《A Dungeon Tested》 1. Well that was a good start. Thump. Aseptic silence disturbed. Thump, Thump. Steady unhurried stirring from nothing an echo in an empty space. Thump, thump, thump. Life has come, a stark contrast in space inhuman cold and vast. Thump. Thump. It slows this reassuring sound; stirring becomes panicked it is new frailty. Thump. Stop. Stopped¡­ Initializing. Individual transfer OS coding. Starting conditions, analyzing¡­ Starting conditions, set. User confirmation required set true name Y/N.
  1. @¡±%&*~# (redacted)
It was a strange and inauspicious birth, but it was a start. The vast empty space into which I was born was startling and then very quickly terrifying. While I had instantaneously gained an awareness of self. ¡°I think therefore I am¡±. It felt weird to be so immediately aware but I didn¡¯t know why. I was missing things that I had always taken for granted but I could only tell this by the phantom feeling of where they used to be I wouldn¡¯t be able to describe what It was. New things, senses I had never had before were screaming at me. In every direction there was nothing. A cold black void extending in every direction. Feeling noting beneath me I felt I should be falling but some sense that I couldn¡¯t understand let me know I wasn¡¯t moving. The silence was gnawing at me in the emptiness. Panicked I tried to look closer and closer out into the darkness but still found nothing, but as my focus grew I lurched forward. The positional sense that I couldn¡¯t work out how it was working with no references to tell I was moving. It seemed to be telling me I was moving at a rather fast clip. But my sense of panic that had briefly been displaced by shock was returning having disappeared when I started moving. I moved faster like I was running from some monster that was drawing closer but my panic was just growing faster now. Without another option, I pushed my focus to the limit and passed out.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. Sometime later I abruptly gained consciousness. It was strange I hadn¡¯t been caught as far as I could tell by whatever I had been panicked about chasing me. And for the first moment from waking for the first time I was rather calm. Having established all seemed well within myself that core of my being that I would eventually need to find a name. I looked out around me. Overall it looked much the same, a vast infinite space that was in no way differentiated. But this was no longer the case. Stretching from me out into the distance was a faint bar of energy. Thin and rather indistinct it spanned a huge distance as I perceived it, but having no frame of reference it was hard to tell. Both time and distance are hard to quantify in this emptiness. Having studied the bar and how it extended into the distance for some time. I decided to use my new mobility to investigate and turned my greater focus, following in the direction of the bar I moved towards it. As I moved onto the bar I felt a new feeling of pressure not uncomfortable but an awareness of something pressing against me. Having stopped to examine this new feeling I noticed the section of the bar that I had passed over was now brighter more solid and less indistinct in its relationship with the surrounding darkness. Excited to see that my actions had some way of impacting the empty vastness, I pushed on moving a little faster keen to see that I would find on the end of this bar. I came to a change in the bar where it visibly became more solid more like that behind me. It had been slowly getting brighter as I moved down the length of the bar but here it changed from a nebulous diffuse strip to a solid bar though with a circular cross-section as I looked now it could be easily distinguished. As I went to move further along so I could look in detail at the bar I couldn¡¯t. Well, I physically felt I could but every time I went to turn my attention onto the solid bar I found the panic that had been absent since waking was back in full force. Each time disrupting my focus. So long as I didn¡¯t attempt to move further along the bar I was okay. Some stubborn streak that I wasn¡¯t until then aware I had felt miffed that my investigations that a yielded such excitement were to be stymied in this fashion. My apparently stubborn nature girded me as I struggled to push through the panic forcing it to one side as I pushed forward. I started to feel stretched my will and focus pushing me forward while some force pushed back against me. And me in the middle being pushed, pulled, compressed and rarefied between them all at the same time. Until suddenly with a lurch and a stop I had moved forward some tiny distance into the solidly filled space. That¡¯s when it all went wrong. I was stuck the panic that I had momentarily overcome to move into this position having crashed over me in full force and was even now washing away any sign of a rational through. I had to move I couldn¡¯t stay here. To stay here was to die. I mustn¡¯t die. Go back. Go back. GO BACK. I couldn¡¯t go back there was no space to go back. Move or die, move or die. I must get away from here. I started focusing in random directions in some desperate effort to escape. My focus becoming more strained each time I failed some sense of myself being lost in every failed attempt. Till I found it a slight gap a point a direction no more than a couple of degrees where the screaming panic became slightly less. Less all-encompassing and gave me the opportunity to focus and with another lurching hop escape. 2. Its mine all mine Repair wizard start. Build detecting¡­ Ego damage identified. Repairing¡­ Ego restart. Like a flipped switch I was again conscious. Around me, I was again surrounded by the familiar empty void. A void I was starting to associate with safety, so far it hadn¡¯t tried to kill me. Some more pessimistic side adding a yet to that thought. My efforts had left me apparently no worse off but I was not going to try that again. Who knows what later side effects there might be for this constant loss of consciousness it didn¡¯t do anything for my pride. I was slowly coming to better understand myself. Clearly, there wasn¡¯t much happening around but I list of personality traits were becoming apparent. I still would rather refer to them as traits rather than flaws. I was stubborn, prideful, curious and oddly at this point calm. Considering I had just almost killed myself in my stupidity I was hoping I could put it down to resilience but that would have to wait for more evidence. This was an opportunity to take stock any look round. The void was still there, still empty and black. Safe but already boring. The bar that had caused all these problems had undergone another change it was now from end to end solid. It''s length stretching out both left and right to my perspective and a new diffuse bar connecting me to it at a right angle. I looked at it in a kind of stunned awe. It had an undefinable presence against the void somehow more real than anything around it. I had a moment of realisation at this point it wasn¡¯t a bar. Immediately I was engaged in how could I test my new theory. I needed to move to compare. I set about setting my focus to the left to the solid bar so I moved at a steady pace parallel to it. Then the tricky part now I was moving I needed to split my focus one part of me controlling my movement while another turned behind me to watch what was happening. With a slight moment of dizzying vertigo, it happened. It was disconcerting my focus was now split from my perception. However, it was quickly overwhelmed by a feeling of success. I had proved it the bar was not something for me to study. It wasn¡¯t a bar at all but rather a trail. One left by me as I moved forward behind me was created a solid trail of energy that seemed to leave a permanent presence on the void. To test this further I changed my direction to start me circling the original bar. My attempts at changing my direction while still moving resulting in sudden shifts in the vector. But this was enough the trail following me made the same sharp changes in vector around the bar. Continuing to play like this resulted in improvement in my ability to control my movement the sudden change in vector being transformed into smooth curves. I spent some time exploring this learning something more about myself in the process. I thought I was a bit of an artist and released into a vast empty black canvas with possibly the boldest paint ever created I was going to make the most of it. I could suggest that what followed was some outpouring of an amazing intrinsic artistic talent and at the time I could not have been more proud. You would find better art produced by the most challenged young sapiens. In my defence, I didn¡¯t have much for reference. Trying to make an artistic representation of the void without knowing what expressionism is. Is well, kinda hard. But moving on sometime later. I stopped.