The Infinity Dungeon [LitRPG]

"What promise are you talking about?" Michael asked the figure.

They had stopped before the portal, mostly because Michael was wary of following a strange figure wrought in shadows through a portal leading who knows where, when he had no power to defend himself.

The figure laughed. "You ask a question, but there are rules that I must follow. Power and knowledge cannot be freely given. They are given as rewards."

"Rewards…" Michael parroted the last word. "Who made the rules? If you can tell me for free, of course."

"This I can tell you. The rules were made by my creator."

"Your creator?"

"My creator's identity is knowledge you will have to earn."

"How?"

"How did you earn your power? I can prepare a challenge for you. If you beat it—"

"You're the Dungeon, aren't you?"

The shadows seemed to darken for a moment. "It would be an oversimplification to claim that I am the Dungeon itself. I am also more than merely its guardian. You used to call me with a rather cute name, didn't you?"

"The Gaze?"

"Not that," the shadow figure deadpanned before laughing. "Oh my, I fell for your joke."

Michael smiled at the sound of wind chimes that was the figure's laugh. He had not intended to say it as a joke, but given the situation, he played along. Only after the laughter had died down did he realize that he was no longer shivering and, while still hurt, his injuries were no longer dripping blood.

The sense of urgency eased a little, but did not disappear. The memory of the underwater lab was still fresh in his mind, and although there didn't seem to be any danger to him here, it didn't mean that he could stay forever. Sooner or later, hunger or exhaustion would hit his mortal, Iron-rank body, and then he would be too weak to do anything, especially challenges, which were the real currency of the dungeon.

"Infy," he said.

"Much better," the shadows replied with a smile that did not have any features.

Even though he could not glimpse anything from the shadow, he got the distinct impression of femininity from it.

"Why did you bring me here?" he asked her at last.

"Is this your question?" she asked back. It seemed that he wasn't getting that answer without a challenge.

Michael paused. It wasn't worth it, although he really did want to know.

Infy giggled. "Tell me, Champion. Why did you walk into the dungeon despite your condition?"

"I wanted my power back."

"Good. It would not do for my Champion to be powerless. But alas, I cannot give you your old power back. Things are not freely given in here. They must be earned. Follow me."

She stepped into the portal without looking back, disappearing in a whirl of energy. Michael could not see what awaited him on the other side, which made him wary, but he had no other choice. He had entered the dungeon without a real plan, and certainly he had never expected to meet Infy in his desperate quest to regain what he had lost, but her presence gave him some modicum of hope.

Crossing the threshold, he immediately found himself on the other side. The air was warmer than it had been under the tree, and the open sky was dotted with tiny white wisps of clouds. There were mountains in the distance, tipped with snow, but Michael's gaze was captured by a gigantic tree in the middle of a forest.

"I see you like big trees," he told her, projecting confidence he didn't really feel. The underwater realm had thoroughly rattled him, and that had been a challenge just for the opportunity to be given an audience by the Dungeon Spirit.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Infy laughed again, soothing wind chimes helping Michael's mind relax a little. Behind her, he could see a gigantic city, surrounded by a shield. The buildings were sleek and futuristic, surrounded by manicured gardens and lawns, with wide streets and fountains everywhere. The city looked utterly out of place with the rest of the natural environment around it.

There was not a soul in sight. In fact, the whole place looked eerily still, with barely the rustle of leaves in the wind. After giving Michael some time to orient himself and to calm his nerves, Infy turned to him.

"Tell me, how is Johanne faring in the new strange world she finds herself in? I tried to watch over her, but old injuries prevent me from being able to use my full powers. I hope you are doing a better job of looking over her than I."

He told her about Johanne. Starting from their meeting, he told her about what the woman had been doing at Site 00, her interest in science and how it could be used together with magic to produce something that was more than the sum of its parts. He told Infy about Johanne's quirks and strangeness, about how she had formed an attachment to him, and about her relationships with the others. The more he spoke, the more he found himself calming down, the recounting of events grounding him to reality after weeks spent powerless and in isolation.

