
Chapter 111: Projection This, Projection That
“It’s a damn projection, like everything else apparently.”
(“Congratulations, you are correct ”)
Espr’s congratulations didn’t feel good.
“Thanks.”
To say I was fucking done with projections was an understatement.
That one bastard from the moon base incident had caused me so much pain, and now I had this dungeon core in front of me and couldn’t kill or utilise either of them. I didn’t know if that invisible space whale fish eldritch thing that pranked me during my trip to Earth was a projection as well.
Remembering that still annoys me. If I get the chance, I will get my revenge; maybe I will make it eat something disgusting. Some Dominous Hood goons could do.
Espoiramissa had referred to that thing as a spiritual creature. Maybe projections were spiritual creatures, or were spiritual creature projections? I had no idea where any of them stood on the scale; each of them was vastly different from each other.
The core in front of me was physical, but its true essence lay elsewhere; the crimson beast was summoned via a sword and disappeared the moment that object was destroyed; the whale fish thing was the largest out of three but also invisible and non-physical? It was the one that I had the least understanding of; at least the crimson beast was visible to everyone around, but I could only barely see the whale, and I am not even sure why. My best guess was it had something to do with Espr’s connection to me. That guess was based on the fact that I had nothing that might grant me a modification to my vision. I could feel souls with my soul pressure, but I had to use that to get a feel for it, but in that situation [Star Mapping] was able to ‘see’ the creature at the massive cost to my brain overheating from looking at it.
In the end, the connection between the three of them was mostly a mystery for me, and grouping the whale with them might be incorrect.
I looked down at the orb in my hand, even if I broke it and collapsed the dungeon, the real version would be safe. The connection to the real version was also so thin and blocked by something that I didn’t understand, that no matter what, I couldn’t even hope to form a connection with the true core to devour its power.
“Is it safe to assume your core on your planet is a true one?”
(“ Maybe, why don’t you come back and see? ”)
I’ll take that answer as a yes.
(“ Not having any fun today? ”)
Correct. My disappointment is reaching the stars and my day has been ruined by this blasted core.
(“ You couldn’t be hoping for it to be able to solve all your problems? ”)
If kids can dream of sheep. I can dream of riches.
(“ I don’t have enough understanding of human culture to understand what you're saying ”)
Then this core has indeed done enough. By giving you some small annoyance.
I was being petty because of Espr’s non-answer, but I was having fun with it.
Of course, I wasn't betting everything on today’s discovery, but I did have a small amount of hope that everything could be solved with this one trip. Though I knew that it was unrealistic, I didn’t believe existence would make it that easy for me.
“Sigh, I need to get my thoughts straight.”
There was a lot I didn’t know about many things; I wasn’t a scientist or researcher. Exploring the unknown wasn’t exactly a passion or my forte. However, the wealth of knowledge that was Espoiramissa had rambled about a lot of things over the years that I needed to make sense of.
One of the more likely possibilities was that, like artefacts, these projections were connected to the other side of existence. But unlike artefacts where their true body was in this world and they were their power source was some unknown other dimension. Projects were the reverse; their true body was on the other side, while a portion of their power was split off and controlled as a projection.
The solution was clear: if I wanted to grab a real dungeon core, I had to go further. If a true dungeon core couldn’t be grabbed from these dungeons, I had to claim one from a true dungeon. Though attempting a solo raid on a dungeon planet of the calibre of Espoiramissa was impossible, humanity wished it was that easy. Getting a whole operation put together was also not an option. Maybe one of those mana cores that existed on Espoiramissa could work, but that was if all other dungeon planets had those loitering around as going back to Espoiramissa was suicidal for my freedom. The other option was the key to that dungeon that was apparently on the other side of existence.
Hey, Espr, why do dungeon cores come to this side of existence?
(“ Pardon? ”)
I was really smashing all my brain power together for all these conclusions, and to be honest, I was pretty sure I was wrong about a few things, but I felt it was close enough that the misguesses shouldn’t cause my next plan to be wrong.
