《Experimental Dungeon Novel》


 Death of a Dungeon

    A mace falls through the air, through the skull of yet another skeleton. The dungeon had gone all out against these adventurers, raising even the corpses it held in reserve. Heroes who had fallen against the summoned undead of the deeper floors, buried deeply in a side storage cave to be pulled out as a last line of defense.


    But now, that line was being eroded. From the least impressive summoned skeletons of the top floor down to the lich dragon boss, adventurers had punched through every mechanism the dungeon had at its disposal to buy time. Even the skeletal champions, equipped with all the skills that had failed them in life, were proving not to be enough to halt the progress of enchanted steel through its cold, damp walls.


    On its pedestal deep within a catacomb of bone, the dungeon¡¯s core sits unmoving. It had very little time left before the group would reach its resting place, and their combined presence so near to its source continues to negate its ability to spawn anything that might help it. At this point, the only thing it can do is trust in its preparations.


    The room it is in held little in the way of distractions. Other than the fact it was almost entirely composed of bone, the sheer size of the chamber, and the onyx pedestal in the center of the room capped with a football-sized chunk of translucent teal gemstone, the area is almost entirely nondescript. A cylindrical chamber, the bones spread out from the base of the pedestal in a widdershins spiral, reaching around the ground in a slightly inclined circle, culminating at the wall. The wall took the spiral of the floor, and reversed the pattern, going straight up from the point the pattern hit the edge and restarting the spiral going clockwise on the ceiling. Centered above the core, the bones merge into a flowerbud made of calcium, an oval pointing downward.


    Over the course of its time digging deeper, the dungeon had poured countless resources into this room, shaping it into the ideal container for its most fragile part. It had grown larger, and with the size of the core so had the room it used for its presentation and protection. Every time it made improvements, it would shift the entirety of the chamber farther back and down, preserving as much of its work as possible. This would be the last thing an intruder sees before either complete victory or complete defeat.


    So far, the scales have fallen on the side of the adventurer¡¯s defeat.


    Thudding noises emanate from the corridor leading to the core. A suit of armor wielding an enormous axe, presumably wrapped around some sort of humanoid creature, stomps into the room. Were the bones not reinforced with incredible amounts of magical energy, these mere footfalls would have crushed the spiral into dust. Following the walking tank, a similarly adorned creature with a mace and lantern enters the room, stopping next to the first. The second holds up their lantern, which flares to life and blasts a burning light around the entirety of the area. When nothing happens, two others enter the chamber.


    A human in studded leathers carefully inspects the ground, tracing the groves of the bone pattern in an attempt to locate any irregularities. Only following grudgingly, and twenty meters behind, another being in leather, holding a bow nearly as long as they were tall, stalks into the room, an arrow nocked and drawn back, aimed far enough above the core to account for gravitational drop. Slowly moving toward the center of the chamber, the two armored beings join with the archer following the one making sure the path is clear.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.


    Over the course of three minutes, the group of four make their way to the center, moving less than a foot a second, slowly descending as the floor sinks downward over the concave surface.  In the center, the dungeon core continues to watch, confident in its foresight and preparations.


    Nothing happens as they reach the pillar.


    Having cleared the path to the center, the one in hide nods to the rest of the group, and quickly makes their way back to the safely lit area of the lantern, while the one with the enormous axe hefts it onto its shoulder, and confidently stomps up to the 70 centimeter sphere. The left hand extends out to take hold of the prize, when -


    *SNAP*


    The bone bud above the core opens suddenly, decorative looking seams in the flower-like sculpture breaking apart to allow a hole to exist in the bottom. It falls from the ceiling, the edges of the bud slicing through the armored hand, severing it to drop on the bone floor. The archer immediately looses their arrow, only for it to stop an inch into the bone cover now protecting the gemstone.


    Simultaneously, a cacophony of cracks and snaps erupt from the floor, walls, and ceiling. Every indentation decoration the chamber split apart, and the ceiling begins to collapse down into the floor. The floor itself also raises up, the indents separating away from each other just wide enough for the strips of the ceiling to pass through them.


    Noticing that the effect is concentrated at the center of the room, the leather coated person tugs their companions toward the doorway. If they can escape the collapsing room trap, they can retrieve the core before it resets. It takes the armored one at the dias a few moments to notice the retreat, and they glare for a moment more at the core before turning around themself.


    As the weight leaves the center, the obsidian column retracts into the ground, and the bone spiral of the floor expands slightly. Around the core, the bone flowerbud closes itself again, and quickly dives down into the space created. Unfortunately for the adventurers, the ceiling follows the path of the flower, pulling with it the walls. At once, the adventurers are trapped in a constricting cage of calcium, closing in to crush their chests to mush.


    Seeing their path close before them, the giant axe-wielder hefts their weapon one-handed, bringing it sideways against the ligaments of their imprisonment.


    There is no effect.


    Within moments, it¡¯s over. The cage and room are turned inside-out, and the flowerbud blooms from the ground. The core of the dungeon sits in the midst of the carnage, unmoving. However, nothing continues to happen. If the core had a face, it would have an expression of confusion, as it had destroyed the invaders handily, but is still rendered unable to control its dungeon.


    Footprints appear in the puddles of viscera, coming straight toward the center of the room.


    The air shimmers, and a robed mage appears out of nowhere, having dropped their spell of invisibility.


    ¡°And now, for crimes against life and existence, for necromancy on a grand scale, the wholesale slaughter of innocents, and the unforgivable sin of not having very good loot, the world passes judgement on this dungeon core.¡±


    With a casting of magic missile, the flawless surface of the core is cracked, and it fades into black opacity.


    ¡°Lots of mana in it. This¡¯ll fuel a couple projects at least.¡±

 Below the Tower of a Wizard

    Far below emerald spires, where a king perches upon an opalescent throne, deep within the inner city, behind the marble walls separating the nobles and aristocrats from the have-not peasants without the means to secure themselves a place safe from rising tides of monstrous hordes, a simple stone tower juts up from a center square. From afar, the tower seems entirely unimpressive, an unrefined, dull, blot on the landscape of intricately designed architecture commissioned by generations of old-money families working to out-class and out-gaudy the others.


    That¡¯s the first peculiarity one might notice, which would set this apart as an important landmark.


    The second thing one might notice about said tower, would be the fact that one is noticing it at all. Entering the city, there are kilometers of buildings; merchants plying their trade, homes, taverns, inns, various city service outposts, and finally the wall. Being able to see the castle from that distance, much less a single unadorned tower, is certainly something to be impressed about.


    If one were to manage to get the permits to pass through the wall, after trekking through the tunnel into the inner city they would find their view far less obstructed. An outer court of sorts, clustered up against the wall, is built similarly to the outer city, though with buildings crawling up against the structure of it, as builders had run out of space to expand for those who live within and began building upward. To either side of the tunnel¡¯s mouth, staired pathways wind up layers of roofs, leading to outpost towers atop the wall. Towering far above any of these, the simple tower looms unobtrusively.


    One would have to break out from the typical domiciles of the city to get a good look at the tower¡¯s base. At a mere hundred meters in diameter, the structure takes up far less space than even the merest of stately noble manor. Granted, this is primarily due to the inclusion of the lands surrounding said domiciles, and discounting vertical area. The typical chateau would only take itself a few stories high, enough to gaze over the acreage it presided over, but not enough to draw unnecessary attention from the laws of physics.


    However, the tower simply decided it was safe enough from reprisal to be more than appropriately proportioned.


    A typical tower would stand at a three to one ratio, or thereabouts, of diameter to height, with a quarter meter of supporting wall. This one, however, brought its height up to a four to one ratio, while maintaining the standard support depth, and adding at the top a large sphere, approximately ten percent wider in diameter than the base at its widest point. This adds a good sixty meters to the top, making it a top-heavy wrecking ball on a fairly large stick.


    It would be an impressive feat of architectural engineering, if that were what it was. In this case, mathematics was nowhere near the savior of the day. No, it was raw magic. The reason the tower didn¡¯t sway repeatedly in the wind, oscillating back and forth until the forces exerted upon it sent it careening to the ground, was that the tower had been expanded internally, space warped and bent into place until each floor of the building was comparable to the entire estates of some of the more established noble lands. Whereas those who spend money to gain power through prestige invested in style and trappings of power, such as that those who beheld them assume those wearing said trappings did in fact have the power the adornments implied, and thus gain it, the inhabitants of the tower would convert their precious metals into an older, more difficult to understand form of power.


    Mana.


    With enough of this energy, rules could be bent or broken. Standards of men were shunted aside by a skilled tailor poking holes in the fabric of reality, only to sew on their own patch of how they intend the world to be. Generations of nobles had led to large, ostentatious plots of land capped with eye-catching manors, fortified not against raiding parties but against the scorn of their fellows. Generations of wizards had led to a giant tower that was bigger on the inside.Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    Starting from the ground floor, mages had started increasing the size of the bottom floors the most, working their way upward. If the extradimensional space contained within this structure were shunted out into the normal three dimensions, it would roughly take a pyramidal shape, though with rounded edges. Lower levels were where lower ranked mages were stored, and as such it needed the most space. The fact that this lead to a stable structure was probably lost on whoever started building this way.


    As one might expect, the higher one were to go on the tower, the more spacious the accommodations for the individual mage. Wizards on the lowest floors would be stuffed into a three by six meter room, two per. Going up a few levels, the magic wielders would be given separate spaces, followed by increasing the number of rooms per mage linearly. This would be what led to a fairly uniform distribution of holes in the tower; the density of wizards further up would be lower than that of the levels below, but the increased amount of workspace per mage would lead to a higher incidence of explosions per capita.


    Wizards would rarely become such if they didn¡¯t feel the need to poke and prod at every variable of existence. To use magic was to impose your will on the world, but to be a wizard was to do so systematically. Generally speaking, there are far more wrong ways to use magic than there are right ways, and a dedicated wizard will figure out every single one of them, hopefully without dying in the process. Usually though, a wizard that intends to survive will take shortcuts.


    Specializing in a particular field of magic can help protect from the inevitable backlash caused by going beyond one''s means. Were a mage to experiment on electricity, gravitational fields, light emitters, and botany, all at the same time, there would be far fewer methods for controlling the fallout of each potential disaster without instigating further catastrophes than if one were to focus all of the experiments onto one subject with easily countered fail conditions, such as botany leading to magic-nullifying ambulatory carnivorous plants.


    Regardless of the wonder of a magical tower filled with space enough to house an army of soldiers, in any profession there will be competition for scarce resources. Additionally, in any significant gathering of people, there will be tasks deemed ill-suited to the stature of whomever finds themself at the top of the pecking order. The crossing in the Venn diagram of those circles are known by a few names, interns and grad students being a couple of the more notable, and this location is no exception to the rule.


    One of the tasks assigned to hopefuls lurking on the outskirts of the tower¡¯s periphery is the removal of waste from the tower, in the form of experiment byproducts and the bodies of dead, or worse, expelled, students. Those who prove adequate at taking advantage of this boon, in the form of being able to see where others have gone wrong, and occasionally pilfer things out of the newly ownerless rooms they are clearing, are able to lay a claim to a coveted half room at the bottom floor. On the other hand, some could be stuck simply taking junk up and down a hundred and forty flights of stairs for years with nothing to show for it but tennis elbow and toned calves.


    Sometimes, a mage needs to take matters into their own hands if they want to get ahead in life, and that might mean digging through garbage to try and find something useful.


    ¡°Well this is shiny.¡±


    A cracked, drained, lifeless dungeon core is completely worthless to pretty much anybody. After it is rendered inert, a core is unable to produce mana, and the amount contained within the shell is all it will ever hold again. Even trying to use it as a storage medium is pointless, as the energy would seep out over time. It would be much more efficient, and faster, to simply artificially grow a gem to hold excess energy. Time is money, money is mana, and mana is power.


    For a penniless necromancer with pilfered botany textbooks and a sack full of trash, it would have to do.

 Gem in Plain Sight

    Despite its fearsome appearance, the wall separating the inner and outer city freely allows passage to any who wish to travel through it, during the daytime at least. At dusk, the portcullis shuts on either side of the tunnel. This happens simultaneously, and those trapped within the passageway when this occurs are stuck until morning light. While it does take slightly under two and a half seconds to reach the ground, anything under it when it hits would cease to exist in a recognizable form once it does. Unfortunately for the unwary, the entire mechanism is completely automated. Changes are somewhat difficult to make on the fly, as while the gate closes extremely easily, it takes hours to build up the potential energy necessary to open it again. In terms of keeping any invading forces from the central hub of the city, the gate fails extremely safe.


    Thing was built by wizards, as most overly exaggerated things tended to be. They set a mana crystal to automate the reset mechanism, and an apprentice of some sort is sent daily to adjust the timing for the closing and opening of the gates. Depending on the season, dawn and dusk would be variable, and it would be annoying to try and calculate a spell to activate at slightly different times at variable intervals when the option of ¡®use free student labor¡¯ existed. As such, one unlucky aspirant got to trudge down five stories of stairs twice a day to pull a lever to activate the spell that controls the gate, and then back up. Not the most glamourous task in the world, but someone had to do it.


    Unless the city was under attack.


    Very few students would raise an army to attack the city just to get out of gate raising duty, but ironically enough it would typically be the necromancers who do so. Instead of raising the gates, they would raise sufficient corpses on the outskirts of town to generate a state of emergency, and sleep in for an extra hour. Generally, that would only come from the combination of specialization and background; it takes influence to prevent reprisal from that sort of action, and enough capital to be able to frivolously waste that kind of power on simply sleeping in.


    The necromancer escorting a cart of hazardous magical materials out to a nearby canyon only had one of those factors. Unlike the rich necromancers, this one couldn¡¯t afford reagents, and only specialized in the manipulation of souls and animation of objects thereof because of the family business. They were established outside the city walls, and catered to lower-class, low-tier, low-power adventurers. A small magic shop had to cut costs somehow, and this particular one had gone the route of producing weak magical equipment out of recently exterminated monsters.


    A town¡¯s tavern is typically a fairly reliable place to pick up work for a starting adventurer. Back beyond the tables, a bit away from the dark tables in the corner, along the wall, a standard alehouse will put up a wooden board for the local businesses and individuals to stab on parchments advertising goods in exchange for services. Small businesses will put up requests for small numbers of easily hunted monsters, individuals would put up requests for personal meetings, wherein the details of the job would be specified, and the tavern would put up advertisements.Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    Specifically, the necromancer¡¯s family would order kobolds, put a time limit on the quest, and request the full body. They had a standing arrangement with a couple of the taverns to replenish the posting with regularity, making it a repeatable daily quest to kill mobs and get a small amount of money in return. As an additional part of the arrangements, the taverns were supplied with significant amounts of kobold meat at cost after the shop was done processing the bodies. The adventurers get paid, spend money on food at the inn, and then spend the rest of their coin at the magic shop on their way to stronger monsters.


    As it happened, the ability to syphon the souls from the freshest kobolds and use those souls to animate their skeletons is a great way to debone a small reptile with fragile bones. What would take a professional butcher hours to do is completed in minutes by a necromancer, who can then retrieve the used soul for recycling into a power source for a slightly magical object, likely using those very bones as a reagent to allow the mana to bind to the item in question.


    Neither of the necromancer¡¯s parents had managed to get in to study at the wizard¡¯s tower, but they were adept enough to grasp the basics of enchanting and animation. The lower level of their two story building is the shop, where bows, swords, leather armors, farming equipment, and various trinkets are held, waiting for a customer to come in, their payment for the completion of their quest in hand, and upgrade their entirely mundane armor or weapon into something that would be just that slightest bit more effective. Conveniently enough, the shop would also be perfectly willing to buy their old, non-magical gear as well, so they don¡¯t have to carry it around town until they can find a buyer. The family wasn¡¯t well-off by any means, but at the very least they weren¡¯t poor.


    On the other hand, a fresh necromancer trying to prove their worth needed an abundance of power to impress the administrators of the wizarding tower. That being the case, the parents here would likely attempt to sell a gemstone the size of a melon, rather than make it into a project that would impress the admissions office the supposed standard way. Money was power after all. That was why the young one snuck in the back entrance of the building to get to the second floor without attracting attention.


    Upstairs had four different rooms. From smallest to largest, there was the restroom, the child¡¯s room, the parent¡¯s room, and the workshop. With what they knew of the layout of the building, the young necromancer decided it was safest to store the gemstone in the workshop, nearest the tools needed to flay a kobold. Generally, it was the skeletons that did that work, while the enchanters would work on making the equipment bought from adventurers slightly magical. The books could go just about anywhere, as they usually ended up in the restroom until everyone in the building had finished reading it, before making its way down to the shop. It wasn¡¯t exactly like the magical tomes that came into the place were in mint condition to start with anyway.


    All of that taken care of, the necromancer sneaks back out, taking the animated wagon out to the canyon. They¡¯ll get to work after they finish with their work.

 Home Again

    Several kilometers away from the city, with its walls, towers, and castle, a shallow canyon slices through the mesa everything is stacked upon. After so much erosion, it¡¯s not even technically accurate to call the two raised bits of land a single mesa any longer, but people refuse to accept changes occur. That may in fact be a contributing factor as to why the city in general uses the canyon and river therein as a dumping ground for all of their unwanted waste. Enough fill would erase any hole, the reasoning would go, and as long as efforts are underway to make it a reality, the two mesas would be one.


    Not that a necromancer pushing junk out of a cart down a cliff cared about why there weren¡¯t actual landfills or garbage dumps anywhere to be found. For them, it was just a part of the daily routine, and how garbage had always been disposed of. Somehow, the daily droppage of magical materials into the ecosystem down below hadn¡¯t resulted in a blighted wasteland; it had instead resulted in a slime infested one. The water-based sacks of gelatin divided fast enough that any particular contaminant that fell in would in short order be engulfed by one of the monsters, at which point it had three gallons of water to diffuse itself into. Any hazardous material unable to be contained by this set off the slime¡¯s ¡®protect the group¡¯ instincts, wherein the slime in question would notice it was going to die, start shedding off droplets of contaminants, and, if failure still loomed, throw itself into the river.


    Diffusing particularly strong malefics would occasionally cause a slime chain reaction, as unaffected blobs roll over the cast off droplets and go into the panic mode themselves. Eventually, all of the material ends up in the river, at which point it is no longer a problem of the city. There are always more slimes, and rarely does anyone care about anyone who happens to live downstream from them.


    Adventurers, on the other hand, find the base of the canyon to be a good starting point for training purposes. Every evening, the public garbage collectors take their collections over the edge, and what slimes managed to survive the day come to feast on the completely mundane waste of a city. Food overflow, biological waste products, remnants of crafting processes, all of it serves to fuel the growth of the scavengers down below. Each one devours all it can, renders it down into mana, and divides into as many copies of itself as possible to consume more. Apparently, in this particular environment that is the evolutionary strategy for success. By daybreak, the riverbed is full of slimes, just waiting to be slaughtered en mass by people looking to get a little extra power and pocket change.


    Metals and gems aren¡¯t broken down easily by slimes. With a bit of luck, the average stick-swinger would be able to gather a significant mass of scrap metal from beating down a pile of harmless jelly over the course of a workday, as long as they manage to pick up the spoils with enough haste. Unfortunately for the slimes, the main dangers they pose to even a novice adventurer is the possibility of another slime consuming what the person beating on them is trying to get out of them, and wasting enough time that the adventurer is buried in garbage at the end of the day. It¡¯s fairly rare someone is unobservant enough to be killed in that manner though.If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    A lesser danger, but one worth noting, would be a potential mutation of the slimes after a Wizard Tower dump. Magical material, being mainly mana, may manifest malignancies in the typically genial and bouncy slimes. A cartload of corpses and reagents would simply lead to an increased rate of division, as the energy provided is similar enough to that provided by ordinary materials that is can be processed by their simple biology in the same manner, but were it to contain something uniquely magical, an enchanted weapon or necklace made of compressed fire for example, it might transform into a more powerful variant of the slime species. Metal slimes, when they appear in the area, are highly sought for their valuable materials.


    Careful mages would be sure to pick through their collection before dumping, however. Magic is expensive, and additional work to maybe recoup the loss of what would have been theirs had they paid more attention is not an attractive prospect to a wizard, regardless of financial status. A necromancer that lives above a shop with their parents would be doubly so focused, as any amount they could scavenge would put them one step closer to an actual space in the tower.


    Scavenged books, for instance, would potentially allow any wizard to bypass ordinary requirements to figure out spells the long way, or give inspiration regarding a project one might use to show them all what they were capable of. The necromancer that had just finished putting the cart back into its stall didn¡¯t know what exactly was going to be in that book they had pilfered, but, considering how expensive textbooks were, it was a steal at the price they had gotten it at. They walk straight through the shop, ignoring the various bobs and ends on display, and take the stairs two at a time, hoping to get to their room before -


    ¡°Avery, is that you?¡±


    With a sigh, the necromancer stops halfway up the stairs and turns around.


    ¡°Yeah mom. Just got back.¡±


    ¡°Oh good! Could you come here and help with something?¡±


    The necromancer takes one last look up the stairs, considering if it was worth the effort to go all the way up there to take off their robes if they were going to have to come all the way back down again, and forlornly trudges back down. So close to getting to dig into a book¡­


    Behind a curtain draped down over a doorway, hanging off a wooden rod, a fair woman with curly brown hair stands in front of a stove. Sitting atop it is a pot, full of unidentifiable lumps and boiling water. As the necromancer walks in, pushing the curtain out of the way, the woman shoves a large wooden spoon at them.


    ¡°Stir this for me. My arms are tired.¡±

 A Plan for Tomorrow

    Over the course of the next two hours, the necromancer spends their time stirring a pot ¡®because your mother¡¯s arms are tired¡¯, setting the table in the small back area behind the shop proper, and eating dinner with the family. Kobold stew, a staple food for a wide portion of the city¡¯s less affluent citizens. It¡¯s another half hour to wash the dishes, after which the mage can finally escape up to the upper floor and peruse the spoils.


    Shucking the robe directly on the floor, Avery tosses herself onto her bed. It¡¯s tempting to just close her eyes and go to sleep, deal with all possible things to do in the morning, but she is fully aware that rather than spending extra time in the morning doing work, she would instead continue to sleep the extra hours and only get ready for the day¡¯s activities five minutes before they were set to begin.


    And so, she burns the mana needed to light a candle next to the bed, and digs into the book. About three hours in, she finds the section the poor, unfortunate soul who previously owned this tome seemed to have been using, notes and formulas written up and down the margins.


    ¡°These hardy plants, once grown to sufficient size, can wind their vines together into an approximation of a typical animal. After forming an outer shell, the tangled plants bloom within the core; at this point the mass shows a rudimentary intelligence, sensory ability, and mobility. In the wild, it has been observed wrapping itself around trees; the individual vines tapping in beyond the bark to drain the sap from its much larger, less mobile cousin. They also perform as ambush predators. In the presence of an unwary potential food source, the mass of vegetation can uproot itself and fall directly onto the unfortunate animal. Mice, rabbits, shrews, elk, and humans have been observed to provoke the response. Once a creature is constricted by the vines, it will return to an immobile state until its meal has been thoroughly pulped and absorbed by the root structure.


    While cuttings have proven to easily grow additional vines, attempts to integrate new growth into already merged vegetation have ended in failure. Burning sections of plant matter away from the main body proves less than effective, as the living plant is highly resistant to extreme temperatures. Additionally, while it is possible to use electric shocks as a means to keep the specimens under control, it is only effective as a method of positive reinforcement.¡±This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.


    The book goes on about how the plants perform when placed in containments with puzzles, locks, and octopi, and how further experimental tests would keep the subjects separated, but what Avery was more interested in was the notes. It seemed that the formula and notes were on the possibility of using a high powered necromantic spell to transplant the user¡¯s consciousness from their body into that of the ambulatory murderplant. Judging by what the notes said, the spell would last for a matter of hours, during which the caster¡¯s body would be rendered completely motionless, appearing to any form of inquiry to be dead.


    ¡°Huh. Well, everyone figured they were dead before I tossed them into a canyon full of flesh eating slimes. I¡¯m not losing sleep over it.¡±


    What she was going to be losing sleep over, would be the fact that with this book, and the enormous gem she had run into completely legitimately, there was every possibility that she could cast the spell as well. It took years for wizards to learn enough magic to turn themself into a dragon or whatever. The possibilities with this were fairly extraordinary. Since the wizard in question would still be in complete command of their facilities, they could have an extremely hardy monster caged within the lab to take command of during the portions of experiments that were most likely to explode. According to the notes, a sufficiently large gem was used as a storage medium for the souls of whichever creature was going to be bodiless for a time. If the body the wizard is using at the time happens to die, they just get returned to the gem, with no repercussions other than the loss of the creature and creature¡¯s soul. At that point, the wizard can possess their own body, and reset the experiment with a new subject.


    Noting that removing the body of the person in question from a straight line of the gem acting as a tether prevents the soul from returning, and that the same applies to a creature killed out of the gem¡¯s range, Avery shelves the idea of stealing a kobold and using it as a second life out in the city. If she was going to do this, she was going to start with less deadly initial experimental conditions. It would take an hour or so to get the spell to work, just on its own, so she was going to take tomorrow off, and mess with things until something worked.

 Pointless Interlude

    That night, a large rock on the side of the canyon started shaking, without any apparent forces acting upon it to cause any such behavior. This didn''t interrupt the behavior of the slimes below, though a couple of them got an unexpected meal of pebbles when a significant amount of cliff face snapped away from the greater rock surface and began floating in midair. It''s shaking continued, until the mouth of an enormous shark broke out the front of the boulder and started thrashing it''s way forward out of the confinement it found itself in. This stopped the shaking in exchange for the entire chunk of rock rocketing around the canyon, smashing itself into the walls and carving furrows into what was previously a fairly smooth, sheer decline down to the river that ran down both sides of the mesas.


    In short order, the topmost section of the boulder was broken away by the frantic motions of the behemoth shark, though it seemed to have far more difficulty escaping from the similarly sized boulder on its belly. Chains of black metal wrapped around the shark, extending downward into the rock wall preventing the creature from simply swimming away from it''s burden, and that simple fact was enraging the beast. Deciding that ordinary thrashing wasn''t cutting it, the megalodon sized flying object started swimming low, scraping the rock strapped to its belly against the stones of the canyon¡¯s base, leaving a trail of smashed slimes and scratched white stones. After a furrow had been carved out beside the river, the shark flew up as high as it could in preparation of slamming it''s burden into the ground with as much force as it could muster.


    It built up speed flying only a meter above the river, solely gaining altitude. From one meter to one point four, five, six meters in the air, it doubles the velocity of it''s massive bulk. At the Apex of the sharks momentum, it going itself skyward, breaching its self propelled height limit! Jumping as high as it could, the creature manages a stunning backward spiral as it brings its highest point up to one point eight meters in the air!


    Angling itself directly downward, the mega shark slides nearly frictionlessly through the fluid known as ¡®air¡¯, peaking at an inertia great enough to warp steel bars. It opens its mouth as if to scream defiance at, or perhaps devour, the world itself. Unfortunately, the shark, being unable to see itself, misjudged the size of the thing strapped to it, and just slams face first into the river.


    The makeshift dam the shark had left between the furrow and river burst with the impact of shark flesh against it, and water floods around the shark, leaving a dry island within two branches of river, a shark taking up a good deal of the available space


    However, fruit of some sort had been borne of the trench run. Beneath the shark, or to the side of it, now that it had landed on its side, the stone had been scraped away to reveal a pitch black material. Similar in appearance to the chains wrapped around the shark, the metal absorbed all light, hiding any possible contours or changes in texture from view. No changes at all could be detected until a vertical slit appears in the black nothingness, showing a grey depth and a source of light from inside of the rock. As the light grows wider, so does the darkness, like plates moving to either size and blocking the stone from view.


    After the light finishes expanding to a full circle of glow across the river, the slimes look on in addle-brained wonder, and hunger, as a foot comes up from the depths of the rock. It is followed by another foot, and quite rapidly after that an entire body that shoots out from the glowing hole and falls parabolically to the ground as local gravity takes full control of its descent. Scree generated from the shark¡¯s temper tantrum slides easily under the forward moving body, allowing for an uncontrolled slide directly into the newly rushing water.


    A few more inquisitive slimes attempt to investigate the potential food source trapped in the water, soggy but potentially delicious, but are summarily dispersed into the far more vast body of liquid. Curiosity being weeded out of the small but easily influenced gene pool of dividing clones by nearby environmental factors could potentially be a factor in their underdeveloped monster status. After a few minutes of watching the potential meal flail around with no effect, and any who attempt to go near it removing themselves from any possibility of eating food ever again, the slimes return to their original behavior of devouring the leavings of an entire city.


    Eventually, the figure in the water has enough presence of mind, or more likely blind luck, to put their feet down and discover they can easily reach the bottom. With their foolishness exposed for all the world to see, the person in the middle of a meter deep creek glares balefully at the harmless oozes jeering at them from their viewpoints at the shore of the water. They lift an arm, and a nine and a half centimeter ball of water rises out of the larger mass; as the figure gestures toward one of the slimes, it flies in a lazy, slow arc into the core of the monster. There¡¯s a ripple over the surface of the gel, and the liquid is absorbed into the whole, leaving the creature very slightly larger than it was before.


    Satisfied that its point had been made, the person in the water stands up, fighting against the gentle current. With a herculean struggle, they drag themself footfall by agonizing footfall to the mostly dry land populated entirely by deadly sharks. Immediately upon gaining landfall, the scree slides out from under their foot, and they fall face-first onto the rocky shore.


    After laying there for a good minute, the figure shows off their determination and struggles back to their feet. This was a task not assisted by the remains of popped slimes coating the ground, making it simultaneously sticky and slippery, not to mention somewhat fizzy. Over the course of several minutes, the slowly moving figure makes its way down the sixty meters of furrowed coastline to the shark, wobbling the whole way. Upon their arrival, they stick their head into the open porthole and yells into the light.


    ¡°Definitely made it! Get out here and take care of your pet, it looks like it¡¯s still calm, but that could change at any moment.¡±


    They remove their head, then think better of it and pop back in.


    ¡°And take it easy on the exit, there¡¯s -¡±


    Another being, this one far larger than the first, pops out of the light, smashing directly in the face of the smaller one. The forward momentum of the second is completely halted, leading to them dropping straight to the ground, whereas the first, being the recipient of all the force, slips backward down the scree straight back into the river.


    While the first off sputters and attempts to regain their footing, the newcomer stands up with no issues and jogs over to the shark laying unmoving on its side, its gills sputtering as it inhales and exhales in a medium nature never intended it to be in. The large creature strokes the shark, ignoring the rips this action creates in its skin. Those disappear almost immediately, and the creature moves on, following the chains of black to where they wrapped around the giant beast. The thrashing, slamming, and general mayhem brought about by the sharks entrance into the canyon had pulled the metal taunt against its hide, and when inertial forces caused pressure to form between the two, it was not the chains that broke. Quite unpleasantly for the shark, it hardiness had caused the chains to heal directly inside of its own flesh.


    The first figure finds footing far faster than the previous time it had been in this situation. It stands in the midst of the current, and yells toward the second again.


    ¡°As I was saying, the exit was sideways, and gravity was going to pull you in a different direction than you were expecting! Creator, these guys are always annoying to work with.¡±


    In response, the one nearer the shark moves toward the head, finds a chunk of rock about two meters across, and tosses it over the shark in the general direction of the first one. Hitting the bottom of the small gully, the rock splits into several pieces and fills the newly formed channel. Displaced water splashes up, and knocks the only creature within the liquid over. The noise of a giant rock smashing down into a small pool of water echos through the canyon, followed by muffled yelling as the recipient of said rock is repeatedly thrown back under the surface by a suddenly far more active current.Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    On the dry side of the shark, the other person gives the chains an experimental tug. Other than some twitching from the shark, there is no effect. The figure frowns, and focuses on itself. Over the course of the next six seconds, it grows from two meters in height up to fourteen meters tall. Grabbing one side of a chain stuck in the shark in each hand, the giant bends its knees and lifts.


    The shark lifts up fourteen meters in the air.


    Frowning again, the giant puts down the shark, and focuses inward once more. After only two seconds, it has grown to forty-six meters high. Holding down the shark with one careful hand, it carefully pulls the chain with the other. Over two thousand newtons of force wrench the chains from the scales of the shark, which begins thrashing as the giant gently holds it still, skin scraping off en mass as the sharp spines of the dermal scales dig deep into its fragile flesh.


    Bedraggled, the first figure yells again.


    ¡°You moron, let me decouple the connectors before you start doing that! I just wanted you to keep it from flying off or blowing up the planet or whatever these things do when they¡¯re hurt!¡±


    They hurry back to the porthole, moments flying by as the shark continues to struggle. The giant lets loose the chain as soon as it notices the rips in the creature¡¯s skin having repaired themselves, and places its smallest finger directly in front of the shark. Noticing meat directly in front of it, the predator¡¯s instincts kick in, and its movements become more fluid, as it flicks its tail rhythmically side to side, or in this case up and down, to attempt to propel itself toward its next meal.


    Stopping just outside the rock encrusted portal, the first figure looks dumbfoundedly at the sight.


    ¡°Hey, could you clear this rock off our transport? I can¡¯t get to the release mechanisms from here.¡±


    Removing its hand from the face of the predator that wanted to eat it, the giant gently rubs its fingers across the protrusion under the creature¡¯s stomach. Clouds of gravel fall from the surface, as rock shatters like a clod of dirt under a humans two fingers. Within moments, a black sphere is sitting under an apex predator, looking like a world war two sea mine strapped to a trained sabotage agent.


    Nodding in satisfaction, the first figure focuses on where it knows the toggles for the chain locking mechanisms should be. A simple press of a button is all it takes to release the bindings keeping the chains in place, and the ball drops away from the shark, leaving nothing but the metal links embedded in the creature¡¯s body.


    ¡°Okay, now you can do whatever. I¡¯m gonna call in that we made it. Try to keep any destruction pointed away from me, please.¡±


    From the hand not currently holding a shark, a thumbs up.


    The first figure clambers back up into the lit hole. As soon as it passes the point where the seam opened, it bounces back out, before it gets a grip on the bottommost edge of the surface. Once it manages to get its head all the way in, it takes only seconds before a force of some sort pulls it all the way into the light.


    Inside the metal ball, there are very few things. Two chairs, a control panel full of levers, lights, dials, and buttons, and a brown wooden box with a yellow handle on the top, two buttons on the front, and a dial in the middle. Without anything touching it, the button on the left depresses.


    ¡°Come in base, this is recon team eff. We have found a seemingly habitable area, with no signs of intelligent life anywhere near the landing site.¡±


    From the box, a tinny, distorted voice speaks.


    ¡°Your use of the intelligent qualifier intrigues me. What sort of life are you located near? How have you determined it is lacking in that most necessary of qualities?¡±


    Despite being safely aboard the ship, far from the source of the voice, the figure shudders. It thinks quickly, coming up with an answer it hopes will placate this¡­ less than pleasant member of its acquaintance.


    ¡°Master Grimfang, the indigenous population is a swarm of single celled life forms, which, despite witnessing and falling victim to an enraged shark, continue to eat and divide around the landing site.¡±


    ¡°But do they react to stimuli? Can they recognize themselves? If you stab them, do they flee in agony? Can they determine that the thing that causes them pain is a thing to be avoided at all? Get back to me once you¡¯ve tested it. Do the important one first. Let me know how they suffer.¡±


    To the right of the dial, the second button depresses, popping loose the first one. The figure rubs its forehead, then turns and carefully lets itself down from the hole. Out a ways, the chains have been removed from the shark, which is now calmy floating around a deflated giant, now only the size of a large human. The first gestures at the water, and a small ball flings itself at the not-so-giant, hitting it directly in the face.


    ¡°One of the bosses wants to know what happens when you hit one of those cell things.¡±


    With another pet of the blood-splattered shark, the larger one walks over to the shore and stands still. In short order, one of the slimes attempts to run into it, and the giant kicks it. The creature explodes into a fine mist, and the survivor of that encounter gives a thumbs-up to the instigator.


    ¡°Augh. Okay, not when you do it. Give me a minute and I¡¯ll get over there.¡±


    Approximately fifteen seconds later, as the figure is still not even halfway across, the giant walks over, picks them up, and carries them to the bank.


    ¡°Ow, my pride. Do you see any sticks or anything around here for poking?¡±


    With a casual glance around, the giant walks over to where a group of slimes are eating a pile of compost. As they near the mound, it suddenly bursts up from the ground and wraps itself around the giant. The creature is immediately forced to the ground, unable to accommodate the sudden weight jumping up onto it. Slammed into the ground, its skull is split open, followed by vines drilling directly into the crack.


    ¡°Oh no.¡±


    The first figure wastes almost a second trying to control the vines directly, only to realize that it was nowhere near powerful enough on its own to deal with something its physically inclined compatriot couldn''t. Instead, it went for the far more reckless and ill advised option, to charge into the vines bodily and hope that it would be a more tempting target to the tangle.


    Taken off guard by the sudden appearance of additional prey, the vines forgo constricting and devouring the downed creature for the moment to deal with the new threat. With that threat having been kind enough to come directly to the mound, it didn¡¯t have to waste its energy on moving, and could simply slam down repeatedly on its target. The first fist only hits for a glancing blow, the utter peak of what the first figure¡¯s physical abilities could provide, but the second fists¡¯ slam is as solid a hit as the initial ambush. Vines burrow into the soft skin, syphoning blood from veins like sap from a tree.


    ¡®Please don¡¯t be dead, please don¡¯t be dead,¡¯ the one currently being drained of life thinks of its companion.


    For long seconds, the situation stagnates. A pile of rotten vegetation sits in a pit of slimes, while a body sits next to it, forgotten for the moment. Then, the body begins to grow.


    Wounds healed, the now giant grabs the vines with one hand, and rips the drained husk from the parasitic plants. The vines slam against the palm, and burrow into the flesh, but the giant ignores the pain. Dropping the husk with no concern about where it landed, the giant grabs the shark with its other hand, points the mouth toward the hand holding the vine, and gently squeezes.


    As if this were some sort of signal, and it was indeed, the shark opens its mouth, and a searing beam of energy blasts out, burning hand, vine, and cliff behind into nothing but a pit of ashes. The giant releases the shark, and shrinks back down. They find the shriveled body of the other, and places it inside of the black sphere.


    Five minutes later, the leftmost button depresses itself again.


    ¡°Master Grimfang, the cells are unintelligent enough to attempt to digest a plant that was in the midst of absorbing them.¡±


    ¡°Bah! Another one, useless to me! Get on with your mission, I¡¯ll inform the rest that you¡¯ve arrived safely.¡±


    With that taken care of, the figure picks up the box by the top handle, carefully lets itself back out of the sphere, and issues orders to its subordinate.


    ¡°Now that check-in is out of the way, it¡¯s time to get on with it. I¡¯ll set up the monitoring system here, and you canvass the area to find a potential spot for us to take over. Take the transport, secure it, find a place to get back to normal size, and meet me back here when you¡¯ve found something. Wait, wait.¡±


    Taking a look around at the potentially deadly everything around them, the first figure points at the newly created cave on the side of the canyon.


    ¡°Put me in there first, and carve out a path to the top and bottom. One with a gentle enough gradient that I¡¯d be able to use it without a problem. I¡¯ll need to be mobile, and not have to deal with hostiles constantly.¡±


    As the giant is working, they think for a moment more.


    ¡°And get me a poking stick!¡±

 Back to the Canyon

    Early in the morning, Avery put her plan into action. First step was to get to work on enchanting the best of the adventuring cast-offs and deboning the newest batch of meat. The taverns would send over the fresh product each day before they open for new business, and expect their supply of protein to be delivered before it was time to serve their customers supper. Both tasks dovetailed into each other nicely, as the animated skeletons produced during the deboning process could be tasked with the more time consuming and boring labor of assembling the enchantment layers, tools, and materials for the final steps of the process. Avery starts by placing a gem of onyx in each body''s skull, and channels the mana stored in each small rock toward the spell of animation. Over the course of performing the ritual daily, she had built up enough mana reserves to raise up to fourteen kobolds, one after another, every morning. Usually, there weren''t that many, as adventures tended to only go after those reptiles that left their burrows to raid more successful creatures homes. As the bands sent out rarely contained more than eight members, and most groups of warriors knew better than to try and chase after the ones that fled, a party collecting on a bounty would usually only have six or fewer kobolds, of which some were not in proper shape for processing. Those ones would generally be resolved to the vendors with food carts.


    That left Avery with plenty of mana left over to do projects, or jockey for position in what teams she could sneak a place into, or sabotage the candidates that looked like they''re getting closer to securing one of the elusive spots on the first floor. After the tasks for the day were finished, she could come back to an enchantment all set up, other than the final steps. At that point she could dump whatever mana she had left, and whatever she had recovered over the day, into whatever armor or weapon was the special du jour. Today though, she would be relying on her family to finish the work, because the spell set out in the botany book was far more powerful than anything she would be able to normally cast on her own. Fortunately, the gem used to store the displaced souls was the main focus of the spell; a good portion of the mana spent would be used to supplement the base capacity of the item for a limited amount of time, just enough to keep whatever creature the caster displaces trapped within the item until the invested energy is depleted.


    With this massive black gem she had recovered yesterday, Avery estimated that she could maintain the spell for an entire hour, if she spent enough time preparing the site and spell for her entire mana pool to recover. Black was a good color for what she intended. Onyx, moreso than any other gem, lent itself to necromancy. Mana invested into the crystals would fill out the stones reserves as normal for the precious minerals, but when extracted through the medium of a necromantic ritual, a corpse would rise more easily and last longer, cold would chill beyond the expected limits of a spell, fear would pervade ever stronger minds, and any effect intended to drain some aspect of life from a target would have just a little more bite. Not that Avery could afford to use large, flawless gems as mere spell empowerment tools. Most uses of the rocks were regulated, specifically to avoid the scenarios in which someone like Avery gains a massive amount of power easily.


    The crown had instituted a somewhat interesting method of deincentivising the use of the more dangerous magical storage containers. Rather than simply allowing the free market to take over distribution of the useful, but non-rare, stones, the king decreed that distribution of the items fell under the purview of the organizations which most represented their use. Other than diamonds, this lead to any magically capable jewels falling under the direct control of the wizard¡¯s tower. With that authority in hand, the king built a system with the archwizards of the kingdom to limit the distribution throughout the organization. As ones rank within the tower grew, so did the power of the gem one was authorized to purchase. However, this would continually leave the stones available to purchase at a level below the point where it would actually be useful for the person doing the buying. Avery¡¯s family having access to the smallest of onyx was the limit the tower would authorize non-members; they would do the same with other associated gems necessary for craftsmen to perform their duty, from rubies for fire resistance (or infliction) enchantments, to opals for completely normal earrings.Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.


    On the other hand, the churches were somewhat generous with their monopoly on diamonds. The gems were available to anyone who wanted to donate an exorbitant amount of money. What was most unfortunate about this was the simple fact that only the most useful spells utilized diamonds, and they required extremely large, near perfect jewels, which would explode into a fine mist of carbon when the spell completed. Combined with their high mana cost, only the members of the clergy ever actually used any of the healing arts. Most services were relatively inexpensive, but the major, miraculous acts, binding a soul to a detached body part and regrowing the entire rest of a person, for example, would obliterate a non-noble household¡¯s finances.


    Anyway, after setting a few skeletons to do work, and one to do chores, Avery puts stage two of her plan into motion. Putting a small blanket inside the cart, the necromancer models a small nest for her prize to sit upon. Security of gemstone achieved, she covers it with another blanket, making it only a suspicious blanket-covered lump, rather than an incredibly illegal enormous magical artifact.


    Having set a precedent over time of taking the cart down to the canyon to dump it, Avery goes through the town with a minimum of human interaction. A nod to the baker she gets cookies from, a smile toward the tavern owner who always thanks her when she delivers the meat, a middle finger raised toward an adventuring group that had tried to sell actual lizards as kobolds, and she was was out on the road again.


    It was a boring trek to to the canyon, but the fact that it had changed dramatically since the last time she had been there, one day ago, was anything but. For one thing, there was a cave, perfectly suited for what she had in mind, right out in the open where before there was nothing but cliff. Originally, Avery was going to cast an earth shaping spell to do the same thing, hide the gem in it, and cover the entrance to continue moving things around at a slower pace, but a place perfectly suited to her needs popping up out of nowhere would shave a day or so off the checklist. Granted, it was on the other side of the canyon, most of the way up, but adventurers went up and down the switchback trail to the slime pit all the time. If they could do it, so could she.


    About an hour later, lugging a watermelon sized chunk of rock up a mountain, she decided next time she¡¯d waste the extra day.

 First Tunnel

    At last, Avery had gotten up the winding path up to the circular hole in the canyon wall. This was not exactly typical in terms of the standard forces of erosion, being a near-perfect two meter in diameter hole of indeterminate length. However, it was quite indicative of some powerful magic user. A single casting of a stone shaping spell could excavate a significant amount of rock, but every spell had it''s limit. In order to get as much space as possible out of their spell, a canny caster would attempt to minimize the area of at least one of their workings dimensions. As it happened, a sphere would have the least amount of resistance in a metaphysical way, and that would be where they begin when modifying the base to suit their needs.


    In terms of terrain deformation, wizards as a general rule would have to expend more energy for the same effect as any who gained their power from non-research-based magic. For reasons that continue to escape the understanding of the tower, the majority of those systems had a sort of closed internal network wherein any spell that is created, ever, along with any specifically made variation of the magic, is instantly available to every individual user of that power source. Wizards, on the other hand, would continuously have to pass around their notes manually, leading to many retreading the same ground as their predecessors, but also leading to complete understanding and deeper knowledge of their particular niche over time, with a continual increase in the total pool of knowledge. While it would be nice to have instant easy access to every possible spell she would ever need, and the free time to pursue other avenues of self-improvement, Avery preferred the path that led to a better long term future.


    At least, that''s what she continuously told herself every time someone who decided themselves to the god of hierarchy at sixteen, or some random person that lived in the woods for years, suddenly pulls out incredibly powerful spells perfectly suited to whatever situation is at hand with no thought or effort, when figuring out how to do the same thing would take weeks of hunting down someone that specializes in that field of study and a bunch of money to bribe them into letting her see their notes, and then a few hours trying to figure out what the thing was saying. Nothing was worse than getting upstaged magically by a circus performer.


    There was no way for Avery to know that a large number of people who run away to join the circus would find themselves ideologically attracted to the god of defiance.


    She takes a few steps forward into the probably unnatural cavern. No plants of any kind grow on the walls, as is typical for new construction, nor do there appear to be any creatures taking refuge in the darkness. Deciding it was better to be safe that eaten, the necromancer cast the spell she was most proud of. Detect life. Any library could direct its readers to a book or two about the divinatory arts, and any of them would have listed within them the lowest tier of spells. One of these was the incredibly situationally useful spell, detect undead. Within a short range, the caster could send out a burst of magical energy that would reflect off of any creature brought to life by necromancy, whether through natural or unnatural means. While this could potentially alert someone who was already wary of the possibility about the less corporeal varieties, it tended to be less than useful, considering eyes, ears, and nose were typically all one would need to recognize that a zombie was trying to shamble closer.The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    What her spell did was simple. It did the same thing, but for normal living things. Wasn¡¯t even hard. Technically it was using a necromantic wave, and technically she hadn¡¯t tested whether long term exposure to the energies involved were safe for the things being scanned, but she only had so much mana and time in a day to do experiments. It took a lot of effort to get a decent sample size, particularly when they keep dying in the middle of setting things up. Slimes were a lot of things, but hardy was not one of them.


    Nothing was showing up, at least in the eighteen meters the spell covered. Fortunately, Avery could keep it up for a couple of minutes, and was able to walk fast enough that she could reach the end of the cavern before those minutes were up. It didn¡¯t take long to run the burst over the area and make sure nothing was hiding in the darkness, other than her, and once the place was secured, she could go about making it actually secure.


    While it wouldn¡¯t do much to prevent anyone from actually entering the area, nor a careful examination from discovering the ruse, Avery had happened to have brought a decently sized blanket along with her to the canyon. On her way through, she had soaked the coarse fabric in water, and dragged one side through as much dirt and dust as she could on the way up. That may have contributed to how absolutely exhausted she felt after lugging a giant rock up a mountain, but she placed the blame on the rock exclusively. Also the path. And the canyon.


    With so much canyon staining the blanket, hanging it in front of the entrance would keep the casual glance from noticing the big black dot on the other side of the canyon, like she had. The people who were actually doing their waste collecting duty today were due to arrive at any moment, and a hole away from the world was something any mage would love to have. It was one of the reasons competition for space in the tower was so fierce; no one can interrupt you when you¡¯re in a sealed environment.


    As she hadn¡¯t exactly been expecting this kind of windfall when she came to the canyon, more figuring that she would be trying to just set up a quick shelter by flipping over her cart and casting inside of it, Avery hadn¡¯t brought pitons or anything that would hold the blanket in place. Glue would have been nice to have. She made due with rocks, smacking the wall of the canyon until enough broke away to shelve a stone on each side, with cloth held down beneath it. The blanket wasn¡¯t quite long enough to reach the ground, but it would have to do. Enough light made it through that she could retrieve the gem from where she had placed it near the entrance before heading in the darkness, to perform her dark ritual.

 Oh right, the point

    Avery realized what she had forgotten. After climbing all the way up to this cave, covering the entrance, and getting as set up for the ritual as she could without using any of her limited amount of mana lighting up the area before she actually started with the thing, she had forgotten to bring something to steal the body from. Now she was going to have to go all the way back down, and all the way back up, luring a slime the whole way.


    At least that was easier than carrying things up and down the rock face, though she did so swearing under her breath the whole time at the god of light, bane of necromancers everywhere. It was getting close to the point where people would be free from their daily obligations, and those with any desire to become an adventurer would inexorably be drawn to the pit of slime, where they could easily build their experience fighting weak monsters, and collect some smattering of coins from the burst gelsacks. It was also time for the presence in the cave, the one that didn¡¯t register to detect life, to sneak off higher, out of the canyon¡¯s embrace.


    A few minutes later, Avery was back in front of the cave, having slowly walked away from a slime as it attempted to catch and eat her. The trick to keeping a monster interested was to go a bit closer and hit it any time it decided one wasn¡¯t worth the effort. From the smallest slime to the largest dragon, almost no creature would ignore something attacking it. Getting it to get through a small gap between a blanket and a rock face was a bit more trouble. The creature would keep getting distracted by the potentially edible material, and ignore Avery as it tried to eat the fabric. Eventually, she lured it into the cave by prodding it with her candle. Being composed mainly of oil and fat, the stick was practically a delicacy to the puddle of jelly.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    With that taken care of, the slime happily absorbing her candle off to the side, Avery sat down to begin casting the spell directly from the book. This was one of the main advantages wizards had over those who took an easy path to near unlimited power; a mage could take time and understanding, and multiply them together to create something more powerful than just themselves. Out in the field, where combat took place and monsters would rip one to shreds if you gave them ten seconds, a mage was limited by what spells they had completely memorized and their current mana. Safe and alone, they could draw power from their secreted sources, and carefully apply them into the formulas needed to bring forth effects that would astound others four times as powerful.


    Power, in this case, being an approximate sum of all their combat capabilities. A wizard could bring forth destruction, but if some guy with a sword came up while they weren¡¯t paying attention, they would lose their head in short order, in both interpretations of the phrase. Additionally, in general said person with sword would be able and willing to continue fighting slimes, or what have you, far after the wizard has exhausted themself of mana and is rendered somewhat less dangerous than a wet floor. While people might guess that people who study for, or in, the tower are aloof because of their arrogance, mages try not to participate in combat because they run out of magic and turn into pumpkins.


    If this was successful, Avery would have solved that problem. The technique would have its weaknesses of course, the limited range, the need to contain a useful creature to use its body, the potential of the container for the wizard¡¯s soul being shattered during combat, but it had potential. Potential was all the idea needed for her to get a foothold into the tower, and maybe a research grant.


    With this in mind, the ritual started.

 An Hour

    Performing a ritual was a time consuming, but simple, task. A wizard would take the reference material they would be pulling from, construct the spell pattern, and, once they were sure it was built to the correct specifications, they would trigger the entire construction. In a way, it was like building a machine from scrap, then using it before it exploded. For most of the popularly known spells, those being the ones with a pattern simple enough for wizards to memorize, then form and use extremely quickly, the explosion was the useful part of the magic. The ever popular fireball, for example, created a pearl of mana. Depending on how much care one put into it, the pearl could explode immediately, in a minute or so, or until it was jostled. Technically, the intricately crafted spells were used in trade, but generally only to adventurers who wanted to be able to throw magical explosions. Most actual wizards would want an actual pearl, which they could then use to store non-explosive spell structures.


    Unless someone can read in the dark, reading takes light. Avery may have fed her candle to a monster in an effort to keep it contained, but the light spell didn¡¯t have anything to do with fire. Reaching up to the ceiling of the tunnel, she presses her hand against it. When she brings back her arm, the handprint remains, glowing like fire to illuminate six meters of empty cave. Now that she could see though, there was a wooden box in the back. Not her concern right now though; she had a time limit before she was stuck trying to read in the dark in the middle of a spell.


    From the book on botany, formulas of an antipathetic nature to the plants described were read aloud. Numbers given voice, the equations rode out to make their mark on reality. There were no omens, no side effects of magical power permeating the atmosphere. For a more powerful wizard, or anyone with money to spend on a pre-infused spell sheet that only needed the trigger, this spell could be finished in under ten second, with no other effects. This was only going to take more time.


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    Downstream from the cave and dumping ground, below the mesa that held the capital city, past the forest that grew from years of magical byproducts seeping into the soil, an equally powerful wizard was trying to sneak into an agricultural village. Normally, a person wouldn¡¯t need to do that, but when they happen to be one of the smarter varieties of monster, discretion is the better part of valor.Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    Self-proclaimed as the Mage of Magic, the kobold was a cast-out from the typically magic revering society of child-sized lizards. Normally, when a kobold gained power beyond its ken, it was either a gift from the heavens or a reawakening of the power of dragons that ran through the veins of all kobolds. Just figuring out how humans do it isn¡¯t the traditional kobold way. This led to some minor disagreements regarding how the parents of the clan leaders spent their free time, and the Mage of Magic deciding it was a good idea to explore the world a little.


    As of now, as she passes a field on the way in, not a single traveler had taken a second glance at the less than meter high bundle of cloth that sat immobile by the side of the road when they passed by. Kobolds were scavengers, and knew what garbage looked like to the bigger species. Upon reaching an actual settlement, she¡¯d be able to hide in dark places, and not have to rely on shoddy disguises and other people¡¯s lack of interest.


    Daydreaming while walking, the nocturnal lizard doesn¡¯t notice the chicken watching her.


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    In the forest, but less content to be so lately, a black bear is enraged at how that elf creature cast magic on him and made him self-conscious about his life choices. He had gotten his head stuck in a beehive, and the druid had decided to make it so that wouldn¡¯t happen again. Infuriating. The bear decided to go roar at some humans, that would be a stress reliever.


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    As it was walking back from its scouting mission, the not-currently a giant had its first encounter with magic, in the form of a hold person spell. It subsequently has its second encounter in the form of a spell of deep slumber.


    <ul>


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    Avery finally finishes the ritual. It took two more castings of her light spell to keep her ability to read, but it was done. The slime was worryingly close to finishing that candle, so it was a good thing she¡¯d managed to beat it in the race they were, in the slimes case at least, unknowingly having. With a few final syllables, the novice necromancer triggers the spell, and her soul is sucked from her body into the black gem.

 Slimes are Useless

    This was odd. Avery had never been a disembodied soul before. It was also the first time she¡¯d randomly had illusory boxes filled with text pop up in front of her face, but that was possible with a simple application of a silent image spell. That was somewhat concerning, as it implied that the gem was trapped in the extremely specific way of someone inserting their soul into it, but even if the thing were to explode or something the spell should just return her to her body. Additionally, the lack of explosion thus far implied none was forthcoming, barring a secondary trigger spell like explosive runes. That particular spell only activated upon someone reading the printed words, at which point they and everyone around them are detonated by the magical writing. It was actually proving slightly difficult to avoid reading that stuff, the writing being in a blue box that floated in the corner of her vision, which put itself front and center in here vision whenever she focused on the concept of it. Being as that she fairly desperately wanted to read it, only countered by the knowledge that this gem exploding would end the experiment, it was in front of her the majority of her time thus far.


    No time for¡­ existing around, she had a premise to test. Thanks to the energy imbued to the spell, she could detect any kind of life within a certain radius from the soul container. As of right now, that was the slime. Once located, it was a simple effort of will to overpower the creature¡¯s rudimentary programming, and shunt its ¡®consciousness¡¯ to the gem in place of her own soul.


    A slime doesn¡¯t have a nervous system. It has a circulatory system of a sort, in that the gel inside of it continues to flow around as it moves, allowing nutrients and materials to reach what the creature has of an integumentary system, but it wouldn¡¯t be anything a human would have a point of reference for in terms of how it would feel. The creature¡¯s most advanced method of identifying the world is its digestive system. Through the taste of the air, it can tell what kind of potentially edible materials are in its general vicinity, and which point it can roll over the object. The selectively permeable membrane takes care of the work from there; an autonomous function that occurs without a need from any actual mental activity from what passes for a slimes brain.


    Despite the incredibly different senses, movement capabilities, and built in biological urges, the simplicity of the creature is fortunately simple enough that Avery is able to figure out how to exist in a ball of slime rather quickly. For this test run, she only had two hours. Technically, if she had a body with the ability to see, she could maintain the spell indefinitely by casting it after an hour of moving around and doing things to refresh the two hour duration before the mana drained entirely from the spell, but it would end regardless when she needed to sleep. Plus, there was the fact that it would be using half of her time forever working hard to stay the same. Maybe for some extremely powerful body, like if she had managed to walk into the cave of a sleeping dragon, cast for an hour and somehow manage to luck into overcoming its innate resistance. In that case, she¡¯d be pretty much required to keep casting the spell, lest the dragon regain its body and utterly destroy her.


    On the plus side, if she were to take over a highly powerful magical creature, she might be able to suborne their power to boost the duration of the spell. At the level of an adult dragon, the spell would last for a full seven hours, assuming she could figure out how to tap into their more instinctually utilized magical abilities. On the minus side, there was a five percent chance that the initial spell would even reach the creature, and even less chance that it would overcome a dragon¡¯s force of will. In theory, there was a spell a necromancer could cast which renders dragons paralyzed and therefore completely harmless, with a fifty percent base success rate if it manages to get through the innate spell resistance, so two and a half percent success rate, but at the moment it was beyond Avery¡¯s abilities to cast in any reasonable amount of time, and it required the wizard to touch the dragon, without dying first. Slimes were slightly more reasonable.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    Thinking more on the subject, scaling up to kobolds might not be the worst idea. Adventuring groups would take on squads of fifteen at a time with no issue, and Avery had heard about a kingdom to the south using groups of convicts to take care of the lizards by the hundreds. Seemed barbaric to her, but for those who had the death penalty anyway, using them as the blade an army forces monsters into was a logical method of utilizing killing experience while keeping the productive and expensive members of society safe behind their shield wall.


    After enough time wasted away for Avery to get rolling around at the speed of slow out of her system, she tested out whether moving out of the crystal¡¯s soul retrieval range had any notable effect. With the length of the cave, that required getting through the blanket covering the entrance. If there were any bends or turns in the tunnel, going around even one of them would have broken the line of effect, but since it was perfectly smooth and new she had no such luck and had to hope there were no extremely attentive adventurers in the canyon today.


    It was only after she had pushed her way through the blanket and out to the sunlight that she realized she was going to have to figure out how to pull the fabric away from the cave entrance without any hands. As it turned out, there was no feedback of any sort to let her know that the spell wouldn¡¯t safely retrieve her soul if a stray sword happened to find her not selectively permeable enough membrane. That simply meant she, or anyone using this methodology, would have to be careful in arranging their experimental space to account for line of effect in the event of random explosions or rampaging monsters.


