Well… Maybe faded to blue wasn’t exactly right. About five minutes had passed, and things were getting boring. I wasn’t unconscious or anything like that, but I certainly couldn’t move or feel anything. In fact I couldn’t even be sure if I was breathing. Maybe I was dead. I took the down time to observe what I could from my frozen position, everything in my field of view was blurred, nothing I could see was moving. The world was frozen, with everything, much like myself, apparently frozen in time. Then, as though it had been there the whole time simply waiting for me to notice, right in the centre of my vision a… message box, I suppose, was looking back at me. Things being as they were, and with no other options coming to mind, I focused on the panel of text floating in the air in front of me.

  I should have been panicking at the very least, but there was a sense of familiarity with what was happening and I had a feeling that many, myself included, would be somewhat familiar with what this meant. In a sci-fi meets world turned game kind of way. Even if the ‘patch notes’ were suspiciously short considering the last one was sixty five million years ago, gamers had been experiencing this type of thing for many years now. So the only real question was how and why a game had apparently managed to force itself upon everyone, everywhere, at the same time. I was unable to take my eyes from one sentence in particular, I especially didn’t like the idea of this ‘no longer human’ bullshit, and if this message was taken at face value, many people no longer would be.

  Rereading the Patch Notes, a thought began to nag at the back of my mind… why am I not panicking? Hmm… I suppose if this ‘universal frame’ thingy is indeed responsible and effecting everyone in the same way its effecting me… I guess it’s reasonable that it would be able to somehow keep people calm? Yeah okay, that works, at least for now. It’s kinda hard to worry about something when you’re not actually, you know, worried. I focused on rereading and absorbing the information for a second time. Okay, fantastic. Now what? I looked around my field of view trying to figure out how to dismiss the message, assuming of course that’s something I could do. So I’m essentially disembodied, but if I concentrate and mentally act as though I still have full movement and use of my arms… yep, go me! I can dismiss the message simply by swiping it away.

  Okay, so now the patch notes are gone I’m faced with a view of the world as though looking at a frozen piece of time through blurry white tinted and frosted glass. I looked down to Janet to see if she is tripping balls as bad as I am. My eyes began to cross as I attempted to force details into focus as another message appeared floating before my eyes.

  I groaned inwardly at the dots flashing merrily in sequence at the end of the brief message. Bye bye Human race. As I stared at the flashing white dots, the only real thing of interest, another thought occurred to me. What was that part in the patch notes about mythological, magical, blah blah based races… this could actually be pretty cool! Score one for not panicking I suppose. Oh wait, another message.

  So… I haven’t been randomly selected to be a Dungeon Master? Meaning… what exactly? The pulsing dots stopped and this time everything did fade to black, no blurred background, no weird messages, no noise, just nothing. I have no idea how long I had been floating in the limbo when a voice startled me from both somewhere and everywhere at the same time, echoing across from the dark. Probably only a minute or two, if that?

  “Greetings Dungeon Master”

  “Uhh… Hi?” Oooo, I have a voice again, and I can use it! Impressed at my own super brainy linguistic ability I failed to notice that I was also a disembodied voice.

  “I have been assigned to assist you with the design and integration of your dungeon into Instance: Earth.”

  My dungeon? Before I can voice any questions in relation to the statement, the distinctly feminine voice continued.

  “As dungeon master you are assigned an interface specific to your task, this is directly related to dungeon abilities and purchases. Your selections at this point will greatly influence the abilities of your dungeon in the future, choose wisely.”

  Once again I wasn’t given the opportunity to question the unknown woman, as soon as she had finished speaking a new message appeared, hovering and waiting patiently before me in the black. Again I took the time to look around at the world behind this mysterious message box… what little world there was to see anyway. All I was really able to discern was that neither the message box or the text within it had any effect on the lighting, but it’s still easily viewed in the dark somehow.

  Fucking fantastic, I get to look forward to spending the rest of my life as a bunch of interconnected walls. Lets just go with the fact that life is apparently now one big game… why would a game need a person to be a whole bunch of rooms? Maybe I will have some sort of mojo allowing me to influence the design or something, to help make a better ‘mouse trap’? But still, why? What benefit does this ‘frame’ get out of the deal? Is it a person, or as the name suggests some sort of program. Oh! Simulation theory might be a reality… anyway, back to the task at hand.