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. I stopped as I had a realisation. My movements are creating this energy. Where this energy is I cannot be as experience had shown. What would happen when all the void is filled? When there isn¡¯t space for movement would I be trapped in that last piece of the void at the end? Trapped forever. While I was thinking I had stopped but something was changing there was a pressure building around me. My panic sense was tingling. Around me was forming a mist, a fog made of the energy normally in my trail. It wasn¡¯t building quickly otherwise it must surely have affected me before this. But this is a problem, if nothing changed I may be looking at my own death. Action must be taken but what? Well first some tidying must be in order all my artistic expression now wasting what may be a limited void and I was going eke out every last bit of space. Just in case. I moved around the outside of each curve carefully filling each space between them and through them. If nothing else an effective way to improve how I thought in three dimensions. Once I was done I was left with a lumpy cylinder most of my drawing having been spaced around the original bar. I need more information while keeping my options open. Making a decision I started making a long steady continuous movement around its equator. My reasoning being I will eventually have created a solid plane to divide the void. If I never come to an edge and proved the void as infinite, excellent. However, If I did discover what at this point it might be the end of the universe. I would be free to begin spiralling back in towards the centre and make the most out of the limited space to extending my existence. *** Sometime later, bored. It had been timeless, it could have been moments or even an epoch since I made my decision but at this point, I couldn¡¯t see the cylinder at the centre of my newly created flat world. But my patience seemed to naturally be without limit. Having made the decision with a clear idea of what I wanted to achieve my body had gone into a fugue state. The part of me with just enough consciousness to control my path remained aware while the rest of me just stopped losing any perception of time. Something had changed as suddenly all of me was forced into awareness. I was no longer moving and was still. Already there was a build-up of that troublesome energy that had caused so many problems. But my attention had been set on what had stopped me something in the void. It was me another me. It was not me but some other individual of whatever I was. The realisation was shocking after thinking I was alone just me the void and fatal energy. But I was being distracted by new feels welling up within me the fear sense was also making it self-known. The gathered energy around me was what gave me the clue as to what had triggered these feelings. Two, there was now two of use and if there are two why not more. One divided by one was one. One-hundred percent. Everything. All the void was mine. One divided by two was half. Half of the void was no longer mine. It was rage a feeling I had never felt before how dare they take from me. How dare they take my time. My existence from me. But what could I do I had not found a way to affect the void around me. They, them, other was protected by that fatal mist of energy that surrounded them as much as me. Leaving me unable to ram or interact with them directly. That energy as it had been all along was the key. If I couldn¡¯t destroy them I will trap them. Moving closer I started tightly encircling them building up a thick shell of energy around them. I thought if they can¡¯t move they can¡¯t claim that other part of the void that was so rightfully mine. But it was clear nothing ever goes completely to plan. As I closed the last part of the shell around them it happened they disappeared. The void around them seemed to flex twist and with a pop, the other disappeared. And was replaced with a notice. System notice: Failed seed banished. Good work, keep hunting. 3. Im my own worst enemy System notice: Failed seed banished. Good work, keep hunting. Just as quickly as it had disappeared so did my feelings of rage and panic. But what the Hell does this mean? Not only have I found something that seems like myself but I have apparently banished it. Not to mention this strange system message. It was in its way fascinating. If I focused towards the point where the other had disappeared it appeared and when I turned away it disappeared just as quickly. Even now how I could understand it was a mystery. Nine words made up of twenty-one different letters. Organised by some set logic I had no reference for. The idea of language was new to me let alone a written form. But my focus opened new layers of understanding under the first basic statement. If I focused on a word I was presented with an understanding of what that word meant or described. Often by using other unfamiliar terms. Which they themselves lead to other meanings and reasonings. All finally bottoming out at basic phonemes and grammatical rules to govern the whole thing. Even so, I was really feeling a distinct lack of context for most of it. A theoretical knowledge of phonemes was not much use as I didn¡¯t think I had the ability to make sounds or to make use of information about objects and things that seemed so foreign to my experience. But this is what I could take from it. There was some system, a set of things working together as parts of a mechanism or a complex interconnecting whole. That had felt the need to notify me about my actions and to encourage me to continue with them. The other, that from the context I assume was a failed seed had been banished, send away from a country or place as a punishment. And most worrying of all that if the system wants me to continue hunting that there must still be something left to hunt. More failed seeds or if that unmoving thing was what I would have become if I had not succeeded in my first moments of existence. Others who may be as knowledgeable as me or more so. Individuals that may have me at a disadvantage each wanting their own piece of the void to claim as their own. However, if we could find some means of communication maybe some more of this language malarkey. These more developed others may share some information I didn¡¯t currently have. Possibly even some solution to the killer energy I seem to be producing. For now, I must have spent a considerable time sitting and unmoving. My own fog of energy around me was starting to thicken to the point of panic and I needed to continue my path. Cycling the outer edge of my created flat disk in the void. After a brief time on auto-pilot as my new understanding of language would indicate. I found another anomaly. Not a failed seed but a different trail. Not one produced or left by me it passed along the surface of my plane and around the edge in front of me. To continue in my path, I would need to step out and include the invader''s path into my created plane. Due to the nature of the trails I had no idea of the direction of travel. Even now the other could be travelling in towards the lumpen cylinder in the centre of my plane or it could be ahead of me travelling in the same direction around the rim.The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. But I came to a realisation in this void what were my chances of ever meeting another of my kind? The chances of two moving points in a seeming infinite void occupying the same space at the same time were so astronomically small as to be insignificant. Even my fateful meeting with the failed seed could be reduced to an extremely unlikely bit of good luck. I was frustrated either I would never meet individuals with the information to save myself or I will not be able to eliminate my competitors until a significant amount of the void is claimed and so the available volume minimized. It was with this weary and annoying thought that I continued my long cycling path. Having made the adjustments need to include the interloper''s trail I moved on. *** Some infinite time late I stopped I had found the end. The end of the void I had been right I felt not a little bit proud at that. It looked no different than any other part. But I could move no further in that direction to my perception it looked no different than another part of the void except it was totally inaccessible to me. I stopped a moment to marvel at my foresight that had got me this for. I had proved the void as being finite. My determination had taken me from the start of this enterprise from inception to completion. I was now able to extend my existence for the maximum possible¡­ DAMNED BANISHED BUGGERY. I had made a mistake. I had proved the void finite by dividing it but I now didn¡¯t know in what proportion I had divided it. What was most annoying was how simple in conception my mistake had been. I had taken the void an unknown empty space and built a wall. A wall through which I cannot pass and then realised just as I was about to put the final brick into that wall. That I didn¡¯t know which of those two spaces was the larger. It was unlikely I was lucky enough to perfectly cut the void in two. So, I have caused the problem I was most afraid of when I had found the failed seed. I had reduced the volume of the void available to me. Possibly halving the time of my existence single handily. I had the sudden feeling I had built the first wall of my tomb. Turn right or left and I may be walling myself into a tiny proportion of the void. I had failed completely. Griped with indecision I didn¡¯t move. I couldn¡¯t take that final step that may doom me to a fraction of my lifespan. Even as the fatal energy started to build around me I didn¡¯t move. More time passed my rage was back as I tore into myself for my stupidity of bringing myself to this. The energy putting increasing pressure on me was working up my panic sense as I started to get that feeling of being both pushed and pulled at the same time. Till like before I was reduced to an unthinking struggle to escape my panic an the forces on me and with a lurch I had not felt in my movements in a long time. A desperate decision was made. And I lost consciousness. 