《Labyrinthia's Maze》 Chapter 1: So "Other Worlds" do exist... jokes on me I guess. Well, that was easy, I thought as I grinned to myself; I had trounced yet another bunch of players who dared to enter my dungeon. These guys were good though, they got to the 178th floor before being utterly trounced by my traps and monsters. Well, no cigar for them, I hooted to myself, ready to log out and reward myself with a bar of chocolate. I opened the menu, ready to log out and take off my Neural Virtual Reality gear, NVR for short, but just as I clicked ¡°Log Out¡±. There was a sense of intense vertigo and the sound of rushing wind in my ears, coupled by an excruciating pain. Then all went black. Slowly but surely awareness crept back to me, though something immediately felt off to me, I had issues moving properly. And I felt a pain in places that shouldn¡¯t be there, I slowly opened my eyes and froze, had I fallen asleep with my NVR gear on? No, that couldn¡¯t be the case NVR games were supposed to shut down if they detected that the player had lost consciousness. Not to mention it would automatically contact the nearest medical facility in the event of unconsciousness or other signs of medical duress. There was no way I was still logged on. Yet as I looked around, this was decidedly the foyer of my Dungeon in the Neural Virtual Reality game Dungeon Masters. A game where you could play as either a Dungeon or as an Adventurer. Although some things had changed. Aside from the entrance all the exits were gone and my Core Pillar was here rather in the Core Room some 200 floors below. I tried to summon up the menu and was not surprised when it didn¡¯t show up. Yep, not in the game then, not sure why I was so calm about it. ¡­ What in the ever living hell was that? So, essentially, I had a Wikipedia page that would just speak into my head whenever I wanted something answered. That was neat. Wonder if it could answer where in the world I was and what was going on, though. . Ok, then- it continued before I could finish the thought. . ¡­ OK then, that explained the where, but not the why and HOW. That was great, just awesome. Well then, maybe the records could give me a hint on how to proceed from here. I wasn¡¯t new to designing dungeons, but I had no idea how to go from here since there was no ¡°menu¡± to interact with or anything. ¡­ Oh, that made sense, I guess. I walked over to the pillar. Thank god that moving around in Avatar form did not differ from moving around in the game or I would have had a problem. I placed my paw on it and focused on returning to my Core Form. There was a strange floaty sensation as my physical body dissolved into mist, and my view shifted drastically. No more body to worry about at all. I could see the core that was now resting on the pedestal, and the rest of the room. I had no arms, legs or anything which felt strange. I tried to move forward, nothing. I tried to ¡°will¡± myself forward, and I moved forward at a walking pace as the floor and walls in front of me came closer. That was simple enough. Now how did I change the... no sooner had I thought about it before the menu appeared, no ¡°Log Out¡±, ¡°Settings¡± or ¡°Quit¡± options. But ¡°Inventory¡±, ¡°Construction¡±, ¡°Summon¡±, ¡°Stats¡±, ¡°Mastery¡± ¡°Devices¡± and ¡°Bestiary¡± were all there... that¡­ couldn¡¯t be coincidence. Even more so since there were menus written in English, in another World. Come to think of it, the foyer had the same Greek-Roman-Egyptian aesthetic that I had used in the game. And I found it rather unlikely such a style would be common in another world. Was that just a coincidence? Figures, even if I am highly curious about what the hell is going on, I have no choice but to put that aside from now. I need to secure my Core Pillar and get some defenses up as soon as possible. If any adventurers or wandering monsters showed up now I would be in serious trouble. Sure my Avatar might be able to handle them, emphasis on might. But I suspected that my stats would be nowhere near what they used to be in the game. Actually, a quick check on the stats page would reveal that just fine, wouldn¡¯t it? With a sinking feeling, I willed the ¡°Stats¡± menu to open. Dungeon Name: Labyrinthia Dungeon Biome: Maze Dungeon Level: 1 DEXP: 0/10 Depth: 1 Rooms: 1 Essence: 300/300 EP: 2 TP: 2 Avatar Attributes Avatar Race: Sage Sphinx (Legendary Unique Variant) Avatar Gender: Female Avatar Level: 1 EXP: 0/100 HP: 500/500 MP: 200/200 Attack: 155 Defense: 150 Magic Attack: 250 Magic Defense: 250 Strength: 15 Dexterity: 17 Endurance: 16 Intelligence: 30 Wisdom: 25 Charisma: 20 Skills: Unbreakable Will(Racial), Labyrinth Sense(Racial), Flight Lv5(Racial), Cleaving