  Surely the general chaos about to be inflicted on the world would be better than any dungeon I could help create, regardless of any level of influence I may have in its creation. I sighed as much as any non bodied entity could sigh, highly doubtful I could get out of the process by just not making a choice, soooo… looks like as the title implies, all are different types of dungeons. The city type seems like an interesting take on what a dungeon is, assuming I’m not experiencing some kind of psychotic episode. I think I’d eventually get bored with people whining at me all the time about blocked toilets and other bullshit I have no interest in though, so that’s out. External dungeon, meh, I don’t know, call me old fashioned, but when I think of the term ‘dungeon’ I think of something underground, like a prison under a castle kind of thing… although that could be the part of me that likes tieing up women for our mutual pleasure.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “Hmm not really sure about the Internal Dungeon though.” I thought out loud.

  “What specifically are you not sure about, dungeon master?” The hidden voice asked.

  “Oh, I was just thinking out loud, didn’t think we would be able to talk while I was looking at these messages!”

  “As I mentioned, my task is to assist you.” the voice said glibly.

  “In that case, can you clarify the description for the internal dungeon? If I understand what I’m reading correctly, I can choose to go solo, or team up with another dungeon. But if I choose the latter option I loose some autonomy over what I can do. Is that right?” I moved to face the voice. Maybe I did, I don’t know, but my viewpoint certainly didn’t change.

  “If you choose to ‘go solo’, I will move you to an appropriate location where you can flesh out the basics of your dungeon before you create access to the surface.”

  Okay sure, the whole disembodied voice thing is a little disturbing, but her tone was definitely turning more sultry the longer she spoke. “As for the latter option you are only partially correct. You would be given free reign over your domain, however you would only have access to different design options and dungeon monsters that your ‘host’ made available.”

  The longer she spoke the more questions came to mind, but I was definitely leaning towards the internal dungeon option and striking out on my own.

  “Hey, while I think of it, what should I call you?”

  A short fit of pleasant musical sounding giggling sounded in the air.

  “As you work through these steps of setting up your dungeon, depending on the paths you choose, you may be able to form an avatar for yourself, in that event I will use my corporeal form to better… interact with you. In any event you will then be able to provide a name for these avatars. Until then I’m going to remain a random voice in your head.”

  “Okay, I look forward to actually meeting you then. But in the mean time could you help me out with a few more questions?”

  I continued without awaiting a response.

  “Going from other descriptions it looks like if I go ‘solo’ the way I upgrade a… the(?) dungeon is by having people, or creatures, die within the dungeon… my sphere of influence, is that correct? I’m not sure I like the idea of killing people to support myself, do they re-spawn or revive in some way like in a game? Also how do I go about designing the dungeon? You know, traps, monsters, general layout, that sort of thing?”

  The woman hidden in the shadows responded immediately, not angrily, but definitely with a firm hand. It was a tone of voice I myself have often used.

  “You are functionally immortal and not human, not anymore. Any sense of morality that may be associated with your previous life will only harm you in this one. If you make your dungeon to easy, or simply refuse to participate, we will both be… removed. There is only one rule for dungeons. Tough but fair. To answer your question about death, the answer is both yes and no. Yes, you must kill the challengers that enter the dungeon in order to grow effectively. No, they don’t re-spawn, however…” She paused slightly, noting I wasn’t about to interrupt her, she continued.

  “…challengers killed in your area of influence are able to be… recreated by the dungeon. Think of them as sleeves. These sleeves are bound to the dungeon and must remain within your sphere of influence, but otherwise you are free to do with them as you please. As for your question about designing the dungeon it will be easier to understand once you have finished these basic menus first.”

  Hmm, I’m not sure I could simply just go along with the whole killing people thing, but I’m beginning to believe my continued existence kind of depended on it. I stopped for a moment in thought at the implications. Regardless of wether or not I could be comfortable with killing, I suppose that I may as well continue with the whole dungeon layout process at least right? I can always decide later if essentially having to feed on people for my own survival is something I would be comfortable with. Ultimately… I guess anyone entering the dungeon would surely be aware of the risks. So, maybe?

  With that thought in mind I mentally chose the internal dungeon option, another pop-up message asked me if I wanted to be allied with a city or another dungeon master, I of course selected no almost immediately.

  “Oooh good choice, this could be fun!” The disembodied voice beamed at me.

  As soon as she finished speaking another screen came into view.

  After agreeing that yes, life as a wall would suck, I was immediately placed in front of a very convincing facsimile of my own body. Not sure exactly what to do, I begin messing around with some of the settings in an attempt to figure out what each of them actually did.

