64 Revelations
~Far over, the misty mountains cold~
~To dungeons deep, and caverns old~
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Steve stirred awake as something on his interface prompted him to wake up. He blinked a little confusedly, momentarily forgetting where he was before he recognised his new massive room. He pulled away from the covers and sat up in the large bed before looking to his left at the side of the bed that was against the wall. There lay his Amazon lover, his now 'mate', curled up while hugging a corner of the blanket. Her face lay directly in front of the indent on the pillow where his head had just been.
Steve smiled as the memories of earlier that night came rushing back and he fist-pumped a little in triumph before calming down and stroking the hair out of her face. In their romp, she'd untied her hair and he had to say, she was so much more beautiful without those hair ties. He then pulled the covers over her a little more before the smile dropped from his face and he turned his attention to what had disturbed him from his perfect night.
He focused on the chat in the bottom left hand corner as he pulled up his GUI.
...
<Ari > Steve...you need to come and see this...
<Zuri > You won't believe what we've discovered.
...
"Oh, those two." Steve grumbled as he swung his feet over the side and stood up. "This had better be worthwhile or I'm going to strangle them."
As he walked forwards to try and find his clothes, his foot got tangled up in Tiona's pareo. He shook his head fondly and picked it up before folding it and placing it on top of his dresser. He looked back at her, just to hear the sound of her soft snores and admired her sleeping form. He smiled at her, just for how peaceful she looked and there was still a small smile of bliss on her face. He congratulated himself again before he just decided to throw on a dressing gown and quietly left his room.
As he left the hallway that led to his room and came out into the main hall with the staircase, he strained his ears for any unusual sound. Nothing came to him except the loud snores of the men from the other Familia (and some of the women too). Seeing that nothing was out of place, he walked down onto the floor of the main hall where there was still some food left out, not uncovered mind you but the things that would stay good out of storage for a while.
After a quick snack, he made his way over to one of the sides of the main part of the imperial staircase. One one side of the staircase was a door that led to the old grotto where Ptah was staying as his exclusive home once again. Steve and his friends had gone out of their way to do up the place again for him and had furnished it in a much nicer manner to make Ptah more comfortable. In Steve's opinion, the girls were making Ptah way too comfortable.
But on the other side of the staircase was just a wall of carvings and decorations. Looking around to make sure he wasn't being watched, Steve fumbled around and pressed on an Eye of Horus, one of many that had been depicted up there. The eye glowed green and a rectangular section of the wall sunk in before splitting itself in two and drawing apart.
An electrical light flickered on, revealing an elevator in which Steve entered and waited for the doors to close. Pushing a button, he clasped his hands in front of him as he went down. He drummed his fingers as he thought back on all the progress they'd made. He hadn't actually been down here yet.
When they'd built the skeleton of the manor, it provided cover for Zuri and Ari to begin their own underground project and that had included A LOT of metal work. Because down here, there was little stone or concrete. Nothing but a coating of metal for the walls and the floor and electrical circuits running the whole way through. Dubbed the 'Catacombs' by the two brainiacs, this underground area was their territory in which they could carry out research, experiments and other stuff.
Steve was certain that because they'd only just finished building, they'd not yet begun on infectious stuff other than what he had asked of them, so he wouldn't have to decontaminate on his way out. He wasn't sure if he and the other players could get cancer from radioactive material but he knew he could be a carrier and perhaps infect others in the outside world.
...
The elevator opened up to a tunnel leading off somewhere. The whole thing was just fitted pieces of metal with smooth shiny floors. He walked across it barefoot, noting that it was not as cold as he had expected it to be. He walked for a couple of minutes before he came upon two sliding doors that could only be opened with a code. He tapped his chin for a moment in thought before he punched in a combination and on the first go, it opened.
"Typical." He said to himself. "You two geniuses can't even be bothered to think up a more complicated code."
He entered the room and was immediately greeted by a room completely covered in computer screens, control boards, and flashing lights with several wires connecting one machine to another. To a side, Ari sat in a chair sipping coffee while staring at a screen. She looked at him before setting her cup down. Her keen eyes noticed the singular layer of clothing he was wearing and she turned a brow up at him while smirking.
"I take it you had a great birthday?" She asked slyly.
"The best." Steve said. "At least I was until you morons interrupted it. Now spit it out. What did you want?"
"Look at this." Ari said as she turned back in her seat and began tapping away furiously at a keyboard. Some machines behind Ari and in different parts of the room started beeping and whirring as Steve came up behind her chair and leant one hand on the desk panel while the other hand gripped the back of her seat. "I won't bore you with how we're doing it since I know you hate anything to do with mechanics or computers."