Swipe Lv1(Racial), Roar Lv1(Racial), Telepathy Lv5(Racial), Akashic Records (Unique), Magical Labyrinth(Unique) Dispersion(Starting), Reformation(Starting), Core Bound(Starting), Blessing of Inlas(Mythical), WBllrdn iie LV1(Special). Well, it looked like the starting stats I had when I first entered the game and aside from the garbled skill, Magical Labyrinth and the Blessing. I could not make heads or tails on the garbled skill, though. The records refused to acknowledge it being there. Magical Labyrinth would make my maze shift around every time someone not who did not belong to the Dungeon exited, if a certain trap was in it. And the blessing was... silence. Great, well then. I pushed that aside for now, answers could come later, what I needed right now was to get the damn Pillar to safety as soon as possible. With that in mind, I started the construction of the dungeon or tried. Turns out there was a snag, Essence. I had a finite amount of it because of the pathetic size of the place, and thus I could only build so much. And of course, the only ways to increase the rate of acquisition was to have a bigger dungeon or kill stuff within it. Neither was feasible right now, so a small maze would have to do. A quick calculation later and I realized I could create a small maze with an even smaller room for my core with my available Essence. I would even have enough for a simple trap or two and some minions afterwards too, barely. Problem was, I had no traps or summoned monsters. Not surprising at all. I opened the ¡°Bestiary¡± tab and found that my selection right now was utterly abysmal. I didn¡¯t even bother with the Mastery tab, what I needed now were not some fancy Variants or hyper expensive Boss Monster. I needed something to protect my small dungeon without costing me every ounce of Essence I had in upkeep. I looked at my available Evolution Points, only 2, not great, but not horrible either, I could unlock some basic monsters with that. I quickly unlocked the Giant Rat and Dungeon Worm, the best monsters I could afford right now. Not to mention the only other choice I had, given my starting biome, were basic Oozes. They weren¡¯t really useful until I could unlock some variants. Especially when compared to the high replenishment rate of the Giant Rat, the Sneak Attack and Burrow of the Dungeon Worm. With my starting monsters selected, I set about building my small maze. It would have been nostalgic, if my life weren¡¯t potentially on the line this time around. I finished about an hour later; it wasn¡¯t that big, hardly more than a small play maze. It wouldn¡¯t be too difficult to navigate, at least it didn¡¯t seem that way to me. But then I had Labyrinth Sense, and that granted me access to a small map in the peripheral of my vision at all times. I doubted anyone who entered the dungeon from the outside would have that going for them. Then again, if the scaling of the small map was to be trusted the maze itself was 100m long X 100m wide X 10m high. The corridors I was using were only 5 meters wide. The maze was far more complicated than it seemed at first glance, though I was feeling slightly dizzy from my efforts. It got much worse once I summoned the Rats and Worms into the corridors; I hadn¡¯t dropped too many of those before I was getting a severe sense of vertigo. A quick check told me what I needed to know, I was nearly completely out of Essence, not good. Well, nothing to do now but wait for it to recover. With the Dungeon being bigger, the Essence were trickling in faster too. Although the upkeep for the monsters were cutting into that, so it wasn¡¯t amazing. It was far better than the big fat 0 it had been before I added them. The maze itself had some interesting aesthetics. They covered the walls in slates filled with hieroglyphics, carvings of what had to be my Avatar and extensive sections that were just blank. Then there were the critters, there were small critters you would expect to find in a dungeon running around the place. If I were to take a guess, they were food for the Rats and Worms. At least that meant I didn¡¯t have to find a way to feed them, as in the game that entire part had been glossed over. My Essence was slowly starting to trickle back up again. I opened the Devices tabs to look at the traps. The status page had mentioned I also had 2 Tech Points. I might as well shore up my defenses even more with some traps if I could find some that were suitable. Wall Crushers and Arrow Traps, now that was nasty, but not what I was after, ¡°Small Boulder Trap¡± a 5mX5m Boulder that will roll down a corridor. Now THAT seemed more my kind of trap. There was the problem of disposal, though. I looked further