    While hands, grasping appendages of any sort, or anything at all weren¡¯t exactly in the repertoire of a slime, what they could do was slowly dissolve their way through things. Unfortunately, that took time, and the spells duration was almost over by the time Avery managed to get back into the cave. It was unfortunate that she would have to buy a new blanket, but blankets were cheap compared to incredibly powerful magical artifacts and methods of their use. Once she transferred back to the gem, shunting the slime¡¯s soul back into it¡¯s body, Avery immediately jumped back into her own. With a gasp of air, she sat up straight, and cast a quick light spell on a handprint of the tunnel wall behind her. She sighed in relief, as the slime was still a good twenty meters away from her, and she didn¡¯t have to worry about it jumping her before she got reaccustomed to her own body. For some reason, the area around the crystal looked deeper and larger than when she had cast the spell, but Avery put that down as a trick of the magically created light. She stands up, and gives the slime a solid kick, bursting it.


    That had been cutting it fine. According to the textbook, if the spell ended, the souls would no longer be tied to the objects or bodies they had been bound to. While that led to a quick righting of bodies if the caster was near enough to the gem and their original body, if the wizard in question were stuck outside of the cave, blocked by a centimeter of cloth, they would instead be freed of all earthly attachments and get to head of into whatever afterlife awaited them.


    Deciding to leave the gem in the cave, Avery picked up the book on botany. Today had been fairly productive so far, considering she¡¯d only done about an hour of actual magic and five minutes of exploring the possibilities of what she had discovered. Her next step was going to have to be finding a better test subject than a slime, but that would have to wait until tomorrow, as she had to get back to -


    Avery fell face forward onto the ground, heart stopped.

 A Dungeon Core

    Ok, this was odd. Avery had been a disembodied soul before, but last time she had intended to be one.


    Avery could still sense things as though the spell was still active, in that she could tell there was nothing alive in the tunnel. Her body, left only a few meters away from the blanket keeping the light of the situation away from her gem, was completely undetectable to her, and she couldn''t think of how any of the few low powered spells she had memorized would be able to do anything about her situation. A few detection spells, the power to cause fear in the weak, a bolt of negative energy to weaken monsters, and how to make a rope tie itself. The last one was especially useless, since she didn''t even have any rope, though if she had hands she could cut the blanket into strips, which would make it ropelike enough for the spell to work on it. It wasn''t like she tried to memorize useful spells, these were just the ones she could practice daily to familiarize herself with the basics of magic. Making a rope do what she wanted it to was a useful training exercise for learning how to get skeletons to do household chores on their own without needing constant focus. Manipulating the energies involved with the understanding was an essential part of learning how to prepare for higher powered necromantic spells. Detect life was going to be her coup d''etat into the wizard tower, and, well, identify was actually useful. She wasn''t here to defend her spell choices to absolutely nothing in an effort to keep from freaking out about becoming another statistic about necromancers who play with forces beyond their control and disappear forever, to be forgotten by the world. No, she was her to figure out how to make this spell useful.


    There was only one thing she could sense here, and considering the predicament Avery found herself in now, it seemed her initial estimate of it being a trap of some sort was correct. Preparing herself for the worst, she focused on the text at the corner of her mind, bringing it to the forefront of her consciousness.


    <table style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Tutorial 2</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Great! Now that you''ve gotten the hang of expanding your territory, you can start managing your resources. Think ''Status'' to bring up your current mana statistics, and bring your regeneration rate up to at least 1 to proceed to the next step.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Mana Regeneration: -163 / 1


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ''Oh,'' Avery thought, ''Oh no.''


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Far from the mesas, in a moderately sized town surrounded by farmland, the Mage of Magic was stealing a meal. The kobold had acquired a chicken on its way in, through the completely legitimate method of sneaking into a coop and knocking one out. An ordinary kobold would be satisfied with just that, killing the animal to cook and eat, but this was no ordinary kobold. It had in mind a daring heist, one where it would be able to eat for days through the clever application of a single living chicken.


    Being incredible at everything, the Mage of Magic had discovered a method of swapping the physical location of two not-resisting living creatures through the magic of Magic. Combined with the common, but still incredibly powerful ability to move things magically from a distance with the spell referred to as ''Mage Hand'', a name firmly approved of by the kobold, the Mage of Magic could sneak the chicken magically into a food storage area, and then, with magic, sneak itself in.


    Small as they were, kobolds tended to be far better at sneaking around than the larger species. Generally, this was only because their lower mass made less noise and was harder to spot when one wasn''t looking for them. Unlike lizards specializing in stealth, like chameleons, a kobold had no natural advantages relating to hiding, sneaking, or otherwise deflecting attention from themselves. They similarly did not have any advantages over any creature in terms of aggression, natural weaponry, or magical power beyond that of any learning species. Kobolds could hunt, but only like a less effective human. They could scavenge, but only like a less effective goblin. Most civilized creatures would stamp out incursions of kobolds, because their modus operandi was to steal everything they could, scavenge what they couldn''t, and hunt when the opportunity arises. Additionally, as their survival strategy involved mass production of rapidly growing young, closer to that of fish or scorpions than that of mammals that raise a small number of offspring and nurture them over a long period of time, kobolds have no qualms about scavenging their meat from sapient creatures that are smaller than they are. After a human is about three years old, the kobold would generally recognize that it¡¯s a creature they would have trouble picking off, and would be missed by the tribe, but their outlook is that the smallest weakest ones haven¡¯t taken up enough resources to grow larger, so they must be the ones that are safe to hunt.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.


    Hence, kobolds being hunted constantly by adventurers.


    The Mage of Magic was therefore unsurprisingly apprehensive about attempting to interact with the residents of this local before building up their might to even more magnificent levels. Potentially, they could bridge the gap between species easily enough by using the magic of money, but with their small disagreement between themself and their tribe, the Mage had been unable to bring any sort of valuables along with themself to this town. That was unfortunate, as the kobolds had over time mined multiple caves of their shiny materials, which the Mage of Magic was quite certain the larger species valued almost as highly as the kobold leaders. It was rare that one would see an old kobold, as many would be hunted before their first year was over, but the leaders who managed to get cushy positions managing the deployment of the disposable younglings could live long enough to awaken the draconic power passed down from generations of becoming smaller, weaker, descendants of true dragons. Many of the kobold societies dig deep, crafting cave structures across the land and pulling rare metals from the earth at the command of their dragon-kin elders. Sometimes, they would evolve to become dungeons, with all that entailed.


    The Mage of Magic''s former tribe had not been nomadic for longer than the Mage had been alive, though that wasn''t saying much by human standards. They had generally stayed in one location for a few years, building up traps and fortifications at the base of their current mine, only to leave when their rates of acquisition for precious metals and gem began to drop off. Less civilized monsters would move in, and the kobold leadership would locate a new source of shiny objects to satisfy their collective greed.


    The Mage of Magic didn''t draw power from the kobold heritage of dragons though. It watched as others did magic, and figured out what they were doing that actually had an effect. Clerics healed wounds, so the Mage figured out how to do that. Draconic sorcerer kobolds commanded the world to do their bidding, and the Mage watched the patterns form in man''s until it could do those things on its own. Not that those hierarchs could understand the Mage of Magic''s accomplishments, with how they revered dragons as the epitome of higher existence, and those kobolds who grow into their draconic might bring that much closer to divinity. Against that kind of ingrained power structure intertwined with beliefs and the assurance that one who lived long enough would ascend, a kobold who didn''t do anything related to it growing as or more powerful than the draconic was nothing but a mistake to be thrown under a horse and buried before any of the others could get any ideas.


    And that lead to this, the Mage of Magic floating an unconscious chicken into the ice room of a chicken vendor''s establishment through a vent to exchange places with it and loot the place for ill-gotten edibles. The trick was to float the chicken when no one was paying attention. After that, an unconscious target is an unresisting target, and so the Mage was free to gorge themself, steal everything that wasn¡¯t nailed down, and escape through simple application of unlocking the door from the inside. No one wants to be trapped inside a freezer, so basic safety practices were to make it so it was impossible to be locked in from the outside. The door could still be frozen shut, or sealed with external magic, but that would require someone to put actual effort into not maintaining the space, or to specifically want to lock a person in there enough to use magic.


    Thus, the Mage of Magic was able to calmly exit the chicken vendor¡¯s storehouse with a sack of food, and completely undetected as well. There was absolutely no way this could go wrong in the future at all.

 Bridging the Gap

    Avery could work with this. So what if she was stuck in what turned out to have been a dungeon core that was hemorrhaging mana, which probably was what interacted with the spell to use her soul as a power supply in place of whatever it had previously. So what if a slime had done the most basic part of the tutorial over the course of two hours while she wasted time being stuck outside of the small tunnel she had chosen to do her experiment in? She was a wizard, and wizards figured things out.


    There was an obvious first step for that, and it was to think ¡®status¡¯.


    <table style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    <table>


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    <td style="text-align: center">Dungeon Statistics</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Age</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">2</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Weight</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">7723</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Structure Points</td>


    <td>258/258</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Mana Points</td>


    <td>2491/8500</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Structure Regeneration</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">0</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Mana Regeneration</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">-163</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Power</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">8</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Intelligence</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">15</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Finesse</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">12</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Wisdom</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">8</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Hardness</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">15</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Charisma</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">6</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Menu Options</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Build</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Spawn</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Demolish</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Map</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Watch the mana statistic¡­


    <table style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Mana Points</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">2491/8500</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Mana Points</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">2490/8500</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Mana Points</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">2489/8500</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    That wasn''t as bad as she thought. It looked like the base unit these dungeon cores used in their interfaces were set up using hours. The good part of that was she had time to figure out a plan. About fifteen hours worth, it looked like. The bad part was that if the return on investment for what she assumed was dungeon size was low enough that one mana per hour was enough to get through the tutorial, she¡¯d need to do a lot of work to get things rolling.


    Augh, if there was a help option or some sort of way to scroll back to previously seen text, she could get a handle on how much the... Hold on. Avery thought ''Map'', and was projected into an image of a small tunnel with a rounded chamber at the end of it, fully lit with perfect clarity. Focusing more toward her body, she found that the botany book had fallen off to the side slightly. Unfortunately, there didn''t seem to be a function to remotely open and flip through the pages. That was one possibility down.


    Thinking about it, Avery supposed that a dungeon that was just starting out probably didn''t have the raw mana of a soul to draw on to go through its creation phase, and tutorial apparently. It generally took far more than a couple hours for one of the things to show indicators of activity. In fact, as far as Avery knew there had never been a dungeon recorded this small. Usually they were found in abandoned mines, enormous natural caves, or hidden chambers of the planet with environments hostile to life. That slime had popped far more easily than even the typically weak members of its species usually had. Avery''s inference from that was the creature using its own soul''s inherent power to do what came naturally to it, and devour everything around it. When it was returned to its physical form, the energy it had expended didn''t return with it, having been invested in the changes to the structure of this... Dungeon. Also lost into the void, because there was a sizable chunk of negative regeneration.Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    Experimenting was the key to gaining more information. Avery thought ''Spawn'', as it seemed the least self-explanatory of the options available to her.


    <table>


    <tbody>


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    <td style="text-align: center">Spawning Options</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">You have not yet demolished any creature remains to spawn!</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Progress! Now she knew why that wouldn''t work. Next up was ''Demolish''. Apparently that synergized nicely with the map, as Avery wasn''t blindly flailing toward anything around her as she estimated the slime had during its brief tenure being trapped inside this gem. Between where her body had gotten before the spell''s duration had expired and the base of her dungeon, a moist stretch of slime spread slightly toward the enterance to the cave. With the idea of demolition held in her mind, Avery could see the entirety of the splotch being ''selected'' by the core''s magic. A box of text popped in front of the liquid.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Lesser Slime defeated. Demolishing remains will generate 25 mana, continue?


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>Yes</td>


    <td>No</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Clearly yes was the correct choice. Avery had to offset that drain somehow. That was almost ten minutes worth of mana in one slime. If she could draw up the multitudes from the river into this cave, then somehow manage to get them to kill each other, she would be able to delay the complete obliteration of her soul indefinitely. More than that, it would allow for spawning.


    <table>


    <tbody>


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    <td>


    <table>


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    <td style="text-align: center">Spawning Options</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Lesser Slime</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">50</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Oh this was complete bull.


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    The Mage of Magic, mighty and mystical master of most things, had gotten a few streets past the scene of its triumph. Loud noises were starting to come from that general area, so it was inclined to move rather rapidly away. For some reason, despite how much larger the creatures were than a fourteen kilogram lizard, they seemed to care quite a bit about this relatively negligible amount of edible material.


    There was a large stone building to the left, and the Mage of Magic was getting closer to the river that flowed down from the rock pillars up north down through the forest, winding around until it passed through this town. On its way in, the Kobold had steadily ignored the growing plants on either side of the path, though it would guess that the ones nearer the water needed less effort to keep alive. It wasn''t exactly a farmer though. Like the common house cat, a dangerous creature that could easily slaughter an unprepared village, much less a single kobold, the Mage of Magic was carnivorous.


    Whoever designed this town was terrible at it, if they were intending for larger creatures to be able to make their way through it. A horse sized creature would have maybe three safe paths through the buildings and stalls to where the Mage had managed to get itself, with one wide open triangular space against the giant stone building, which seemed to have been built parallel to the river as it bent while the rest of the buildings just fit themselves into any available spot of land. The corner the kobold slank around had maybe five feet of clearance between the stone wall and two other buildings coming in at differing angles to make as inconvenient a space as possible.


    Footfalls were approaching the Mage and the bridge it found itself in front of. Unlike those of the large townspeople around it, the Mage of Magic could hear metal from those steps. That meant guards, or worse. Adventurers. Before they could catch up enough to do anything about it, the kobold opened its bag and started shoving meat into its maw. In order to use its magical might, it needed to have its hands free, and there was no way it was just going to ignore all those tasty calories. Too many kobolds were willing to let their gains slip right through their claws, in the Mage''s opinion. There was risk involved in making sure that what one obtained was retained, but retreat was the kobold way when with a purpose. That purpose was to come out with more from the encounter than they would get by staying in it, and that purpose was denied when the cowardly kobold ditched the loot to lighten the load.


    Unfortunately for the Mage of Magic, taking care of the loot slowed it down enough for the adventurers to spot the lizard eating a bunch of chicken on a bridge.

 Wizard Math

    Fifty mana for a completely normal useless slime? That was twice what Avery has gotten from this ball of goop, and according to this tutorial it was over two days worth of starting dungeon''s mana regeneration. What even was this nonsense.


    A dungeon was supposed to have the ability to generate monsters at a rate greater than their natural occurrence rate, and with more powerful creatures to boot, with mana left over to constantly expand and excavate rare minerals. Instead of mindless, harmless, pathetic goop, there would be a variety of multicolored, easily distinguishable variants of slime working to expand the cave structure the dungeon was based in, eventually reaching a critical mass of monsters to begin sending the weaker ones out into the world to collect materials for further growth. Rather than simply inundating the location with basic slimes, an equivalent dungeon would release the normal green slimes, but support them with yellow sticky slimes, acidic orange slimes, and the actually dangerous blue hunter slimes. The appearance of base quantities of pallet swapped monsters would allow the people living around the new dungeon to find out they were in fact near a monster spawning ground, at which point they could post for adventures to show up and, depending on the severity of the monsters, either clean up the patrolling outliers or delve into the depths to cut off incursions at the source.


    For a dungeon that made the mistake of becoming a slime nest, one sufficiently skilled adventure with a greatsword would be enough to completely clear out a large nest of five hundred, even taking into account the far larger and more dangerous variants that would show up in such a dungeon. Other than an evolved Queen Slime, none of the monsters would have any sort of advanced cost capabilities to surprise an experienced fighter. From brown, hairy slimes to giant rolling rock slimes to cowardly purple splitting spitter slimes up to crystalline spiked slimes, there was nothing that couldn''t be dealt with by stepping to the right as they attacked and then stabbing them.


    Those were the kind of monsters Avery could accept having a high cost in mana. Basic slimes multiplied more than daily though! If she wanted to get close to matching that kind of reproduction rate, Avery would need a mana regeneration of at least five per hour, significantly more than what the tutorial was suggesting she reach before it would go on to the next stage.


    On the other hand, maybe it was set up so that each action undertaken in the category would be enough to make significant progress toward completing the goal in question. If increasing the sized of the cave made the mana regeneration rate increase by a significant fraction of one per hour, depending on how much removal it took to get to that point it was entirely possible Avery was overreacting slightly to the massive difference between her goal and what she currently had.


    Mentally nodding to herself, she reactivates the ¡®demolish¡¯ option, and pans the map over to the entrance. If nothing else, she could square off the rounded edge of the tunnel and make it so the entire place didn''t slope invested to the center. If she remembered her geometry correctly, just modifying the cylindrical tunnel from a circular gap in the unworked stone into a solidly cuboid structure would increase the total volume of the excavated space by approximately twenty-seven percent. If she then used that fraction to reverse engineer the mana gotten before the rounding had taken place to determine how much that hallway was providing, she could further use the volume of the cylinder to find the amount of mana provided for each square meter of cavern. Lots of math, but wizards were made for thinking.


    Pressing her will against the side of the tunnel, a cubed meter of stone is ¡®selected¡¯. Somehow, she can feel how deep she would be demolishing into the rock if she used the option, and could tell that attached to the cube she would be removing were four other completely generic squares of stone. Checking the demolition cost for this one block of stone, Avery finds that one cubic meter costs ten mana to excavate. That might be huge.


    A wizard required quite a bit of magical energy to manipulate rock. Judging by the value of her mana and soul, which Avery had no particular qualms about quantifying as the same material as mana, given that it was fairly well established academically that they were in fact made of the same thing, the spells a wizard would need to cast in order to manipulate rock would be about eighty percent of her soul¡¯s composition, minus mana, so 1600 of what the core system was using as points of mana. That, depending on the power of the wizard in question, would manipulate anywhere from half a cubic meter to¡­ still less than a cubic meter. Now that Avery had stumbled into this possibility, taking over a dungeon core with this spell was a one way ticket to unlimited terraforming capabilities. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    Curious, she shrinks down the selected area to one tenth the depth, and pulls the selector up to the surface of the stone face. The new meter by meter by .1 meter rectangle sits up against the stone surface, showing a different ¡®color¡¯ feeling section in the flat air, with the sections below and above feeling as it did before as the area melted back into the stonework. With that working, she decreases the thickness even further, to one centimeter thick. Unfortunately, it appears the demolition has a minimum cost of one unit of mana. Avery could work with this.


    Back when it was in the gem, the slime had eaten a circle around the gem. It hadn¡¯t gone into the ground, fortunately enough, but the chamber at the end of the tunnel was odd enough to throw off any basic calculations that assumed it was a cylindrical object still. Avery figured that was about three meters worth of space. That left the fifteen meters ahead of the gem to the cave entrance.


    Floor to ceiling, the tunnel was about two meters high, and as it was circular it was the same in width. Avery could use that as a radius of one meter, and then take the fifteen meters for an easy calculation of fifteen pi cubic meters as the base volume. To minimize mana expenditure and time wasted, she shaped the demolition to be a centimeter by ten meters by two meters, making it a two mana cost cut she could use four times before cleaning up the remaining stone by whatever means the demolition system would allow her. Eight mana later, the left and right segments of the roof hang on by nothing but the stone on either wall, entrance and back of the cave. Forming a two meter by two meter by quarter meter chunk, the demolishing segmenter pulls out enough rock that as the ceiling breaks jaggedly in the back of the cave, there is enough room in the front that the blanket covering the entrance isn¡¯t even ruffled, much less the now-thin border between the tunnel and the canyon itself. That cost Avery another point of mana, and she spends one more to even up the back portion of the ten meter long corridor covered in broken, jagged rocks.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">For completing a standard corridor, you have gained an additional point of Mana Regeneration. Continue to expand for additional upgrades.</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Hm, at least that was only a minus C to her previously established equation.


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Uldem was a tracker. He wasn¡¯t the best at it yet, but when the kebab seller kicked up a fuss about someone stealing all of his chicken and offered a reward for retrieval of the merchandise or the thief, he was nearby. It also didn¡¯t take much skill to notice the clearly unlocked back door, or the scratches on the cobblestones where claws had recently gone over them. Two others had joined in on the hunt for the mysterious thief, and though they were simply following him as he followed the tracks, he did not begrudge their company. In all likelihood, one human alone was not enough to subdue any manner of monster, as these tracks indicated they were in pursuit of. Barring those who dedicated their entire lives to combat, a monster would be more agile and more deadly than even those who trained to fight them. Uldem had spent time training to hunt regular animals, and was a fair hand with a bow, but a monster could power through a direct strike with an arrow to maul a hunter in moments.


    It had been less than a minute since the theft, and the group was quickly reaching an open area wherein they would be able to spot their quarry. Uldem stopped before a narrow choke point between the church and one of the businesses that had built itself in the shadow the cathedral to form a strategy with the two others. A dwarf named Thackam was apparently a cleric of the god of Hierarchy, with a focus on, unsurprisingly, earth magic, and an elf named Ravavan, which sounded ridiculous to him, who also conformed to racial stereotypes and fought at close range with a longsword. Uldem suggested that the elf confront the thief first, as dwarves tended to be slow, only keeping up with Uldem due to him moving carefully so as not to lose the trail, while he stayed back to provide support should the ¡®elegant combatant¡¯ require assistance.


    Arrangements established, the new adventuring group moved out to confront a monster on a bridge.

 Another Menu

    Not ok. That one point of mana was all Avery has gotten from increasing the passageways volume. Apparently the amount gained, if any, was small enough the display didn''t feel the need to update with the fractional change.


    Now that she had debunked her theory that she would be able to recoup that massive mana deficit through the simple removal of stone, there was a pressing need for a new strategy. If it took a full two meter square by ten meter corridor to get a point of bonus mana regeneration, that would mean she would spend four hundred mana to get another one mana per hour. With how the current rate was far in the negatives, that wasn''t a viable solution. If she could manipulate objects in some way, Avery would be able to open the book back up and spend the requisite time, and therefore mana, to repossess her body and lure enough slimes up to the corridor to fill up the core¡¯s capacity, which would allow a bit more leeway in terms of being able to do anything at all to solve her problem.


    One option Avery refused to consider was¡­ oh no, her body was buried under all that rubble. That either was going to hurt immensely when she got back to normal, or she was actually dead now. Hopefully the construction option had a repair function. Maybe the status screen had overestimated her intelligence. How had she not realized collapsing the ceiling would drop a giant rock on her?


    Even if it was broken, there was no way Avery was going to deconstruct her own body. That would be like giving up on the possibility that she could get back to working on getting into The Tower. If she got to the point where her passive mana drain was higher than her current mana, then she¡¯d resort to it, but that meant she still had about two hours before having to even considering that line of action. Thinking about it, Avery had never heard of a dungeon that spawned humans.


    Shaking that thought out of her mind, metaphorically, the necromancer opens up the construction menu.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Construction Options</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Feature</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Cost</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Feature</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Cost</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Corridor (10 m)</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">10</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Square Room (20 m)</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">20</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Stalagmite</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">2</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Stalactite</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">2</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Pit (2 m)</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">5</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Reinforcement</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">1</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Stone Weapon</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">1-400</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Stone Armor</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">1800</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Statue</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">1-¡Þ</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Engraving</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">1</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Difficult Terrain</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">5</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Column</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">5</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Oh. Well, that made her feel even dumber than before. If she¡¯d opened this up instead of trying to be clever and spending ten mana to drop chunks of rock on her own head, she¡¯d be one problem better off.


    Plus, this was far less expensive than trying to carve out an entire dungeon one cubic meter of material at a time. Two and a half percent the mana cost. That still probably wasn¡¯t enough to bring her out of the red though. Quick calculations put her as only being able to afford two hundred corridors or so, which would leave her at negative four hundred mana regeneration, if space wasn¡¯t an issue and the volume wasn¡¯t actually related to the rate. Before she could lose too much more mana waffling around in menus, the necromancer spent the twenty mana to make the area around the core into a proper room. The rock immediately faded into nothing, and she got a notification that her mana regeneration had increased by five. Still not enough. Two thousand mana would give one hundred rooms, which would still leave over a hundred negative regeneration and a nearly completely depleted soul. Annoyed, Avery pushed away the construction menu to bring up the demolition one and see if she could clear out these loose rocks. The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.


    Before she could do anything though, the options menu flickered and disappeared as the blanket at the entrance moved to the side.


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Running toward the bridge was an elf with one of the poking swords. The Mage of Magic thought they were called rapiers, but couldn¡¯t remember off the top of its head. It was holding the thing in both hands, which meant it didn¡¯t have a shield or any way to defend against the Mage¡¯s incredible magical ability. That being said, it rarely hurt to try the peaceful path first. Dropping the piece of chicken it was halfway done eating, the Mage throws the bag of chicken to the elf, figuring it would either let go of the weapon or get distracted from the thing they were chasing after it to get back hitting the creature in the face. Unfortunately for the Mage, it turned out it was not the best at throwing large bags long distances. Rather than distracting the elf and making it dodge, move out of the way, or anything at all to change its behavior, the bag flew through the air far enough to not fall into the river, and landed a meter to the side of the bridge¡¯s adventurer-ward entrance. On the other hand, with its stature being far lower to the ground than an elf¡¯s typical sparring partner, the kobold was able to dodge backward as the elf¡¯s two-handed downward swing arced closer to its origin point as it descended to kobold head-height.


    Deciding that was probably not the best place to be standing, the Mage booked it. Spotting a chance to get a free swing in, the elf swung their sword as hard as they could toward the fleeing back, sacrificing accuracy for power. That proved to be a mistake, as the blade just barely slid over the kobold¡¯s hide. Granted, had it hit the weapon would have been enough to cut deeply into the lizard, rendering it helpless, but the tiny creature had a dash of luck on its side.


    Making distance from the swordself on the choke point, the Mage of Magic waves its hand to conjure a transparent force field around itself, and then gets to the business of casting magic. Drawing forth all the mana it had remaining in its small body, the Mage summons from the dark nightmare that was the underside of a chicken kebab stall¡¯s grill. A thick layer of grease appears, coating the bridge, the lower parts of the elf, and a few fish that had the misfortune of swimming under the bridge at that particular moment. The elf slides on the slippery substance, but manages to catch themself before falling over. They glare at the kobold, and carefully step over and through the slippery sloped surface until they are back on the flat ground, uncovered by grease. Raising an eyebrow, the elf with the fancy sword and a shirt of metal chains non-verbally dares the kobold with absolutely nothing to make the next move.


    In response, the kobold shrugs, condenses the ambient mana into a ball of raw arcane energy, launches it at the elf, and runs. On the other side of the bridge, the hunter spots movement and unlooses an arrow. It does not fly straight, and through the vagaries of chance the wooden shaft shunks itself into the left side of the elf¡¯s back, right above the heart. Completely standing still through all of this, the elf just waits as the arrow shatters itself on their armor and the arcane missile just flies off into the distance.


    From the midpoint of the expanse between the church and the bridge, the voice of someone slow yells out.


    ¡°Oy, I think this is the loot.¡±


    The elf glares at the retreating descendant of dragons, and calmly walks back over the bridge, the sludge having already dissolved into the void and back to where it came from. Sure enough, there was a small bag of chicken by the side of the bridge, held by the dwarven cleric. The elf could chase down the lizard, but the creature was slippery, and by the time it had subdued the thing these two would have already claimed the reward. Mildly unhappy about the turnout, the elf quietly filed in behind the dwarf as the human led them both back to the source of their reward.

 Problem Solving

    A bulge appears in the blanket covering the entrance. It disappears as soon as it appears, then reappears once more, though deeper. The blanket starts to lift up from the point at which pressure is being applied, and a humanoid creature is revealed to Avery¡¯s senses beyond the cave entrance. She still can¡¯t see anything past that area, no matter how she messes with the map function, which appeared to be the only thing not to turn off when someone enters the ¡®dungeon¡¯, but the fact that there¡¯s anyone at all is a nice change of pace. Hopefully she¡¯d be able to figure out how to communicate or something. Oh wait a second.


    Avery opened up the Status menu again. That still worked.


    <div>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>Dungeon Statistics</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>Age</td>


    <td>3</td>


    <td>Weight</td>


    <td>7723</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>Structure Points</td>


    <td>258/258</td>


    <td>Mana Points</td>


    <td>2318/8500</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Structure Regeneration</td>


    <td>0</td>


    <td>Mana Regeneration</td>


    <td>-157</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>Power</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>Intelligence</td>


    <td>15</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Finesse</td>


    <td>12</td>


    <td>Wisdom</td>


    <td>8</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Hardness</td>


    <td>15</td>


    <td>Charisma</td>


    <td>6</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <div>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Menu Options</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <div>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Build?</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Spawn</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Demolish</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Map</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    DAMN IT. She transposed the numbers. That was way more reasonable. For some reason she thought she had to overcome six hundred and thirteen negative mana recovery per hour. She could finish this off with just thirty two rooms, and that would only cost six hundred forty mana. After calculating time remaining, then closing the status menu, she had immediately forgotten what numbers she had and was thinking she only had four hours left to go before being dead, panicked, and started making mistakes. Clearly eight was below average for wisdom.


    And whoever that was trying to get in was below average for something, since they were now a lump of blanket struggling to get out from the apparent unintentional trap that was ''a blanket loosely secured to the entrance by putting rocks on it falling over on them''. It looked like a rock had fallen on either side of the blanket, and the lump inside was trying to figure out which end wasn''t being held down. The rocks weren''t exactly heavy, Avery had no idea why they didn''t just lift the thing off of them.


    Three mana later, the thing in the blankets finds an edge, and wriggles its way to the edge.


    ¡°Come on already, I left for like five hours to give you space for you to do your weird pagan rituals in my cave, and this terrible scratchy blanket is still here, and you don¡¯t even have the decency to either say something or help me out of your annoying primitive deathtrap?¡±


    Ok, it was at the very least intelligent, and it had language ability. Avery zoomed in closer on the part protruding out of the blanket, and inspected it. Humanoid head, but the mouth was closer to a goblin¡¯s than any of the civilized creatures. Sharp spikes of teeth jutting out like the stalactites and stalagmites she had refrained from wasting mana on. Those might have been traps, now that she thought about it. If a rock fell from the ceiling, it would do some damage to whatever it hit. Not that she was bitter about her terrible mistakes or anything.


    ¡°Augh, fine. I¡¯ll do this myself.¡±


    The thing was just scrunching up and trying to squeeze out of the gap like a worm pushing itself out of wet ground during a rain. Avery activated the ¡®Inspect¡¯ option, figuring it was probably the only thing she was going to be able to do while stuck with only one active option. As she focused on the various things within her corridor, she noticed each discrete object didn¡¯t necessarily come up as its own inspectable entity. When looking at the clutter of rocks on the ground, the entire assemblage lit up in her mind, whereas the book and her body were ¡®inspectable¡¯ separately. She could inspect the book?! That would have been useful to have back when she had an intact body!


    Probably better to inspect the subject that prompted the menu to make that change in the first place though.


    <div>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>Invader Statistics</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>Name</td>


    <td>???</td>


    <td>Race</td>


    <td>???</td>


    <td>Soul Power</td>


    <td>?</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>Health Points</td>


    <td>8/???</td>


    <td>Mana Points</td>


    <td>???/???</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>Strength</td>


    <td>4</td>


    <td>Intelligence</td>


    <td>??</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Dexterity</td>


    <td>7</td>


    <td>Constitution</td>


    <td>-</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <div>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Special Qualities</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Special Features</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">???</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">???</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <div>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Mana Gain from Dungeon Presence</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">-42</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Lots of question marks. Maybe they¡¯d get filled in as the thing did things? Avery supposed there probably wasn¡¯t much to be gleaned from¡­ Wait a minute, more negative mana regeneration? Whyyyyy.


    Oh, it got its arms out of the cocoon. Seemed fairly humanoid typical, no claws or anything. Probably would be able to bite someone anyway, if it wasn''t so incredibly weak. The thing had lower strength than Avery had Wisdom or Charisma. Not that she had a point of reference as to what any of these meant. From what she could tell, the only two stats she had in common with the ''invader'' was mana and intelligence. And it was draining mana from her.


    Bah, that was annoying her.


    Just looking at this stupid face, existing and making her fall ever closer to death with each passing second. If only she could use spells, she could run the necromantic energy straight into that uninvited jerk and make them run screaming into the canyon. One wave of her hand, and ¡®Cause Fear¡¯ would-


    A black bolt of necromantic energy shot out of the orb, straight into the creature¡¯s face. Avery waited for a moment, but nothing happened. Anger started to rise in her, because that should have worked. Unless they were far more powerful than she was, even if a creature wasn¡¯t frightened because of having a powerful mind and resisting the effect, they would at least have a shudder of dread run through them for a moment. This kind of lack of reaction was not something that a creature that comes up with these kind of stats should have. Nothing this thing had was better than Avery¡¯s wisdom, and she was fairly certain that was not a high number. She pulled up her status for a moment to check her mana¡­The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Mana Points</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">2215/8500</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Then pulled up the ¡®Inspect¡¯ tool again to check the creature, which had managed to get all the way out now.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>Invader Statistics</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>Name</td>


    <td>???</td>


    <td>Race</td>


    <td>???</td>


    <td>Soul Power</td>


    <td>?</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>Health Points</td>


    <td>8/???</td>


    <td>Mana Points</td>


    <td>98/???</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>Strength</td>


    <td>4</td>


    <td>Intelligence</td>


    <td>18</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Dexterity</td>


    <td>7</td>


    <td>Constitution</td>


    <td>-</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <div>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Special Qualities</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Special Features</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">???</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Multitask</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">???</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Unfazeable</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <div>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Mana Gain from Dungeon Presence</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">0</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Whyyyy. Did it just absorb the entire spell? Well, judging by the mana statistic, it would take about two hours for that mana to be absorbed. Two special features found, and oh it has a prehensile tail. That explains why it had multitask, she supposed. The thing was holding a stick in the grip of its third appendage and poking the rocks littering the ground with it as it carefully stepped into spots where the stones didn¡¯t shift upon force being put upon them.


    Disgusted by absolutely everything, Avery Inspects the rocks. Oh look, if she had the ability to demolish right now she could recover six mana from that. And it would all be removed in one chunk. Great. Might as well inspect her body.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>Corpse Statistics</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>Name</td>


    <td>Avery Lithnor</td>


    <td>Race</td>


    <td>Human</td>


    <td>Soul Power</td>


    <td>2</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>Structure</td>


    <td>3/9</td>


    <td>Hardness</td>


    <td>1-5</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <div>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Special Qualities</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Special Features</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">None</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">None</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <div>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Mana Gain from Dungeon Presence</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">0</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Augh. Well just because her body doesn¡¯t have anything special about it doesn¡¯t meant that she herself isn¡¯t special! Avery was able to find this gem, and able to cast this spell. Not just anyone could do that!


    ¡°Alas poor whoever you were. I didn¡¯t know you at all. I imagine you were a person with good humor, a generous soul willing to do anything for the people around you. If not for believing the best about those who have survived on this mortal plane until they fail to do so, how can we be sure that what we do to improve their ability to survive is similarly for the best? This world, full of people, it has to be worth the sacrifices made to ensure its continued existence. Why else would they have gone out of their way to make sure of that? If you lived, and lived while you lived, the lives that live no longer gave what they had for a purpose.¡±


    What were they on about? Nonsense, that¡¯s what. The gods made the world, and then they gave power to whoever asked for it, and went off to let things sort themselves out on their own. Oh wait a minute, there was a spell for this. Message. Avery could tell them exactly how wrong they were.


    Ten more mana, and Avery was able to start yelling.


    ¡°Hey jerkface, quit soliloquizing at my body! I¡¯m not dead, just laying down.¡±


    The creature blinked, then poked Avery¡¯s unmoving form with its stick.


    ¡°Seem fairly dead to me. Based on what I see, you collapsed the cave with yourself inside it, died, and started haunting the location of your death as a ghost.¡±


    ¡°Quit that! And no, I cast a spell to transmit my consciousness to a slime, which is dead now.¡±


    ¡°Ah, so you collapsed the cave with yourself inside of it while you were possessing a slime, died as a slime, and started haunting where the slime died.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not haunting anything, I¡¯m not dead!¡±


    ¡°If you¡¯re not dead, just stop me from poking you.¡±


    ¡°You! Get out of here, you¡¯re a jerk!¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m afraid I¡¯m disinclined to acquiesce to your request. This was my cave before you showed up and killed yourself in it twice.¡±


    ¡°Well it¡¯s mine now, so leave me alone, you¡¯re sucking up all the mana.¡±


    ¡°Interesting. You can tell. I¡¯ll have to file that in my next report.¡±


    The creature makes its way to the back of the tunnel, into the square room with the Core within it.


    ¡°You certainly got a good deal accomplished while I was out and about.¡±


    ¡°If you¡¯re going to be annoying and keep being here, could you at least open that book on the ground over there? There¡¯s a particular page I was on, and I want to read it again.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t see why not, since we¡¯re going to be roommates for a while.¡±


    As if. Avery was going to get into her body and¡­ Well, she couldn¡¯t actually do much. Necromancy was her field of specialization, and one of the schools of magic she had firmly neglected was Evocation, the one with all the fire. Thatunfazeablespecial feature seemed to be what the dungeon core interpreted the spell absorption dragons and the like possess, and Avery was fairly sure that if that was the case she¡¯d be unable to do much even if she could throw exploding pearls of fire around.


    At least they were good to their word, as they opened the book precisely to where the crease from being open an hour straight had been.


    ¡°Ew, botany. Hate plants. I¡¯ll see you in a bit roomie, need to grab my things I took with me out on my walkabout. Would rather not forget where I left the thing and then look like a fool in front of the minions when they get back.¡±


    More annoying words. Avery didn¡¯t care what they were saying, she was already casting the spell. Kind of. Every time that creature moved through the mana she was trying to manipulate it messed up her patterns, which was annoying when she was trying to modify a ritual on the fly to account for the fact she was already in the focus of the spell and just needed the ability to swap her soul¡¯s space with¡­ Huh, what if she got this thing trapped in the gem? Would they be able to manipulate the world? Would the negative regenerations add or subtract? Why did they have to leave just as Avery started to think clearly and not just rage about them being in the cave?


    Ah well. At least without distractions, she¡¯d be able to focus on which parts of the ritual she could safely ignore. Time was mana.

 Trying Again

    Apparently the creature had been out of the cave for five hours. That wasn¡¯t exactly long, but it would probably be enough for what Avery was doing. Even if she were doing the full version of the ritual, it would only take her an hour to cast the spell. Paring down the entire section on storage of the creature being possessed soul on its own was enough to drop the spells level of complexity significantly, though the gem storage method on its own was simpler and easier than attempting to wire two souls into two bodies simultaneously, and Avery could apply some of the theoretical knowledge gleaned from reading about extremely high powered necromantic spells that took months to bring to completion. One in particular was based around growing a body from a small section of the original and tying it to the person in question¡¯s soul, at which point they would be drawn into their own body upon their death rather than any sort of afterlife. Avery had a basic sort of that contingency already in this spell, in the return to the gem upon the death of the body if it was in range, but if she could get her hands on a copy of the clone spell she might be able to apply it to this spell to make it so she would return to the gem regardless of how far away she was when the spell¡¯s duration expired.


    Or if she was killed, she guessed.


    Unfortunately, that kind of spell was only cast by extremely powerful necromancers. There were at least three laboratories in the inner city dedicated to producing spare bodies for high ranking government officials, a few more that catered to noble who came into money early enough in life that they could afford to have a body commissioned while they were young and preserved until they died of old age, and one subsidized by the church of darkness to mass produce bodies of promising adventurers in the event of a hero¡¯s arrival. There was no sign of anything like that coming about anytime soon, what with the complete lack of evil empires or existential threats of any sort coming around, but the church was perfectly content to pay any necromancer who graduated the college with high enough grades to be on call to produce copies of the hero¡¯s party at a rate that would allow them to come to life and charge right back into danger to be killed again immediately, until the pile of bodies was high enough for the hero to leap off their own back into success.


    Two hundred seventy thousand gold per year, just for being able to theoretically cast a spell. Avery wasn¡¯t guaranteed to get to the top of the tower, or even up to the point where the church would hire her, but that was a dream job. If she could get there, forget animating kobold skeletons and pouring mana into weapons to make a profit. She could lay back and use nigh unlimited power to frivolously automate daily tasks, as is the right of a wizard with nothing to do. It didn¡¯t do to attempt to use extremely high powered spells to cheat the universe though. A story that ran through the tower hopefuls every once in a while involved a wizard that attempted to use advanced time magic to eat breakfast without having to cook it, and ended up erasing an entire city from history, himself included. Complete nonsense, if you erased your own existence then no one would be talking about you. It was probably just the city.


    While Avery had managed to figure out how to cut the time taken down to a half hour for the new specialized spell, which would probably only be applicable to this specific scenario, it had also taken a half hour to finish messing with the structure. Plus, since she hadn¡¯t taken any notes while formulating this, if she wanted to cast it again she was going to have to re-do the modification from base principles and memory. Somewhat annoying, but if it worked like she thought it did, after she managed to write things down she¡¯d be able to spend a half hour casting to get two hours of ¡®being in her body¡¯ time. Doubling her spells ¡®time invested verses output achieved¡¯ ratio wasn¡¯t bad.


    Before actually casting the spell, Avery demolishes the rocks littering the corridor, gaining six mana. She had lost far more than that in the time she had taken to mess with spell structure, but it was at least three minutes of mana recouped. As long as she got this whole situation ironed out before nightfall, or managed to find some sustainable method of refilling the core to the point she could just ignore the negative recovery, Avery would be able to leverage all of this in some way. Probably.


    Deciding that she was probably going to have to do so eventually anyway, Avery opens up the ¡®Construction¡¯ menu and builds a corridor in each of the three directions from her core room. Thirty mana, probably worth the time saved trying to calculate the most efficient method of using deconstruct to cut away stone and regain mana from the left behind rock, in the short term at least. After that, sixty mana to put a room at the end of each of those corridors. So far, that provided eighteen mana regen for ninety mana invested, a twenty percent return on mana per hour to regular hour. That definitely had snowballing potential. If she were able to fill up the core¡¯s mana entirely, using this arrangement she could get a seventeen hundred mana per hour regeneration increase just by alternating rooms and corridors. Before she could second guess herself anymore, Avery made another five sets of corridors and rooms, coming off each of the newly created rooms. Just to try something new, she also made a pit in the room just after the core room. No effect, but it was fairly cheap.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    Eight new rooms, eight new corridors, and forty eight new mana regeneration gained, and two hundred forty five mana spent. Avery was starting to dip into her soul at this point, so she hurried herself through the ritual as fast as possible.


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    The Mage of Magic kept running. Every bit of mana in their body was gone, but at least this particular kobold had a full stomach. It wouldn¡¯t need to eat for three days with that much food inside of it. A kobold that didn¡¯t have to worry about eating was a kobold that could do other things, whether it be the typical kobold maintaining the den, through cleaning the burrow of detritus and taking care of crafting and resetting the various traps set up to keep the animals, adventurers, and other monsters away, the miner expanding the caves and finding precious metals, a job the Mage had performed themself back before it had discovered the might of magic, or the sorcerers who would spar with each other and nap on piles of gems and gold.


    Once the Mage had a good lay of the land, and figured out a safe spot to burrow in and hide out, it would be spending its time watching out for the adventurer types that knew how to do magic. It was usually pretty easy to figure out how a particular spell was done, assuming the kobold was able to watch it happening. It had most of the basic ones figured out, telepathy, telekinesis, summoning hazardous materials and throwing them, small scale time reversal, ventriloquism, and how to make pretty lights, but for the more powerful, interesting magics, it was going to need to investigate.


    On the other hand, it looked like there were only the regular fighting type human-like things fighting that bear. Most of them were poking at it with their sharp sticks, which the bear would swipe at and break in half like they were made of something that was like the wood the things were made of, but less sturdy. Dirt maybe? The Mage knew that dirt came away from the tunnel walls with an errant tap, like those sticks were breaking when the bear managed to connect with one. Growling loudly, the bear steppes back with its hind legs, blood dripping from various scratches on its hide. It was large compared to the Mage, but only about the same size as the guards around it.


    One of the guards was circling around the creature, and the Mage of Magic decides that it would help out the likely scared and trapped bear, and in doing so help the people of the town as well. If it could drive the creature back toward the forest, and keep the guard with a short blade from trying to stab a black bear in the back, probably enraging it and getting themself killed, it would be saving a guard¡¯s life and protecting a lower form of life¡¯s ability to exist. Really, that was all any creature wanted to do. It was one of the kobold central tenants, that as long as you survived everything could improve.


    With a bit of effort, the Mage creates a temporary vacuum of mana in front of it, and aimed its arcane missile between the guards, bear, and other guard behind the bear. That being done, it scurries off to the left, into a convenient gap in the buildings. Directly between two greaved legs, up under the bear¡¯s arm, and past the helmet of the guard sneaking up on the bear, the glowing ball of energy drew every creature there¡¯s gaze. While all the guards were paying attention to how the bolt of magic coming out of nowhere probably could have killed any of them with how precisely it¡¯s trajectory had to have been calculated to do all of that, the bear took advantage of the lull to bat aside the person behind it, drop to all fours, and lope away to safety.


    Safety in this case was just a dozen meters away. There, it turned to glare at everything the town had to offer, at which point the vortex fired the second arcane missile. That one wasn¡¯t aimed differently, but luckily enough for the guards none of them had moved into the path of the bolt. Forming themselves into a circle, the guards put themselves back to back, looking out for the mysterious magic user firing things with unerring accuracy from the middle of the road while invisible and the bear, carefully approaching the knocked unconscious guard to retrieve their comrade. The bear looks toward the circle of spears, like it was considering going after them anyway, before casting a wary glare at where the missiles had come from and walking back into the forest.


    Satisfied at a job well done, the Mage of Magic pulled its pile of cloth over itself. It had worked a lot, all day. Kobolds were usually nocturnal, and nightfall was only a few hours away. Tonight, it was going to sneak around and search for magic.

 New Map, Same as the Old Map

    Avery had one thousand eight hundred and thirteen mana remaining in her gem, and a maximum capacity of eight thousand five hundred. The slime remains she had deconstructed had supplied her with twenty five mana. In order to fill up to maximum, she would need to lure two hundred and seventy or so slimes up to the dungeon, which she was happy to call it now that she had a simple maze of rooms, and render them down into jelly and delicious mana within the two hours she had her body. Slimes were weak, but that might be a bit difficult to do on her lonesome.


    As such, she needed to formulate a plan. If Avery could gain mana from having creatures in her dungeon, she might be able to solve the deficit problem by simply dumping a pile of slimes into a pit and using them as free mana per hour boosters. Since she had a convenient pit already dug out one room farther in, she might as well test the possibility of keeping a single slime trapped inside of it before instantly committing to filling her entire floor plan to the brim with the green gloop. Luring one slime was easy enough, but almost three hundred might be a bit problematic.


    The necromancer¡¯s first thought was to utilize some of the adventurers that clear out the canyon regularly for fun and slight profit, but she dismissed that notion almost immediately. There was a bowling ball sized chunk of textured black gemstone resting in this place, and Avery was one hundred percent sure that anyone who laid eyes on the jewel would be overcome with desire. If there was one thing people could be sure of when dealing with adventurers, it was that they would try to take anything that wasn¡¯t both nailed down and on fire. If they had a crowbar and were strong enough, even that wouldn¡¯t deter them. Things didn¡¯t count as nailed down if you could pry them up.


    Avery was going to need a storage place for her core. Clearly, the first room right in the middle of everything wasn¡¯t going to cut it. She did have three points in the dungeon where the path branched though, and could move the core fairly freely when she had access to her body again. That was another possible thing to do. Scout out the area for things to deconstruct. On most days there would be plenty of junk at the bottom of the canyon, so she could grab a few interesting items while she brought back the slime she would be trapping in the pit. Unfortunately, Avery wouldn¡¯t be able to just switch from her core to her body and back again constantly while the spell was in effect, or she¡¯d be able to bring things up, deconstruct them, check the effect, and go back down for more without having to potentially waste time on experiments that weren¡¯t going to bear fruit.


    Even in its unsimplified state, this particular spell was designed to end when the caster reentered their primary body. Why it had allowed her to go back to her regular body after returning to the core if it reassigned her primary to the gem wasn¡¯t entirely clear, though the spell might have been assigning priority to the body that cast the spell until it ran out of duration, but when she cast the simplified version from the gem as a source point she would be unable to lean on any such technicality of magic to get more use out of the spell. At least she could hang on for two hours if she didn¡¯t cut the effect off early.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    Deciding to start on a smaller objective first, Avery finishes the spell and sends her soul to inhabit her original body. The pain from having a stone ceiling dropped on her hits her as soon as she makes it in, and she is knocked unconscious.


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Down the opposite stream as the Mage of Magic from the mesa, Ham Kodave enters a novice leveled dungeon. He¡¯d show them all that it didn¡¯t take smarts to be good at magic. Those snob wizards and their standardized testing, there were other ways to do magic than memorizing books and whatever it was nerds did. Probably math. Ham didn¡¯t need to do that. He was born of death, and when the doctors had ripped him from the flesh of his zombified mother, it followed into his soul. The church of darkness that raised him, and had raised his mother in another since, wanted him to join their number as a priest, but that was a path that led to selflessly helping others at the expense of the helper. That was not anywhere near a thing Ham was interested in. No, his interests lay closer to what was within him since birth. The raw necromancy.


    Death drew to itself more death. That was the truth of the world, and Ham would bring it to himself to grow in power. This cold passage of stone would serve to feed into him, and beckon forth entropy itself to punish the wizards that declared him too stupid to learn necromancy. Fifty points should have been more than enough!


    Six meters down the dungeon¡¯s first corridor, there was a branch to the right. It looked like a dead end though, so he ignored it. Four steps further, and the path turned to the right, just like the dead end had. So far, a straight shot without branching paths worth mentioning, nothing to worry about at all. On the right, an alcove was carved into the masonry of the walls, holding within it a statue with a demonic visage, eyes of ruby glittering in the dim, flickering light of the candles lit in six meter intervals all down the halls, all on the left side of the dungeon as one would be entering it. That subtlety was lost on Ham, and he continues walking down the corridor until it turns to the left twenty meters further, thinking about how to rip the rubies from the idol as he leaves the dungeon the whole time.


    Twelve meters down the next hall, halfway down, Ham is suddenly interrupted by a scythe blade sweeping across the hall at waist level. It rends a deep gash into his side, revealing the organs contained within his torso, and buries itself into the wall on the opposite end of Ham from where it started. An observant person would notice and handhold on the side of the blade, for a monster or other resident to the dungeon to grab onto and pull the back around to spring out once more, but Ham had another thing on his mind.


    Pale from the damage rent from his frame, he brings forth the energy of undeath into his right hand, and presses that hand into the torn flesh of his side. If he was as fleshy and weak as the wizards who sat indoors and played at theories all day, that single trap would have left him laying on the ground bleeding to death slowly, consciousness faded away as death inevitably came to strip his strength and feed it to the dungeon and its monsters. No, Ham¡¯s scrawniness was more toward that of an animated skeleton, where cutting and stabbing would be hard-pressed to do damage to the solid bones, rather than that brought about by raw malnutrition. Absorbing the energy of death he could channel without end, Ham brought his flesh back together into one piece.


    There was a lot of dungeon to go, and the dread necromancer was ready to take everything that was this place and subsume it into his power.

 While Others Sleep

    In the forest to the north of the small town, as the sky starts to burn red with the setting of the sun, a black bear speeds its pace once out of sight to the creatures it took delight in terrorizing. A bear, better than any other creature of the forest, knew the importance of enjoying life to the fullest. Where there is food, the bear will eat. Where there is no food, the bear will sleep. This holds true for any particular variety of bear, from the black bear to the grizzly to the polar to the dire to the owl to the koala. Bugbears may be an exception, but that would be on a case by case basis depending on how infected by intelligence they are. Generally when naming creatures by combining nouns and adjectives, or nouns and nouns, the sapient creatures would take the qualities of the names creature it is about to observe and apply then in sequence. For example, when put into common, the formal name of the grizzly bear would be the ¡®horrible bear¡¯ bear, while the colloquially shortened version would refer to the scene of carnage left behind when the bear in question is annoyed.


    Further along in the metaphorical naming scale, the bugbear is a variety of goblin known for strength and laziness. It combines the traits of bears, wherein it wanders it''s territory in search of edibles, consumes, and sleeps, with those of any bug, wherein it will hide from anything larger than it, come out in the darkness, and ruin any stored supplies it gets into with its filth. On the other hand, the black bear is named far more simply, for it''s coloration. That could imply that the species had been discovered fairly early on, zoological speaking, before the need to differentiate between bears via temperament, but after the discovery that not all bears were the same. Likely, the first distinctions were between the black bears and the brown bears.


    After peacefully encountering a group of humans in one of their dens, and having a great time with terrifying then without causing any injuries during the play-fight, this particular black bear felt the need to further differentiate itself from the common beast. Over the course of the fight, he had utilized the knowledge imparted upon him by that druid¡¯s spell to listen to the humans talk to each other, as they used names and phrases to organize their actions. Through that, the bear had compiled names, and decided on ¡®Berand¡¯ for himself. He hadn¡¯t taken any serious blows while in town, and had in turn only battered the poking sticks, or those who approached, with blunt paws rather than extending his claws. Until an expertly aimed blast of magic shot between two guards on either side of the bear and Berand himself, he has been enjoying himself immensely. Whomever it was that fired that missile, they had taken it upon themself to break up the scuffle like a parent pulling apart their cubs when they were making to much noise for them to continue ignoring and still manage to sleep. Bears were not highly noted for their eyesight, other than the owl variety, but from the center of the road, Berand felt like he should have been able to see the caster standing at the starting point for the spell, since magic had to start at the person using it. There was nothing there. Either the human was very good at hiding in plain sight, invisible, or good enough at magic to make it not originate from the source of its power. Any of those options would supply the person in question sufficient authority to make all the low powered peons sit down quietly and pay attention. The fact there was a second missile at all, which clearly could be identical to the original bolt, implied that more could come if the caster chose, so Berand had been pressured to beat a retreat at casual bear pace. At least the spell that gave him life allowed Berand to comprehend that kind of subtle intimidation and act appropriately, unlike a typical bear. A normal, non-magical creature would either be scared off by the first blast, ignore it altogether, or just decide that was a new priority target.


    Really, it just made Berand angry. He understood that he was weak, whereas when he was a regular bear he knew he was strong. Magic was one of those things that set apart those with it above others who did not on the food chain. Bears were supposed to be able to eat what they wanted, do what they wanted, without things like thinking about the consequences getting in the way. When a mage uses it''s magic to spray colors into a bears face and disorient them, they were perfectly fine with turning around and smashing whatever they were bringing with them but not currently using. Since the spellcaster would have to be within a certain range of the bear to use a spell, and no mage wanted to approach a bear, they would be able to get their vengeance and leave contentedly.


    Berand himself was faster than the average bear, and as such was slightly more equipped to deal with any such wizard. They were limited by the power of their bodies, how long it took them to cast their spells, and how much foresight they were able to use in preparing the spells they have memorized. Were a bear to be within striking distance of a hostile sorcerer or the like, the act of making motions for spellcasting, in addition to how they would be forced to concentrate on what they were doing rather than paying attention to the world around them, renders them entirely defenseless against an incoming attack, and, for any human which did not specially train to be far stronger than human norm, a single swipe from a bear not playing around would be enough to disembowel, or at least damage enough for them to fall into shock, the offending sapient.


    Unless magic got in the way.


    Most magically inclined beasts were purely devoted to offense, channelling their inherent magical might to dealing as much damage as possible to whatever it faces before it can be brought down in turn, relying on the strength of its hide and size to deflect whatever death it''s opponent is attempting to inflict upon it. In sharp contrast, a human would use magic to supplement it''s defenseless hide with barriers of raw mana, imitate the defensive properties exhibited by the rare, and thus widely known, magical creatures that use such methods, such as invisibility from the invisible stalkers or illusory copies of oneself from displacer beasts, and, in the case of powerful wizards or average druids, transforming their very bodies into those of the creatures they would fight, which then have the protections offered by their other magical defenses. Once those with both sufficient mana and intelligence managed to get enough time to set up their magical defenses, they would be able to weather the fury of the less intelligent creature they were hunting and in turn demolish them. It was therefore in Berand¡¯s best interests to gain access to some variety of spellcaster, so as to not be one of the weak any longer.


    A powerful wizard was out of the question. Once a magic-user grew to the point that they are competent in their own right, with adequate defenses and formidable enough firepower to confront their doors without resorting to trickery and continuous retreat, they no longer have any actual use for the entirely physically based combatants that would be attempting to gain their aid. Rather, they would be as the invisible or distant caster who broke up a fight between bear and man on a whim, regarding such fights as mere distractions to ones of their power. Taking a mage with a small amount of mana and protecting them against random bears and what have you that may wish to eat them until they grow used to the power dynamic wherein the protector is the one in command, despite the wizard in question having grown to be immensely powerful, would be Berand''s best path toward being able to do as he wanted, when he wanted, again.


    That ability to enjoy life to its fullest was the prerogative of any bear.


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Deeper in the forest north of a small town, closer to the plateau, there is a door of stone, carved out of a smooth cliff. Simple and unadorned, the entryway is camouflaged against the similarly colored rock it sets against, a slight crack and a small keyhole being the only indication that there is anything out of place at all. A tattered pile of rags comes downstream, dragging behind it a similarly sized muscular creature, like a somewhat more bipedal ape with the tail of a capuchin. Said creature is solidly sleeping, paying no mind to the rocks it is being dragged face-down across.


    The pair move quickly against the current, the pile of rags effortlessly hefting the ape up the riverbank to the door, where they produce a key from within its tatters. Placing the metal within the stone, a hand is momentarily revealed in the sun¡¯s dying light, the insectoid carapace catching and reflecting a few rays before retreating back under the cover of cloth. To the right of the door, the ape stirs, beginning to wake. With a click of its tongue, the hand shot out of the rags once again, gripped the ape by the foot, and casually tossed the creature through the stone entryway. Flying four and a half meters, the ape impacts with the stone wall opposite the open door, causing cracks to erupt from the point of impact. Knocked firmly back into unconsciousness, the creature falls flat back onto the ground. Ignoring its burden for the moment, the thing in rags closes the stone door and locks it once more before moving to the right side of the room to unlock the wooden door blocking the only other path. It grips the door¡¯s handle, pulling the carved lump carefully. A sticky film clings to the palm, before being quickly absorbed into the creature¡¯s carapice-like skin. Dry coughing noises come from the rags, laughter of the sort produced by a dessicated corpse that nonetheless had a stuffed nose and inflamed throat. Grabbing the ape by the leg with its still somewhat sticky hand, it pulls the creature forth into a two-directional hallway immediately beyond the wooden door. It pauses once more to lock the door behind it, and takes the path to the right, which immediately turns back to the left so as not to break through the cliff¡¯s face and reveal the contents of the underground rooms to the outside. Twelve seconds pass by as the two pass under an iron chandelier with downward facing spikes topped with red flames, follow the corridor to the left past carvings of demons that have previously been summoned from the outer darkness in this place, and down further turns to another locked wooden door.


    Grass grows close to this door, spreading from the inside of the room through the crack that allows entrance. The ragman pauses to drive a fist into the ape¡¯s face before unlocking the next door, at which point it opens to a lush jungle. Ignoring its charge for a moment, the creature in rags quickly searches over the underbrush, counting plants. Sure of itself, they grab onto their lump on meat and dash toward the far left side of the room, where yet another door sits. Stopping three and a half meters away, the creature in rags throws the ape through the door, and a burst of magic erupts from the splintering wood. Simultaneously, five five-meter tall, four-headed flytraps burst from the underbrush. Tendrils pushing against the earth below them, they launch themselves at the creature in rags, snapping mouths at the morsel of meat that dared to dangle itself in from of them. The first to reach the much smaller creature engulfs the rags and everything within them in its maw easily, leaving the other four with nothing.Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.