They walked as they talked, inching closer and closer to the strange city surrounded by a shield. As they got closer, he realized that the city wasn't as immaculate as it had looked from a distance. Time was taking its toll on the buildings, and damage was slowly accumulating. Some places looked like they had been repaired, but it was a haphazard hack-job. From where he stood, Michael could also see broken windows and cracked walls even in the tallest skyscrapers, as well as dry fountains and entire patches of wilted grass in the middle of the gardens.

They climbed down the slope of a tall hill, then hiked quite some distance through forest and then plains. Michael was reminded time and time again that he was just a normal human each time Infy had to stop and wait for him to catch his breath.

He thought about his and Travis' plan to gatekeep magic from the rest of humanity for as long as they could. Doing so meant that, save for a scant few, everybody was going to be denied an existence free of pain, fatigue, and illness. He had thought little of it in his later days, when he was powerful, but now that he was out in the wild, surrounded by potential danger and utterly powerless, he realized his mistake.

He wondered. After getting back his power, if he even survived to do so… was he going to once again stop caring about the woes of the lesser?

He recognized his own depressed mood. He had not stopped caring altogether, but emergencies and things to do filled his agenda with things that had more priority. After all, humanity would still be there even if he waited a week or a month longer. Nevermind that his plans would require years even if he dedicated all of himself to them.

Infy patiently waited for him to catch up, sitting on a boulder in a small clearing close to the city's shield. As if knowing that Michael was spiraling, she asked a few more questions about Johanne, which he answered with glee because they grounded him yet again to the present.

"I am glad to hear that my former Champion is in good hands. It had been a leap of faith, a move born of desperation, when I made you the new Champion and entrusted her to you." As she said that, she stopped close to the edge of the shield. "We are here. I materialized this challenge for you, following the rules of the Dungeon. It will help you in your quest to restore your power, but I will not be able to watch your struggles. Allow me to explain the challenge to you."

The shield shimmered and a small section of it disappeared. It was large enough for a person to step through. As soon as it did, the smell of the forest was replaced by the smell of flowers from a nearby garden.

"This is an abandoned timeline. A portion of space and time that the Dungeon collected after its story lost its main character. In this timeline, Albert Grassman never arrived in the future version of his planet. This is the Domed City of Sitea. In it, Albert's mother left a stash of what they called Reality Bending Energy, which in your classification of magic would be called Tier 5 energy. I call them Demiurge Particles, and while limited in number and unable to replicate, their power is great and they will prove invaluable to you. You have only one objective: claim the particles for yourself, or die trying. Beware, however, for a corrupted spirit called Lair haunts the empty buildings of Sitea, wielding powerful ancient tech mixed with magic."

"The Lair?"

"He was a kindred spirit of sorts, before he lost himself. He is not kind towards intruders these days, and his mind has degraded after suffering the passage of the ages. Once you claim the particles, you will be able to access the control room of the central Spire. You should find me waiting for you there, but even if not, I have left instructions to the Dungeon about what to do in my absence."

"Will you really not be there?"

"I will try to be. But, as you might have guessed, I do not have much energy left. Creating this challenge took a lot out of me."

Michael thought about what Infy said earlier, about not being able to watch over Johanne. He remembered the Gaze being strange, only at times fully present while more often than not feeling dormant and unfocused. If the Gaze was Infy, then there was clearly something wrong with her. That she used a lot of energy to create the current challenge, together with the fact that she might not be able to watch him nor be there at the end of it, allowed Michael to connect the dots.

"You're dying," he said.

"Please be quick, my Champion."

She sighed.

"But none of that. It would be selfish of me to ask for help when you are unable to. Focus on yourself, Champion… Michael. As I said, failing this challenge will result in death. I would offer you escape, but you walked in here knowing full well about the risks, and I cannot offer what I cannot give. I am dying, but I still have some fight left in me. Worry about other people after you have saved yourself."