"I like using them, just hate learning how they work." Steve commented as he looked at the screen. There appeared to be something like a map on the screen but not a map of the world above but clearly of someplace underground. "Looking for more oil or something?"
"I WAS doing that." Ari said. "But then I had an idea. I'm able to get all of these readings from a dessert which is miles upon miles away. What if I changed perspectives, and focused the scanners on something else?" Ari tapped a few more button and ran some sort of code in. The map changed to focus on something else, something much bigger and complex than oil pits. Ari magnified the image more and turned to him. "You recognize that?"
"...That's the Dungeon." Steve said as he immediately recognised the layout of the first to fourth floors.
"We haven't had a chance to go in yet ourselves. But I thought it would be useful if we actually got a detailed map with which we can find all the shortcuts and perhaps any hidden chambers...like those treasure chambers you told us about."
"That's down in the Middle Floors." Steve said. "It's quite impressive I must say. But what are you showing me?"
"Getting a map wasn't the only reason I focused on it." Ari said as she pulled out a couple of books. "I got these off of that pretty little brunette supervisor of yours. These are descriptions and detailed maps of each Dungeon floor, so with them, I've managed to identify each of those floors. But look at this!"
Steve watched as the map became bigger and encompassed more and more floors. The screen started scrolling down further as it hit the Middle Floors and continued on. Steve recognised the Water Capital, identified by its large waterfall and then the jungle. The Deep Floors came soon after and Steve observed as even the colosseum was picked up in Ari's scanner before continuing further down.
Eventually Ari paused the reading when it hit the 49th floor.
"This isn't what I mean to show you but there's something that confuses me here." She said as she pulled out a book on the deeper floors and flicked through the pages. "Here, there should be the 49th floor which is the spawn place of this Balor monster right?"
"Correct."
"But the thing is missing from what my scanners are telling me. It's more like one massive vacuum where the stairs of the 48th floor descend into this massive air pocket. I mean there is water and vegetation at the bottom which means that's the 50th floor safe zone. But where is the 49th floor?"
"I destroyed it."
"...What?"
"I destroyed it." Steve repeated. "A new type of monster appeared that was quite entertaining if I'm being honest. A spindly little 'Slim Shady' looking mf that focused purely on speed and offense."
"Right." Ari said sceptically. "And a small fry like that was able to force you to destroy an entire Floor?"
"I was still getting used to my new powers." Steve said. "I had a new bunch of skills, plus my physical abilities went through the roof. I didn't realise a little few love taps would make the whole thing collapse."
"Love taps?" Ari repeated as her voice became more incredulous as she zoomed in one section. "And you think throwing a Hollow Purple is a love tap?"
She focused on the giant tunnel that Steve had made in the wall of the 49th floor.
"That was a result of me one-shotting the monster rex." Steve said. "It was completely different from the monster that made me smash the floor. As a matter of fact, the Juggernaut would have eaten Balor for breakfast. So there."
"Right."
"Well I mean if you look here and here..." Steve pointed to a few points on the diagrams. "...it looks like the Dungeon is already regenerating. Within a couple of weeks, it should be finished at the rate it's going. Though regarding the damage I did with the Hollow Purple...yeah, I'm not too sure if that will ever recover."
"Yeah. Considering the Dungeon's apparent absorption abilities, it may have just sucked back in the pieces of the floor that you broke and using those materials to rebuild the 49th floor." Ari jotted that down in a notebook. "But a Hollow Purple quite literally eviscerates matter into nothingness so there is nothing for it to work with."
"I could patch it up with world edit. But at the end of the day I just want to-"
"You just want to leave your mark. I get it." Ari finished for him before she returned to the screen. "Anyway remember your theory about the Dungeon being perhaps the planet itself?"
"Yes."
"Well watch this." Ari pressed a singular button, then folded her arms as she sat back and kicked one leg over the other as Steve watched the screen with shock.
The screen began to scroll down at a fast rate, mapping floor after floor after floor and continuously going down. Steve recognised some floors from source material he'd read but soon the scanners began to pick up more than that. It then mapped out a whole snowy tundra from somewhere around the 70th floor onwards as the maps became bigger and bigger.
And before Steve's astonished eyes, more and more landscapes and structures began to appear as different environments started pouring fourth in dozens of different types. Before long, Steve was looking at places that looked like they were entire countries by themselves. Eventually the scanner clearly lost the ability to continue mapping any further and bits of the map started to become broken as whatever signal Ari was sending down there began to decay. Then it came to a stop altogether as Ari's equipment lost the ability to scan anymore, though there was clearly still so much more, and Steve leaned back in amazement.
