New System, Who Dis?

Monday, April 29th, 2069

It was strange to both be conscious, but in so much pain that I was pretty sure I was hallucinating. I couldn’t really be watching the Big Bang—right?

Or maybe I was in my Mental Universe?

The first thing that I’d seen had been a black hole—hadn’t it? Or had I seen that outside after the Skill Creation? Maybe…

Regardless, one specific area, this black hole inside my imagination, had been bombarded by asteroid after asteroid. The first two had been huge, red things that smashed into each other like two Evolved Moose fighting for territory. Unlike the Moose, this display led to mutual destruction and so much heat I could feel it.

No, wait—had I felt it or imagined it?

Whatever. Then more asteroids had flown in, bombarding the mass of undulating Magma—like bad referees attempting to break up a fight. The first few had hit and seemed to almost cause the superheated, melded asteroids to separate. Then the two, now one—turned on the newcomer and swallowed it. Were they alive?

After the third strike, that phenomenon went away, and instead the newer asteroids sank into the orangey red substance like it was a pond, and they were pebbles thrown by children.

Now I thought it was after the sixth asteroid, or was this one a comet? Either way, another change occurred. This comet didn’t even make it to the surface to sink into the mass. Instead, the massive blob of magma sent out an attack, in the forms of waves of heat, vaporizing the newest comet.

Surely, it didn’t consciously send out the attack? That would make it alive, and me… more crazy than I already appeared to be…

I tried to shake my head, and failed. Three more comets flew in, vaporizing before they made ‘land.’ Only when the last one disintegrated did the clouds of the other four turn gray, and then black.

Lightning arced between the clouds, even striking down at the orange liquid surface of the planet. I didn’t realize until the first drop of rain fell just how much pain each asteroid, or comet had caused me. I think I was at my threshold for recognizing more sensation.

Sure, I had seen something like a force wave expel outward after each impact. Well, those had started with that black hole, I think? That did explain how the impact waves could be darker than the blackness of space. Wait—that made no sense?

Whatever. The point I was trying to make—did I have a point?

Husk!

The rain seemed to bring the first new sensation I’d felt in millions of… years? Months? Days? Hours? Minutes! Surely it had only been minutes. The sensation of rain touching the superheated surface, without evaporating above it—was like aloe vera on a terrible sunburn.

No, it was far better than even that. It was a drop of water hitting my tongue in the middle of a desert. Had I even been in a desert before? No, no I hadn’t.

My brain reeled at that truth—shattering some of my fugue along with it. I was truly in my Mental Universe, and I had watched as a Skill was created. I had even seen those darker waves of force vibrate through the space.

What I hadn’t been able to notice was the other Skill-planets they passed by, or the edges of that universe when they had struck. I could tell that the limits to my Mental Universe had grown. The nothingness of ‘space’ Smegma claimed was my Soul, were getting bigger—more expansive.

My awareness narrowed back in on the newest Skill-planet as the rain turned from a drizzle to light-rain, moderate, and then heavy—before becoming something akin to a tropical storm that raged over the entire planet.

To my distress, the planet, easily four to five times larger than the ‘Sun’ of Demonic Vault, was shrinking. Sure, a bit of shrinkage probably should be expected—I guess. Maybe it had just gotten out of the pool. I’d be a hypocrite to throw stones. Yet, this was like watching a beach ball deflate, turning itself into a bowling ball, and continuing to collapse.

I shouldn’t complain, since the more it shrank, the better I felt—but with the Mining Skill ‘planet’ growing and getting stronger, this did feel like I was losing something. I couldn’t help but wonder what Skill the system had granted.

It had said something about Draconic Chosen—so maybe something like—

The planet vanished.

“Are you husking kidding me?” I exclaimed even as my eyes flew open.

My body was still in full contraction—making me feel bound—but I could also feel Recovery going to work, attempting to unclench muscles and repair whatever damage my involuntary spasms had left behind.

I didn’t stay in the Hut for long and dove back into my Mental Universe. Surely, I had imagined the planet vanishing. No, it was still gone. I searched the new expanse of my Soul Space, looking for a sign of the tiny Skill Planet—and found nothing.

There was my Mana Pool, Mining, Fishing, Demonic Vault, and the still forming Cooking—but no new planet for the System granted Skill. Even the moons surrounding Fishing and Mining—well the large Moon, singular, around Mining, were there.

The System notices had said something about me being unable to handle the chosen Skill, hadn’t it?

So, what? It just took it away to save my life? I thought the System was supposed to be fair?

That’s what Smegma had claimed at least—but I supposed he knew of the System from however many eons ago. What was the saying? Power corrupts—or something. Oh, that was it!

Power always corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely…

I shivered, and exited my Mental Universe, not wanting to think about just how much power this System wielded. I of course was left staring at the mesh bags of hanging Mana Crystals, as my body slowly unclenched itself.

“Well, that couldn’t have taken too long—since Smegma is still forming the Cooking Skill,” I said to myself. Assessing my situation to pass the time. “Good thing, those other Goblins are staying in their Stone Huts,” I added. Realizing the extremely compromised position I was in.

Dungeon Cleared.

Rewards Granted.

Portal will close in twenty-four hours. Finish looting or risk losing spoils upon closure. Any Human inside the Portal Grounds when it closes will be transported back to Earth.