down. Ah, the perfect solution, Pitfalls, a basic and well-tried combination, not to mention lethal. I was about to click the Boulder trap when I noticed something else that hadn¡¯t been there in the game, ¡°Skill Traps¡± what¡¯s that? OK, now I was curious, what in the world was in here? There were only 2 available options right now, and both were free to unlock. Mirror of Dreaming Imprisonment Item Type: Trapped item Trap type: Curse Material Type: Crystal Glass Range: Line of Sight Trigger Type: Sight within 2 meters Cooldown: instant, but only one target can be trapped at a time. Hardness: 2 HP: 5 Defense: 0 Evasion: 0 Upkeep: - Duration: Until dispelled, the mirror is broken, or the minion dies. Effect: Gazing into this accursed mirror for too long will lull the watcher into a dreamlike state that will compel them to touch the mirror. Doing so will cause the target to enter the mirror itself and a Doppelg?nger replaces them. The Doppelg?nger will protect the Dungeon to the best of its ability. The target will be held in stasis and can be interacted with by the Dungeon Core. The target can be used as Material for other things if the Core has them available. Though the death of the Material will cause the death of the Doppelg?nger as well. ¡­ What... The... Hell? How did I have this horrid thing? I had nothing like this in the game. Hell, if something like this was in the game, it would be banned instantly. It would interfere with the NVR players¡¯ ability to ¡°log out¡± because of a continuous mind controlling effect.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. I probed the Records. . BUT WHAT IS WBllrdn iie LV1?¡­ No answer, though I had the distinct sensation the records were smiling smugly at me. Well, putting that aside it was unlocked, didn¡¯t I even need to pay points for it. The 2nd trap that I found in the tab was also nasty looking. Magical Labyrinth Item Type: Environmental Trap Trap Type: Magical Material Type: Labyrinth environment Range: Entire Floor Trigger: Core + Automatic Cooldown: 10 minutes or Instant Upkeep: 50e/d Effect: This trap will randomly move the walls of the maze without changing its layout. The trap will leave an obscured path to the Core, unless the core wills it to be otherwise. The trap will automatically trigger on its own when the last intruder leaves the dungeon, or an intruder enters the dungeon while no other intruder is inside. The trap has no Cooldown if activated automatically. Please note that the trap has no ability to detect friend or foe, activate the trap at your own peril. Now that was a nice trap, have an intruder just a few feet from entering my Core room and slam the door shut in their faces. Problem was that upkeep was WAY above anything I could handle. With the Maze done I had gotten an Essence gain of 25e/d but the summoned monsters cost me 20 in upkeep. 10 from the rats and 10 from the worms, that left me with a measly 5e/d, putting this in would bankrupt me. That would be bad for my intention to continue living. I bought the pitfall and boulder combo; they were free to place and didn¡¯t cost any upkeep. I was, however, limited to how many traps I could have of each type by the size of my Dungeon. Ah well, nothing to do with that limitation, at least not yet. Mastery would allow me to increase that limit, but Mastery Points only unlocked from defeating intruders, of which I had none. I hesitated for a moment having placed my allotted 4 pitfalls and 2 Boulder Traps because I could also place 1 Mirror. The question was¡­ should I? The trap was nasty as hell, but could I really condemn someone to essentially a potential eternity trapped inside a mirror? A better question was... could I afford not to? In the game being killed would mean you would lose half your levels and would seal your dungeon for a while so you could rebuild in peace. I suspected that death here... probably would be far more... permanent... far, far more permanent. In the end, I placed the mirror inside my Core Room. Right in front of the Core Pillar, facing the entrance, a last ditch effort to prevent my Core Pillar from being destroyed, or worse... Tamed. Taming was grave news, it was a Divine Tier Class-skill, meaning it would just ignore all skills that were not Divine tier themselves. So, skills that would usually block mind controlling or other mental effects would have no effect on this horrid skill. Taming had also seen a recent change just before I was poofed over here, before it could not tame Avatars of dungeons, only regular monsters. Heck, that stuff happened quite often from classes such as Druids and Rangers taking dungeon monsters as companions. But one of the most recent patches had