His feet tapped rhythmically against the sidewalk. He stood outside of an old abandoned warehouse. Down the side alley, where Core was pointing, was an old back door that he hadn’t busted through yet. Damien snarled at Core and raised both eyebrows a little aggressively. “I'm not breaking into that warehouse,” Damien said, the sun almost hidden by the horizon as the cool summer breeze nipped at his skin.

  “Nah, kid, it's not breaking and entering, you gotta trust me!”

  “Trust you? Core, that's a ‘Do not trespass’ sign!”

  “Just do it!”

  Damien wanted to punch core, but he didn’t know how that would actually happen since he was just a floating interface to begin with. Damien's foot tapped the ground as he let out one long and heavy groan. Slowly making his way through the alleyway towards the warehouse door, he had only two thoughts. He was stupid for deciding to do this, and this warehouse is too easy to get into for being off limits.

  Slowly glancing left and right he approached the door, his heart began racing rapidly as he took a few deep breaths and reached out for the door, then his brain twitched and a pulse shot through his entire body and he felt the door fly open.

  Damien was staring into a long dark hallway, his eyes flickering left and right, the walls wet and mossy. He slowly took a few steps in, and like a trap was being set off, the door slammed shut with a click of a lock. Turning he tried opening it, but nothing. “Well, guess now I have to do this dungeon.”

  Turning back down the hallway he began making his way through the dungeon. It was a massive hallway, it didn't even feel like he was in an abandoned warehouse anymore. He wondered if the system had taken over when he felt the twitch and pulse through his body. Similar too when the instance took place at his home.

  Taking step by step he shifted and kept moving through the old stone hallway, the lights beginning to dim as it transformed into an even darker more wet stoned hallway as candle light began illuminating each and every step. Turning his back he saw nothing but darkness. The once weak bulbs on the ceilings had vanished and only the torches were left.

  Turning back forward he continued to make his way, his fingers caressing the stone, then he saw it. To his left was a doorway. He was expecting monsters, at this point he was expecting anything to be in his way. Sharktooth formed in his hand, his fingers gripping the handle. Core began forming on his arm, “Finally I'm summoned.” Core suddenly shouted.

  “What do you mean finally? You were in my interface!”

  “Nah kid, the system has strict rules. In certain situations I can't communicate freely. During quests, instances, and Dungeons I'm useless, I have to be summoned to speak.”

  “Why?”

  “Its to prevent meta gaming, in case I somehow have memories of knowledge, or there's a glitch in the system and my initial memories weren’t blocked.”

  “So once I step foot in this dungeon you're blocked from being a companion to only being able to act as a tool.”

  “I don't like that wording, but yes, I'm currently a tool.”

  Damien smirked at Core calling himself a tool. To be honest, the system felt broken, way too broken. For some reason it was all over the place like it hadn’t been fully created and it was all whimsical and kept changing properties.

  “We got a new room to the left Core , are you ready?”

  “Kid, this is what I'm programmed for!”

  Damien smirked, slamming Core’s face into the door it shattered open revealing a massive storage room. Boxes, crates, the smell of old staleness filled his nose leaving him wincing a little as he shook his head. “Whew, it smells awful in here.” Core said, gagging, “I know. Smells like a corps-” Damien froze. He realized it smelt like a corpse, he began questioning if there was a reason for that.

  “Core, how are Dungeons formed?”

  “Sorry kid, classified, you need to be higher level for that knowledge.”

  “Great. Fine, let's say we walked in on a killer’s hideout, is it possible that the killer could be integrated into the system and the game?”

  “No, the system can inflict changes to others, they can only change you as you are the only player. If a killer was living in the warehouse, you would not run into him due to how the system works with dungeons.”

  “So, I can't run into dangerous people while using instances and dungeons.”

  “Dungeons, no. Instances, yes. If you were in an instance, which you currently aren't, then you could run into a dangerous person. The system would recognize this though, and help you combat it.”

  Damien paused, so currently he was safe, but he had a lot of questions he wanted answers to that weren't going to be answered any time soon at his current rate. “What level do I need to be to unlock more information?”

