The Kindness of a Gentleman

Spinning around in circles along the outer edge of the roulette, the clear glass marble slowly began to lose momentum. Each lap around the circle taking more and more time. With each lap the marble grew ever closer to the rotating rings that held various fragments of reality that could potentially become Eclipse's first floor of his Abyss.

Then after rotating around the outer ring many times, the marble's momentum had fallen enough where it hit the first ring that was rotating in the opposite direction. Upon contact the marble was sent flying over the first few rings further towards the center, bouncing upon various boxes that also sent it flying.

While keeping a close eye on where the marble went Eclipse was barely able to notice something occurring each time the marble touched a new box. Every time it made contact with a different box, its once glass clear interior became full of colors with various moving shapes inside. At some moments the marble was red and orange flowing like a river, at different moments it was blue and looked like it was a river. So many different colors and objects appeared in the glass marble every time it touched down before it was sent flying back into the air returning to its usually crystal clear self.

Slowly the bouncing began to stop, reduced to rolling over various indented marble sized boxes at an ever decreasing pace. Finally the once clear marble that was now constantly changing colors across the whole spectrum rolled to a stand still on the edge of the two boxes leaning back and forth between the two.

One of the boxes made the marble's color change to various shades of black that swirled around similar to a hurricane. Arcs of what looked like purple electricity crackled throughout its interior. An emptiness similar to the space Eclipse was currently trapped in seemed to radiate off of the marble whenever it leaned towards the box on the left.

The box on the right side turned the marble turquoise blue like tropical waters with brown vines ensnaring the outer edges of the marble. Dots of orange, yellow, purple, and other colors glowed periodically along the vines. An aura of relaxation radiated off the marble when it leaned closer to this box with a hint of danger as something lurked within.

"Please not another void like place, I don't know if I can take it if that's the first floor of the Abyss." Eclipse prayed out loud. "Also I can't have the first floor be uninviting otherwise adventurers may not even explore the area and give me my precious tokens!"

To his horror he watched as the marble decided to lean more and more towards the abyss looking box which was what prompted him to make a prayer. As the marble was slowly beginning to lean heavily towards the left box a slight hand movement was made by the old man wearing the mask as if he was shooing away a fly. This small movement went unnoticed by Eclipse as his eyes were glued to the marble that would decide his fate.

Suddenly out of nowhere the marble started to lean to the right before falling into the indented box on the right side. A resounding 'CLACK' sound reverberated through the air.

"YYYYEEEEESSSSS!!!!!!" Eclipse screamed falling to his knees in happiness. His clenched fist raised towards the heavens shaking with anxiety and triumph.

"Congratulations." The old man said as he picked up the marble and walked over to Eclipse.

While watching the mysterious old man make his way over, Eclipse could've sworn he saw the old man smile behind his mask for a split second there. But he quickly dismissed it as his imagination based on the plastered smiles carved into the face mask.

"Here you go." The old man said in a cheerful voice as he handed Eclipse the glass marble. The only difference this time was that when he handed Eclipse the marble, Eclipse noticed that marble never returned to it's glass clear state. Now it seemed to be made of turquoise blue water and wrapped in vines that had dots of various colors periodically glowing.

Intrigued by this, as Eclipse rolled the marble around in his palm, he noticed that wherever the marble traveled his hand became wet as if raindrops had fallen there. "What do I do now?" Eclipse asked.

"Why its simple what you need to do. Now all that's left is to simply crush the marble in your hand." The old man responded, making a crushing motion while explaining it.

"Hmm, I see." Eclipse said mimicking the old man's motions himself and crushing the marble. Instantly it felt as if Eclipse had stopped falling for the first time ever, and was now being pulled in a specific direction.

"Until next time my dear customer." The old man shouted waving goodbye as Eclipse was dragged away at a fast speed.

"Wait, you never answered my question! Who was the person that caused-." Eclipse began before he was cut off as he was dragged out of the void that the old man had resided in.

~~~~

On a small tropical island around 200 feet wide, there stood six white marble pillars around 30 feet tall at the center of the island. They formed a circle with the top of each being linked together to create a white marble ring from a birds eye view, the center of the ring wide open to allow rays of sun to shine down on the center of the circle.

In the center of the six pillars stood an 8 foot tall 3 feet wide portal. It looked to be made of a rainbow colored cosmos surrounded by endless reaches of space. It was from this portal that out stumbled Eclipse.

"F*%#! I got caught up in the moment of getting the floor I wanted an accidentally crushed it in excitement, S*$@!" Eclipse said, cursing himself.

"Well that took you a long time to make your first floor of your Abyss. What, did you forget you had a skill to make it and thought you were trapped in between here and the entrance forever?" A cold mechanical voice asked in a mocking tone from within Eclipse's mind. Upon hearing the system's comment, Eclipse's face went red with embarrassment.

"No way, did you actually forget?! I was just joking with you originally, but to think I was actually right!" The system said, full on laughing within Eclipse's mind at this point.

"Well if someone just told me that I had to just use my skill to create a floor…" Eclipse mumbled in annoyance.

"Well if someone didn't just barge head first into a portal that cuts me off from them then maybe I would've told you, you idiot." The system countered.

"Too shay. You won this battle system, but next time I will be victorious!!" Eclipse said with a voice full of determination. In response to this all he heard was a mocking 'Snort' from within his mind.

"Anyway, would you prefer to explore your new floor first? Or would you rather claim your reward for 10* free summons for completing the quest?" The system asked in an excited, but still mechanical sounding voice.

"Hmmm, I want to explore the floor really badly." Eclipse said looking out at some tropical tree that covered his view of the surroundings all around him. But even with the trees blocking his sight, it didn't block out the sound as he could hear the crash of waves coming from the distance.

"But I'm gonna do the 10* free summons first. I mean come on, who wouldn't want to summon subordinates?" Eclipse rhetorically asked the system.

"Activate Abyssal Summoning." Eclipse excitedly said.