The System, Template and Dungeon

"Ah-hah, you must be the new hunter. Welcome to the Hunter's Dream. This will be your home, for now. I am... Gehrman, friend to you, Hunters. You're sure to be in a fine haze about now, but don't think too hard about all of this. Just go out and kill a few beasts. It's for your own good. You know, it's just what Hunters do! You'll get used to it...

This is a safe haven for hunters. A Workshop where Hunters used blood to enhance their weapons and flesh. You're welcome to use whatever you find."

- "Those were the first words I heard when I woke up... and I still have nightmares from it..."

***

In the place that seemed to be endless, on the ground, countless white flowers were growing, and in the heights, high in the sky, the gentle light of the moon was shining on everything, and two people were fighting.

Below, the lone tree with red leaves was overseeing everything that was happening in the Hunter's Dream, and next to the tree, an enormous mansion was standing proudly in typical Lodranese architecture that was unchanged in the past few thousand years.

Hundreds of not thousands of graves were all around the place, each one symbolizing the life that was taken and the dream that has ended. 

'Sometimes, I wonder why I have decided to sign up for this madness...'

One of the men, the younger one, wondered about the situation he was in... But yeah, apparently, worshipping the Great Old Ones wasn't a good idea, and now, here he am...

Given the powers beyond his understanding and comprehension, he was here where he was, and the choice had been made. There was no going back, and now, his very own soul and fate were tied to the mysterious Great Old One that took his very own soul.

The younger man of the two held a sword in his hand as he tried to dodge the strikes from the older man. The older man had shoulder-length grey hair and wore a black hat along with a brown leather jacket and trousers, a tattered mantle, and a scarf. He was bound to an ornate wheelchair, and he carried a cane with him, but right now, he was standing...

His right foot was missing, replaced by something that appeared to be a prosthetic. The crazy old man looked like he was going to die at any given moment, and yet, he was far stronger than anything that the young man could even imagine.

"You made some progress as abysmal it is, lad... twenty minutes."

That being said, he had twenty minutes of rest before the "training" would continue as the elderly man returned back to his wheelchair, sitting down and looking at the graves that were all around the place, everywhere where the eye could see.

Twenty minutes was a rather short time, but it was also better than nothing, and right now, he needed every bit of rest that was possible as he was going crazy from the non-stop training the past few days.

[Congratulations! Stat: Skill has increased by 1.]

[Congratulations! Stat: Bloodtinge has increased by 1.]

[Congratulations! Stat: Vitality has increased by 1.]

[Congratulations! Stat: Endurance has increased by 1.]

One of the things that he obtained from his "Patron" if he or it could be even called such was some sort of system? 

Obviously, there were no rewards from the system or anything; it mostly displayed stats and statuses, but even that had tremendous value because one could wonder if he knew what to do and had exact data.

[Name: Archaon 

Template: Gehrman the First Hunter (1%)

Patron: ?!? Great Old One

Class: Overlord (Sealed - Dungeon needed!)

Race: Transhuman (Paleblood)

Element: Blood

Rank: Level 1

Stats:

Strength - 8, Vitality - 7, Agility - 8, Endurance - 8, Magic Power - 8

-------------------

Skill - 5, Bloodtinge - 7, Arcane - 3, Insight - 3

-------------------

Technique: N/A

Uniqueness: Old Blood

Abilities: N/A]

For some reason, the system that he got from the Great Old One was some sort of weird combination between the stats and so on from Bloodborne and from the novel Dungeon Hunter.

The physical stats were rather self-explanatory, because they were the ones that were deciding the "Level" or the "Dimension of Power". The other ones were more slightly complicated.

Strength stood for physical power, basically how physically strong he was, how strong his blows were, and how much he could lift in short. Endurance represented his stamina, something that allowed him to stay active in a fight longer.

Meanwhile Viltiaty determined his "health points" if he could even call it like that. How much punishment he could take, what his body could withstand, and how durable it was. He instinctively knew the higher the stat was, the harder he would be to kill, and longer he would live or something like that, as it was also the representation of the Life Force.

Skill stat stood for mastery over the weapon, and the stat itself reflected his skills in the combat. Bloodtinge repressed his proficiency with Firearms, Blood Arts, and Blood-Based weaponry. 

Lastly, the Arcane and Insight.

Arcane represented his aptitude and natural talent for Magic of any kind and, most importantly, for the secrets of the Arcane. This stat was also directly tied to the Magic Power capacity and quality. 

The last and most mysterious was the Insight, which was very hard to explain, even though he was aware of its meaning. One could say that it presented the depth of one's inhuman knowledge. Yet he knew it would be more prudent to call it the depth of the knowledge that wasn't supposed to be in the hands of mortals at all.