  Core hummed for a moment, it sounded like a computer revving up for a video game with the fans going max speed. “Clearance access unlocked every 25 levels. So theoretically by level 100 you'd have full access to the system's secrets depending on a few hidden factors.”

  Damien's eye brow rose, ‘Hidden factors.’ He knew better than to ask, if it was hidden then he wasn’t gonna get told what the factors were. Taking his time back to the crates he began opening them one after the other. For the most part, there wasn’t anything really too exciting or thrilling. They were old bags, they smelt musty and smelled like body odor.

  He flipped a few crates and found moldy cheese and bread, it seemed like it all had been untouched for ages. Then he opened up the last crate, he tried leaving multiple times but his brain said what if, so he had to check all of them. The final one was a small golden ticket glowing. “Core, what's this?”

  “Oh, that’s a Master Ticket, when you hit level 25 and the first clearance is passed, you unlocked access too the Master Gumball machine.”

  “What's that?”

  “Classified.”

  Damien growled and, “accidently” smacked Core against the edge of the box in return. “OW!”

  “Ow? Aren't you a shield?”

  “A shield whose feelings were just hurt.”

  Damien rolled his eyes and continued on his exploration. Leaving the storage room he made his way further down the hallway till it took an immediate right. Turning Right he went to take a step when he saw it, the first enemy of the dungeon.

  It was a small blue goblin, his eyes bright red and spit and saliva pouring down its sharp teeth as he let out a gargle rabie filled howl and took off sprinting at Damien. Damien let out a, what he wished was more manly, squeal at the unexpected jump scare.

  Damien pulled Core up, just in time, for the goblin to slam into the shield and ricochet backwards.

  *Level 4 Goblin.

  *Aggressive

  Damien stumbled backwards a few feet and held up Sharktooth. “Core, you okay?”

  “Fine kid, good block. These creatures can be a little wild, The higher the level the higher the aggression level.”

  Damien nodded, there was only one, but that howl it made was loud. Rotating Sharktooth a little big he took a deep breath in, the goblin took off charging again. Pushing to the left he swiped up, the rigid side of the blade catching the goblin and flicking him straight up into the air.

  *Automatic combo, activated.*

  Something in Damien's body took over, his body suddenly spun the blade coming around and connecting to the center of the goblins body smashing it into the wall causing its yellow blood to splatter.

  *Goblin defeated.

  *Goblin teeth picked up

  Damien panted, his body shook at the involuntary movement as he looked at his wobbly knees. “Core, what happened?”

  “Well kid, you did a combo.”

  “A Combo? The system took over and did all that on its own.”

  “Exactly, its like a video game, when you attack your body automatically does combos if you click the same button rapidly.”

  “So it forced me into a combo?”

  “Yep”

  Taking a soft breath, he let the thought sink in. He wasn’t too sure if he appreciated the automatic combo system that was just forced down his throat. However, he would admit that it felt pretty cool to have such a massive spike of adrenaline and to do something like that.

  Approaching the goblin his foot slowly lifted the small 3’5 creature up as it was limp. “Is it real?” Damien finally asked with a frown.

  “No, it isn't." Core responded with a semi remorseful voice.

  “Poor thing.” Damien responded tenderly and slowly sat his body back down, his eyes growing sad before he looked up and continued down the hallway.

  There were a total of four other rooms that he ran into, all filled with the same gargling grotesque goblins. The Armory, which had almost nothing of value. It was a massive room filled with daggers and broken and chipped sword blades. Inside were four goblins. Sharktooth however slaughtered them and ripped through them like butter.

  On the other side of the hallway was the bedrooms, 5 goblins total, and Damien had shredded them like a cheese grater.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  Damien slowly stepped over the corpses of the cut up goblins, the squish of the yellow blood as he approached a small treasure chest with chains all around it locked. Damien’s fingers touched it, and a notification appeared.

  *Chest: Level 10 required.*

  Damien let out a heavy groan, “Core, can I put a chest in my inventory?”

  “You can put anything in your inventory, not sure why you would, but yes you can.”