made it so Cores could be Tamed too, with some hefty penalties for the Tamed Core. First, all gains of the dungeon would be cut in half and given to the ¡°Owner¡± in the form of EXP. That meant all forms of gains, including unlock points. The dungeon could also not harm the ¡°Owner¡± or the ¡°Owners¡± party members, or attack anyone the owner had tagged as friendly. The dungeon would also have to listen to certain orders given by the ¡°Owner¡± in the same manner a normal tamed monster would. It did not sound like a fun experience at all to be on the receiving end of that. The good thing was, nothing had ever conquered my dungeon since the change. I had little doubt if they had I would have been on the receiving end of a Taming attempt if they had managed it. ¡°Conquering¡± a dungeon would leave it helpless for a while, giving them enough time for one attempt before the system would kick them out. With that in mind, I returned to my Avatar Form and did the only sensible thing I could. The building had taken some time, and I was not in any danger, so I needed to kill time for my Essence to replenish. The best way to do that would be to sleep. Something my avatar could do, luckily, as I lay down and curled up my lion tail idly tickled my nose. I couldn¡¯t help but wonder if this was some kind of surreal dream as I slowly fell asleep. Something woke me up, a strange but urgent sensation in the back of my mind. It took me a moment to realize where I was and what was going on. Right, trapped in a small dungeon, with only a handful of monsters and even fewer traps to protect me. And if this sensation was right, I had just received my first bit of company. I dispersed my avatar and focused myself towards the entrance of the dungeon; I wanted to see what I was dealing with. A woman, bruised, dirty and in shredded clothes were in the process of stumbling into the Dungeon. She looked behind her shoulder with a scared expression as she did. Either she had no idea she had stumbled into a dungeon. Or she was more afraid of whatever was chasing her, I silently hoped it was the former as the latter would likely be unwelcome news for me. Shortly after 2 people dressed in loose fitting black robes and with cloaks obscuring their faces entered after the woman. They had their weapons drawn; they did not just hurry further into the maze but were cautious; they knew where they were then good to know. Meanwhile, the woman had been taken care of; I had commanded a Dungeon Worm to restrain her, not kill, just restrain. She was unarmed and not a threat if the busted shackles were any indication. But she could give me some information about where I was, at least. In difference to the records, who either answered that they couldn¡¯t answer or just remained silent. For a skill that was supposed to be able to answer practically anything I needed for it, it was surprisingly unhelpful. The woman was obviously in a state of utter panic, and I can¡¯t say I blamed her. Though she seemed to relax a bit as she realized the worm was not trying to eat her. Meanwhile, I dealt with the intruders in a more direct fashion. Rats and worms were nice, but these people seemed to be quite experienced. I would not waste the only troops I had on them. This required more¡­ direct approach, I decided. The two intruders didn¡¯t notice as I materialized in the hallway to their left, though they decidedly noticed as I unleashed Roar LV1 on them. Roar Lv1 was a skill that deafened the targets unless they passed the save. And they would take a decent chunk of damage from the magically enhanced sound as well. They staggered away from me as my roar hit them. One of them dropped their weapon and clutched their ears, screaming in pain, the other kept barely holding their weapon. They were looking up at me now with more than a small bit of fear, can¡¯t say I blame the intruders for that reaction. I was almost twice the height of a grown man from foot to shoulder. So, I would cut for a rather impressive figure in this cramped hallway, cramped to me anyway, as I couldn¡¯t unfurl my wings here at all. The hallway I had materialized in was the hallway leading to the woman. I needed her alive and thus couldn¡¯t let these two find her, not in her helpless state. The other way leading deeper inside would be a dead end with a pitfall, meaning if they intended to get out of here alive they would have to retreat. Or, so I hoped they would do, I was not ready to outright kill someone myself yet. Scare someone away, sure, kill, I hoped I would not have to figure out if I was capable of that. I took a menacing step towards the two intruders, just as the other intruder staggered back on their feet. The two