"You were right." Ari said. "It's never ending...or maybe not if this planet is a round planet. But then again...could it be?"
"A flat earth?" Steve raised his brow. "Come on, you know that can't be it."
"Well we come from a world that it supposed to be infinite." Ari said. "And yet how does the sun cross the sky? How did we get day and night?"
"Fair point." Steve conceded. "And besides, literal gods walk this earth too. What's to say there is not some mystical twist to all this? But coming back to the point...Ari, there's whole bloody continents down there!"
"I wouldn't exaggerate it that much." Ari said. "After all, I clearly haven't been able to puncture more than the crust and even then we seem to have only scratched the surface of that. But there is a possibility of that being true...and you know what that reminds me of?"
"Hollow Earth." Steve said. "It could be possible. But Ari, we're talking levels of deep that you cannot fathom for a place like that to exist here. Even for these adventurers, it would take them years just to go down there in an expedition. It takes them a month at minimum to complete an expedition just to the 60th floor and back."
"Forget them." Ari said. "What about us? There's no telling what kind of resources might be down that deep. To begin with, we have to determine where each Floor ends cuz' some of them might as well just be interconnected like the Water Capital."
"I understand." Steve said. "But for that, we're going to need to dedicate a lot of time and effort to discover what those floors have to offer." Steve clenched his fist. "And now that we have allies, we can't just jump down there. Not to mention we have to consider our own safety. We've got an edge over these people but for how much will it compensate? Will we meet things down there that could kill us just as easy as we kill their kin in the upper levels?"
"I understand that precautions have to be taken." Ari said. "But if you really want our friends to toughen up so they can be fit to come down with us, then we're going to have to do something. Because they're not getting that much stronger anytime soon."
"Which is why we'll be doing otherworld expeditions." Steve said.
"Otherworld?"
"Simple. I'll be taking them into our world to complete quests. Our home world is much more violent and volatile and they will also be quite weakened there due to the extreme elements and our world's greater gravity. On top of that, we have the ability to take them into worlds where infuriatingly formidable and durable monsters live. It should boost their growth more than a little."
"Why am I not surprised?" Ari face-palmed before she gestured at the screen. "Well, what do I do with this?"
"Who else knows about this?"
"Just Zuri and me...and you now I guess."
"Keep it that way for now." Steve said. "Less chance of it getting out. Once we've driven the stake of our Familia deep into the crust, only then will we turn our eyes to what could be beneath it."
"Fine." Ari said as she pressed something and the machines shut off, removing the maps from the screens. "I've lived over a hundred years for something new, I guess I can wait a few more." She muttered to herself.
"I heard that." Steve said flatly. "Anyway, where is Zuri?"
"Through there." Ari pointed to a door that led to a lab. "He's been studying that rock I brought with me from the desert. I guess he found something, which is why he wants to see you."
"I guess I'll go see what he wants." Steve said as he waved at her and entered the lab.
Ari waved back at him before drumming her fingers on the panel in deep thought.
"How about we see if we can get the big guy in the dungeon?" Ari wondered to herself. "If there is something down there, then he's definitely going to find it. Question is..." Ari pulled out a giant diamond pickaxe from her inventory. "...where can we fit him in?"
---
"Alright you little speccer!" Steve said as he walked into the lab. "The hell did you want?"
Zuri was startled and he nearly tripped over backwards as a bunch of papers fell out of the file holder in his arms. He was dressed in a lab coat and wearing gloves on his hands as he scrambled for a desktop to right himself.
"You shouldn't just scare someone like that you know!" The curly haired Minecrafter complained.
"Should keep your guard up then!" Steve chided him. "How are we to stand as the most exemplary Familia when our own members can't handle a little scare?"
"You can't blame me! I'm the weakest one out of the nine of us. Each and every one of you could beat me to a pulp if you so wished."
"Then hurry up and level up already." Steve put his hands on his hips. "And besides, I told you that nothing in this world can compare to us. Even without Falnas we are superhumans and even with you as the weakest of us, even Ottar could not hold a candle to you in physical strength despite you being a mage. And if the piggy can't hurt you, then trust me, nobody else in this damn city can. Now what is it? Ari said you were studying the mineral."
"Yes, over here." Zuri directed Steve over to the end of the lab where they came upon a machine. There was a glass window to it and it was lit on the inside while the rock that Ari had brought with her span on some spinning glass plate. Honestly to Steve, it looked like a microwave. Who knew how powerful flavour text could be? That his NPCs could create complex machinery like this and he had no head nor tail about what they were or how they worked.