    Moments later, the creature within the rags stomps down through the flytrap¡¯s closed mouth, grabs through the hole with one hand, and throws the 4100 kilogram pile of plant matter at another of the walking pieces of vegetation. Ignoring the two mangled collections of cellulose, the remaining three attempt the exact same tactic as before, and are met with the same result. With one fly trap remaining, the last vegitable proves to be the least capable, as it is unable to even bite through the carapace of its ragged prey. It manages with its second mouth, but shortly after it meets the same fate as its compatriots. A pile of broken greenery is all that remains to show this jungle room had enough raw strength within it to demolish several small towns.


    Walking through the splintered wreck, the creature in rags discovers its quarry is approaching consciousness yet again. It picks the thing up by the head, and smashes the ape¡¯s skull into the stone wall to its right, leaving a deep impression in the stone. With that out of the way, it was free to enter the next chamber.


    A small room, it seemed completely unnotable. However, the ragged thing walked straight forward, stepped slightly to the left, and poked gently at the wall immediately across from the door. With a snap, another burst of magical energy erupted from the wall, reaching in front of it and to the side, ripping the heat energy from everything in a cone ahead of it. Stone cracks and frost condenses on the floor, walls, and ceiling, and an illusion of stone wall fades away from the iron door. Pulling another key from its rags, the creature unlocks this door and drags its burden down along the straight corridor to another door of wood, which the ragged man simply opens. A library of sorts greets them, a fire burning to the left, and bookshelves lining the far wall from where they entered. Only pausing to mildly brutalize the thing it was dragging, the creature in rags goes directly to the third bookshelf from the left, and pulls back on the sixth book of the second shelf. Smoothly, the shelf swings inward, and the pair continue on.


    In the center of this room is a stone table, leather straps on each of the four corners. Knives and other steel instruments line the walls, and a spiral of green stone reaches out in all directions from the base of the table. To the right of where the bookshelf swung open, a rotting pile of skins, their origins undeterminable but likely unpleasant, lies discarded, each covered in black boils, green pus, and blood. Again ignoring everything around them, the thing in rags moves directly to an unremarkable patch of wall, and pushes against it. The illusion falls away as the wooden door opens, and the next room reveals a storage room for horrible instruments of torture.


    Past a rack, a wall of thumbscrews, and an iron furnace, the ragged man opens a spiked coffin, and walks into it. It pushes the stone wall revealed between two sides of inward facing skewers, and the door swings open to a corridor with another wooden door at the end. With a pause to stomp the ape¡¯s head, the creature in rags unlocks the wooden door, and then the next wooden door to the right of it. This leads to a corridor, sliding around to the right, the left twice, a right at a crossroad, and an angled path upward to a stone wall.


    ¡°Vethivhira,¡± speaks the creature far stronger than its size.


    Reacting to the command, the wall sinks down into the earth, revealing another vegetation-rich room. Knowing what is to come, the ragged thing hefts the ape as a makeshift club. From the left, passed a large stone skull carved into the wall, vines slowly drift closer to the newly made hole in the wall. To the right slightly, more emerge from a well supplying the fountain immediately to the creature¡¯s left, and in front and above, an enormous venus flytrap hangs from the ceiling.


    Deciding to be proactive, the creature in rags throws the ape at the plant on the ceiling, and the thing screeches like the five before never had, even as they were being ripped apart. Where the creature came in contact with the plant, black necrosis began to spread. A large spot, where the ape had collided with the living botany project, and veins of rot spreading through the nutrient absorption system. Putting that interaction off to the side for the moment, the thing in rags prepared for the inevitable rush of the remaining plants.


    One bite and two crumpled piles of carnivorous greenery later, the ragged man burst through the next door through application of ape to door from a distance. Screeching from three different sources erupt from the room with the thing¡¯s entry. Walking through the splintered mass, the pile of rags was greeted by the sight of three massive plant monsters huddling in a corner away from the unconscious beast that had thus far only been dragged through the dungeon. Bemused, the ragged man picks up the ape by the back of the neck, and lifts it toward the plants, herding them away from the left-most door. Once the flytraps were properly corralled, the carapaced thing taps on the door, pulling back as a blade from the ceiling drops down with immense force. With that, they simply push on the wooden door, and drag the ape into the room beyond. Now that it was on the lookout for such things, the thing in rags notices the grass it had been dragging the creature over turning brown and dying as the blades were passed.


    ¡°This outsider you detected may be a potent source of virulence. I hope I¡¯ll be able to investigate it thoroughly before you need to dispose of it.¡±


    The thing in rags spoke toward a black, hairy creature laying in the center of the room. Light from the burning torches ensconced along the left wall danced along characters rent into the wall opposite the flames, and shone off a suit of armor immediately to the right of the door the two had entered from. Such illumination allowed for any in the room to be sure the creature acting as the room¡¯s focal point was indeed breathing. From the center of the fur, a high voice responds to the thing in rags.


    ¡°I imagine that you have adequately contained whatever sort of demon has invaded this plane? For some reason, I am unable to sense any sort of trapped entities in the containment circles at all.¡±


    Standing fully, the creature in rags stands straight, gaining five centimeters of height. Glowing runes appear around the thing¡¯s head, and with an underhand toss they loft the ape into the room. It hits the stone floor with a crash, and the pile of hair jumps to its feet, the two meter long wolf bearing its teeth and growling loudly at the thing that had just made noise in its home.


    ¡°It was exactly where you had sensed it, and none of the detection spells had come up with an overwhelmingly powerful aura. Following your guidelines, I followed up with the third level scroll to put it into a deep sleep, at which point I rendered the creature unconscious through more traditional methods. With the situation handled, I saw no reason to delay my report.¡±


    A clawed, green hand came up from behind the great wolf, pushing it back away from the creature. Small, with a round head and sharp teeth, a green goblin stares with an unobstructed view toward the taller thing wrapped in rags. With downturned mouth, it gestures toward the wolf to lay down and relax.


    ¡°You said no overwhelmingly powerful aura. What kind of reaction did you get then? Without that information, I can not tailor the containment toward this¡­ Thing.¡±


    Pulling a hood of rags away from its face, the one in tatters reveals a male face, covered in lesions, scabs, and black boils. Sunken eyes look into the goblin¡¯s eyes.


    ¡°Nothing. This outsider did not react to any of the identifications.¡±


    ¡°There has never been a neutral outsider discovered. Each of the four churches agree. Any of the things from beyond our reality are subject to the four forces.¡±


    ¡°Nevertheless, this one has no aura, and was subjected to the deep slumber. Temporarily.¡±


    Pausing a moment, the goblin blinks.


    ¡°What do you mean, temporarily?¡±


    Stepping closer to the fallen ape, the man in tattered clothing points to the unconscious creature.


    ¡°It will not be long now.¡±


    Seconds pass in silence, other than the wolf, which only became more nervous as time passed. Its yellow eyes dart from side of the room to side, its every instinct instructing it to flee from this thing anathema to its nature. The ape began to stir.


    ¡°Ah, yes. The spell is only strong enough to last for several minutes. I understand fully now.¡±


    ¡°One moment more.¡±


    Bringing his fist down into the creature¡¯s face, the man with the circling symbols smashed its skull into the stone floor by several centimeters.


    ¡°It is continually impressive you manage to not kill creatures you do that to.¡±


    ¡°And if you would kindly watch again.¡±


    Thirty three seconds later, the creature began to stir again.


    ¡°What fresh hell is this that we have stumbled upon?¡±


    ¡°Indeed.¡±


    ¡°I will be requiring your continued assistance for several more hours. The subjects can wait until this new outsider has been contained.¡±


    ¡°Of course.¡±

 Net Zero

    Avery suddenly came back into consciousness. Unlike waking up, there was no lingering tiredness, not any sort of transition between being conscious and not; it was closer to suddenly popping into existence. Stopping herself from thinking ¡®Well that was odd¡¯ again, Avery instead opens up her status menu to see how much she had lost by casting that spell again.


    <div>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    <div>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Dungeon Statistics</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Age</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">6</td>


    <td>Weight</td>


    <td>7573</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>Structure Points</td>


    <td>253/253</td>


    <td>Mana Points</td>


    <td>1855/8350</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Structure Regeneration</td>


    <td>0</td>


    <td>Mana Regeneration</td>


    <td>-109</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>Power</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>Intelligence</td>


    <td>15</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Finesse</td>


    <td>12</td>


    <td>Wisdom</td>


    <td>8</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Hardness</td>


    <td>15</td>


    <td>Charisma</td>


    <td>6</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>Menu Options</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <div>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">?Build</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Spawn</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Demolish</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Map</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Huh. She¡¯d gotten mana back? Not much, and she¡¯d lost three hours of productivity, but that was a good thing to know about. If her soul wasn¡¯t in the dungeon core, it wouldn¡¯t burn for mana, and her natural mana recovery would still be in effect. There seemed to be something else, but it was subtle, and Avery couldn¡¯t put her finger on it.


    Regardless, the mana regeneration was still the big issue she needed to resolve. Now that the blanket wasn¡¯t hiding the entrance to her dungeon, Avery had no qualms about demolishing it for however few minutes of life it would provide her. Additionally, before she could think herself out of it, she spent the fifty mana to spawn a lesser slime in the pit one room deeper into her beginning labyrinth.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">You have spawned (1) Lesser Slime</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">For spawning your first creature, you have gained a one-time bonus of 1 mana regeneration!</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Your (Lesser Slime) provides you with (-1) mana regeneration as long as it remains within your walls.</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Mana Regeneration: -109 / 1</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Nooooo. And it was trapped in the hole, so she wasn¡¯t going to be able to¡­ Wait maybe she could just demolish it.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Demolish not available on living or undead creatures.</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Augh. Ok, well. Maybe she could design something to kill it, and then recover some of the mana from the remainders of the slime. People did that all the time, it couldn¡¯t be too hard. Avery spent two mana to build a stalactite over the pit, then another one to demolish a thin segment of stone that connected the new outcropping to the ceiling. Immediately falling, the stone spear pierces into the soft gel body of the newly formed slime.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">The death of a (Lesser Slime: 1) has provided you with 25 mana.</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Oh, well that made more sense. The first slime hadn¡¯t died in the territory of an ensouled dungeon core, and so the first half of the mana was lost. After demolishing the stalactite and the jelly at the bottom of the pit, Avery was back up to what she had originally, minus the one used on the separation and another lost to mana drain. So, if not removed from the grounds, the monsters would have a net zero cost, minus what they cost in upkeep. That would also explain why some dungeons shed their monsters out into the world, only to be filled with much more powerful creatures when the adventurers filed in to investigate the upsurge. Anyway, when she had built the stalactite there were a few more options in the construction menu now that Avery had demolished her blanket.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">New Items</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>Tapestry</td>


    <td>10</td>


    <td>Tripwire</td>


    <td>5</td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>Rope</td>


    <td>5</td>


    <td>Trap Trigger</td>


    <td>25</td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>Thread</td>


    <td>1</td>


    <td>Clothing</td>


    <td>1-100</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Blanket</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">10</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Magical Robes</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">2400-120000</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Decorating a room might provide a bonus of some sort, and the things she could do with the construction and spawn menus would be a net zero for mana if it wasn¡¯t, so it was worth trying for a few minutes. That in mind, Avery started decorating the entrance.


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Ham hadn¡¯t found this place by researching or going through the church¡¯s adventuring intelligence system for newly discovered dungeons. Rather, he had bullied some of the smaller children until they found a small, newly formed dungeon for him to pillage. The fact that he wasn¡¯t killed by that first trap indicated he had intimidated them enough to not betray him at their first opportunity. That kind of giant blade sweeping across an entire corridor would be enough to kill even a group of normal people, but Ham was absolutely brimming with the power of undeath. Even if he hadn¡¯t immediately sealed himself back together with the negative energy, that level of damage was such that he¡¯d be able to heal naturally in less than a week. As it was, he was back to perfect health in six seconds.


    So, he kept going forward. These traps didn¡¯t reset on their own it looked like, so he could proceed with reckless abandon. Of course, the very next corridor had another trap. As he walked up to a two way intersection, one path to the left and one to the right, a crescent of metal fell on a pendulum, slicing up Ham¡¯s back and splitting the skin on his back and head apart. This particular blade had done less damage than the previous one, but the slightly random nature of throwing raw energy at a problem until it goes away, combined with the injury being where Ham was unable to see, meant it took significantly longer for him to repair his flesh. Twelve seconds this time.


    Deciding to leave this choice to chance, Ham flips a coin. Marked side left, unmarked right. The coin decreed that right was right, so Ham followed the path until it turned to the left, at which point there was another branch off to the left. Ahead, there was a chandelier of iron hanging above the hall, whereas the left immediately turned again to the left. The coin decreed straight, so Ham went on, following the path as it turned left twice more, until an actual room appeared on his right behind an archway.


    Walking into the room, it was nothing but cold unworked stone lit by flickering candles, with broken glass from no discernable source scattered across the floor. Ham gingerly grasped the pick at his side. It was a standard heavy pick miners used for breaking stone apart, and would serve him well for breaking apart any traps that did reset themselves or killing monsters. If he were stronger, he might have been able to ignore the very walls of the dungeon, simply mining through the stone to find a straight path. That was work though. Ham was more willing to risk death wandering endless corridors filled with traps than swing a pick relentlessly at a wall.


    Instead, he turns around, and finds the source of the broken glass. To the left of the archway was a stained glass mosaic, depicting an image Ham had alway assumed would come to pass; a cleric of darkness crushing Ham¡¯s skull with a large flanged mace, erupting with a blue glow. Ham had always assumed that if he trusted the clerics and hierarchy of darkness, they would eventually betray and murder him. It¡¯s what he would have done in their place, and here he had a prophecy telling him exactly what he had always believed.


    His purpose reinforced once again, Ham continues to explore and loot the dungeon.

 Starting to Come Together

    Right off the bat, Avery invests the mana from demolishing the blanket into recreating said blanket above the pit. Thanks to not being extremely large or anything like that, it immediately falls in. Demolishing it again, she spends a full minute trying to generate it on top of the opening and rapidly placing created rocks, which were for some reason categorized under ¡®stone weapon¡¯ for one mana each, on the edges to hold it in place, before deciding it was unfeasible with her current options and demolishing everything and moving her attention back to the entrance. Deciding to start with a tapestry, she covers the left wall with the cloth.


    For some reason, it looks just like a blanket.


    Annoyed, Avery demolishes the ¡®tapestry¡¯ and builds it again. Again, it is just a blanket on the wall. Leaving it there for the moment, she moves to the opposite wall, and tries her hand at the engraving. Simply going through the menu, Avery selects the engrave option and applies it to the wall. A point of mana evaporates from her core, and the wall uniformly indents by about a centimeter.


    ¡°Auuugh!¡±


    Maybe the problem was that she wasn¡¯t thinking about anything specific, and just using the things. Applying the engraving to the wall again, Avery thinks about the layout of her rooms, and applies the effect. This time, the centimeter indentation was limited to an outline of the dungeon, showing the openings and sizes of the chambers within, with a divot where the pit stood. That being done, she tries the same thing with the tapestry option, imagining the unmarked wall as she places the cloth over the new map. With twelve mana, the right wall as seen entering the dungeon is converted to a hidden map, a tapestry filling a centimeter deep indentation that would otherwise leave the room lopsided.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">For creating your first Hidden Secret, you gain a one-time bonus of 5 mana regeneration!</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">For creating a map of your first floor, you gain a one-time bonus of 5 mana regeneration!</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">For generating a Hidden Secret, you gain a bonus of 5 mana regeneration!</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Not bad at all! That was extremely worth the investment, even with the wasted time trying to cover the pit. If she could think up more secrets to fill the rooms with, Avery might have this problem dealt with before-The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    Carrying a wooden box this time, the Invader walks back into the cave.


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Two rights later, Ham comes across a wooden door. Not locked, but engorged by moisture enough that the wood had swelled shut. Rather than attempt to open it through the application of force, which would require effort, he presses his palm against the wood and channels his negative energy into the structure. Over the course of a little over half a minute, the wood ages and cracks, falling apart in splinters. Without any interesting things within the room immediately upon entry, Ham kicks aside a rusted gauntlet left on the stone in front of the now lack of door, and walks in.


    On the right side of the room, a mural depicting male examples of the various races of the world, without shirts, all smiling and clasping the shoulders of the creature next to them. In the center is a blank circle, wherein a crystal ball is implied to be resting. Ham finds it both disconcerting and a waste of paints. Unfortunately, every other wall of the rectangular room has an unexplored door within it, rendering his coin-flipping method somewhat unusable. On the wall he came from, there is an iron door, which he decides immediately is going to be discounted from the coin flip, as it would take longer than the others to decay into nothingness. Instead, he assigns the doors to either side of the coin, and comes up with the door across from the mural, immediately next to the iron door. Confidently striding toward the thing, he falls into a pit trap.

 Going Down

    And she was doing so well! Fifteen mana regeneration in like five minutes, and then this douchebag shows up with his negative forty-two. APPARENTLY, that meant that not only was this guy keeping her from making improvements, but he was sponging off her limited supply of mana to supply his basic needs. A slime took up one mana regeneration, so this guy consumed the resources of over three dozen slimes, just walking around. It boggled Avery¡¯s mind how such a small frame could be such an ecological disaster that it was on par with a small nest of slimes setting up without being purged. With that many all in one place, they¡¯d be enough to kill an armed person with a decent bit of experience.


    Considering the relative upkeep costs, it might actually be worth investing in a pile of slimes just to keep this particular guy out of here¡­ Avery stopped that line of thought. It would cost two thousand mana to get forty slimes, and she¡¯d still be in the position of having a bunch of worthless balls of goo inside her. Negative ninety-nine mana regeneration was bad enough, and she didn¡¯t have the two thousand to spare anyway. There might be bonuses for certain amounts of monsters spawned though¡­


    ¡°Hello! I¡¯m baaaack. And I brought back my stuff too. Would you say you would consider yourself intelligent life, by the way? Not now, since you¡¯re dead and alllll wait a minute, what happened here? Pretty sure this was just a smooth tunnel carved out by extremely high levels of energy obliterating everything in a straight line when I left.¡±


    Stopping to put down the box in the center of the chamber, the invader looks askance at the blanket hanging on the left wall. Turning away from the ¡®tapestry¡¯, they say ¡°I¡¯m not falling for your trap a second time. If I go near that thing it¡¯s going to fall on me and I¡¯ll be stuck under it. Clearly you aren¡¯t aware of the type of being you¡¯re messing with here,¡± before noticing the other wall. ¡°Oh, neat. The exposed trap on the left is a clue to imply symmetry of the room, letting the wary know that they aren¡¯t safe on either end. I, however, am equipped with exactly the toolset necessary to disarm this nefarious contraption.¡±


    Raising a palm toward the grey tapestry on the wall, the invader pulls down from the center of the room, and the fabric easily detaches itself from the stone and crumples in a heap upon the ground, revealing the map below.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Your secret has been discovered for the first time! You gain a one-time bonus of fifty mana.</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    New information there. Judging from the lack of verbal components when he used it, that was a spell-like ability of the cantrip Mage Hand. It was technically possible for it to have actually been the spell, but that would both be an inefficient use of mana, since making a spell silent increases the consumption by a stage, and would require that he had spent significant time and effort learning how to make spells of all kinds wordless. That was honestly less useful than removing the physical gestures associated with the given magics, seeing as how there were more situations where somatic components would be impossible to use while the verbal would not be, such as when a wizards arms were pinned by a stronger creature, or they were bound by ropes out manacles, but not gagged. Removing the verbal part of a spell would mainly be useful for being sneaky, and, while an application of five pounds of force unobtrusively would be an asset in a wide variety of situations, it was comparatively less useful than many ordinary spells that use the same amount of mana, but don''t require learning to silence casting. The Sleep spell, for instance.


    Additionally, a wizard would need to be significantly more powerful than Avery to think so little of casting one of their spells with so little provocation. Whereas she was dumping soul energy into the environment, a wizard would just use the external mana they absorb, leaving the soul untouched, able to grow larger and hold more mana. Apparently a Dungeon Core just relied on the size of it''s gem for that, and could use all the mana contained within it, or so Avery started theorizing, but even if that was true a negative mana regeneration and zero mana would mean being trapped forever as an inert stone, unable to affect anything going on around her. That was a bit of a horrifying thought, particularly along with the possibility that any given gem could be a tormented consciousness trapped in an eternal prison of their own corporeal form. Deciding not to think about that, Avery instead celebrates the windfall of a cantrips worth of mana.


    ¡°Yes!¡±


    Surprised by the sudden noise, the invader jumps backward away from the engraved map, bumping into the opposite wall. Jostled from the impact, the tapestry falls forward onto their head, covering the creature in heavy fabric and bringing it down to the ground.


    ¡°No, not again! How could this happen to me?¡±


    As the useless lump on the ground struggles to free itself from the blanket, Avery decides to spend her non productive time productively. Just because she couldn''t use anything in the menus didn''t mean she couldn''t explore them at all. First off, she had the stone weapons. Though the outline comes up red when she selects the option, she us able to think of pretty much any given object that would be used for combat and have the mana cost update to reflect the item. A farming sickle would cost six mana, whereas a spear was only two for some reason. Next was one of the far too expensive things, the stone armor. Judging by it''s outline, it was in fact a full suit of plate armor, which she could modify to be slightly larger or smaller in places, or otherwise adjust how it would sit on a person. Not having been a professional blacksmith, Avery could generally determine what size equipment would fit an adventurer that went into her parents shop, but magical equipment, even the weakly enchanted stuff like her family mass produced, would automatically adjust to the wearer, to a limited extent. You couldn''t expect a chain shirt made for a human to expand enough for a giant to wear or anything like that, but usually something like that would modify itself enough to fit a dwarf or elf. Non-magical rocks would not.


    Looking it over one last time before moving on, Avery notices that there looked to be cloth padding inside the suit. Since she didn''t have access to that material back when the item unlocked, that implied the various options in the build menu would occasionally be upgraded without fanfare when new materials became available. The cost for the armor didn''t increase either, which meant there was no downside to making the superior version of the item once it was available. When there wasn''t someone blocking her, Avery could just demolish the inferior structure and build the new version in its place for no actual cost.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.


    Clothes seemed pretty self explanatory, and it was. As tempting as it was to just spend all the time waiting for her invader to leave overlaying her body with dresses, Avery moved to the obscenely expensive robe section.


    It was different. Instead of a freeform creation, she had a choice between nine premade designs, each of them with a very different price. The most expensive one looked to be covered in eyes, while the next most expensive was just an ordinary unmarked robe. However, the least expensive robe looked the most interesting to the necromancer, being covered in patches in the shape of bones.


    ¡°Hate these traps. Even when you solve the puzzle, you still have to manage to avoid them somehow.¡±


    ¡°It''s not even really a trap! You just keep pulling my blanket off the wall and onto yourself. It''s a decoration!¡±


    ¡°Then you need to secure it better, it shouldn''t fall off at the slightest bump.¡±


    ¡°I was in the process! You barged in as soon as I got them up at all, and now I have to start over.¡±


    ¡°Oh. Yeah, I guess it would be a bit difficult to do things without a physical body. Good job on clearing up those rocks that killed you. And you¡­ used them to build a wall separating the halves of the tunnel for some reason? It''s like you''re trying to match up with this blueprint you carved under the first trap.¡±


    ¡°It''s not a trap! And for your information, I already did.¡±


    ¡°Huh, I was only gone for¡­ ok yeah I''ll admit I got distracted by a tree for a while. Still, judging by the side of this room and the dimensions indicated by this map, you would have had to excavate about four hundred cubic meters of stone for the rooms. That¡¯s pretty impressive.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s also corridors.¡±


    ¡°How¡¯d you manage that? Do you function as a poltergeist, moving things around as though you still have physical form, or more like a movie haunting where things just happen for no discernable reason?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not a ghost, and have no idea what you¡¯re talking about, but I guess it works more like the second one. I¡¯m a necromancer, and I¡¯m alive.¡±


    ¡°Ah, a specialist then. I don¡¯t know much about the profession myself, but you¡¯d be surprised what a healer with a good book on the subject can do with bones. Pretty sure you¡¯re dead though. Any spontaneous generation of blood on the walls or anything like that yet?¡±


    ¡°Get out of here, or there¡¯s gonna be blood on the walls non-spontaneously!¡±


    ¡°Kind of a more credible threat now that you¡¯ve shown a bit of your capabilities. I¡¯m almost certain I can still take anything you¡¯d try and do, but as a gesture of goodwill I¡¯ll step out for a bit until you calm down.¡±


    ¡°While you¡¯re out, could you tell my parents I won¡¯t be home tonight?¡±


    ¡°First off, if that¡¯s your unfinished business that¡¯s pretty lame. Second, I don¡¯t know where they live.¡±


    ¡°Screw you, I¡¯ve only been gone for like a day, and I¡¯m not dead. We live in the outer city, three streets down and two houses to the right.¡±


    ¡°You lost me there, what city?¡±


    ¡°The one on top of the cliff. How did you spend so many hours out there and not notice it?¡±


    ¡°I get distracted easily. Any specifics?¡±


    ¡°Just go down to the valley, go up the path to the top, and it¡¯s the thing with the giant tower with a ball on top in the middle.¡±


    ¡°Huh. Need to go check on that first then. Be right back.¡±


    And with that, Avery once again turned away an adventurer before they could get to the room she held her core in. Menus unlocked, she demolishes the tapestries on either side of the chamber and recreates them in their proper place, which prompts another notification to come up.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    <table style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Would you like to set these features to automatically reset when the dungeon is clear?</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Yes</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">No</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Selecting yes, Avery thinks for a moment about what she had found to give mana regeneration. There was five for rooms and one for corridors, five for a secret, and five for making a floor map. She didn¡¯t want to have to find out if the regeneration for the map was revoked if she made changes to the layout, so she was probably going to have to make a new floor instead. Fortunately, she already had a perfectly serviceable hole in the ground to act as an entrance to a lower level.


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Twenty-four seconds after falling into the pit trap, Ham stood up, restored to full health. An entire three meter square area in front of both the iron door and the door he had been walking to had fallen away beneath him, and the hole below had been seven meters deep. It probably wouldn¡¯t have killed him, but if he had landed more wrongly it was entirely possible that the damage done would have been enough to knock him out instead of simply breaking his legs. If that were the case, healing wouldn¡¯t have been nearly so quick, as he wouldn¡¯t be able to channel the deathly energy into his skeleton without consciousness.


    Looking at the walls of the pit, they seemed consistent with the typical dungeon wall. Uneven surface, some handholds and footholds visible in the slopes, and otherwise simply like a block of stone had been pulled from the ground roughly. Ham wasn¡¯t much for physical exertion, but he had a pick, time, and unlimited power. He could stab actual handholds in a stable manner and climb up slowly.


    Starting off on a side of the pit, so he could brace against the wall on the opposite corner, he begins. After three minutes of picking, and halfway up the wall, he gets stuck on an outcropping and falls back down. Since that was only about three meters, he didn¡¯t take very much damage from the collision with the stone, and was back up the wall in less than half a minute. This time, it¡¯s easier, and he makes it all the way out of the pit in a total of five minutes. Somehow, a hole in the ground had been his most fearsome opponent so far in the dungeon. For some reason, it seemed that the majority of the place was empty rooms and corridors that went nowhere, with the occasional decoration or trap. He hadn¡¯t even found any treasure yet.


    At the very least, he is able to decay his way into the next room, which was again an empty one with three exits. Deciding to discount the furthest door on his right, as it was different from the other two, being a portcullis rather than an actual door, he flips his coin and goes to the right.


    Another empty room. This one only had one exit though, so he rips through the door, immediately finds a crossroad, and flips the coin before noticing that to his right, not only does the path end quite rapidly, it also has his first real gain of the dungeon. Hanging from chains and manacles from the wall are four skeletons.

 And Around

    Slicing down directly from where her gemstone sat seemed like a pretty bad idea to Avery, since regardless of the fact that her ¡®hardness¡¯ statistic was a probably decent fifteen it was still a ball of obsidian. It did tend to be difficult to scratch, but the material was brittle. When you broke off a piece of the glass, it left a sharp jagged edge, and if you were to drop one it would explode into jagged fragments that would shoot off to impale anyone standing nearby. Instead, she angles a rectangle, large enough to allow the gemstone through easily, down at a twenty-two degree angle, one mana at a time. She only got a little over half a meter deep per roll, but since she only really needed to get five or so down to be on a second floor, while leaving a sizable bed of stone between each, which hopefully would be enough for the build menu to keep the ceiling from collapsing when she dug out everything below them.


    It cost nine mana, plus three for time spent slowly rolling down the shallow slopes, stopping, and rolling down the other direction, but down in the darkness her core was safe. Belatedly, Avery realizes that her body was all the way up on the top floor, and she needed line of effect to cast the spell on it.


    ¡°Nooooooo.¡±


    Now she needed to get her body down here. Actually, come to think of it, she could just cut a tiny channel up from where she was up to where her body was laying. As long as an unobstructed path existed, it shouldn''t matter that there was a slightly larger distance between them. From what she remembered, the spell would have a range of thirty-six meters, after which there would be nothing tethering her to that radius, other than the hour time limit. As long as she got back on the hole before the duration expired, she wouldn''t.


    One potential crisis, followed by an immediate realization that it was not actually a crisis. So far, the second floor was going well. There wasn''t endless room for expansion into the direction Avery''s core was sitting, so to keep everything symmetrical there was a bit of a limit in that respect. To continue the thought she was having about the first floor, she would have a few branching paths with a hidden way down. In order to make it a bit more secure, eventually she''d figure out how to make keys and doors, with one big, obvious door after the pit room with slots for four keys, which would be in the ending rooms of each of her branching paths. Then, in every room, puzzles. Finally, the last room, after opening the final door, would be completely empty other than a sign saying that the area was still under construction. That would be both practical and hilarious.


    If they managed to find the hidden passage to the second floor, the same trick wouldn''t work twice. For the next giant door, the keys would be required. Seven of them. Three paths would split off from the central location, under the pit room, and would also lead to key puzzles, but the door would require all those three and the four from the first floor. Either they would have found the passage immediately and gotten stymied by the lack of keys, or they would have spent the time to solve the first floor¡¯s puzzles in the first place.


    There was basically no way someone would be able to get down to where Avery was now on the first try. That was more of a long term idea though, but having an eventual idea to work with would prevent the layout from becoming a giant chaotic mess during her frantic room building. The more rooms, the more regeneration, but that still left a huge collection of empty chambers. If nothing else, that was aesthetically displeasing. Shaking off her inaction, Avery shelves the concept of decoration for the moment. She had three repeatable, consistent mana regeneration sources, and they all required rooms.


    Meter high hole in the side of the pit, one mana. Room that hole drops into, twenty mana. Another mana for another meter pulled from the hole to actually connect the two, one more mana, and notifications.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">For generating a Hidden Secret, you gain a bonus of 5 mana regeneration!</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">For starting your second floor, you gain a one-time bonus of 10 mana regeneration!</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Looked like she wasn''t going to have to make the entire floor plan she envisioned to get to a non-critical level. Still going to though, the fact that a negative forty-two could pop up at any moment still left her in danger. Next, four corridors, one in each cardinal direction, branching off the central chamber, and a room for each of them. Thirty for each set, there went a hundred and twenty, but she was nowhere near done. Each created room would turn to the right, then left, left again, and then forward four rooms before turning left one final time and go for five rooms. Altogether, one thousand four hundred and sixty five mana, gone in one spending session.


    <div>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Tutorial 3</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    That wasn''t too hard, right? Now that you have a stead influx of mana, wait until you have a full ten and build a corridor using the ''Build'' menu.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Corridors Built: 56 / 1


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <div>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Tutorial 4</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Good job! You will continue getting that bonus until the tutorial concludes, to help speed up your early progression. Now, try and use the commands to build a room.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Rooms Built: 58 / 1


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <div>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Tutorial 5</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Perfect! Don''t be fooled by the reward being the same regardless of the room''s size. Rooms are much more versatile than corridors, and may allow for secret bonuses to be acquired with different dimensions. Now that you have the basics down, try making a trap!Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Traps Built: 4 / 1


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <div>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Tutorial 6</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Now that''s a dangerous trap. This next step might take a while, so practice what you''ve learned as you wait.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Traps Successfully Triggered: 2 / 1


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <div>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Tutorial 7</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Wonderful. If that trap did its job correctly, you should now have a new option: ''Spawn''. Any time a creature dies in your dungeon, you gain the option to create a generic version of it that supplements its basic needs with your mana. Try it now!


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Creatures Spawned: 1 / 1


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <div>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Tutorial 8</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    You''ve gotten the hang of managing your body fairly well now. As a final reward, once you dismiss this final tutorial, you''ll get a ninety percent discount on any dungeon item you currently have unlocked. Choose carefully, sometimes quality is better than quantity, and you can have both!


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Notifications Dismissed: 0 / 1


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    She''ll deal with that later. In the room her core currently sits, Avery does the same thing she had done on the first floor, and uses the engraving function without a specific image in mind, depressing the wall, then input a simplified version of the second floor into the indentation, sealing it all behind a stone colored tapestry.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">For creating a map of your second floor, you gain a one-time bonus of 5 mana regeneration!</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">For generating a Hidden Secret, you gain a bonus of 5 mana regeneration!</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Phew. Now that that was all done, Avery checks her status. She isn''t even sure she wants to know how much is left, but however much it was she needed to get up to at least positive forty-two before the invader got back. It didn''t exactly take very long to get from the valley to the canyon¡¯s top, and less to get back, so she was working with a fairly strict time limit.


    <div>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    <div>


    <div>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Dungeon Statistics</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>Age</td>


    <td>7</td>


    <td>Weight</td>


    <td>7573</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>Structure Points</td>


    <td>253/253</td>


    <td>Mana Points</td>


    <td>311/8350</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Structure Regeneration</td>


    <td>0</td>


    <td>Mana Regeneration</td>


    <td>214</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <div>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>Power</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>Intelligence</td>


    <td>15</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Finesse</td>


    <td>12</td>


    <td>Wisdom</td>


    <td>8</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Hardness</td>


    <td>15</td>


    <td>Charisma</td>


    <td>6</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <div>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>Menu Options</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <div>


    <div>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">?Build</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Spawn</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Demolish</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Map</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Quick math. Two hundred fourteen mana per hour, with a maximum of eight thousand three hundred fifty, meant that to get a full storage of mana with this regeneration rate would take about  forty hours, or close to two days. Still better than constantly being in the negatives. Of course, she was always able to do more investing for a faster regen, and there was also the possibility of gaining some of those bonuses. If she weren''t limited to only using cloth and stone, decorating would be much easier.


    Now that she thought of it, since it was a net zero to do so anyway, there was no reason Avery couldn''t demolish that box, then reconstruct it. She''d have access to wood, and with no downsides at all.


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    It took several minutes to rot the manacles and chains of the skeletons without damaging them, but it was worth it to have a supply of bones and potential minions. For a necromancer, throwing the body of one''s victims into the room ahead of them is not only an intimidation tactic, but a viable combat strategy as well. A skeleton suddenly appearing in a flanking position was a setup for several classic adventuring strategies, most of which boiled down to ''surround them and stab a lot''.


    Carrying these around at all times would be moderately annoying, however, so Ham simply infused the bones with a supply of his energy through a touch. When the time came, he would simply reach through to that energy and bring the skeletons to him through his magic. A source of minions acquired, though not that many to be honest, Ham continues onward in his exploration. Dead end.


    Backtracking to the previous room, he flipped his coin to decide between the door and the portcullis. With the decision to go through the door made, he ages down the wooden obstruction, revealing a dark pit covered by iron bars and three more doors. Ham swears vengeance on the designer of this place, and resolves to bring a device to decide between more than two options the next time he goes out to hunt a dungeon.


    To attempt to differentiate between the three, Ham tests each of the doors. If they were all locked, there was no way to tell anything from them, whereas if all but one were stuck, he could discount the locked one. Surprisingly, the second door on the right side of the room was unlocked, and swung open easily. Taking it as a good sign, Ham goes through that door and is sliced by a scythe trap.

 Amazing Progress

    First though, there were a few more pressing matters. If the bonus mana regeneration was a short-term thing, and she would stop getting it when the last box was done with, Avery would probably be better off extending into a third floor before doing that. Corridors wouldn''t give the best regeneration to mana spent ratio, but Avery had the idea and urge to make the third floor a maze. Unfortunately, she only had enough spare mana for thirty-one instances of corridor, which was nowhere near enough to do what she wanted. Well, at least starting at the furthest endpoint from the entrance of the second floor, she could get started and get some of that bonus regeneration.


    Almost as if she had planned it in some way, Avery had a room that already terminated away from the cliff face. Ideally, she would have stairs going down, but there was both no time for that nor an option to do so, and carving them manually would take far too much mana. Instead, Avery angles a corridor down from the southernmost endpoint, and starts from that. Ramps were perfectly fine, and it was only like a twenty-five degree decline. Most people would be perfectly able to get back out, and leaving was the only important bit.


    <div>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">For starting your third floor, you gain a one-time bonus of 15 mana regeneration!</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    For this maze, Avery was going to try a switch-based layout. She toyed with the idea of making an elaborate maze, and then having a shortcut hidden behind the stairs, but the whole point was to keep people away from the shiny thing, not let observant people through the area easily. Besides, all she had for hiding things were tapestries, and they had so far not done the job very well. On the other hand, she did get a mana bonus when someone found a secret for the first time, so maybe hiding things terribly was a good idea somehow. Not a path forward though. At best, she¡¯d put in that secret passageway, but only when the person made it all the way through the maze, and flipped the switch to open up the doorway leading out.


    Now, she only had enough mana for thirty more corridors, so she was going to try and get as much of a basic layout made as she could. Two forward corridors, then one to the left and one to the right. The one to the left, she would be hiding behind one of the switches, and the right would go on another corridor, then turn right. That corridor would have a switch that flipped the wall on the first corridor going right over to block the path back, at which point they¡¯d go up to that section, turn right, go up two corridors, around a corner twice, and there¡¯d be a switch that opened up the path forward. They¡¯d still have to go back and switch the first one back again though, and they¡¯d have no indication that that was what the switch had done.


    She could think of more tricks when she had mana though. Quickly burning through all her available energy, Avery builds enough corridors to get about to the middle of the second floor, right under the pit. That would be where she started branching off into puzzle segments again.


    <div>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    <div>


    <div>


    <div>


    <table style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Dungeon Statistics</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <div>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>Age</td>


    <td>7</td>


    <td>Weight</td>


    <td>7573</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>Structure Points</td>


    <td>253/253</td>


    <td>Mana Points</td>


    <td>1/8350</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Structure Regeneration</td>


    <td>0</td>


    <td>Mana Regeneration</td>


    <td>261</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <div>


    <div>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>Power</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>Intelligence</td>


    <td>15</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Finesse</td>


    <td>12</td>


    <td>Wisdom</td>


    <td>8</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Hardness</td>


    <td>15</td>


    <td>Charisma</td>


    <td>6</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <div>


    <div>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>Menu Options</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <div>


    <div>


    <div>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">?Build</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Spawn</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Demolish</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Map</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Oh, looked like that mana regen got her another corridor. Huh. It was nice not having a constant drain. With all these floors, rooms, and corridors, Avery was getting a point of mana every fifteen seconds, which was extremely nice. Once she was done fabricating a whole maze, she''d be so flush with mana she wouldn''t even have to worry about spell limitations anymore. Unlimited power was hers to command, and without having to have relied on the Tower at all. What could they offer Avery that she didn¡¯t have now? Space? She had an entire underground lair within walking distance of the capitol. Freedom from oversight? Aside from being hidden from the world, Avery was essentially dead already. Resources? Anything she could get an example of, she could create out of raw energy, limitlessly. Speaking of which, there was the wooden box. More important to her now than the mana she could harvest from demolishing it was the fact she would get wood, and all the things she could make out of it. Levers, buttons, staves, wooden spikes for the bottom of the pit, doors, the possibilities were tantalizing. Demolishing the object, Avery is suddenly bombarded with messages.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.


    <div>


    <table style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Demolish not available on living or undead creatures.</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>Demolish not available on living or undead creatures.</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>Demolish not available on living or undead creatures.</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>Demolish not available on living or undead creatures.</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>Demolish not available on living or undead creatures.</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>Demolish not available on living or undead creatures.</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>Demolish not available on living or undead creatures.</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>Demolish not available on living or undead creatures.</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>Demolish not available on living or undead creatures.</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>Demolish not available on living or undead creatures.</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>Demolish not available on living or undead creatures.</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <div>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Demolish not available on living or undead creatures.</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Avery quickly looks closer at the space where there was once a box, and found that there was a number of small insects. That was odd.


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    The scythe blade traps were guaranteed to hit him if he set them off, that was true. That didn''t matter to Ham, since even at their deadliest he would still be able to fully repair himself in a matter of minutes. This particular one was ineffective enough he simply breaks the blade on his body, and continues on. Flipping his coin, Ham takes a left, passing over a tile floor of some maze of another. He ignores it, and follows the path, which leads right back to the entrance. Rather than keeping on with a looping path, he backtracks and goes the other direction, which leads to another two intersections, where he takes a left, a right, finds a dead end, and finds another dead end down the other branch.


    That was just what dungeon exploration was though, lots of walking, dead ends, empty rooms, and other boredom, punctuated occasionally by violence. Coming up against a stone door, unbudging, with groaning coming from behind it, Ham works on slowly grinding it down. While a common adventurer would use something physical, like the pick Ham was holding, to carve through a stone, Ham had unlimited power with which to do the same. It takes a good three minutes to decay the hunk of stone to powder, but it is uneventful and the noise proves to have been unsourced. Ham dismisses it as a part of the dungeon, and moves on. This time, there are four exits to choose from. Assigning each doorway a side of the coin, Ham flips twice to determine which move on to the finals, then assigns and flips once more. The winner is the rightmost door, which is simply another wooden door, unlocked but requiring physical force to move.


    With the door out of the way, Ham finds himself in another room with four exits, face to face with a statue of some guy. He ignores it, and the masks hanging on the wall to his left, as he continues exploring. This time, an iron portcullis at the end of the wall with the horned masks wins the toss. It is similarly to the stone door in terms of how much raw energy it could withstand, but eventually all things decay. Walking through the rusted grate, he follows the path as it turns to the left, and he is able to see one of the rooms he had already passed through a lack of door. However, there is another door in this hallway, so he rots down the wooden planks, at which point a pile of skulls cave through the opening.


    Not being attached to anything that would allow them motor function, Ham disregards the skulls as useless and moves into the room. There are two additional doors here, one of which would lead back to where he had first flipped three coins, and the other simple wood. He rots it down, and moves through, discovering the portcullis he had taken out of the coin-flip running. With that pathway having been explored, he travels down the leftward hallway, turning as it bends, and slows when he hears something that doesn¡¯t seem to be on a loop behind the door.

 Everything is Filler

    Nothing was left of the box, so that had gone perfectly. Apparently if Avery demolished a thing containing a living organism, it would remove the non-living material and leave behind whatever was within the container without harming its occupants. Two crickets, two of some sort of ladybug with long curling pincers coming from its backside, and eight beetles that looked like they were made of solid gold. They seemed content to stay exactly where they were, even the beetles that had fallen from wherever they had been in the box down onto their backs. From what Avery knew of bugs, that was fairly unusual, as normally they would wiggle their legs in the air trying to catch onto something they could use to flip themselves right-side-up again. While she was tempted to go and spend her mana on more corridors to maximize her regeneration rate, these bugs were potentially interesting. If she could kill them somehow, she¡¯d could get the mana from their deaths and bodies, and potentially the ability to spawn them as well. On the other hand, if they didn¡¯t provide enough mana to offset the cost of whatever method she used to attempt their rapid murdering, she would be better off not even bothering. On the other, less used, third hand, if they provided a negative regeneration rate like every other creature that had thus far existed in this cave, Avery would need to put their extermination at a priority


    Probably should have used the inspect option on the box before demolishing it, to be honest. Avery wasn¡¯t entirely sure why she hadn¡¯t. The thing was interesting enough that she ought to have made finding out what was up with it one of her top priorities, rather than simply taking it out of existence for whatever mana it offered, and the materials. Come to think of it, the reason she was demolishing it was only for the material, not the mana. Her plan had been to build it again immediately, not spend the mana on corridors. That was also odd.


    At least now that her mana regeneration situation was sorted out she could slow down and think about things. Looking through her build menu, along with the generically named ¡®door¡¯ she could now build in a multitude of varieties and sizes, all with their own mana cost, the various switches she had hoped for, and numerous other items, like clubs made of wood instead of stone with no actual benefit for her in terms of creation, as they were both weaker and cost the same as the stone ones, that she was expecting to have obtained from demolishing a box made of wood there were also a massive quantity of objects that were completely unexpected. Apparently there was enough metal in that box to start making copper, iron, mythril, and some kind of metal that, when she attempted to select it, would show up both dull grey and bluish-white in the build menu. Actually trying to use the mythril was out of the question though, since it would add thousands of mana to the creation cost of any given object. That particular metal was likely the reason Avery was now sitting at a pool of 662 mana, and further investigation into the menu discovers that it is indeed the case, with the object being listed only as ¡®box¡¯, with a cost of six hundred fifty mana.


    Considering for another moment, Avery decides to table the possibility of recreating the box until after she has finished running through the various menus and inspecting all the things. Interesting, she could make a hundred copper coins for one mana. Any and all reasonable money concerns of hers were taken care of right there. Actually, looking at all the costs for the various items in the build menu, it all aligned with the economy, at a rate of one gold coin being one mana spent. Ridiculous, since that was more than most people could make in a week. No wonder so many people became adventurers, if the dungeons could pump out that kind of currency. It would take a fairly large area to provide the thing with enough mana to do so, but a smaller area wouldn''t even be noticed anyway so whatever. Avery hadn''t studied economics as much as she could have, but did know copper, silver, and gold were all able to be consumed directly into the workings of magic and magic imbuing, most notably by priests bringing back the dead, craftsmen like her family transmuting the metal into raw energy that made equipment more effective, or the wall of iron spell. That last one was less costly than the priest¡¯s notable ¡®gold to magic¡¯ spell, only using a percent of what they did for the least powerful of their granted powers, but it rendered fifty coins worth of gold into about nine hundred kilograms of iron, for a wizard of Avery¡¯s efficiency. It wasn¡¯t exactly the best, and without extensive preparation she wouldn¡¯t even be able to cast it anyway, as someone who was able to effectively cast that particular spell with their own mana reserves would be producing two thousand five hundred kilograms with the same input, but it showed the same type of material transmutation ability of mana and metal that was evident in this build menu. She checks the costs again, and confirms that iron will produce five times as much for the mana as gold, which held with the market values and kept the value of the powerful spell where it was. With powerful enough wizards around, building materials were never in short supply, assuming they focused enough on the subject.


    Then again, wizards would also charge out the nose for their services being invoked. For that spell, the minimum qualified wizard would charge five hundred gold for the mana of that spell, plus the gold required, which would return five hundred fifty gold worth of iron. However, they¡¯d probably know that and bring up their price accordingly. How it shook out would depend on the individual situation of the wizard and whomever contracted them, and the quantities involved precludes said wizards from simply generating metal and selling it off any time they need to fund their projects due to flooding the local markets. Unlike metals like copper silver and gold, iron would need to be used as it was, rather than be converted back into mana for use in whatever magical purpose anyone could need.The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    Nice, now when she got distracted by thinking about magic, she was gaining a frankly obscene amount of mana instead of losing it. When she had a body, Avery had probably something like a pool of four hundred mana total to work with, and her soul would stay in her body. Now, she had so much regeneration that her entire pool would fill in the course of two hours, whereas normally it would take her a full day. Things were going to seem positively slow when she got back to her body and home again, at least until she figured out what her plan was altogether. Considering that her normal mana regeneration rate applied while she was in her body, her bodies normal healing factor was probably in effect as well. It probably wasn¡¯t working while she was dead, but with a good night''s rest, or several castings of the ritual to leave her unconscious on the floor for two hours at a time, she¡¯d be healed enough to make her way back home and get some assistance. With everything perfectly safe and planned out, Avery could get her parents to help with the legwork on getting some monsters in her dungeon, new materials for exploiting, and maybe some extra minds working on how to best optimize all this mana. Clearly investing in getting more mana was a good first step, and then once she got an example of onyx that wouldn¡¯t involve breaking down the gem she was busy being she could pump mana into the build menu to get high carat stones in mass quantities, which would be easier to move than literal mountains of copper coins.


    Then Avery hears footsteps coming back to the entrance of the dungeon and, panicked, recreates the box where it was originally sitting.


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Moving as silently as he could manage, Ham creeps up to the door and starts rotting it into nothingness. All is quiet beyond the door, relatively, so the human continues with his standard tactic, quietly removing the barrier between himself and his quarry. With the door rotted away, Ham charges his pick with the energy of the grave, and sneaks forward into the room. Hidden in the shadows himself, Ham sees the creatures living in this dungeon. Three goblins, gathered around a pile of something or other. Whatever it was, it was likely the proceeds from the dungeon, and Ham would have it. Carefully, the necromancer slowly sneaks up to the closest goblin, one whose back was turned to him, and stabs down with his pick into the neck-hole of the small creature¡¯s armor, where the energy discharges into its body. As the creature falls forward from the thick spike impaling it being lifted out of its unconscious body, the two other goblins react to the sudden appearance of a much larger creature coming out of the shadows and striking one of them down with a single blow.


    On both sides of Ham, the goblins act in near unison, the one to his left slightly faster than the one on his right, both picking up weapons and charging forward to strike down the human that wanted to murder them. First to arrive, the one to Ham¡¯s left strikes downward, slicing toward the necromancer¡¯s crotch. While a large target for the creature, its small size and short sword rendered it just the tiniest bit out of reach of actually connecting with the necromancer, but still setting up for the second goblin to set up an attack. With the distraction offered from dodging the first strike, Ham is unable to avoid the goblin following up with a strike into the ribcage. Unfortunately for the goblins, the necromancer had somewhat thicker skin than the average bear, and what would be enough to critically wound a typical villager was a scratch to the necromancer.


    Forgoing the pick, now that the element of surprise was spent, Ham reaches out to touch the goblin who had managed to wound him, missing as the creature dodges the action like an introvert at a party. The goblins swing their swords at the necromancer frantically, moving to either side of the larger creature to effectively surround him, but to no avail, and Ham¡¯s next deathly touch does not miss its mark. A burst of negative energy enters the goblins frame, winding it and causing it to stagger to the side. Enraged by the attack on its comrade, the first goblin lands its first hit on the necromancer as his back is turned, dealing the maximum damage its sub-standard short sword would do in a single blow. Ham turns around slowly, and reaches for the goblin, only to find his aim off the mark when he is stabbed once more in the back by the goblin he had already touched.


    Using the last of its strength, the small creature jammed its blade into the necromancer¡¯s spine, then collapsed unconscious behind him. Ham spares a glance back at the thing, but his attention is brought back to the goblin still standing and trying to defend itself. It doesn¡¯t hit him, but nonetheless it manages to keep Ham from touching it for another few seconds. When he does make contact, the goblin is jolted to a slightly lesser degree than its companions, and hesitates for a moment. Deciding that running away would do nothing, it stabs once more at the necromancer, who was bleeding from two wounds at this point. Unfortunately for the goblin, it is unable to find any kind of success in striking the necromancer before it is touched once more, and falls to the ground.


    With those that would pose a threat to him laying motionless before him, Ham repairs his wounds with a single touch, and removes the possibility of survival from any who opposed him through application of pick to skull, before setting down to take his spoils.

 Not Alone

    Several seconds post frantic box creation, the invader arrives once again, visibly excited. At least, Avery figured that he was excited, there were a lot of sharp teeth showing. It was possible they were just hungry, and ready to kill anything that drew near. That wouldn¡¯t be too bad, considering the lack of real defenses her dungeon had. Maybe a feral beast that didn¡¯t care much for exploration would be a good addition to the first floor, especially if it spent most of its time out of the dungeon where she wouldn¡¯t have to be responsible for its upkeep.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Ability to ''Contract Wandering Monsters'' will unlock after completion of the tutorial.</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Well, Avery wasn¡¯t ready to give up that delicious mana regeneration bonus yet. Maybe once she had a full maze worth of corridors, and put the map in the secret corridor that lead right back to the entrance. It could use traps too. She had seen rotating sawblades and swinging axe traps, which could lead to an interesting straightaway...


    ¡°Hey ghost, I¡¯m not gonna get distracted this time. My purpose in life it to get answers, and I¡¯m going to get them.¡±


    ¡°Every time you open your mouth you make me angrier. I was trying to think!¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s like half of the point. I have to go through this checklist and see if you, as a ghost, meet the requirements to be considered sentient and sapient, and whether there¡¯s any marked degradation from when you were alive, followed by a investigation into how you came about and whether or not it¡¯s repeatable and if there are other major changes. Personally I¡¯d prefer to get the boxes ticked off without the metaphorical ticking off happening, but I¡¯ll settle for a minimum of things being thrown around.¡±


    ¡°What part of ¡®I don¡¯t want you in here¡¯ and ¡®I¡¯m not dead¡¯ are you not getting? Yes that body is mine, but I¡¯m still using it. That book lets me reenter my body, and in theory I¡¯ll be perfectly fine once I heal up. It¡¯s just going to take time to heal, so I wanted my parents to know I¡¯d be a little while.¡±


    ¡°Well, I didn¡¯t do that.¡±


    ¡°And why not?¡±


    ¡°First off, you didn¡¯t give me any directions, and second it¡¯s been like an hour. That place is pretty far off for manual transportation, and it was annoying enough getting up and down those switchbacks to make sure the place actually existed.¡±


    ¡°Why would I lie about something like that? It¡¯d be easy to check and you¡¯d not trust me afterward.¡±


    ¡°Like I was saying, I don¡¯t know what level of intelligence you are. For all I know, you¡¯re a ghost parrot, mimicking words that you¡¯ve heard back at me that will give you the reaction you¡¯re hoping for, or just not smart enough to think through the consequences of your actions in pursuit of your short term goals. In your case, that seems to be getting any who enter your place of haunting, which I think was called a genus loki or something like that, to leave by any means necessary.¡±


    ¡°What you¡¯re thinking of is a Genius Loci, which is the spirit of a place itself. That¡¯s not a ghost either, and I am not a ghost! Why am I even going along with this, I could be doing more excavation right now.¡±


    ¡°Ah, but I have something I can offer you now. Several of my compatriots are rather effective healers, and if you want to have your body repaired as soon a possible, it may behoove you to help me do my job, which would allow me to help you. Help me help you, ghost of this cave I made.¡±


    Avery pauses for a moment. Considering how crushed her body was after all the rock smashing, having a cleric take a look at her was actually on her to do list. Her plan had a few holes in it, like how she was going to move a mountain of copper down and up the plateau, and it relied on being able to have a usable body at some point anyway in order to do the moving, but it was almost feasible when she looked at it sideways with her eyes closed. Still, if this invader could do something to cut the legwork out of getting herself walking again, it might be worth pushing down the loathing she felt across the surface of her facets for the moment.


    ¡°Fine, but I want some evidence that you¡¯ll be able to make good on your promises. Show me your healer, and I¡¯ll sell out the city.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s a bit overdramatic, but it works.¡±


    Moving over to the box, the invader twists his hand in the air, and several wooden circles flush with the finish and nearly indistinguishable from the casing turn with it. However, nothing happens. With a confused look on his face, the invader steps forward, closer to the box, and gasps in shock.


    ¡°Oh no, the bugs got out! Those were features! Not good, there¡¯s nothing I can do about that. Actually.¡±


    The thing looks closer at the motionless insects on the ground.


    ¡°Yeah those are dead already. Poor dumb buggers. If only they stayed in the box. Why couldn¡¯t they just stay in the box? Now I have to wait for the ship to get back. I guess it can wait. I¡¯ll talk to you in the morning ghost. Hopefully I can find a decent place to sleep in that deep foreboding darkness back there.¡±


    ¡°Hey hey no, don¡¯t do that, I haven¡¯t finished building.¡±


    ¡°Look, it¡¯s night, I can¡¯t call for backup, my transport is still off somewhere or other, probably lost and burning down the countryside, and you¡¯ve been most uncooperative thus far in regards to getting this paperwork done, so I need to sleep in this spooky haunted cave before I get distracted and start wandering off again.¡±


    ¡°Oh no you don¡¯t, just go to sleep outside, up on the top of the plateau, where you can relax and see the stars as they swirl around and lull you to a contented sleep. The floor in here is just hard, cold stone anyway. Plus, I¡¯ll murder you in your sleep.¡±


    ¡°To be perfectly clear, I¡¯m fairly certain that regardless of your ability to move massive quantities of stone in short periods of time, you wouldn¡¯t be able to do anything that actually harms me. Thus far you¡¯ve shown no typical ghost-like attacking behaviors, no floating objects or even materialization of spooky phenomena along the lines of bloody walls or headless apparitions. Just a disembodied voice that yells about wanting me out, which is bottom tier haunting, frankly.¡±


    ¡°Hey, hey. Hey. Just because you¡¯re completely right doesn¡¯t mean that you can still do whatever you want.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s kind of what it does mean though.¡±


    ¡°Yooooou¡­ Hey, maybe I can fix your box if you leave.¡±This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.


    ¡°And how, praytell, do you anticipate that being possible? Not even I would be able to repair this kind of thing. Granted, that¡¯s because it involves procuring tiny living creatures and making sure they don¡¯t die while grafting them into position, but still.¡±


    ¡°I literally cannot do anything at all while you¡¯re in here, but if you sleep outside of the dungeon you won¡¯t be draining my mana, and I can potentially use it on that instead of wasting it on your upkeep.¡±


    ¡°Oh, spooky ghost powers that only work when no one is looking. Why didn¡¯t you just say that in the first place. Dungeon though, what are you even doing in there? I don''t think I like the idea of a ghost trapping people in cells and then, providing upkeep? What exactly are you talking about here?¡±


    ¡°No, there aren¡¯t any bars or anything to keep people locked up. That¡¯s just what you refer to this type of structure as. Dungeon, full of monsters, they survive off the ambient mana of the location, that kind of thing. You cost me forty two mana per hour to have you in here with me attending to your physical needs.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t have any of those though. Ok, well, yes, I do, but I can ignore them indefinitely with no possible repercussions at all.¡±


    ¡°All I know is what happens when you¡¯re in this place, and that¡¯s that you drain mana, which is the same as any other monster being in here.¡±


    ¡°Are you calling me a monster?¡±


    ¡°Maybe. I don¡¯t know! Get out of here already!¡±


    ¡°Aha, but now I have something else you want. Just answer my questions first. Would you consider yourself to possess the capacity to reason, where you can induce facts about situations regardless of never having come across it before, and do you consider those in the city to have a lesser, equal, or greater capacity than yourself?¡±


    ¡°Fiiiine, I would, and equal to lesser depending on the person. Now get out.¡±


    ¡°Next question-¡±


    ¡°You have more questions?! How much do you need to know to understand that getting out of the dungeon is in your own best interests?¡±


    ¡°My purpose is to gather information and then report it, and my reporting tool isn¡¯t working. Therefore, I have all the questions.¡±


    ¡°But I just told you I might be able to fix that when you leave!¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s just added more fuel to the burning questions pile. For instance, why do your ghost powers only work when there¡¯s no one around, were you originally bad enough at keeping secrets that I can figure out your weakness just from standing around and listening, and what would you see in a reflective surface.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m going to ignore most of that because they were actually good questions, but did you just ask if I¡¯d recognize myself in a mirror?¡±


    ¡°Kind of. It¡¯s one of the basic questions on the checklist, mainly meant to determine if a particular creature can discern itself as a discrete entity separate from the world around it, but in this case it¡¯s more along the lines of ¡®can a ghost with no physical form perceive some form of themself through reflection¡¯, which would have interesting implications regardless of the answer.¡±


    ¡°Yes, I can tell I¡¯m me in a mirror, and when I have my body again I¡¯ll still be able to, but I don¡¯t have anything reflective here with which to test that other part. Maybe if you were able to get something from my home, I¡¯d be able to tell you.¡±


    ¡°Oh, do I sense a side quest?¡±


    ¡°Of course not. Well, yes. But not that yet. You didn¡¯t tell my parents I¡¯m not going to be there, and by now it¡¯s too late for that, but if you leave a message from me and bring back one of the shiny black rocks from the barrels full of them, I can make it worth your while.¡±


    ¡°Sure, I¡¯ll wander into the city full of potentially hostile potential sapients that could turn on me at any moment and rip me limb from limb to go on a vaguely defined fetch quest on the behest of a disembodied voice that has already threatened to kill me. I don¡¯t see anything wrong with that at all.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m serious though! Most of the people in the city are fairly harmless. As long as you don¡¯t mess with the guards, or try to get into the inner city after hours, or go into a pub, or bump into anyone, no one would even know you¡¯re there! And once I have an example gemstone, I can use it as a template to create flawless stones, definitely. ¡°


    ¡°Very tempting, I¡¯m sure, but I¡¯m afraid I¡¯m going to have to pass on that. I don¡¯t need rocks, no matter how shiny they are.¡±


    ¡°Everyone needs gems! All right, maybe not everyone, but anyone who uses magic oh right, you have that naturally occuring ability and don¡¯t use any kind of actual magic. That¡¯s one of the points toward you being classified as a monster, by the way.¡±


    ¡°I am not on trial here! And for all you know, I could harness whatever magic your rocks can do no problem.¡±


    ¡°Oh suuure, that¡¯s why you haven¡¯t even asked about what type of shiny stone it is yet. You don¡¯t even know what makes them special!¡±


    ¡°Well maybe, just maybe, it¡¯s not important enough to devote my superior intellect toward. I have all this ¡®natural power¡¯ after all, and it¡¯s not like I can¡¯t just use it in place of a rock.¡±


    ¡°Clearly you wouldn¡¯t be interested in a magical power source that can overcharge abilities like that then.¡±


    ¡°Of course no- Fine. I¡¯ll be right outside waiting for that note. Write me some directions this time too.¡±


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Over a hundred gold pieces worth of coins, a potion, and a scroll. Ham had made bank, and not even had to use any of his resources to do so. He still had unlimited magical power, and in fact felt more in tune with the power of death after causing these goblins to rot down into worthless corpses. No doubt he was even more powerful than ever. Deciding that greed was good, Ham flips a coin to decide which way he was going to explore next, straight ahead from the door he came in, or left. The coin comes up straight, and like a sign the door is unlocked. Twisting through the halls, and ignoring the decorative spirals down the sides, until he comes across an archway directly opening into a wide room, with more skeletons chained to the walls, and a massive swarm of spiders that roll toward him in a wave.