From what I knew from Espr’s explanations. There were at least two sides of Existence–which was still confusing but anyway–and these two sides were seemingly merging. This was why mana appeared and people gained Vocations.
Overall, it seemed like my side of Existence was the only one that gained anything. What did the other side even gain from this?
My current theory, honestly, had a lot of bloody holes. I could be completely wrong about dungeon cores choosing to come over; maybe it was just completely random. Maybe there was no benefit for these things to come over; maybe they just had to or else be destroyed.
But I liked to think there was a reason why at least Dungeon Cores expanded their domain. Even dungeons would destroy each other if they overlapped and there was no human opposition. This was mostly only true for domain dungeons but did occur if a domain dungeon overran where the entrance of the portal dungeon was. In that case, even if the domain dungeon was considered weaker, it could destroy the portal dungeon 9/10 times based on papers observing the phenomenon.
Based on that, it was likely domain dungeons held some sort of advantage, even if it was still a projection. The third type was the planet dungeon, which had stages to its development, but it wasn’t crazy to assume that dungeon planets might start off as some form of domain dungeon.
You heard me.
(“ It’s just a part of Existence, nothing more, nothing less ”)
If Espr wasn’t lying, then I still had questions about the benefits.
Oh okay, so it doesn’t matter how they come over—no benefits over one form or another, no reason that you ended up as a dungeon planet while the rest were simply domains or portal dungeons?
(“ I wouldn’t consider my base form any different from the rest of them ”)
Oh really? Then what is the actual difference between the three types of dungeons? The power, scope, and territory are all vastly different. The only similarity is the fact that they… control an area.
I paused.
You're fucking right. All dungeon cores are the same at the core. They are their own damn world.
(“ Oh? What could you ever mean? ”)
I could hear Espr laughing, but they were right. At a base level, all dungeon cores were the same; that was the conclusion I just reached. Portal and domain dungeon cores felt the same, but it was a common conclusion that there was something different about the core itself that generated the specific type of dungeon.
Espr had a clear personality of its own; there was no reason that other dungeon cores could not have some form of will, if not more likely, all dungeon cores.
It is up to you, the dungeons, on what form you take. I definitely don’t understand the specific details, but whatever form it takes is their own choice.
People did not understand what created the environment in portal dungeons, how the domain influenced the area it took over, or what determined what monsters were created in either.
(“ Hehe, well, you are correct on that front ”)
There was some info that may not be relevant, but I asked for it anyway.
“How do dungeons come over then? Is there a specific window of opportunity?”
All new dungeons found were in places people hadn’t looked before, meaning they could have existed there since the start of the Shift. Now whether that was true had to be seen, as there were plenty of theories believing that was not the case as there would be more dungeon planets out in the universe. But it was still the truth that no new dungeons had ever been found in places previously searched.
(“ Sure, that’s nothing that needs to be kept hidden. There are specific windows of opportunity, specifically, there has been four such events, with a fifth one expected who knows when ”)
Even you don’t know?
(“ Correct. It’s a bit of Existence’s randomness, though a lot of beings are certainly interested in the next opportunity, but I wouldn’t worry, nothing can appear on conquered dungeon planets ”)
I see…
I started to piece things together, and I crafted a plan that would allow me the chance to grab an actual dungeon core. The downside was I didn't think my family or friends were going to like it.
Turning around, I decided to not destroy the core. It was time to return home and finish up this mission as I had a lot to prepare for.
Of course, I was betting everything on today’s discovery, but I did have a small amount of hope that everything could be solved with this one trip.
Wasn't betting?
Your f*cking right.
You're
Thanks for both corrections
Thanks for reading,
Hope you’ve had some quality rest and relaxation during the holiday weeks. Tftc!


I did have some fun, visiting family was nice. Did a lot more painting than I was expecting though...
Thanks for reading,