4. To id or not to id? It was a moment I regretted. Waking up I now had to deal with what had left me in this state. I was right next to my own folly. My plane that had made me proud now taunted me with its completeness. An expanse that stretched far outside my perception and cut off without rime nor reason where invisibly the void ended. My choice had been taken from me in my mad flight from the fatal energy. Intellectually I know there neither direction was better than the other but it was galling to have the choice taken away. Something that could affect every moment after. My stubbornness had taken a holiday, my pride beaten in my rage-filled bout of self-flagellation was much diminished. And I still had to decide what to do now. My reliance on auto-pilot had left me not aware of the danger before I could do anything about it. Something needed to change. I was thinking back to base principles. A part of me that I was calling my auto-pilot was responsible for my course and while I was conscious I could analyse information gathered, plan ahead and change the focus of my perception. Was it possible to keep more of these things running even when I was sleeping? I would also need a better word for my downtime. I had created my auto-pilot by attempting to multitask while I was pushing myself to perform more than one thing at the same time. This time it was going to be harder I needed to make sure that the auto-pilot wasn¡¯t lost in the process so to get my analytical processes running with my separate perception and auto-pilot I would need to focus on all three things equally. I set a straight path, for now, to make it easier to handle the split focus. My perception I turned to stretch out. To reach as far as possible into the void in the opposite direction. But then I was stuck. An analysis is such an all-encompassing concept. Thoughts on one topic often multiplying into further ideas that then made links with other topics. All quickly stealing away my focus from the other processes. How could I reduce my analytical processes to a point that they could still yield useful results? I turned to ideas and concepts I had gained by my contemplation of the system notice. Maybe something here would give me the ideas I need. And I found it. It was the sub-conscious. I was fascinated by the idea of a mind containing different layers. Performing many of the same things as the conscious mind but without the input of the individual. If I ever find this species called homo sapiens I would have to spend some time studying their mind. This could be my solution. Not to keep splitting of more and more parts of me to do these functions. But to create a single more detailed concept my own sub-conscious. I was also happy to finally have some names I could use for this my conscious mind I would call my ego. The concept I would form and split from it would be my id. A non-conscious part of me more complicated than the current auto-pilot but able to adapt to more circumstances. And to continue to study and make connections in my collected perceptions for it to then be used by my ego.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. System warning: Devolution of autonomic functions cannot be reversed. Confirm creation of sub-mind id. (Y/N) Well, something I was doing had gotten the attention of the system. It was promising that maybe this was the correct course of action. I hadn¡¯t got any messages when I first created my auto-pilot. But then again this is a warning, not a message. Again, it was filled with layers of further explanatory information but all the language information was the same and I didn¡¯t make any major breakthroughs by looking through it. So, I was left with a choice. Do I go ahead with what I had contemplated what I felt would better suit my needs? Or do I stop and try to think of another option that would push of this decision and maybe leave me with this option later. I was rather apprehensive in making this decision. The system warned that it would be permanent and my confidence had been severely knocked by recent events. But it was to avoid problems like those that this step was needed. And my split focus attempt had been a complete failure, no other ideas were coming to me. I was feeling that this decision should not be put off. Not if I wanted to continue to make progress like I had been doing. The presence of others of my kind could not be overlooked either. This could possibly be the advantage I needed. I turned my attention back to the waiting system warning. System warning: Devolution of autonomic functions cannot be reversed. Confirm creation of sub-mind id. (Y/N) I didn¡¯t feel any different I could still move about at will and my ability to reason and perceive the void seemed largely unaffected. As much as I could tell. A test was in order I would deviate from my path and make a straight line back to the centre of my created plane. Any deviations would be easy to spot and in terms of time, it would be much less than making a journey around my circular plane. I also set my id to analyse what information I may have gathered on spatial geometry, it would be nice to start building a map now that I knew the void had a limited size. And I set my perception to continuously scan around me at its maximum extent. Once my objectives were set I had a strange sensation and my id seemed to rise up through me and take control as my ego dissolved into it and I fell into a dream. Filled with esoteric equations and distant points of light. 5. You will never see the bottom until you have hit it. It was different. I woke much more slowly than usual. There was a gradual aspect to it that was unusual? I became aware of my surroundings instantly but I didn¡¯t immediately feel an ability to control my movement, there was a delay. In which I was receiving updates. Memories were being fed to me of my movements overlaid by mathematical equations that I could only partially understand. Thinking about it there was a logic to it. My id didn¡¯t want to relinquish control until I had been given all the information. Any action taken without the facts could even endanger me. But I was more puzzled by the results of my id¡¯s analysis. The description of my movements was expressed to me in some form of notation or symbology all squiggles, curves, numerals and algebra. It met my task of developing a working understanding of mathematics but it appeared that what my id developed would not instantly become an ability of my own. Which I couldn¡¯t understand in the least. My id was still a part of my mind or it was when I had envisioned it. Unless it had something to do with what the system meant by sub-mind? However, there was some bleed through. I could use the equation to imagine the movement it represented but had no idea how changing the equation in any way would affect its meaning. It was an interesting issue but what was reassuring was as part of the memories I was provided by the id was a map. After receiving it I felt an internal mental space open to receive it. The map was three dimensional contained the plane I had created and what little I was able to determine about how the space of the remaining void was laid out. My plane was a pale blue and the trail I had discovered before was coloured green. Though only a short section of that was visible as I never did follow it to either end. These colours must be intrinsic to the map as all these trails were in reality identical. My current position was also marked surrounded by a sphere of slightly more vibrant colour otherwise I couldn¡¯t tell what this was supposed to represent. Actual use would likely prove to be best for understanding the map and that would take time. Finally, the download finished and I was left in control. I had stopped above my initial misshapen cylinder. Created a subjective eon before. I looked around and felt a gradual pulling of my perceptions. The cylinder was small compared to what I could remember. It had once been much longer but was now smaller than it had been when it was first formed. It was a surprise but within maybe a glimmer of my own salvation. I had been panicking that eventually I would have filled the available void and I would be trapped. But if the cylinder was smaller now than when it had been created. It may be a sign that the trails were not as enduring as I had believed. I felt a surge of hope and no small measure of relief. I began to move up to the very edge of the cylinder, my hope being that some sign of the cylinder¡¯s fading would be apparent. But as I drew closer it was apparent it was still as lumpen as before, its solidity unchanged. But my movement had given me a clue. I wasn¡¯t moving right. My