"So what did you learn?" Steve asked.
"I've studied the composition of this sample thoroughly and what I uncovered was quite exciting." Zuri said enthusiastically. "Put simply, this Genkite is the exact equivalent of our world's Netherite!"
"Ancient Debris? So what...remains of animals?"
"Better." Zuri said as he presented a chart. "Remains of ancient monsters. And luckily, I was able to acquire a tiny amount of genetic material from this sample and it fits in with the genus of the monsters we find in the Dungeon." Zuri shifted his glasses. "I compared it with DNA from the drop items you gave me, and it was almost an exact match, though I suspect that those more ancient monsters might have been a little bit different."
"How old are we talking here exactly?"
"Steve, we could be talking millions of years. This one piece was chucked up the geyser that Ari made when she was poking around in the desert for oil. To begin with, who knows how long that desert was there or if it even was always desert in the first place. It might have been green vegetation at one point, who knows? But to be specific, the genetic material matched closely with those of the monsters from the Water Capital, so it was definitely aquatic monsters that got buried under there."
"So we got a lucky piece then?"
"Possibly. There might be even more down there, who knows. Ari blowing up that oil pit might have dislodged this sample from a bigger vein and it came up with the oil."
"So there might be veins of this stuff in the oil pockets." Steve rubbed his chin. "Well, assuming we could make use of it just as we would with ancient debris, what metal could we mix it with?"
"Well you could mix it with gold, or perhaps we might using one of the native metals of this world. I would personally start off first with the second option. But it begs the question Steve...if the monsters that became oil and...well, this debris were millions of years old, then how old could the Dungeon be, assuming that those monsters were from the Dungeon?"
"Like I said, it could have always been there." Steve folded his arms. "But if my whole theory is true, then that means that at some point, millions of years in the past, the Dungeon released its monsters and it would only do that to balance out turmoil on the surface created by the surface dwellers. And mortals only cause chaos ironically when they're not primitive savages...but when they are flourishing civilisations."
"It doesn't necessarily have to be mortal races that the Dungeon unleashed its hell upon." Zuri said. "Maybe the Dungeon was just there this whole time and there was a point where monsters ruled the world instead of the mortal races. If that were the case, then perhaps the Dungeon is not trying to restore balance to Nature...but it is trying to take the world back."
"But why would the Dungeon itself go and hide when it was ruling the planet? Remember, it only appeared a thousand plus years ago, and its appearance was what prompted the gods to descend and enter into a never-ending war with it. But something would have made it close its trap long before that was ever the case."
"It could be anything Steve. Perhaps some natural calamity that fried the surface of the earth and vaporised the oceans, so it closed its mouth and buried itself in the earth to protect her contents. I mean from what Ari's scanners have shown us, it's got plenty to hide within itself."
"Well she is a wealth of resources." Steve said, referring to the Dungeon as 'she'. "Riches are far too enticing for mortals no matter the danger. There will always be someone foolhardy enough to try and take from it, and once he does, mortals follow a herd mentality and follow soon right after." Steve then watched as a green laser scanned the sample again. "So we've got the ore out of the way, what's with the crystals?"
"That's what I tried to figure out." Zuri said. "When I put some of them under examination, I found them to be emitting something like electromagnetic waves...except I could not match them with any kind of rays at all. They just don't share the same characteristics. So I put the sage part of my brain to use and lo and behold, I found them to be magical waves of energy." Zuri held up one of the tiny crystals. "These are literally crystalised magical energy. Most likely, it would be useful for enchantments or potions or a substitution for monsters cores."
"But if it's supposed to be magical radiation, then what would the source of it be?"
"Well it would obviously come from deeper within the planet, which might mean..."
"It's coming from the core...HEY! I see the look in your eye nerdboy...there will be no drilling into the core. This is not our world where you can do as you please on THAT level."
"I'm not stupid Steve." Zuri then placed his papers down on a table and sighed. "In any case, I recommend we study it more before trying to use it in any way. I'd like to study and glean as much as possible now from it."
"Right. Well if you find anything more interesting, just tell me in chat." Steve said. "By the way, how's that thing going...you know...what I asked of you?"
"Oh he's soaking the stuff up big time." Zuri nodded. "When we release him, he'll be juiced up nice and good. Will be useful if he decided to travel the world fighting monsters."