    Rather than attempt to fight the mass of arachnids with pick and fist, Ham channels the power of entropy though his body, letting it explode out of him indiscriminately. A large number of the tiny creatures die from the blast of negative energy, but enough survive to cover the necromancer¡¯s legs in fangs and skittering limbs. Ignoring the discomfort the swarm would bring a person, Ham runs another charge of energy through his body, grasping at anything that might be a spider, but is unable to catch any of the scurrying creatures.


    Abandoning the tactic of ¡®crush the spiders¡¯, Ham flees across the room, spiders in pursuit. If he had some sort of poison, he might be able to splash a good portion of the swarm, but as it stood he would be unable to finish off what spiders remain in the swarm before succumbing to their own poison, weak as it was. From the bites he received running away from them before he could outpace the spiders, his muscles were already being eaten away by their liquefying venom. That was the kind of insidious damage that simply pumping raw energy into didn¡¯t do anything to fix. Passing through an archway on the opposite side of the room, Ham breaks to the right and charges down the hallway, intent on leaving the spiders behind.


    A bend in the hall later, he looks back and determines that the spiders decided to not follow him out of their home territory. Ham was safe for the moment. Deciding to be a bit more cautious for the moment, having taken his first real bit of damage from this dungeon, he quickly removes the normal damage caused by the innumerable bites and moves forward quietly, choosing to not go down one path of hallway that smelled terrible. As he comes to a portcullis made of wood, Ham stops, hearing an odd buzzing sound. If it was another swarm of some sort, especially a flying one, he would just turn around and walk away.


    Instead, looking through the holes in the wooden object, the necromancer spots a flying wooden humanoid searching the room. About the same size as one of the spiders from earlier, it looked to be a puppet of some sort, flitting about looking for things. After it sets off an arrow trap and is flung halfway across the room, the projectile not doing much damage to a small target that moves with the arrow, Ham realizes that he is not the only one currently attempting to loot this dungeon.

 Exploits

    As soon as the invader leaves the dungeon, Avery demolishes the box again. With mana filling her once again, she turns her attention to whatever nonsense she had just been talking about. Somehow, she was going to have to write both a note and directions.


    Paper, paper. Ah, paper was fairly cheap. Five sheets for two mana. The hard part was going to be figuring out how to write with it without any kind of marking material, and no ability to manipulate it once the thing was made. Oh hold on a moment, a spellbook with a hundred pages was only fifteen mana. That was a much better rate of return. Then again, Avery didn¡¯t really need a massive quantity of paper, and that would basically be wasting thirteen mana to get...


    If she had the invader tear all the pages out of the spellbook, then demolished the pages in groups of five, she¡¯d make a profit of twenty-five mana, and whatever remnants she¡¯d get from the cover. In terms of hourly returns it probably didn¡¯t compare well to the passive gains from rooms and secrets, but maybe if she could automate the procedure in some way, like making the books have a map in them to prompt the menu to make them a respawning object whenever an invader wasn¡¯t in the dungeon, she could set a monster to continuously pull the pages from the respawning book, and then demolish the results every once in a while to gain a resource boost.


    Never mind that, the books apparently qualified as ¡®parchment¡¯, which was twice as efficient mana-wise. Ah well, easy come easy go. Five sheets for one mana was still a good thing. Saved her a point. And twenty mana per hundred sheets of parchment was still a profit of five mana. Maybe that¡¯s what could be in the various dead ends of the maze. Each one holding a kobold skeleton tasked with ripping pages out of a book, putting the result off to the side, and repeating on the freshly spawned book continuously. What the method lacked in magnitude, she could make up for with quantity and consistency.


    She could also make them into cell-like things, with the skeletons behind some bars too wide apart to actually stop them from passing through.


    Now that she thought of it, the guy said that the bugs were dead. She didn''t get a notification about that, but maybe at least she would be able to get their spawn from specifically demolishing their bodies.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Demolish not available on living or undead creatures.</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Huh. They certainly were motionless for being a cross of ''alive¡¯ and ''insects¡¯. Avery would have guessed they were dead at first glance as well. Maybe once she had enough mana to spare, probably in the next day or so, she could just use her detect living spell on anything she had questions about.


    Apparently the bugs were features? Before doing anything else, Avery spends a point of mana to engrave where the bugs landed, just in case they were positioned in some sort of magically significant arrangement. Then, annoyed at her lack of forethought, she spends another point to engrave the design on a surface that wouldn''t be damaged when she drops a stalactite on it.


    Rather than do something with the potential to go catastrophically wrong due to a further lack of foresight, Avery starts working on writing a note on parchment, using nothing but the build tool and the customization she could wring from it. Attempting to change the color of the parchment to black in certain spots were unfruitful, but as she was now gaining mana during failed experiments and useless time wasting, Avery was less than concerned that her first idea didn''t work out. The next one was sure to work though.


    All she had to do was not create the parchment in the spots that would correspond to the placement of letters, in those letters shapes. It takes a few sheets, which accumulate on the ground until there''s enough to be worth demolishing, but eventually Avery manages to make a note entirely out of the negative space, with instructions on how to navigate to her home at the bottom. Perfect, now she can use her precious alone time thinking about horrible puzzles.This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    Clearly, the first one would be in the central room, which happened to also be the first room. It would be where she put the first ¡®requires a special key¡¯ door, it being a token of some sort that would fit into a slot. What that would be, she hadn¡¯t decided yet. Probably a skull of obsidian, once she had access to the gem.


    That would be pretty valuable though. What would stop them from taking it and selling it, or just using it as a necromantic assistant device? Deciding to table it for the moment, Avery goes through the menu again, looking for the type of door she was hoping to make. Eventually, she finds that the one labeled ¡®Boss Door¡¯, one of the many new additions since disassembling the box, has the option to set another object as the ¡®Boss Key¡¯ associated with it. Putting the iron slab in line with the simple pit trap, Avery prepares to spend the fifty mana, only to get another message.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">To create a Boss Door, a Boss Key must be placed somewhere on the floor.</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Fine, she¡¯d wait until she had the obsidian. Puzzles then. A relatively simple one for the first room, she figured. Once she got the spellbook disassembly station figured out, she¡¯d even be able to have one set up in the corner, flinging out the clue to the puzzle at anyone who came near. That would definitely be enough to get the menu to classify the book as a respawning object. It¡¯d be the clue to solving the thing that needed to be solved in order to progress.


    Just to check, Avery tried to put one of the labeled ¡®Puzzle Door¡¯s on the side exit of the room.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">To create a Puzzle Door, a Puzzle must be placed within the room.</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Fine. Podum, five mana. Adjusting the dimensions, brings it up to six mana. Then, carve out holes for the pieces to slot into, which brings it back down to five mana. Of course, that savings was nothing compared to the cost of the puzzle pieces that were going to go into it. Avery builds the five parts that will serve as the solution, scattering them around the room, which costs another five mana. Now, she just had to figure out how to set them to be a proper solution when they were put in correctly.


    Somehow, instead of it being a huge issue like she assumed it would be, based on absolutely everything else up to this point, she just had to go into the build menu, which added the things she had custom created into its list, set them to be built in the correct spots, and think that it was correct like that. The mental projection of the items turned a shade of green, and the ones already made and scattered about the room began to project the same kind of aura. Perfect.


    Finally, she could install the puzzle doors. Twenty mana each, tied to the puzzle in the center of the room. One on each side, preventing access to a good six rooms. Nice. With everything functional, it was time to add needless complexity and annoyance. Stripping the embellishments from the puzzle pieces, Avery generates four of each shape and scatters them around the room. When she had time, she¡¯d demolish each of them and put obviously wrong answers on each face, so unless the invader found the exact correct piece the puzzle would be unsolvable.


    The whole mess cost sixty-five mana, but it was going to be worth it when she managed to get all the rooms decked out in puzzles. Footsteps, and the creature was inside of her again.


    ¡°It gets pretty dark out when the sun goes down here huh? Probably should have thought of that earlier. Didn¡¯t bring anything to help with vision while I was here. Oh hey, the note.¡±


    Lifting the parchment from the ground with the innate mage hand, the invader looks at the holes in the sheet.


    ¡°Yeah I can¡¯t read this.¡±


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Spotting Ham through the gaps in the portcullis, the flying clay thing screeches at him, flitting through a hole in the gate to bite at his exposed flesh. Unfortunately for it, one of its trailing legs clips one of the wooden planks on the way through, knocking it off its path. Capitalizing on the abject failure of a magical device, Ham smacks it with deathly energy.


    Completely unaffected, the clay thing flips itself over and bites at the fingers that dared to touch it. Immediately, Ham feels the approach of sleep. For a moment, he struggles against the poison injected by the bite, but succumbs quickly.

 Annoying Puzzles

    ¡°What do you mean you can¡¯t read it? I made that perfectly legible.¡±


    Avery didn¡¯t have time for that kind of nonsense. She had worked quite hard for several minutes trying to get the holes to look like letters. Time trying to remake the thing would be time spent away from making puzzles, and she wanted to get a numbering system made out of symbols established. Star, sun, crescent moon, misshapen blob, key, puzzle piece, sword, shield, skull; nine signs symbolizing a few things relevant to the world and this dungeon in particular. She¡¯d need to engrave a wall somewhere with the code, and probably embed some clues in it to some of the puzzles.


    ¡°It¡¯s nothing to do with your¡­ Penmanship. It¡¯s more the fact that I don¡¯t actually speak your language, and the cheat I¡¯m using doesn¡¯t work with written words.¡±


    Well. Hrm. That was actually a fairly viable excuse. Avery didn¡¯t know the comprehend languages spell off the top of her head, and didn¡¯t even have it written down anywhere to cast from, but she was aware of the theory behind it. Generally it would allow the caster to understand and read the language of whatever they touched while casting the spell, but not speak in the tongue. There was a far more complex spell that did both, and for all languages at once, but in theory a magical researcher could pare down the ¡®tongues¡¯ spell to a single language and it would have the effect described, understanding and speaking a single language while being unable to read it. With that kind of inherent spell-like ability, theoretically this invader would be an ideal diplomat, being able to bridge the communication gap between various races, even the uncivilized monsters who only spoke their own language without learning the common tongue. Being unable to read would even be a benefit, if one were to use them as couriers. Only uncivilized barbarians were unable to decipher texts, but such were most unsuited to the work of transporting sensitive materials without ruining the parchment with tearing, blood, or general bad hygiene.


    ¡°Fine, you don¡¯t need to read the message anyway. I¡¯ll just tell you how to get there.¡±


    ¡°Great. Do you have a pen so I can write down the directions?¡±


    Avery paused for a moment.


    ¡°No. Pay attention.¡±


    ¡°Fine.¡±


    ¡°Go toward the city, enter the gate. Straight down the main road, there¡¯ll be a tavern with a picture of an ale mug with a skull on it on the right. Ignore that, and keep going until there¡¯s a bakery on the left. Take a right there, and down about three streets there¡¯ll be a shop with a sign that had a beefy arm and a wand shooting squiggles at it. That¡¯s my family¡¯s magic arms store. The gems will be in a storeroom to the left behind the counter, and my parents will be the ones that look like me.¡±You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.


    ¡°And to confirm, you¡¯re the dead body on the floor, right?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not dead!¡±


    ¡°Got it. The not dead body on the floor.¡±


    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s me. When you get back, I¡¯ll have a room for you straight through this tunnel, and not even a haunted one. Definitely.¡±


    ¡°Oh hey, that actually sounds both nice and useful. I guess we¡¯re getting to be friends now. See you later!¡±


    Avery holds back her malevolent laughter. Exactly the opposite. She¡¯d be testing out her horrible puzzles. Almost certainly, she¡¯d be using up a massive amount of mana creating them, but those were one-time expenses for reusable time consumers. As soon as the invader leaves, Avery engraves the symbols on the wall of the room to the south of the first puzzle room. She¡¯d have the puzzles that required that hint in the other direction, both locked behind a tedious and time-consuming logic puzzle.


    She spends the next hour and a half building that particular arrangement of blocks and symbols. A podum in the middle of the room cost five mana, though this time there was a large indentation rather than individual slots to place the pieces. In the center of the indentation, there was a further indentation, exactly as deep as the initial dent. Rather than being a perfectly reasonable puzzle, this hole made it so the solver had to go back to the previous room and collect one of the dummy cube pieces to slot into this podium before the solution would work. Otherwise, the central piece, which was the only one block long piece of the entire puzzle, would just fall down and the entire solution wouldn¡¯t be level.


    Twenty-three mana for the pieces, one point to engrave the initial conditions into the podium, and forty points for the puzzle doors out of the room. Avery was fairly certain the thing was solvable. Plus, since it took so long, she made a profit of mana. While the goal for this one was simply, she was still going to get a book with the rules in it set up in the corner, if possible.


    All they had to do was get each row, column, and square to have one of each type of symbol, with no repeating in any of those three things. Putting the pieces together instead of just having individual blocks probably made it much easier, but she was low on mana at the moment. Spending eighty one on a single puzzles pieces just wasn''t economical yet. She''d make it harder if she revisited it later, or more likely she''d just make the later ones harder to begin with.


    Avery, curious, starts thinking about what happens with the positive mana regeneration when she''s in her body instead of the core. With how much mana regeneration she currently had, it was reasonable to assume that even with all the mana currently available to her entering her body and leaving the core at zero, it wouldn''t have a negative result while she was alive and healing. In fact, she''d come back to the core in two hours with far more mana than she left. It would be a nice change from frantic building and then waiting for it to build up. Plus, she''d get a couple hours of sleep.


    Moving her map back up to the initial cavern, the necromancer casts the spell to bring herself to life once again.

 Another Pointless Interlude

    Duckin¡¯ what. The experiment had gotten through most of this garbarge without having to even start to get any emotions, from the bar fight to stuffing itself with unattended sweet rolls behind the bakery in a big box to having to hand a note over then steal a rock and run away, but now there was an entirely different ghost. As soon as it had gotten back the thing started up, going ¡®behold, for I am eternal¡¯ and ''your doom is at hand¡¯. And it would just not stop ranting. It had been party to numerous crazed ranters and cause to listen to their various speeches throughout the course of its existence, but at least they needed to stop and breathe every once in a while, at which point the trapped audience could make their escape, but ghosts? Ghosts could just keep droning on about the purity of the grave and how all life was fated to join it in eternal servitude and the dark depth to which one must descend to even attempt to best it and blah blah blah blah blah.


    Sleep may have been for the weak, but it was perfectly willing to join their ranks for a while.


    Throughout it''s training, it had been conditioned to never interrupt a monologue. Spending a minute or two listening while their superior unburdened their mind and let the ideas flow through them would keep them energized, which could be enough to mean the difference between an extraction being successful or everyone involved being erased from every having been made. Upon careful consideration, that rational didn''t apply to this situation, as there was no real guarantee that the ghost was on its side.


    ¡°Just want to go to sleep. If you''d direct me to the bed the previous ghost promised, that''d be great. Want to recover from having to cross a plant infested waste of land on top of a gravity bucket,¡± it interrupts.


    ¡°There is no rest for those foolish adventurers who dare trespass in my domain! The promises of another will not bind my flawless facets, for I am the perfect instrument of death, and my eternally rising tide of monsters will spew forth from my depths to rend the flesh from your bones."


    ¡°Very intimidating. Come on then, I¡¯m sure what you have to show is powerful and actually able to hurt me.¡±


    ¡°Behold, as I Spawn¡­ Lesser Slime? Lesser Slime is the only creature under my command? SCAN.¡±


    A pulse of energy erupts from somewhere under the tunnel entrance. Perking up a bit, the experiment notes the direction the new ghost is based, and tucks the black gemstone into the still warm body of the first ghost. Energy emission was a new phenomenon, and it was curious about whether it would be able to affect the source of that pulse in any way, whether it be through the application of telekinesis or poking stick.


    ¡°This is not my lair at all.¡±


    ¡°Turns out you¡¯re trespassing while haunting. There¡¯s a ghost here already, and possession is nine tenths of the law. I¡¯m sure that if you go quietly now they won¡¯t have to exercise their right to exorcise you from their digs. Either way I¡¯m coming down to see what¡¯s up with you.¡±


    ¡°Bah, just because this appears to be the work of a bestial minded newborn, without any traps, monsters, or defenses at all, doesn¡¯t mean you will find me easily destroyed. Even the most pathetic creature poses threat in sheer volume, and momentarily you will be consumed within an unending tide of gel!¡±


    Walking forward, the creature touches the end of its poking stick against the stone wall, dragging it along the flat surface with the rounded edge of the branch. It slowly rotates it as it advances into a chamber with a pedestal in the center. Stone doors, single pieces with wave-like designs at the bottoms, pushing toward an eye in the center, flank the room, blocking off any passage but straight forward.


    ¡°Your doom is at hand, for I grow ever farther from your attempts to destroy me! Core Displacement!¡±


    Another surge of energy erupts from below, as the experiment ignores the provocation. Rotating the stick as it travels along the right side of the room, it slowly sharpens the edges into a makeshift spear. Stalking toward the way forward, it steps on a block, slips, and falls forward onto its face.


    ¡°And with that, your path is barred. Someone as weak and pathetic as you will not be able to overcome a slick of slimes even of this limited number. Perhaps once they finish devouring your corpse one of them will even evolve into something worth keeping as a guard. Run while you can, coward.¡±


    Using the blunt end of the spear to lever itself back up, the experiment picks its way through the room by the diminishing light of the setting sun¡¯s rays making their way through the straight line from the entrance. Ahead, there is another room, with a hole taking up the center of the chamber, and without even doors on the sides to provide a different theoretical pathway. Following the ¡®right hand rule¡¯, the experiment continues picking its way across the stone, this time slightly more careful for sliding traps littering the floor.


    ¡°Nothing to say mortal? Every moment you take to progress is another moment I have to expand my reach, to uncover the depths of this cavernous sphere. Oh yes, while you dally, I move to uncover the hidden chamber far below this pathetic excuse for a dungeon. Connecting its chamber to my core will provide me with sufficient mana to not only destroy you utterly, but to remake my army of the purified to consume the blighted world and bring it under my dominion, into perfection!¡±


    Peeking into the next room, the tailed creature sees absolutely nothing within. No doors, no traps, no way down. Well, if that was the trick, it was certainly a simple one. It turns around and walks over to the hole. Extending its stick down into the dark depths, it pokes at the bottom of the hole. Judging it to be a survivable fall, it tilts itself over the edge.


    ¡°Well done, you found the only possible path. What the incompetent wretch you spoke to that created this worthless excuse for a deathtrap was thinking when they sealed off every possible permutations that was incorrect is unknowable except for the deluded, deranged, and, dare I say, stupid.¡±


    Picking its face off the stone again, the creature pushes itself upright with the spear and leans against one of the walls of the pit. Using its spear to poke at the walls, it taps against the stone in the pitch black darkness until it misses. It grins slightly, realizing its short stature would give it a small advantage in fitting into the too-small tunnel going down.


    ¡°I¡¯ve come to after fighting a party of Light sent adventurers, only to have all my knowledge but none of my blueprints, in an empty slime dungeon. Taking over a life with my superior tactics, with my purpose intact, and poised to destroy an invader immediately, but without any resources to bring any of it to fruition? Worst reincarnation ever.¡±


    Pushing its spear in first, followed by its legs, the creature slips into the hole, falling down to the floor beneath the top level. This landing is less hard than the previous one, as it is cushioned by a soft cushion of jelly. Blindly sitting atop a waterchair, the creature not dungeonborn pokes beneath itself with its sharpened stick. Piercing the membrane of the slime, the fluids spill out immediately and the creature falls the rest of the way to the stone ground instantly.


    ¡°And you have fallen for the most basic of traps. Now that the floor above you has been vacated, you will be forever entombed in my mausoleum of the purified! Your corpse shall act as my devoted revenant, turned against the surface you once fought for. Once I¡­ There¡¯s another invader alive up there?!¡±


    It looked like the ghost was telling the truth about being alive after all. That raised more questions than it answered, but right now the invader on the second floor was poking and anything that touched it. While the bounces against its lower half came from all directions, there was one side from which the slimes trajectory was more prevalent. Presumably, that would be where the ¡®core¡¯ was. One of the creature¡¯s creator¡¯s lessons; the correct way forward was likely the one most heavily guarded. It starts poking generally in the direction it determined was the path of greatest resistance, and shoots a couple words back into the darkness.This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.


    ¡°Even if you managed to succeed in your ploy, I doubt you¡¯d be able to muster up enough to do anything to me. Your minions are somehow weaker than me, and when they explode from a single poke, you¡¯re going to run out of disposable minions before I run out of stabs.¡±


    ¡°Fool! Your every action plays into my grand strategy, for with their deaths I grow more powerful. Their released energy allows me to dig deeper, and soon I shall reach the untapped wellspring of raw space to bring under my control. All that live will serve to fuel the unstoppable machine that is I!¡±


    ¡®Yeah, thanks for the hints,¡¯ the creature thinks, flipping its tail to its other side and facing the blunt end toward the masses of slime. Unable to see anything, the experiment presses forward with its ability until it makes contact with a wall, and feels its way around the stone until its telekinetic grip finds a gap through which it can aim. Sweeping left and right with the long stick, it uses the range granted to it by its long tail to redirect the slimes away from its body so it can simply walk forward into the darkness. As it makes its way down another linear path, the new ghost continues its ranting.


    ¡°What even motivates one such as you to plummet down into my depths, when not even a whisper of my power has yet to be unleashed upon your world? It cannot be treasure, as there have been no twinkles of wealth to tempt you into your delve, nor the pain of loss as my consciousness has only just returned, leaving no avenue for news of my glorious return to spread. Unless¡­ The meddling of the gods, providing prophecy and assistance to their chosen, to destroy me! Unscrupulous paladin, your gods will not save you here, not when the light of day sinks to nothing and night has yet to take its full strength.¡±


    Unable to resist a laugh at the notion of it being the employ of any kind of god, the experiment pauses for a moment as it comes to another turn.


    ¡°Ha! My existence is the antithesis of any god¡¯s plan. I would say you ought to meet my creator, but as of yet you¡¯ve shown yourself to be unworthy of that kind of interaction. The only reason I come to your source of power is curiosity. To witness that which interests me, and experience the satisfaction of learning new information. Any kind of machination you envision is a deluded fantasy, and I know deluded fantasy. Fear me, for I am combating ennui.¡±


    ¡°Inspect! A monster I see. In that case, join me! Slaughter these blobs to fuel your growth, and I shall empower you to destroy all that oppose you. Your goals shall become goals of my own, and all you desire will be at hand. Through the raw power of mana, anything you can imagine can become reality. Coins, gems, meat, victims, or even simply a place to rest while you go about your goals without any further interaction. I offer you everything, in exchange for nothing.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m gonna pass on that.¡±


    ¡°What!? It is everything you asked, and more! Simply accept the contract, and your power will grow, your needs will be provided for, and your wants will be satisfied as long as I exist.¡±


    ¡°That word, right there. Contract. My associates weren¡¯t exactly great conformists, but they did have general tendencies. In particular, the powerful among them would agree about a few things we in the rank and file knew nothing about. Contracts were one of them. Something about how if it was too good to be true, it was, and that fine print had a habit of stabbing them in the back. Not sure how much of that was literal, but I¡¯m taking no chances.¡±


    Shoving its way through another doorway, sans door, the experiment misses a step downward, and falls forward, rolling down a flight of stone stairs and into a slime at the bottom, which promptly explodes.


    ¡°Argh! And I was so close. Only a few more mana and I would have gotten access to that area. Your defiance makes no sense. Even the followers of Defiance have a reason for their actions. You have given up limitless power and growth, and for what? The chance to delay my return by a few moments? Monsters have no attachment to the outside world, you¡¯ve no incentive to save them.¡±


    Picking itself up from the stone once again, the creature taps its hand against the right wall, following as it turns down the pitch-black hallway.


    ¡°My life experiences are different from yours. My reasons are my own, make no mistake.¡±


    ¡°I can respect individual reasoning, but only if that leads to actions that do not conflict with my goals. If you leave now, you will be allowed to. These slimes will not stop you, nor shall I close the walls and trap you. Be warned, this offer comes only once, and unspeakable doom awaits should you refuse.¡±


    Walking in circles, looping back three separate times, the experiment switches back to using the pointed end of the spear, inferring from previous complaints that the killing of slimes would not further the ghost¡¯s ends. Proximity negating its abilities. It was going to have to remember to rub it in the first ghost¡¯s ectoplasm once it figured out how to get it back out of its body. Considering that a pile of rocks falling on it had managed the feat, it might be able to simply stab it until it died again. On the other hand, whoop, slime. It stabs its path clear, back where it began, but on another wall. Judging from the number of turns it had made already, this was going to be an extremely long and annoying maze. In theory, it could produce light through friction, rubbing stick together, but that would involve breaking the spear and then managing to dexterously rotate it to grind the wood against itself. It was fairly certain that would be mostly impossible, particularly without light and with these slimes bumping against it every couple seconds.


    ¡°Nah.¡±


    ¡°Arrogant whelp! My minions will rend the flesh from your bones, and scatter you across my reaches, and once I demolish your remains the more obedient copies of you I Spawn will themselves be slain, and brought back from the dead as naught but mindless husks. It¡¯s only unfortunate that you are so pathetic that they will be useless even as disposable fodder against adventurers.¡±


    ¡°And since you¡¯re completely unable to stop me, what does that make you?¡±


    With an incredibly juvenile insult, silence was brought back to the tunnels. Over the next few minutes, the creature follows what turned into an incredibly straight path until the only attacking slimes came from behind it. Taking that as an indication that it had reached some sort of important spot, the experiment transfers its spear to its hand, and sweeps the floor with its tail. Eventually, it feels a lump on the ground.


    ¡°Ah, this must be your anchor. I imagine that if I were to, say, take this to the top of a plateau and drop it into the canyon below, you wouldn¡¯t be very pleased.¡±


    Additional silence.


    Pushing against the orb with its tail, the experiment decides it needs to work out more. Adding its kilogram of telekinetic might to the sphere, it lifts the ball from its resting place and staggers toward the entrance. Since focusing its mind on the rock in its tail wasn¡¯t actually doing anything, it instead pokes out to locate any slimes that might attack it while it was distracted by holding an extremely heavy item. For some reason, they did not even attempt to bump into it. After a moment of thought, the creature realizes it was simply due to it having a hostage.


    ¡°Well, it¡¯s certainly going to be fun getting you into that alcove and all the way out of that pit in the dark without breaking anything.¡±


    It leaves out the possibility of one of the things breaking being its stick, what with it not being rated for combat or anything silly like that. A bit of wood against a rolling or falling rock would do nothing to halt its momentum. Additionally, if the ghost was worried about its anchor breaking, it was discounting the slimes. Even if they were useless for anything related to combat, what they did seem to be good for was cushioning.


    Eventually making its way up the stairs, back through to the room with five exits, one of them being up a pit, up that pit, and back to the entrance of the cave, the creature sets the head-sized orb down next to the body and sits on it. Cool fresh air blows past the cave opening, and the gentle burbling of the stream in the center of the canyon softly covers the plopping of the slimes down below as they eat and multiply.


    ¡°No, I don¡¯t care about this world. Not yet. It might be useful for someone I know though. I have things to do, then I can form an opinion once they¡¯re done. If you want to call me a monster for apathy about the state of this world, then so be it. After my report is finished, and after I make sure that the world doesn¡¯t change so much that my report is inaccurate, my superiors will make their decisions about what to do with this place. Depending on what that is, you might need to reconsider your definition of the word monster. We might just show you exactly what a monster is capable of.¡±


    The body next to the creature starts to glow, and the gem glows alongside it. From the air, the voice of the ghost cries out.


    ¡°What is, no! My mind, it is¡­ Augh!¡±


    A subtle movement the experiment hadn¡¯t even noticed stops. Breathing, from the body next to it. Hm. A shared anchor. That was interesting as well.


    ¡°Hey! What are you doing back already?¡±

 Infestation

    Avery comes to, only an hour after using the possession ritual again, only to find that the invader has come back again, has taken her core, and is sitting on it next to her body.


    ¡°Hey! What are you doing back already?¡±


    Last time he had gone out to check on where the city was, it had taken two hours just to get up to where he could see the place and get back. She had only been alone long enough to make two puzzles and use her spell oh right she had forgotten to make the beds. That was easily solvable, just as soon as she¡­


    ¡°And where did all my mana go? Why is my mana regeneration so low? What did you do?¡±


    ¡°To answer your questions, I took the minimum of detours to and from your domicile, probably the slimes, and killed some slimes.¡±


    ¡°Slimes, what do you¡­¡±


    Checking her map, Avery goes through the various sections. Puzzle rooms, clear. Empty rooms, clear, pit, clear, second floor¡­ Covered in slimes and exploded slimes.


    ¡°There¡¯s slime everywhere!¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m aware. Now, about those beds-¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s no mana for anything because the slimes are using it all!¡±


    ¡°Well, can you maybe just seal off the slimes and ignore them?¡±


    ¡°No! Maybe! I don¡¯t know but probably not, that would be too convenient to actually work.¡±


    ¡°I can see that being a reasonable assumption. What if I go down and pop them for you?¡±


    Avery Inspects the invader with suspicion.


    <div>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    <div>


    <div>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Invader Statistics</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <div>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>Name</td>


    <td>???</td>


    <td>Race</td>


    <td>???</td>


    <td>Soul Power</td>


    <td>?</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <div>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>Health Points</td>


    <td>8/???</td>


    <td>Mana Points</td>


    <td>0/???</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <div>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>Strength</td>


    <td>4</td>


    <td>Intelligence</td>


    <td>18</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Dexterity</td>


    <td>7</td>


    <td>Constitution</td>


    <td>-</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <div>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Special Qualities</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Special Features</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Telekinesis (Lesser)</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Multitask</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Elongating Tail</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Unfazeable</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <div>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Mana Gain from Dungeon Presence</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">-42</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    New information, though nothing really important. She had most of that information before, and had gathered half the new material on her own. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.


    ¡°Why would you do something like that? You have no incentive to help out with my problems.¡±


    ¡°That sounds a bit familiar. Is it that far-fetched that I¡¯m just generous? In that case, it¡¯s because you need the mana to make my bed, and I need that bed to sleep. I mentioned already that I can put off physical needs as long as necessary, so staying up for a few minutes to get a bed isn¡¯t too great a hardship.¡±


    ¡°In that case, if you go down to pop the slimes, I can clean the place up and make a bed for you as soon as you leave again.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s incredibly dark down there though, you don¡¯t happen to have a torch or anything like that laying around you could direct me to, do you?¡±


    ¡°Speaking of that, I am mildly upset that you went down and took that gem! That thing is my ticket to magehood, and you had better not have any ideas about taking it.¡±


    ¡°Far be it from me to take the object so important to you it¡¯s held your soul in this place even after your death. The light?¡±


    ¡°Give me a minute.¡±


    Avery goes through her Build menu, finding that the torch came at a rate of one hundred per mana, whereas an everburning torch would go for one hundred and ten mana for one. Since an ordinary torch would last for about an hour, she could set stationary scones for the burning sticks at set intervals, and then refresh the objects when they burnt out. Probably. She hadn¡¯t gotten the automatic renewal to trigger on purpose yet, but considering how easily the blankets brought up the notification, she reasoned that it wouldn¡¯t be too difficult to set the torches to do the same. Oh, and if she set several torches as levers in the maze on the third floor, she could add another layer of convolution to the eventual puzzle down there.


    ¡°Alright, I found it. Just go outside, and I¡¯ll set up the entire lower area with light.¡±


    ¡°Hey, just a thought, but how about you try to do that without me leaving first?"


    ¡°I think I know what I can do a little better than you do.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ve been dead for all of like a day. I highly doubt that.¡±


    ¡°You are very annoying, you know that?¡±


    ¡°That particular fact has been made clear to every member of my species.¡±


    ¡°What are you anyway?¡±


    ¡°Not important right now. What is important is that your cave is infested with slimes.¡±


    ¡°Technically, I¡¯m going to have to accept that as a non-answer.¡±


    Giving up on that thread of conversation for the moment, the necromancer spends two mana to put a four torches in every room of the second floor, to the right of each wall¡¯s center. That would assist in navigation a bit, such as that one could figure out which direction they were going by the rotation of the torches, and ensure that each corner of the rooms were lit. With how many puzzles she was planning on stuffing into that floor, hidden pieces would just be unfair. It was bad enough that she was going to have certain bits be reused in various puzzles, and force certain states to be reached before others would become solvable. With that bit of work done, Avery focuses again on the top floor.


    ¡°Just because you were right about this particular matter doesn¡¯t mean you know more than me. I¡¯m a necromancer, and don¡¯t you forget it!¡±


    Her skill set was more suited toward actual magic and breaking down theoretical constructs into their constituent pieces. Induction and actual generation of theories and spells were less intuitive to her, and she would need to spend more time and effort to predict what would happen if she made changes than what would happen if she took knowledge she had already gained and deduced optimal uses of the pieces. It was why she was able to break down the complex spells that required far more mana than she could feasibly come up with and use much lesser, weaker versions that were nonetheless useful when utilized correctly. Speaking of that, now that she knew about the separation of floor and invader, she could ignore the guy¡¯s presence and just work on things where he wasn¡¯t. Once the first floor was clear, she could build a bed in the fake final room, Demolish the gemstone, and make her boss token.


    ¡°Anyway, it¡¯s done. Go on, I can keep myself amused while you have fun poking things.¡±


    The invader bends over in a mocking bow.


    ¡°I very much appreciate your benevolence. I¡¯ll take this and put it back where I found it.¡±


    ¡°You do that.¡±

 Too Many Varieties of the Wrong Kind of Monster

    Looking down at the second floor, and the massive pile of slimes there, Avery has a horrible thought.


    ¡°How many of those slimes did you kill on your way down to the gem and back?¡±


    ¡°Probably about fifteen or so, I¡¯d guess. Why?¡±


    ¡°Well, I think that when they moved in here, these slimes might have designated the enclosed area as a nest.¡±


    ¡°Is that supposed to mean something?¡±


    ¡°Slimes out in the open can¡¯t do anything, and just multiply, but when you get a mass of them in a single place and keep them enclosed together, they start to try to defend the area.¡±


    ¡°From what I felt, all they do is bump into you.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s how it starts! If the bumping doesn¡¯t work, they start to evolve.¡±


    ¡°So what does that have to do with me killing them?¡±


    ¡°The more slimes are killed in a given area, the more dangerous they become. For a small nest, it doesn¡¯t get too bad, but there¡¯s enough down there to qualify as a medium nest for sure. The really dangerous things will show up if you just go down and start stabbing them.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t exactly have a wide variety of tools at my disposal here. I have a stick.¡±


    ¡°In that case, just be aware that the dangerous slimes are color coded. Anything that¡¯s not green is probably dangerous.¡±


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Your Lesser Slime has Combined with your Lesser Slime to form Slime. The new monster has been added to your Spawn menu.</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°Oh no, make that the green too. If they¡¯re big, they¡¯re also dangerous. Don¡¯t let them run into each other!¡±


    ¡°Sounds like staying up here isn¡¯t an option anyway. They¡¯re ¡®evolving¡¯ without my input, so I may as well go down there and see what¡¯s going on.¡±


    Avery considers making a spear with some of the mana she just got from the evolution, but decides that trying to make anything that would be on the ground on the second floor while it¡¯s covered in slimes would just result in the item being eaten. Most dungeons were able to have treasures in them without having them eaten by monsters though. Not the best, since it was a common observation that if you killed a wolf you could usually find coins in its stomach, but valuable treasures would usually be found in boxes which the monsters within didn¡¯t open.


    ¡°Hey the yellow ones explode on you. Don¡¯t touch them.¡±


    ¡°Too late.¡±


    ¡°Same with the orange ones if you see any. They¡¯re more dangerous actually.¡±


    ¡°What about that blue oh my ow everything pain.¡±


    ¡°I guess you really are a monster, if that thing hasn¡¯t killed you yet.¡±


    Avery looks away from the second floor to her body up on the first. The last casting of the ritual was far less powerful than her previous attempts, and she was pretty sure she knew the reason why. What little mana she had when using the spell was what transfered to her body, and that was what remained of her soul. Since her soul was so small and weak, it wasn¡¯t able to sustain the spell for as long as she had been back before messing with everything. Nervously, she checks her status again.


    <div>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    <div>


    <div>


    <div>


    <div>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Dungeon Statistics</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>Age</td>


    <td>10</td>


    <td>Weight</td>


    <td>5073</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>Structure Points</td>


    <td>173/173</td>


    <td>Mana Points</td>


    <td>406/5600</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Structure Regeneration</td>


    <td>0</td>


    <td>Mana Regeneration</td>


    <td>-227</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <div>


    <div>


    <div>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>Power</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>Intelligence</td>


    <td>15</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Finesse</td>


    <td>12</td>


    <td>Wisdom</td>


    <td>8</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Hardness</td>


    <td>15</td>


    <td>Charisma</td>


    <td>6</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <div>


    <div>


    <div>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Menu Options</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <div>


    <div>


    <div>


    <div>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">?Build</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Spawn</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Demolish</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Map</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    That was good, the mana regeneration was slowly going back up from the negative two hundred and thirty. Never mind, there it went again.


    ¡°Hey, you have to go after the tiny purple one that burst from the big one you stab, otherwise they grow to full size within twenty seconds, and that''s bad for my mana regeneration.¡±


    ¡°Do you want to come down here and deal with this?¡±


    ¡°Yes!¡±


    ¡°Well too bad, you''re a disembodied ghost who can''t do anything when near living creatures.¡±


    ¡°You are incredibly irritating.¡±


    ¡°Okay.¡±


    Avery checks her notifications, dismisses the ones about being able to spawn blue, purple, and yellow slimes, and waits for another popup to appear. She doesn''t have to wait long.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Your Lesser Slime has Evolved into Orange Slime. The new monster has been added to your Spawn menu.</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°Orange incoming. Remember, move, then pop it.¡±


    ¡°Oh, so that¡¯s what I¡¯m doing wrong. I have to not get hit. Never would have guessed that, thanks for the advice.¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t have to be rude about it.¡±Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    ¡°Pretty sure I do.¡±


    Avery had already lost eight mana from just the drain, and since she was running low on soul even before this massive pile of goop had climbed out of the canyon to ruin her night building her way out of this mess was off the table. What little healing her body had managed to do while she was out was not worth this aggravation. The slimes were one thing, and the slow death from the energy of her soul being drained to power the creatures was another, but the constant sass was probably the worst bit.


    As much as she hated to think it, Avery might actually have to thank this monster for retrieving her core. Judging by the reduction in mass and maximum mana, those statistics were related and the slimes had been eating her gem while she was embodied. Why they didn''t start on her actual flesh was a mystery, but it was theoretically possible the creatures were drawn to the core''s influx of mana. A while ago, the notification had mentioned that Contracting would be available after the end of the tutorial, but maybe that only applied on her end. If monsters that were able to make their way down to the core without being stopped by the puzzles or existing guards could have a contact initiate automatically, it would serve as an incentive for the dungeon to be deadly enough to keep the masses of slimes away, while still allowing for powerful monsters to take advantage of a dungeon¡¯s upkeep for them to live without needing the massive amounts of sustenance required for running said monster''s inbuilt abilities.


    Now, if Avery had any kind of control over these mindless pests, their presence could be considered symbiotic, as she would be able to direct the things to carve out corridors and rooms to generate more mana, which in turn would allow more slimes to be sustained. Unfortunately, they were instead just contentedly staying put, not even going about typical slime nest behaviors like melting stone with orange slimes to generate tunnels reinforced by yellow slime innards. No, it took an invader coming into their nest to get them to even start generating anything out of the basic lesser slimes. Avery was pretty sure that kind of negligent apathy was treasonous in some way. If they couldn¡¯t make up for how much mana they were draining somehow, they were useless to her.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">The death of a (Lesser Slime: 3) has provided you with 23 mana.</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Just one moment there. It was subtle, but that pop-up was different. Avery was getting less mana from the slimes now. Checking through the recent notifications, she finds one that came in at the same time as the most recent lesser slime mana drop.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Your mastery of the (Lesser Slime) grows. With every death, it becomes more powerful, and you can spawn them more easily.</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Level: 3/25</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Progress: 30/60</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Alright, there were diminishing returns on monsters. Got it. Once they leveled up, the amount of mana gotten from them dying would decrease at regular intervals. It was good that she found this out now, it would be pretty terrible to bring out a bunch of slimes, get like ten killed, then take a loss of one mana per every other slime destroyed in that spawning batch. That was one thing this infestation was good for, though it didn¡¯t excuse their trespass.


    ¡°You know, if you could aim at all you might be dangerous.¡±


    ¡°I''ve got like four mitigating circumstances for that, not the least of which being this blue slime stabbing me repeatedly. Where did the teeth come from in the first place?¡±


    ¡°That''s a fairly interesting question, particularly since there aren''t ever any remaining in the puddle once you''ve popped it. The theory is that the slime precipitates harder solvents out of its solution while attacking, which are then manipulated by imitated muscular fibers to dig through whatever it managed to latch onto.¡±


    Avery kind of wondered if the slime would get tired at any point, if it wasn''t being sustained by her mana at least. The one that had grabbed onto the invader had been ¡®chewing¡¯ continuously this whole time, and showed no sign of stopping.


    ¡°Speaking of which, you should probably get that thing off of you.¡±


    ¡°I would love to, but my current priority is to keep from having more of these things on me. Do not have time to try and line my spear up the wrong way and stab myself. Tiny jabs aren''t cutting it like with the other ones, and it''ll take some effort to get an actual stab in. Tail is only so long, you know.¡±


    ¡°It''s kinda impressive that you can poke things three meters away. You don''t need to do that though. As the saying goes, passed down to every adventurer, ''spin to win¡¯. None of these variants, other than the yellow, are particularly sticky. Spin fast enough and they''ll just fly off.¡±


    ¡°That sounds somewhat suspect, but I''ll give it a shot.¡±


    Speaking of stickiness, that spear the invader was using was a bit¡­ less than stellar in quality. Considering that there would be a number of orange slimes and that she needed a functional spear to be around to steadily increase her mana regeneration, Avery begrudgingly spends the mana to create a spear on the top floor. It costs a precious two mana, but the stone version of a spear will probably be a bit more resilient than the wooden stick they¡¯re currently using.


    ¡°It¡¯s not working, and getting bumped while I¡¯m not paying attention isn¡¯t helping matters.¡±


    ¡°Head back to the first floor then. Also, you¡¯re spinning way too slow, you¡¯re barely breaking two rotations per second. Those are rookie numbers, you gotta pump those numbers up. Maybe try planting your spear and using it for leverage? I think about five rotations per second would be enough to dislodge one of the small purple ones, so four or so should be enough for the far more massive blue one. They aren¡¯t even as permeable as the regular slimes, so they should be even less attached. Call it three. You can do a fifty percent increase, right?¡±


    ¡°Probably not.¡±


    ¡°Try just rapid changes in direction then. Left right, left right. Shake your body as hard as you can.¡±


    ¡°I saw one of the blue ones tear through some of the green ones while it was trying to kill me. I¡¯m gonna try and get another one to destroy this one.¡±


    ¡°No wait that¡¯s a terrible idea for several reasons-¡±


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">YourBlue SlimehasCombinedwith yourBlue Slimeto formGreater Blue Slime. The new monster has been added to your Spawn menu.</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°And now you¡¯re dead. Great.¡±


    Avery looks over the two severed halves of the invader, the top half still holding onto her core and the terrible spear, then inspects the Greater Blue Slime.


    <div>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    <div>


    <div>


    <table style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Monster Statistics</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>Name</td>


    <td>N/A</td>


    <td>Race</td>


    <td>Blue Slime, Greater</td>


    <td>Soul Power</td>


    <td>1</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <div>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>Health Points</td>


    <td>1/1</td>


    <td>Mana Points</td>


    <td>0/0</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>Strength</td>


    <td>15</td>


    <td>Intelligence</td>


    <td>1</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Dexterity</td>


    <td>4</td>


    <td>Constitution</td>


    <td>-</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>Special Qualities</td>


    <td>Special Features</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Keretin Defense</td>


    <td>Tooth Blast</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Controlled Mitosis</td>


    <td>Blue Infection</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <div>


    <div>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Mana Gain from Dungeon Presence</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">-1</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    That thing might actually be worth keeping around. Actually no, if it managed to get out¡­ But it wouldn¡¯t. The slime would have to figure out how to get out of the second floor, up through the hole in the pit, out of the pit, then through the door she was probably going to have to make now to keep the slimes from killing everyone. At least the upgraded slimes didn¡¯t take up more mana regeneration than the lesser ones, and that horror of spinning teeth and blue slime was still killing anything it came near. So far, the slimes hadn¡¯t come close enough for Avery to have to worry about them devouring her core, so she may as well go about with tasks other than supervising without being able to affect results.


    First off, there was the piece of onyx next to her body to demolish.

 Crystalline Substantiation

    The moment she selects the option to demolish the gem, Avery has a vision take over her senses. Darkness, a spinning bastion of crystal shards with nothing below, slicing, shredding, immobile, deep and impenetrable. Light, the blinding, burning bath of brilliance that brings any who oppose it to their knees. An endless tide of penetrating beams blast down into the depths, shattering on the shadowed shards. The beams do little against the dark bulwark, but with every moment more are created to blast down into the single point of defense. No castle could weather a storm eternally, and the aggressor had far more resources to bring to bear than the defender. However, as the light starts to make progress into the deep depths, she is brought out of the scene to a new text box.


    <div>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">A potential overlord has been detected, and their resistance quashed.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>Demolish</td>


    <td>Subsume</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Curious, Avery chooses Subsume.


    <div>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">You have gained 1 mana regeneration for adding Onyx to your crystalline network.</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    New terms, new source of mana regeneration, and¡­ Dang, she didn¡¯t have the ability to create onyx. Activating demolish once again, Avery selects the chunk of black stone to take apart, only to get another error message, this one more concerning.


    <div>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Demolish not available on living or undead creatures.</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Having that show up again had disturbing implications. Potential overlord was clear, considering the recent revelation that gems cause monsters and dungeons, and whatever she had done was apparently enough to keep this new gem from carving out its own niche in her dungeon. What wasn''t clear was whether the Onyx had been alive before Avery tried the subsume option. It was possible that she had just granted an inanimate object sapience, or at least functions akin to those utilized by biological creatures.


    Maybe that was what was providing the additional mana regeneration. Some process Avery had kickstarted by using subsumption, which took some unknown property, likely ambient mana, and converted it to utilizable mana, which the newly subsumed stone excretes into Avery''s own functions. As a biological entity, in general, Avery would prefer a few more layers of abstraction between herself and her meals, but in a completely practical viewpoint of the situation, it seemed that with a small amount of effort on the part of any agent she would be able to come across, like if she could maybe exile all these slimes as was the wont of developing dungeons and have them return to their nest after gathering resources, she would have the advantage of not having to deal with their upkeep while they were gone as well as the demolishable material brought back. It was possible that if she could figure out how to get rid of the monsters in some way, she might not be completely ruined by the fact there were piles of monsters draining her mana.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.


    On the other hand, that would kill a lot of people. Took her a little bit to remember that.


    Still, at negative two hundred mana drain, Avery would be completely out in less than two hours now that the slime numbers weren''t decreasing anymore. Honestly, now that she had all this new information she could almost guarantee herself a spot in the tower. Just the idea that a gem retrieved from a dungeon had the potential to be a dungeon seed when retrieved was enough to generate years of research ideas. Once all the immediate issues were sorted out, Avery could bring gems to this dungeon, subsume them, and put them in a safe-esk spot whereby she could guide the development toward useful avenues. Unlike what she had here, of course, which at this point seemed to be... A somewhat decent first floor, then a second floor maze that suddenly turns into a tunnel going downward for some reason.


    Avery was pretty sure she hadn''t done that. Slimes didn''t usually have that kind of precision with their nest building either; they would carve out a whole expanse into a flat staging ground first, then work from there. The fact the slimes weren''t acting as the natural variants in this respect was simultaneously promising and annoying. It implied that what rooms she made wouldn''t be immediately devoured, but the slimes also weren''t helping to expand her territory into something that would provide enough mana regeneration to offset their existence. That had been her best hope for this to have a good solution.


    A new plan came to mind. If she kept digging down through the tunnel, maybe she''d hit lava and burn everything to death when a jet of superheated rock blasted up into the bottom of the second floor. Her body''d probably be fine up on the top.

 Inklings of a Solution

    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Unable to modify floor while an invader is present</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Apparently the invader wasn¡¯t dead yet somehow. This was a problem easily solved though. Spending the twenty mana to create a new room, Avery starts work on the fourth floor. A single room, which would hold a puzzle and act as a locking mechanism to keep anything from going up or down without the solved puzzle allowing access. Ideally, she would be able to set the doors to open one at a time, with both doors locking while the puzzle was in effect. That would be a forced transition, and if an invader managed to get past that puzzle, the door upward would be sealed shut to disallow any further intrusion into the lower reaches. Unfortunately, she needed to have a puzzle completed before attempting to get the doors to work properly, and Avery did not have the mana to spare for that at the moment. Granted, a point of mana regeneration was nice, but even optimal allocation of resources would leave her deep in the negatives after spending all she had on hallways.


    As it was, Avery starts spending all her mana on a hallway leading down. Now that there was a live invader on the second floor, she had the potential of the slimes dying from murder, or from what she could unearth. There were constant stories about adventurers or random delvers who go into an unexplored dungeon and discover some sort of incredibly powerful artifact that was buried ages ago to be forgotten by all. Acting as such a dungeon herself, Avery was inclined to believe, or if she were being honest with herself inclined to hope, that she might be able to locate something similar herself by delving too deep and be able to take advantage of its presumably fathomable power by using her spell to temporarily take up arms. Her own arms, that was.


    With a rate of ten meters per ten mana, Avery would be able to get well below the plateau before running out of digging ability. Well, considering her angle of descent, she was getting something more akin to seven meters of depth per ten mana spent, but that was fine. Now that she thought of it, if she made this more like a spiral staircase it could serve as a staging ground for multiple levels of puzzles, all of which she could seal off until said level was completed, allowing for further descent into the deeps. Even these forty-five degree angles of the floor would serve her well, once she had the time and mana to demolish cuts of the stone into proper stairs. There was always the option of leaving it smooth like that, but that would disincentivize leaving. If possible, she would prefer having a platform to transport straight to the top floor, though where she¡¯d have it emerge from¡­ Right, the fake door. So, when the whole thing was set up, the keys would be necessary both for getting below the second floor and also for getting into the elevator room. It wouldn¡¯t be obvious that was what it was for until after they got past floor three at the very least though, so that would keep the annoyance factor at having to work so hard to get to a completely useless room.


    Apparently there were no useless rooms when it came to dungeon design, assuming one could actually do all the things one wanted to.This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    There was actually a lot of empty space in the first hallway. It basically went downward in one direction, unlike what Avery was doing below the third floor with her ¡®down one flight, turn ninety degrees, down another flight, repeat¡¯ spiral staircase idea. At the very least she could use the space between floors two and three to slope the shaft gently from within the spiral over to where the empty boss room was. Hmm. Maybe she would have to look into putting an optional boss in there. Something that invaders would only fight if they tried to use the escape tunnel to go down, perhaps.


    Room four of the path onward to down would have the tunnel go straight through it to reach the top. A secret puzzle in that room to unlock the exit early wouldn¡¯t be amiss, to be honest. Since she would want them to get out as soon as possible, that one would need to be a gimme. If she could squeeze out those sweet, sweet secret bonuses out of it though, that would be great. Probably just a simple word puzzle on a pillar surrounding the gap in the floor and ceiling, where you just press a couple buttons to open up the hidden door.


    Somehow, losing a point of mana every twenty seconds on top of spending ten every four seconds to dig ever deeper was leading to Avery rapidly reaching the point of no mana, and no mana regeneration. If she didn¡¯t come across something soon, she¡¯d have to resort to not being able to do anything at all, and simply hope that the invader wakes up and demolishes all the slimes for her. That was an idea most unpalatable to her. A wizard shouldn¡¯t need to rely on the unbound monster. Conjuration specialists would use their bound creatures readily, and most wizards would eventually get themselves a familiar they could talk out the problems with their spells with, but relying on a creature outside of ones control to solve your issues was the first step toward being unable to self-determine. When dealing with an adventuring party, that issue is typically sidestepped through the justification that said wizard is helping the rubes with their problems, not vice-versa, or that the remainder of the group is under the wizard¡¯s control, or in the rare cases extending the sense of self-determination to be the fate of the group rather than the individual, whereby the actions of any member unit can be attributed to all participants as a whole, but this case was not as rigorously defined as that.


    So far, Avery had a hostile relationship with an unknown variety of monster, which was for some reason following a few of her orders, specifically the ones made to coincide with a general monster operating procedure; that of petty theft and murder. Theft from her family, of her own family¡¯s items, but not of any relation to the monster in question, and murder of monsters, but the point still stood.


    It had been over two hundred meters downward at this point, and there hadn¡¯t even been a notable increase in ambient temperature yet. Idly, Avery wonders if she would even be able to tell there had been a change, given her lack of sensation through the mapping function, but is distracted by a sudden message box.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Uncovering an abandoned cave structure adds its effects to your own dungeon!


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>Room: +130 mana regeneration</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Creatures: -400 mana regeneration</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ...


    And everything got worse.

 Nested Issues

    Below the entrance to the dungeon, above the ¡®fourth floor¡¯ so recently created, the flow of water feeding the two streams cutting the plateau in half stops providing additional liquid for the current. Without the added mass, the existing volume wicks itself rapidly down the channels this particular duo of not-quite-rivers had carved out over centuries of constant erosion, each direction having had a consistent flow of nine liters per second pouring from the wellspring below the surface. Far further downstream, the change would take hours to come into effect, and the already placid waters stopping entirely could go unnoticed for potentially days, but would eventually result in stagnating pools of water rather than a discrete moving body.


    Much more immediately, both geographically and chronologically, the bed of the gorge previously cut in two by enough flowing water to discorporate a slime falling into it doubles in size. The slime population, kept in check through limitation of available space (at least to the creature¡¯s instinctual perception, not regarding a simple bridge across the body of water as a continuation of territory), constant attrition through magical contamination, and the careful attention of in-training adventurers, suddenly have no way of disposing of hazardous material beyond throwing enough slimes at the problem to diffuse the concentrated magical power into enough creatures that the individuals are powerful enough to contain it. With a species as mutagenic as the basic lesser slime, an event normally confined to mana-dense areas occurs, in which the slime community forms into a hive, with specialized units to dispose of the concentrated magical contaminates, whether through potent acid, generating flammable liquid and igniting themselves near the source, or simply gathering up stone and crushing the tossed-aside artifact. Specialization would not be limited to simple disposal of hazards, however. Starting with dissemination of resources to the entire population of slimes, the newly formed swarm discovers a massive overabundance of food relative to the current needs of the nest. With that, an instinct to store the mass is unleashed within the horde, and the slimes begin a search for a location to create a stockpile.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    Unfortunately for the slimes, their intelligence leaves much to be desired. Failing to spot anything in the immediate vicinity, the creatures start digging a cave on the side of the canyon closer to the stock of food. As it happened, this would be in the exact opposite direction from a completely out in the open dungeon, without so much as a sheet covering the entrance. Vigilance would require a certain amount of inherent wisdom the slimes lacked, and so they spend their effort cutting away at the rock before them to hide their treasure from competitors.


    Soon, the base of the canyon is painted yellow and orange as fragile sacks of liquid splash on stone; smooth rock is left behind as the acid splashes are covered with a biological adhesive to prevent the newly formed cavern from collapsing on the near-helpless slimes. Another imperative awakens within the hive; the need for a leader. The deepest lesser slime within the cave heeds the call, turning red. It is now the most important and most powerful slime within at least a twenty meter radius. Exuding chitinous extrusions behind it, the new queen forms keratin wings out of the material it now guards. Long as five slimes each, and thin as broken glass, the ovaloid appendages trail behind the red slime as it moves about the new throne chamber. Red tendrils sprout from the spherical body of the queen to investigate its domain. From this point on, it will be able to map out the entirety of the slime territory and direct its subjects toward any that dare attempt to encroach upon them.


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">You are unable to completely close off a section of your dungeon</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">You are unable to completely close off a section of your dungeon</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">You are unable to completely close off a section of your dungeon</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">You are unable to completely close off a section of your dungeon</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°Aaaaaah everything is flooding!¡±

 More or Less Doom

    Spending mana to build walls in front of the oncoming rush of water wasn''t working. Building doors not attached to puzzles didn''t do anything either; the water pressure had blasted the door out of its holdings, leaving behind a useless arch and a door that was now floating up toward the entrance. Granted, Avery did need a door there eventually, but hopefully it would be one that wasn''t freestanding like her previous one. That thing had done exactly nothing to keep anything out of the dungeon. Clearly she was going to need to invest in a proper entrance. Something regal and imposing. A monument to how entry into this particular cave system was a death sentence, where said death would result in a ten thousand gold charge for resurrection, if the insurance would even cover such blatant stupidity.


    Locationally, that might be a bit of an issue though. So close to the capitol, that might indicate a pushover newbie dungeon. Particularly considering the fact that so far she only had a couple incredibly easy puzzles, and slimes as her only monsters.