course was right but my movement was slower than it had been before and I was getting details of the cylinder¡¯s surface much earlier than expected. I stopped. Waited. Started again. Stopped. Every time I went to move I travelled only a tiny distance. I felt no resistance and any sensation of movement I had was no different than before. I just wasn¡¯t moving as fast.This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. I turned my perception inwards away from the extreme limit of what I was capable of to focus on myself and immediate surrounding void. As my focus changed I seemed to surge forward the distance travelled increased with no change of effort. I realised this was the answer, unfortunately. The cylinder was no smaller my speed had not changed. Only my perception of them had. During my recent experiment with the id, I had set it to continue pushing my perception to its limits and it had. My ability to stretch out my perception was much improved. The apparent smallness of the cylinder due to being able to perceive a much larger space around me and clearly in comparison the cylinder became smaller. A similar effect would explain my movement deficiencies. I felt a moment of exultation at my success but it immediately fell away, with my new-found feelings of hope and salvation going with it. Leaving behind nothing but sadness, depression and a feeling of impending doom. I was crushed. My seamed salvation was a hopeful delusion and any positive feelings I may have felt at the success of the Id was lost. I was alone. My path had led me nowhere. I was literally back at the start. Both physically and emotionally. It was a miserable feeling that I felt ill-equipped to deal with. The weight of my circumstances crashing down on me. I wanted it to end. This existence was doing me no favours. Any gains I had made now felt marginal and around the edges. All my problems from the beginning remained. I felt the impending presence of time. That my existence was on inception doomed. All actions rendered meaningless at the final accounting that gradually loomed closer with every movement and action. Completely unavoidable. I contemplated how I could end it. My existence to which I had clung. I would spin a trail around my position before sealing myself in. Banishing myself from this tortured existence I had that failed seed. It was tempting. To let go. But I couldn¡¯t do it not directly as I had contemplated. Some remaining streak of stubbornness remained no matter how I felt. The idea of doing the act and waiting for my own emissions to kill me was just as petrifying in that moment as the idea of keeping on living. I needed another choice and the Id I had created was it. Was being unaware different from death? Would it be painful to never awake from that slumber of inaction I had used before? My Id would have control until it completed my given tasks or something in the void triggered my awakening. All I would need is an impossible task. Something my Id would never solve and therefore never awake me. It felt sick. My task, given my intentions for it. It was simple but I hadn¡¯t found the answer. So here in my lowest moment, I set my analytical Id my impossible task. ¡°Find me a way to live¡±. My Id pushed back into my conscious domain. As I fell back, down, diminishing till at the end I was just gone. 6. All good things must come to an end? I awoke. Every direction was filled with killer energy. Panicked I struggled to regain control of my motion to run to flee. No matter what I did my Id continued as it had before filling me with equations and memories of my course that were a mystery to me. My overwhelming panic had no effect on the progression of the updates. As I watched myself make hundreds, thousands then millions of different course changes. My attention was drawn from my panic gradually to these continuing course changes and from there to my map. All these changes were making something much more complex than anything I had ever even contemplated before. It was a pattern. Each bit was similar but differed slightly. Spiralling out from the site of my attempted suicide. I was torn away from my contemplation by the appearance of other trails not left by me on my map. My Id had apparently not woken me but had subtly changed its pattern to include these other paths. Over time the pattern created had become more apparent and spread across the remaining portions of the map coming up against the other edges of the void. The pattern didn¡¯t fill all the available space it had huge volume but still had not yet spread to encompass it all. As my panic was to some degree suppressed by sheer amazement at what my Id had wraught. I focused in on the map and noticed something puzzling. The larger spiral was not described by smooth curves and clear edges. But as I focused the larger pattern reappeared on this smaller scale. As I focused in I found each level of the pattern was created by the same or very similar spiral. Just at a reduced scale. It was fascinating both by the form but also the description. There were only a couple of mathematical rules that defined the pattern along with an iteration number interesting but beyond my limited understanding. How could such complexity come from such a short series of rules? Further memories from my Id startled me when others of my kind came across my pattern. Every end of a swirl was open seaming to contain plenty of space. However, as my Id observed them they entered the open end of each swirl continuing towards the centre of the pattern. As each smaller spiral connected to a bigger spiral I watched as others entered timidly to investigate. Without a map, they moved as I would filling in all the available space within each part of the spiral before moving on. The trap as I was coming to see was that looking at any one section you could not see the whole pattern. The spirals spread a great distance beyond the individual¡¯s perception, eventually narrowing down into a single space without an exit, trapping them. My Id had then continued to spread the pattern extending my net capturing and banishing any of my kind that couldn¡¯t predict my trap. Once the pattern extended throughout the remaining space within the void. The Id had turned around and began filling in the remaining spaces outside my pattern leaving the trap. But reducing the alternate paths available to my kind. Eventually, my Id found itself in spaces containing the few who had avoided the trap pattern. And now started a series of individual duels. These duels revolved around diverting and cornering the opponent into a progressively smaller and small space. My Id did well locking many opponents into spaces where they could not escape or where the only choice was to enter my pattern. However, it didn¡¯t always go well a miss calculation or surprise change in course by the enemy could leave my Id isolated. My real advantage had been that it was my pattern. Apparently, one tenth of the spirals led away as escape tunnels. Any who tried to follow would themselves be trapped. It did mean that some escaped over the eons of this cat and mouse game by blind chance. But in the end, all the opponents were captured and banished. Leaving nothing but a note from the system and a little yellow dot on my map.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. After some time, these confrontations became rarer. The space outside my pattern was filled. All the escape routes used and I was in my current position. Pushed up against the edge of the void. And this is where the memories ended, my return to function leaving me again in a situation where I have no options. I was frustrated and despaired that I was even after making a conscious decision to avoid this moment here and aware. As my energy built, as the wild panic that came far too often consumed me I was left with a final question. What had been the point? The point in which before, I had lost consciousness came and went. But I was still being pressed in on by such huge pressure I could begin to feel deformed. Compressed and stretched. But suddenly a, crack? At first, I was not surprised that under the pressure I couldn¡¯t hold on. Initially, I thought that something internal had collapsed. Myself cracking and being the cause of this slight shift in pressure. But no. The pressure had not lessened but I had only moved slightly. Where I was pressed against the void had moved. Using what remained of my rational mind I looked at my map. Nothing had seemed to change. But as I moved in closer until I was straining myself by my focus I could see that the void or more accurately what was beyond the void and given way. Minutely. Very just slightly I was over the edge of where the void had ended before. This was it my escape. The energy was immovable and implacable. Nothing I had seen or observed had gotten it to give way in the least. But here it was the driving force. Pushing out and I could use that. With my course set, I began to push out towards that which may exist beyond the void. Using everything I had left to add to the energies pressure in pushing against the edge. I even went as far as trying to work out if I could produce even more energy to push me. To give me that, last, step¡­ System notice: Trial 1 Fight for life (complete).