looked at me, dead end and the way out. I took another step and growled. It was a low, deep sound, like that of a furious lion or tiger, only far louder. The two intruders glanced at one another and took off back the way they came. I made a show of chasing them, I could have caught them easily, as I was far faster than they were just from my sheer size alone. But then I would have to kill them, that would be a last resort, I decided, yes my dungeon needed Essence, desperately so, but killing? Ugh, I didn¡¯t like the idea, didn¡¯t like it at all, should I or should I not? . Well then, that eased some guilt I would have for killing these two. Then there was also the fact that having a demon worshiping cult know my location didn¡¯t really sit well with me. I had no traps here and no monsters within reach... dammit, either let these deranged lunatics go and probably condemn another person to death down the line. Or I crossed the line here and killed them. Not a simple choice at all, even so a choice had to be made. It was an obvious choice to me in the end, I didn¡¯t like it, but it was necessary. They had to die. They never stood a chance against me. They still had another 15 meters to the safety of the stairs when I caught up with them. I charged into them and crushed them like the little mice they were. The sheer weight of the impact killed the one that had failed to resist my roar outright. As the cultist hadn¡¯t heard me coming and so hadn¡¯t been able to brace for the impact. The impact sent the cultist face-first into the wall with a sickening crunch; the impact killed them instantly. The other one fared only slightly better. They had turned around and braced against the impact, but the resulting hit had clearly done some serious damage to the intruder¡¯s back. I forced myself to look the intruder in their eyes as I slammed my paw down on them, claws out, killing them. I felt sick, yet simultaneously strangely elated, I wanted to throw up, yet I wanted to dance around in happiness, yet I did neither, I had other things to do. When the woman noticed me, her relaxed posture instantly turned to one of panic. I can¡¯t say I blame her as I was covered in the blood and gore from my earlier kills. But going all the way back to my core to disperse and then reform seemed... far too excessive, I really need to get Remote Dispersion as soon as possible. I looked down at her; she was saying something in a language I couldn¡¯t understand, probably panicked begging. Great, now what do I do? . That... was useful. Good thing I had level 5 and not the usual level 1, now how to use it... Seeing as prior experience meant I would have to ¡°will¡± it to happen, I tried to will her to hear my thoughts. ¡°Can you hear me?¡± she stiffened, before she looked up at me, slowly. ¡°Y-yes¡± she answered, hesitantly... English, what the heck? Hmm... Probably some form of translation effect because I now ¡°knew¡± the language? It was the only thing I could think of and the Records remained silent, so I guessed I was correct. ¡°Do you even realize where you are?¡± I asked her. She seemed willing enough to talk. And I was not so stupid as to let go of a marvelous thing by revealing I was as utterly unprepared for this as she was. I had no idea how she would have reacted if she realized. ¡°Y-your dungeon, Great One?¡± she seemed confused by the question. I sat down in front of her and without even thinking about it, I cleaned my paws and arms of the blood covering them. ¡°Yes, my dungeon, so that makes you an intruder. Luckily for you, however, I am in a pleasant mood. I might let you go to live another day. All I want is for you to answer some questions for me,¡± The girl stiffened. ¡°I-I am afraid I lack the wisdom to attempt to challenge your riddles, Great One, please forgive me¡± she closed her eyes and lowered her head. She probably expected to be killed immediately. I mentally ordered the worm to release her and it slithered away and burrowed into the ground once more. It was no longer needed, anyway. The woman could not flee, and we both knew it. ¡°Not riddles, little one, simple questions about the surrounding area. I have been... out of touch, with the world at large for some time and as such have little to no idea of the goings-on in the surrounding region. If you answer my questions to the best of your ability and I let you go, I don¡¯t even care if you cannot answer. As long as the answer is honest that is all I care for and you may go, I give you my word¡± The woman deflated in front of me, now openly crying in what I could only surmise was relief, I let her cry in peace; I was not in a hurry. After about 15 minutes the woman sniffled, took a few deep breaths and looked up at me, no more fear in her eyes, only determination and relief. ¡°What do you wish to know?