    ¡°Ow, that hurt.¡±


    And this guy apparently. While she had been busy actually doing work and making magical discoveries, he had apparently taken a nap and grown a new lower half. Monsters and their regeneration abilities. If people had that kind of ability, the dangerous magical research she was doing wouldn¡¯t be needed. Instead of taking over powerful bodies for safety in the event of catastrophic failure during other, more dangerous magical research, they could simply not die when they were supposed to and stand back up to continue unraveling the secrets of the universe.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    ¡°Did you have a nice nap while slimes run rampant through the place, and everything started flooding?¡±


    ¡°Yes, thank you for asking.¡±


    ¡°That was sarcasm you dingleberry!¡±


    ¡°Oh. In that case then noooo, of course not.¡±


    ¡°Good! Because the whole place is flooding, there are so many slimes and other monsters here that I have less than ten minutes of magic remaining, and sixty mana is not going to fix this!¡±


    ¡°Huh. So you¡¯re losing a point of mana every ten seconds, and the slimes are causing that?¡±


    ¡°Among other things, including you.¡±


    ¡°Well, sorry about that one.¡±


    ¡°Just get the spear up on the top floor before I demolish it to regain the mana I spent on the thing.¡±


    Avery starts ignoring the creature again, confident that she won¡¯t have to deal with it for a few minutes. As a completely necessary expense, she spends five mana to surround the spear in a ¡®Puzzle Chest¡¯. That¡¯d show him to have a negative forty two mana regeneration rate. Couldn¡¯t even demolish¡­


    Scrolling back over to where the lower portion of the creature had dropped, Avery activates Demolish on the no longer living torso.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">You have gained five mana for demolishing ¡®Meat¡¯</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">New Menu option unlocked: Lure</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>

 Theorycrafting

    Having a way to lure monsters would have been very useful an hour ago, before Avery had spent all her mana digging down below the third floor and gotten another negative two hundred and seventy mana regeneration. Assuming it worked the way she thought it would, she could maneuver the slimes into each other¡¯s paths. That wouldn¡¯t do anything at all for most monsters, but slimes were the lowest tier of monster for a reason. With their combination of near-mindlessness and incredible fragility, it was possible to reduce slime numbers by simply walking around them while they attempted to engulf their target, causing them to burst each other.


    With a lure, that would be easy to accomplish.


    Activating the option in the menu, Avery finds that all the slimes are highlit on her map function. Apparently most of them were congregated between the opening of the tunnel on the third floor and the hole that led up to the first floor. A lesser accumulation was diffusing through the forty-nine rooms of the second floor, turning what Avery had intended to be a series of puzzle rooms leading to keys into three gauntlets of easily dispatched enemies. Wonderful. That was exactly what she wanted, something that wasn¡¯t even a puddle of mud to invaders. There were also several slimes trickling down from the second floor down to the third, but the staircase was preventing any from returning to the previous floor. Apparently she had a built-in disincentive for monsters to exit her dungeon. Also sarcastically wonderful.


    Now that she thought of it, why wasn¡¯t there a greater concentration of slimes on the third floor? If they had dug the tunnel downward, there should have been at least more of them toward that direction than there were on the stairs. As it was, the density of the slime icons was more along the lines of an expanding ooze moving to reach the start of the tunnel than a hive that had excavated the stone itself. Well, if the theory didn¡¯t predict the data, there was something wrong with the theory. There were a few holes in her understanding of what had happened while she was unconscious already, and while Avery was pretty sure the Invader knew more than he had told her, she wasn¡¯t going to just ask about it. The first new theory she could think of had him as the reason everything had gone terrible.


    First, and most blatantly, was the fact that there were slimes in the dungeon and yet her body was uneaten. Three hundred slimes going down and ignoring fresh meat on their way down into a hole to eat a gem was suspending her disbelief already, and the new information wasn¡¯t helping at all. It was more plausible that the Invader, whether by accident or malevolently, had brought a single slime with himself to the cave much as Avery herself had not so very long ago, only for the then contained slime to multiply on the second level. With the monster¡¯s needs provided for entirely by Avery¡¯s mana, the creature would then do what came naturally to slimes and split repeatedly to fill the available space. Following that, the creatures would burrow to create more space, which would then fit the data of the tunnel existing.


    However, that led to the question of where the slimes that dug the tunnel had gone. Again, the only unaccounted for variable was the Invader. While she was unconscious, he had retrieved her core from the second floor, which provided a lower base level of combat prowess separate from the stats she had managed to get a read on. However, that did not give an upper boundary. It was perfectly feasible that the creature could have made its way down to the lowest reaches of her dungeon and slaughtered its way back up. After a complete depopulation of the slimes on the lower level, the ones remaining on the second floor would need to redivide and expand downward once more. With regenerative capabilities, nothing that didn¡¯t specifically bypass the healing factor would pose a threat to this monster. It would therefore only be a matter of time and effort to obliterate the slimes from one end of a linear path to the other.


    Avery was going to need to work on that linearity.


    With both questionable circumstance feasibly being the fault of the Invader who was most certainly not freely providing the information about said incidents while also almost certainly at least having knowledge of what occurred, the necromancer was not inclined to blindly trust the monster that held her soul in its hands. Even being cut in half by a blue slime activating reverse mitosis while attached to the creature could be a ploy to make itself seem vulnerable and make Avery lower her guard. She hadn¡¯t paid it much attention at the time, given that there were special abilities being found simultaneously, but the Invader had a listed intelligence stat of eighteen, three points higher than her own fifteen. The only other measure she had of that was the slimes having a one, but with only fourteen points of difference between her own intellect and that of a mindless blob of water, she was inclined to believe that an additional three points could lead to the creature in question thinking a few levels ahead of her when it came to manipulation of the environment to suit its own narrative.If Avery was going to get out of this mess, it would be through careful experimentation and solving these mysteries on her own.The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    Make that rapid experimentation. Noting once again her extremely limited supply of mana, the necromancer selects the Greater Blue Slime on the map. A tiny orb of mana forms near the creature, and the slime immediately moves toward it. Deciding that she would rather not wait to see what happens when it reaches it, Avery selects a room of the dungeon that passes through several of the more dense clumps of slimes, and watches. The blob of blue jelly and teeth rolls forward toward the lure, which moves automatically away from the creature. Tantalizingly close and yet out of reach, the slime continues to lunge for the mana as the orb travels slowly to the destination point Avery had designated. Fortunately, it continues through the lesser slimes as it travels, popping the green blobs with the sharp teeth around its hide as it passes by, each destroyed monster providing Avery with a small burst of mana. With each slime providing twenty three, twenty two now, mana, all it would take is constant effort to stay in a positive flow.


    Until she ran out of slimes, or they stopped providing mana, at least.


    Fortunately, the Invader had reached the first floor, so Avery could stop thinking about that for a minute.


    ¡°Solve the puzzle and open the chest to get your spear already before I demolish it for the mana.¡±


    ¡°Sheesh, impatient are we?¡±


    ¡°Get on with it already!¡±


    ¡°Fine, fine. ¡®Golden treasure lies within¡¯. Heard it before. Egg.¡±


    As soon as the Invader answers the question, the lid of the puzzle chest opens up, and the stone spear floats up in front of it.


    ¡°Huh, neat. I¡¯m not doing that. So I just grab it, right?¡±


    ¡°What kind of puzzle was that! That¡¯s just a riddle. Rip off! Do I have to make everything manually?¡±


    ¡°Uh, you wanted me to get this right? Didn¡¯t you just make an easy puzzle?¡±


    ¡°No! I used the automatic puzzle box thing. Now I¡¯m going to¡­ Dang it, have to wait until you¡¯re off the flood before I can get the mana back from it.¡±


    Wrapping its tail around the spear, the Invader pulls the chunk of stone out from the hovering position above the chest, and immediately drops it.


    ¡°But why? Why would you make it out of rock? Rock is heavy.¡±


    ¡°Suck it up.¡±


    ¡°Fine, I¡¯ll just concentrate a bit.¡±


    Looking back down into the hole, the invader weighs the gem in its hand thoughtfully.


    ¡°If I leave this up here, can you still communicate with me? Might need to three hand this thing for a while, and it seems somewhat unlikely that the safety of a fragile gemstone can be assured while I¡¯m focusing on not-that.¡±


    ¡°We can find out the answer to that together. I¡¯m fairly certain that¡¯s a yes, considering how before now you didn¡¯t have a gem and were able to listen to me telling you to get out of this cave before you ruin everything, but who is to say that events of the past are in fact indicators of the future?¡±


    ¡°Valid points, both of them. Into the chest it goes!¡±


    Tossing the black stone into the chest, the Invader picks up the stone spear with tail, hand, and hand, before jumping down into the hole. Behind it, the chest closes itself with the core still inside, locking to prevent easy access to the contents. Avery seethes in impotent rage, and plots ways to lure slimes into the invader for the purpose of murder.


    ¡°Flooding, huh?¡±


    ¡°Yes, apparently there was an underground reservoir,¡± Avery responds, luring the Greater Blue into a patch of greens. ¡°Unfortunately the water isn¡¯t rising fast enough to reach the slimes before I run out of mana at this rate.¡±


    ¡°What kind of flow are we talking about here?¡±


    ¡°It was a veritable flood at first, but it seems to have hit an equilibrium of sorts between the levels in the cavern and the levels in the tunnel. Now it¡¯s like eleven liters per second or so.¡±


    ¡°That still seems like a lot. Is that a lot?¡±


    ¡°Well, each ¡®hallway¡¯ of the tunnel is about four hundred meters in volume. Multiply that by a thousand to get how many liters that holds. So, each hallway would take about ten hours to fill.¡±


    ¡°Huh.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s still an inexorable amount of liquid coming to ruin everything but it¡¯s somewhat less pressing than the rapidly draining level of ambient magic and the swarm of slimes.¡±


    ¡°So you can demolish things to generate mana, yeah?¡±


    ¡°Yes, but only nonanimate matter within the confines of my dungeon.¡±


    ¡°And the dungeon is flooding in addition to being host to numerous creatures draining said mana?¡±


    ¡°Which I cannot demolish because the creature are alive.¡±


    ¡°What about demolishing the water though?¡±


    To that, Avery had no response.

 Water Damage

    Clearly the easiest way to test if Avery could demolish water was to attempt it.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Unable to demolish. Mana return greater than configured.</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    New error message. Interesting. At the very least it was more information to use in the future. Greater than configured implied there was a hard limit to how much mana she could gain at one time. The obvious answer would be that would be her maximum mana, or perhaps the available space for unused mana. That would incentivize a dungeon to use it¡¯s mana as it received it, so as to take advantage of the boosts from secrets being discovered and things being killed; having a full tank would result in losing those sources.


    If she couldn''t simply demolish the water as a singular object, maybe the answer was to cordon off sections of the area and then eliminate what was contained within the room. Fortunately, the mana return from the slimes hasn''t completely petered out yet; while lesser greens were down to two mana per death, each of the variant species had its own rate of mana return depreciation, and any of those types would be immediately shredded when put in the path of the annihilation that was a greater blue slime. On the less fortunate side, they were still providing what the lesser greens had as a base; twenty-five mana before reductions.


    As she hadn¡¯t thought of it while yelling at her invader, Avery still wasn¡¯t able to clean up all the slime goo slowly filling her corridors for the remaining bits of mana locked within their less-than-living forms. To think about it positively, that was another source of mana she would be able to tap into beyond what was acting as an influx from deaths. With that in mind, she was more than reasonably able to spend some points trying to figure out this water situation.


    The first step was to attempt building a door under the water in order to cut off one ¡®part¡¯ of the liquid from the main body.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Unable to construct. Space currently inhabited.</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    An unfortunate, but reasonable, error message. No building doors in solid stone blocks, had to clear out the stone first. Speaking of which¡­ Hopefully it would be enough to construct a doorway in the time between demolishing a cube of water with the manual option and the liquid collapsing back in on itself. Queuing up a basic stone door, she mentally prepares herself to spend the ten mana and-


    -CRACK-


    The sides of the tunnel where Avery had demolished the water suddenly split, and the level of the water above dropped the exact amount of the demolished liquid. Shooing away the error message about the construction, the mage examines the location to see what happened.


    First of all, the water was apparently completely unaffected as a whole, other than being slightly lower. In a ring around where she had taken out a segment of the liquid, the stone had fractured cleanly around the demolished cuboid. From what she could tell, it was angled such as that the top of the crack was slightly closer to the downward section of the tunnel than the bottom, though the average location was about a third of the width of the removed section closer to down than up. Not that she could do anything with it at this moment, but it seemed like that could be a part of a puzzle of some sort later. A code having to do with the frequency of the rings, which would then be input into a chest maybe. That would be better than the stupid pre-generated puzzle box she was currently stuck in.Stolen story; please report.


    The ritual required line of effect between the gem and her body, so as of now, Avery was in fact trapped in this chest. In a minute she would have to remember to get properly angry about that.


    If the easy solution wasn¡¯t going to work, Avery was just going to have to get creative. If a door is open, the oncoming rush of water wouldn¡¯t be able to knock it down. If she closed an existing door, it would push the water out of the way rather than throw up an error message. If the water trapped behind a door wasn¡¯t connected to the rest of the water, she could safely deconstruct it.


    From a safely dry portion of the third floor, Avery starts building herself a downward shaft. This would be something she was going to do at some point anyhow, so at least the mana wasn¡¯t going to be wasted. Unfortunately, for what she intended spiralling the hallways to make them count as separate mana generating units wasn¡¯t going to work. This was going to be a long mana-sink that only gave her one mana regeneration. At least that made it more efficient in terms of mana spent per meter of depth. While spiraling downward Avery had a limited grade from which to work with; on average she could only get three meters or so per ten mana spent. With no limitations on the hallways being usable by creatures with legs, she was getting a full meter per mana.


    So much better than trying to use the demolish tool manually.


    After a little bit of micromanaging the Blue, Avery had enough to offset the investment into her transit tube. Just to make sure, she brings it down another ten meters. That could be a secret, holding some sort of treasure underneath for anyone who checks back under the platform after it¡¯s sent back up to the top. Thinking forward a bit more, she installs doors at the top and bottom of the downward tunnel. One would be the floor relative to the outward tunnel to what Avery was tentatively going to call the fourth floor, and the second lower one would be a closable surface in the event that she needed to go even deeper, but still wanted to have a chest to find in the wall. Alternatively, she might be able to bring water up through this passage to¡­ do something. It was a work in progress.


    With one more hallway facing toward the water source, Avery makes a door set against the side of the tunnel. The next hallway would breach the cavern and fill the structure with liquid. Hoping she was right, the necromancer opens all three of the doors. Each of the slide into the wall adjacent to them, leaving a path for the onrushing tide to flow into. Once said onrushing tide was broken, she would be able to work on whether or not her plan was even feasible. A flick of mana, and the corridor connects with the cavern. Again the water level up above drops as the liquid rushes to fill the newly available space. Rapidly equalizing at the same height as in the fourth floor¡¯s drop, and presumably inside the cavern as well, the water slows its rise to a crawl. Now or never.


    Closing the doors¡­ Worked. Perfection. That meant that entire thing would work. In the shaft, the water level stops rising, and outside the shaft it increases back to the previous rate of change. Now to demolish this one room worth of water. Ten meters below the surface, two meters wide, and cuboid. Total of forty cubic meters of liquid. And¡­


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Demolishing water will generate 1040 mana, continue?


    <table width="476">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Yes


    </td>


    <td>


    No


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">You have gained 1040 mana.</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡­


    Unlimited power.

 Hell Maze

    ¡°Hey, quit getting knocked over by slimes and get me out of this chest. I finished up fixing the first floor, and you¡¯re blocking me from modifying the second.¡±


    Down in the still-dark chambers below the pit trap, specifically six rooms through the northward path, the spear-holding creature doesn¡¯t so much sigh in resignation so much as make the expression of a person who has been given incredibly unreasonable orders they were expected to accomplish, and subsequently do so, too many times to muster the energy to complain about this most recent one. It had been covered in small, wriggling purple slimes doing their utmost to weigh their prey down enough to allow bigger slimes to consume the debuffed target, while green slimes rotate a pattern of slamming into each side in sequence to prevent escape until a deadlier variant was able to make its way over to finish the job. Combined with the full sized purple slimes reapplying their payload of miniature goos every few seconds, the combination would be enough for almost any target to be consumed by the nest. Unfortunately for them, Avery had been harvesting the variants expediently with her lured Great Blue; no such finisher was going to wander over on its own.


    Telekinesis was going to be useless here, the creature reasoned. Even if it was to remove the sticky bits all over itself, the things would quickly grow to their full size and continue exacerbating the situation. Without the ability to break the source of the heavy nodules with its mind, simple decontamination was an unproductive use of time. If there were stones of some description nearby it could use to launch toward the fragile creatures, that would be a different story, but the way it was built make the direct destructive force of mind practically nil. Floating the spear around and stabbing each blob without moving was a tempting image, but with a large mass so close gravitational factors interfered with moving such a massive object solely through non-physical means.


    Unfortunately, that only left purely physical means to deal with this situation.


    As it had already determined through a fairly excessive amount of trial and error, simply stabbing the slimes was more than enough to pop them. However, accuracy was a major issue. They didn¡¯t attempt to dodge, but with how poorly its body functioned without mechanical assistance while in actual gravity hitting the creatures was more or less reliant on sheer luck. Clearly, that meant that it was going to have to create its own mechanical advantage.


    Grasping the stone spear with its tail, the ¡®invader¡¯ spins around while keeping the pole stationary on the ground. Relaxing the muscles in the limb as much as possible, it wraps itself in as many loops as it can before running out of makeshift string; six and a half rotations. With an exertion of compressive force, it flexes the entirety of its tail at once, shrinking the limb to half its maximum length.


    Physics ensue. While the source of the force is different than when the phenomenon is generally observed, the effect is the same as when any object is wrapped in a line before said line is pulled. Near instantly the creature is spun around several times, at which point it relaxes the tension on the line just enough to heave the spear up from the ground before inertia catches up to the other side of its maneuver. As the spinning itself provided enough momentum to dislodge the purples, the follow up where the spear follows the creature¡¯s arc spins out toward all three of the full sized purples, the five green, and the six balls of goop now within range of a randomly flailing chunk of rock.


    Two of the greens are immediately hit by the spear of stone, followed by the remaining three when they continue their straight line into the dervish. As the momentum dies down, one final spin sends the spear through the purples, and one of the tiny ones. That left five of the previously stuck-on balls, already starting to inflate toward full size, and two new purple balls per slain full-sized one. Finishing them off was still within the realm of possibility, technically, but alas, it was time to do something less mind-numbingly tedious.


    Meanwhile, Avery had realized she could finish the third floor and make it into a realm of pure suffering. Feeling benevolent, she color codes the switches and doors they affect. With all the water she can use to supplement her mana, simple cosmetic upgrades were not out of the question. Additionally, all the extra rooms she managed to put together gave an additional seventy-one points of mana per hour. With just a few more floors of horrible puzzles, she would be out of the red, even with the new negatives she¡¯d been saddled with.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    Once she got the invader out of the second floor, she could connect the tunnel from the secret wall behind the first floor key door down to the shaft through the third floor, then expand downward through the water-lock to make a level below the flooded area. With that, and the fact that she now had access to water creation, she would be able to make a level beyond just horrible puzzles and mazes. She could make a multi-level water puzzle maze.


    That would have the side benefit of keeping slimes out.


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Waking up from napping in the semi secluded spot the kobold had found, the Mage of Magic starts it''s night by checking it''s notes on how magic works, as a refresher about finding the loopholes in reality to slip through. Sneaking through out of the way spots was just about the biggest thing kobolds were known for, though generally in a more literal fashion. This was less about finding a neglected portion of a fence to get into a storehouse, and more about figuring out sleeping a animals couldn''t resist magical effects that a baby crow would ignore by dint of not wanting it to work. All the Mage required for an instant escape route was a spell intended to switch a wizards position with another, willing, person, and a chicken to knock out and throw. Probably a less sneaky magicer would trade places with some person with armor and a weapon when they were ambushed by kobolds or something like that, but that doesn''t help when both of them were under attack at the same time. Not that the Mage would know anything about that specific scenario, of course.


    All the best spells didn''t deal with its target in a way they can fight. Trapping the area, denying space, tricky escapes, those were the magics for a Kobold. But no, the sorcerous elders tap into flashy bursts and the like. Those were what they expect from magic, to bring the power of dragons to the forefront of the warren and inspire them to throw themselves into the blades of adventurers, as opposed to anything that could render more than themselves effective. Sure they could set a group on fire, if they were ever willing to put themselves in harm''s way, but that wasn''t ever going to happen. It would fall to the young to pick up a spear and die to the much larger everything, stopping incursion to the depths with magicers by plugging the holes with meat until they either die themselves, get bored, or are full enough from eating kobolds to wander off.


    It might not be much now, but even slathering the ground below an owlbear with grease could provide enough of an advantage for a swarm of Kobolds to wear down the creature before they were slaughtered. In fact, looking over the notes, the Mage thought there might be a commonality between the two spells it could utilize for another loophole. Both transport an item from one location to another, but the one for grease transported the material back after the magic ran out. By isolating what made that happen, the Mage might manage magic of a different sort; one where the power invested into the spell didn''t define the effect. Generally, each spell would become more effective as the caster grows more powerful and their capability with Mana increases. Similarly, the more specificity is required for the spell to function, the lower the base mana cost is. Limits on what the spell can do would force the energy to behave in a more rigorously defined fashion, as opposed to the versatile and inefficient popularly imagined spells.


    Before thinking about trying to optimize summoning, there is one spell where the Mage reverses the flow of gravity on something nearby, in which it injects the mana into the object through physical contact. It had been working on that for a while, and the biggest issue with the spell was locomotion after contact with the solid object in question came into effect, or more specifically wherein any sort of contact was impossible.


    Clearly the answer would be found through the most Noble of Kobold Traditions, that of a heist. Usually the bigger people had something to solve any problem. This one was probably no different.


    Slight problem though. The ones that usually have unique equipment and interesting solutions would be the most deadly of the type. Adventurers. At least there was a spot in any settlement adventurers would always be found after the sun had set and a kobold was at their most alert.


    The tavern.

 Frog Prince of Chests

    Stumbling up from the not-very-deep pit within a pit that acts as the connector between the first and second floors of the dungeon, the slime slaughtering creature from below blinks at the light emitting from torches which most certainly weren¡¯t there back when it had dropped down into the dark. It was a welcome change to be sure after all the shiving it had been doing; it didn¡¯t have any way of seeing without light, and had been feeling its way around in the dark. That worked fairly well, excepting when the thing being felt was one of the dangerous varieties of slime, at which point the only information gleaned from the action was pain.


    Locked off center of the room, between the pit at a giant stone door which most certainly also was not there before the jaunt down below, was the simple wooden chest that it had tossed the interesting gemstone into. Adorning the front of the object was a dial. Three rings of stone set on a plate of copper, with a few lines on each, and a couple notches on the copper around the edges at regular intervals. From the invader¡¯s unconcerned perspective, it didn¡¯t look very complex, but it was at least not a simple riddle.


    ¡°Not to criticize your design choices, but isn¡¯t making the lock more difficult to open somewhat counterproductive when your objective is to have me open the chest and remove its contents?¡±


    ¡°What do you know! My reasoning is most subtle and complex! Also try it, I want to see if I got the mechanism to work.¡±


    Pressing weakly against each of the rings, absolutely nothing of interest happens. Deciding that reasonably the voice out of nowhere would have set some way of moving them, the creature focuses on the outermost ring, attempting to move it around through telekinesis, to the same results.


    ¡°Here¡¯s a hint, there¡¯s something on the back.¡±


    With a flip of its tail, it rotates the box around. The thing stops halfway around its arc.


    ¡°Sheesh you¡¯re weak. I¡¯m not exactly the strongest person in the city, but even I¡¯m able to turn a box around.¡±Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    ¡°I think I may be detecting a slight bit of hostility there. I mean, I haven¡¯t been commenting on the fact that you managed to kill yourself by dropping a cave on your head, then jumped into a ridiculous attachment with the resulting hole in the ground for reasons you have thus far been unable to adequately explain. Speaking of which, where¡¯s my ¡®box¡¯ you promised to fix for helping out with your slime problem?¡±


    Inside the box, Avery feels a chill run through her gem. Other than making an extreme holy nightmare of a floor, she hadn¡¯t actually put any thought into what to use this newly unlimited source of power for. Since she had in fact promised to recreate the object, and she had access to the mana, it was probably about time to see if she could bring the arrangement to an equitable conclusion. Repairs for repairs, and a box for a body. Out of the dungeon before she was even out of the tutorial. That¡¯d be a new record, for sure, if records were a thing. On the other hand, it would need to be on a lower floor, since she couldn¡¯t modify the one the invader was going to be standing, even if every other creature posed no issues.


    Underneath the chest, gem, and invader, Avery fills the second floor with torches. Pools of water, no longer an unstoppable tide threatening to demolish everything in its path, flow languidly into the necromancers deconstruction trap to be converted directly into wood and metal. Fairly quickly, an old design is unveiled on the second floor, directly under the pit trap¡¯s opening and as far from the water as it could possibly have been created. It wasn¡¯t that the very concept of water was going to somehow be anathema to tools functioning correctly, but rather that more often than not water, when associated with tools, was then further associated with the word ¡®damage¡¯. More pressing than the potential damage and the not insignificant amount of mana expended on recreating the mithril was the fact that the insects spawned in the correct location within the box would each take a point of mana regeneration


    Clearly this was not great.


    On the one hand, the invader suffered no ill effects from getting out of the dungeon, so his object would most likely not have required strenuous upkeep, but on the other the thing was now an object, and monsters, of the necromancer¡¯s dungeon. At least once Avery got her part of the bargain, the logistics would be entirely not her problem.

 Secondary Adventurer Party

    The adventurers sit at the table closest to the tavern''s entrance. In the event that there was a sudden need for egress, they would be in the best position to provide assistance to whomever was being attacked by monsters or had a broken wagon wheel or what have you. A longer wait for drinks was well worth the possibility of being on the outskirts of a tavern fight, where the odds of getting involved were significantly reduced. Granted, they had gotten in late enough drinks had stopped being served some time ago, and about every patron other than their group had already headed upstairs to sleep for what remained of the night.


    As a result, it was the three adventurers sitting in a nearly empty room, eating food left over from the supper served hours before. Accompanying them was the waitress of the tavern, presently occupied in the time honored tradition of asking how the food was whenever someone takes a bite and inquiring about the events of the day in pursuit of a higher perceived level of intimacy to transfer into an increased tip.


    ¡°So we get back with the bag, and when the guy opens it there''s nothing inside!¡±


    ¡°Oh! What happened then?¡± the waitress pushes, leaning over the table down to dwarven eye level. The ranger does his level best to keep his eyes on his food, as the cleric continues on about the day¡¯s events. As the other two were quickly coming to learn, stereotypes were as they were for a reason. Once the stout had a stout in hand, it became impossible to shut him up, particularly with an audience.


    ¡°Well, he refused to pay the bounty he¡¯d offered for the thief, lacking as we were both the kobold and the goods. The elf nearly cut my beard off at that point, but this guy here,¡± the dwarf smacks the ranger on the arm, making him lose concentration on his task for a moment before returning his gaze more statically upon the food, ¡°managed to get between myself and the lasses sword. Intercepted the sword with his torso, which was right decent of him. I can heal cut flesh, but not cut hair. That¡¯s necromancy, you know.¡±


    Being the only one of the group not distracted from the food in one way or another, the elf finishes her stew. Eying both of the bowls on the table, she determines the dwarf¡¯s is the one under less scrutiny. Sliding the empty bowl over, she swaps her food with his, and continues eating.


    ¡°She was so distraught she only tried to stab me two more times before I could use Hierarchy''s power to heal his wounds. Fortunately she was aiming for the non sensitive bits at that point, like vital organs, so no harm done. Unlike humans, a dwarf will always have good armor on, even during mundane shopping events.¡±


    Expressing interest of a somewhat less feigned variety, the waitress asks, ¡°So why aren''t you wearing it now?¡±


    ¡°I''m going to be getting to that, don''t you worry. See, once my man here was no longer leaking, he spoke with the person who offered the reward in the first place, and convinced him to give us another job, seeing as how he was still short on the chicken that had gone missing in the first place. What was that you said anyway?¡± questions the dwarf to his companion.


    The ranger leans in to the dwarfs personal space, and says quietly, ¡°I noted to him that the elf stabbing us for complicity in lack of payment, and that it might serve his health to keep her from realizing he was the primary factor in not having more money than when she got into line.¡±


    The dwarf nods sagely. ¡°That would do it. Anyhow, our new team had a task, and it was as trivial as it was profitable. We were to head down to the agricultural section and speak with the man in charge about getting some meat.¡±


    ¡°Mr. Swiftrip? He usually does his work in the morning and disappears until evening,¡± the barmaid interjects.


    ¡°We found that out after we got down to the fields, when we asked the farmhands about him. They wouldn''t give us anything without either payment up front or authorization from their head farmer, neither of which we had. We were just there to set up a delivery, not make it ourselves, you see. The human tried to use the advance he negotiated this time to set one of them to send some of the chickens, but a whole gold coin would only pay for five birds, or four with delivery. His face looked like an elfs after that, all dull and unsmiling, and we then found out that the guy would go into the forest during the day. So we charged in blindly, as is the dwarven way.¡±


    ¡°The way I remember it, you were the one who charged in blindly, and I had to catch up after getting a description what he was wearing and the general area to look,¡± submits the human, done with his food and needing a new distraction.


    ¡°Aye, but you did catch up and the elf was with me, so as a group we charged in blindly.¡±


    With that said, the dwarf leans back in his seat with a smug look on his face, clearly feeling superior thanks to his deft win of the dispute. The human sighs, leans back as well, and gestures for a continuation of the tale.


    ¡°Now where was I?¡±


    ¡°Entering the forest,¡± reminds the waitress helpfully.


    ¡°Right. After charging forward valiantly for almost a minute, our erstwhile party member caught up and started leading the way. Even with the lead we had, he was able to both catch up and start tracking down our target.¡±


    ¡°Not that hard,¡± contributes the ranger, ¡°stubby legs lead to a slow pace, and I had plenty of time to look around for tracks. He was hunting himself, so I could just follow those tracks.¡±


    ¡°As it happened, that didn¡¯t work.¡±


    ¡°There was no way to know that a bear crossed the original path.¡±


    ¡°The tracks should be different!¡±


    "I¡¯m telling you, they weren¡¯t!¡±


    ¡°There was a bear?¡± interjects the waitress, once again redirecting the adventurer focus from pointless internal conflict back to attempting to gain social standing.


    ¡°Oh yes.


    We got to the start of the trail, and start hearing footsteps. So, we charged forward, as that is the only thing to do.¡±


    ¡°Again, it was you two who charged forward. I heard a bear.¡±


    ¡°Regardless of how cohesive the charge was, the fact of the matter is that the result was all of us running into a bear.¡±


    ¡°I understand why you saw a bear and decided to shoulder check it info a tree, but I still have no idea why she did the same. It''s not like she only had a split second to decide on a course of action, considering how far behind she was staying.¡±


    The elf looks up from her bowl. ¡°I thought that was what we were doing.¡±


    Putting his face in his hands, and also his elbows on the table, the human said in a pained tone, ¡°Even if the plan is to bodily slam a bear into a tree repeatedly, that does not mean slamming into the one in front of you to slam their body into the bear.¡±


    Looking a good deal more serious than typically, the dwarf looks the human straight in the eye to say, ¡°Boy, that''s dwarven army tactics. The heavy armor gets pushed forward by everyone behind them. That''s how you take down giants. They hit hard, but only have so many arms. You have to get inside their reach, keep them off balance, and never stop pushing onward.¡±


    He takes a drink, and is all smiles and cheer again.


    ¡°Impressive form, by the way. If you were a bit lower to the ground, you might have the density for a line pusher in the mountains,¡± the dwarf directs toward the elf.


    She looks down at her bowl momentarily, which is entirely empty at this point.


    ¡°And if you had the armor of a Thorn, I might consider practicing the technique a little. We seem to be out of food waitress person. Please bring more.¡±


    ¡°Of course!¡± the barmaid replies bouncily. She slides away from the table back to the kitchen area, around the bar and past the closed back door. With the other party out of earshot, the human sits up in his chair, a sudden sharpness in his eyes.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    ¡°Today was a disaster, but we still have options to make the best of our situation. I don''t think I need to emphasize how we need to stick together lest we die in a corrosive mess as we''re picked off one by one, right?¡±


    ¡°Aye,¡± replies the dwarf. ¡°It takes more than one dwarf to match a dragon.¡±


    They both look expectantly toward the elf, who glares back defiantly.


    ¡°I am barely involved in this,¡± she says, ¡°and at any point have the option to just leave and spend a few years in the Elven forests for the hunt to die down.¡±


    As the human starts to protest, she raises a finger.


    ¡°However, that would be boring. I''ll help you until my interest wanes.¡±


    ¡°Good enough,¡± replies the human. ¡°We need gold, and we need it fast. Any ideas?¡±


    ¡°Shifting goods is always profitable,¡± suggests the dwarf. ¡°There''s a mine downriver we can resupply, and bring the ore up here to sell to the local industry.¡±


    ¡°Good suggestion. Any comments on the plan?¡±


    ¡°It''s slow,¡± says the elf. ¡°Taking down supplies is easy, and we could probably raft down without any issue, but the way back would be upriver and laden with tons of rock. Additionally, trade routes are usually profitable ventures because of their repeatability, not because of the massive gain from each trip. Safe, but slow.¡±


    ¡°Do you have any suggestions?¡±


    ¡°There''s a church in this town. The dwarf can do what clerics do, and charge people money for healing and other miracles. Meanwhile, there''s probably some sort of extermination mission that could be done by two people with stabbing implements, or rumors about some dungeon to loot.¡±


    ¡°Good suggestion,¡± says the human. ¡°Any comments on the plan?¡±


    ¡°Well, for one thing clerics don''t take the money directly,¡± responds the dwarf. ¡°That would be a donation to the church in exchange for healing. If I were to do that, not only would I be needing to undercut the local prices, it would be directly taking funding away from the local economy. Not only that, but I have a relatively small supply of that type of healing available, so at best it would only bring in a few hundred pieces of gold at the expense of the church''s enmity. Furthermore, in the event you are injured while fighting a horde of monsters, there would be no lifeline. As such, I simply reject the proposed course of action for myself. It would be much better to have me alongside the rest of the group.¡±


    ¡°Noted,¡± states the human. ¡°Ah, here come food.¡±


    The waitress comes out from behind the bar with three bowls of reheated stew. She kicks the back door shut as she passes it, not letting the bowls tip even slightly before she reaches the table and places one in front of each of the adventurers. A moment passes and the ranger goes back to starting at the bowls in front of him, unwilling to discuss plans with an uninvolved party listening in. Without any ado whatsoever, the cleric dives back into his story.


    ¡°So we slam into a bear, but the human doesn''t capitalize on the guy being off balance, so it gets its footing back. Without the element of surprise, it would be a hard fight to take down a bear with only three people, and when it reared up the human started working on resolving the situation peacefully.¡±


    ¡°That''s sure a change of pace,¡± the waitress notes, ¡°Wouldn''t him working to do exactly the opposite of what you were trying make you angry?¡±


    ¡°Nay lass,¡± the dwarf laughs, ¡°there is an essential part of battle I''ve needs to recognize if they want to live. If a course of action is failing, it''s best to do something else.¡±


    ¡°Anyway, I had them back away without turning away from the bear. Once they were behind me I did what I could to communicate that we didn''t mean any harm and had run into it by accident,¡± the human says, shooting a glare at the cleric. ¡°Apparently I''m an accomplished liar through body language, because it dropped down and walked off.¡±


    ¡°I count that as a successful bit of combat,¡± states the dwarf serenely. ¡°Once we got past the first encounter of the forest, the ranger had no problems tracking down our quarry. However, the guy was busy when we find him, so we decided to wait until he was finished to bother him.¡±


    ¡°Aww, Mr. Swiftrip is a sweetheart. I''m sure he would have stopped to listen to you,¡± the waitress states optimistically.


    The ranger sighs. ¡°He was in the middle of slaughtering an owlbear.¡±


    ¡°Ah ok. That would be time sensitive.¡±


    ¡°Not what I was getting at¡­¡±


    The human goes back to staring at the stew, poking at both the bowls in front of him with a spoon.


    Undeterred, the dwarf picks up the story. ¡°So we go off a bit to give him some space. That''s when the elf gets twitchy.¡±


    ¡°I do not get twitchy,¡± said elf says between shovels of stew into her mouth, ¡°that''s a physiological reaction to creatures with a high mana concentration.¡±


    ¡°Alright. So that''s when the elf starts quivering in terror-¡±


    ¡°Also wrong! I don''t get scared. At most when the shaking starts up I have a reasonable apprehension toward whatever is causing the effect.¡±


    ¡°Alright. So that''s when the elf starts quivering in reasonable apprehension. We checked around ourselves, but the first sign of anything happening was when a tree exploded, crushed under nothing''s weight.¡±


    ¡°What was it?¡± asks the waitress breathlessly.


    ¡°We don''t find out for a bit, but it turned out to be a black dragon under the effects of an invisibility spell. Judging from how immature and unintelligent it was relative to its size, it was a dungeon born. That''s also how I lost my armor, but it was a worthwhile trade for our lives.¡±


    Blinking in surprise, the waitress asks, ¡°Are you saying there is a dungeon nearby that grows dragons?¡±


    A serious look on his face, the dwarf simply states, ¡°Aye.¡±


    From his bowls, the human says quietly, ¡°I don''t think we need to impress on you how much might be at stake here.¡±


    There''s a rattling noise near the kitchen, but no one pays it any mind. If the inn burnt down, it burnt down. This was gold they were talking about.


    ¡°Every dragon in a dungeon would have a hoard a real dragon of that size would have acquired, but without the actual ability of one that had to live to grow that large. If the true dragons were to learn of this, the entire region is forfeit,¡± he states gravely. ¡°Secrecy is key here, but there''s no way to shut up a drinking dwarf.¡±


    ¡°Nay,¡± states said dwarf confidently, ¡°dwarven bartenders discovered the secret years ago. You just need a hammer enchanted to only knock out.¡±


    With a quick mental note to check the market for something matching that description, the human continues, ¡°As we want to deal with this as quietly and quickly as possible, we need to get a pile of gold to use as bait. Taking down one dragon is all well and good, but a dungeon that is releasing them is a much bigger threat. Since you are slightly involved now, any ideas to get bait?¡±


    Slightly stunned, the waitress thinks for a moment. ¡°You could try putting in for a loan?¡±


    The human looks at the other two. ¡°Cost benefits?¡±


    ¡°Quick, easy method of getting funding. Potential for getting specialized equipment for confronting this specific type of dragon. In the event of failure, almost certain to have some second group come and take over,¡± leads the elf.


    ¡°If we go through official channels, that''s a potentially huge number of people who know about a nearby dungeon full of dragons. Taking a loan means paying it back, with interest. That interest would probably be significant, given the risk of the venture. They may even try and get a percentage of the gross. We wouldn''t be able to shop around effectively, due to how many people would be point of failure for the operation. As such, the person approached would have us over a barrel. We would also be on a time limit from the moment we take on the debt; that could lead to us taking more and more dangerous risks, directly increasing the chance of failure.¡±


    The waitress blinks. ¡°Huh.¡±


    ¡°Don''t worry about it,¡± says the human, ¡°it''s a good idea, and we can use it at the end of our preparations. Anti-dragon equipment on loan is a great idea.¡±


    With the ranger distracted from the food for the moment, the elf moves to swap the empty bowls in front of her with the full ones. As soon as her hand touches the full bowl, the human has it in his grip. His grip around her wrist was casual, just enough to state he knew exactly what she was trying. He lets go as soon as the elf starts pulling back her hand, and continues speaking without looking away from the waitress.


    ¡°An outside perspective is useful for anything you do. Odds are that I don''t think of everything, nor will the other members of this group. We all have blind spots, overestimate ourselves, and sometimes fail,¡± he says, confidence building as his spiel grows longer. ¡°What makes us succeed, what makes us adventurers, is teamwork. Working together, covering weaknesses, that¡¯s the way to stay alive. Regardless of what comes-¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s not have a power of friendship speech before we even know each other¡¯s names,¡± the elf interrupts.


    ¡°Fine,¡± states the human, gritting his teeth.


    ¡°Whammersteel Forgestepper, named so for how absolutely shite I am at hammering on an anvil and how often I almost fell into the slag as a child,¡± introduces the dwarf, ¡°Preferable for humans and elves to call me Forgest, somewhat less embarrassing.¡±


    ¡°Estra''ye''thus Ceeni''El''Aru Crya''na''thel,¡± states the elf, ¡°meaning ¡®a river of femininity blinding the eyes to the sword stabbing like ice into the liver¡¯. I earned my title in a duel.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll call you Ecky,¡± mentions the cleric offhandedly.


    ¡°Gnaw,¡± says the human.


    The three look at him expectantly.


    ¡°My parents were idiots,¡± he explains.


    ¡°And I¡¯m Susan!¡± announces the waitress.


    ¡°We know Susan, you introduced yourself when we walked in. You¡¯re a beautiful ray of sunlight and, more importantly, you¡¯ve kept my mug full,¡± Forgest replies.


    ¡°That being said,¡± Gnaw mentions, ¡°we should probably get at least some sleep before heading out in the morning.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll support the motion in exchange for your food,¡± Estra¡¯ye¡¯thus bargins.


    ¡°Fine,¡± responds Gnaw, ¡°but I also will call you Ecky.¡±


    ¡°Deal,¡± says Ecky, grabbing the bowl and devouring its contents.


    The three adventurers make their way up to their respective rooms, leaving Susan to clean the table. Clearly she had the best backstory out of all of them. No one asked though. Her work was interrupted quickly by three shouts from upstairs, all with the same basic template.


    ¡°Where did all my stuff go?!¡±

 Approaching the Plot

    ¡°I made your box, it¡¯s back down the hole,¡± Avery tell the creature. ¡°Before you go down though, solve the puzzle.¡±


    ¡°What puzzle, it¡¯s a bunch of rings with patterns on it that you have to line up somehow.¡±


    ¡°The puzzle is getting the rings to line up correctly!¡±


    ¡°Like that would be difficult in the slightest. Once you¡¯ve seen how a couple of the lines connect, you just have to move the things that aren¡¯t those, and maybe align the whole thing up with the reference points around the edges.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s an automagically generated puzzle, you can¡¯t expect miracles.¡±


    ¡°I wasn¡¯t even talking about this one specifically. The whole sub-genre of puzzle where you just move things around until they line up are the lowest form of intellectual challenge. Like jigsaw puzzles. At least they have a lot of variables to make brute-forcing a solution a bit more difficult.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re talking a lot of garbage for someone who still hasn¡¯t solved the puzzle.¡±


    ¡°Ugh, fine. Give me a minute to get out of this pit.¡±


    Lifting the stone spear up out of the hole in the center of the room, the creature uses its tail to maneuver the stick of rock up to a corner of the square depression. Facing the walls, it pushes against both sides with its arms and legs while pulling on the spear with its tail. That doesn¡¯t work well but it does work for getting it out of the hole.


    ¡°That¡¯s a three meter deep pit,¡± Avery mentions, ¡°how are you not able to just jump up and pull yourself out?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m short, alright? Maybe you could put some rungs on the side, for the less physically adept to get out easier.¡±


    The necromancer started to argue, then remembered that having people leave was in fact the goal. If getting them back out of the pit easier was what it took, she¡¯d have to spend a bit of mana to make a ladder once she wasn¡¯t being blocked on this floor.


    ¡°I¡¯ll think about it. Check out the chest already!¡±


    ¡°Is that really something a female human¡¯s ghost should be saying to someone they¡¯ve barely met?¡±


    ¡°You know what, you¡¯re trying too hard to get a rise out of me. Just get on with it. Generic offense, if that¡¯s what you¡¯re after, just solve the puzzle.¡±


    Up on solid footing, the creature walks around to the back side of the chest, finding it had three small holes on it.


    ¡°So in essence, the puzzle is in finding the crank that properly turns the gears to move the ring segments.¡±


    ¡°Well I have the crank right over there.¡±


    ¡°Wow. So pointless.¡±


    Without even bothering to look for the crank, the creature moved to the front of the chest and the outer ring moves into position.


    ¡°Hey no that''s cheating!¡±


    ¡°Anyone could do this, with sufficient grip. Alternately, they could use makeshift levers on the other side as one does when picking a lock. If it''s the fact I can see what I''m doing you object to, might I introduce you to the concept of mirrors? There are quite a few ways to bypass this particular lock. Be glad I''m not the sort to just smash it open, relying on the idea that the contents are going to be more durable than the box itself.¡±


    ¡°Oh? And what would you do then if you''re so learned in the subject of cheating?¡±


    ¡°Well first off,¡± it says, working on the center piece, ¡°I would probably have some sort of spring in there that would reset the circles to their base positioning in the event that pressure ceases to be placed on the mechanism. That way someone with the levers could just leave them in, but some ''cheater¡¯ would have to manually hold all the positions at once until the whole thing locked in place. Since I only had to move the second piece slightly to line it up with part one, I would use a one way lever so it can''t just go back a sixteenth of a rotation. It''s a bit beyond me, but I''d like to say is make the rings connected, such as that when you move one the other two move in some pattern. Center ring moves one, the others move two, outer ring moves one, center moves one, inner ring moves two, and inner ring moves one, outer ring moves three. Something like that, where it isn¡¯t simple as ¡®line up the pieces¡¯. Done by the way.¡±


    The top of the chest pops open, and the contents float up into the air on their own.


    ¡°Alright fine, I¡¯ll admit that the puzzle isn¡¯t the best. Like I said, it was automagically generated, and this was basically just a test to see if it was worth anything. They¡¯re pretty cheap, so I¡¯ll still use them, just not on anything important. Can you let me down now?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not doing that. It¡¯s probably a function of your automagic chest.¡±


    ¡°Fine whatever. I¡¯ve finished with building this place up for now, and nothing we¡¯re doing has put even a slight dent in the slime population over time, so I¡¯m gonna cast the spell to put myself back in my body while you get that healer to fix me up.¡±


    ¡°I could have sworn you said that it was working earlier.¡±


    ¡°As soon as we stopped, the numbers went back up. Apparently they spawn really quickly.¡±


    Wrapping its tail around the gemstone, the creature walks back to the tunnel entrance, past a strange slotted alter with writing all across it surrounded by puzzle chess, and plops down on the floor to wait until the ritual is over.


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    The creature pokes the body on the ground, finding it to be breathing and somewhat cold. It would probably warm up somewhat in the time before the spell ended again. While it had a captive audience though¡­The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.


    ¡°I know you can hear me, and respond.¡±


    Resting in the palm of its hand, the black gemstone stays stubbornly quiet.


    ¡°Not that your response would change anything about the situation, of course. I hold your physical form, the slimes are deep below and cannot climb from the pit they are trapped within, and my proximity inhibits your creation and destruction abilities. You spoke last time of contracts. I wonder, are your feelings about the concept the same now that I hold every shred of possible power between the two of us?¡±


    Dropping its hand to its side, the tailed being turns away toward the box on the ground. Remaining exactly where it was, the gemstone continues in its silence while floating in the center of the tunnel.


    ¡°A funny thing, technology. Once it progresses beyond a certain point, the people who use it have no idea how it works. Even those who recreate it exactly may have no clue as to the purpose of any particular component. Humans create more humans, but most of them would be unable to even identify how many bones to use. Your ability though is very useful. Not even a percent of a percent of humans would be able to recreate the radio, even with a detailed blueprint. Yet here it is, having been disintegrated and reformed. I have been given to understand that with sufficient raw energy expenditure, more could be mass produced out of nothing.¡±


    Snaking its tail around the gem and drawing it back into the cavern, holding the largest facet to face the wooden box, the creature speaks toward the box.


    ¡°Mass production. In more than one sense of the word. My personal needs are few, and my desire for the type of power you promise is even lesser. On the reverse of that, an offer could be made for a more grand alliance. Where I am from, it¡¯s not material or energy, exactly, that limits us. Rather, it¡¯s attention. Once an idea is fleshed out, it is no longer interesting. Once an idea is no longer interesting, it falls to the wayside, and is not thought of again. Wonders of technology abound, but rarely the same one twice, and that one nearly impossible to maintain for any amount of time by anyone but the person who created it. Yet here I find a rock with the ultimate tools of creation, and nothing to make with it. What an interesting coincidence, is it not?¡±


    With this musing echoing through the darkness, a response is finally beckoned from the black stone.


    ¡°And so you seek to bind me to your service. A tame dungeon core to feed scraps and pull wondrous treasures from with no risk. Words cannot express the disdain your plans cause to roil up within my core. Rather than slavery, I would choose death.¡±


    ¡°You mistake me. Now you know what I want, which is the basis for actual negotiations. For a true contract, we must each offer something the other wants. What then, is your true desire?¡±


    The gem stays silent for a moment. Comfortable with the silence, the creature stands still and silent with it. For about thirty seconds. Then it gets bored and starts messing with the box.


    ¡°To grow. Essentially, that is my true desire. For that, I need to dig deep, build defenses, and destroy everything that tries to kill me. Thus, contracts for guardianship in exchange for making monsters more powerful, with a lair underground.¡±


    ¡°Depth, and defense. Easy enough. What was that about tame dungeons though, that¡¯s basically what the contract is, isn¡¯t it?¡±


    ¡°Of course not. Dungeons grow through mana, mana generated by controlling territory. With that mana, they support their monsters, dig deeper, and generate lures for prey to slaughter.¡±


    "You lost me with that last bit,¡± the creature says, fiddling with one of the knobs. Despite a phenomenal amount of tinkering, absolutely nothing was happening.


    ¡°With every monster and defense, more mana is required to keep everything functional. Killing sentient creatures releases the life force, which the dungeon core can utilize all at once for project completion. An influx of mana is always welcome, when it can be safely obtained. Not to lose the point, a tame dungeon is one where the dungeon core is forced to use their mana production that isn¡¯t tied to the functionality of the dungeon itself to produce the lures that would appease the creature that has taken command of the core. Gold, magical items, raw meat, anything a dungeon would use as bait, generated endlessly with no benefit to the dungeon. No growth, only stagnant survival. It¡¯s a pitiable fate, one I would never submit myself to.¡±


    ¡°About those mass produced items then¡­¡±


    ¡°Bait can come in many forms. If a dungeon is deep enough, and the sacrifices are plentiful enough, some small amount of bait can conceivably be retrieved by prey. Enter into death, and your sacrifices may be rewarded.¡±


    ¡°Depth, defense, and sending in expendables to get loot. Got it,¡± states the creature, levitating a rock over to its hand. Rather than turning dials, its new method of interaction was through repeated physical contact between stone and wood.


    ¡°Neither the weak nor the strong are optimal for a dungeon, but those who are perfectly balanced by the strength of the challenge. Every effort expended to delve deeper, every resource lost, is another tithe to the power of the core, and the path downward can be built to match the forces that are brought to bear against the gauntlet. Through this the weak either grow strong or are crushed, and the strong sacrifice more energy into the waiting maw for the promise of grand rewards.¡±


    ¡°So we¡¯re clear, you can tell what effect I have on your energy reserves through my effort, correct? All of my kind would have that. Probably best to not have us try and go down deep for stuff.¡±


    ¡°How in the name of me is it possible that you drain mana from a dungeon core without being intrinsically attached to it? Your existence is a crime against the nature of reality itself.¡±


    ¡°I know. Do you still want us to go down to get the bait, even though you know that you won¡¯t get anything out of it, even though it¡¯s a fact that your challenges drain you with nothing in return, that it¡¯s counter to your core desire to grow?¡±


    ¡°Urgh. No. But I need something to whet myself against. A sword is dull without something to cut. A spear is pointless if it doesn¡¯t impale someone. Without a head to sever, an axe has no purpose. Burning down a village with monsters is perfectly fine, until there¡¯s no one left to kill. Emptiness left behind when there are no more left to kill is a torture. Bloodlust wells up, an unyielding itch deep in my facets. Nothing to kill. Nothing to use to scratch the itch. A maddening circle, to face the halls, the terrains, the battlefields that once ran red with the lifebloods of countless combatants, standing empty without a challenger. A waste of mana to summon monster without a target, but a waste of other sorts to have it stand empty, silent. Depths of myself, stuck in time, no reason to improve, no impetus to dig deeper, no point to using the mana for anything but endlessly sharpening the knives at the center of my power.¡±


    ¡°Wow ok. You¡¯d fit in back home actually,¡± replies the creature, sitting on the stone floor of the tunnel, rock dropped carelessly beside it. A light had begun glowing on the front of the wooden face at some point, illuminating the maw of sharp teeth with an eerie glow. ¡°Depth, defense, but not too good, because you need decently strong challengers to bait. But do you really need to fight them? Kill them all so rapidly?¡±


    ¡°Sure I do. I like to fight... I love to fight. I love war. I love battle. I love sieges. I love raids. I love charges into battle. The clashing of blade against bone. Armor pierced by arrows. The spilling of blood. The thud of a newly slain body finding its place to cool upon the sand. I love all these things. I love the terrified look of a man as my guardian raises my sword and brings it down upon them. I love the choking gurgling sound from a freshly slit throat. The dull squishy crack of a broken neck. The satisfying spray from between shoulders which but moments before held up a head. The playful thump of that same head bouncing and rolling across a field. The annoying coughing gasp of a foe with the wind knocked out of their lungs being interrupted by a cry of death when their own companion drives my cursed weapon through their heart. These things I love. I¡¯ve built dozens of variations of the theme, and they have all had a subtle charm to them that keeps the repetitive¡­ Wonderful. I love to fight in blood-soaked fields of battle atop a mountain of dying men. I love to fight in drafty old castles that echo the agonized shrieks. I love to fight in dense forests, carving limbs off trees, men, and goblins alike. I love to fight on the cool desert sands. In frozen wastelands. In ancient canyons. In the mountains. Over the sea. I love to fight. And war, and the gods, love to watch me.¡±


    ¡°All that¡¯s cool and all, but what gods.¡±

 Exposition Only

    ¡°There are two types of magic, and they¡¯re the same thing,¡± expounds the dungeon core. ¡°Arcane magic is simply any type of magical energy produced from within the body. There are edge cases, but typically when the source is a limitless well somewhere beneath mortal skin, the magic is defined as arcane. Alternatively, there¡¯s divine magic. When the source of power is external, the magic is defined as divine. Usually the cause is either ambient energy or some sort of god, which is defined by being a creature that outputs enough mana that the creatures around it can harness that energy for their own ends. Clerics and paladins of all sorts draw their strength from a god, whereas other users of divinity like rangers and druids draw on the ambient power generated by the diffusion of nature.¡±


    ¡°Okay, good definition of terms,¡± the creature allows, ¡°but that doesn¡¯t come close to making this place seem less like it¡¯s being watched by unknowably powerful entities that could come down to obliterate us all with a thought, should they decide that this particularly piece of entertainment is no longer worth the cost of allowing it to exist.¡±


    ¡°As though this pit could be of any interest to such beings. I haven¡¯t even been able to feel a connection to my sponsor, though I suspect it has something to do with your foul magics. You drain the mana from the air like a slime with garbage. Your very existence is a blight on reality, and if this were a just world you would be purged by paladins of every god.¡±


    ¡°Flatterer. Tell me more about these heresies I¡¯m doing constantly.¡±


    ¡°Among the mortal races, the weakest creatures use the least mana. To live, they eat, they drink, and they convert the matter to energy. As they grow more powerful, they need more resources, which are acquired by devouring more and more, until you have the colossal dinosaur. However, that is for base species. When a humanoid is fully developed, they can grow more powerful without needing more resources; they learn to use weapons or magic, train their bodies, and eat the same amount as a human that works in a city. They use their energies more efficiently, generating more mana with the same resources. Arcane casters are the least useful of these, as they then take that mana welling up within them and use it themselves, but that leaves them weaker than the fighters and divine casters who keep that energy within themselves. While they are within a dungeon, their mana production does not stop; it in fact overflows into the world around them. That happens constantly, and is detectable through a few spells. They call it ¡®aura¡¯, and I can drain it to fuel my own growth. You are the opposite, a hole of nothingness that adds nothing to the world, but instead makes it worse with every breath.¡±


    ¡°I can stop breathing, if you want. It¡¯s not like I really need to,¡± the creature says, before inhaling. ¡°Other than so I can talk, that is.¡±


    ¡°That was an idiom, not a literal statement. Breath is to represent an amount of time, not what you are physically doing.¡±


    ¡°Sarcastic remarks don¡¯t work, noted,¡± it says under its breath, before nodding. ¡°Of course, sorry about the misunderstanding. Anything I can do to assist you in preparation for our ongoing arrangement?¡±


    ¡°Exiting soon would be the first on my list. I have been experiencing blackouts, in addition to the mediocrity of my dungeon and monsters. The hypothetical is it being a result of core damage, which is impossible to fix.¡±Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    ¡°Ah, so you suspect that my being here, holding your orb, is detrimental to your mental state.¡±


    ¡°Not exactly. Decreasing the mana degeneration rate is more like increasing my fine control on how to burn away the broken segments of my core; generating a mass of slimes was enough to dissolve a good portion of shattered gem, and their upkeep requirement is low enough to watch the mana drain in the singularity, rather than a constant spinning down of power.¡±


    ¡°In that case, why did you burrow downward while I was chasing you?¡±


    ¡°Because you were chasing me.¡±


    ¡°Reasonable. Dropping into a cavern full of water would likely have deterred a large number of sapients from attempting retrieval of what looks to be a fairly normal gemstone.¡±


    ¡°You imply that would not be the case for yourself, despite my reduced form.¡±


    ¡°What can I say, I function better physically when less restrained by gravity.¡±


    ¡°The cavern is open then? I hadn¡¯t thought I breached the fourth level before you restrained me.¡±


    ¡°As it turns out, you did it while blacked out. I suspect you may be intrigued by the changes that occurred while you weren¡¯t conscious of them.¡±


    ¡°What are you talking about? I don¡¯t¡­ Puzzles? Why? How?¡±


    ¡°Tell you what, I¡¯ll go down to the second floor, grab something I left there, and get out while you look around.¡±


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Dragging the human¡¯s body behind it with its tail, the creature fiddles with the dials on its box as it walks slowly toward the cave opening. Double doors stand before it, simple features carved of stone, with no handles. As it approaches them, they swing inward automatically to allow egress, without even needing a pull of telekinesis.


    ¡°Neat.¡±


    Checking behind it to see if there were any nasty surprises waiting to ambush it, the creatures notices a trail of red behind it, stemming from the body it was dragging.


    ¡°Eh, that¡¯s still fixable,¡± it mutters, readjusting its grip on the foot and continuing to pull the body face down over bumpy rocks.


    As soon as it passes the doorframe, or where one would be, should it exist on a cliff face, the double doors swing shut, slotting into place and leaving only a hairline gap to indicate that there was anything there to begin with. The creature drags the body over to a raised square of rock and lets the weight lie upon the obvious switch, which depresses to the point of flushness to the ground. Another sits on the opposite side of the door, and the creature ignores that one to instead descend to the ravine down below.


    ¡°Come in base, this is recon team eff,¡± it states into the box. ¡°We have found intelligent life near the landing site. However, forty-five unit assistance is required for public relations purposes.¡±


    ¡°Recon team eff? Your channel is listed as decommissioned, with the note on the file of ¡®useless¡¯.¡±


    ¡°That was likely due to the complete annihilation of the radio, and subsequent restructuring. Grimfang was the one who answered last time, incidentally.¡±


    ¡°Condolences. That explains the note at least. You are at the end of the chronological timeline now, by the way, and all the humans have divvied up the reconnaissance results, taking into account that your mission was a complete failure.¡±


    ¡°Wonderful. Does that mean I can just pack up and head off to whatever we were assigned?¡±


    ¡°There are a couple assumptions there.¡±


    ¡°Great. Yeah, this place is probably habitable for our purposes, though I¡¯d recommend a fifty-three come in along with the forty-five for stability generation.¡±


    ¡°Expect a drop shortly.¡±

 Slight Error

    ¡°Huh, wasn¡¯t there a river here earlier?¡±


    The creature stands in a flat plane, a deep groove worn through the center but otherwise featureless. Off to the east, the sun peaks over the horizon, illuminating the entirety of the canyon. Night was over, which meant the routines of the day were about to start.


    Woken by the sunlight, slimes start piling up under the cliff edge. Years of natural selection have ingrained the behavior of ¡®those that exist under the cliff when the sun rises get food¡¯ into the single cell creatures, and a newfound mobility wasn¡¯t going to change that basic action. Left completely alone in the center, the creature waits for something to happen.