Trial Results ¨C Overall
Failed seeds banished 17
Competitor seeds banished 872
Survived to end 3
Overall control of start location 1st (56%), 2nd (33%), 3rd (11%).
Elapsed time 2.3 seconds
Trial Results ¨C Individual
Failed seeds banished 1
Competitor seeds banished 364
Survived to end yes
Overall control of start location 1st (56%)
Congratulations you have gained the reward Right to Life. 7. Pea soup
Trial Results ¨C Individual
Failed seeds banished 1
Competitor seeds banished 364
Survived to end Yes
Overall control of start location 1st (56%)
Congratulations you have gained the reward Right to Life. The void had cracked. And I was now being forced out. Pressure causing me to be deformed and pushed out through it. The energy behind me seemed to swell and pulse until in the final moment I was out. At first, it was dark then it was so bright. I was for a moment blinded by the change then intellectually panicked. Until this point the only thing this bright had been the fatal energy. But I felt no pressure, no overwhelming fear. Tentatively I started to stretch-out my perception. I was next to a single solid object within which was a slight glimmer that I recognised. It had my energy down deep at the centre of it. The object was resting against an irregular plane. Looking kind of fuzzy. No longer was I within an empty void. Stuff occupied the space between me and what I was observing. Obscuring things at greater distances into a greenish mist or fog where nothing was clear. Something fell from above it was slightly smaller than the object next to me. But as it hit its surface. I felt it. My being shook with the collision. It wasn¡¯t painful I was just completely unable to ignore it. As I focused I could feel smaller constant collisions against the object as I focused towards its edges. Things barely visible slowly come into focus. It was a veritable zoo. I was surrounded by tiny living things of different sizes. Some were clear bags of jelly others had hardened shells, others had speckled green spots. They had tails, spikes, mouths, tentacles, some were thousands of times smaller than others. But through all it was life and it was fighting for survival. Larger creatures could grab hold and engulf smaller creatures somehow absorbing and consuming them. Even larger creatures with more moving parts would then leap at and consume those creatures. I watched amazement as I watched creatures grow, then divide into more of the same creatures. It was a teaming soup of death, life and survival of the fittest. Those that were faster captured more prey. Those that grouped together could produce chemicals to repel attackers. Those that reproduced most quickly, died often but still, their numbers remained high. I don¡¯t know how long I was fixated on this. It was endlessly fascinating and I started to find I was routing on certain blobs or puzzled by the green ones that just reproduced and tried to avoid the others. However, I was pulled away from the creatures. I was feeling a pressure inside of me a familiar feeling much the same as when I had been within the void. By reflex, I started to move to release the pressure as I had before. But it didn¡¯t work. I wasn¡¯t producing an energy trail behind me and the pressure was building. Slowly. But continuously. I was moving rather frenziedly now my movements having no effect on my surroundings and no energy was released. There was a strong glow now from the object around which I was panicking. It was filled, to capacity with energy. And I had an epiphany. That is me, my body. I had felt collisions against it and now I was feeling the pressure of the energy it contained. Something needed to be done. My body needed to move to somehow release some of this energy. I moved towards my physical body until I was touching it. With a sudden lurch, my perception moved and I was now looking out. My point of view now connected to my body and I started to strain to push my body into moving. But every time I tried I found my point of view outside my body again. It was now becoming painful I needed to get rid of the energy. My attention moved to the tiny creatures around me and in a hysterical thought, I wondered if I get them to push me. In desperation, I was trying to push the energy out away from me.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. At first, I thought it wasn¡¯t working but gradually some of the pressure on me was lessened. I was distinctly puzzled. The energy was seaming to disappear once it left me. Resulting in a bit of a mystery. As the pressure dropped and I was more capable of examining what was happening to me. I realised the loss of energy was not constant, it happened randomly. Small local spots on my body would be drained of energy. Before the rest of my energy would fill in the drained space reducing its overall concentration. It was the creatures. Whenever a creature collided with the surface of my body it would take a small packet of the energy with it as it bounced off. This was helpful but what was interesting was what was happening to those green blobs that had been living loosely attached to the surface of my body. They were absorbing the energy continuously. Growing slightly larger but more amazingly the rate at which they grew and divided increased dramatically. Making colonies of twenty to thirty creatures. Only those in contact with me got a boost. So, the individuals rotated, taking turns being in contact. With each new generation every couple of minutes I started to see further changes. Originally, they were a bright shade of green but now they were turning purple. Those that had changed completely grew and divided faster and faster until only they remained. Other larger creatures were attracted to what appeared an abundant feeding ground. These attacking creatures had a long ellipsoid like main body within which a basic digestive system was squeezed. Visible due to the creatures transparent skin. Its rear section was extendable. It moved forward either by swaying this from side to side or by retracting it and pushing off from something. Causing it to rocket forward crossing large distances. But most intimidating of all was the forward section initially retracted into its main body at first but as they sprang forward they extended them out. Unfurling four pads each coated with writhing tentacles. They used them to latch on to the purple creatures on my surface before using them to drag them into a cavernous mouth almost the entire width of its body. At first these attackers were unopposed and I felt a drop in the amount of energy I could release. As large areas of my surface were cleared of the sedate purple creatures even with their rapid reproduction. The success of the attackers became even clearer as I watched. Each time a purple creature was consumed some small part of my absorbed energy was gained by the attackers. This was causing them to grow larger, the effect on them much greater than it had been on the green creatures initially. Though I didn¡¯t see any increase in their reproduction. I was starting to worry. Even though the attacker took some small portion of my energy when they collided with my body. I found it was barely a tenth what was being accepted by the purple ones. And they were being decimated. However, I couldn¡¯t think of a way to affect the outcome. A full half of my surface had been cleared before something changed. Different colonies of purple creatures on my surface were consuming my energy much faster. Instead of using this energy to grow or reproduce they used it to fight back against the attackers. Each colony using a different method. The first couple of colonies didn¡¯t appear any different when I looked at them. Until they were attacked. As one purple creature was caught and the attacker tried to pull it away. Others in the colony started passing energy to it. What had been a small kernel of my energy in each creature put a strain on the form of the victim and as they were torn away from the colony. They exploded. The energy within rupturing its physical form and damaging the attacker. The attacker wasn¡¯t