¡± Three hours later the woman left the dungeon, I was sitting outside it watching her go. I had given her as much of the equipment from the dead intruders as I thought was safe. The dungeon had absorbed the two along with their gear. So, it had been a simple matter of dumping it from my inventory and on the ground in front of the woman. She had been a veritable font of information, one upside of being a Merchant, I suppose. But I was a bit worried now. The nearest town was only a few hours walk away. And if what the cultists had said when she was a captive were true, then their camp was even closer. However, the 2 cultists I had killed were not a bad haul at all, sure I had gifted most of the gear I had gotten to the woman. But then I didn¡¯t need that right now, I had gotten what I needed from the cultists already. A bunch of Essence and Mastery points, 2 of them. I had spent one Mastery to unlock the ability to roam within 200 meters of my dungeon entrance. As a Sphinx I needed some space to move, back in the game I had maxed the Outdoor Exploration, giving me a range of up to 16 kilometers. So being trapped underground without being able to spread my wings had been torture. The other point I had spent on Depth Increase, which increased passive regeneration from the size of my dungeon. It also increased the size I could make my current floor and allowed me to expand downward by placing another staircase somewhere once I got access to a Staircase room. With the Essence I had gotten from the cultists, I had immediately expanded the maze. And with the extra regeneration, I nearly tripled its size before running out. Hallways were efficient Essence gainers because of my Biome, and the depth increase had only strengthened that. I still could not place a Magical Labyrinth. But I could place more monsters than the handful I had had when I started out. As I placed the monsters, however, I noticed a tab in the Monster Menu I had not noticed earlier. ¡°Gifted Monsters¡± was a new one, I was certain that was not there before. And again, it was a tab that didn¡¯t exist in the game. Out of curiosity, I opened it. I froze, there, as the sole occupant of that menu, was... my masterpiece, my most beloved Boss Monster. The only player created a boss monster that had gone undefeated since its creation. The only Unique, Legendary Tier, Named Boss Monster in the game. Name: Minos, Guardian of Labyrinthia Race: Emperor Minotaur (Legendary Unique Variant) Gender: Male Level: MAX EXP: MAX HP: 1M/1M MP: 500k/500k Classes: Warrior LvMAX, Berserker LvMAX, Dark Knight LvMAX, Warlock LvMAX, Dark Champion LvMAX, Beast Warrior LvMAX, Weapons Master LvMAX, Reaver LvMAX, Blood Mage LvMAX, Necromancer LvMAX, Dark Shaman LvMAX. Attack: MAX Defense: MAX Magic Attack: MAX Magic Defense: MAX Strength: MAX Dexterity: MAX Endurance: MAX Intelligence: MAX Wisdom: MAX Charisma: MAX Upkeep: 100000e/d, Unless Throne Room of the Minotaur King is built, in which case Upkeep - Non-Class Skills: Monster King(Special). Monster Lord(Special). Core Guardian(Special). Eternally Loyal(Special). Edict Holder(Special). Edict Keeper(Special). Guardians Edicts Lv9(Special). Slaughterer(Special). Rager(Special). Life Eater(Special). Immortal Spirit(Unique). Indomitable Will(Unique). Relentless(Special). Tireless(Special). Vigilant(Special). True-sight Lv5(Special). Protector(Special). Ultra-Speed Regeneration(Special). Maze Teleport(Special). Labyrinth Sense(Racial). Charge(Racial). Class Skills: too many to list. That there were too many class skills to list didn¡¯t surprise me. He had mastered every skill within his classes, thanks to constant training and enhancement by me. Minos alone were worth more than the rest of my 200 floor dungeon combined back in the game. And he had lost nothing if the list were telling the truth. The main issue was, the room I needed to summon him was an expensive unlock in the mastery tab. And the room served no other purpose but to 0 the upkeep of Minotaur¡¯s and all Minotaur Sub Species and Variants. Minos himself was another free unlock I just had to nab whenever I felt like it, so that was nice. But unless I wanted to kill myself, where was no way I could place him without that room. And that was far off yet, given how many prerequisites it had to be unlocked for purchase. It required, among other things, a Minotaur King, a rare Minotaur Variant that I could not afford right now. As I neither had the EP to unlock nor Essence Gain to support a single Minotaur. Not to mention the Mastery needed to unlock the Minotaur King Variant was