It was aptitude apparently exclusive to the Outer Beings, to the Great Old Ones, to the entities of the Eldritch Origin that didn't belong to this reality. With Insight, he could see things that ordinary people can't, and by ordinary people, he meant every other mortal that didn't have some sort of Insight or other ability related to Insight.

He could understand both because it had something to do with his mission and the reason why he was The Everchosen of the Great Old Ones. A part of him was contemplating this choice in his life, because it seemed rather foolish to sell his soul to begins that were notoriously worse than even the Devil himself.

Named Archaon, he was allowed to choose one Template from a very limited amount of choices, and he chose that of the Gehrman the First Hunter as that one was the most versatile of all of them.

Not only was it a very powerful one because the First Hunter was a powerhouse on his own but at the same time. When the Template was completely digested, he would inherit everything that the First Hunter had learned, was, or represented. 

Including some of the mental and physical traits. 

Still, compared to the other characters that he had a choice from, the First Hunter was the most versatile, also because of his knowledge of the Art of Magic and secrets of the Arcane, but he was also a skilled artisian and craftsman.

Much less being said about the ability to fight and hunt. 

And that was how he got here, training in something that was the Hunter's Dream or most probably some sort of it, a different version to speed up the digestion of the Template and when he could learn everything he could in the next fifteen days, he would be sent on his way. 

At least he was allowed to take a companion with him, or rather, for a start, he was given three people that would accompany him on his task, that would be transported to the world together with him by the Great Old One, though there were very strict limitations on whom to chose and how.

His task? 

He was given a Dungeon Core, and he was ordered to plant the Dungeon onto some world where he would be transported to and do its thing. Either bring the End Times to the world or harvest the Fate of the world.

That was the way how the Outer Gods obtained a great deal of strength... either by bringing the End Times or harvesting the Fate of the World.

Let's say that each timeline is linear and has a certain start and a certain point end; one could also call it the Fate or Destiny of the said world. How things are supposed to go, what is supposed to happen, and how everything should play out.

The Great Old Ones and other Eldritch Abominations were constantly looking for suitable worlds where they could harvest the Fate of the World to strengthen themselves in some way.

Harvesting Fate was rather an easy thing to do; it could be either achieved by destroying the world before its designed fated end or by killing the important figures that had certain roles to play in the tapestry of fate and without their interference, the Fate of the World would be disturbed and never fulfilled.

And such was also his tasks that would be fulfilled through the Class of Dungeon Master; when he would be done with one world, his Patron would transport him and his Dungeon and some other things as his reward to the next world, where the scenario would repeat itself.

Because there was an infinite number of worlds across the omniverse; he would be doing this for a very, very long time. It also depended on the world where he was sent because the more powerful worlds had far better gains, while the less powerful worlds had lesser gains.

Not to mention, he was named after the Everchosen of the Chaos Gods, which didn't really sit well, but not like he had the option, and in fact, it was a better name, more intimidating than that of his old self.

He knew that the first world he would be going to was some sort of lower world as a starting point and relatively safe place for him to grow his Dungeon. When he completed his mission, his Dungeon would be dropped to another word, though he would prefer he could actually choose from the worlds.

"Time's up, lad!"

He just heard a shout as he narrowly dodged the blade of a scythe that appeared above his head as his torturous training continued. Because this wasn't the real Gehrman, only the projection of the First Hunter and the Hunter's Dream. 

Hopefully, he won't be thrown to the Beasts right now, but as he understood the inner workings of the Template that he got from his Patron, it would only create an illusion of the real person who would train the owner of the Template for duration of fifteen days to speed up the progression of digesting the Template.

***

Several days later

No matter how he hated to admit it, the illusion Gehrman, as he started calling him, was rather a good teacher if he wasn't throwing prospecting students to the Beasts because the combat was the best experience.

Here...

They were lacking the Beasts.

Yet, the biggest Beast in the room was undoubtedly Gehrman, who was a monster in human form. Even after Archeon achieved 10% of the assimilation of the Template, he couldn't land a solid hit on the man, even though he was already very powerful; at least, he thought so if he compared the rest to ordinary humans.

According to the words of his "mentor", he was only starting out, but unfortunately the time in this faux dream, was already coming to the end, because it was the last day he was supposed to stay here.

He already achieved a considerable degree of power as he was progressing fast, and it wouldn't be out of the line to say that he was already on the degree of the Superhuman, just based on his physical strength and endurance alone. 

During the little free time he had, he was contemplating about how to make use of the Dungeon in the most effective way and whenever the system that he had would assign him some tasks or whatever.

It was also clear that the system won't be giving him any powers, abilities, skill or anything as was stated in the contract between him and his Patron more than two weeks ago. When this ended, he would be dropped to the new world to plant his Dungeon somewhere.