killed by this, the difference in relative size making that impossible. But it did damage the attacker''s sensitive mouth parts leaving it unable to continue feeding. Saving the rest of the colony. Others had started to change their physical forms. Some had developed spikes that were longer than the mouthparts of the attackers. Another started releasing a cloud of poisonous chemicals that deterred the attackers'' approach. A whole series of defences against the attackers were developed right in front of me. I was fascinated and I realised enjoying myself. Watching these fights back and forth as one adaption was used to defend. The attackers would use that tiny bit of my stored energy to change themselves, to get armoured mouth parts, to get tentacles with hardened edges to shear of spikes or to develop poison resistance. It was a constant free for all. And best of all it was all fuelled with my energy using it up just a little bit faster than it was produced. I could after a time stop focusing on pushing my energy out as my Id took the task over and I could again explore through this sea of violent survival. All the while my energy building up in the surrounding creatures. Until¡­ System notice: New dungeon creatures acquired.
Species Various Species Various
Phylum Cyanobacteria (adapted) Phylum Rotifera (adapted)
Mana consumption 1x10-10 resting/ 1x10-9 stressed Mana consumption 1x10-8 resting/ 1x10-7 stressed
8. Well arent I blood thirsty. It was clear after some time watching the movements and fights of my creatures that I had a moment to consider all that had happened to me. First, I had been introduced to a new world having been given the right to life. Was I not already alive before that point? I do feel much less desperation. I have found things to keep the energy at bay more permanently and now I could explore and investigate these changes without panic. I was already curious about what the difference between the creatures I had been observing and the dungeon creatures was? The embedded information in the system message contained detailed descriptions of the organism¡¯s life cycle. Their predators and prey though information on other creatures was limited to only their names. What felt most relevant was a single word in the supplied table. Mana. Its description wasn¡¯t overly clear mostly due to my lack of background information. However, it was enough to realise that the fatal energy I had been producing all this time must be mana. It was somehow reassuring to now have a name to attach to it. It was a hope that I could gather further information and understanding of the energy that had been plaguing me for so long. Looking out at the surrounding creatures I could see those individuals that had that little bit more of my energy than the others. However, their numbers were growing as more of the remaining creatures absorbed enough of my mana to tip over the boundary into becoming my creature. It was strange that my perception kept being drawn to these special individuals. As I followed this tugging on my perception I found that I now had some sort of link to them. Unsure as to what its purpose was I began to explore what I could do with the link. I tried to push some of my mana down this connection but found that while some was being used. I pushed mana at my end of the link but it didn¡¯t seem to reach the creature. Finding little changing I instead tried to pull mana away from the connection. Which definitely had an effect. The link was gone. I could still see the creature and it appeared to be unharmed and was continuing to feed. However, I was no longer connected to it. I released my control on the mana that had been powering the link and it re-established. It didn¡¯t prove much except I had some control over the use of the mana I produced. My next experiment was to see what effect my perception would have on the creature. As I focused on the link and the creature. I was initially flooded with strange sensations and was startled enough that I dropped my focus. It had been exceptionally confusing. Attempting again I found no colour or even blurry images it was just an awareness of how strong the light was and in which direction it came from. As I waited a subtle sense I didn¡¯t have became apparent. I could detect the direction to my prey. That they were to my left and some distance, while I could also detect that another of my species was already feeding there. Relaxing my focus my perception was moved back to my body. It had been so odd to be completely taken in by the concerns and senses of a being with such a different experience of the world. But I was starting to realise what a restricted view of the world they had. My final test was to see if it would respond to instructions like my Id did. I sent an order for it to change direction randomly. Which it promptly did. Then on its own, it changed directions again. Having realised the issue of being unspecific with my instructions. Its first change of direction could have just been random chance. I made my next instructions for it to travel a course with three changes of direction towards different colonies of purple cyanobacteria. My control was confirmed as it followed the course before again reverting to its own instinctual behaviour. Moving to the nearest colony to feed. I wanted to test the limit of my control. In all my time observing them the rotifers never attacked one another. My test subject was joined by another of its kind before I sent my commands for them to attack each other.Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. Once my commands had been given. Both Rotifers lunged at each other. Using their extending tails to push off from the surface of my body they collided against each other. My test subject had adapted to have armoured mouthparts and they now came into play. They opened and stretched to grab and tear into the side of the other Rotifer. However, it was not that effective as this individual had adapted to feed on a variety of acid producing cyanobacteria and had developed thickened armour plates on its body. So, it turned and proceeded to open its mouthparts and grip into the unarmoured side of my test subject. Each of its tentacles puncturing into the soft main body and digestive tract. Before ripping the penetrated tissues free and consuming them. My test subject thrashed its attack halted as its rudimentary internal organs collapsed and stopped working. A moment later growing still and was dead. After which the attacker lost interest and returned to its normal feeding. Ignoring the remaining corpse. It had been quick violent and awesome. I had found the struggle for survival vicariously thrilling. And I was rather impressed at how much the fight had been affected by their adaptations. I then spent an extended period setting the different versions of the creatures against each other. The cyanobacteria species were not that interesting even I couldn¡¯t change their inherently passive behaviour though I could influence them to trigger their defences even when they weren¡¯t needed. So, the rotifer species got most of my attention. I pared up individuals of different species randomly. Setting them against each other in a series of battles. The survivors of which were given time to feed and recover before they started the next round of battles. After several more rounds, I was left with my final paring. Another armoured example of the species faced off against an interesting variation. It was smaller about a third of the size of its armoured opponent. But it was proportionately longer and had only a small modification of its head. When its mouthparts were retracted its front end revealed a pointed armoured spike. When feeding this species kept its mouthparts furled inside and used its great speed, from its long tail to ram into the heart of the cyanobacteria colonies on which it fed. Before unfurling grabbing one or two and fleeing again using its speed to escape any defences triggered. However, how it used this in battle was a little different. The armoured rotifer began by trying to grab its smaller