“Yeah, some reward!” I complained, my voice attempting to rise to an indignant volume, but managing to crack before becoming a froggy croak. I continued in a much more subdued rasp, “Take away my Skill—“

Something punched me in the stomach. My body reacted, heart rate increasing even as the sensation forced me into a painful, unwanted sit-up. Thankfully there wasn’t a Goblin standing over me with a Spear. Instead, there was a moderately sized garden fountain sitting atop me.

“Oh you’ve got to be husking kidding me!” I said, as I looked at the thing. Where had it even come from?

Low-Level Skill Altar Awarded.

To use, simply insert nine Monster or Portal Cores, and place palm on impression.

0/10 Uses.

First world clear of Low-Level Skill Awarding Portal Detected. Doubling usages of Altar from 10 to 20.

Congratulations.

I blinked at the messages. This fountain was a portable-condensed version of the Altar? Recovery must have done a fair bit of work, since I was now sitting up without feeling like a groundhog or some type of other burrowing rodent had made a home inside my abdomen. Hesitantly I reached out my hands to the fountain-looking Altar and removed it from atop me. Placing it beside me, I noticed a few very glaring differences between it and the hut-sized Altar I was recovering inside of.

Helped by the Cores that still surrounded me, I first noticed the size of depressions the altar had for Cores. They might be able to take the green or blue Monster and Portal Core. But they weren’t ever going to be able to fit one of the remaining orange ones. Not that these were typical Cores that I’d find on Earth—but the thought still held.

I waffled on my next discovery, recalling that the accenting Element slot only opened up after I placed all nine outer cores. Still, not only did this altar not have a spot for it—even if it did, the smaller Elemental Core wouldn’t fit.

Maybe, a big enough space would somehow reveal itself if I placed nine Cores? Or maybe this Altar was truly designed for human usage!

That made a lot more sense since it was very hard to imagine a spot for a tenth core. The entire center was taken up by carved lines, and an indentation clearly meant for a human palm.

Struggling, I got to my knees and then attempted to climb to my feet to experiment but was forced to stay on all fours, when my legs wobbled beneath me. Determined to get at least one Skill from all this, I began crawling to the blue cores. I sent the closest nine in the pile into my Necklace, and returned to the smaller Altar.

About halfway back I realized that I was still in a larger Altar, and could try again for a better Skill, but I was still curious about this ‘System reward’. I slotted the nine blue cores, and found I was absolutely correct on the size. Nothing bigger was going to fit the nine indentations.

I waited and nothing happened. My staring at the fountain altar showed me the obvious reason why. The palm imprint!

I placed my palm down and a similar screen to the one I’d gotten for activating the larger Altar in the room I was occupying appeared before me.

Low Rank Skill Altar Activated.

9 Cores Offered.

Average Rank: E+

Proceed with Skill Acquisition?

Yes |

The floor I knelt on rumbled, like it was accentuating a big moment in my life. I frowned at it, was that another cave in—

“No you imbecile,” Smegma said, startling me. Thankfully I was currently on all fours, so other than a slight jump I didn’t react much. “That would be the Snake warning you not to do what you’re trying to do.”

“Oh, that Husking Greed—“ the ground rumbled far more menacingly. “Selfless, I meant to say that beautiful Selfless…” I tried to correct my earlier frustrated insult, and knew I failed miserably—but thankfully the ground didn’t rumble again.

“Collect all of his Cores and let’s head back!” Smegma stated but was giving me a look that clearly demanded a bit of an explanation over what happened since he vanished.

Jaw clenched, I mentally relayed what had happened and how the System had stolen my new Skill. I pointed to the small Altar in the end, and mentally screamed, [It thinks this somehow makes up for it!]

“Ahh, I don’t think that’s it. First, if you looked around, you would have noticed all of the depression in the hut are gone. So, you couldn’t use it again. I think this Smaller Altar is actually just a condensed version of the big one. Remember, it was only supposed to be a Low Rank…”

[Still, the Skill is gone!]

“Even if that is true. First, it took it away to save your life. Second, it upgraded your Soul—which I have never even heard of, and it gave you a method to give even more Skills to yourself or others. So, I think you’re focusing on all the wrong things.”

My mind unhelpfully agreed with Smegma. I cursed under my breath as I moved about the room collecting the Snake’s Cores. I also took the spears, and cut out the Guard’s Cores, before moving to the mesh sacks and collecting the F-ranked Crystals. My Necklace of Holding was looking pretty full, but I managed to squeeze them in, because I’d dumped everything else back in the Smithy.

I took one more look around the room when I was finished and discovered that there was a Core in the space that the Space Elemental Core had resided in. It helpfully glowed a dull white, highlighting it in the now dark hut.

I moved back and snatched it, and the small Bag of Holding a bit moodily. Despite my mind and Smegma continually telling me to get over it—my heart wasn’t ready to let go. I thought for just a moment I was going to get some sort of cool Skill. Something that would make me a Hunter, right now. It was a thought I’d been desperately clinging onto as I underwent that trial by pain…

Whatever!

Using Heat Vision and Smegma’s scouting, we made our slow way back out of the Goblin Village. It was very slow going at first because I was still trying to be sneaky. Then when I remembered my Heat Sense and turned it on, I became fully distracted by another discovery. There were no heat signatures in the stone huts anymore.

Where had the White Goblins gone?

We never discovered the answer, even as we passed the massive shit pile, and the huge Cavern back to the Naga Compound.