1.1 Let's get this shit started

There was a soul. It floated amongst primordial nothingness. It used to be a someone, it used to be alive, it used to know. Fragments of memory surrounded it, mere snippets of something else, something more. One memory was recent, memories of screams, of death, of a fire and at the center of it all, a silhouette standing in a green mist.

Then that memory disappeared, and with it, something else, something important.

The soul began crumbling, what it was, what it is and what it could’ve been, it all began to break. A quiet end, unknown to anyone.

Except for one.

“ ###[email protected]^ ” Something hovered above the soul, emitting a sound that a sanity chipping being might’ve thought what a voice sounded like.

It was something meant to communicate intention.

However, no response answered the being, and certainly not the soul in the midst of crumbling.

Regardless, the thing continued. “ ##!-^$##@## = [#*>@%]”

As it spoke, something fell from the thing, something that acted like a liquid. Like a drop of water, it landed on the soul, enveloping it in something that looked like colour but not quite.

Gluing itself onto the soul, it stopped its collapse. The scattered fragments began returning to the soul as if time was reversed.

Soon, the soul was one whole again, but pieces were still missing. The being did not seem to care and left the soul encased in the strange liquid. Then, the soul ‘fell’. Falling into an endless oblivion, and back into existence.

It was given a second chance.

0-0-0-0-0

He looked at the perfectly flat wall in front of him.

He turned around, feeling no real sensation of movement as he did so, to find another wall connecting to one he was staring at. Turning to a full 180 degrees, he came face to face with a strange, pulsating green orb, held by a stalagmite protruding from the floor and a stalactite protruding from the ceiling, the orb was pinched in between them, forming a single straight, hourglass-like column.

The orb was perfectly round, pulsating a gentle green light, lighting up the bland square room. His hand rose to touch this orb. As he touched it, he felt no sensation of touch, no feeling. Then he felt his hand pass through the orb completely.

Widening his eyes in shock, he pulled back his hand, and noticed for the first time, that his hand was gone. Swiftly, he looked down and confirmed his suspicions. There was nothing there, his body was gone.

He shuddered, as a sense of nausea set in, as he felt something inside him begin to rapidly contract and relax as if he was hyperventilating.

However that was impossible, he could not breathe, he didn’t have the body for it.

So what was this feeling? He wondered.

Then, he noticed that the room was different. The gentle green light was now flashing violently. The green orb that was emitting the light is now flashing in the same rhythm as the hyperventilating sensation.

That thing… was his heart?

He tried to test out his theory, moving his ‘arm’ to where his chest was supposed to be, resting his hand where his heart was supposed to be and tried to calm down. As he felt his ‘pulse’ slow, he watched the pulsing green light slow down in turn.

That thing was a part of him or at least something linked to him.

He raised his vision back up, till he was level with the orb again.

“What are you…” He muttered as he raised his hand to touch the orb, only to grunt in frustration as his hand passed through again.

You are currently Unnamed, please name yourself within 47 Hours, 58 Minutes and 21 Seconds or suffer indeterminable consequences.

“What the?” He muttered in surprise at the sudden voice he heard in his head.

You are currently Unnamed, please name yourself within 47 Hours, 58 Minutes and 13 Seconds or suffer indeterminable consequences.

“Yeah I got that, but what the hell are you? Please tell me I’m not going crazy or something?” He replied, half in sarcasm, half genuine curiosity.

…

The voice was silent for a moment, before responding.

I am an assistant designed to assist you in the upcoming task, I have been created with rudimentary knowledge of your personality, and will respond to audio cues.

You are currently Unnamed, you MUST name yourself within 47 Hours, 57 Minutes and 56 Seconds or we will both suffer indeterminable consequences.

“Wait, what upcoming task?”

I cannot reveal that information until you name yourself. Hurry up we’re losing useful daylight here.

He looked around in response to the voice of his ‘assistant’, smiling wryly at the simple fact that he could not determine the time of day in this sealed off cube.

“And if I don’t?” He asked as a test.

We will suffer indeterminable consequences. However you will suffer the most, I will at least continue to function.

“Wait, wait, wait… Are you saying that I will die if I don’t name myself?”

…

You did not hear that from me.

He would have to be stupid if he didn’t understand the undertones in that.

“Fine, but I already have a name, wasn’t it-” He stopped, being silent for a full minute. “Hey, bastard. What’s my name?”

I do not understand. I do not know your name, that’s the problem here.

“Tsk.” He grunted in frustration, trying his best to remember. However, he could not remember anything close to his name.

He remembered plenty of names though, and plenty of moments, but those memories felt like they happened years ago, and as if the memory was blocked by a hazy mist.

Grunting one final time in frustration, he replied. “Well I’ll just make one up right now, names don’t really matter much anyway.”

The voice did not reply, waiting silently for his reply.

“Since this thing is supposed to be a part of me or something, I guess I should base my name off it.” He said, looking at the green orb. “Greenie sounds too stupid… Orb isn’t any better…”

“Verdant.” He said as if a lightbulb went off in his head.

Do you want that to be your name?

“Yeah, sure why not, call me Verd for short I guess.”

Understood. Your name will be set to Verdant or Verd for short.

The voice went silent, Verd waited in anticipation. He knew he is missing several years of memory, he just didn’t know how much. From the vague feeling of nostalgia when he recalled the only memories he could remember, he deduced that he was missing mainly the recent ones. To him any information right now was important.

Your name has been set to Verdant or Verd for short.

Also Verdant sounds like a rodent. It is a stupid name.

“Hey, hey why didn’t you tell me earlier!”

I am not supposed to interfere with the naming process.

“Well now that we got that over with, can you tell me what’s the ‘upcoming task’ you mentioned,” Verd replied in a slightly passive aggressive tone.

Well, I can see that you would rather not hear my voice, so just look at this and you can infer what you want.

The voice replied in an equally passive aggressive tone.

“Wait I was kidding-” Verd started before getting interrupted by a sudden influx of information.

Name: Verdant

Race: Dungeon Core

Level: 1

Job/Racial Class: Dungeon Master Level 1

Stats: Null

Skills: Dungeon Assistant Menu, [#*>@%]

Verd was speechless for a moment, before muttering; “Wait a second… Waking up somewhere you don’t know with some drastic alteration to your body… A convenient status screen… An unexplained way of getting here… Missing memory… A clearly fantasy looking rock… A disembodied potential Deus Ex Machina character...”

“Fuck!! I’m stuck in reincarnation novel aren’t I!”

I don’t understand? But thanks for the compliment.