  I couldn’t help but look at my body from this new perspective in introspection. Due to a largely sedentary lifestyle my middle aged frame was definitely a little smooshy around the edges shall we say. I moved around some sliders and eventually succeed in sculpting away much of the body fat and adding some tone to the muscles. Not body builder fit, more athletic looking. Of course while I was there and had the opportunity, I enhanced a very particular muscle while I was at it. Hey! Any guy in the same situation that says they wouldn’t do it is straight out lying to you.

  I got rid of the grey from my short hair so it was pure jet black once again. I couldn’t help but notice this effected all of the hair on my body, the overall effect so far was very dashing indeed (even if I do say so myself).

  After a little searching I found the perfect body mods, considering if I choose to go ahead with all of this I’d essentially be evil, I decided on some demonic touches. A set of slightly curving ten centimeter long horns now protruded from my skull just behind the hairline. I stood and stared for a long time, something was missing that I just couldn’t put my finger on… oh yeah! I couldn’t complete the whole demon look without some kick ass wings! It didn’t take long to find some suitably long demon/bat looking black leather wings with a very dark red bone supporting structure on offer, seemingly custom made for what I wanted. The wings connected to my back between the shoulder blades, or perhaps as a part of them, hard to tell until I actually got to walk around in this bad boy! The wings continue up past my head about two feet with clawed bone hooks for thumbs at the wing wrists, before falling back down behind me to brush against my calves. Looking through the skin colour options it appeared I could choose anything from midnight black all the way up to bright fluro pink… yeah not for me, doesn’t match my eyes. I returned the sliders to my default ruddy olive complexion, I can probably change it later anyways.

  Satisfied with the overall intimidation factor, I checked out if I could change from the basic clothes I was wearing. Hmm looks like I only have colour options available. Hopefully I can change the style later. Continuing with the demonic theme, I changed the long pants from some puke worthy green colour to a more solid black, the long sleeve button down shirt got the same treatment but I ditched the included tie. The hefty looking dark brown belt was decent enough for all sorts of fun, including holding my pants up, so I left it in place. Hopefully it wouldn’t be to long before I found some pets and put the belt to use. A grin formed on the avatars face at the thought… not disturbing at all. I finalised the creation of my avatar and continued on to a new message. No rest for the wicked huh.

  “So… uhh magically invisible self talking… alien girl? These options are similar to character classes, like warrior, priest, stuff like that?”

  A contented hum announced itself next to my right ear that would have caused me to jump in shock had I been in my avatar. “Yesss”

  Goosebumps rose on the back of my neck, gaining a quiet laugh from the darkness behind me. I mumbled my thanks. No way did I want to be one of the most common dungeons out there, and I really hate puzzle and parkour type games. Hmm… I could imagine some rather nasty traps and things though. Godly was out, cause, well, screw that! Breeding my own monsters with the Mythic type was certainly an appealing option. Hmm… monster girls.

  “Can only mythic dungeons breed their own monsters?” I asked the black with the thought of hot monster girls weighing heavily on my mind.

  “There is the potential for all other dungeon types to eventually have access to all features.” She cooed into my ear.

  After some internal monologuing on each option I ended up going with the Mythic option, purely for practical purposes and nothing to do with cute monster girls okay? Once the selection was made the screen appeared for avatar naming. I had initially entered the name Wektis, this was my online alter ego that I had always used for gaming, and I’d entered it out of force of habit. Not sure if it would be a good or bad thing if I were recognised, I hadn’t yet confirmed the selection and let my mind drift with possibilities. Yeah, I was going for the whole demon look, but I doubt I’d ever be the – rip your heart out because you looked at me wrong, blood soaked kind of demon. Zephyr popped into my head. Hmm… its different, sounds demony, but not outright evil… I guess? It’s not like I have anyone to bounce ideas off. At least no one I trusted as of yet.

  I quickly entered my name and mentally mashed the confirm button in quick succession. I blinked at the notification stupidly.

  “Ah for fucks sake, stupid fat fingers.” I complained at no one in particular, angry at myself for not taking the time to confirm and correct the spelling at the confirmation screen.

  “Dungeon Master?”

  “I made a typo, can I change my name?” I asked the voice meekly.

  “You didn’t choose the name?”

  “Well… yeah… sort of?”

  “Zepar is a fallen angel, he makes women love men.” She whispered with a sultry tone into my ear, “It’s very appropriate, and may explain why I have been chosen to serve you. Master.”

  “Uh-huh” I replied, curious at what she was getting at… she was a woman right? “Your my ‘assistant’, how much do you know about me, will I need to train you?”