History of Aetherion
Ethan stood frozen. His mana had barely begun to recharge after leveling up, but that wasn't what made his body stiffen like cold iron.
It was the bodies.
The adventurers — the girl and the two dumbass boys who followed — were gone. Vanished. Dissolved into the floor.
The Sticky Hall had digested them like spaghetti.
Thick slime trailed along the once-clean floor, now half-absorbed into the stone tiles. Bits of armor remained, but flesh, blood, bone? Vaporized into nothingness.
His thoughts screamed. No no no no no no no
"Did I… Did I eat them?"
Goop, ever loyal, wobbled by his side. The little slime squelched softly and clung to Ethan's ankle. He made a noise somewhere between a wet hiccup and a confused bubble.
Ethan staggered back until his core pulsed. He sat down hard.
"What the hell kind of dungeon am I?" he muttered. "Is this what I'm gonna do? Set up traps, bait humans, then chomp-chomp– slurp slurp– no evidence left?!"
Goop quivered. He made a sad boop sound, as if trying to say: You didn't mean to… or It's okay.
Ethan stared at the floor, then at his own translucent blue glow. The dungeon walls hummed softly around him. The remains of the adventurers were gone.
And in their place… something new appeared.
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AETHERION'S BONES: VOL. I
{Author: LGuy_Thats_Bored A Book Given by the Supreme System.}
The heavy tome that appeared beside Ethan pulsed with magic. Its pages were aged parchment, yet not a speck of dust lay upon them. Its cover shimmered between obsidian and dark blue, as though the night sky itself had been bound into a book.
[This item cannot be discarded. You may read it at your own pace. It contains the recorded surface-level history of Aetherion]
The moment Ethan touched it, the pages turned by themselves.
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CHRONICLES OF AETHERION — MAJOR EPOCHS
Epoch I: The Primordial Shaping
(2,000,000 – 1,900,000)
The planet that would be called Aetherion was once a molten sphere of pure mana chaos. No gods, no creatures, no oceans — only burning essence. When the mana tides stabilized, solid ground emerged. Ancient dungeon spires crystallized from the ether before any life crawled from the dust.
It is theorized that dungeons were the planet's first instinct: to defend itself.
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Epoch II: The Elemental Stirring
(1,900,000 – 1,500,000)
Fire, water, wind, and earth — these four essences clashed in violent harmony. Elementals ruled as titanic entities, not as magic. Mountain-sized flame beasts and ocean-sized ice wyrms sculpted the world.
Races did not yet exist. Only the Elder Titans, Mana Serpents, and the first Ancient Slimes drifted across the land.
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Epoch III: The Birth of Sentience
(1,500,000 – 1,000,000)
The first sapient races awoke: dragons, giants, leviathans, and abyssal creatures. Civilizations rose in primitive forms — towering monoliths carved into floating islands, city-reefs under the ocean.
Language was not spoken — it was emitted as pulses of mana. The Ancients wrote not with ink, but celestial vibrations.
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Epoch IV: The Rise of Humanoids
(1,000,000 – 900,000)
Humans, elves, dwarves, and beastkin first emerged during the final clash of dragons and titans. These 'lesser' beings were small, but their adaptability was unmatched.
They forged the first weapons, shaped language, and discovered how to interact with ambient mana.
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Epoch V: The Splintering Realms
(900,000 – 700,000)
Territory wars erupted. Seven continents solidified. Factions formed, and early kingdoms collapsed. Dungeons began "activating" — luring beings inside and releasing rewards.
The First Dungeon War occurred during this epoch. Entire races were devoured.
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Epoch VI: The Empire-Blooded Age
(700,000 – 500,000)
The first true empires formed: The Ironcrest Dwarves, Silvaria's Elven Triarchy, and the dreaded Xarn Dominion — a race of mind-linked cyclopean giants.
Magic academies, knight orders, and holy temples bloomed.
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Epoch VII: The Fall of Titans
(500,000 – 300,000)
The remaining elder races vanished or fell into slumber. The Black Sky Cataclysm ended the floating cities. The Abyss War cracked the western ocean into five trenches.
Scholars call this the "Death of the Old World."
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Epoch VIII: The Age of Consolidation
(300,000 – 100,000)
Nations stabilized. Magic was codified. The dungeon system evolved — structured by unknown laws. Systems appeared uniformly across races.
Mass literacy and scholarly orders developed. The Clockwork Citadel was built.
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Epoch IX: The Era of Unknowns
(100,000 – Present)
More questions than answers. Aetherion now holds over 90,000 known dungeons. The oceans remain 92% unexplored.
Entities within the deepest sea trenches — like the Godscale Leviathan and Rift-Sleepers — remain unverified, but persistent across cultures.
Even now, the world reshapes itself in silence.
---
As Ethan blinked, the final page stilled. Goop bubbled beside him in awe.
Ethan rubbed his temples.
"...I barely understood half of that. Ancient slimes? Godscale whatnow?"
He looked up at the cave ceiling.
"Seriously, System. You couldn't have given me a TL;DR?"
No response.
A silence followed… then a loud scribble appeared out of nowhere, written in glowing gold text on the dungeon wall:
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A/N: Summary Time (Because Ethan's Brain is Fried)
This world is 2 million years old.
Dungeons were there from the very start. They're older than gods.
Nine main epochs shaped Aetherion's history.
Most of the ocean is still unexplored. Why? Because it eats people.
Ethan has a lot to read.
Dungeon Layout Update
Sticky Hall: First kill zone. Still active.
Ethan's Core Room: Upgraded. Now includes a Reading Corner.
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Ethan sighed and flopped back against the wall.
Goop nestled beside him, mimicking his posture like a sad blob pillow.
"...We're in deep, huh?"
The slime gave a slow, sad blorp.
Fade to black.