The Infinity Dungeon [LitRPG]

"It's clear that this is not working."

Michael paced around the laboratory, watching yet another experiment yield no result. The absence of magic, the nothingness where the Sanctum once resided, had been a burning hole at first. Over time, the pain had faded and with it, the memory of how it felt to have magic.

Nowadays, it felt like depression.

Michael looked at himself in the mirror.

"I don't recognize the asshole looking back at me," he muttered. He spat at the mirror, watching the saliva leave a trail of dense spit as it rolled down.

He wanted to punch the thing, but the last time he had done that he had had to drink one of Johanne's healing potions to mend his fractured hand. Then, he had been given a lecture by the woman. Like a child.

She too could not see him the same way anymore. Her reverence had slowly morphed into some strange perversion of maternal instinct over him. He felt pathetic just by thinking about it.

He dreamt about getting his power back and then leaving the whole organization behind, because even if he went back to how he had been before, the rest of Unity Corporation had moved on without him. He had seen sides of his friends he wished he could undo and unsee.

"Whatever, there's only one thing left to do."

He got dressed. He shaved his unkempt beard. He washed his face and put on decent clothes. Then, with a big breath, feeling like it was going to be the last easy breath in a long time, he faced the door leading out of the underground lab.

"Icarus, let me out."

The AI complied. The door whirred open into an empty corridor. The elevator that took him to the surface was fast, and the ride perfectly smooth. Magitech had evolved by leaps and bounds in such a short time, thanks to Johanne's relentless work, and in less than a few seconds the elevator had brought him all the way to the surface.

The light of the sun was blinding. Up above, Michael could see the shimmer of a shield surrounding the Site. They had done it, it seemed. They managed to turn it on. Travis must be happy.

His legs carried him to the dungeon in a daze. The air felt electric, but the sensation was muted. The smells, the sights, the feeling… they were all dull and far away. He had not gotten used to the loss of perception powers, not even after a long time cooped up in a room.

"I never really realized just how far this place is from the main Site," he said when he arrived. In truth, it had been the same trek he used to do at the beginning, only now it felt like it was ten times longer.

There were no Operators standing guard at the dungeon entrance. As he stepped into the antechamber, for a moment Michael had the premonition that Travis and David would be there. Would they greet him? Would they try to stop him?

Would they mock him?

Or perhaps Johanne would be there.

The emotion he felt when he opened the door, and found the room empty, was hard to describe. Relief, yes, but also disappointment. Icarus had made sure nobody would know he was coming. He had interfered so little with the comings and goings of both Travis and David ever since Michael disappeared from their lives, that they had all but forgotten what the AI could really do.

For them, Icarus had appeared and in a matter of days reached full power, and just as quickly it had vanished. How curious.

Michael stepped into the dungeon, aware that with all probability he was stepping into his death. The difficulty of the place had not reset with his disappearance, and he was going in unarmed and unarmored.

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For a moment, he wondered. He had a family, sort of. His sister still visited him once every couple of days. He could just… not do it. Go back to the real world, leave it all behind. Live as a normal human. With Icarus, he would have all the mundane power he wanted.

But magic would forever be out of his grasp.

Inhaling, he felt the far-away smell of moss. It was like being told what the forest smelled like, rather than smelling it in the first person.

No, after experiencing what magic can give you, you can't really live without it.

Now he realized the true extent of what he had done to Travis when he punished the man for playing games with him. Now he realized just how detached and removed from reality his power had made him. It was normal. It was understandable.

But now that he was back in the realm of normalcy, he realized just how warped his perception of the world and its people had become. It was like he had become a whole new species for a while. Now he was human again, watching Travis, David, Johanne and even some Operators act like he had been acting.

He could not tolerate this. He had big plans for the world. He wanted to make it better.

He almost accidentally turned it into hell.

A hell that was not ready to handle what was coming from outer space. Icarus did not show the others. They had no idea. If they knew, God knows what they were going to do. Michael heard of their plans from Icarus. Travis wanted to organize a psyops to brainwash the whole world and seize power.

The worst thing was that old Michael would have probably let the man do it.

No more.

He stepped into the dungeon, unarmed and unarmored. Alone. Without knowing what he was going to find.

***

Johanne was the first to learn of Michael's disappearance. His sister was the second. The others soon after. They did not even search for him. Icarus told them what he had done, and they had been angry for a while, but eventually their anger subsided. Without anyone to take their anger out on, and with bigger problems on their minds, they returned to their work.

Stephan also came to check on Michael and was sent away. David had not reacted well to the appearance of the man, whom he saw as one of the most glaring failures of his pupil. The coward martial artist left with a sour mood and curse words directed at nobody in particular.

The differences between Travis, David and Johanne soon became evident, and they started pulling Unity Corporation in three different directions. Only the presence of Icarus prevented the organization from splintering, together with the knowledge that they needed each other.

The real resource they all needed was the dungeon, and mutually assured destruction plus the knowledge that Icarus really had the final say—the AI controlled the world's nuclear arsenals—cooled their moods.

Their plans hastened, though. The shield around Site 00 was having some problems, bulging outwards as the mana produced by the dungeon built up inside of it. They were forced to drop the idea of halting the mana spread, but they were too late. The increased concentration of mana interacted with the environment and produced a mega storm around Site 00.

It was thanks to that storm that Johanne learned that magic can create more magic.

"It has become self-sustaining. Even worse, it is growing in power."

They called several storm hunters. Experts in weather patterns, who signed NDAs and were made aware of the existence of magic. They were as clueless as anyone else about the phenomenon.

The only thing they knew was that it wasn't stopping.

After several days, during which the storm only worsened, Johanne found traces of sabotage. The shield had been tampered with, causing the storm. This prompted another Site-wide search, but as monsters also started appearing due to the increased mana, they found themselves progressively more unable to cope with the problems.

They pulled out of their collaboration with the OA, which had only become a bother as the organization had them running in circles wasting resources and men, only to give them little as a reward for their efforts.

As the storm worsened yet again, spreading across half the state, they had to call for the aid of the Fae to keep the roaming monsters at bay. Travis was increasingly absent, dealing with politics to keep the anomalous happenings under wraps while also working to infiltrate the government.

He introduced magic to a lot of people, hooking them on a supply of Mana Coins he tightly controlled to make them grow dependent on him. Vanguard grew, and their efforts expanded.

Then the storm worsened yet again. Stephan showed up, asking for Michael and finding no answers. David asked him to stick around, with his magic he would be useful in dealing with the monsters spawning in the storm before they became trouble for the common people, but Stephan refused.

David almost killed the man in a fit of rage.

Then, all of a sudden, Michael reappeared. Alive.

He rose up in the air, effortlessly flying up above the clouds. Everyone saw him, his figure barely visible yet commanding attention in a way that left the people below unable to look away. He took in the sights of Site 00 for a moment before standing perfectly still.

After he was done being briefed by Icarus, he had only one thing to say.

"This shitshow has gone on for long enough. Time to put an end to it."