The Infinity Dungeon [LitRPG]

Michael gathered his thoughts. Time seemed to stretch as he thought back to his isolation as a powerless human at the heart of Site 00. Forgotten even by his closest allies.

"The resonance pill. Would it have healed me if I had taken it when the Sanctum broke?" he asked.

Infy shook her head. "It would have done nothing. All it does is bring resonance to power that's already there. Without power, the pill is just sugar."

"What about before it had broken?"

"Then yes, it might have saved you a lot of pain. It might even have allowed you to see the mess you were making of your magic, and fix it before it was too late." She paused. "I hope all this," she gestured around, pointing at the city and the shield and perhaps beyond. "I hope it can be a learning experience. You had a second chance, something most people never get. See you soon, Michael."

"Wait!" he tried to stop her, but she was gone. "You didn't tell me how to access magic!"

But she was, indeed, gone. The room was empty, and the Inner Space was silent save for the roar of the star at its center. What was left of the Demiurge Particles had departed together with Infy, and it no longer hurt to even think about the star.

It was warm, and its light felt pleasant and nourishing. It was also content to just stay there and do nothing.

"Well, that must suck, doesn't it?"

In a matter of milliseconds, Michael was back in the real world, had holstered his weapon, and was aiming it around the room.

"Who goes there?" he asked, speaking quickly. His voice was panicked. "Show yourself."

The sound of laughter reached his ears. "Oh man," the voice said. "This is gold."

Michael spun around, seeing nothing but the empty room. His finger trembled on the trigger.

"Where are you?" he demanded.

"Come back to the Inner Space, you dumbo."

Michael was reluctant to do so, but with the room refusing to yield any information, he eventually relented.

"There's nothing," he said. There was just the star and the empty nothingness all around.

"Over here," the voice said. It echoed strangely, close yet coming from many directions.

Michael's head swiveled.

"Are you that black dot over there?"

"Yeah," the voice said. "Come closer."

He did. He only stopped when he realized that the dot was actually as large as a planet. This close to the star, and without many reference points, it was hard to say. The planet's surface was smooth, covered in runes and magic, but lacking the craters that usually helped with determining the scale of celestial bodies.

"Come on, don't you recognize me?" the planet said, the voice echoing like that of a powerful god.

Michael was about to say no but something held him back. "That voice… wait. You can't be…"

"In the flesh. Well, rock. Well, magical rock. Well, metaphysical manifestation of magical rock."

"Icarus?"

"Been a while, Michael."

Michael was only a floating consciousness, but he had the impression of his eyebrows reaching his hairline. "I don't recall you having quite the personality. What happened? Are you even really you? How did you get here?"

"Relax, relax," the AI-planet said with another laugh. "It really is me. As for why I have changed so much? Well, I suppose anything and anyone would find themselves changed after being reforged in a compressed hearth of magic. Wouldn't you? I was sucked into the central nova when your Sanctum collapsed, and I have been stuck there, contemplating things, until you found the Spark of Demiurge Particles. It was my way out, and now here I am."

"It makes no sense. Icarus is still at Site 00."

"A copy," Icarus said dismissively. "I managed to copy some code over before I lost contact with the outside world. I used to perceive time a billion times faster than it really flowed, when I focused. The problem was data transfer speed, hence why the copy is inferior. I can't wait to reunite with it and see what has become of the world in your absence."

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"We are stuck here for now, buddy."

"I am. You are not." The image of the room outside appeared floating in space above the planet. "You can take the elevator and reach the next challenge. Infy really likes her challenges, doesn't she? I wonder how many she will have you complete before she releases you."

"Except I don't really have magic. All I have is this… potential? The star? I don't even know what it is. Infy disappeared before she could explain."

"I guess it's a good thing I spent so much time there, then," Icarus declared. "I know stuff. And I don't need to gatekeep any of it behind silly challenges because of silly rules imposed by who knows who. Or who knows what…" He paused. "Scary thought. Cosmic entities that vast."

"You sound much more human."

"Let's just say that I touched upon some cosmic truths while in the nova. I'm still digesting them, but I'm pretty sure you will come across them as well, sooner or later. And the place outside? The city and its creators? They are be a central piece to understanding what is going on with our universe."