"I don't think the monsters would be a match for him...at least the ones on the surface. Only one beast might pose a threat to him." Steve then looked away. "And nobody knows where the blighter is hiding."
"...Should we go after it-"
"No." Steve said firmly. "That is the job of the other people. We must stay focused on our own objectives."
"Our objectives, or yours?"
"My objectives ARE your objectives and if you deny it, I'm going to spank you in front of Riveria."
"Why the emphasis on HER?"
"I saw how you looked at her when the party was going on." Steve leaned on the 'microwave' with a foxy grin. "Anything you want to share with us!"
"Nothing whatsoever." Zuri said defensively. "We're just fellow scholars who enjoy researching the same thing is all. It's all purely academic, I tell you. ACADEMIC!"
"Sure. Academic...whatever you say buddy." Steve shrugged his shoulders. "But you might want to think about hurrying things along. After all, she is a self exiled princess and possibly an only-heir to the throne of the High Elves. The political headaches will give you an aneurism, and it's just so much more pleasurable when your intentions are out in the open!" Steve threw out his arms and the collar of his dressing gown shifted a little to show his neck.
"...Is that a bite mark?" Zuri asked as he pointed to a place on his captain's neck very near to his collarbone.
"What else does it look like to you? A serial killer's multi-needle injection? It's a mark to commemorate a very special event in my life." Steve puffed his chest proudly. "It will remind me for a good while of my graduation!"
"Considering our regenerative abilities, that thing will be gone by the morning."
"Then I'm off to make some more." Steve turned and waved at him. "See ya speccy!"
"Bye Steve." Zuri shook his head as his captain left the room. "Nothing but a nightgown? Honestly. It's not like we haven't all seen each other before...but in a lab? For someone who talks about courtesies, he very well doesn't offer them himself."
---
Steve closed the door to his room as he saw Tiona sprawled out over the bed, this time with open mouth snores as she continued to smile. The blanket had fallen to the floor, perhaps kicked off by her feet as she tossed and turned and there she lay as a beautiful piece of art for him to admire. Her feet hung off the side of the bed as she hugged both their pillows to herself, like she'd been looking for him. Turns out, she was quite an earnest cuddler.
And it had also turned out that her feet were indeed very soft after all...
Steve looked out the window at the city sprawling before him, all lit up with soft lights in the street. Much of it was still left for him to explore, and he was already roped into some big events. When he'd come to this world, he'd imagined that he would keep a low profile. But now he realized, that was never what HE wanted. Maybe the old Stephen Hewer had been thinking back then, but as he grew into his new skin (literally), much had changed. His mannerisms, his attitude, his bravado and his ego. All of them transformed into the opposite of what they had been on Earth.
No...the truth was, he enjoyed the spotlight. He enjoyed subverting things off their natural course and circumventing fate. He enjoyed being ahead of the game and lording over other adventurers with unfair powers. He enjoyed being the absolute freak he was.
But most of all...he loved the two women he'd gotten out of it. Steve dropped the gown and sat on the edge of the bed while smirking.
"I know you're still awake." He said.
"...aww, shucks." Tiona pouted as she stopped snoring and opened her eyes. "I'd been hoping to ambush you once you climbed in."
"And have me at the bottom? I'm the giver here Tiona. And don't you forget it." Steve said as squeezed the tip of her nose, making her pout. "Had to deal with an emergency of sorts."
"This early in the morning?"
"Some of my people are nocturnal. They work during hours where everyone else is asleep." Steve said. "There's always that one or two."
"Yeah, there's always one of those. We have some in our Familia too." Tiona said before she nudged him. "So...round 23?"
"Took the words right out of my lips." Steve said as he reached out to her with his hand in a grabbing motion, making her shiver once again in anticipation.
...
Once again, all rationale and idle thoughts were thrown out of the window for the time being as Steve indulged himself in man's greatest pleasure. With four days left until the War Game, and having been working for a month straight on setting the foundations of his Familia to come out properly into the world, Steve supposed he'd earnt these few days of respite.
All would come to know the glory of the Ptah Familia soon enough. And those that aimed to stand in their way, would be swept aside by the simple draught from the flap of his cape.
And thus ends the first chronicle of the 'Orario Records of the Bastard Cheating Minecrafters'. Where else would Steve's adventures take him? Well my dear reader, good things only come to those who wait.
Stay tuned, and find out...
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END OF VOLUME ONE
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A.N. I will be publishing Volume 2 approximately a week from now. I have already written four chapters of the War Game and I'm already writing the fith by the time a week goes by, there will be an advance of perhaps ten entire chapters on Patreon. So...
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