guide (or whoever is behind this situation) split me up into two parts like that?

  Before I can go too deeply along that train of thought, I hear the sound of footsteps behind me. Knowing it must be Cyan, I don’t turn around. “Hey, Maggie, you okay?”

  Instead of replying verbally, I gesture up at the sky.

  He steps out beside me and stares upwards, soon just as amazed as I am at the sight of the night sky. After a few moments, he speaks again. “Huh… the stars are all wrong.”

  “Really? The first thing I noticed was the three moons.”

  “Three what?”

  The Dungeon without a System. It's a really cool story. I really like how the author builds the world. The way the Dungeon and its residents interact is really sweet and I absolutely adore Wave (If you know who that is, you know. If you don’t know Wave, maybe it's time to read Dungeon Without a System).