  Damien smirked and picked up the chest. At first he struggled holding it, then he did the mental command to store it. The chest slowly dissolved and vanished into his skin like a symbiote in a venom movie.

  With that, Damien made his way to the last two rooms. The kitchen and the dining hall, both filled with goblins who like the rest, were no match for him.

  Sitting at the dining table propping his feet up, Damien ate the random freshly baked bread that was in the oven of the kitchen. Thankfully, the goblin blood hadn’t gotten on the food. Opening his inventory he had a load of new supplies. Goblin teeth, Goblin bones, and a completed quest.

  *Collect 10 monster parts in a dungeon or instance, Complete.*

  *Reward: 200XP 200$

  It was a big pay day for the quest, but what made it even better, Damien found money laying around all over the dungeon. He had to have gained over 500 dollars just from the entire dungeon crawl itself. He was whistling to himself and chewing on the fluffy bread. His eyes closed as his head went left and right with excitement as he hummed.

  “One more room, and I'm assuming its the boss room.” Damien asked, looking at the propped up Core on the chair next to him. Core let out a yawn and smirk, "Ain't you a genius kid.” Core responded.

  Damien lifted one of the golden coins and flipped it, it smashed into the table rolling and spinning till it showed Tails. “Whats that for?” Core asked curiously.

  “Well, I did a coin flip to see if I needed to level myself up yet. Heads yes, Tails no. Its tails so no levels yet.” Damien explained slowly standing up and examining his sword.

  “Isn’t that carelessness?”

  “Yes, but also, you gotta remember I got sharktooth. If I was still using uncommon and common weapons I wouldn’t think twice and level up my abilities and skills immediately. However, getting you and sharktooth has given me a boost for my level that makes me stronger.”

  Core paused thinking about Damien's words and smirked, “you won the lottery with that mystery prize.” Damien smirked at Core's comment and tapped his finger to his own head, “sure did.”

  Damien examined sharktooth more, he was extremely lucky. Compared to that baseball bat from the first instance, this thing was a gun when everyone else was using sticks and stones.

  On top of all that, he was getting loot. Coins, and random monster parts, which meant he needed to view the crafting tab before going up against the boss.

  Pulling it open he began examining the options, most stuff was pretty basic. It looked like he could stick items in his inventory into the system and would have options on what he could create. The rarity and the strength was based on his intelligence and wisdom stat. Which were high with his gear he was totting around.

  Damien let some goblin organs and teeth in the crafting tab, clicking combined the system began glowing bright as the symbiote-like material stretched out of his skin into the air slowly forming a new item.

  *Congratulations!

  *Tooth Whip created! (Uncommon)

  *Tooth Whip uses dexterity. When you use this weapon, chances of disarming your opponent is increased. The teeth of the whip cause a bleeding effect.

  Damien slowly grabbed the handle as it was rolled up. It felt like real leather, it was light and worked fairly decent for what it was. Flicking his wrist the whip shot out and wrapped around a chair leg. Pulling back the chair flew across the room smashing into the wall.

  “Woah there big guy, watch it!” Core shouted.

  “It's fine. It's fine, I'm just playing around with it!”

  “Until you send me flying through the air into the wall kid!”

  Damien rolled his eyes, the whip was essentially a thorn whip from a video game, when not in use it curled back up like a snake with a mind of its own. Damien pondered for a moment before putting it down to his hip and it suddenly latched itself onto his belt like he was Indiana Jones.

  Damien had a bright smile on his face, he felt like he had just unlocked an end game ability, but the real test would be using it on the boss.

  Moving through the dungeon into the final room, it was a large chamber filled with gold coins, and a giant throne in the center fit for a giant. Sitting in the center was a massive one eyed ogre, who leaned on his knuckles.

  *Ore the Ogre

  *Level 8 Boss

  *Good Luck!

  The door behind him slammed shut and a massive gate slammed into the concrete floor. It felt just like a boss in an older video game, once you're in the room it activates. The room itself was large, it was lit up and bright with yellow glow all around from shining off the gold coins.