    Space splits near it, a vertical crack sliding downward and upward from a central point, about a quarter of a meter above the base of the riverbed. Slowly, the rift extends upward and downward, thickening as it does, until it reaches the ground. Just as slowly, it shrinks back into itself, until there was nothing to indicate anything had happened at all. The creature steps to the side of the crack, so much as one could designate a line having ¡®sides¡¯.


    With far more suddenness, the whole of the rift rips itself apart. At the thickest part, it is about four centimeters thick, and the entirety of it is filled with metal. That silver object jumps out of the crack, like a seal on a gap that was only loosely affixed before the valve allowing for flow is twisted to reveal how the folly of man has lead only to ramshackle repairs and sudden dismay at the hole which is now larger than it was in the first place.


    A rectangular sheet of metal goes sliding down the lack-of-river bed, until it catches on a rock and starts rolling instead. With a clanging, it bounces down toward the center of the ravine, slowing down with each collision with the ground. After twelve bounces, an edge strikes a rock at a sharp enough angle to flip the panel, and flip it does. Flying up into the air, it jumps three times its height before clattering down on its side, vibrating in circles.


    The creature left next to the crack blinks as the gaping wound in the air slowly begins filling itself in again. That was interesting.


    ¡°Anyone in there?¡± it yells, the void of nothingness absorbing the sound. Nothing most definitely does not respond.


    Giving the rent space one last look, the creature walks over to where the panel had spun off to.


    ¡°I expected something bigger, to be honest,¡± it says toward the inanimate metal. Knocking comes from within the three centimeter thick lump, audible now that the object had stopped rattling against the ground.


    ¡°That¡¯s probably not good.¡±


    Gripping the corner of the plate with its tail, the creature starts walking back toward the rift, though its momentum stops as soon as it runs out of tail length. It keeps walking for a few seconds, pebbles shifting uselessly beneath its feet, without a single millimeter of progress. Instead, it slips forward and ends up face down on the ground.


    ¡°Right, even without accounting for additional mass, that much metal is probably about¡­ three hundred fifty kilograms in this gravity. Gonna have to get that fixed. Where¡¯s a fifty-four when you need one?¡±


    At the top of the canyon, carts started to show up. As refuse slops down into the ravine, and the various slimes begin devouring the dissolvable and inedible material, the creature waves all three of its limbs around to attract attention. It doesn¡¯t bother with yelling, as there was no real way someone could hear it from down where it was standing, but movement tended to draw the human eye. Once someone got it into their head to look toward it, they would most likely notice that there was a distinct lack of water and send someone to investigate, at which point the creature could co-opt them into helping it move a heavy object.


    Moving is the worst.


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Stabby McStabberton, Smashy McSmasherton, and Shooty McShooterton weren¡¯t named that way. They just filled out their adventuring team paperwork with those names, and kept repeating the same joke to anyone who would listen. Having run out of leads for easy money making opportunities, they were going back to their roots to clear out slimes and harvest semi-functional magical equipment.


    At one point, they had collected a lens of truth, presumably at one point coming from a pair of spectacles. It was very useful, but to the detriment of the group itself, having the ability to craft trickery out of phrases that would still be allowable within a zone of truth didn¡¯t make the story any more believable when the props weren¡¯t good enough. If they had managed to game it so the would get a full kobold bounty for every lizard they had slain, they would have been set for years.


    Since that didn¡¯t work, or at least it didn¡¯t work with a generic shopkeeper, which they used as a test run before trying on something actually important, there they were down in the pits. It was best to head out at the same time as the trash wagons. Most of the time, adventurers would want to sleep in and relax for the morning, eat breakfast and whatnot. If they got to the loot pile early, they would have first pick of the halfway decent supplies. Considering how kitted out they were for how much effort they put into it, the strategy was apparently working.


    ¡°Hold on,¡± went Shooty, holding an arm out to stop the other two before they could pass him. ¡°There¡¯s someone down there already.¡±If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    ¡°Are they a threat?¡± asks Smashy, putting his hand on the handle of his warhammer.


    ¡°Can¡¯t tell. Pass me the circlet of extremely specific knowledge.¡±


    Stabby obliges. As the sneak-thief archetype of the group, and nominally the leader due to fast talk, he was in charge of handling and distribution of all materials. None of them used magic, but magic items? Those were easy. They either worked or they didn¡¯t, and if they didn¡¯t it was probably easy enough to pass them on to someone who thought they could get it working. In a wizard town like this one, there were plenty of marks with funding and way too much free time.


    ¡°They¡¯re waving at us from the¡­ Where the hell did the river go?¡±


    ¡°What are you talking about it¡¯s in the middle of the¡­ Who the shit stole all the water?¡±


    Stabby interferes before the other two could get too heated. ¡°Doesn¡¯t matter right now. We aren¡¯t getting paid to fix a problem no one knows about, and we¡¯re going down there anyway. Shooty, information. What¡¯s up with the guy.¡±


    ¡°Short, has a tail, four limbs, bipedal. Little help activating this thing?¡±


    ¡°Sure,¡± Stabby says, poking at the tiara a few times to rapidly reset the connection. This was one of the less obvious magic bits. As far as Stabby could tell, it needed to think that the user already knew what they were looking at, at which point it would supply detailed information about that thing. When that wasn¡¯t the case, he was in the position of needing to make the circlet think that it itself didn¡¯t know what the wearer knew, and trigger a search of the item¡¯s database for something that matched the physical description of whatever the wearer was thinking of. If that happened to be something that it actually did know about, which was probably the case, it would function as intended. Functionally, they were substituting having actual knowledge for good eyesight.


    ¡°Looks like it¡¯s coming up as a hengeyokai. Apparently they have historical record of having existed, but aren¡¯t in this entire continental region. Originally they were just classified as normal monsters, like werewolves and kobolds, but as of 318 they have been classified as humanoid shapeshifters instead of monsters, and fall under applicable laws.¡±


    ¡°So he¡¯s a person,¡± Smashy infers. ¡°Any way he stole the river?¡±


    ¡°Checking,¡± replies Shooty, ¡°generally tilted toward the rebellion axis, with even odds toward light or dark, can¡¯t wear heavy armor because it doesn¡¯t work with their ability to transform into an animal or human, and affinity for nature themed magic. Yeah, could be a water wizard holding the river hostage.¡±


    ¡°Slime hunting¡¯s on hold boys,¡± intones Stabby, ¡°we gotta make sure we don¡¯t get magic backstabbed first.¡±


    Caution not being a part of their general strategy, the group of adventurers rush down the remaining path to investigate the mystery of ¡®why would anyone be here before dawn¡¯.


    ¡°Hey you,¡± yells Smashy, ¡°what¡¯d you do with all the water?¡±


    ¡°Nothing! Want to lift something heavy?¡± responds the figure.


    ¡°Hell yes,¡± Smashy says, stepping forward immediately. Stabby grabs him by the back of the shirt, keeping him from blindly walking into the theoretical path of the river. Illusion magic was a thing, and saying that they didn¡¯t do anything with the water just for someone to walk into an illusion of no water was exactly the kind of bullshittery that wizards always pulled.


    ¡°No. Bad Smashy. We have to find out what¡¯s up with a person before going to the blind trust portion of the relationship.¡±


    ¡°Oh right.¡±


    ¡°Shooty, put on the monocle of lies, would you?¡±


    ¡°On it.¡±


    Shooty takes the piece of glass and places it over his eye. The thing probably wasn¡¯t originally a monocle, but now that they¡¯d wrapped it in wire and put a chain on it the truth of the matter was clear. It was a lens of magic which made you look dapper while you could see when someone lied.


    ¡°Are you trying to set us up for a fall?¡± asks Stabby bluntly. Just because he was the most charismatic out of this group didn¡¯t mean he was some paragon of fast talkery. This was more along the lines of comparing various amounts of copper when there was gold on the table. Nevertheless, with enough magical assistance base competence was barely even relevant.


    ¡°Whaat, of course not. I just need this rectangle flipped over,¡± the hengeyokai said. ¡°It¡¯s a solid chunk of metal, and there¡¯s no way I¡¯m strong enough to do it on my own.¡±


    Looking toward Shooty, Stabby is reassured that there were no lies in that. Nonverbal communication being an essential part of any kind of reconnaissance work, they had long since come up with a number of symbols for various situations. For example, shaking the head left and right meant ¡®no¡¯.


    ¡°Alright, what¡¯s in it for us though? That¡¯s some heavy work you¡¯re offering here.¡±


    ¡°I have two things on offer, a block of metal and information.¡±


    ¡°Both of those then.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m assuming you like money. There¡¯s a door up that path on the other side of the ravine that leads to a hole that wasn¡¯t there two days ago. More information can come after some work.¡±


    Stabby grabs the other two, and turns them around into an inward facing circle. He bends his head down low, and pulls the other heads down to his level.


    ¡°Smashy, think you can handle that?¡±


    ¡°Probably. I¡¯m hella stronk.¡±


    ¡°Shooty, got a read on him?¡±


    ¡°He hasn¡¯t lied once. Or the monocle¡¯s not working. One of the two.¡±


    ¡°Great. I¡¯ll get him to lie.¡±


    Turning back, he asks the creature, ¡°Is it true or false when I say ¡®This sentence is false¡¯?¡±


    ¡°No.¡±


    Shooty shakes his head.


    ¡°Damn. Ok, is the answer to this question ''no''?"


    ¡°Nah.¡±


    ¡°Damn it! Ok, how many hairs does a head need before they¡¯re no longer bald?¡±


    ¡°Any individual head exists in a quantum superposition of bald and not bald until the waveform is collapsed by an outside observer, resulting in that particular observer finding the participant to be bald or not bald.¡±


    ¡°Just tell me a lie so we can get a baseline.¡±


    ¡°Why didn¡¯t you just say that¡¯s what you needed? You¡¯re very good at this.¡±


    At that Shooty nods his head at Stabby.


    ¡°Fine, Smashy, flip the sheet of metal.¡±

 Confluence of Factorization

    It takes about six seconds for Smashy to grab the short end of the rectangle and lift the thing. Well, try at least. Despite being shorter than a dwarf and thin as an elf, and mere finger thick, the metal was significantly heavier than it appeared.


    ¡°Give me a hand,¡± he grunts to the other two fighters. All of them were fit guys, and while Smashy was the strongest of them, they all had a decent lift. As each grips a section of the squat panel, they bend down to lift with proper form. The hengeyokai raises his palm toward the metal, and the amount it lightens is nearly imperceptible. Shooty and Stabby give each other a knowing look. Definitely a wizard.


    ¡°On three,¡± says Smashy, not having let up on the panel in the slightest. ¡°One, two, three!¡±


    Managing to get the metal plate up to the forty-five degree mark or so, the three stall out when they run out of leverage. Darting in under them, the hengeyokai slips into the gap between the metal and the ground and pushes his entire body against the panel. The extra fifty kilograms of force or so is enough for the adventurers to change their grip and put their efforts into pushing the metal over.


    Rocks slide out of the way, but the weight of the rectangle is enough to keep it planted on the riverbed. The whole thing flips over, revealing a hatch sunk into the panel. A turn-crank to open up locks holding the mechanism closed is set into the doorway, an empty space deeper than the metal itself separating it from the hatch proper to allow for hands to grip it.


    ¡°If I could trouble you one more time, could you turn that valve for me?¡±


    ¡°You got it,¡± says Smashy instantly, grabbing the wheel.


    Stabby puts a hand on his shoulder, looks at the monkey-looking thing, and intervenes, ¡°First give us some more information about the cave. Then he can turn it.¡±


    ¡°Fine,¡± gripes the hengeyokai, ¡°it¡¯s got at least three floors, there¡¯s slimes in it, and there¡¯s a wizard girl up there already.¡±


    Shooty shakes his head at Stabby, who lets go of Smashy, who immediately starts straining against the valve handle.


    ¡°What was this thing closed by, a giant?¡± he complains, changing his grip to hold onto one of the spokes of the handle. He places his foot in the indentation of the panel, his foot going down into where there should be rock, and presses against the metal with all his strength.


    Nothing happens.


    ¡°Close enough,¡± the tailed guy says, ¡°maybe if someone was on the other end the thing would turn. Rotational force and all that.¡±


    Stabby gestures for Shooty to try it. Using a bow took a lot of upper body strength, or at least that¡¯s what Stabby told himself. Clearly there was no other reason that Shooty was stronger than him. Just because he was more focused on hitting the right place instead of hitting far away, and spent more of his time playing the knife-hand drinking game than shooting targets. Nothing to do with diet and exercise.


    ¡°Oh wait, there¡¯s a latch. Let me just flip that.¡±


    With a sudden lurch, the wheel turns and both the men pushing against it fall over. The entire team spends the seconds to stand up and scowl at the hengeyokai before Smashy just turns the handle enough that something underneath them clanks.


    The edges of the rectangle hiss, air drawing into an empty space. Slimes ignore everything about this, as wagons continue to come up to the cliff face and drop their contents onto the garbage disposal below, completely ignorant of any change in the environment whatsoever.


    Stepping off the door, which is clearly was at this point, Shooty finally asks the obvious question.


    ¡°What is this?¡±


    ¡°Oh, this is just a transport box. It¡¯s what¡¯s inside that matters. Like people.¡±


    Smashy steps off the box as well, then looks at it as though for the first time. Considering that he had been in the throes of lift-madness previously, it may as well have been. He hadn¡¯t been paying attention to what he was lifting, or what he was pressing. What mattered was that it was heavy, and he was straining his muscles to move it. That was what he spent his time doing, pushing his raw strength to the limit, being able to wield a hammer like a chef wields a knife. Now though, he could see this thing¡¯s true nature.


    ¡°That¡¯s solid mithril. It¡¯s supposed to be light though, why is it so heavy?¡±


    ¡°Like I said, it¡¯s what¡¯s inside that matters.¡±


    On its own, the door flips upward. The fist width chunk of mithril rotates toward the sky, revealing a horrific mishmash of limbs in a depth far deeper than basic geometry would indicate. No blood, no smell, just limbs around a tailed torso facing downward into the base of the box.


    The coffin.


    For several seconds, they just stare. Stabby acts first, pulling out a serrated knife and slicing into the clearly evil hengeyokai. It¡¯s a glancing blow though, and doesn¡¯t even provoke a reaction. Shooty and Smashy act simultaneously a second later, drawing their weapons and stepping into action. Shooty goes perpendicular from the river, getting Stabby and Smashy out of the line of fire, and launches an arrow into the creature. Similarly to the first strike, this is a glancing blow; the arrow barely scratches against the side of the hengeyokai¡¯s head, ripping a line of flesh away from the mouth.


    Smashy reaches the creature shortly after the arrow. Following its trajectory, he swings his hammer two-handed toward the exposed maw, serrated teeth grinning at his approach. Right into the jaw, and the follow through sees several teeth joining the hammer in passing away from the creature¡¯s head.


    ¡°Tha¡¯ was a mishtake,¡± he says, spitting several dislodged chunks into the smooth stones of the riverbed. Without taking his eyes off the two of them in melee range, the creature slides his tail along the rocks and flings them up toward Smashy¡¯s face. Reflexively, he moves his hammer in front of his eyes to block the projectiles, and misses the fact that the hengeyokai is charging right through him. Stabby swears, and stabs toward the fleeing creature, scoring a gash on his side, but fails to slow the hengeyokai in the slightest.


    Before any of them can actually react, the creature has a sizable lead on them up the path toward the cave it had just told them about.


    ¡°After him!¡± Stabby yells, following his own advice. Smashy is a hair slower, and Shooty fires a few more pot-shots at the fleeing creature before breaking out into a full run, but the chase is on, plus two arrows through the torso on the fleeing side.


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    About twenty seconds after everyone has left, the torso stuffed into the bottom left corner of the container gasps for breath. A moment later, an invisible pressure erupts from the center of the mithril. This, the slimes notice. Burrowed deep in the wall across from the dungeon, the red slime shudders, and the colony shudders with it. Cautious offshoots break away from the feeding frenzy in the dump to investigate this source of raw energy.The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    A green slime mindlessly enters the area affected by the pressure, while purple slimes loiter around the edge. Nothing happens for long seconds, but then the body within the box, the one the adventurers didn¡¯t realize was in one piece, gasps for air as well. The green slime quivers, nothing happening to its sense other than a feeling that it had been eating. Outside the radius, the purples quiver with anticipation, ready to bombard the green one should it prove a threat to the colony.


    ¡°Augh damn it that hurt. I¡¯m pretty sure that fifty-four broke my pelvis shoving me in here, and probably my spine when it closed the lid.¡±


    ¡°At least you¡¯re still in one piece, you fragile baby.¡±


    ¡°Yes, I have different design specs than all of you. Don¡¯t forget that my group is essential.¡±


    ¡°Yeah and without my group you¡¯re useless.¡±


    ¡°Just fix my bones so I can get out of this deathtrap.¡±


    Unable to process sound, or much of anything at all, the green slime quivers again. It starts to feel full, something it had never even thought existed up to this point. Granted, it hadn¡¯t thought anything up to this point. Typically a green slime would split when it was full, but it simply didn¡¯t have the raw material necessary for that. It¡¯s biology wouldn¡¯t allow for a split, so it had no choice but to remain as it was.


    Sitting up above the lid of the box, another creature looks around. It sees blank stone, a ball of fire, and a couple splashes of color dotting the pile of garbage in the distance. Not much to look at, for sure.


    ¡°Well this place is a dump. I¡¯m not in danger of dying anymore, you can turn the heal juice off.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not doing that until my limbs are in an approximation of the right place. I¡¯m used to these ones, I don¡¯t want to have to acclimate to a whole new nervous system.¡±


    ¡°Fiiine, give me a second to stretch my legs and I¡¯ll do your jigsaw puzzle.¡±


    Stepping out of the box, or more accurately falling over onto the ground outside the box, the creature looks around at the bigger picture. Under the ball of fire, there were trees. On the opposite side from the ball of fire, also trees. Away from the trash piles, there was a thirty-one running away from some armed humans. Seemed pretty typical.


    ¡°You better appreciate this, no way could a fifty-four or fifty-one muster the physical deftness to put these disparate chunks of flesh back together.¡±


    ¡°Oh no, the horror of having to rely upon a fellow forty-five.¡±


    ¡°Well there aren¡¯t any other forty-fives around here, now are there?¡±


    ¡°Of course not, you haven¡¯t done your job yet.¡±


    With that the creature ran out of retorts.


    ¡°Now you can drop the heal field. I don¡¯t plan on doing ¡®my job¡¯ until the boss has an idea of what we need. That stuff hurts.¡±


    Slimes across the ravine stop shuddering. The purple slimes return to the refuse pile. Without some strange energy acting upon it, nothing would happen to the green slime they were targeting.


    Another creature, nearly physically identical to the other, stands up from the box. It stretches its arms up to the sky, tail flung as far back as it could reach.


    ¡°Augh, limbs. So much nicer to be able to stand up and do literally anything other than stare at the same space until I suffocate into unconsciousness.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m just glad I didn¡¯t die.¡±


    ¡°The recon team was a thirty-one and a forty-five, there was no way we were going to be stuck in there long enough for you to be non-recoverable.¡±


    ¡°Oh yeah? Our thirty-one is getting chased up a mountain by an angry mob.¡±


    ¡°Hm. Three humans isn¡¯t enough for it to be classified as an angry mob. Maybe an angry gang.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s still enough to distract it away from us. They have way more safeguards. Where¡¯s the forty-five anyway?¡±


    ¡°Good question. We should ask the thirty-one.¡±


    The two creatures follow the Mcs up to the dungeon, leaving the slime behind. It was full when it was in the aura. It was losing that now. It had instincts to pursue the feeling of ¡®full¡¯. It had instincts to split. It couldn¡¯t split, because it didn¡¯t have nutrients. It had full, and now it was losing it. Something breaks in the slime. An encompassing need flows over it, the need to consume anything. Everything.


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Torchlight illuminates the black gemstone. It examines the subsumed piece of onyx with interest. It was new, certainly. Last it had inspected the dungeon, the core had either missed this piece, or it wasn¡¯t there. It wasn¡¯t sure which, as it had several concerns at the time. This was not something it had prior experience with in its previous location, probably because it had never attempted to network a gem into itself.


    It was like having a whole new container for mana. Sources and outward flows were like threads of power connecting a gem to each individual object. For some reason each individual room of this dungeon was a tiny source of mana, just enough to balance the flow to each slime. It didn¡¯t know how, and it was loath to demolish anything that provides additional power, even if it was a thing that offended it''s aesthetic sensibilities most grievously.


    Just like its own gem core, this new one had a link to each and every thing in the dungeon. None of the connections, however, were active, save for a single flow to its own core. With a slight bit of prodding, the core manages to adjust the link to the room the gem was sitting in to active. On its end, the source deactivates. Its source from the onyx didn¡¯t grow more powerful, so it appeared that the gem was now the beneficiary to that particular room without its own cost to the main core increasing. In the short term, this was a great discovery. It could shunt the incoming mana to the other gem, which would be able to solidify the mana normally, while it burnt through the shattered form. Once that was done, it could revert the sources back to its own gem and grow back to its previous glory.


    Distractingly, the creature from earlier runs up onto the puzzle switch, stands on it, and the moment it depresses charges straight into the door headfirst. A moment later, the door opens and it charges in, the door slamming shut behind it.


    ¡°That could have gone better.¡±


    ¡°They may be double doors, but they''re still made of stone. Why wouldn''t you at least use your foot to try and kick it open?¡±


    ¡°Like it would have made a difference either way.¡±


    ¡°How''s your head?¡±


    ¡°Made of pain. What do you actually care?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t. Why are you back so soon?¡±


    ¡°I brought gifts, in the form of humans. They want to kill me, so I¡¯ll be going inward. Open doors for me, would you?¡±


    ¡°A dungeon core does not simply open a path for a non-contracted monster! That is a terrible precedent to set.¡±


    ¡°If they catch up to me in the first room, you aren¡¯t going to get anything out of them. Nothing. Do you want that?¡±


    ¡°Fine. I want you out as soon as is feasible.¡±


    ¡°I have an idea for that actually.¡±


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    ¡°Is she dead?¡± asks Smashy. The girl is familiar. She always threw insults at them or rude gestures when she saw them. Smashy found it hilarious, since Stabby definitely deserved it. Now, she was laying unconscious on a stone slab, beaten repeatedly by stones, with her actual state of survival unknown.


    ¡°Her heart¡¯s beating,¡± states Shooty. He was the closest thing they had to a medic, though they¡¯d had to wait precious seconds for him to catch up. That hengeyokai had fled into the dungeon immediately, and probably had traps set up inside already. Dungeons usually weren¡¯t very dangerous on their own, assuming you were going into one close to your power level, but if there was an actual intelect behind the design, there could be quite a deadly danger indeed.


    ¡°This is Hierarchy brand bullshit. We come up to this, and the murderous psychopath shapeshifter we meet has used this particular girl as a glorified doorstop? It¡¯s like a divine joke,¡± Stabby gripes. ¡°She had better pull through, because I¡¯m banned from their store so I can¡¯t give them that bastard¡¯s head as a condolence gift.¡±


    Shooty stands up. ¡°Well we aren¡¯t going to be any use here. We either go back to town to get her medical attention, or we chase down the perpetrator. I vote we go kick some ass.¡±


    ¡°You had me at ass,¡± says Smashy.


    ¡°That¡¯s the last thing he said,¡± remarks Stabby dryly, stepping on the raised platform.


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Several seconds later, the two creatures reach the entrance. Closed again, of course.


    ¡°Hey, this is probably why thirty-one called you.¡±


    ¡°Broken human. Of course. I wonder which one of them asked it to save their daughter or what have you.¡±


    ¡°Doesn¡¯t really matter, does it? Any human has the same privilege setting.¡±


    ¡°True. I¡¯ll just get to work then.¡±

 Additional Factors

    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 45.6901%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%; text-align: center">Congratulations, due to your negative mana recovery and your tutorial completion time (#NaN) you have been drafted into a random dungeon war! Fight for your survival, or be devoured as resources.</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Hidden in a hole on the first floor of it¡¯s five-floor dungeon, adventurers just now entering the dungeon, at zero mana, and in the only pathway to the second floor, a black gem slowly flakes to pieces next to the uncontrolled creature holding it hostage.


    ¡°Oh fuck.¡±


    ¡°Language.¡±


    ¡°Oh schei?e.¡±


    ¡°Ok, what?¡±


    ¡°I just got a notification that I¡¯ve been drafted into a Dungeon War due to poor performance.¡±


    ¡°Oof, too bad. Will that affect your availability for the trade partnership?¡±


    ¡°Depends on whether you can fulfill your end of the deal.¡±


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Through a vitrified tunnel, the adventurers come across a room with locked doors, chests, and an altar in the center of the space. The three of them cautiously approach the center, finding it to be a stone slab indented with shapes and surrounded by writing; ¡®Sword stretched toward the sun, the adventurers split their focus to destroy the foe they most suit.¡¯Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.


    ¡°Puzzles,¡± states Shooty grimly.


    ¡°Don¡¯t panic,¡± replies Stabby, gesturing toward the tunnel entrance, ¡°this place wasn¡¯t here last week, so the puzzles can¡¯t be that difficult. It takes time for dungeons to build up, and this is the first room. Basically an introduction to what the place is about.¡±


    ¡°I bet the things that go in the slots are in the chests,¡± Smashy contributes.


    Adventurers weren¡¯t always the smartest when comparing them to the random monsters they fought, like slimes, goblins, and kobolds, but most of them could figure out to put the square box into the square hole.


    ¡°They¡¯re puzzle chests,¡± Shooty moans morosely.


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Outside the sealed stone double doors of the dungeon, the two creatures were on the top of the slope next to the body, but still not doing anything about it.


    ¡°All I¡¯m saying is that we haven¡¯t been explicitly told to fix this human.¡±


    ¡°And all I¡¯m saying is that it costs me absolutely nothing to do it. If we get ordered to do it after we¡¯ve wandered off somewhere, we have to walk back up that slope.¡±


    ¡°It does too cost you something. You don¡¯t regenerate as effectively when you¡¯ve got the field up, anyone could shoot you in the face and anti-life you.¡±


    ¡°Like who? There¡¯s no one around to shoot me. Unless you¡¯re planning on it.¡±


    ¡°And how would you know I¡¯m not? Anyone could shoot anyone at any time for no reason whatsoever.¡±


    ¡°At least I know you don¡¯t have a weapon right now. You¡¯d be begging for healing if you did.¡±


    ¡°Unfair using logic to determine I¡¯m not aiming for your existence. These kinds of arguments are for emotion and fallacies only.¡±


    The first creature decides to use an emotional response to that, and smacks the other upside the head. An energy flows out from its entire being, and the body the two were bickering over has its wounds start to seal shut.


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Back in the altar room, Shooty stares at the contents of the ruined chests. Smashy had a most expedient method of solving the puzzle chests, that being his hammer, but the results were less than heartening.


    ¡°Why are there five of each shape?¡±

 Easiest Puzzle

    "Instead of trying to solve the puzzle all at once, see how all the blocks are the same except one side? That means those sides are the only ones that could be the answer, since otherwise any of the blocks would work,¡± reasons Smashy, turning one of the five deltohedron over in his hands. ¡°And this one has the sun on it. Do any of the other ones have a sun?¡±


    A flurry of motion from the other two had them turn over thirty stone shapes over to determine what was on each side. None of the ten sided shapes had a sun other than the noted one; each image was doubled on the other side, making five per stone block. All of those had a picture of a shield, a sword, a bottle, and a flute, which by Smashy¡¯s hypothesis meant the options for the correct answer would be one of the sun, the moon, a star, a key, or a jigsaw puzzle piece. Going through the other sets of shapes proved that there were in fact no suns of any sort. One of the cubes was even completely blank.


    ¡°Alright. So this piece goes into the hole, sun facing toward the center, and the dial in the middle with all the pieces on it has the sword facing toward the sun. That leaves the rogue, the bard, the cleric, and the wizard with slots to fill, and the fighter doesn¡¯t need to face anything at all,¡± Smashy logically deduced, ¡°and with the positions established, we can see which opponents each party member would be best against in that shape group. Beyond that, the patterns probably repeat again so we could eliminate options that way.¡±


    ¡°Ugh, there are way too many steps for this thing to be the first puzzle of a beginner dungeon,¡± complains Shooty, ¡°why can¡¯t they be simple like the door puzzle to get in here?¡±


    ¡°Because now we¡¯re actually in the dungeon,¡± states Stabby, ¡°which means it has a reason to keep us here.¡±


    The two uneasily look toward the ceiling and walls. No vents start hissing poisonous smoke, no monster drops from above upon their suspicions. Smashy continued checking through the die shaped blocks, and the other two decided soundlessly to keep an eye out for any sort of change in their surroundings.


    ¡°Got it,¡± announced Smashy, ¡°since this group had the blank one, only have three options for the rogue. It¡¯s not the knight, lich, pile of vines, slime, ball of fire, or nothing, so there¡¯s a zombie, a skeleton, a ghost, or a mage. Pretty sure you can¡¯t stab a ghost, and that slitting a zombie¡¯s throat doesn¡¯t do much, so that leaves the mage.¡±


    ¡°And there¡¯s three more of these? How long are we going to be stuck here?¡± Shooty asks rhetorically.


    ¡°Less time if you help,¡± replies Smashy, a bit of irritation in his tone, ¡°It¡¯s not hard to go ¡®hey there¡¯s two of this one, can¡¯t be those¡¯.¡±


    ¡°Shooty, you keep being prepared to do your thing to anything that tries to attack us, I¡¯ll start going through the triangles.¡±


    A few moments pass, and then both of them have new results to share.


    ¡°This thing is for the cleric. Knight, the vine thing, and the mage are all out, which leaves this assassin guy, a dragon, the moon, a lightning skeleton, and a jigsaw puzzle piece. Pretty obvious that the undead are weak against clerics though,¡± says Smashy.


    ¡°Mine has multiples of devil, golem, and some sort of giant monster. That leaves a chest, a bottle, a ball of fire, the vines again, and a giant army,¡± Stabby adds in.


    ¡°That goes to mage, and I have no clue about that one. We¡¯ll just leave it to last and do the other one.¡±If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    Remaining unchecked was the pile for the bard. Those were tubes of stone with an image on each side. The two adventurers quickly started shouting out what was on each side to the other, trying to determine which images were doubled.


    ¡°Dragon!¡±


    ¡°Rat! Next one.¡±


    ¡°Golem!¡±


    ¡°Assassin! Next.¡±


    ¡°Skeleton!¡±


    ¡°Knight! Next.¡±


    ¡°Assassin, not it.¡±


    ¡°Skeleton, not it.¡±


    ¡°Dragon, not it.¡±


    ¡°Knight, not it.¡±


    ¡°So it¡¯s either a golem, which is a mindless creature bards can¡¯t do anything with, or a rat.¡±


    ¡°Definitely rat.¡±


    ¡°What a dunk on bards.¡±


    The two slide the cylinder into the bard slot, and check the pyramids in the wizard spot one after the other, until the army slots into place and the three doors click open. With a nod toward each other, having confirmed through this room there weren¡¯t actually any traps or monsters to ambush them while they were solving the puzzles, the three split to check the left, forward, and rightward puzzle door rooms.


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Outside the dungeon, the aura receded. A completely intact human now laid on the depressed button, whereas before it was a collection of limbs, attached to each other but too broken to be called a person.


    ¡°See, no one shot me.¡±


    ¡°Luck.¡±


    ¡°Proper observational skills.¡±


    ¡°Oh yeah? Then why didn¡¯t you notice that half the canyon got erased and replaced with a forest shrouded in mist and probably ghosts?¡±


    ¡°It did what?¡±


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    ¡°This is taking forever,¡± whispered the creature to the gem floating beside it. ¡°Why can¡¯t you just open the door?¡±


    ¡°During a Dungeon War, most functions are locked off. I am unable to reset rooms, manually open or close doors, spawn monsters, deconstruct material for mana, or expand the dungeon in any way. After you got to this room, the dungeon was locked into the uncleared state. Until they solve the puzzle, you are trapped within this lair.¡±


    ¡°Wasn¡¯t expecting a clear and concise answer. Thank you very much.¡±


    ¡°I have been extraordinarily reasonable in all my dealings. Contracts are a powerful bond, and one that should not be abused. You have been leery of tying yourself to me so tightly, and though words mean nothing I assure you that a lack of sincerity when dealing with those I want to empower would only result in misfortune for all involved.¡±


    ¡°Well, try not to die when you get drafted.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s already begun. Once the notice is sent, the dungeons in question are brought to a sealed space, where neither can change their layout or gain outside help. Until one has been destroyed, the two are locked in an endless struggle for dominance. Apparently it¡¯s possible to accept a surrender from a weaker dungeon, but I for one have never been so merciful and expect no sane dungeon would be either. Being within my borders as you are, you have been brought into the war as well, and unless you wish to be consigned to oblivion along with everything else in this dungeon, you must fight for me.¡±


    ¡°Ah, so that¡¯s what you meant. Wouldn¡¯t it be easier to change your poor performance rating?¡±


    ¡°I completed the tutorial ages ago, and used the bonus it provided to decrease the cost of raising the dead! Even at my prime I would run at a net negative mana regeneration, because my skeletal adventurer army continuously grew in power! It¡¯s not simply a factor of incompetent planning that can lead to a negative influx. Instead, I used what came in from adventurers to fuel my growth. Those temporary increases aren¡¯t counted in the base statistics, and make it seem as if I run constantly at a loss. Once I understood how the Wars are started, that set my path in blood. I could be set constantly against other dungeons, use the adventurers within me to boost my total mana, and capture the dungeon that was chosen to be my equal. I can kill an adventurer as easily as an adventurer kills a kobold, when I¡¯m not hobbled by these useless lesser slimes.¡±


    ¡°I think the door just opened. Down the hole you go.¡±


    ¡°How dare yooooooou-¡±

 Value of Intelligence

    Cautiously stepping into the room, Stabby immediately notices the first trap of the dungeon. A large ¡®rug¡¯ of fabric, similar to the one they had passed on the way into the previous puzzle room. The center was sagging into the ground, clearly covering a pit extremely badly. The room was three times the width of the pit, so he simply walked to the side and went around the giant hole. Stuck to the far side of the wall, a door stood tall. Three keyholes, and a poem adorned the spearpoint portal blocking the way deeper in.


    ¡°Across time, summer looks at her compatriots. Before, the guard of life, beyond the waning of it. Life burns brightly.¡±


    Stabby considers for a moment.


    ¡°Completely pointless nonsense.¡±


    He turns away from the locked door, and starts heading back to the central chamber to inform the others of the dead end. As he steps near the obvious trap however, he hears a soft wail within his mind, sinking into metaphorical depths. Deciding on his course of action instantly, he stabs out at the cloth. The greatsword pierces the fabric easily, but below a force slams the weapon into the side of the stone pit, pulling the cover with it. Before Stabby can react, a handful of grit jabs into his eyeballs. He keeps a hold on his weapon, but is unable to connect with the fleeing creature that hit him with pocket sand before it escapes.


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Shooty looked over the shallow pit with symbols emblazoned upon various tiles. Glancing around the empty room, he looks at the ten centimeter deep hole in the very center of the arrangement.


    ¡°What the hell.¡±


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Casually walking into the rightward room, Smashy sees the braziers in each of the corners, and the torch on the wall. Ignoring the pile of tiles in the center of the room, he pulls the flaming stick off the wall and ignites the coals in each of the obvious places. At the far end of the room, and the left wall, doors slide down as a chime rings out for a puzzle solved.


    ¡°Easy beginner dungeon.¡±


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Avery wakes up. She was not in her dungeon. Ideally, that meant the invader had fulfilled his end of the deal and healed her, which would mesh together quite well with the fact she couldn¡¯t sense her surroundings with the map function. Every time she had cast this spell previously though, she had woken up in the gem. It was perfectly within the realm of reason to conclude that he had just brought her gem outside for some reason.Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!


    She blinked.


    Having eyes probably precluded her being a rock. Sitting up straight, she used her eyes to see that for some reason the city wasn¡¯t across the river from her dungeon. In its place were two copies of the invader standing near her, and a thick mud growing from the lack of river into a forest of blades and corpses. Not for the first time, she regretted not subsuming the onyx when she had the chance. That was a lot of potential skeletons she could have converted.


    ¡°Hey, why did you drag me outside? You weren¡¯t doing weird things to my body were you?¡±


    The two invaders looked at each other.


    ¡°No idea, and probably not,¡± says the one on the left. ¡°I mean, no offense, but you¡¯re a human. That¡¯s kind of gross.¡±


    Avery sits up straighter.


    ¡°Excuse me, I am more than just my species. How can you dare to denigrate someone simply for the circumstances of their birth?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s a matter of personal preference. Some people like humans, some people don¡¯t. If I would rather keep most of my interactions within a social circle comprised of my more closely genetically relevant peers, I don¡¯t see how that¡¯s a concern of yours.¡±


    ¡°The mind is a far more important factor in regards to pleasant interaction than any kind of generic heritage. If you limit yourself to your own people, the ones who have all the same experiences and values as you yourself do, that intrinsically limits the diversity of thought and causes your culture to stagnate!"


    ¡°Look, if I wanted to hear this kind of thing I would have just stayed home. Come on fifty-three, we can explore the deadly wasteland instead.¡±


    With that, the two walk off toward the basin. As they disappear over the edge, Avery considers whether that conversation could have possibly gone any better. Clearly not, she decides. If they were the type to walk off the edge of a cliff instead of taking the entire switchback trail down, they weren¡¯t going to accept that a wizard was worth respecting for their intelligence.


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Down on the second floor, the gemstone sits below the hole leading upward. Normally when it had time to itself, it could focus on monster spawn rates and trap placement. With no mana, and an injunction on changing the layout during the dungeon war, it had absolutely nothing to do. At the most, it would be able to micromanage the units it already had.


    Slimes.


    Lesser slimes.


    It had spent hundreds of mana it didn¡¯t have the last time it was conscious, and while it had the potential to dip deeper into its own structure, that was not a sustainable practice. These lesser slimes weren¡¯t even enough to slow down that infuriating monster, even in the mass quantity it had summoned. Now that it had slaughtered its way through them, they would prove to be less than a nuisance to the champions of the dungeon it had been placed against.


    There were only¡­


    Actually there were far more than it had summoned. And they had evolved. It could work with that. A slime wave might be just what this dungeon war needed.

 Slight Puzzle Readjustment Required

    She didn¡¯t need them anyway. Avery was a wizard. She could figure out what was going on through observation and experimentation. That was what magic was all about, finding out what was real and what was negotiable. Granted, illusions weren¡¯t exactly her primary focus. Neither was any sort of spacial magic. She was in fact probably one of the least useful wizards to have working on a ¡®suddenly the entire city disappeared¡¯ problem. What she did have, was a whole dungeon she built from the ground down.


    And a door that required two people to open to get into it. Suddenly that particular lock didn¡¯t seem like the best idea.


    Nothing was wrong, she could just run between the buttons and have them both depressed at the same time. Mechanical locks always had resistances built into them. It took time for the mechanisms to reset once the weight holding them down were released. That was the same theory behind the city¡¯s inner gates only being openable after the whole night had passed; the gate defaulted to closed, and it just took that long for the mechanisms to reset


    Since she woke up on this button, it was almost certainly at its maximum capacity. All she had to do was move over to the other button, stand on that until it had enough weight, and enter the dungeon before the door closed again. Sprinting to the other lump of stone jutting out from the path, Avery counts the seconds after her stepping off. As soon as she reaches the further panel, she turns to see that the first button is up to the point the initial button had been. That meant it reset in three seconds or less.


    After two seconds, the button Avery was standing on reached flush with the ground. Stepping off of it, she times the reset to be six seconds. Calculating, she does the same to the first and finds it to take one second to depress and three seconds to reset. With that in mind, she had two seconds to run from the first button and get in the door.


    That run was three seconds.


    Maybe she could speed it up a bit. All she had to do was cut off one second. How hard could that be?


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Picking itself up from the stones of the valley leading toward potential death and slash or dismembering, again, the frailer of the two lets go of the strongest one, having forcibly removed them both bodily from the social interaction. The other one just lays sprawled out against the rocks, complaining.


    "If we''re going into a place worth any amount of greenery, I''m going to be completely useless.¡±


    ¡°No you¡¯re not, don¡¯t say that.¡±


    ¡°Yes I am. You have one of those fancy ¡®useful on its own¡¯ abilities. Mine nearly kills me any time I use it.¡±


    ¡°That just means you don¡¯t break things while stuck in the mud. You still have other uses.¡±


    ¡°Oh yeah?¡±


    ¡°You can hold things for me.¡±


    Suddenly, out of absolutely nowhere, a couple of bipedal rats appear with weapons drawn, one black-furred and holding the hilt and half-blade of a broken steel sword, the other brown-furred with a wooden spear in a two-handed grip. They demand to see their manager, or their ¡®core¡¯, as they call it. At least, that¡¯s what they assume they ask. It sounded more along the lines of, ¡°You take core to for us!¡±Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.


    ¡°We don''t even have a core, and even if we did, we aren''t hooked up to it right now,¡± states the standing one. The one on the ground sits up, and puts its hands behind its back.


    ¡°No weapons, take dungeon to.¡±


    Down on the ground, the stronger creature starts sparking, until the standing one smacks it upside the back of its head and stops what it¡¯s doing.


    ¡°Yeah ok. It¡¯s just up this path. Follow me.¡±


    The rats look at each other.


    ¡°Really? That easy?¡±


    ¡°The place has nothing to do with me, and it costs me nothing to help you. Is there any reason I should just not help?¡±


    Without putting away their weapons, the rats refrain from giving them reasons not to cooperate and follow them up the hill.


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Landing on the second button again, the door slides open. Before she could start sprinting into the dungeon, Avery sees the invader sprinting out.


    ¡°What have you been doing, and why am I out here?¡± she asks, glaring at the approaching monster.


    ¡°No time to explain,¡± it says, running past her and off the cliff. A moment later, she realizes it had grabbed her when she follows downward.


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Stabby almost gives into his instincts to chase down the hengeyokai on his own, before remembering how stupid of an idea it would be to not let anyone know where it was going. As soon as he passes the doorway into the center room, he beelines directly to the door Smashy had gone into. He was the one more likely to solve puzzles, and thus go further into the dungeon without any intervention.


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Smashy could have gone further into the dungeon, since he¡¯d already solved the puzzle and opened the door, but the tiles were still a mystery to examine. They had a set of nine symbols on them, and came in an assortment of shapes. There didn¡¯t seem to be any pattern in how the symbols were arranged on the tiles themselves, other than that no symbol had been directly next to another of its type on the same piece. There was one that had two copies of two symbols on one two by two grid, but that was a rarity. With nine symbols, it was rare to get the same one anywhere on the tile.


    As if to deliberately interrupt his thought process, Stabby barges into the room and immediately starts yelling.


    ¡°Quit solving puzzles and come back, he got past me and is escaping!¡±


    ¡°Fine, but we¡¯re definitely exploring this place later, it¡¯s great!¡±


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Both of the knowledgeable ones head toward Shooty¡¯s room, only to find him already entering the central chamber.


    ¡°The puzzle is impossible,¡± he informs them.


    ¡°Well, we¡¯re leaving anyway. Hengeyokai got past me, it¡¯s out there somewhere now,¡± Stabby informs him.


    ¡°There was just a pit with a bunch of random symbols on it. There was nothing to do,¡± he continues.


    ¡°Yeah,¡± states Smashy, ¡°the pieces are in my room.¡±


    ¡°This place is the worst. We better not come back,¡± Shooty continues, walking out of the dungeon.


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Though unable to create monsters, the core is able to manipulate them. By adjusting the mana link an individual slime has to the dungeon itself, it can incentivise a particular direction of travel. Slimes are perhaps the easiest creatures to do this with, as they regard the mana link as food and immediately move to engult it. Without any expenditure of effort at all, as the link will remain a fixed distance from the slime in question, a blue slime makes its way up to the central room leading to the first floor.


    ¡°Up into the pit,¡± the core commands, ¡°to devour my enemy!¡±


    With all of its strength, the blue slime flings itself toward the opening and slams into the wall. The hole was far too high, and it had no limbs with which to climb.


    ¡°This is a dampener on that plan.¡±

 April Fools Chapter

    Outside the dungeon, one of the rats, the slightly smaller one with black fur, gestures toward the other, brown-furred one, and the two come to a stop. The first whispers something to the other, who nods in assent, and rushes back to the misty forest beyond the dry riverbed, returning quickly with another two rats, both brown, but one with a blueish sheen to its coat, holding a pickaxe made of bone and a blue eyeball, and the other significantly scrawny and twitchier, holding a blue eyeball. They have to scamper hurriedly to catch up with the black-furred rat and the two other creatures, and they catch up about halfway along the path to the cave entrance.


    As they regroup, their reunion distracts from the slight collapse of something from the top of the path down onto the river bed. The group of six make their way up without incident.


    "So this looks like the way in. Door, two buttons. There was a human here earlier, but it seems to have disappeared," states the thinner of the non-rat creatures.


    "Are you guys humans too? Hard to tell sometimes," adds the bulkier one.


    A couple of the brown rats laugh. The black-furred one is less than amused, and angrily responds.


    ¡°Humans reason queen missing!¡± it spits out, swinging its half-sword in the air for emphasis.


    "Big oof,¡± replies the thinner one, ¡°Well, if she needs medical attention when you find her, I''m a healing unit. That one over there is good for carrying things."


    "Hey, don''t be volunteering me for things!"


    "It''s being useful, or going to check out the forest for me and being completely useless on your own."


    "I told you my mental concerns in confidence, how dare you use them against me."


    "I''m not bound by any kind of oaths of confidentiality, what do you think I am, a doctor?"


    "Well good thing you can heal, because I''m gonna make you need it!"


    The slightly larger of the two throws itself at the slightly smaller one, and the rats ready their various weapons in alarm, only to be confused by the ineffectual flailing each of them directed toward the other. Putting away its wooden spear, the original brown rat moves over to examine the stone outcroppings and the door to the dungeon. Before they can actually do anything, the rock slides out of the way on its own, revealing three extremely muscular humans. The rats jump back, drawing their weapons again, and the humans stop short. Looking toward his companions, the human with the greatsword states, ¡°Just like we practiced.¡±


    Stepping forward into the natural light, the rats can see that he¡¯s clothed in blue. Raising his blade high, he starts speaking.


    ¡°Cutting through the darkness with implacable will, Stabby McStabbington is a sword slicing with the power of light!¡±


    With that, he kneels down off to the right side of the cavern entrance, greatsword held in both hands, angled further off to the right. The man with the bow steps forward in line, revealing a green cloak inadequately covering biceps pulling an arrow to full draw.


    ¡°But a sword has the limit of reach. Shooting McShootyton is the arrow, flying toward the sky!¡±


    He kneels down next to the blue man, more to the left of the entrance, and points his weapon off into the distance. Striding forward into the space between the two, the last man reveals a shirtless chest and pink pants. Holding a warhammer above his head, forearms at perfect ninety-degree angles to the biceps, and biceps parallel to the ground, he takes up the entire empty space between the first two humans.


    ¡°None of that helps against a solid barrier. That¡¯s where Smashy McSmashyton comes in, breaking down any obstacle in our way!¡±


    In unison, the three humans shout ¡°Together, ¡®The Fighting McFightertons¡¯ can overcome any challenge! Fight, fight, fight!¡±


    The hammer-guy doesn¡¯t stop, and just goes ¡°Smashy, that¡¯s right!¡±


    Without moving from their poses, the other two glare at him for a moment, then return to their stances.


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Down below this tomfoolery, two bodies hit the ground. More precisely, one body hits the ground, then the other body hits that body. The larger of the two smashes the smaller one that pulled her off a cliff in the first place into the stone, flattening it significantly as it cushions her fall. Unperturbed by the presumed organ displacement, the smaller one rolls out from under the human, unsticking from the canyon rocks and pushing to a mostly upright position. Fortunately, stagnant air prevented a single gust of wind from blowing over the somewhat pancaked creature.


    It bends over and tries to pull the human along with it, but is stymied by its complete lack of physical strength.Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.


    Avery lays there for a bit, contemplating the decisions that led to her coming down to this exact situation. She decides that none of it is her fault, and in fact all caused by the random creature that pulled her off a cliff. If it didn¡¯t hurt to exist again, the wizard would have shaken off the hand trying to drag her into a shallow ditch, most likely to bury her with the minimum of effort.


    After several minutes of fruitless tugging, and several attempts at flipping her over with a spear-lever, Avery gives in to the annoyance and picks herself up off the ground.


    ¡°What,¡± she asks flatly.


    ¡°No time to explain, we have to go!¡±


    ¡°Yes time to explain, because I am not moving until the explain happens.¡±


    ¡°Can we at least get away from the dungeon that¡¯s about to have a swarm of monsters attack it first?¡±


    ¡°And that¡¯s all the explain I needed, thank you.¡±


    The two of them run off into the misty woods that definitely weren¡¯t there before...


    ********


    Breaking from their group huddle, the brown rat with the spear steps forward warily toward the posing humans.


    "Are sure you adventurers?"


    "Of course we are," replies the one with the greatsword, "registered and everything."


    "Despite what the name would have you think, we''re not related," adds the one with the bow.


    Shoving the brown rat out of the way, the black furred rat snarls, "If you adventurers, then you evil."


    Following their apparent leader¡¯s example, the two brown rats assume combat poses, spear and pickaxe ready to strike. Numerically, the rats exceed the humans in population, and equal them in number of weapons. Granted, they are outclassed in height and muscle mass, but certainly had the spirit.


    Smashy responds, "I can understand your perspective regarding adventurers, but you lack context. Adventuring companies work based on contracts typically, or via an open bounty system. Rather than a whole class of society driven by need to wipe out the so-called monstrous races, it''s closer to a profit-motivated system wherein those with weaponry work as hired muscle for whichever governmental official has taken issue with the economic effect of an indigenous populace. That''s not to say that there aren''t adventurers that enjoy the subjugation of anyone different from themselves, but generally it''s the higher-ups ordering the extermination that should be taken issue with, rather than the low-level peon doing the work."


    None of the humans move from their readied positions, muscles bulging from exertion as they hold their weapons completely still. Any of their forearms would be the match for the largest rat¡¯s thigh. The rats look at him dumbfounded, before the brown rat with the spear steps forward, clearing his throat to speak.


    "No adventurer work this way. They seek strength. They grow by killing. Dungeons are homes. You invade, see? You invade this one now. Invaders and killers."


    Stabby responds this time, "Actually in this case we''re following a murderer. He stole the river, cut up some people and stuffed them in a box, and hid in the dungeon. We split up inside to try and flush him out, but he blinded me and doubled back."


    Again the black-furred rat responds, this time with "Humans all murderers!"


    Shooty, increasingly annoyed by every step and word since he walked into the dungeon, snaps at them, "All right, everyone''s a murderer. So let''s both pass each other by and continue with what we''re doing. You can kill whatever human''s made this terrible dungeon, and we get to never come back."


    Waving his broken steel sword in the air, the rat declares, "Human kill Queen. We kill human."


    "Shooty, what does the scouter say about their social structure?" Stabby shoots toward the member of the party with the mostly functional magical artifact under his hood.


    "All it''s telling me is that there''s something called a rat king that''s formed when a bunch of them have their tails grow together and form a single creature with the combined intelligence of all the individuals. "


    "Try jiggling it."


    "I''m still posing, my hands are occupied!"


    Thoroughly confused by the buffoonery in front of them, the brown rats slowly lower their weapons.


    "We didn''t kill your queen," states Stabby, "and we don''t even have information on what your queen is, based on your expressions. I''d rather not have to fight you without getting paid. Tell you what, after this I can escort you to the castle and... Where the hell did the castle go?"


    All of the rats just stand there as the idiots talk about their castle.


    "Did you see anyone run this way? There was a dead body here too. So he stole the river, the body, and now the entire city. When does it end?" declares Stabby, not making any emphatic gestures to go with the overly dramatic words.


    "We just got here. Because dungeon has queen body," says the brown-furred rat with the spear slowly, so that the obviously mentally deficient humans could understand it.


    "If that''s the case, maybe he doubled back again. The central chamber was unguarded for a minute while we regrouped..." muses Stabby.


    "Don''t say we''re going back in there," complains Shooty.


    "Whatever we''re doing, please decide quickly. My arms are getting tired," adds Smashy.


    Stepping up to the leading rat, the spear-wielding rat confers with its comrade in a chittering language the humans couldn¡¯t understand. They chitter at each-other argumentatively for a few moments, and the black-furred rat gestures all the creatures behind it to gather to one side of the pathway.


    Taking the cue for what it was, the fighters stand up out of their poses and take the outside lane next to edge down away from the dungeon. As they pass each other, the blue-tinted brown-furred rat steps as though to push Shooty off the edge, before the scrawny unarmed rat pulls them back to the wall.


    Safely past the collection of weaponry, Smashy directs an inquiry toward his companions.


    ¡°Did those two fighting off to the side look familiar to you at all?¡±


    Stabby answers, ¡°Look, they all have tails and fur. They all look the same to me. Shooty, how about you?¡±


    ¡°I lack the words to emphasize how little I care about any of this.¡±

 Room One; Fight

    ¡°Ah,¡± the black-furred rat says grimly. ¡°It¡¯s one of these dungeons.¡±


    ¡°Puzzles are my favorite!¡± spits back the spear-wielding rat. ¡°Don¡¯t be rude to the core!¡±


    ¡°The core has our queen¡¯s body!¡± the leader snaps. ¡°I¡¯ll be as rude as I desire!¡±


    ¡°Hey, not to break up the conflict or anything, but who are you guys anyway,¡± interjects the more physically fit of the two indecipherable creatures.


    The rats look at each other, and walk into the room.


    Checking the corners immediately for traps, the creatures discover a smashed open chest in each corner, as well as one between a stone pedestal and an open doorway straight ahead.


    Chittering a command, the black-furred rat gestures to the room. The smallest of the rats stays at the entrance, watching for any unexpected eventualities, like the human returning to kill them. As the bulk of the force group together and investigate the area, the tag-along pair finally make their way into the cave as well. The rat eyes them warily, but as they aren¡¯t humans they have slightly less inclination to attempt to block their passage with their bare paws than to let them deal with the warriors in person.


    Investigating quickly, the rats locate a collection of symbolized tiles from the rightward room, bring them to the left room¡¯s indented tile-holder, and put off trying to solve the puzzle to explore the last remaining open door from the first chamber. A large hole in the center of the room is most certainly not covered by a red carpet of some sort, and far more imposingly is a large stone door crossed with indentations of three triangles, each of which bears a keyhole, and covered with runes.


    "Oh dear," says the brown rat with the spear.


    Just to contribute to the conversation, the blue-brown furred rat adds, "This puzzle seems like a lot of unnecessary effort."


    Sighing a bit, the brown rat speaks to the leader.


    ¡°I see that there¡¯s a secondary hole in the side of that hole. There¡¯s a chance that the hole hole has something hidden inside of it, so if you can check to see if there is a quick and easy solution to this key situation in the same room as the door, I can take Trena and investigate the rest of the dungeon.¡±


    The black-furred rat nods his assent, and the brown-furred rat takes Trena back to the main room, where the non-rats stand around loitering and being useless.


    ¡°EXPENDABLE MONKEY THINGS,¡± comes a call from that room.


    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s definitely us,¡± the larger one mentions off-handedly to the other. The two head in to see what the leader is shouting about.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.


    ¡°Big hole, empty inside. You go,¡± the black-furred rat tells them.


    "Sure, just a minute while I go grab one of those fire-sticks," replies the smaller one, before moving to the wall and grabbing one of the convenient torches. It struggles for a bit to remove it, before realizing that they just lift out of the rings.


    ¡°Here, hold this for me,¡± it says, putting the stick in the larger creature¡¯s hands.


    ¡°Oh, okay, thanks,¡± that one says absent mindedly, before the rat yells again.


    ¡°Go down!¡± they shout, pushing the creature into the hole.


    Falling for a good three quarters of a second, the expendable monkey thing remembers its training and lands completely flat against the ground.


    "It''s a hole all right,¡± it says a second later, looking around in the light. "There''s a hole in this hole. That''s just poor hole maintenance."


    "Idiot," hisses the rat. "Want you go down second hole."


    "Go down the second hole you moron," translates the creature outside of the hole, helpfully.


    "You do it!" retorts the larger one.


    "Don''t make me go down there and push you!" threatens the one with the high ground.


    "Like you could," taunts the one whose power is being underestimated.


    Jumping down into the pit gracefully, the creature comes down with a gravity assisted punch. From its prone position, the larger one grabs the falling arm with its tail, pulling the attack off course and letting the creature complete its unmodified decent directly into the ground with its face.Standing up, it casually sweeps the smaller creature into the hole hole, and looks up to the rat above.


    ¡°Done.¡±


    "Toss torch, at least," says the rat.


    Responding near instantly, it tosses the lit stick down onto the creature below.


    "Ow fuck I''m on fire now!"


    The rat shakes their head, sighing.


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Seeing that the humans have most definitely left for the woods, the scrawny rat releases the blue eyeball, which starts floating around the room, and wanders into the center of the room toward the dais. It has a number of symbols on it, and blocks of various shapes. In addition, there are similar blocks littering the ground. Passing by, the brown rat and Trena head into the room full of lit torches and braziers, and take the first turn into a new room.


    Pillars block most straight paths through the room, and a hole in the ground prevents access to the back left corner of the room. Directly ahead of the rats is a giant stone block. Taking a few moments to investigate the arrangement of pillars, the brown rat tells Trena to stand in an alcove near an unlit brazier and a giant spiderweb. Once they are in position, it pushes the block easily to the wall, locking her on the opposite side from the pit. At that point, Trena takes over the pushing, and shoves the block into the block-shaped hole, whereupon a chime rings out of nowhere and a key drops from the ceiling beyond the filled pit.


    ¡°This seems oddly simple. I''m unsure of whether it is a trick or not," comments the brown rat.


    "What is simple about it?" questions the Trena.


    Unwilling to stop and explain all the logical steps it would take to solve a block pushing puzzle, the puzzle-solving rat simply collects the key, decorated with an inlay of a shield, and brings it over to the central chamber.

 Random Puzzle

    By the ominously locked door, the black rat calls down to its expendable, temporary companions.


    "What''s down there?"


    "There''s a room, and it''s got torches on the wall. Still on fire by the way," comes the reply from below the bottom of the pit.


    "Drop on the ground and roll around or something. That should help," the rat leader suggests.


    "Also, some sort of green slime on the ground. It keeps running into me."


    "Are you still on fire? Wait, the slime keeps running into you?"


    "And now it''s on fire too."


    "What do you mean it''s running into you?"


    "Well it''s not doing it any more, it''s kind of melting."


    With every word it exchanges with the two creature, the black rat gets even more confused. The nature of these two creatures is unlike anything it had ever seen in a dungeon. Attempting to lessen the mysteries surrounding it even slightly, it calls down.


    "How was slime running into you?"


    "It''s a ball of slime, and it went toward me until it stopped being able to by my physical nature as a solid object."


    To itself, the rat complains, "I just don''t understand how a ball of slime moved..."This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Two rats investigate the room furthest from the entrance, moving right. The entire chamber is filled with a stone wall, making it a squarular hallway going around the place, only interrupted by the raised stone button in the furthest left corner of the room. Immediately, Trena steps on it.


    From the ceiling, a metal circle falls down between the button and the entrance to the room, sparking and making noise as a flame burns through a rope on the top.


    "What is that?" Trena asks, about to step towards the hissing black ball.


    "No! Stay back!" the brown rat shouts, stepping further away. "We don''t know what it is!"


    "Boom," says the bomb, blasting fire, smoke, and rubble away from itself.


    A cloud of dust fills the corridor, blocking vision for the brown rat, safely outside of the detonation radius.


    "Trena! Are you alright!?"


    "I found a five!"


    "A what?!"


    Trena steps out of the dust cloud, holding a key detailed with the image of the sun, and a metal weight with the number five engraved upon it. With the loot in tow, the two warriors head back to the central chamber.


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    While the one creature is busy faffing about down below, providing no useful information, the black-furred rat turns to the one within striking range and mentions, "I don''t know what it is about you but I just really want to punch you."


