Alexander's dreams were anything but tranquil. The night brought on twisted visions and a narrative that hopped hectically around from genre to genre. One minute standing in the yard of his childhood home trying to fly, the next he was barely keeping his head above water because he had forgotten how to swim. Finally he awoke with a groan, stretching with a yawn, he felt his sore muscles from his recent activities. Rubbing his eyes he forgot about the night's troubled sleep as his sense of smell picked up the fresh scent of pine in the room. Alexander enjoyed camping and the prospect of bundling up next to a fire to make some coffee would be a nice change to his fast paced city life.
As he slowly opened his eyes he was abruptly brought out of his pleasant musings as he saw a ceiling made of wooden planks. He sat up and reached out to grab his glasses off of his side table. He waved his hand around—in a futile gesture—as he was unable to find them, or the table. As he looked over where the bedside table was supposed to be, there was instead a built in recessed wall shelf that they were placed upon. Standing up he placed them on his face before spinning around to try and discover where he had been abducted to.
Fine sculpted wood made vine patterns on the walls, imitating leaves. He found his clothes sitting on a wooden bench next to a bookshelf that was receded into the wall. He saw an embedded desk past the foot of the bed and had the odd feeling that the layout was similar to his room at home save the stairs that now spun around the circular room. Looking back on the ornate wooden bed, those were his sheets. The desk also held a large terrarium with the Bearded Dragon inside. The terrarium sat nicely into the wall making it look similar to a display at the zoo.
So what was this place…
He opened the door and his plain old living room had his piano, fish tank, couch and other furnishings completely unchanged. He marched outside in a robe and looked around the outer walls of his room and up at the roof above his bedroom. No changes. Feeling a bit exposed outside in the robe he marched back into his room and looked up the stairwell.
“In any case, I don’t think I will be getting my deposit back.”
Looking around he actually enjoyed the aesthetics of the room. He would definitely say that the room was bigger than it was before. It would have to be now that it was round instead of squared. The ceiling was about 12 feet high instead of the 8 feet it started as—and as his eyes followed the set of stairs embedded in the wall—he glimpsed the second floor his apartment gained overnight.
Deciding he better investigate he started up the steps. As his hand braced the wall to keep his balance he felt the fine grain of the wood walls. It was as if he was now living inside a hollowed out tree. As he hit the top steps he looked about and saw a clear 360-degree view of the city. Instead of being 30 feet in the air, he imagined the view was the equivalent of a twenty-story building. The sunrise struck him as being one of the nicest he could recall while in the city. He allowed himself to be struck with the wonder of it all for only a second.
His eyes finally landed on the center piece of the room. A large podium shaped like a rook from a chess set. One of the four corners was chipped off just like the little chess piece he had accidentally stolen from the self-proclaimed Warlock. He walked forward and placed his hand on the broken protrusion to look at it closer when a screen appeared.
^
Would you like to claim ownership of the Pedestal of Dominion?
Yes or No?
Alexander needed a minute to reconcile the idea of ownership of the rook. First off, it wouldn’t be practical or particularly wise to look for a way to return it. Then, even if he did want to make the attempt, how would he shrink it back down to its original size? Despite his best excuses to the contrary, he said yes.
Place your hand on the pedestal.
Hmm, Magical fingerprint recognition? Alexander thought as he placed his hand in the center of the pedestal. I wouldn’t think…
“Ow, Ow, OW!” Alexander cringed in pain as electricity shot up his arm causing his back to arch in pain. After a few seconds the pain receded, leaving a dull ache in his arm.
^
Imported abilities:
Glyph
Enchant Item
Would you like to manage your dominion or seek out places of interest?
Alexander was shaking out his arm as he read. Slowly, he forgave the pedestal for shocking him, as he narrowed in on the word manage. A word associated with order, efficiency, and progress. Naturally he decided to start with management. On the screen, his car as well as a long list of objects in his apartment were compiled and arranged by their value. A shiver of delight went down his spine as he saw every possession he owned catalogued this way. Next to the list of objects were multiple columns which had the words upgrade, deconstruct, and repair at the top. The items that qualified had the option next to them. It almost felt like it was an XLS spreadsheet. He looked at a few near the top and was slightly disappointed by how few of his possessions qualified. He was pleased to see his terrarium and aquarium were on the list however.
He selected upgrade on the terrarium just to see what it entailed.
^
Terrarium+
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
(Originally created as Aquarium+)
Craftsmanship: Above Average
Durability: 100/100
Size: 55 Gallons
-Would you like to upgrade?
-Would you like to destroy and convert to an arcane resource?
When Alexander selected upgrade, his options were to change the craftsmanship level, durability, or the size of the terrarium. Just to see what would happen he clicked on size, selected 120 gallons, then confirmed.
^
Insufficient resources.