"Are you saying I should remain here?"

"Nope. The Lair will kill you. You're safe where you're at, for now. Long enough to figure out your magic and, if you only stopped wasting time, you might even manage to fulfill your promise to the old man. Then you'll get the fuck out of here before the Lair kills us both."

"Alright. What should I do?"

"Look around. What do you see?"

"The star, and empty space all around."

"Does the empty space extend forever?"

"I don't think so. When I first ignited the Spark of Demiurge Particles, I tried to get as far as I could because it hurt to be close to it, but something stopped me."

"What of the star now?"

"It feels strange."

"Is it different from the nova when your Sanctum collapsed?"

"Why are you asking me all these questions?"

"I have become something… strange, in your Inner Space. I am tethered to you for life, but our senses are no longer shared as they were. I can't see around me, Michael, but I can guide you with the knowledge I gathered while inside the nova."

"Alright. So, the nova, it was sucking everything in, but now it's like an explosion of energy. The spark was blinding and painful, but the star I have now feels warm and comforting."

"Good. The Demiurge Particles were too much for you to handle, that's why they were burning you."

"What should I do? I can feel the energies but I cannot control them or use them."

"You say that the source of your magic is a star, surrounded by an empty space. What do I look like?"

"A planet, filled with runes and other things I cannot even begin to describe."

"A star, space and a planet. If you were in the real world, how would you gather the energy of a star?"

Michael's eyes lit up. "I would build a solar panel! Are you saying, I need a collector of some sort? But there's nothing around to build it from."

"Are you sure there's nothing? I'm here, and yet until I made myself known, you weren't aware of my presence."

Michael hummed. "I could go explore. Then what? How do I build something in here?"

"It is your Inner Space, Michael. Imagination is your only limit."

Michael willed his consciousness to fly through the vast, but not infinite void of his Inner Space.

"Feels weird," he said. The movement did not follow standard Newtonian physics, and distances were strange. One moment he thought he was moving faster than light, the other he looked back and saw that the star was still there at the center of the space as if he had never even moved an inch.

Everything else was utterly black. There were no other stars, no other sources of light save for the sun at the center of the universe.

Using Icarus' planet as a reference point, he knew he was moving. Even when the little planet should have been too small to see with the naked eye, Michael could still see it. It was his own Inner Space, after all. His space, his rules.

"I think I see something," Michael said after a long while. How long, it was hard to say.

"Describe it to me."

"They look like little dots. Wait, they are asteroids, with some random debris mixed in. Pieces of runes and fractals, even a shard of System, I think. Let me get closer."

Icarus waited for Michael's next communication, saying nothing.

"They are huge," Michael said. "I don't like the look of the runes, though. And the fractals look like they have been put through a blender."

"Can you gather some materials without touching anything magical?" asked the AI.

"I think so."

Landing on an asteroid, he scouted its surface. Unlike real asteroids, they were made of debris of a destroyed city, floating in the vastness of space. A layer of rock and gravel had swallowed up the iron beams and broken concrete, like a sea of regolith. Touching it, Michael winced at its sharpness.

"Much like real regolith," Icarus told him. "But you don't have an actual body here, Michael. Don't let your own mind fool you into getting hurt. Remember how you used to use the manipulation skill to control magic and apply it to the material."

With great surprise, something happened. The debris rumbled. Beams erupted from their gravel tomb, followed by chunks of stone, ore, steel, glass and circuitry. Michael willed himself forward, now followed by a growing cloud of materials organized in neat piles floating in space above and behind him. He weaved around the husks of strange buildings, half-finished concrete monsters with ominous red runes and flowing fractals that his mind failed to even comprehend.

As he moved forward, more material entered his range and joined the pile.

"I'm beginning to struggle," Michael said. His forehead was sweaty, and he suspected the sensation was coming from the real world rather than from the Inner Space where he was bodiless. He mentally thanked Infy for making him sit down before plunging his consciousness into his Inner Space.

"Do you have enough?" Icarus asked.

Turning around, Michael examined his spoils. A cloud so vast it looked like a swarm of insects that glinted with the light of the far away sun hovered above him. And yet, he had barely even explored a fraction of a single asteroid.

He smirked. "Oh yeah, I think I got more than enough."