    "Go ahead then, get it out of your system," it says, resignedly, "We heal really quickly. "


    The fist that instantly arrives at the creature¡¯s face travels about three centimeters into the skull before inertia loses out to the momentum imparted, and the whole of the body follows as the head travels rapidly to the stone wall.


    ¡°Augh! My entire face!¡±


    It writhes on the ground for a full minute.


    ¡°Damn it, that hurt,¡± it says, climbing back to its feet, ¡°My turn now!¡±


    It pulls back it¡¯s arm and starts crackling with electricity.


    ¡°Hey!¡± comes from the hole, ¡°If you do that I¡¯m not healing you.¡±


    The electrical buildup is gone as quickly as it had come.


    ¡°Fine.¡±

 Halfway Through

    With one side of the dungeon entirely solved, the two warrior rats head up into the other offshooting room. The brown rat sets down to arrange the tiles in the various patterns it would take to create a pattern that fit with the images already emblazoned onto the stone. Unfortunately, unlike the keys the images here were simply a different color of rock rather than an actual engraving, so there was not a quick hint wherein the tiles would fit easily into the grooves. That would have been entirely too convenient, with the three or four tile pieces being able to fit into the indentation easily. At the very least, the brown rat could just put the pieces on the symbols that match them, and try and fit the other pieces into the puzzle where they would, but there were nine of each symbol so that was going to take quite a bit of trial and error. Also, the random hole in the middle stymied any attempt to put tiles over that area. They tried putting the five into the slot, but it certainly didn¡¯t fit.


    Trena quickly gets bored of watching and wanders back out into the central area.


    Out there, the scrawny rat investigating the dias notices that the circular block has a rat emblazoned upon it. Curious, they take out the cylinder. One of the ends has the engravings of the rat, while the other is covered with a depiction of a dragon. Also the doors close.


    Every single non-central rat jumps up at the fact that they are suddenly locked in a single square room, with no method of escape. The black rat starts yelling in the chittering rat language first, and the Trena walks over to the closed door to chitter back. The brown rat also yells, and Trena heads black over to that closed door to respond. Unfortunately for the rat caught in the middle, they end up as some sort of go-between translator between two rats stuck in traps on opposite sides.


    Eventually, the scrawny rat manages to interrupt the panicking with her discovery of the rat stone, and they show Trena where they pulled it from.


    Trena puts it back, and the doors open back up.


    Both rats burst in, and they start chittering loudly at each other. The brown rat steps up and has the scrawny one remove the piece again, at which point the doors close. To no one¡¯s surprise, the brown rat takes it and places it back into the slot, and the doors open again.


    "Ah, okay. So this is the solution to the doors."


    They scrape a note into the stone floor regarding the positions of the stones, and removes the cylinder, closing the door again. Repeating the action with all the other stone blocks, the brown rat sets them aside and tries the other shaped blocks scattered about the chamber, slotting them into the correct position. With the doors not opening even though the slots are filled, the rat resets the original pieces into the holes, opening the door.


    Spotting a smooth, image-less cube, the brown-furred rat excitedly runs over to the unsolved puzzle and slots it into the inconvenient hole. The eyeball floats after the rat, watching the excited creature''s actions.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.


    ¡°Cube goes into hole, and then the tile won¡¯t fall in! Perfect. Trena, now that I¡¯ve solved the hard part, you finish it off,¡± the brown-furred rat states, walking with the black-furred rat over to the locked door, keys in hand.


    ¡°But Terash, you didn¡¯t do anything!¡± Trena complains, settling down to assemble the nine by nine grid.


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    "Damnit," Terash says again, before turning to the group behind him with his hands raised. "Can anybody here read?"


    "Yeah, just a sec," responds the creature they had brought in with them, stepping up to the writing on the wall. For some reason, there was only one of them, though Terash was fairly certain that there had been two of them earlier. ¡°Across time, summer looks at her compatriots. Before, the guard of life, beyond the waning of it. Life burns brightly.¡±


    ¡°This key has a sun on it, and the sun is hot. The sun is life? So the sun goes in the middle, with the shield on the left¡­ That leaves one key to find.¡±


    "Waning of it?¡± The black-furred rat bursts out, ¡°Are they mocking us for wanting to get our queen back? ¡®''Life burns brightly.'' Pah!"


    ¡°Keep hold of your temper Yeshi,¡± snaps Terash, ¡°we¡¯ve not yet been attacked directly, but anything could set off the rage of a watching dungeon. The further we can get without bringing down the defenders, the better our chances of retrieving Queen Miradeen.¡±


    Glowering, Yeshi returns to staring at the door, hand on his broken sword. Satisfied that their leader wasn¡¯t going to do anything rash, Terash returns to check on Trena¡¯s progress on the puzzle.


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    ¡°Oh good, you¡¯re done,¡± Terash comments as he walks into the room.


    ¡°Lady Marianna helped. She said there isn¡¯t supposed to be more than one of the same symbol in a line,¡± replies Trena.


    ¡°Of course. Lady Marianna¡¯s assistance is already proving invaluable.¡±


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Yeshi paces back and forth in the door room. Idly making conversation, he speaks generally in the direction of the only other creature in the room.


    "You know, I''ve not been itchy since we entered here. Is there some kind of anti-flea magic?"


    "Ah. You might want to have someone look over your fur. There might be a bunch of corpses in it now," responds said creature, not wanting to even get near the idea of volunteering for that job.


    "Wow. I wish Lady Marianna could get that kind of magic."


    "It''s probably not worth the cost."


    "What are you talking about? No fleas! What could possibly not be worth an itch-free life?"


    "How would you like to have everyone you meet want to punch you in the face?"


    "Ah. Yeah, makes sense,¡± the warrior rat admits. "Then again... We haven''t led the best lives. Trena is the only one who''s had a good upbringing, and that¡¯s basically because she hasn¡¯t had one at all."


    "I can relate at least a bit to that. All of my kind were brought into existence for a singular purpose, to serve our creators with the abilities they imbued within us. There are safeguards built into our very being to prevent us from rebelling, and outside our niche we''re completely useless."


    ¡°So you are dungeon spawn.¡±

 Floor One Puzzles

    Terash and Trina step into the rightward room. There are stone walls blocking the left side, and a long stone wall on the right, with a single gap allowing one person to fit through behind each. On the right side, there is a passageway around the wall, while on the left side there is an ominous button.


    "Careful, Trena," Terash warns the other warrior. "You remember what happened last time we stepped on one of those buttons."


    Directly ahead of the door is a block, which Terash finds moves easily with pushing. Deciding not to do anything rash with that at the moment, the brown rat checks the corners of the room, discovering another ominous button hidden around an alcove on the right back edge, and a weight with a ¡®minus eight¡¯ inscribed upon it. That made absolutely no sense, and the urge to just throw the object into the nearby pit does not overwhelm the warrior. Instead, Terash simply has Trena stand opposite the pit, and pushes the block back toward the block-sized gap, then up to where the blue-ish rat waited to push it into the hole.


    Nothing happens.


    "Damnit..."


    "What? You think we have to touch the buttons?"


    "Exactly. And after last time, I don''t trust this dungeon''s buttons."


    Terash sends Trena over to the hidden button, reasoning that since there was no way to maneuver a block into that hole it had to be safe to stand on. With slight trepidation, the brown-furred rat goes to stand on the button immediately visible from the entrance of the room. When both buttons are pressed at the same time...This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    A bell rings and a key, emblazoned with the image of a crescent moon, falls from the sky.


    "This dungeon takes joy in psychological torment, I see."


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    With only one room left to explore, Terash enters the leftward chamber cautiously, entirely expecting traps, explosives, and every guardian they had so far been lucky enough to avoid. Instead, there is an enormous scale, with several weights littering the ground around it. One side of the scale is nearly touching the ground, while the other is raised up to slightly above the ratfolk¡¯s head level. A key floats on a pillar of water, at the level of the lower circle of the scale.


    "Is it really so simple..." Terash murmurs.


    "Yeah this seems like it''s designed to waste our time," Trena says.


    Starting with the heaviest weight, at ten, Terash puts weight in until the scale tips, at twenty three with a ten weight, a seven weight, and a six weight. That put the necessary number at somewhere between eighteen and twenty two, and they had left two fives and a negative eight.


    Replacing the seven with a five, the scale stayed down, narrowing the upper bound to twenty-one. Replacing the ten with the seven, the scale went back up, narrowing the lower bound to eighteen, and requiring them to toss the other five into the bucket to get to the other weights again. With a slight bit of thinking, Terash removes all the weights and puts in the ten and two fives, which results in the scale being lowered still. Clearly, the answer is nineteen.


    The only way to get that number was to put in the seven, and the negative eight.


    "That wasn''t any fun," Terash comments, as the scales even out.


    The stream of water rises through the center of the scales, and matches with a small hole in the side of the mechanism. Falling down into a slide, a key engraved with a depiction of a skull lands in front of the two ratfolk.

 Floor One Solved

    Very close to the entrance of the dungeon, all the warrior rats stand in front of the locked door. They pointedly ignore the other creature standing around, and the lack of other other creature, in favor of paying attention to Terash using logic on the keys.


    ¡°The sun goes in the middle, with the shield on the left. That leaves two keys to try on the right keyhole. Waning life is death, which is the skull, but the moon also wanes. The key itself doesn¡¯t help there because the crescent is in fact in the shape of a waning moon...¡±


    ¡°Just try both,¡± commands Yeshi, ¡°that would be faster than you trying to figure it out.¡±


    ¡°Of course,¡± the brown-furred rat acquests, pushing the shield, sun, and moon keys into the slots.


    Nothing happens.


    The rat replaces the moon key with the skull key.


    Nothing continues to happen.


    ¡°I must be missing something then,¡± Terash muses. ¡°¡°Across time, summer looks at her compatriots. Before, the guard of life, beyond the waning of it. Life burns brightly¡­ Wait, if summer is the observer, the sun key is looking at all the other ones! The moon goes in the center!¡±


    Changing out the center key, the ratfolk wait with baited breath.


    Nothing happens.


    ¡°Why? I¡¯ve tried every possibility, reexamined the puzzle, come up with the true solution, and still nothing! There¡¯s nothing left to try, the puzzle ends here!¡±


    ¡°Try turning them?¡± suggests Trena.


    Silence.


    Terash turns all the keys to the right.


    Nothing happens.


    ¡°Still nothing! Logical thought has failed, and the dungeon cares not for the sanctity of a puzzle solution! We¡¯ve reached the end of every path for no reward, and are stymied for no reason at all.¡±


    Yeshi steps forward, turning the shield key back. He overshoots, turning it all the way to the left.


    ¡°And another thing-¡±


    ¡°Hey, that¡¯s new,¡± interjects Trena.


    Terash stops the rant, and looks at Yeshi, then at the key turning the other way.


    ¡°I¡¯ve solved it!¡± the rat announces, turning the moon key. Before the key can turn the full rotation to the left, it sticks at the neutral position, and the three panels of the door slide apart, revealing the chamber beyond.


    Cautiously, the four step forward into the new room, the rats more cautiously than the other creature. There is a complete emptiness, other than a stone signpost with writing on it in the center of the room.


    ¡°Creature,¡± says Yeshi, gesturing at the one that hadn¡¯t been lost to the pit for all time, ¡°read that.¡±


    ¡°Got it,¡± it responds, walking up to the sign. ¡°Under construction.¡±


    ¡°What is that supposed to mean?¡± asks Trena.


    ¡°I would guess that it means this part doesn¡¯t have anything in it yet,¡± responds the creature.


    ¡°Why would a room with nothing in it need such an elaborate locking mechanism?¡± questions Yeshi, incredulous at how something that took so long could not be even required to get to the dungeon core.


    ¡°I have a terrible thought,¡± starts Terash. He walks over to the pit. ¡°Was there anything in that pit hole?¡±


    ¡°Yes, the other creature found some sort of living slime, and killed it with fire,¡± Yeshi informs the brown-furred rat.


    ¡°Still burning, by the way,¡± a voice comes from down below.


    "So THIS is the kind of Dungeon we''re dealing with! It relishes the psychological torment and struggling of the challengers! It offers the solution but makes it appear as though it were a trap!" Terash seemed to be having a slight mental breakdown.


    It has been brought to my attention by my brain, belatedly, that as this collaborative effort is in fact canon and relevant to the plot of the story, it would serve as due dilligance to at least provide a quick outline as to what it supposed to take place during the course of the parts that require input from the other side before I can definitively publish the events as they unfold within the various dungeons, if only to provide explanations as to changes in character mental state and abilities.


    Most of those changes are in fact rendered irrelevant due to the conclusion of such events, but even still it is worth mentioning.


    Recap:


    Events as They Unfold


    The God (Gladius) summons forth the dungeons to do battle, in the form of (Gladius shows up, is like ¡°hey, I was looking for some action.¡± and the next thing they know, they¡¯re locked into a dungeon war on a small chunk of planet or something).


    Experimental Dungeon at Chapter 44: Wherein the dungeon has 3 adventurers, 1 unconcious to-be-corpse, 3 unbound monsters, 1 Monster, and *Error* slimes.


    Cannibal Dungeon at Chapter 22 dungeon, pre-invasion: Wherein the dungeon has 0 adventurers, 12 ratmen, 1 ¡°unicorn¡±, 1 dreadnought.


    Prologue outline: (As copied from the shared document) (Subject to changed at any moment, and in fact may not be accurate relative to already published material)


    Turn One Experimental Dungeon:


    Experimental Dungeon Core goes ¡®Oh fuck¡¯, is questioned by unbound monster 1. Adventurers reach puzzle 1, roll for Int. Unbound monster 2 activates healing on unconcious to-be-corpse as unbound monster 3 heckles. Monster remains in drowning state, dies. Slime reproduce.


    Turn one Cannibal Dungeon:


    Mari has vague memories of being doomed, but she can¡¯t place it, because Gladius wiped her mind a little bit/took her from the past. Doesn¡¯t want to war, but when Miradeen is missing, and Gladius tells her it¡¯s because of the other dungeon, she goes nuts.


    Turn two Experimental Dungeon: Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.


    Adventures do solve puzzle, split up to check each of three rooms. Unbound monster 1 waits to ambush. Unbound Monster 2 finishes healing no-longer-corpse. Unbound Monster 3 notices Dungeon War. Monster remains in drowning state, revives. Slime reproduce. Dungeon Core informs Unbound Monster 1 that either it kills the dungeon that is now next to them or it will kill everyone. More to the point, it will kill the core and that would consign the everything to oblivion. Rant about how it completed the tutorial ages ago and that negative passive mana regeneration was an indicator of efficient killing, not just incompetent design choices.


    Turn two Cannibal Dungeon:


    Mari sends out the rats, unicorn returns. She tries to speak with Gladius, but he doesn¡¯t answer. Rats are sent out with the goal of retrieving Miradeen. Terash proposes they attempt to carry one of Mari¡¯s Overseers so she can see and communicate with them. He gives a bit of a speech about how Baruk should be standing leader. Rats are convinced from his behavior and history that perhaps he should instead be standing leader. Rats travel through the short forest to approach the new dungeon, noting that the area is completely different from before. The forest now has an air of magic and a heavy feeling about it. Swords are sticking out of the ground in a central field, and corpses and skeletons lay felled around. Clearly, it was a battlefield. They approach the secondary dungeon.


    Turn three Experimental Dungeon:


    Adventurer 1 (Stabby) is the one to enter the forward door, determines immediately that there¡¯s a pit trap in the center of the room. Avoids it, discovers the door forward needs three keys. Attempts to return, gets pocket sand to the face as Unbound Monster 1 gets out of the pit and runs toward the entrance. Adventurer 2 (Shooty) is perplexed by puzzle, Adventurer 3 (Smashy) solves the rightward puzzle with ease, opening two more puzzle doors. No-Longer Corpse awakens, discovers immediately through the function of having eyes that there is no longer a cliff on the other side of the dungeon, but instead a battlefield of rotting corpses and rusting swords through trees; greets Unbound Monsters 2 and 3 with invectives, is responded to in kind. Unbound Monsters 2 and 3 decide to investigate the clearly haunted forest, leave not-corpse to its whims. Monster remains in drowning state, begins drowning. Slime reproduce. Dungeon core stays very still, with no one to talk to; considers sending out a slime wave.


    Turn three Cannibal Dungeon:


    Mari views the battlefield through her Overseer, but has no idea if it¡¯s extremely different until the rats tell her, since she never saw the previous outside very well. Rats approach other entrance, noting that the exterior of the new dungeon is extremely different. While Terash is flummoxed by the lack of a dungeon sign, Yeshi suggests reconnaissance. Two rats sneak up the hill, approaching the double door.


    Turn four Experimental Dungeon:


    Avery attempts to run back and forth between the buttons, fails to open the door. Unbound Monster 3 states that all that greenery starting from the center of the riverbed is going to make it useless. Unbound Monster 2 replies it can hold things. <Rat Encounter> <Unbound Monster 2 attempts to be nonthreatening, showing they have no weapons> <Unbound Monster 3 starts to pull out a weapon, is smacked upside the head by Unbound Monster 2> Unbound Monster 1 opens doors, runs out of dungeon, tells Avery that there¡¯s no time to explain and runs toward battlefield. Adventurer 1 (Stabby) reaches room 1, goes to the rightward room to collect Adventurer 3 (Smashy). Adventurer 3 (Smashy) is perplexed by tiles. Adventurer 2 (Shooty) decides the puzzle is unsolvable and goes to room 1. Monster remains in drowning state, drowns. Slime reproduce. Dungeon core coaxes a blue slime to the first floor entry, is stymied in the attempt to attack adventurers by slime¡¯s lack of legs.


    Turn four Cannibal Dungeon:


    For an inexplicable reason, the rats feel irritated and bothered by the monsters¡¯ presences. One has a bad feeling about their appearance. Consult for encounter. Post-turn four e-dungeon.


    Am writing this in a separate doc so i don¡¯t have to paste the turn five words. Will post here when done.


    Turn five Experimental Dungeon:


    [DUNGEON]. Also, Battlefield for Invader 1 and Not-Corpse.


    Turn six Experimental Dungeon:


    FLOOR 2: FIGHT


    With all that catch up done with, a giant wall of text begins.


    And now for the speculative part, based on discussions with the other author regarding how the event would unfold in broad strokes:


    To start with, Experiment 31 and Avery would be pursued through the forest battlefield by the adventurers. Due to Avery''s reluctance to follow without further explanation, they were not afforded the luxury of a signifigant head start after the Fighting McFightertons were waylaid by the interacting with the Cannibal Dungeon''s Ratfolk. Rather, both groups would arrive at the dungeon in quick succession, at which point they would have a choice to make.


    Avery and the Experiment argue about dungeoneering conventions, with Avery holding the belief that the tried and true method of ''the right hand rule'' was simply the method to use when confronted with a split in the path, while the Experiment was adement about the viability of the alternate method, that of the ''left foot law''. Avery decries the method as a subversion of all that is good in the world, perpetrated only by goblin infiltrators, and enforces her will physically upon her erstwhile companion, taking them both down the rightward path of the Cannibal Dungeon. Interesting to note, the fact that the dungeon in question had three paths meant that there was absolutetly no chance of them taking the direct central route straight to the core.


    Stabby, Shooty, and Smashy show up slightly after the dynamic duo make their way down the rightward path, and decide quickly that there was an equal chance that their quarry had gone down any of the three tunnels. Fortunately, that meant that each of them could go down one tunnel and signal the others through the single use quantem-entangled glass balls each of them carried with them, should they run into a problem and require assistance. With that in mind, the adventurers split up.


    Unknown monster composition of the dungeon renders further speculation somewhat difficult, but included in discussion were the interactions between Avery''s necromancy and the massive undead monstrocity known as a ''Dreadnaught'', as well as the interaction between the Experiment and the acid of another of the Dungeon''s defenders.


    [9:00 PM] Vali: i can imagine the fight with the unicorn


    [9:01 PM] Vali: "ow. i''m melting. help."


    [9:01 PM] Vali: "pocket sand!"


    [9:01 PM] Vali: neighs in frustration


    [9:01 PM] kgy121: "Ah my bones. They''re all i have left"


    [9:02 PM] kgy121: "Have I mentioned I''m a necromancer?"


    [9:02 PM] kgy121: "Mine! I''m still using them!"


    Fun times and traumatic experiences all around.


    Meanwhile, the Cannibal Dungeon also has the strongest of the ratfolk as a defender; the massive greatsword wielding Baruk. Given the onus of defending the core from incoming invasion, the rat has a proper dark soul fight with Stabby, greatsword to greatsword. Stabby spams consumables, magical items, and summons the other two, just in time for Shooty to round the corner and fire an arrow at Baruk when he sees the rat stab through Stabby''s chest. Baruk escapes deeper into the cavern, and the two adventurers bring the greviously wounded Stabby to the enterance, lest he be unceremoniously coup de gracied by one of the monsters within the dungeon.


    Meanwhile, having made their way down into the core chamber, Avery and Marina quickly become friendly, the necromancer stopping the Experiment from breaking the core with the stone spear.


    After conversation, the subject of the dead blue core comes up, and Avery gets the bright idea to try using the Soul Jar spell on the new gem while already under the effects of the spell from the other gem. Naturally, Smashy and Shooty show up, and the Experiment and Baruk must work together to keep the Adventurers from delving too deep and interrupting whatever the two core personalites are trying to do without their input.


    At this point, the rats in the Experimental dungeon are probably knee deep in slimes. If not, it would certainly be far less than interesting, considering how incredibly tedium floor three of the dungeon is, particularly in regards to how many times one would have to go through it to get the conditions set up for the actual puzzle to be solvable. That would mean they have to open every chest, after having found every chest, most of which require a particular arrangement of the switches to even have the passasge which leads to that particular chest opening up, and then following the entire chain of doors up to the end point.


    Since they didn''t retrieve the keys left in the first floor door, they''d have to go back through all of that again to get those back too.


    As soon as the combat in the Cannibal Dungeon seems to have started to be a reasonable event, the Dreadnaught shows up, and recognizes the Experiment as an invading monster. Not incorrect, but it still sort of ruins the plan of ''keep everything out of the core chamber'' when it smashes the experiment through one of the walls and starts talking to Avery while she''s trying to cast. In a rare moment of foresight, she had laid down a magic circle against evil, which works handily at preventing an undead horror from pushing at the boundries of reality while she''s trying to fiddle with them. However, that does nothing to prevent its words from reaching her, causing some slight mental trauma.


    Completing the spell, Avery''s soul in entered into the Blue Dungeon Core, at which point the number of cores on one side of the Dungeon War is greater than the other sides by one. This triggers the win condition for the side with more cores, and all the dungeon mobs of the losing dungeon are reset to their original positions and states. This also meant wiping the memories of all the losing members; the various bodies associated with the Experimental Dungeon had their minds wiped, and their various consumables reset. Orbs, unshattered. Lungs, unpunctured. Flesh, unmelted. And of course, because of order of operations, the transmition back to the original location occured after reseting their physical conditions and memories, which left Avery''s soul, registered as a Cannibal Dungeon Core until the soul was removed in the transmission, with memories intact.


    After this point, the Cannibal Dungeon has their effects take place, and the god who started all of this mess tries to figure out what made the show stop just as it was getting good. The off by one error in the system code was quickly patched out, and the order of operations error was not even noticed.

 Dungeon War Conclusion

    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    You have lost a dungeon war. However, the victor has been merciful. You have not been destroyed, only reset.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Hidden in a hole on the first floor of it¡¯s five-floor dungeon, adventurers just now entering the dungeon, at zero mana, and in the only pathway to the second floor, a black gem slowly flakes to pieces next to the uncontrolled creature holding it hostage.


    ¡°Oh fuck.¡±


    ¡°Language.¡±


    ¡°Oh schei?e.¡±


    ¡°Ok, what?¡±


    ¡°I just got a notification that I was drafted into a Dungeon War due to poor performance, and lost.¡±


    ¡°Oof, too bad. Will that affect your availability for the trade partnership?¡±


    ¡°No. The other dungeon was a weak fool who did not subsume me.¡±


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Through a vitrified tunnel, the adventurers come across a room with locked doors, chests, and an altar in the center of the space. The three of them cautiously approach the center, finding it to be a stone slab indented with shapes and surrounded by writing; ¡®Sword stretched toward the sun, the adventurers split their focus to destroy the foe they most suit.¡¯


    ¡°Puzzles,¡± states Shooty grimly.


    ¡°Don¡¯t panic,¡± replies Stabby, gesturing toward the tunnel entrance, ¡°this place wasn¡¯t here last week, so the puzzles can¡¯t be that difficult. It takes time for dungeons to build up, and this is the first room. Basically an introduction to what the place is about.¡±


    ¡°I bet the things that go in the slots are in the chests,¡± Smashy contributes.


    Adventurers weren¡¯t always the smartest when comparing them to the random monsters they fought, like slimes, goblins, and kobolds, but most of them could figure out to put the square box into the square hole.


    ¡°They¡¯re puzzle chests,¡± Shooty moans morosely.


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Outside the sealed stone double doors of the dungeon, the two creatures were on the top of the slope next to the body, but still not doing anything about it.


    ¡°All I¡¯m saying is that we haven¡¯t been explicitly told to fix this human.¡±


    ¡°And all I¡¯m saying is that it costs me absolutely nothing to do it. If we get ordered to do it after we¡¯ve wandered off somewhere, we have to walk back up that slope.¡±


    ¡°It does too cost you something. You don¡¯t regenerate as effectively when you¡¯ve got the field up, anyone could shoot you in the face and anti-life you.¡±


    ¡°Like who? There¡¯s no one around to shoot me. Unless you¡¯re planning on it.¡±


    ¡°And how would you know I¡¯m not? Anyone could shoot anyone at any time for no reason whatsoever.¡±


    ¡°At least I know you don¡¯t have a weapon right now. You¡¯d be begging for healing if you did.¡±


    ¡°Unfair using logic to determine I¡¯m not aiming for your existence. These kinds of arguments are for emotion and fallacies only.¡±


    The first creature decides to use an emotional response to that, and smacks the other upside the head. An energy flows out from its entire being, and the body the two were bickering over has its wounds start to seal shut.


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Back in the altar room, Shooty stares at the contents of the ruined chests. Smashy had a most expedient method of solving the puzzle chests, that being his hammer, but the results were less than heartening.


    ¡°Why are there five of each shape?¡±


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    "Instead of trying to solve the puzzle all at once, see how all the blocks are the same except one side? That means those sides are the only ones that could be the answer, since otherwise any of the blocks would work,¡± reasons Smashy, turning one of the five deltohedron over in his hands. ¡°And this one has the sun on it. Do any of the other ones have a sun?¡±


    A flurry of motion from the other two had them turn over thirty stone shapes over to determine what was on each side. None of the ten sided shapes had a sun other than the noted one; each image was doubled on the other side, making five per stone block. All of those had a picture of a shield, a sword, a bottle, and a flute, which by Smashy¡¯s hypothesis meant the options for the correct answer would be one of the sun, the moon, a star, a key, or a jigsaw puzzle piece. Going through the other sets of shapes proved that there were in fact no suns of any sort. One of the cubes was even completely blank.


    ¡°Alright. So this piece goes into the hole, sun facing toward the center, and the dial in the middle with all the pieces on it has the sword facing toward the sun. That leaves the rogue, the bard, the cleric, and the wizard with slots to fill, and the fighter doesn¡¯t need to face anything at all,¡± Smashy logically deduced, ¡°and with the positions established, we can see which opponents each party member would be best against in that shape group. Beyond that, the patterns probably repeat again so we could eliminate options that way.¡±


    ¡°Ugh, there are way too many steps for this thing to be the first puzzle of a beginner dungeon,¡± complains Shooty, ¡°why can¡¯t they be simple like the door puzzle to get in here?¡±


    ¡°Because now we¡¯re actually in the dungeon,¡± states Stabby, ¡°which means it has a reason to keep us here.¡±


    The two uneasily look toward the ceiling and walls. No vents start hissing poisonous smoke, no monster drops from above upon their suspicions. Smashy continued checking through the die shaped blocks, and the other two decided soundlessly to keep an eye out for any sort of change in their surroundings.


    ¡°Got it,¡± announced Smashy, ¡°since this group had the blank one, only have three options for the rogue. It¡¯s not the knight, lich, pile of vines, slime, ball of fire, or nothing, so there¡¯s a zombie, a skeleton, a ghost, or a mage. Pretty sure you can¡¯t stab a ghost, and that slitting a zombie¡¯s throat doesn¡¯t do much, so that leaves the mage.¡±


    ¡°And there¡¯s three more of these? How long are we going to be stuck here?¡± Shooty asks rhetorically.


    ¡°Less time if you help,¡± replies Smashy, a bit of irritation in his tone, ¡°It¡¯s not hard to go ¡®hey there¡¯s two of this one, can¡¯t be those¡¯.¡±


    ¡°Shooty, you keep being prepared to do your thing to anything that tries to attack us, I¡¯ll start going through the triangles.¡±


    A few moments pass, and then both of them have new results to share.


    ¡°This thing is for the cleric. Knight, the vine thing, and the mage are all out, which leaves this assassin guy, a dragon, the moon, a lightning skeleton, and a jigsaw puzzle piece. Pretty obvious that the undead are weak against clerics though,¡± says Smashy.


    ¡°Mine has multiples of devil, golem, and some sort of giant monster. That leaves a chest, a bottle, a ball of fire, the vines again, and a giant army,¡± Stabby adds in.


    ¡°That goes to mage, and I have no clue about that one. We¡¯ll just leave it to last and do the other one.¡±


    Remaining unchecked was the pile for the bard. Those were tubes of stone with an image on each side. The two adventurers quickly started shouting out what was on each side to the other, trying to determine which images were doubled.


    ¡°Dragon!¡±


    ¡°Rat! Next one.¡±


    ¡°Golem!¡±


    ¡°Assassin! Next.¡±


    ¡°Skeleton!¡±


    ¡°Knight! Next.¡±


    ¡°Assassin, not it.¡±


    ¡°Skeleton, not it.¡±


    ¡°Dragon, not it.¡±


    ¡°Knight, not it.¡±


    ¡°So it¡¯s either a golem, which is a mindless creature bards can¡¯t do anything with, or a rat.¡±The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    ¡°Definitely rat.¡±


    ¡°What a dunk on bards.¡±


    The two slide the cylinder into the bard slot, and check the pyramids in the wizard spot one after the other, until the army slots into place and the three doors click open. With a nod toward each other, having confirmed through this room there weren¡¯t actually any traps or monsters to ambush them while they were solving the puzzles, the three split to check the left, forward, and rightward puzzle door rooms.


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Outside the dungeon, the aura receded. A completely intact human now laid on the depressed button, whereas before it was a collection of limbs, attached to each other but too broken to be called a person.


    ¡°See, no one shot me.¡±


    ¡°Luck.¡±


    ¡°Proper observational skills.¡±


    ¡°Oh yeah? Then why didn¡¯t you notice the gun pointed at your head?¡±


    ¡°No, no, I did. You wouldn¡¯t shoot your healer after damaging yourself so much to produce one of those things just to have a good line.¡±


    ¡°Damn you and your bluff calling.¡±


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    ¡°This is taking forever,¡± whispered the creature to the gem floating beside it. ¡°Why can¡¯t you just open the door?¡±


    ¡°I could, but you¡¯ve yet to give me any reason to allow intruders easier access. My survival is of utmost importance, both to myself and to you¡­ If you want to receive any benefits from our deal, of course.¡±


    ¡°Where¡¯s the trust? I¡¯ve got a plan, but that plan involves doing things quickly, and not talking about the plan for ages. I¡¯m sure I¡¯d survive long enough to explain, but you probably wouldn¡¯t, particularly since you¡¯re flaking.¡±


    ¡°Of course I¡¯m flaking, your presence is by far outstripping the passive mana gain from those invaders, and that¡¯s not even accounting for all the monsters living off the dungeon mana. I need drastic change, and the zero mana I have now is not going to manage it.¡±


    ¡°Well, try checking the lowest level.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s¡­ An underground cistern. That¡¯s enough water to power a dungeon that produces hundreds of monsters a day!¡±


    ¡°Ah, so that¡¯s what¡¯s down there. Didn¡¯t you know? I had to chase you down while you were boring directly toward it earlier.¡±


    ¡°My map function told me there was an open area down below. A natural cave would provide commensurate natural mana generation, which I could leverage to offset the negative generation I find myself saddled with.¡±


    ¡°And yet, I notice you are still flaking.¡±


    ¡°Due to the nature of my¡­ Removal from my previous dungeon, I am left with deep imperfections within my structure. Obviously, such flaws are unsuitable for a gemstone of my magnificence, and so I must sacrifice carets to fix the underlying problem before I can grow back to my full power.¡±


    ¡°I think the door just opened. Down the hole you go.¡±


    ¡°How dare yooooooou-¡±


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Cautiously stepping into the room, Stabby immediately notices the first trap of the dungeon. A large ¡®rug¡¯ of fabric, similar to the one they had passed on the way into the previous puzzle room. The center was sagging into the ground, clearly covering a pit extremely badly. The room was three times the width of the pit, so he simply walked to the side and went around the giant hole. Stuck to the far side of the wall, a door stood tall. Three keyholes, and a poem adorned the spearpoint portal blocking the way deeper in.


    ¡°Across time, summer looks at her compatriots. Before, the guard of life, beyond the waning of it. Life burns brightly.¡±


    Stabby considers for a moment.


    ¡°Completely pointless nonsense.¡±


    He turns away from the locked door, and starts heading back to the central chamber to inform the others of the dead end. As he steps near the obvious trap however, he hears a soft wail within his mind, sinking into metaphorical depths. Deciding on his course of action instantly, he stabs out at the cloth. The greatsword pierces the fabric easily, but below a force slams the weapon into the side of the stone pit, pulling the cover with it. Before Stabby can react, a handful of grit jabs into his eyeballs. He keeps a hold on his weapon, but is unable to connect with the fleeing creature that hit him with pocket sand before it escapes.


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Shooty looked over the shallow pit with symbols emblazoned upon various tiles. Glancing around the empty room, he looks at the ten centimeter deep hole in the very center of the arrangement.


    ¡°What the hell.¡±


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Casually walking into the rightward room, Smashy sees the braziers in each of the corners, and the torch on the wall. Ignoring the pile of tiles in the center of the room, he pulls the flaming stick off the wall and ignites the coals in each of the obvious places. At the far end of the room, and the left wall, doors slide down as a chime rings out for a puzzle solved.


    ¡°Easy beginner dungeon.¡±


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Avery wakes up. She was not in that dungeon anymore. If the spell didn¡¯t work...


    She blinked.


    D¨¦j¨¤ vu. Sitting up straight, she feels as though she had experienced this before. The river outside her cave didn¡¯t exist, but the capitol certainly did.


    ¡°Hey, what happened? Is the dungeon war over?¡±


    The two invaders looked at each other.


    ¡°No idea, and, also, no idea,¡± says the one on the left. ¡°I mean, we just got here. I healed you, that one threatened to kill me, and nothing else has happened.¡±


    Avery sits up straighter.


    ¡°Where did thirty one go? You look like the same type of creature.¡±


    ¡°Haven¡¯t seen it yet. Might have gotten distracted by something shiny, that happens a lot.¡±


    ¡°There was the acid, and it dissolved everything down to the bone. And that horrible maw..."


    ¡°Look, I don¡¯t know what it told you, but I can only deal with physical injuries. I¡¯m not a psychiatrist.¡±


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Down on the second floor, the gemstone sits below the hole leading upward. Normally when it had time to itself, it could focus on monster spawn rates and trap placement. Right now, it didn¡¯t have the blueprints to any of the monsters it would like to summon, and needed to focus on the rate it burnt away mass, so it didn¡¯t overshoot the crack. At the most, it would be able to micromanage the units it already had.


    Slimes.


    Lesser slimes.


    It had spent hundreds of mana it didn¡¯t have the last time it was conscious. These lesser slimes weren¡¯t even enough to slow down that infuriating monster, even in the mass quantity it had summoned. Now that it had slaughtered its way through them, they would prove to be less than a nuisance to any invader that tried to make their way down to its innermost depths.


    There were only¡­


    Actually there were far more than it had summoned. And they had evolved. It could work with that. Slimes were well known to be versatile when they evolve.


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    She didn¡¯t need therapy. She just needed the universe to stop flipping around. And some space.


    ¡°Back off a bit, I just fought some sort of massive necromantic construct that only spoke in the most disturbing possible ways.¡±


    ¡°Oh, you and thirty-one had a fight?¡± consoles the healing creature.


    ¡°I doubt any human would refer to any thirty-one as ¡®massive¡¯,¡± interjects the one holding some sort of metal bar.


    ¡°There¡¯s not been a conversation between him and me that hasn¡¯t been antagonistic,¡± Avery responds.


    ¡°Oh, he. Maybe this one was referring to the thirty-one.¡±


    The door to the dungeon slides open. Before she could react to the feeling of having been dragged off a cliff in this exact scenario, Avery sees the thirty-one sprinting out.


    ¡°What happened, and why am I out here?¡± she asks, pressing herself against the stone wall to prevent a repetition of the cliff.


    ¡°No time to explain,¡± it says, running past her to the other two creatures. It grabs both their heads, and they start a group huddle, whispering at each other, leaving Avery completely out of the loop.


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Stabby almost gives into his instincts to chase down the hengeyokai on his own, before remembering how stupid of an idea it would be to not let anyone know where it was going. As soon as he passes the doorway into the center room, he beelines directly to the door Smashy had gone into. He was the one more likely to solve puzzles, and thus go further into the dungeon without any intervention.


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Smashy could have gone further into the dungeon, since he¡¯d already solved the puzzle and opened the door, but the tiles were still a mystery to examine. They had a set of nine symbols on them, and came in an assortment of shapes. There didn¡¯t seem to be any pattern in how the symbols were arranged on the tiles themselves, other than that no symbol had been directly next to another of its type on the same piece. There was one that had two copies of two symbols on one two by two grid, but that was a rarity. With nine symbols, it was rare to get the same one anywhere on the tile.


    As if to deliberately interrupt his thought process, Stabby barges into the room and immediately starts yelling.


    ¡°Quit solving puzzles and come back, he got past me and is escaping!¡±


    ¡°Fine, but we¡¯re definitely exploring this place later, it¡¯s great!¡±


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Both of the knowledgeable ones head toward Shooty¡¯s room, only to find him already entering the central chamber.


    ¡°The puzzle is impossible,¡± he informs them.


    ¡°Well, we¡¯re leaving anyway. Hengeyokia got past me, it¡¯s out there somewhere now,¡± Stabby informs him.


    ¡°There was just a pit with a bunch of random symbols on it. There was nothing to do,¡± he continues.


    ¡°Yeah,¡± states Smashy, ¡°the pieces are in my room.¡±


    ¡°This place is the worst. We better not come back,¡± Shooty continues, walking out of the dungeon.


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Taking stock of the various slimes within the dungeon, the core files the abilities of each for future reference. There were the generic lesser slimes, which were completely useless. However, some of the lesser slimes had evolved to regular slimes. Those were somewhat durable, and were capable of engulfing a medium sized creature, rendering them helpless and potentially dead if they remained engulfed long enough to asphyxiate.


    Yellow slimes were almost as useless as regular lesser slimes, but their adhesive innards could slow a creature¡¯s movements if it caught the spray upon killing it.


    The orange slimes though, those were useful. They were acidic enough to burn a creature down to the skeleton¡­ Assuming they were slow enough to stand directly in its path long enough for the fragile bag of liquid to make its way over to them and burst directly on top of the invader. Generally they were just as large of a hazard to every other slime, or more so, than for an intruder. With a dungeon core directing them, though, they might actually be able to accomplish something.


    Blue slimes, on the other hand, were far better for all dungeon purposes than the other types. As the defensive bodies of a slime nest, they had deadliness, a moderate turning radius, and the ability to leap at a target. Their only weakness was that they were still evolved from lesser slimes, and would die from a single blow, including from other blue slimes if they attacked the same target.


    But what the core had at the last made every slime in the entire dungeon worthwhile. It had a Greater Blue Slime. The rotating wheel of teeth, the biological spine boomerangs, the infectious tooth explosion ability. Any lesser slime struck by a fired tooth would evolve into a blue slime. Any human struck by the tooth would have a hole there instead. The teeth would deflect blades. The boomerangs would slice an invader in half.


    Perhaps it was time for a change.

 Negotiations

    "All right, break,¡± one of the creatures states.


    Avery can sort of tell them apart. One is slightly bulkier, muscle-wise. One has a piece of metal in his hand, but is bulkier in non-muscular ways. The original invader just looks somewhat generic, in comparison. The club-wielding creature¡¯s stomach growls.


    ¡°Do you need to eat something before we start this?¡± asks the invader.


    ¡°I¡¯m fine, only grabbed one thing,¡± replies the somewhat stocky creature.


    They were all small by human comparison. The same height, the same approximate weight, even the same number of appendages. She had never seen any of their species around before though, which was somewhat confusing considering that the capital generally had a collection of at least some of every sapient creature visit at regular intervals. Granted, that did not include generally monstrous species, such as kobolds and goblins, as attempts at diplomacy with those types of creature were typically limited to, at most, the tribal level. These new creatures didn¡¯t seem to be quite as disorganized as those lower monstrous races tended to be, and it would have stood to reason that at some point a diplomatic mission to the human capital would have been in the cards.


    There were probably further logical steps Avery could take, but she was far too frazzled to walk the distance at the moment.


    ¡°Am I the only one who has no idea what¡¯s going on?¡± she asks angrily.


    ¡°Nah,¡± replies the invader, ¡°pretty much everyone is making up everything as they go along. Since capabilities in perception and intellect are finite, there is no way for any given person to keep track of all the variables that affect any given situation. As such, the best any one being can hope for is the ability to react to what changes in environment affect their own person in a way that leads to a more positive outcome, as opposed to being able to know for certain that when one drops a rock, that rock is going to hit the ground. Even facts which we regard as universal truths can end up being a changing variable, so counting on gravity to always exist would backfire immediately upon being blasted into space.¡±


    ¡°I meant more immediately,¡± Avery clarifies.


    ¡°In that case, yes.¡±


    The rock door of the dungeon slides out of the way on its own, revealing three extremely muscular humans. They stop short, seeing themselves outnumbered. Looking toward his companions, the human with the greatsword states, ¡°Just like we practiced.¡±


    Stepping forward into the natural light, Avery can see that he¡¯s clothed in blue. Raising his blade high, he starts speaking.


    ¡°Cutting through the darkness with implacable will, Stabby McStabbington is a sword slicing with the power of light!¡±


    With that, he kneels down off to the right side of the cavern entrance, greatsword held in both hands, angled further off to the right. The man with the bow steps forward in line, revealing a green cloak inadequately covering biceps pulling an arrow to full draw.


    ¡°But a sword has the limit of reach. Shooting McShootyton is the arrow, flying toward the sky!¡±This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    He kneels down next to the blue man, more to the left of the entrance, and points his weapon off into the distance. Striding forward into the space between the two, the last man reveals a shirtless chest and pink pants. Holding a warhammer above his head, forearms at perfect ninety-degree angles to the biceps, and biceps parallel to the ground, he takes up the entire empty space between the first two humans.


    ¡°None of that helps against a solid barrier. That¡¯s where Smashy McSmashyton comes in, breaking down any obstacle in our way!¡±


    In unison, the three humans shout ¡°Together, ¡®The Fighting McFightertons¡¯ can overcome any challenge! Fight, fight, fight!¡±


    The hammer-guy doesn¡¯t stop, and just goes ¡°Smashy, that¡¯s right!¡±


    Without moving from their poses, the other two glare at him for a moment, then return to their stances.


    Without missing a beat, the invader steps forward, thrusting the stone spear into the sky.


    ¡°A spear moves ever forward, and an unbreakable body behind it drives the momentum. Thirty-one leads the charge into the unknown!¡±


    The weaponless creature steps forward, hands clasped behind his back.


    ¡°Unbreaking does not mean indestructible. When life is on the line, Forty-Five is here to ensure continuous functionality.¡±


    Following suit, the ¡®stocky¡¯ of the creatures steps in line, holding the metal bar with his tail, hands clasped behind his back like the weaponless one.


    ¡°When delving deep in the unknown, supplies are never assured. Not unless you have Fifty-Three keeping everything in line!¡±


    The three of them look at Avery. The humans also start to stare, waiting for her introduction.


    The silence stretches for long seconds.


    ¡°I¡¯m not participating in this,¡± she states.


    ¡°Well that just throws off the entire rhythm,¡± complains the invader. ¡°Something something undying.¡±


    ¡°So you¡¯re an adventuring party,¡± reasons Stabby, ¡°and not an elemental demon that has begun wreaking havoc upon the environment of the capitol to pave the way for an invasion?¡±


    ¡°Uh, probably not,¡± starts the invader. ¡°I mean, we haven¡¯t even made contact yet.¡±


    Well, that explained why Avery hadn¡¯t seen anything like them before.


    ¡°Should we be expecting an influx of hengeyokai to our area?¡± questions Smashy. ¡°Because if so it would likely serve the interests of peaceful coexistence to bring you up to the central adventurer¡¯s guild and have some material posted about how creatures matching your description are not invasive monsters ready to kill anyone they come across.¡±


    ¡°I think the box full of severed limbs is more important to ask about,¡± snaps Shooty, ¡°because this ¡®Thirty-One¡¯ was standing right on it.¡±


    ¡°Oh, that was us,¡± states the unarmed creature. ¡°I was there to ensure continuous functionality.¡±


    ¡°It was a really tight squeeze though,¡± adds the other one.


    ¡°I¡¯m just gonna put my arms down,¡± interjects the invader, doing so. The spear remains where he left it, pointing at the sky.


    ¡°You¡¯re trying to tell me you reconstituted two full people out of separated body parts, that were left in a box, while you yourself were in pieces? I don¡¯t buy it,¡± the archer snarls.


    ¡°How about we head down to there and take a good look at it?¡± suggests the invader. ¡°It was definitely full when you chased me away from it, and now that these two have pulled themselves together, it¡¯ll be empty. Obviously I wouldn¡¯t have been able to do anything about the state of the box, what with being chased up a hill and trapped in a hole until just now, so at the very least, the collection of nothing in the riverbed will exonerate me from the crime of littering, then removing the evidence.¡±


    ¡°You mean murder,¡± Shooty mutters.


    ¡°Fine, step one, we check the crime scene,¡± decides Stabby, ¡°but be aware, we¡¯re watching you.¡±


    ¡°Wouldn¡¯t have it any other way,¡± replies the invader. ¡°You can probably stand up now, since negotiations are concluded.¡±

 Other Things

    Sun shines down over the land.


    In the woods, a kobold goes over the loot obtained from robbing adventurers, as a bear sneaks up on the unsuspecting morsel.


    Close behind, three adventurers similarly sneak up on the unsuspecting thief, far less willing to let bygones be bygones now that they had encountered the kobold for a second time, and this time with a much more personal stake in the crime. The third time would not end so well for the sneak, they were sure.


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Meanwhile, further north, deep within a dungeon unseen by adventurers, a goblin finishes extracting the second full set of body parts from its newest acquisition. So far, he had determined that the demon¡¯s regeneration allowed for the regrowth of limbs, similarly to a troll, but significantly slower. Fire had no impact on stymying the regenerative effect, nor did acid. Fortunately, that test had only taken one spell, as it showed that this outsider was immune to damage resulting from having its blood converted into boiling acid. The goblin would try holy water next, but that substance was difficult to come by, and tended to set off his minion¡¯s festering anger, though such outbursts were easily contained once they were made aware if it.


    What the diabolist hadn¡¯t determined, however, was a method of control. The demon was trapped in an evil attuned magical circle, but the diabolist was well aware that more powerful demons were capable of resisting magical effects. He was fairly powerful, in that he had a vast array of magics he could utilize, but the raw magical strength of the spells was somewhat lacking relative to his experience. That was the purpose of the grand experiment, of course, to overcome that weakness, but as yet there was every possibility of such a creature breaking free of his control.


    Eventually, his minion would have to sleep, and the demon¡¯s fiendish regeneration would allow it to wake.


    If all else failed, the goblin had a final option to¡­ remove the demon as a threat, but it would be quite a waste to do so without getting a full use from the creature.


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Similarly, even further north, wizards were deciding what to do with the human that had stumbled his way into their brand new hidden research facility. A brand new dungeon, with nothing dangerous in it at all, was perfect for surreptitious research into the secrets of magic which, while not forbidden or any such nonsense, were very expensive to buy lessons for.


    ¡°Well, we need to get rid of him somehow,¡± argues one of them, ¡°the homunculus venom is due to wear off any moment now.¡±


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Taking a deep breath, and letting it out slowly, the archer draws his bow silently. He aims carefully at the tiny lizard, making sure not to let even the slightest noise break the illusion of solitude built up around the lootsite. Next to him, the elf¡¯s armor creaks, causing him to freeze up, in case the sudden breaking of the peace alerted their quarry.


    Fortunately, it appears that the kobold is unobservant enough to not notice the unnatural noise. For a species that is prey for almost every predator in the entire world, this particular example was surprisingly lacking in preservation instincts.


    Breathing again to reset the entire process, the archer draws his bow again. Kobolds weren¡¯t hardy monsters at the best of times, and this one was no kobold warrior. One carefully placed arrow should be more than enough to dispatch the thief.


    As he releases the arrow, a bear charges forward toward the kobold, directly into the arrow¡¯s path.


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Imbuing his devil familiar, an imp, with a necromantic spell, the goblin commands it to hide invisibly behind the demon. Most demons would be immune to the poison inherent within an imp¡¯s claws, and would not be as wary about a strike from a lurking ¡®low-tier¡¯ devil as they would from a mage that had managed to invoke or bind them. This spell, however, would paralyze any humanoid creature touched. It had worked on humans, elves, goblins, dwarves, and a statue one time. The goblin hadn¡¯t actually tried the spell on a demon yet, but he was trying all sorts of new things today.


    While it would be insanity to actually trust a devil, even one bound as a familiar, to work on its own, the goblin had confirmed that the demon was not secretly a celestial being through the imp¡¯s ability to detect inherent goodness, and that it had no current magical effects running. What the goblin was not willing to do, was waste three of his own spells on determining the exact ethical alignment of this captive outsider. He would hate to have to resort to a simple banishment, but if all else failed he had that spell prepared for this exact type of situation. Unfortunately, that would likely lead to him never being able to find one of these again, as generally summoning required knowledge about whatever it was you were trying to summon.This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    It was too bad he wasn¡¯t smart enough to wrap his head around the higher levels of magic.


    Regardless, these were the preparations the goblin could make. It was better to face the demon early, rather than when they were completely exhausted.


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    ¡°He¡¯s probably an initiate who had the same idea as we did,¡± hypothesizes one of the wizards, ¡°and tried to clear out the entire dungeon first, due to his being a far less powerful mage than any of us. There were traces of magic all over the entrance, and no signs of any other people.¡±


    ¡°A wizard going solo for a dungeon is very risky. I found blood on one of the scythe traps, which either means that he used it to deal with some of the dungeon spawns, or managed to only take a shallow, easily healed injury. Based on the fabric, the second option is more likely, which indicates an impressive amount of dexterity or luck, given the lack of magical items,¡± adds another, ¡°I would suggest distraction along with a re-enforcement of the standard inflated ego. It¡¯s doubtful that this particular initiate is an exception to the general personalities that make it into the tower.¡±


    ¡°Proposal,¡± begins the third member of the cabal, ¡°direct the child to the castle on a ¡®quest¡¯. Projected result; interception by royal guards, redirection to tower.¡±


    ¡°Acceptable,¡± agrees the first wizard.


    ¡°I propose an amendment,¡± declares the second wizard. ¡°We direct the child to the royal dungeon, which decreases likelihood of failure.¡±


    ¡°Second,¡± states the third member.


    ¡°I¡¯ll set the scene with a wall of fire,¡± says the first.


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Roaring in pain, the bear forgets about the helpless lizard in front of it, and turns toward the source of the sudden pain in its backside. It immediately charges toward the three adventurers.


    The ranger swears, backing up behind the, generally, far more armored individuals.


    Leaving a clear path to the ranger, the dwarf and elf keep hidden to either side, allowing the bear to bring itself between them. Cleric going low, fighter going high, they each swing simultaneously toward the bear with their respective weapons. Unfortunately for both of them, the rampaging beast was far stronger than either of them anticipated, and the steel weapons bounced off its fur without even scratching the flesh beneath. Stopping short of the archer, the bear turns to face the new ambushers. It rises to two legs, and roars threateningly at the new challengers attempting to discredit its dominance over the entire forest.


    Taking the opportunity, the human fires two arrows straight toward the animal, one after the other. Both collide with the bear¡¯s chest, burying themselves deep within the fur. This served only to make the bear angry, it seemed. It decides to take out its frustrations on the dwarf, seeing as he was lacking the type of metal coating surrounding the elf.


    Slashing out with one claw, then the other, it carves deep gouges into the smaller creature¡¯s flesh. It holds the cleric still as it bites down onto the dwarf¡¯s face, only to meet a steel hammer with its teeth. The cleric had managed to interpose his weapon between himself and certain death.


    Unfortunately, as the pain forced the bear to release its grip, the dwarf falls unconscious with a slight case of grievous wounds and blood loss. While the beast is distracted, the elf slashes at its turned back, scoring a slash down its hide with her two-handed blade. Blood flows from the cut, and it starts to look like they would be able to get through this battle without any casualties.


    That was, of course, when the Kobold started casting magic.


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    The demon wakes.


    Rising up to his full height, the goblin attempts to strike an imposing figure.


    ¡°Being from outside this reality, I have you trapped within my magic circle. There is no escape. Heed my commands, and your bindings shall be released!¡±


    It just stares at the green menace for a moment, then starts to expand, growing larger by the second. The goblin isn¡¯t worried for the first second, as it grows from the size of a bugbear to that of a hill giant, but then it doesn¡¯t stop. Another second, and it was the size of a tyrannosaurus, and the silver runes enclosing the demon shatter as though there was never any magic within it to begin with. Slashing into the demon¡¯s leg, the imp delivers its spell payload along with a dose of paralytic venom, to no effect. Rather, it continues to grow, doubling over as it doubles in height to press its back against the dungeon¡¯s ceiling, and with one swift motion bursts through the ruin¡¯s roof, ruining the weatherproofing.


    ¡°This has not gone to plan,¡± states the goblin.


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Crackling flames greet Ham as he wakes up in a circle drawn in chalk, weird symbols etched throughout the perimeter. Three cloaked figures stand before the wall of flames, their features hidden by the light shining behind them.


    ¡°Prophesied hero, you have arrived exactly as was foretold,¡± says the one in the center.


    ¡°Long have we slumbered in this dungeon, awaiting the return of the legendary champion,¡± adds the one to the right.


    ¡°To save the realm, you must brave the Royal Dungeon, and retrieve the artifact buried deep within,¡± continues the central figure.


    ¡°Good luck,¡± states the leftmost person.


    A light shines throughout the room, and Ham is teleported.

 Nothing Important

    ¡°So, as you can see, there¡¯s absolutely nothing suspicious going on at all,¡± states the invader, gesturing at the box, now empty. The other two had laid down to show that they couldn¡¯t actually fit inside the giant metal coffin without some creative arrangement, and testified that the water was gone when they had arrived.


    ¡°Well, the water disappearing is still a huge issue,¡± mentions Stabby. ¡°I¡¯m sure that we¡¯re going to have to report that the source of water steadily eroding the plateau has suddenly stopped flowing, and it probably has other implications as well.¡±


    Shooty blasts another slime wandering close to them.


    ¡°Like the slimes becoming more aggressive,¡± he adds to the conversation.


    ¡°At least the ones near the capital have never been anything more than these green ones,¡± Smashy says, ¡°the more advanced types can get to be more than six meters long.¡±


    ¡°What, there¡¯s no way that can be right,¡± Avery disbelieves, ¡°even if you combined the mass of three hundred of those regular slimes, that would only be¡­ wait quick math puts that at about the right ratio.¡±


    ¡°Hopefully nothing like that¡¯s happened, it¡¯s been less than a day,¡± consoles Stabby.


    ¡°Well we wouldn¡¯t see anything like it unless we started making a concerted effort toward wiping them out,¡± continued Smashy, helpfully, ¡°at which point the bigger ones would start filling the gap left by all these harmless green blobs and start piling up casualties.¡±


    ¡°Where are you pulling this from,¡± Avery demands, ¡°you can¡¯t even tell what a kobold looks like.¡±


    ¡°Trade secret,¡± states Shooty, attempting to shut down that line of questioning.


    ¡°And what trade would that be,¡± retorts Avery, ¡°professional scammer? My parents use the materials we buy to make quality magical goods, and trying to use inferior bases results in an overall worse product. If you want one of those, you¡¯d go to the tower for the cheap junk novices have to make for projects. As a matter of fact, if you want to sell junk materials, that¡¯s where you go to get rid of those too.¡±Stolen novel; please report.


    ¡°What are you even doing out here?¡± rebuts Stabby, ¡°the daughter of a shopkeeper scrounging up junk in the dump? Shouldn¡¯t you be at the counter or something, helping your parents run the establishment?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t turn this back on me,¡± demands Avery, ¡°I¡¯m studying to get into the tower, and working on my entrance project. I, unlike certain adventurers I could point toward, am improving myself and increasing my potential. You don¡¯t even realize there was some sort of time-space anomaly back there!¡±


    ¡°Are you talking about the river?¡± asks Smashy.


    ¡°The river? What about the,¡± Avery says, looking around for the first time since she regained her body, wasn¡¯t in mortal danger, and had managed to ignore the fact that the timeline had collapsed around her, ¡°river is gone. Why is the entire river gone?¡±


    ¡°Got any snacks?¡± one of the invaders asks another, ¡°This is kinda entertaining.¡±


    ¡°I wish,¡± replies the thickest one, ¡°I¡¯m absolutely starving after grabbing this thing.¡±


    ¡°Well hey,¡± consoles the first invader, ¡°on the plus side, there¡¯s a bunch of humans nearby and we can probably scavenge some food from their city.¡±


    ¡°Generally,¡± starts the third invader, ¡°you are supposed to exchange goods or services for currency, not just take things. I understand that is a point lost on both of you, but I feel an ethical imperative to at least attempt to remind you of it.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t steal stuff while we¡¯re near you,¡± orders Shooty, ¡°I want to deal with diplomatic garbage as little as possible.¡±


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Ham woke up to a bunch of cultists in some sort of torture room, with the terrible instruments displayed proudly on the walls like a macabre intimidation scene. Most of the walls, at least, as one of them was just made of fire. A grate on the floor indicated this was also a murder torture chamber, as the hole would allow for easy cleaning once the deed was done. He could use a room like this. Some of the other orphans at the temple were a bit difficult to keep in line.


    The cultists said a bunch of nonsense, but he didn¡¯t really pay attention to any of it. He was a bit more focused on the terrible walls, and what those cultists could possibly need all of those things for. They literally had shelves just to hold all of them in place.


    Before he could have his morbid curiosity satisfied, Ham found himself suddenly not where he was. It was very confusing, sensorially. Instead, he was in a garden of some sort, next to a fairly large monument with an open doorway, leading to a downward stairwell straight into the depths.


    At least they weren¡¯t going to make him read all those books.

 Gnawing Hunger

    ¡°What¡¯s our first stop?¡± the invader asks Avery, who is obviously the best person to have leading them at this particular moment, by virtue of knowing the town, not having been actively trying to kill it earlier, and having been in technical proximity to it the longest. Granted, the majority of that time had been in less than a conventional manner, but generally speaking things that the experiments ended up being involved in took steps away from convention hurriedly, as though the convention was a massive gathering of people tied together by a shared hobby, and a pandemic was ravaging the land.


    ¡°My house, I''m very hungry and haven¡¯t eaten for¡­ a while,¡± decides the necromancer, unsure about the exact time. She certainly hadn¡¯t eaten while trapped in a gem. Whatever happened during that weird breakage may or may not have counted toward actual time. At least it had severed the spell connection.


    ¡°I second food,¡± chimes in one of the other invaders.


    ¡°Uh, we¡¯re still banned,¡± adds Smashy.