The purpose of the Dungeon was to drain everything from the world to continuously expand and strengthen itself, as simple as that. This was also the reason why he chose the method: for the Fate Harvest, in the long run, it was rather efficient. 

Not to mention, he wanted to play at the Dungeon Master, and it would also allow him to create his own personal army and kingdom at the same time as the Dungeon could create life.

"I have already crossed the assimilation rate of 10%, and my physical stats are already above 16 in all aspects, putting me effectively on the Level 3 Superhuman. If the starting world is rather weak, then the better, but it at least should have some degree of Magic so the Dungeon could drain it."

Dungeons mostly thrived in the Magically rich environments because they were draining the Magic from the world itself to strengthen themselves. That was the reason why the Magic density within the Dungeon could be even ten times higher than that of the outside world.

[Tutorial has ended!]

[Preparing the world selection for the Host!]

[World selection completed. Please choose one of the suitable worlds from the list. Host would be then transported to the randomly chosen timeline by the Patron.]

[1. A Song of Ice and Fire]

[2. Dragon Age]

[3. Warhammer Fantasy]

[4. World of Warcraft]

[5. Elder Scrolls]

[6. Witcher]

Staring at the worlds that were on the list, he didn't really think for long and chose the first option as the starting world. ASOIAF world was rather safe, and it was a good opportunity to grow in there, not to mention that it was also a Magical world so that the Dungeon could grow there rather safely. 

Warhammer Fantasy, World of Warcraft, and Elder Scrolls were out of option because they were far too powerful, and he wanted to have rather a slow start. Apparently, the addition of the Old Blood made him ageless, and even without it, once someone was Overlord of the Dungeon, their very own lives were tied to the Dungeon Heart, so...

A certain form of immortality was already added to that.

[A starting world has been selected.]

[Patron Great Old One has selected a companion for the host.]

[Companions would be summoned to the world together with the Host. Limitation: Strongest Companion must be summoned directly by the Host through the Dungeon Heart using the Blood Echoes.]

[Task from the Patron Great Old One has been issued.]

[In the starting world, it is possible to obtain abilities and skills from the completing mission as the starting bonus for the Herald of the End. After the starting world, it won't be possible.]

[Mission: Fate Stealer - Destroy the Song

Objectives:

1st - Destroy the Song of Ice and Fire and render the prophecy useless

Rewards: Advancement to the next world

2nd - Upgrade the Dungeon to the Rare while in this world by draining all Magic from the world

Reward: ???

3rd - Defeat and Kill Night King, R'hllor and ???

Progress: 0/3

Reward: Alpha Stigma]

As he was prepared to be transported to the world of his choice, he also got several notifications and even missions issued by the system that he got from the Great Old One.

The advantage of the starting world was that he could obtain one ability that was already good, but he didn't really trust the power given by the system as something skeptical was in him that was fearing if the system gave him some power, it could also take it away.

That was the reason why he was rather satisfied with the system that wasn't giving out any rewards, powers, or skills at all.

He didn't need it as he would rather obtain it with his own hard work. Now, as he looked at the missions that were issued by the system, he knew that they were hard, like really hard but not impossible to complete.

Seeing the last part of the mission made him drool because he really wanted to get his hands on the Alpha Stigma, even if it was the only ability that he should ever get from the system or, rather, from his Patron.

As someone who earned Magic in every form, something like Alpha Sigma was a blessing.

Bearers of the Alpha Stigma are capable of analyzing Magic with their Alpha Stigma and copying it themselves soon after. With that, he could decipher any Magic and Spell and learn it in mere moments if he wished. 

It was the ultimate tool for learning Magic. 

Nevertheless, he didn't really fear the mission that required him to kill the Night King or Red God R'hllor and someone unknown because it shouldn't have been impossible if it was part of the mission in the starting world.

Not to mention, Night King wasn't particularly powerful, and practically any Hunter of the Workshop could kill him with ease. The sole problematic thing about the undead king were the hordes of undeads, but once they were out of the equation, he was of no concern.

The Lord of Light was more problematic, but Archaon suspected that he should be some sort of powerful Sorcerer who was masquerading as God. Nothing new, especially in the Low Magic worlds where not many had powerful Magical abilities; most probably during the centuries he was being worshipped, he was beginning to condense some sort of Divinity.

But the Gods could also be as weak as mortals because there were many and many types of Gods. Aside from that, if the Red God was really that powerful, then he would have long ago conquered the rest of the world with ease, but yet...

Nothing like that happened.

As he pondered over the missions, soon enough, he disappeared from the illusion of the Hunter's Dream to the new world, where the new adventurer awaited him.