The Solitude of Marcus Aeon

Marcus is no stranger to solitude. As he read his one and only skill, "Loner's Paradise", a wave of relief washed over him. "At least it all paid off," he told himself before smelling the sea of blood that puddled around the base of the stone pillar he was submerged in. The deterioration of Sam's body started quickly as bronze larvae devoured her flesh. Plants as green as emeralds shining in the sun fished out her organs, gutting her of the rest of her humanity. She became bait for the larger dark creatures that stalked around the abandoned structure, their footsteps as precise as a butcher. While Marcus watched her body fall victim to nature, he thought, "Am I next?"

<"Honey, no one is going to hurt you; you're made of stone.">

"I'm what?"

<"And a bit of couch and human. But- don't worry you're still human enough for the Verdhi System to qualify you as much.">

"Is there any spell for me to get out of here?"

<"What do you know about magic?">

"Magic is the product of spellcasting. To cast a spell you must command your magical core to cause the spell to occur? In order to do that you need to learn the language required of said spell, and say the right words of the spell in- in that language?"

<"And do you have any knowledge of any language?">

"No."

<"So how do you expect to cast a spell to get out of this?">

"Y-You're the Verdhi System, can't you just pull up an encyclopedia of spells for me?"

"No-"

<"And before you ask honey, you can always expand your realm of permitted expertise! All you need is a little bit of dream walking!">

"Mom, may you please stop talking for a few hours. I need time to think."

Marcus's breath staggered out of his stone embedded mouth. He puffed up his cheeks and exhaled, sighing and laughing. He smacked his teeth, tch, and the pillar smacked against his own body, causing a spring to go off. He inhaled, attempting to control his vagabond breath as it continued to stagger out of his body. As the world moved around him, he wondered if nature even cared about his own tragedy. The trees continued to swing happily with the wind that blew in whispers of the ocean. The abnormal creatures that mimicked familiar animals of his own world, walked with a bravado of satisfaction. The clouds freely moved across the sky as though marching towards their goals.

Marcus screamed, "Help! Somebody help me!" Marcus is no stranger to solitude. For 5 hours he cried for help, and no one would answer. Even when his voice had become strained and his protruding body parts had become as stiff as the stone pillar he found himself in, he continued to cry out for help. The Verdhi System didn't answer him even after it got off of mute mode. The day dragged on, as creatures of the dungeon dragged the body of Sam away. Tears flooded with pebbles streamed down Marcus's face. As night arrived he cried himself to sleep.

"Yo! Check this shit out," a rough feminine voice yelled, waking up Marcus. He had slept with his eyes open, but he did not see a single thing. He doesn't even remember if he had a dream, or how much time had passed. By the shadows of the short female in front of him, and the deep purple of the sky, he could only assume it's dusk. His vision was blurry and didn't seem like it was taking any time to adjust.

"Mary, what is it," a high pitched masculine yelled.

"I think it's a person inside a stone pillar? Charles can you call Gerald?" Mary said as she went on her tippy-toes to poke Marcus's open eye, causing the whole stone pillar to shake, and ruining his eyesight even further.

"Yeah, I got you," Charles said as he walked up to Marcus with an open mouth, and wide eyes. He bent his lanky body over and examined Marcus from head to toe. "This is so fucking rare."

"I know, I wonder how this happened."

"Probably tried entering the tower without going through the portal. Got teleported to some random ass place, and happened to end up inside this stone," Charles said as he pulled out a brown cube with purple crystals on top of it. As he breathed in and out and began panting, he whispered, "Call Gerald."

"Or it could be magic," Mary exclaimed, "What kind of magic spell can encase someone in stone?"

The purple crystals broke apart and swirled around the cube, then flashed white blinding Marcus, "Gerald! This is your scout Charles speaking. We are in the Zambama Dungeon. The dungeon is 6 and a half hours old currently. The TDR, 12 to 1. You're a meathead so I'll do the math for you. That means 78 hours have passed inside the dungeon. Please bring a camera, the whole party which includes: Hailey, Dave, and you. Not that stupid healer Jazz or whatever her name is! We've found no bosses, but there is a nearby village from our location which you'll get once this message gets delivered in 12 seconds. Uhhh, Mary do you need anything else?"

"Bring snacks!"

"Yeah, and bring snacks. Looks like we'll be here for a while. Thank you byyeee~ End call." The purple crystals froze, then shot up into the sky, then fired off to the right of Marcus in a purple streak of light.

"So Mary what do you want to do about this guy," Charles asked pointing his thumb at Marcus.

"Aren't you the scout? Investigate him!"

"Aren't you our group leader? Make a decision!"

They glared at each other for a few minutes before Marcus thought, "Are these two a couple? No! No, no no no no. I refuse to be stuck here and watching a couple bicker over deciding to get me free or not! I'm starving, my mouth is dry, my throat feels like a pile of rocks. I can't feel anything. Yet they can't even decide what to do? HELP ME!"