opponent. Unfortunately, it wasn¡¯t fast enough to close. The faster rotifer darting out of its path again and again as its larger counterpart began to tire and slow. This was not a disaster for the armoured rotifer. It had developed its own behaviours to cope in these longer confrontations. It curled up. Its tail and mouthparts retracted into its main body. Letting itself rest as opponents were stymied by its thick armour plates. But this time it was not enough. Once the retracted and stationary the smaller rotifer struck. Using its powerful tail to pounce forward ramming its armoured point into the side of the resting opponent. Before retreating and repeating the action again. Slowly, it was chipping away at the armoured rotifer¡¯s defences causing breaks to appear leaving access to the softer tissues within. This had taken some time and when the smaller one rushed forward to ram again. The armoured rotifer sprang out. It''s mouthpart scoring a long shallow tear into the smaller rotifers soft side. Instead of retreating as the faster rotifer had done before it used its powerful tail to change course and give just a little more thrust as it rammed the armoured rotifer for the last time. If this didn¡¯t work the fight was over. Finally, as the rotifers spike struck the side of the larger rotifer the armoured plates gave way and the smaller rotifer was half embedded into the side of its opponent. I knew from its previous fights that it was over. In pain, the larger rotifer thrashed attempting to dislodge its opponent. However, no matter how it turned or twisted it couldn¡¯t be dislodged. Bit by bit the larger rotifer slowed. And I watched as the smaller rotifer squirmed deeper into its side. And the defeated rotifer stopped moving. I watched as the body of the larger rotifer started to collapse as the victor consumed it from the inside. Dungeon notice: Victor of tournament declared. Do you wish to name the victor? (Y/N) 9. My first boss. This was brilliant. I revelled in the violence and intensity. The final battle had been hard fought and had pushed both competitors to the limit and now I had been given the perfect way to reward the victor. Though I was a little disappointed that the victor wasn¡¯t as impressive to look at than the larger looser. It did help me with choosing what to do next. The system message was still pending waiting for my response and without hesitation, I selected ¡°yes¡±. Dungeon notice: Victor of tournament declared. Do you wish to name victor? Naming a creature will have a cumulative effect on its future development. (Y/N) I was then given a waiting space that hovered in front of me, waiting for my choice on names. The phrasing of the system message suggested that the name would influence how the named creature grew. It was a golden opportunity to ¡°fix¡± my small victor. My understanding of language was going to pay dividends here. The entry box contained limited space and I want the best opportunity to improve the creature. I needed to include as much information as possible into the name, but I also still wanted to reflect how it had earned it. I dived into the etymology of two words that I thought would be a good base. ¡°victorious¡± and ¡°giant¡±. My reasoning being that the first part of its name described how it achieved its current position while the second part was my aspiration for the creature. Reflecting what I would hope the creature to develop. My decision made I finalised the name. The system going a little overboard in response. Dungeon notice: Creature granted name ¡°Vicit Gigantum¡±. Dungeon notice: Named dungeon creature has reached minimum required experience necessary. Automatically promoted to boss rank. Dungeon alert: Unbound dungeon boss detected. Prepare for battle or flee. Clearly simplistic but I wanted the name to be clear and its effects easily measurable. Given the amount of enjoyment I had experienced organising this tournament, I wasn¡¯t going to stop. So hopefully that would give me plenty of opportunities to try this again with future victors. However, the results left me a little overwhelmed by what was happening. I received more dungeon notices and then the first ominous dungeon alert. Initially, I had no idea how bad this was going to be. First, my newly named creature shook movements jerky and uncoordinated before it burst into a mad frenzy. It had stopped following my instructions completely and started attacking everything around it. I could still feel my link to the creature the only change being that it drew in more of my mana. Moreover, I could no longer influence it the same way as before the naming. Vicit tore through worked to wipe out whole populations of my different creatures. Attacking other adapted Rotifers and cyanobacteria, all their defences unable to stop the rampaging creature. There now seemed a gulf between the abilities of my normal creatures and this¡­ Boss?Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. Mabey this was what the Dungeon notice was talking about. Vicit Gigantum was a rank above the standard creature. Being faster, stronger and all around a better predator. It was carnage. The boss had already been proved as the toughest creature in my immediate vicinity. All my other dungeon creatures fell back before it. Or were killed, initially, this had been accomplished in much the same way as its tournament win. By ramming and then taking chunks out of their insides. But every win influenced Vicit. Each victory resulted in the boss growing a little bit more. Already it was twice the size of any other creature. Now it was punching holes all the way through the others leaving gaping holes behind it. In most cases, because of its size, this essentially tore them in half. Though it seemed that the difficulty of the battle affected how quickly it grew. Now each victory being so easy resulting in only the smallest of expansions. Having cleared a patch of my surface it turned its attention directly to my body. In scale, I was thousands of times larger and its random charges had it continuously bashing its body against me. Achieving nothing more than being bounced off. For now, my larger body appearing to be adequate protection from this rampage. Eventually, the futility of the attack must have dawned. And the newly created dungeon boss turned its mindless aggression back towards the other dungeon creatures living on my surface. I starting to get concerned. The boss I had created was getting larger and the mindless aggression was showing no sign of abating. If nothing changed it may eventually grow to be a threat even to me. It needed to space. Room to think of another solution or to develop other creatures strong enough to defeat it. Currently, almost nothing was developing other than the quick reproducers. Populations wiped out as soon as they started to recover. Making use of its mindless aggression may just be the way to influence it into giving me some space. I turned my focus to as many creatures as I had links to. While Vicit was amazing at destroying the other creatures on my surface. However, it was still too small to deal with my scale. It takes time to move across my surface hunting and how quickly the creatures reproduced meant while decimated I still had thousands of creatures still under my control. And that was my edge. I reached out to all my links to the different creatures. I almost immediately realised that the number of links had grown far beyond my control. Even though thousands fell under my will I was aware of hundreds more just beyond the limit of my focus. Settling myself I shook the links and all the control creatures stilled. As I sent my commands. My controlled creatures twitched and then frantically started swimming towards and around the boss. I was thinking back to my experience of the limited senses of my creatures. This swarming zoo of different creatures confused the boss as it still attempted to attack. I twitched the links again and the creatures changed direction away from me. The boss following in their wake. Pushing my control, I aimed the creatures into the far distance till they were out of my range of control. My only way of telling they still existed being my thinning links to them. Eventually, they must have reverted to more natural behaviours as I could feel they were no longer moving further away. Hopefully trying to track down all those creatures would keep Vicit busy for some time. I continued to scan into the far distance just to make sure the violent creature didn¡¯t turn around instead. Though, through the greenish mist, I occasionally saw a vast shadow. I did not see Vicit return. 