Nightmares Paradise [LITRPG System Integration]

Jon blinked and found himself transported into the Burning Desert Of Kel. The lush overgrown forest that once surrounded him and his companions were now nowhere to be seen, replaced with a vast sea of golden-coloured sands.

The sand under his feet shifted with the introduction of a newfound weight placed upon it, forcing him to bend his knees lowering his centre of gravity to avoid toppling over down a sand dune.

The cool breeze that once wafted through the alien woodlands had suddenly transformed into a dull, overbearing heat baring down on Jon from above. Glancing upwards, Jon could not see a single cloud in any direction around him, nothing but an endless ocean of hazy sand hills filling his vision.

'Holy crap. Localized Dungeons are actually huge!'

Jon thought that he saw several stone structures off in the distance, in addition to what he thought was a red-coloured lake. Even the enhancements to his vision, through the effects of his Minerva-Sagacity Eyes and Title, Princeps Of The Wandering Mutation, Jon could not accurately perceive these edifices.

Unconsciously taking a half-step forward, Jon paused, feeling his weight distributed unevenly due to the shifting dunes beneath him. Narrowing his eyes, Jon extended his hand and manifested Luin, using the Thulian Spellspear to help balance himself on the irregular sands.

Although Jon was wearing shoes, he could not help but frown, feeling an uncomfortable heat emanating from the sands around his feet. Reaching down and touching the golden sands, Jon paused, feeling the emanation of heat even several centimetres away from the ground.

'Shit. The environment is inhospitable. Even with the shoes I am wearing right now, I don't think a pair of uninitiated runners will last long while trekking across this burning desert.' Jon let out a small tsk, gazing out towards the nearest rock edifice.

Not bothering to wait any longer, Jon stepped forward, walking across the sand dunes towards the nearest structure.

Waiting would not produce any meaningful results.

He needed to find shelter from the sun and heat, somewhere where he could observe the area for information, preferably a place with a good vantage point.

He lacked the utility that Despoina and Ortlinde possessed in this regard, considering that both the white salvation phoenix and lightning fey were able to fly even as Mortals. Ler Setanta was able to achieve a similar effect, although relied on the abilities of his Memento Source Fragment in order to do so.

Jon had no doubt that Sariel and Avahni would use their summoned companions in order to search the Dungeon for traces of Shamael and Wilheim. The size of a Localized Dungeon ranged anywhere between a small town to a huge metropolis, so it was possible that the Burning Desert Of Kel could be the same size as a major city back on Earth.

'Several thousand square kilometres is a huge area. Although give how relatively flat and open the Dungeon is, I might be able to find someone if I can find a high enough place to look down on everything.'

Jon strode across the Burning Desert Of Kel, occasionally glancing towards one of the other stone structures he could see in the distance. Some looked like medieval towers, others the remnants of walls or ramparts, while some appeared the desiccated ruins of an old wooden chateau.

Everything was strange and somewhat out of place.

As if someone had just picked up a castle and allowed it to crumble beneath the overbearing heat of the sun.

"Natural Dungeons have often appeared strange and otherworldly Jon. Dungeons are not sentient existences after all. They are in a sense, programs with defined parameters and limitations. While artificial Dungeons are much more structured and often times more complex in nature and design, natural Dungeons are unable to be changed of their own accord."

"They follow their inherent nature and do not deviate from it in the slightest. As a result, things sometime appear… chaotic, for lack of a better term," said Rana, watching as Jon nodded in return.

"The use of a Fire Mana Core as a "key" to open the Dungeon Of Sand. Is that how Dungeons are able to grow and develop Rana?" Jon asked.

The Earthen Treasury Womb nodded in response.

"That is correct. Mana Cores, as you are well aware, produce spiritual energy and are the main source of "food" for a Dungeon. This spiritual energy allows the Dungeon to expand and even produce pseudo-spiritual lifeforms within the boundaries of the Dungeon."

"These lifeforms will search for the presence of other sources of spiritual energy, in hopes to integrate the new Mana Cores into the Dungeon."

In a sense, Jon was a foreign virus that had entered the system of a Dungeon, and the pseudo-spiritual lifeforms it produced were antibodies designed to eliminate him. Although there was more to it than that, considering that these lifeforms were used to obtain Mana Cores to assist the growth of the Dungeon, it was a relatively apt description all things considered.

"The nature of Dungeons becomes more complex as both their Rank and size increases. A Mortal Ranked Continent Dungeon world require an exorbitant amount of resources in order to produce in comparison to a Lord Ranked Localized Dungeon," Schwarz Eis added.

"A Mortal Ranked Continent Dungeon might very well produce Knight Ranked lifeforms, or even Lord Ranked lifeforms within. However, one can infer than in a Lord Ranked Localized Dungeon, at the very least the lifeforms inside will all have attained Lordship."

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Schwarz Eis hummed from within Jon's Sea Of Knowledge, glancing down at her fingernails while sitting atop an enormous iceberg. Memories and experiences of one particular summer during Jon's youth were frozen inside, immortalized as a defining moment of his childhood.

Schwarz Eis scratched her nail along the surface of the iceberg, allowing a single droplet of water to form on the tip of her finger. Tasting it caused a smile to stretch across her face, the emotions of a seven-year-old Jon playing and running around with her friends bleeding into her mind.

"As a potential Dungeon creator, it is important to understand the difference between the two. Dungeons are extraordinarily valuable resources, allowing the individuals who travel inside to temper themselves in combat, or even explore its depths in search of valuable fragments and Mana Cores."

"However, Dungeons require an exorbitant number of resources in order to make viable. The Mana Core and fragment used as the foundation for its creation is important to consider as well. This Dungeon was created from a Sand Mana Core, ergo its appearance is that of a desert." Schwarz Eis said, allowing the soft coolness of the ice beneath her to soothe the growing warmness in Jon's Sea Of Knowledge.