Soon, a purple streak of light flashed across the sky dispersing the clouds of people, it stopped right above Charles, then beamed down into Charles's cube. Charles and Mary snapped out of their staring contest, "Answer it you dumbass," Mary yelped.

"I have you know Mary that you recruited me, and your team is a reflection of you. So-"

"Shut up and answer it."

"Fine, fine. Answer call." The purple crystals embedded itself deep into the box. The cube opened all of its faces, and the crystals huddled up in the center of it, it then vibrated as a voice started coming out.

"Gerald here! Just received your message. By the time you get this I've already headed in with all the things you asked of me. By the way, I'm not a meathead! I'm a vegetarian. So you being slutty with your horology isn't gonna work on me. You should butt heads with Mary before trying me, you ass. P.S. we brought chocolate."

"I hope he brought my favorite," Mary intervened.

"We brought Mary's favorite, dark chocolate," Gerald continued.

"Yay! This is why I recruited Gerald, he knows me so well," Mary said twirling around and dancing around Marcus's stone pillar.

The box folded back up, the crystals returned to their original place, and Charles placed it back into his bookbag. "Well we might as well wait," Charles said sitting down in front of Marcus, staring at all of his features.

"Ew, there's dried blood here," Mary said as she recoiled away from Marcus's pillar, pointing at the dried pool of blood that rested around the base of the pillar.

"What do you expect from Zambama? It's all nature and bugs here," Charles said as he scraped away at the dried blood on Marcus's protruding foot.

"Do you think that this'll become a high leveled dungeon," Mary asked as she sat behind Charles, her small frame covered by his bookbag.

"Well, it only spawned less than 7 hours ago. No one has found a dungeon boss or the baton yet. Which either means two things, these bosses are good at hiding or everyone sucks."

"We don't suck!"

"Yes we do. Have you even read the news about Zambama?"

"That's not my job."

"Well, Kyles said that after 3 months, if it's still not cleared he's going to clear it himself."

"Why would he do that?"

"He said, and I quote, this dungeon gives off the truest scent (sense) of nature."

Mary squirmed around, "I'm getting excited. If fucking Kyles of all people is saying that, then there has got to be some kind of new material we can make a business off of."

"What are you talking about?"

Mary got up, and twirled around, "Think about it. The Lunari dungeon, the Tarji dungeon, the Nahi dungeon all had materials that revolutionized the world. Without the Lunari ore we wouldn't have modern day weapons that shoot out fucking lasers! Or Tarji fur."

"Tarji fur is comfortable," Charles laughed.

"Exactly!" Mary shouted while jumping in the air. "My father built a fucking fortune off of Nahi crystals."

"Yeah, yeah, they help us communicate between dungeons and your family is super famous. Next you're gonna say this run is sponsored by the Cox Corporations, here to improve our cubes!"

"You dick," Mary Cox said karate chopping the top of Charles's blonde long hair.

"Sorry Ms. Cox," Charles said lowering his head and snickering before looking up at Marcus. "Doesn't it feel like he's staring at us?"

Mary hopped in the air as she looked up at Marcus confused, "Yeah, you're kind of right."

"I hate these company runners," Marcus said sighing, "They're never here for the adventure. Only to make a profit. Perfectly beautiful world in front of them, yet all they care about are new materials to be found. They don't want to actually explore, learn more about the culture in the dungeon or anything. As soon as I get out of here, I'm going to-"

"Mary! Charles!" A deep voice roared towards the three of them, shaking not only the pillar but the ground they stood on. The voice belonged to a wide body.

"Gerald!" Mary lunged herself at him excitingly, his body twice her size, "Do you bring the goods?"

Gerald waved a chocolate bar at her, "Yes I do." He laughed as he handed it over to her.

"Don't forget us," a hoarse masculine voice whispered. A man with a skinny frame walked into Marcus's view.

"Yeah, you asked for all of us anyway. What's the issue," an annoyingly high pitched voice pierced Marcus's ears as he watched a woman with curvy features walk past all of them and up to Charles. "How you doing Charlie, have you gotten laid yet?"

"I'm doing great Hailey, have you gotten a stable relationship yet?" Charles responded with a crooked smile.

"Ahem!" Mary grabbed everyone's attention. She was the shortest out of the group and stood in front of Marcus. As she chewed on her chocolate bar, everyone got into a line and observed Marcus. Gerald held back a tear in his eye as he noticed the human like features of Marcus and the dried blood that was surrounding him and on him. Charles pushed up his glasses and tried to look away from Marcus. Dave stared at Marcus in disgust as though he was just another dungeon mob or some dumb kid that walked into something he clearly knew nothing about. Hailey was confused.

"Dave, Hailey, Gerald, and Charles; I would like for you to meet; The boy in stone! He's gonna be in our vlog!"