10. No longer alone I took a moment to relax. A moment of relief for a problem avoided if only for a while. But I needed to make some changes. Clearly, my stumbling around hasn¡¯t historically lead to the best outcomes. Vicit was only my most recent failure and simply put I was sick of it. I couldn¡¯t ignore the issue any longer. Every time something new has come along I had been so interested in messing around with it I had also been blind to any risks. This disaster had led me to a conclusion though. I can¡¯t let one or two creatures grow far beyond the other creatures I controlled. If I had had a couple more creatures at the same level of experience as Vicit before I inadvisably named him. I could have used them to either fight him directly or to at least fight him off long before he could devour so many of my creatures. Eventually, I would need to experiment and see what had gone wrong. I wanted more creatures as strong as Vicit Gigantum but only if I was able to control them. So, my first task to achieve this was producing more creatures with Vicit¡¯s ability that I could experiment on. Currently, my only method for that was running tournaments. More aware of my own weaknesses in that regard I decided to set the competitions running using my Id so I didn¡¯t become attached to any of the victors. Having set the process, I watched as almost every adapted Rotifer on my surface formed groups of a couple dozen individuals and started fighting. Obviously, my Id had taken my commands and run with it. With hundreds of competitions running in parallel I was going to get plenty of experimental subjects much sooner than I expected. While I waited for my first batch of experimental subjects I turned to the Cyanobacteria that were beginning to spread back across my surface. The reduced mana consumption caused by such decimation of there number was returning to normal. However, they no longer appeared to be behaving as randomly as before. Firstly, I was surprised by the diversity I was seeing species that previously only clumped up with more of their own kind now worked with other species in their own defence. Secondly, their progress across my surface was uneven. Small groups of Cyanobacteria would move to the middle of any open spaces before reproducing at a prodigious pace. While other areas of would briefly stop reproducing and move more sluggishly. Looking more closely I watched as a small, fast-moving Cyanobacteria species with which I was unfamiliar was racing between the fast growing and the slowed areas. Almost glowing with the amount of stored mana one way and almost without in the other. I realised with a start it was transferring mana from one group to the other. This was clearly a worrying circumstance, totally opposite my intention of taking control of the changes happening in my environment. Something else without obvious explanation was happening. Suddenly my focus was pulled back to the feelings of my body. I could feel a gentle pulling. Then nothing before moments later a couple of tugs again this pattern continued. To better understand what was happening I rushed back into my physical body hoping that my closeness would reveal what was causing such a strange sensation. Once back I realised It was my links to my creatures. The links I shared with the Cyanobacteria were pulled tight and then released. The massive number of links was producing a pseudo-physical sensation. Cyanobacteria still the most populous of my creatures made up most of my links. Puzzled I realised that other than feeling unusual the phenomenon didn¡¯t appear to be damaging. The pattern continued two tugs, three tugs, five tugs and seven tugs all in quick succession, then a pause and a repeat. Something was starting to seem familiar with the pattern. Two more cycles occurred before I recognised why it was familiar. I used the pause at the end of the next cycle to respond focusing on my link I tugged the link from my end eleven times. A pause. The time for the cycle to repeat came and went before I felt it quickly thirteen tugs. I responded to the next step in the pattern and a notification appeared.A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. Dungeon Notice: First dungeon sentient discovered, be careful in communication. Confusion often leads to conflict. I had been right it was a mathematical series. One of the simpler concepts I had started to explore back in the void. Clearly, I was no longer alone but this needed to be handled very carefully if it wasn¡¯t going to lead to further chaos. Something had significantly changed in my Cyanobacteria which was a problem. Ignoring their new intelligence, they were important to me getting rid of the mana I produce. So, I needed to make sure it all went without problems. While looking at the notice and considering the problem I had continued alternately adding to the growing pattern. I needed to expand our communications, so it was more detailed than just sending a single number back and forth. Thinking about it I started by only responding to the current series in a smaller group of the links and I started pulling on another set to start the pattern again. There was a pause on the other end but quickly I was mimicked. I had immediately doubled the amount of information we could pass back and forth. I continued in this fashion doubling the number of paths for swapping numbers each time until I found the limit. It appeared that I could not get a response to any message I sent unless it went to more than a certain number of individuals near each other. One problem solved I was now swapping hundreds of numbers each moment the pauses between each tight pulse of tugs getting smaller with practice. I now needed to slowly change the content of each of the communications. At first, I started with other simple mathematical progressions, when one was solved I changed another till each set of links was communicating its own different series of numbers. But I was stuck how could I take this any further. Numbers were one thing, but they weren¡¯t sharing the sort of information I was interested in. Since my first system message so long ago I recognised that my internal monologue had changed to match the grammar and format of that message only being slightly changed by later messages from the system. I needed to send that information to the intelligence, so we had some shared frame of reference. Thinking back to the message triggered its reappearance: System Notice (Stored): Failed seed banished. Good work, keep hunting. This was the first time I had realised that these communications were stored somewhere for my use. However, I was more interested in what use I had for it. The top level of meaning was pointless in the communication with the intelligence as it was specific to my situation at the time. But the layers of information behind were, especially as at the base layers, it also resorted to basing mathematical formulae and patterns. In the light of hindsight, it was as if the messages created by the system were specifically designed to provide this context to diverse intelligence. I ran a quick calculation and was rather surprised. I had forgotten how much information was crammed into this short message. It was going to take days to communicate the base information to my companion. Suddenly I received a burst of information and memories from my Id. The first series of tournaments had concluded while I had been investigating the new intelligence. Well, my Id could carry on these early stages of opening communications. And I can start my experiments. I was already looking forward to it.