To upgrade size of Terrarium+ please provide the following arcane resources:
2 Unattributed
2 Earth
1 Light
He cleared his terrarium and selected his aquarium this time to contrast the options.
^
Aquarium
Craftsmanship: Average
Durability: 22/25
Size: 55 Gallons
-Would you like to upgrade?
-Would you like to repair?
Notably missing was the option to convert the aquarium to arcane resources. Likely because it wasn’t magical, except of course to Alexander's heart. At that point he decided he understood the basic capabilities and backed up to the list of upgradable objects. He scrolled down to the worthless objects he possessed and gasped when he saw… his World Encyclopedias! He quickly clicked on them.
^
World Encyclopedia
Volumes A-Z
Craftsmanship: Average
Durability: 18/25
-Would you like to upgrade?
-Would you like to repair?
This time when he selected the upgrade button there was only one option.
^
Upgrade World Encyclopedia to Universal Encyclopedia?
“YES!” Alexander shouted with abandon as he confirmed.
^
Insufficient resources.
To upgrade to Universal Encyclopedia please provide the following arcane resources:
100 Unattributed
20 Light
20 Dark
“DRATS!” He swore. The system finally gave him something he would hold at supreme value and it setup these walls to be hurdled. Hurdle them he would, however.
He backed out to continue learning about how to find these resources the system spoke of.
^
What do you seek?
Magical Objects
Dungeon Portals
Quests
*^%#*$&@
*@^#%$&*#
The last two options were greyed out and garbled. It seems some of the options became corrupted as a result of the damage the rook had taken. Alexander felt a pang of guilt, not from his lost opportunity but at a beautiful system he had partially ruined.
^
New Quest!
Repair the Pedestal:
Your new pedestal has been damaged by a clumsy Novice Wizard.
Objective: Find one of every elemental resource and deposit it into your pedestal.
Quest rewards:
-Restored Pedestal of Dominion
-A clean conscience
Ignoring the sassy nature of the quest Alexander assumed he would find a list of these resources if he just kept digging. Looking at his options he didn’t really want to do any such thing as look for a dungeon. Adventuring through trapped rooms and fighting monsters… That was peak gaming culture and he did not want to drink that kool-aid. He already had a powerful magical item before him. He didn’t necessarily need more of them, especially when he had just made one the night before for the pagona. He did feel it was likely one of these options was required to find the resources he needed. So he selected magical objects.
^
Insufficient resources.
Alexander tsked as it asked for an arcane resource again. All he had seen in order to obtain a magical resource was the option to destroy his lovely terrarium. There was an obvious solution to this issue however. He could make more enchanted items and break them down into the needed resources.
He was pondering what else could take the place of a magical resource when it struck him. Didn’t he have two inferior magic stones from the quest rewards? He went to his status page but didn’t see anything that related to rewards so he hopped over to his quest page and saw two quests with circled exclamation points next to them. He clicked on the latest one ‘Drawers and Dragon’ and saw at the bottom it said claim reward. The XP and silver had of course automatically been applied. When he claimed the inferior magic stone it floated in the air inside of the translucent blue orb just as the money had. The small clear stone was crystal similar to the shape of a diamond shard. It glowed from the center as if something was trapped inside of it. Snatching it out of the air Alexander placed it on the table. Once he pulled his hand back the crystal melted into the pedestal and the notification changed.
^
Pedestal Resources Available:
Unattributed - 1
Wind - 0
Water - 0
Earth - 0
Lightning - 0
Fire - 0
Ice - 0
Light - 0
Dark - 0
“Ah, the elemental resources.”
Alexander, as he suspected, discovered the meaning behind the quest. It seemed that the pedestal could hold the resources like a bank. It was doubtless unimpressed by Alexander's meager offering. As an experiment, Alexander put his hand on the pedestal and pushed magic through his arm just as he had when he was in the shadowy dimension previously. The power sought a place to go but never latched onto anything. Eventually Alexander allowed it to go and some of it dispersed into the air dropping his MP a few points. So he simply decided to continue the search by selecting the one unattributed resource and confirming his selection.
Alexander felt a pulse of energy stand his hair on end and his view through the windows shifted outwards with the wave of power. It moved so quickly that it gave Alexander vertigo. He grabbed the pedestal to steady himself. Mental note, close your eyes next time you activate a search.
As he looked back up he was near a street corner near a small convenience store. He could see a street sign that showed the intersection of Murray St and Kimball Way. Nothing else stood out to him so it likely only narrowed down the search rather than isolating the object entirely. However this would do well enough for now. He went back downstairs and grabbed his to-do list.
“Right, find magic object at corner of Murray and Kimball.” He muttered as he wrote. Then read through his list for the day. “But first, dust the apartment and get an oil change.” He said with a nod.