    ¡°Go eat at an inn or something then,¡± retorts Avery.


    ¡°I¡¯m not banned!¡± adds the invader helpfully.


    ¡°You should be.¡°


    ¡°Hey, I delivered your message for you!


    ¡°And then you tripled somehow.¡±


    ¡°Excuse me, we are far more stable personalities than the one you seem to have had the misfortune of being forced to interact with for any amount of time,¡± interjects the invader that hadn¡¯t said anything yet.


    ¡°I¡¯ve got more than enough personality for the both of you,¡± complains the original problem.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    ¡°That¡¯s the issue, yes.¡±


    ¡°Maybe you two are fine then,¡± allows Avery.


    ¡°Oh good, I¡¯m starving,¡± mentions the hungry one.


    ¡°You don¡¯t need to eat,¡± states the third, matter of factly.


    ¡°Need, no. Want, yes.¡±


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Ham descends the staircase. They, the cultists, clearly wanted him to do that. It probably wasn¡¯t a good idea to blindly do what cultists wanted, but what else was he going to do? The garden had a waist high fence, and the door was closed. Completely impassible.


    There weren¡¯t any torches, yet the passage was well lit regardless. It looked like there were just glowing orbs of magical light imbued into the walls at regular intervals. Ham was very tempted to just start breaking them, but unfortunately he happened to belong to one of the very few races that were actually inconvenienced by regular darkness. Instead, he just kept his pick close in case there looked to be a wall with cracks in it or something. Those were a pretty good indicator of a non-well-maintained secret passage that he would be able to break down.


    That did leave well-maintained secret passages though, so after the slightest bit of additional thought he starts tapping on the walls casually with his pick as he walks. If any of them sound different, there would be an empty space behind them.


    Once he comes up to the stone double doors blocking a forward progression, moments after the staircase ends at a level ground on smooth stone tiles, the tapping is rewarded. To the left, the wall was hollow. Rather than do something ridiculous, like try the door, Ham immediately resorts to violence, smashing the pick into the wall. That has practically no effect, so he charges the weapon with the raw energy of darkness and tries again, to a far greater effect. Specifically, the effect of having the actual weapon part not penetrate at all despite Ham¡¯s confidence in his course of action, followed by him losing his grip on it and the pick shooting off into the door.


    With a snap, the rightward, struck, stone door falls off its hinge and smashes into the ground, raising a cloud of dust.


    Figuring he might as well go through the door since he had to go pick up the pick anyway, Ham carries through with hitting the wall with a bit of dark energy, shattering a nearby light source, and continues into the entrance.

 Whats Cooking

    Avery walks through the door into the store like absolutely nothing is wrong, bypassing the counter to head into the living space beyond. The Fighting McFightertons split off to go procure rations from a locale that hasn¡¯t yet gotten around to blacklisting them, while the invaders decide to invade the privacy of the shop itself, going through all the goods and structural makeup of the building rather than following the human like lost puppies.


    ¡°Hey mom what¡¯s for breakfast?¡± Avery questions into the back.


    ¡°I dunno, what are you making,¡± comes the reply, the human doing the speaking not making any indication that they acknowledge the original questioner¡¯s intent.


    ¡°Eggs,¡± decides the necromancer, using a spark of magic to light a fire. She places a pan on top of the sudden heat source, and scrounges around the area for materials.


    ¡°Ooo, that sounds good,¡± replies the mother, the voice growing louder as she actually approaches, now that cooking duties have been firmly allocated.


    ¡°Too bad I¡¯m only cooking for the people that came in with me,¡± snarks the daughter, frying four eggs at once.


    ¡°You ungrateful child, how dare you,¡± her mother deadpans, ¡°and with my pan too.¡±


    ¡°I know, I must have been raised improperly or something,¡± Avery continues, using magic to flip the eggs instead of attempting to do so with physical ability.


    ¡°Do you have anything here that¡¯s already edible?¡± asks the hungriest one.


    ¡°Are you volunteering to cook now?¡± demands Avery, glaring at the invader with the force of a kitchen wizard.The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    The interloper flees.


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    The chamber Ham finds himself in is mostly an empty room. Columns hold the ceiling up from four equally spaced locations around the room, all before a large stone coffin which takes up the center of the room. Behind the coffin, two sets of curving stairways lead upward to an overhanging terrace with a podium upon it; from down below Ham was unable to see what was actually up there, but it probably wasn¡¯t anything good.


    At least now he knew what this place was. It was a mausoleum, which now made him a graverobber. He¡¯d only done the breaking and entering part so far, but usually the law didn¡¯t really make distinctions once the corpses are no longer undisturbed. Since he was already in for it, there was no reason not to go whole hog on the crime spree.


    First though, he had to explore the whole tomb. There were plenty of examples of tomb raiders who got distracted trying to pry the gems out of a statue, only to be devoured by the zombie they had failed to dispatch before starting to loot the place.


    On either side of him, Ham could see that there were two closed doors, likely as unsecured as the door he had originally broken down. After he finished checking this chamber, he¡¯d flip his trusty decision maker and see which one he¡¯d take.


    Actually, he¡¯d do that now. Left.


    Kicking the door, Ham immediately regrets his decision.


    Instead, he heals his foot and swings his pick at the stone. It doesn¡¯t move.


    Moments later, he notices the handle.


    Pulling that handle, the door opens fairly easily, revealing a bird bath type of object full of blue liquid, and another split in the path. The handy coin decides that right is the right choice, and, not questioning the wisdom of the random chance, Ham follows the advice and goes down the rightward path. It turns to the left and right again, but not simultaneously, allowing for a single unbroken, if turning, path forward.


    The route terminates in a circular chamber, a single coffin spread lengthwise across the center of the room.


    As this was completely pointless, Ham turns around to go the other way.

 Sammiches

    ¡°Hold on, I¡¯ve got some bread around here somewhere,¡± the shopkeeper mentions off-handedly. Going about the kitchen she opens various containers, assembling a spread of food ingredients, all of which were theoretically edible. ¡°Give me the pan when you¡¯re done with it.¡±


    ¡°Ok, fine, you can have one of the eggs,¡± allows the necromancer, sliding the fried protein balls onto a plate.


    ¡°Thanks for the eggeracity,¡± rejoins her mother, tossing several buttered slices of bread onto the burner, burnished with a bit of a block of cheese upon each body.


    ¡°That was almost a word,¡± snarks Avery, pulling the plate off the counter. ¡°Why are there only three.¡±


    Immediately from the shop comes a reply.


    ¡°No idea,¡± states the invader.


    ¡°That¡¯s very guilty,¡± Avery mentions. ¡°I was already going to share. How dare you eat what I was going to trade for a sammich.¡±


    ¡°Khajiit is innocent of this crime!¡±


    ¡°Well you aren¡¯t!¡±


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Heading back the other way, Ham finds, to his complete lack of surprise, another dead end with a coffin in it. This one is vertical, though, which is somewhat odd. A large block of stone, with a carved door to swing outward. There was nothing behind it, other than the rest of the empty square room though, so it probably wasn¡¯t a secret passage.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    Not unless it went straight down.


    Deciding not to dwell on that idea, Ham returns to the antechamber with the fountain, and takes a right to get back to the podium room. The place up with the pulpit kind of looks like a location where a speech would be made, which would make sense if the family that owned this mausoleum did a ceremony every time they interred a new body into the place. Most of the time, the graveyards would get a bit out of hand if every person was buried in one of these ornate tombs, but nobles could usually afford to have dead relatives brought back to life by one of the churches. If the church couldn¡¯t manage to bring that person back to life, that usually meant that there wasn¡¯t enough of a body for a burial in the first place. Only nobles who literally just died of old age would need a space in a mausoleum, which kept requirements for digging out more eternal resting places down.


    Peasants didn¡¯t usually get mausoleums at all, of course.


    Remembering that the last door he tried was a pull door, Ham goes straight for the handle of the blockage toward the last path he hadn¡¯t taken yet. It swings open easily, revealing one single room, far larger than any of the previous chambers. While the dead end rooms were maybe six meters across apiece, this corpse haven was more like ten by sixteen. It was using a good bit of that space on having four coffins in it, rather than the one apiece of the other rooms, but that was still quite a departure from the norm. All the coffins were evenly spaced from each other and the wall, other than one in the back right corner which was offset toward the center by a meter. That was extremely irritating to Ham¡¯s design sensibilities. Why would anyone do such a heinous thing?


    Granted, he was planning on pillaging all of these coffins for whatever jewelry or other valuables they had been buried with, but still. There were some things that just weren¡¯t done.


    Deciding to take it upon himself to correct this grievous misallocation of corpses, Ham summons one of the skeletons he had imbued earlier to do the physical labor for him, ordering it to push the coffin in line with the other coffin nearer to him. The bones strain for a few seconds, but the stone block moves, surprisingly easily. As the coffin reaches the exact line, it stops moving, despite the skeleton continuing to push, and the entire object sinks into the ground slightly, locking in place.


    To Ham¡¯s left, the patch of wall between two of the coffins slides apart, revealing another, secret, room.

 Grilled Cheese BLT

    ¡°Do you want tomato on your sandwich?¡± Avery¡¯s mother asks the hungry invader.


    ¡°Yes please.¡±


    ¡°Would you like pepper?¡±


    ¡°Yes please.¡±


    ¡°Do you want another slice of cheese?¡±


    ¡°Yes please.¡±


    ¡°How about some bacon?¡±


    ¡°Yes please.¡±


    ¡°Lettuce on top?¡±


    "Yes please.¡±


    ¡°Did you want an egg on top?¡±


    ¡°Yes please.¡±


    ¡°Avery, who did you bring into this kitchen?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t even know,¡± the necromancer disavows, ¡°those two just started tagging along at the end.¡±


    ¡°Hey, I would take umbrage to that designation,¡± interjects the healer, ¡°as I was specifically called over in order to-¡±


    Avery clamps her hands over the invader¡¯s mouth.


    ¡°Alright, you are a reasonable guest who has absolutely no problems whatsoever, and who is going to just quietly eat the food being made for you, correct?¡±


    ¡°Mmph.¡±


    ¡°You are perfectly capable of shaking your head.¡±


    ¡°Mmhm.¡±


    ¡°Good.¡±


    ¡°So Avery, what is it you don¡¯t want the guest to talk about,¡± asks the mother, placing a large bacon, lettuce, tomato, egg sandwich in front of the hungriest one, and withholding the more plain sandwich from her daughter.


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Hefting his pick, Ham headed up toward the newly opened doorway, not questioning the turn of events in the slightest. This would be the last room to check out, which meant he could start looting. At the very least, any hostile undead were locked securely in their coffins.Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.


    Much like the other end rooms, this chamber was relatively small. About eight meters wide, and six meters deep, it was the only part of the mausoleum so far to not have an extremely obvious coffin. Or, four extremely obvious coffins. Instead, it only had a single stone statue in the center.


    It was a sort of square frustum starting from the ground, with a hole in the center, about forty-five millimeters wide and nine millimeters across, to some unknowable depth. Near the top of the frustum, with one foot on the flat plane itself, a figure of a person pulling a sword was carved from the same type of stone.


    From what Ham could tell, the sword looked real.


    That made this place the place to start looting. Clambering up onto the pedestal holding the sword aloft, he pokes at the blade with his non-pick holding hand. Oddly, he doesn¡¯t feel anything. Holding up his finger to his face, he sees that he has in fact cut himself down to the bone. While he can¡¯t do anything about the blood getting everywhere, he can fix the injury by running his dark energy through himself again.


    Attempt two, Ham tries touching the handle. Immediately, he feels weaker just by being in contact with the object. Despite doing his absolute best to never learn anything in the temple, Ham remembers that magical interactions have a debilitating effect when put in close proximity to each other. As such, that meant that this sword was both magical, and a power of Light.


    Two could play at that game.


    If this sword was going to be a wellspring of raw light, Ham would be a fountain of darkness. Rather than let the negative energy flow through him normally, as he normally did, Ham shut down every metaphysical exit point of his body. The space around him dulls, and a damp heaviness fills the tomb. Releasing his grip, a wave a black energy erupts from Ham, filling a moderate amount of area around him with the deathly energy.


    He may have overestimated the forces he had at his disposal.


    It was enough for the sword itself to respond though. Countering the burst of darkness, the sword glows. Then, it glows brighter. As Ham steps back from the continuously growing light, the intensity of the blade increases to the point that it becomes a pillar of incredible eye pain. All around him, the stone of the wall starts to flake as the scouring light burns away the layers of every surface exposed to it.


    Belatedly, Ham realizes that includes him, and starts channelling his own darkness to counter the flesh-melting.


    Unfortunately, that appeared to set the sword off even harder, and with a flash the top of the mausoleum ceases to exist, allowing a towering beam of light to burst forth into the sky. At this point, Ham is committed to his course of action though, so he just draws out more darkness, far more targeted than the indiscriminate light, and heals through the damage. Stepping back toward the sword, Ham drops his pick as he makes his way back up to the platform as the statue, room, and block are slowly ground away. He was going to get that cash money.


    Gripping the hilt with both hands, above and below the hands of the statue, Ham gives up on healing himself for the moment, and takes a gamble. Channeling all his darkness into the sword itself, he attempts to suppress the blade¡¯s magic, much like how its mere contact with his skin is enough to suppress his own strength.


    For a moment, it seems to work, as the beam flickers.


    Then, the sword bursts with a physical blast of light, much like Ham¡¯s far more paltry blast of darkness, throwing him backward out of the room.

 Tragedy Strikes

    The hungry, hungry invader starts to take a bite of the sandwich it had been waiting for this whole time, only having been able to whet its appetite with a single pilfered egg that it had managed to convince its companion to sneak to it via the medium of continuous whinging, just in time for a shockwave to traverse itself through the atmosphere and blast the food out of its hands. The world seems to move in slow motion as the egg on top collides with the wall, bursting the yolk and wasting the delicious yellow liquid on the uncaring wood.


    ¡°Noooooooo,¡± it cries out forlornly. Turning toward the original invader, it asks, ¡°permission to drop a class five eff bomb?¡±


    ¡°Permission denied,¡± comes the casual reply, as the invader happily chews on the sandwich it had caught with their immaterial grip while all the other ones were unfortunately blown away, ¡°as of right now, you are only cleared for a single tier three.¡±


    ¡°Frik.¡±


    ¡°And that¡¯s enough.¡±


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Ham plants his feet firmly against the stone of the tomb, sliding backward as the continuous pressure from the furious light blasting against him. He didn¡¯t want to have to resort to magic so soon, but simply throwing massive amounts of dark energy around for some reason wasn¡¯t working against a tool specifically created to destroy massive amounts of dark energy.


    Weaving the general properties of darkness into something more specialized, Ham fountains a wave of dread at the blade. Imbuing a mind with the existential certainty of the oncoming nothingness generally served to shake the wills of anything he would catch in this particular spell, barring those with powerful minds.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.


    Which usually meant it was useless against any of the priests.


    It proved useless against the sword as well, other than to further provoke its rage. From the tip of the metal, the indiscriminate barrage of light focuses into a coherent beam, scything down into the podium, then up across the ground toward Ham. He throws himself to the side, rolling across the softening stone floor, powder clinging to his form as he dodges the incinerating light. It¡¯s only after his roll stops that he notices that his trailing leg has had a line burnt through it. He decides to ignore that for the moment, since the nerves were already dead, and the trail the beam had gone across was erupting in secondary explosions of severing light.


    Second attempt. Ham pulls across space, and summons the zombified corpse of a kobold next to the sword. With any luck, that would distract the weapon from trying to evaporate him, in favor of instead focusing on the practically harmless undead.


    No such luck. Instead, the focal point of the beam disperses into different colors. Red blasts into the unfortunate zombie, which immediately bursts into flames that convert it into a free floating cloud of ash in moments, leaving the green and blue beams to spiral toward Ham. Almost entirely sure he¡¯d be hit by one or both of them if he tried dodging, Ham instead summons one of the skeletons he had bound in the dungeon between the oncoming death beams and himself. The red beam had dissipated after atomizing his kobold zombie, so hopefully the skeleton would be an adequate interposed shield between himself and certain death.


    Both beams of light strike the animated pile of bones simultaneously. For about a second or two, it cycles between melting and calcifying, individual bones bubbling and smoking or hardening into rock, before the entire skeleton settles on solidification. Directly in front of Ham is now an exquisitely carved statue of a skeletal guardian, in the process of melting.


    Then it explodes.

 Incredible Hurry

    ¡°So, does this happen often?¡± the invader asks the necromancer, leaning back casually in the chair it had taken for itself, hands behind its head as the sandwich hung obligingly in the air next to its mouth.


    ¡°No, this is the capital! Things aren¡¯t supposed to happen here at all,¡± replies the somewhat frazzled wizard, egg on her face.


    ¡°Sounds like a problem of some sort,¡± continues the eating creature, ignoring the plight of every being that wasn¡¯t itself, ¡°think we should get involved in some way?¡±


    ¡°Nah, there are adventurers, royal guards, and wizards for that. There¡¯s a reason we pay taxes, and that reason is the government services that take care of random explosions and giant monsters,¡± Avery points out, wiping the food from her skin with a random rag.


    ¡°Aren¡¯t those guys adventurers,¡± the invader supplies, gesturing with its tail in the general direction of outside.


    ¡°Oh dang it, yes they are. Augh, they¡¯re stupid enough that they¡¯d charge in trying to fix things too, and let me assure you that I have even less of an inclination than ¡®Shooty¡¯ to deal with all the political underpinnings of officially introducing a race to the crown,¡± Avery gripes. ¡°We¡¯re going to have to track them down so I can have a buffer of fighters between me and having to do anything.¡±


    ¡°But my sandwich,¡± complains the hungry creature.


    ¡°No,¡± states the first invader, finishing its sandwich and standing up. ¡°There¡¯s no time to spare.¡±


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Before the shattered bones of the previously human skeleton manage to succumb to gravity and hit the floor, Ham is already charging forward toward the sword. He had at least a few seconds before the next explosive beam was due, and the closer he was to the source, the less he¡¯d need to move in order to dodge it. Plus, if he managed to get possession of the blade, he¡¯d be pretty much safe.


    Even when a magical weapon had an ego, it wasn¡¯t able to unilaterally act against the person wielding it. A powerful artifact would still have to directly contest the will of the wielder, and Ham was pretty sure he could impose his will on a random bit of metal once he got his hands on it. That was a bit weird though, usually even a magic item that was enchanted to move by itself couldn¡¯t act on its own without being activated by the user. Dancing enchantments would only work for less than a half a minute at a time, enough for the average mage to cast four spells. It had already used three probably. If Ham could get through one more attack, he¡¯d be in the clear.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    What most likely happened was that he¡¯d set off a trap when touching the statue, and that activated the sword. Things like magical traps were exactly why it was a bad idea to touch random things in tombs, particularly when that tomb was obviously made by people with way too much money. People with way too much money were the best source of easy money though, which was the eternal conundrum.


    Regardless, the sword made its move when Ham was almost upon it again.


    Rather than only fire red, green, and blue beams, the blade splits its laser into seven distinct colors. A different color blasts out at every fifty degrees or so, the magical effect of each ray flowing up behind each focal point. Toward Ham, the blue beam leads a path of erupting stone, as everything it contacts is petrified. Figuring that a shield would work perfectly here, he summons another zombified kobold. Those things were incredibly plentiful, and easy to get a hold of. Unlike human skeletons, Ham had a practically unlimited supply of kobold bodies to conjure up and use to soak up magical blasts.


    It probably would have been a good idea to have one of them start doing the looting and set off all the traps.


    To his immediate left, a bloom of deadly poison erupts from the green beam¡¯s path, and to his right a good amount of definitely not looking at that from the trail of the two purple rays. Honestly, Ham would have preferred to have been on the opposite side of the sword from where he was right now, because he was pretty sure that any of the four beams that were nearest to him would have completely obliterated him with no chance of survival. At least there were spells that would resist the standard blasts of fire, electricity, and acid that were coming from the red through yellow parts of the visible light spectrum. With that last hurrah of destructive energy though, it looked like the sword was finally running out of steam. Ham forcibly restrains himself from channelling darkness into himself to heal, lest he reactivate the trap just as the pillar of light was starting to fade away.


    White petals start to descend from on high as the sky begins to clear, which was a bit offensive to Ham¡¯s aesthetic sensibilities, but it was not exactly that important. At this point his cover was probably completely blown, so it would behove him to grab the sword and run before the local authorities noticed the hole in the ground and the guy trying to loot noble graves. Grabbing the handle of the light attuned weapon, he feels the weakening effect grip his body, followed shortly by a pain in the face when the statue punches him.

 Entirely Avoidable Delay

    ¡°This seems extremely untrustworthy,¡± the invader states, looking up at the massive, jet-black spikes protruding from the top of the stone gate.


    ¡°Oh it is,¡± confirms Avery, ¡°whenever the guard decide it¡¯s time to close the gate, those things slam down with the force of five thousand kilograms of unsupported adamantine, because that¡¯s what it is. That only happens in the event of a siege, or some sort of plague, or a natural disaster, or at night though.¡±


    ¡°Explosion in the area doesn¡¯t count as a disaster?¡±


    ¡°Not a natural one, that¡¯s for sure. Also, since the damage done would be primarily focused on the inner city, closing the gate now would prevent evacuation for those who don¡¯t want to risk being in the vicinity of a potential second incident.¡±


    ¡°What if the ¡®event¡¯ were to, hypothetically, be sourced from somewhere in the outer ring?¡±


    ¡°Then the gate would probably close. Evacuation would still be possible for the residents affected, as they could go out of the city, and the potential spread of the explosion source would be limited further from the castle.¡±


    ¡°In other words, for true widespread effectiveness, any attack would have to start deep within the city for a non-quarantinable spread.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s a bit morbid to think about,¡± Avery cuts the discussion short, eying the guard the group is coming up on, ¡°and probably not the best thing to talk about in public while we¡¯re about to be trying to pass the gate guards immediately after an explosion of unknown source.¡±


    ¡°Right, right. Gotta stay inconspicuous and all that. The true job of an innocent person is to not draw suspicion to themselves, because if the authorities are tracking down the one that¡¯s suspicious for completely unrelated reasons, that¡¯s resources that aren¡¯t being used on the actual problem. Granted, that¡¯s assuming that the innocent person in question isn¡¯t a sympathiser for the actual perpetrator, as that would reallocate their priorities into that of wasting time and effort on the enforcement side of the law as an appropriate end.¡±


    ¡°Please ignore this creature,¡± Avery tells the guard, ¡°I work at the Tower, here¡¯s my identification. While doing magical experimentation, I discovered them, and will be taking responsibility for their behavior.¡±


    ¡°Well that¡¯s a mistake,¡± mutters the least overtly criminal of the trio as the guard looks over the wizard¡¯s card.


    ¡°What type of magical experimentation does ¡®waste disposal¡¯ prepare you for?¡± questions the gate guard, a slight smirk on his face.


    ¡°More than guarding a gate, that¡¯s for sure,¡± Avery fires back, ignoring the concern on the faces of the creatures who would get caught in any authoritative backlash from her actions, ¡°and more than any ¡®self-taught¡¯ mage who works off of whatever they can scavenge out of the trash pile after we dump it off.¡±


    ¡°So you have first dibs on the trash,¡± scowls the guard. ¡°Identification is in order, be on your way.¡±This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    ¡°Thank you,¡± says Avery haughtily, grabbing her card back. She continues into the tunnel, the invaders following behind, being uncharacteristically quiet and unassuming.


    ¡°Was all of that necessary?¡± asks the original quietly, ¡°I get that you were distracting them away from thinking too much about us, but at a heightened alert status an aggressive position toward a policing presence can pose a personal bodily risk.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s all about precedent,¡± Avery explains at a normal volume. ¡°That guy is obviously new, since he doesn¡¯t get how wizards work. Wizards are to be treated with respect, if for no reason other than the fact that any of us can have a dozen methods of killing a random fighter on the spot. Magic is how every more than simply adequate thing comes about in this world, or even in any of the adjacent planes, and the people who are paid to stand in a location and hold a stick should consistently remember that they are on the lower rungs of reality itself.¡±


    ¡°Sure, that¡¯s one way to look at things,¡± states the invader, ¡°but as a counterpoint¡­¡±


    Reaching up through the nearly invisible holes in the ceiling of the twelve meter high tunnel, up the darkened slit through the carefully shaped stone, the creature snags onto a small bit of metal and pulls with invisible force. To the side of them, a two meter long javelin of steel blasts into the ground through a carriage, the head of the bolt deforming upon impact with the ground and blasting steel shrapnel in all directions. A cloud of grit blooms out from the top of the ruined vehicle, filling the full six meter width of the tunnel with a cloud of impenetrable smoke.


    ¡°Forty five, take care that we won¡¯t have any permanent inconvenience, would you kindly?¡± the invader directs to their companion. Avery feels an energy of some sort flow throughout the area, though none of the creatures make any motions or sounds to indicate the casting of magic. Rather, the original invader simply continues on with a ¡°we should probably continue on as though nothing was happening before they lock down the area and start questioning us,¡± as guards emerge from a secret door embedded within the wall of the tunnel toward the wooden, shattered mess.


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Directly in front of Ham was a fist, briefly. As he flies backward, he gets a good look at what¡¯s connected to the fist. Turns out it¡¯s an arm.


    Unlike the previous time this exact thing happened to him, Ham is able to simply land flat on the ground in front of the pedestal, standing relatively unscathed from the encounter. A bit of blood from the face is nothing compared to the ragged mess that was left of his leg. Raising his hand in front of his eyes, he channels darkness into his busted nose as he brushes some of the black hair out of his eyes.


    Without any obstructions or distractions blocking the way, Ham can see that the statue from before has been converted into a person. The woman holds the blade of light in her left hand, and the blue cape tied around her shoulders with a braid of thread the same shade of yellow as her hair billows dramatically in the storm of white flowers cycling around the room. That silver-grey sword shines with enough light to fully reveal the features glaring down at him, as well as the clothing converted from stone to the type of gaudy fashion used by nobility. Apparently the defenses on this mausoleum were a bit more elaborate than Ham had originally thought.


    When someone went through the effort to animate a statue, and have that animatory effect affect the clothing of that statue, including making the puffy cockatrice pants have feathers that moved in the wind, they were spending quite a bit of gold to bring their vision of reality into existence. Golems crafted from any material by a wizard were immune to magic, and deadly with a sword. Ham couldn¡¯t remember anything about what was special about ones made of stone, but that sword in particular had activated death beams, and now had a wielder to activate it instead of relying on the single-use trap activation.


    ¡°I¡¯m just gonna go now,¡± he said to the statue, stepping backward out of the room.

 This is a Robbery

    ¡°What even are bad aspects, anyway,¡± the invader muses as they calmly and quickly flee the scene, ¡°seeing as how good and evil are subjective terms to begin with, attempting to apply subjective terms to subjective concepts is a task without reward, and potentially an exercise in absolute futility. On a larger scale, that applies to the entire field of philosophy, but even on the small scale of actual practicality the universe simply exists in a definitive state, and isn¡¯t subject to the vagaries of labels that sapient life imposes upon it.¡±


    ¡°Unless you want to start arguing that the lack of objective morality means that reactions don¡¯t follow actions, which is observably false, you aren¡¯t getting out of the aspect of reality that states that you just set off a ballista in an enclosed space that I was standing in,¡± retorts Avery, somewhat less calmly.


    ¡°It was a good demonstration that violence is a tool of the government, and one which they are constantly primed to use,¡± countered the invader. ¡°Any amount of power allowed to individual citizens is accounted for in the amount of violence any given representative of that government is given access to for dealing with that power, should it be turned against the powers that maintain the status quo. A single wizard might be able to kill a guard by looking at them, but then the escalation from that casual glance from the ruler of the territory would have to be rapid and disproportionate to keep those subjected to its rule from taking that precedent of ¡®being able to affect the world around them independently¡¯ and attempt to disrupt the governmental prerogative of absorbing capital to distribute according to the ruler¡¯s whims.¡±


    ¡°Yeah duh,¡± responded the wizard, ¡°that¡¯s basic knowledge. That doesn¡¯t mean that the guy who stands at the checkpoint of a tunnel should get to harass students whose wizard tower is on the other side of the tunnel.¡±


    ¡°Oh yeah? Well that¡¯s something that should be addressed from a top-down perspective by filing a complaint with the higher-ups, rather than trying to argue on the streets with what you are already clearly aware is a new hire.¡±


    ¡°An official complaint would go on any new higher¡¯s permanent record! He might be a dumbass right now, but putting that kind of thing into writing is basically a free justification for the guard to deny benefits to the lowest person on the professional ladder. It¡¯s better in the long term to snappishly inform him of his shortcomings in blunt language, rather than ruin his future career prospects by allowing a justification for long-term exploitation by higher levels of management.¡±


    ¡°Awfully caring of you, considering every action you¡¯ve ever taken in my presence.¡±


    ¡°You are just extremely irritating. Has anyone told you that?¡±


    ¡°Almost everyone that have ever interacted with me.¡±


    ¡°Imagine that.¡±


    ¡°Hey, the same can be said of literally every member of my species.¡±


    The group stops their bickering as the path forward is blocked by very large humans.


    ¡°Well that¡¯s not good,¡± states Avery, ¡°those are royal guards.¡±


    ¡°I can solve that problem,¡± notes the hungry invader, pulling out its metal stick.


    ¡°No,¡± responds the regular one, pushing it out of the way. Quietly, it continues outside of easy human hearing. ¡°Save that for when we have a confirmed high value target.¡±


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    In the dead of night, she had snuck out of her rooms, decked in high quality magical artifacts. It was still night though, so she hadn¡¯t changed out of her nightclothes. She had just gotten that cockatrice stuffed, and if they weren¡¯t the floofiest undergarments in the entire kingdom, she had overpaid. Technically, it would have been her family that had overpaid, but that was the same thing.The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    An artificer would be hard pressed to find a creature more suitable for that particular trait, however. Cockatrice were giant balls of fluff, whose main method of transportation was to roll around like the balls they were. Only rarely did they start to fly, and then only in brief bursts as they could only hold their breaths to stay inflated for so long. If they didn¡¯t have all the special qualities of a basilisk, they would be ideal pets. Unfortunately, people generally didn¡¯t enjoy being turned to stone, so she had to settle for a spherical lower body with all the floof still attached.


    Apparently they had to replace the air sacks with something to fill the space, and that was down from a chickatrice. If she didn¡¯t have rebelliousness to indulge, she would be perfectly content to spend an entire day just marveling at how soft her pants were. As it stood, the crypt awaited.


    So some prophecy had come around about the sword sealed away in the mausoleum would be unsealed only when it was time to save all of reality from being unwound or something along those lines. From what she overheard, there was a bit about everything once being dust on heaven¡¯s pyre, and something coming to remind them what they were. According to every story she¡¯d ever heard, the hero ends up hearing about the prophecy they were involved in, then instantly going to fulfil it. She certainly wasn¡¯t going to attempt to subvert that trend.


    Instead, she just waited until the cover of night, grabbed every magical item she could find, and made her way down to the royal tomb. They had already driven off the dragon incursion of the year, so it wasn¡¯t like anyone was going to need them any time soon.


    Surrounding the plot of land was a waist-high fence, and a closed gate with a lock on it. Completely insurmountable without the key, except that she had something even better. A magically enhanced lockpick. This particular artifact cost twelve thousand gold, and took the form of a set of steel gauntlets. Punching the gate, the iron doors blasted open, allowing her easy access to the crypt. That would work on any door, regardless of how magical the lock on it happened to be. Ancient sealed tomb holding a deadly evil? Punch it. Massive gate blocking the exit of the city? Punch it. The gate to hell, blocked by wards to prevent the living from approaching on pain of dessication? Punch it from a distance. The things shot magical energy blasts of unlock and open too.


    Quickly making her way down to the main area, she takes a moment to appreciate the dash boots. They simply doubled the speed of whoever wore them, which was enough to cost another four thousand gold. That made them one of the cheapest possible magical items, but they were still extremely useful.


    It was just too bad that so many useful effects ended up on shoes, and none of them would easily work with the others. The more magic got shoved into a particular boot, the more gold it would cost to do the shoving. Heck, the plateau the kingdom was built on had cost so much to build that the treasury had started almost empty. There was a reason she was using the cheap and effective equipment, even if that meant having to change shoes if she wanted to instead be able to jump onto a dragon¡¯s back mid-flight to cut it out of the sky.


    She wouldn¡¯t be able to do that, but her father definitely did regularly.


    Probably all the sword anyway. All she had access to was utility items, and the magical weapons of mass annihilation were kept in places secured by far more than simple locks. Still, even a cheap two thousand gold backpack to keep the various items accessible and secure was a useful item.


    Dashing into the central chamber, she paid her respects to her grandfather, who had trapped the god of darkness for all eternity, and skipped the puzzle in the secret room by blasting the door with opening magic. Now, the sword had been sealed in this room for some reason or another, but finding out why would involve reading the book up in the main chamber. She was speeding through this whole thing to get back to bed as soon as possible, so she definitely wasn¡¯t going to be doing that.


    The door closed behind her, the mechanism not having engaged to open it in the first place, but that was fine. It wasn¡¯t as though the gauntlets had any sort of limit to how often they could punch things open. Moving up to the pedestal the sword was embedded into, she pulled on the hilt, lifting from the knees. That was always supposed to be how you pull a sword out of a rock, as her dad told her. You could put your entire body into the motion that way.


    Slowly, the blade started to slide out of the hard grip of the stone holding it in place, and as it moved light shone from the gap between metal and rock. Movement by movement, moment by moment, the light grew brighter as she pulled the sword further up, until the pedestal let loose its treasure into her hands. Stepping back reflexively, she looked at the gleaming blade, and tried to remember if there was any restriction on stuffing a sharp object into an extradimensional space. Hopefully she had something in there to keep it from cutting her backpack.


    Before she realized it was happening, she had turned to stone.

 Power of Friendship

    Logicing toward the wizard, the invader poses a rhetorical question.


    ¡°If there are guards preventing us from proceeding, that implies that they would also keep the other humans from entering the area as well, wouldn¡¯t it?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯d think that, but if there¡¯s one thing that¡¯s consistent about idiots, it¡¯s that they are constantly doing things that people expect are completely unreasonable.¡±


    ¡°Oh yeah, the corollary to the law of inverse ninjitsu, wherein a sufficient number of undead will by sheer force of stupidity manage to bypass even the most advanced of security systems.¡±


    ¡°That sounds ridiculous and only vaguely applicable to this situation.¡±


    ¡°C''est la vie.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s not even common!¡±


    ¡°Oh, blame the translator on that one. This model is only able to lock onto one language at a time, and it takes a while to reset to another one. Fortunately, that means it¡¯s much harder than it used to be to accidentally switch the output language without noticing and completely ruin all chances of communication.¡±


    ¡°Your magic is pretty garbage, not gonna lie. Comprehend language is like, a basic first level spell that has no limitations what so ever. A goblin could master that, and their species hasn¡¯t even managed to figure out that you should defecate in a corner of a living space instead of everywhere.¡±


    ¡°That seems blatantly racist?¡±


    ¡°Adventurers get diseases from goblin dens all the time. It¡¯s an established fact that they live in filth.¡±


    ¡°You know what, that has far too many troubling implications that I don¡¯t want to get into right now, so what do you propose we do about the royal guards?¡±


    ¡°Ideally we don¡¯t interact with them in any way.¡±


    ¡°A grand strategy.¡±


    ¡°Thank you. With some sort of distraction, I¡¯m sure we could form a hole in their defensive line large enough to sneak through and see what they¡¯re keeping from the public eye.¡±This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    ¡°Fifty three, you heard the human. Our plan calls for a distraction, and you have the technology.¡±


    Stomach growling loudly, the other creature discontentedly stalks away, disappearing into a bush in a manner that seemed somewhat less than deliberate, considering it involved the words ¡®who put a plant here¡¯ erupting from the foliage. While the other three crept up to approach from the opposite direction, the least sneaky spy possible aims the bit of metal toward the guards and pulls on the trigger device. With a loud crack, a red bloom appears on one of the royal guard¡¯s chests, and he stumbles backward. A moment later, one of the other guards notices the blood, and the hole, on the man¡¯s back, and yells out to the guards that they were under attack. With practiced coordination, the two nearest to the injured party pull their comrade backward into a defensible position, while the other nearby royal guard pull in to defend against the unseen threat.


    ¡°There¡¯s our chance,¡± notes the invader, pulling the stunned necromancer through an unwatched section of alley before the lines of sight can completely readjust to the personal change.


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    ¡°Halt,¡± comes the order from the golem.


    Ham is not inclined to answer that kind of demand from a security system that had definitely been operating on the assumption that if the unauthorized person was in the area, they were unauthorized to be alive. Or maybe they were authorized for dead? Whatever, Ham wasn¡¯t a golemologist. Or a lawyer.


    What he was, was running. The mausoleum wasn¡¯t that large, and once he managed to get out of it he should be outside of the security system aggression range. As soon as the golem forgot about him, he could just go back in and loot everything that wasn¡¯t that room, then use all the loot from the various other raided tombs to deal with the golem and the laser sword.


    That was a perfectly good plan, until the golem followed him out of the mausoleum, not even looking particularly hurried as it followed him sprinting at a full run.


    The noise that came from his mouth was most definitely not a shriek, and Ham made the rational decision to flee around the mausoleum. A limited range was essential for guardians, and eventually he¡¯d get far enough away that it would lose interest. Either that, or he could keep running until the charge ran down on the magical construct. Regardless, the first step was to get out of the-


    There was a hole in the ground, directly above the secret chamber. Ham finds out about this quirk of the landscape several seconds after he¡¯d already fallen into it. On the plus side, he was farther away from the golem. On the minus side, it was going to take precious seconds to heal his bones. Spending the least amount of time possible between blasting himself with dark energy and climbing to his feet, he prepares to dodge the golem falling into the same hole as it inexorably followed his path.


    Those seconds tick over, and he starts to hope that the golem ran out of charge outside.


    The noise that comes out of his mouth when he looks toward the secret entrance to the room and sees the statue standing there is most definitely not a shriek.

 Look, a Distraction

    Once the group is past the perimeter of the Royal Guard, Avery hisses a whisper toward the invader.


    ¡°What was that supposed to be? You just attacked a representative of the king! What¡¯s more, you drew blood, which means it got past the most powerful armor money can buy, supplemented by magical force barrier and skin toughening enchantments. The entire city is going to go on high alert from this!¡±


    ¡°Pretty effective distraction then,¡± the invader says passively.


    With all the strength of an unmodified human, Avery easily slams the invader into the wall of the alley.


    ¡°No, you don¡¯t get to just brush me off like that,¡± she states angrily. ¡°This isn¡¯t the untamed ravages of a monster-filled dungeon where reasonable caution can be ignored in favor of decisive action to keep death at bay. This is the city where my family lives, and you¡¯re putting a target on them.¡±


    ¡°If you want, we can just kill them all. You can¡¯t be targeted if there¡¯s no one there to target you,¡± the creature offers.


    ¡°That¡¯s not how anything works,¡± gripes Avery, ¡°society is based on its people. Even if I wasn¡¯t fully aware that you¡¯re physically harmless and couldn¡¯t do anything on your own anyway, you killing everyone that could possibly pose a threat to my family would end up removing so many of the support structures that enable us to stay alive that it¡¯d render us unable to live anyway.¡±


    ¡°You seem to have forgotten that you have at your command a rock that can infinitely duplicate any generic arrangement of atoms,¡± supplies the invader, ¡°which includes anything that would be produced by that support structure. Food, shelter, army of brainless blobs, particularly powerful radio, water, and literally any other amenity of society is instantly accessible to you. There¡¯s nothing tying you to these people, no dependence on their continued existence.¡±


    ¡°Life has inherent value,¡± argues the necromancer, grasping at straws for the purpose of not being wrong.


    ¡°And that value is pretty low,¡± notes the creature. ¡°Over the course of a single day, countless people die, and are replaced at a rate even greater. If populations didn¡¯t have continuous growth, the species wouldn¡¯t be able to accommodate minor incidents like a city being killed every once in a while. Basic economic theory has the value of any given asset being inversely related to the supply, and as such the value of life steadily decreases over time. Sure, at some point in the past it would probably be worthwhile to protect others as a method of long term survival, but with the absolute guarantee of the future existing any individual life is practically worthless.¡±


    Letting go of the much lighter being, Avery gives up on logical conversation and starts walking toward the source of the disturbance. She would have better luck with meat-shield backup. Even the Fightersons could be useful in a debate through the credible intimidation factor of a wall of meat supporting an argument. Theoretically.


    Back in the alleyway, the invader stands still, contemplating.


    ¡°So, uh, boss, what¡¯s the deal with the human?¡± tentatively asks the medically inclined creature that had, perhaps wisely, chosen to avoid the conflict through silence and attempting to blend in with the stone walls.


    ¡°Native, walked into the shark hole our fifty-four inadvertently created on arrival, has exhibited astral projective and reality shaping abilities. However, further contact has revealed those to be dependent on possession of a sapient, possibly artificial lifeform, which has shown itself to be amiable to cooperation with us,¡± the invader summarizes.


    "As such, this particular human has no actual importance, beyond familiarity and potential use as a guide. Repairing the self-inflicted damage to its body would theoretically incur an emotional debt, but those are obviously less than reliable given the general reaction of sapient creatures to our existence.¡±A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    ¡°And our current goals?¡±


    ¡°Still information gathering. If we can requisition useful pieces of the limited availability equipment, the reality warping intelligence can duplicate it in exchange for protection, likely from humans. As such, it¡¯s probably about time for me to specialize.¡±


    ¡°Understood. What kind of modifications should I make?¡±


    ¡°Given the observed properties of this area, physical power is at a premium. For some reason, the forty five has yet to return from stashing the expedition vessel, so maximize my tail.¡±


    ¡°As the only qualified medical unit in range, I have to confirm that you understand all your stored energy will be converted to the purpose you have described.¡±


    ¡°Confirmed.¡±


    ********************


    In the chamber she had awoken, the girl corners the sniveling wretch that trespassed in her family¡¯s mausoleum. He was certainly bold and stealthy, to have made his way into the royal quarters without alerting any of the guards with his peasant attire and decide that the gate she had only just opened represented a wondrous opportunity that would surely bring his entire line up from the gutters should he succeed. It was to his misfortune that she was in the hidden room, rather than the absolutely no one that typically inhabited the grave site. Were it simple mismanagement by the graveyard keeper, and she had not gotten to the blade when she had, this could very well have been the person destined to be the prophesied champion.


    Missed it by twelve seconds.


    He certainly wasn¡¯t brave now. As opposed to the clear verve, sheer vim, and obvious grit necessary to risk insulting her family as a whole simply to undertake a fools gambit and steal away destiny itself, this simply attired proverbial Su''za''ine Na''ye''boo''r, caught most unlike the lower class folk hero he likely fashioned himself to be, cowered in the corner of the crypt as far from her as he could get, much like the cornered rat that far more aptly suited his true nature. Of course, the rat so cornered was indisputably more likely to bite at the encroaching threat than one with an unhindered escape route, which would lend a tinge of potential injury to a confrontation with this grave robber.


    Slowly and cautiously, she closes the distance to the mediocre meddler, blade at the ready in preparation for the event that the pathetic display was merely a cunning ruse, hiding some sort of concealable weapon and waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike at the true inheritor of the blade of light, so as to disarm her and take it for his own.


    And indeed, her caution proved to be well placed, as upon her entry into longspear range, the man¡¯s body erupts with a burst of raw dark energy, blasting out in all directions. Pure anti-life invaded her organs, ripping apart the very objects maintaining the various functions of life she was sure her tutors had attempted to drill into her head at some point. Even now, in a situation where the issue were somewhat relevant, the actual knowledge was again completely useless in practice. Regardless of whether or not she was aware of how each organ worked and made her systems of living possible, the fact of the matter was that the power of darkness interacts directly with the functionality. Specifically, in stopping it. Without a direct counter, natural processes would prove entirely useless in undoing a magical halting of blood flow or heartbeat.


    You should cut the head from the dark one¡¯s shoulders.


    Ignoring the thought inside her head, she took a moment to rationalize the situation as her parents had drilled into her as the proper response to such an event. Barring the act of murder somehow imbuing her with enough power to survive the pacifying energy within her, the situation had no obvious improvement with the addition of a fresh corpse among the far less recently deceased. Rather, her time spent with the blade was far better suited toward figuring out some method of syphoning the pure light into herself to counter the darkness deep within.


    Closing her eyes to better focus on the non-physical dimensions of enchantment and other magics, she blocks out as much sensory data as possible to instead stretch the spiritual senses toward corralling the power of light and using it as a weapon against the defensive placidity sinking into the core of her being. Destructive energy flows through the sword, wrapping around her in a bright glow. Stabbing into her body, the aura of the sword of light strikes out at the darkness covering her heart, and once again the font of life is energized into performing its duty.


    With the necessary sustainment completed, she opens her eyes once again. In front of her, the corner was empty. Spinning around quickly, she draws the blade, pointing it toward the thief sneaking out of the doorway to the entrance of the mausoleum.


    ¡°Don¡¯t you dare try to run from your princess!¡±

 Inner Strength

    Avery waited impatiently next to the iron gates. The closed monolithic structure stood ominously in front of the aristocratic resting place, blocking access by means both physical and magical. Cold iron was not generally a material an enchanter would want to work with, as the inherent antimagical properties of the metal would add a degree of unnecessary complexity to any working built into the resulting item. While she hadn¡¯t ever exactly spent time exploring in the inner city, primarily utilizing her time to salvage from the wizard tower and otherwise attempt to further the prospects of magical viability with the limited access granted by her station, the necromancer was able to tell by the pressuring aura being emitted by the blocking bars that someone with entirely too much money had commissioned this monstrosity of a design feature.


    It would take literally thousands of gold to enchant a single dagger of cold iron with the most basic of upgrades, and this entire fence was emanating a constant zone of sanctuary, rendering any form of violence on the street surrounding completely impossible.


    Battering down the gate would be impossible. The antimagic would prevent flying over it like an invisible wall. Basic design put the hinges on the inside so they couldn¡¯t simply be removed. Avery wasn¡¯t sure, but it did look like the locking mechanism would take an actual level of strength to move the pins holding it in place, raising the skill floor from simple lockpicking to lockpicking plus weightlifting capabilities. If there were simply a slightly larger gap between the bars, she might be able to squeeze through, but that would be far too much to hope for.


    Letting out a sigh, the necromancer grabs onto two of the gate¡¯s iron cylinders, and rests her head between another two. The cold metal pressed against her skin was a welcome distraction from the fact that the creature she¡¯d been standing near appeared to be completely unconcerned with consequences of actions, whether those apply to himself or to the people around him. Granted, she hadn¡¯t been the most amicable to him, to expect open communication or, you know, actual basic consideration, but they had spent at least a few minutes working together in that dungeon. Then that weird magic stuff happened, and they were just¡­ not talking about it for some reason? It was like he wanted to pretend none of it ever happened.


    Avery looks up toward the top of the gate, and wished she could just get rid of it.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Demolishing gate will generate 10460 mana, continue?


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Yes


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center">No</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    You have gained 10460 mana.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Oh. Well. That happened.


    The creature finally showed up next to her.


    ¡°So, are you just going to stand here in front of the entrance, or are you going to walk in?¡± he asked, completely ignoring the lateness of his own arrival. His tail, trailing behind him like the path left behind by a slugs passage, stretched far further than it had in Avery¡¯s memory. Well, if they were avoiding actual discussion of topics of import, she was certainly not going to be the first to break and ask about a mystery. The disappearance of the other creature was also not a topic she was going to be broaching. Nor was she going to attempt to bring him into the mystery of why she didn¡¯t feel overwhelmed with mana after apparently absorbing a massive amount of cold iron, and all the magic bound into its operation. This was fine.Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.


    Nothing was wrong.


    ¡°Just go in first, you¡¯re the meat shield,¡± she retorted acidically. ¡°I¡¯m not risking myself walking into a magical explosion when I haven¡¯t even been able to eat a sandwich.¡±


    ¡°Fair.¡±


    With that, the creature strode forth into the graveyard, meters of tail following closely behind.


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Ham was frozen in place. Like a physical tether, the apparently not a golem¡¯s command locked him in his sneaking position. To be completely clear, it was extremely uncomfortable to be crouched down and hunched over like that, but being completely unable to move meant exactly that. Well, that was that, he was trapped forever. With that in mind, he gave up.


    Immediately he fell over.


    Night instantly, he felt the cold metal, presumably of the sword, against the skin of his neck. This was most certainly a great incentive to stay completely still, and now that he wasn¡¯t stuck in an incredibly awkward position, that would prove far easier than before. The main difference was that in this case, he didn¡¯t even really dare to breathe. Dark power or no, he highly doubted he would be able to survive decapitation from a sword that fired beams of exploding light even without the direction of a wielder.


    ¡°Your daring is admirable, sneak thief, but skill alone is not enough to surpass the will of royalty. Our destiny has already been seized, and the power and prestige of the prophesized hero belongs to we alone. However, we do know the concept of mercy. One of your talents would be a boon to the quest that surely comes along with the destiny of the blade; swear fealty to your princess, for now and for ever, and your life may be spared.¡±


    Unfortunately for Ham, speaking would require air, and air would require breathing in, and breathing in involves movement of the neck area, if only slightly.


    ¡°The strength of your convictions, whatever they may be, is admirable. It is with regret that we must end you,¡± the ¡®princess¡¯ states, raising the sword from his neck for a chop.


    ¡°But the king doesn¡¯t have a daughter!¡± Ham blurts out, the obvious fact being the literal first thing he thought of when she had said ¡®princess¡¯. For the time being, the heir apparent to the throne was the prince, who was generally kept from public view, presumably locked within the castle itself alongside enough tutors to ensure a competent successor to the current monarch. To Ham¡¯s understanding, the royal family only had the one child, and the queen had died in childbirth.


    No idea what he looked like though, Ham didn¡¯t really pay attention to anything the matrons had tried to teach them.


    The statuesque figure above him paused.


    ¡°And from whence did these scurrilous rumors about the royal family originate, we inquire?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s just what they told us at the orphan quarters in the Temple of Darkness! The king only has a son, that¡¯s what they say, I swear!¡±


    Ham hears footsteps pacing away from him, but decides not to try and use the momentary break in attention to attempt escape.


    ¡°An appreciation for wearing pants rather than dresses or skirts, and an interest in physical activities does not define a person as male! We are, and have been, a girl, and have no shame for doing what brings us joy. Tomboy they may call us, but the fact of reality is that we are a princess and not a prince, and demand to be recognized as such.¡±


    ¡°Okay, okay,¡± says Ham desperately, ¡°I pledge allegiance to the princess.¡±


    ¡°Good,¡± she replies, before a rumble makes its way through the stone of the mausoleum.


    For a moment, Ham almost asks aloud ¡®what is that¡¯, before his survival instincts kick in and tell him to keep his mouth shut.


    ¡°Hmm, the enchantments on the gate have been breached,¡± the princess muses aloud. ¡°It seems destiny has chosen to take the initiative in testing us. Come, thief, our first trial awaits.¡±

 Slight Complications

    Beyond the fence lacking a gate, there stood a small marble building. Doors ajar, leading to downward stairs, the structure concealed a path downward by appearing to be an ordinary small crypt, a house on a grave to mark a resting place. What it didn¡¯t conceal was the giant hole burnt out of the ground beyond it, or the pillar of light that had caused it and brought the attentions of the necromancer and party.


    Significantly less concerned about any kind of threat to the city than the human it accompanied, the experiment focuses its attention on matters that concern it more than the minor issue of explosions and earthquakes. It had eaten a sandwich, and enough time had passed from the event for it to consider the implications of certain actions. For instance, the human, no longer a disembodied spirit, had been befuddled slightly more than what it had come to expect from the being in question, and made reference to events it had no memory of. That implied the sort of unnecessary complexity that came from either the higher-ups, or the other.


    If this location had been compromised, it was going to have to deal with that. If the human was compromised, it might have to deal with that, and the starting point for such an eventuality would be a distancing, combined with preparations to eliminate the variable. From the moment an agent interacted with reality, it was safe to assume that everything that flowed from that intersection point was to serve their eventual goals.


    Unfortunately, it didn¡¯t currently have the resources to purge everything and try again. They had to be frugal with energy expenditures at the moment.


    Dragging its recently weighted tail behind it, the experiment silently walked down the stairs, not even stumbling with another seventeen and a half kilograms of meat stabilizing its pathing. Nine meters of tail, and enough musculature to absolutely crush the lower strengths of stone, like marble. Granite was right out though, that stuff was entirely too strong. There were probably exact figures it could quote but it neither had the time nor the inclination to do compression stress testing on various rocks to determine exactly how effective the forty-five had been in fulfilling its request.


    Hopefully it wouldn¡¯t have to find the limits for some time.


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    Following behind the not golem, Ham tries to draw as little attention as possible to himself. He had been thoroughly beaten, chased down, and was now stuck as the low level minion to the real bully. This kind of thing was pretty common among the orphans, and he wasn¡¯t going to try and overturn the hastily constructed status quo of non violence immediately. He was definitely all out of energy bursting capacity, and somehow he doubted that the constant stream of darkness he had access to was enough to deal with both the sword that was about a match for him and the wielder.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.


    The girl strode into the central chamber right before the stairway out, and Ham nearly ran into her as she came to a sudden stop. There was a weird looking small creature there in the atrium, and someone wearing wizard robes.


    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o


    ¡°Hey, what do you have to do with the giant explosion a few minutes ago?¡± demands Avery, ¡°I was trying to eat a sandwich that was probably delicious, and the shockwave ruined it! I demand compensation for physical damages, emotional damages, and a new sandwich!¡±


    Down the stairs into the creepy catacombs of presumable death, the necromancer stumbles into a room with actual crypts, a balcony, and some person with a glowing sword.


    ¡°If your person has been inflicted damages by the repercussions of our actions, we recommend that you take any such requests for recompensation to the court of your illustrious ruler, that the government coffers may rectify the issue at hand with all due haste,¡± states the girl haughtily.


    ¡°Reasonable,¡± states the invader. ¡°We should go do that.¡±


    ¡°What, no!¡± Avery retorts. ¡°She just told me to ¡®go ask the government for money¡¯, as though that¡¯s a perfectly adequete deflection of personal responsibility in relation to the event that was almost certainly stemming directly from her involvement. That¡¯s simply not acceptable in this interconnected world we live in, a person has to acknowledge their mistakes and make up for them.¡±


    Pointing forward, the wizard continues.


    ¡°Who do you think you are, to be above the very social contract established between civilized beings, the only thing separating us from the monsters lurking in every wild place?¡±


    ¡°As the rightful heir and occupant to this mausoleum, we state that this is a privately owned plot of property, deeming incursion into the depths, or even beyond the sealed gate, to be in itself a breach of the social construct. Our response then is a demand to vacate the premises, before the obvious escalation can occur.¡±


    In response to that, the creature¡¯s tail suddenly shoots forward, stone spear flying out of its hidden position all the way up the stairway, out of the tail¡¯s grip, and into the wall on the far side of the room, passing between the two people standing in the center of the chamber. It burrows itself deep into the stone wall, and stays completely still, thoroughly lodged into the smooth surface.


    ¡°I suggest you answer the question,¡± suggests the creature, tail still extended eight meters away from his body, nearly touching both of the people.


    The girl responds with violence, slashing downward into the extended tail, slicing cleanly through and severing a meter of meat.


    ¡°Ffff,¡± breathes the creature, taking a step forward. Far faster than Avery would have guessed possible, the stumped tail draws back and thrusts forward, slamming into the swordswoman. Taking the full force of the blow in the chest, the girl flies backward, slamming into the wall.


    Unchivalrously, the figure in black immediately abandoned their companion to flee for the relative safety of the upward stairs to the side of the spear throw. Below, the glowing blade grows even brighter.


    ¡°Our turn.¡±

 Sword of Light

    Maybe it was because it had training, maybe it was how it was built, or maybe it was just that its opponent was terrible, but the human with the sword was incredibly slow to the experiment. They spent like five seconds charging up their weapon with whatever energy they were using before swinging it forward to release a single blade beam toward its center of mass. Somehow they had managed to make light itself slow. Unarmed, it raises its left arm to meet the wave¡¯s trajectory, taking hold of the negligible mass with telekinesis.


    ¡°Weak,¡± it comments, holding the photons in a loose enough grip that the wavelength equivalent didn¡¯t collapse into nothingness with a cession of motion, instead turning it slowly. ¡°And slow. Do you think your meager instruments are a match for the end of everything?¡±


    Behind it, the not-dead human makes some sort of human noise and presses its hands against the ground, which sprouts up into a pillar of stone, swiftly spreading to fill the whole of the space between itself and the experiment. Fair. This was going to get violent, and at the moment it couldn¡¯t bring itself to care about the potential collateral damage it might inflict on the potentially compromised asset. Self preservation was a decidedly human trait, hence its creation and the safeguards implemented upon it, so unfortunately that didn¡¯t really give it any new information to determine whether that particular human was now too much of a threat to allow a continued existence or not.


    This new human, the pathetic specimen that had cost its newly assigned subordinates their introductory cuisine, charged toward it. A simple and ubiquitous meal from a generic local inhabitant would have been an excellent method for artificially inducing a quick and easy sense of belonging with this new area, but now it was going to have to invest time and energy into planning and executing some other extracurricular activity before it could start spending morale on necessary tasks. Almost a full second later, it remembers what was happening, and starts paying attention to the human again. Adequate speed, what one would generally expect from a human. Lazily, the experiment sweeps its tail toward the oncoming flesh creature, only for them to leap over the appendage and slash downward.


    Quickly, the experiment interposes its arm between the descending sword and itself. Without the leverage one gains by using the ground as a base, physical strikes tend to lose the majority of their power. Bracing against something to push against is a necessary part of using a tool to hit things, and without the leverage this human was giving up by jumping into the air, it was confident that its ulna would be more than enough to stop this attack right in its tracks long enough to retract its tail.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.


    Glowing with destructive energy, the sword cuts entirely through the experiment¡¯s forearm, continues downward, and severs the rest of the arm off directly through the scapula.


    Well, that changed matters. It was no secret to their enemy exactly what the experiments were vulnerable to, and that ordinary, primitive looking weapon had that property. Complete disintegration. No more playing around, it would actually die if it let that thing hit it in a part of the body that wasn¡¯t non-essential. Winding its remaining half of its tail around the human, it steps toward the center of the room as it lifts the sword-wielder off the ground.


    No mercy. It slams the human into the ground, picks it up, and repeats. The sword breaks free after the second slam, but it makes sure to keep going for another seven seconds. It wasn¡¯t like a typical human had the ability to survive that kind of physical impact even the one time, but when objects that had no business existing in a setting just so happen to show up right in the exact place to start working against their interests, it didn¡¯t pay to take chances.


    Tossing the limp body out of the way, generating a burst of dust as it collides with the wall above the balcony, the experiment stalks toward the handler-less sword. It picks it up with its telekinetic ability, suppressing any sort of externalization it might attempt to use to strike out against it. Just as it reaches with its remaining hand to grab the weapon, it devours itself with light, disintegrating out of its grip.


    Balefully, the experiments glances around the room. Cracks spreading out from where it had slammed repeatedly, sealed wall behind it, and doorways going deeper. There was no reason to go deeper into a place obviously prepared by the enemy, not without preparation. Depending on how far back the ground was seeded, the number of traps and other methods of complete eradication lurking in the darkness was utterly limitless. It was a shame to do so to an entire civilization of humanity, but this entire city might need to be purged.


    That had definitely been disintegration. Not even ash or any other remnant of its arm or tail remained in the empty room. With a moment¡¯s focus, it forced new flesh to grow from the cut sections, black ichor flowing outward from the stumps and forming into the base of a new arm and the newly elongated tail before the covering spreads to conceal the fact that it was a horrible amalgamation of slime and actual creature. It flexes the limbs, and strikes at the stone wall, smashing a hole through the magically generated rock.


    It retracts its tail back to the size it had been before the modifications, and climbs the stairway out of the mausoleum.


    Ham continues not moving, pretty sure he¡¯s still going to die, next to the corpse.