  “Okay kid, don't die.” Core said, “Yeah, cause my plan was to let him bash my head in. Thanks, Core.”

  “Don't get snippy with me!” Core responded, if he had hands he would have smacked Damien.

  “Who goes there!” Ore suddenly shouted, hand slamming into the throne arm rest and pushing himself up. The ogre was about 8’10, he was muscular and beefy wearing shredded leather pants. His eye was brown, with a goblin head necklace hanging off his neck.

  He had some scars across its dark grey body, and war paint up and down its arms like blacked out tattoos. “Uh, I go there!” Damien shouted, ‘What are you doing Damien?’ He thought too himself not knowing why he responded.

  “And who is I?” Ore shouted walking towards him, Damien didn’t think twice, he didn’t want this creature near him. With a flick of his wrist he snatched the whip and it slammed the spiked teeth into the chest of the ogre. Blue blood began running down its chest as he stumbled.

  Ore stood and touched his beefy finger tips to his chest seeing his own blood and let out a vicious scream at the top of his lungs. The fight was on.

  The most surprising thing about the fight for Damien, was Core could take a hit like no other. The ogres fist slammed into Core who said some not so friendly words in response, but for the most part kept Damien from feeling the impact whatsoever. Every hit Core took, Damien responded with a slice from Sharktooth.

  Damien ducked and dived left and right a few times only enough to swap to the whip and strike him a few times with it to cause more bleeding effects against him. Usually when he did this he just shoved Sharktooth into the concrete to free his hand up, it was easier and more effective than materializing it back into the system.

  Ore didn’t seem smart enough to notice the weapon either, which made it easier to stick it and leave it. However, Ore was starting to keep up with him meaning he couldn’t move back fart enough to use the whip fully. Damien would be dead if he was cornered against a wall, that was a for sure fact.

  Finally Damien sat and traded blows back and forth, the bleed damage didn’t seem to stop, perhaps because like real life you don't just stop bleeding until pressure is applied. It was a little over powered, but it was in his favor. Slowly the Ogre stumbled backwards, his knees wobbling before falling backwards with a slam as he was now seated in the throne. His head slumped over and the blue blood slowly pooling all around him. A king on his death throne.

  Damien breathed heavily and sheathed the sword. Spinning Core around he looked at him and smiled, “You okay?”

  “Okay? You used me like a shield!”

  “Well…you are one.”

  “Still! I got feelings!”

  Damien smirked and slid Core back onto his for arm.

  *Congratulations. Ore the Ogre defeated.

  *Dungeon cleared!

  *1000 XP 500$

  *Would you like to Loot?

  *Yes or No?

  Damien smirked and clicked yes, how could he not?

  *Ogre Toe nails looted

  *Ogre organs Looted

  *Ogre Bones looted

  *Ogre Eye (Rare) Looted

  Damien smirked at all the new goodies he had received, he wasn’t really sure what all it would be used for but he couldn’t wait to play around with the items and figure it out. Moving he slowly sat himself down on the steps to the throne and took a long deep breath. “Core, how am I doing?”

  “What kid?”

  “How am I doing so far?”

  “I mean, you aren't dead so good I guess.”

  “Well, is this as good as the previous person?”

  “Does it matter?”

  Damien paused at the statement, did it matter? “I'm not sure, I figured insight would help.”

  “If you're alive, and winning, then it doesn't matter. You gotta remember, this isn’t a video game where you earn stats and scores. This is real life, if you live to tell a new tale, then you're doing great.”

  Damien paused, and he knew Core was right. It had been real life still, was there any real way to play this system and ‘Win?’

  Damien heard a person tapping a wooden stick to the ground, he immediately flew up to his feet ready for a fight only to see a man in a dark cloak and a broom standing in front of him. Damien's guard slowly lowered as the name of the man appeared over his head.

  *The Janitor*

  *Neutral*

  Damien's guard slowly lowered and he stared out at the unknown man who looked up at him with dull tiresome eyes. “Don't mind me. Just getting the dungeon cleaned up.”

  Damien shook his head in confusion, “Wait…What the heck?”