"Does that mean that a Darkness Mana Core would produce a Dungeon devoid of light? Or an Ocean Mana Core might produce a Dungeon without a single land mass?" said Jon, his tone a combination of fear and curiosity.

Both Schwarz Eis and Ashvattha Rana responded with a single word.

""Yes.""

Jon just continued to stride across the desert, contemplating the information his two summoned companions had given him. Although Jon thought that the manifestation of the Burning Desert Of Kel was uncomfortable, the idea of entering a world of nothing but an ocean of an unfathomable depth did not agree with him in the slightest.

Although Jon was able to hold his breath for much longer, through the combined effects of his physical enhancements and the influence of spiritual energy flowing through his form, there was something primal about a fear of the ocean that both himself and Wilheim shared.

The fact that monstrous creatures such as the indomitus shastasaurus could exist throughout the integrated universes, did not fill Jon will a sense of reassurance either.

'I would just never go in the ocean ever again, I suppose,' Jon chuckled at the thought.

Jon opened his status page and glanced towards his Weave Mana Core.

[6]: Weave
[Fragment Of Creation]
[Threads Through The Loom]
(Weave, Creation, Spell, Technique, Ability, Enhancement)

[Fragment Of Slash]
[Ten Thousand Threads]
(Weave, Slash, Technique, Spell, Ability, Debuff)

[Fragment Of Ward]
[Spiritual Weave Art; Phantasmal Faerie Ward]
(Weave, Ward, Defensive, Sensory, Spell, Technique, Construct)

The Fragments Of Creation, Slash and Ward were ones that Jon had carefully considered amongst the seemingly infinite number of fragments that the System reward page listed.

One fulfilled his desire to obtain more spiritual items, relying on his own capabilities to do so rather than the abilities of others around him. [Threads Through The Loom] would be useful even as Jon returned to Earth, allowing him to create Mortal Ranked spiritual items.

[Spiritual Weave Art; Phantasmal Faerie Ward] was perhaps the spiritual counterpart to [Temperance Of Green, Imperial Wood Barrier]. From what both Schwarz Eis and Ashvattha Rana were saying, Fragments Of Ward could produce metaphysical structures preventing certain concepts or types of spiritual energy from entering.

It could even be used to "brush" perceptions off a specific location. Preventing individuals from even observing a building or structure.

[Ten Thousand Threads] gave Jon an additional offensive capability. Although not quite as effective against pseudo-spiritual constructs, pure constructs, such as those born from [Wrath Of Green, Piercing Wood Eruption], were slashed through by the threads of weave natured spiritual energy.

Jon intended for each of his Mana Cores to possess different abilities for an assortment of different situations. Although synergistic effects between abilities was important, self-reliance was the overall goal of his build.

His Knowledge Mana Core excelled in terms of observation and the collection of information. Although lacked any sort of offensive capability.

His Wood Mana Core possessed methods of healing himself and resisting damaging effects, but also possessed defensive and offensive methods, in the form of a Fragment Of Barrier and Fragment Of Spear.

His Ice Mana Core was a strange mixture of Techniques and Mutations. Both [Requiem Of The White Star] and [Rhapsody Of The Cold Star] did not possess offensive abilities, leaving nothing but his Fragment Of Annihilation.

His Spear Mana Core did not possess defensive or supportive abilities. Although an inherently offensive Mana Core, Jon found himself relying on his Fragment Of Spirit more than anything else.

His War Mana Core was all over the place. Abilities related to forming contracts or creating dimensional-subspaces were placed beside abilities related to the manifestation of incarnations or inflicting debilitating effects.

It also lacked a distinct offensive measure as well.

Jon scratched the top of his head, knowing that while he was fine with the effects of each individual ability, perhaps he could have been a little more thoughtful regarding the order in which he integrated specific fragments.

'If I am being honest, I would think about swapping my Fragment Of Hunt with my Fragment Of Trap. And probably my Fragment Of Marrow with my Fragment Of Avaritia. A bit more variation amongst my abilities.' Jon tapped his chin in thought.

The possibility of transforming the concepts contained within his integrated fragments was always an option, although Jon would require a preexisting ability pathway, rather than experimenting and forming his own amalgamated concept.

'Fragment Of The White-Sylvan Fortress huh? Quite a mouthful all things considered.'

Schwarz Eis did say that the names of these new concepts could be quite long, but length was not necessarily an indication of a powerful concept.

Although she had not given him the order of integrated fragments, the White Lady Of The Wintle Castle had told Jon a number of fragment pathways that she had creating during her own lifetime.

Fragment Of The Inverted Ice Mountain.

Fragment Of Cold Divinity.

Fragment Of Sundering Winter.

Fragment Of The Lunar Sword Dance.

Fragment Of The Imperial Glacial Throne.

All five of these fragment pathways were ones that she had formed either at Knighthood, Lordship or Barony. Schwarz Eis had said something about the limitations placed on abilities born from pathways but did not allude any further on the matter.

'Probably some annoying forbidden knowledge again. I cannot wait until I become a Knight,' Jon grumbled, huffing as he wiped a bead of sweat that formed on his temple.

The brown-haired young man strode across the dunes in quiet meditation before feeling his Fragment Of Intuition flare up, causing Jon to tighten his grip on Luin, slashing out behind him without even turning his head.

The sounds of high-pitched squeal shattered the silence that once filled this burning desert.

Narrowing his eyes, Jon turned towards the creature impaled on the end of his Thulian Spellspear, sighing as he shook his head.

"Worms. Of course its fucking worms."