really damned steep. I shook my head out of the reverie I had been in thinking back to that incident. No point in dwelling on that. It was nothing I could do about it right now, at any rate. I looked out across the plain I was sitting on, even as stone walls were slowly starting to erect themselves within the area I could wander in. Because of my Biome, any area of the surface that I could wander in would fall under my ¡°Control¡± and so take on the likeness of my primary biome. In my case, the ground was becoming a Maze. There was enough space around the entrance and several other rooms around to support a take-off and landing for me. But other than that, there would be a slow and time-consuming job indeed to maneuver through this, to find the entrance to my dungeon once it was complete. That was good because I had little doubt that word of my dungeon would leak out. Either from travelers noticing the growth of my Biome on the surface. Or the Merchant telling someone, I had told her not to tell anyone, but I had no way of knowing how reliable that was. I had no way to enforce that command, meaning only her good-will would stop her. Well, nothing to do with that now at any rate I decided as I walked about and enjoyed the sensation of wind in my fur. NVR was amazing in its ability to replicate sensations. But compared to the actual thing it was like I had been wearing a layer of wool on everything while in the game, this was downright pleasant. Having stood there for a while and just enjoying the sunset and the wind I walked down the stairs again and returned to my Pillar, I needed to sleep. I had spent all the Essence I had available, and I needed the rest as I had been hard at work practically all day. First the interrupted nap with the woman and the intruders. Then further building and expansion after the questions. I needed... a nice... long nap... I was asleep before I even had the chance to lie down. chapter 2: The Mysterious Skill You know what really sucks? Waking up without sleeping well, want to know what really, really sucks? Waking up in a world and body that is not your own... And taking a good five seconds to remember that. Causing you to stumble over your wing because you are not supposed to have wings or 4 legs and crashing into the wall, hard. Not a pleasant start to the day, that¡¯s for sure. I could really go for some pancakes right about now... Oh right, I¡¯m in a different world, I don¡¯t know if pancakes even exist... What do Sphinxes even eat? . Human... I eat¡­ Humans? . OK, I am officially convinced the damnable skill is screwing with me. I can feel the total glee the damn thing has in its strange voiceless words that just pop into my head. That aside however I now have to figure out how to feed myself... or do I? I walked over to the Pillar and entered Core Form. Oh hey, the sense of hunger and thirst was gone, nice! I reformed my avatar... crap, now I am hungry again. I guess I will need to get food for myself... Wait, those dead cultists had a bunch of items on them when they died, maybe... I opened my inventory and looked through it. Not an overly long exercise, given how few things there were in it. I quickly found what I was after. ¡°Rations¡± I took it out of inventory and studied it, it looked like a small rectangular bar that had a very salty smell to it. I also took out a ¡°Water skin(purified water)¡± considering how salty that food seemed to be, I would probably need it. I took a bite, and it tasted... absolutely horrid. Could I even eat this stuff? . With that reassurance, I forced the rations down and drowned out the salty taste with copious amounts of water. Ugh, that was beyond horrible! If I wasn¡¯t so hungry, I would never eat this block of pure torture. I looked at my inventory again... then I realized, if I couldn¡¯t access my menu in avatar form... how could I now access my inventory? . Synchronization? . I guess I needed to increase the synchronization between myself and my body as fast as possible, but how did I do that? . I suspected that my reaction to the salty rations was very sphinx like at least. But then it was not like I had a choice but to eat that stuff. It was the only food I had available unless I hunted- . Why am I not surprised at that? I pushed that aside for now and, with incredible reluctance, took out another ration. This time I didn¡¯t even bother to eat it immediately, not before I doused it with the rest of the waterskin and took out the 2nd one. I slowly took a bite from it. It tasted MUCH better now that most of the salt had been washed off. Sure it had a nasty salty aftertaste. But it was still far easier to eat this time around. With the immediate need of food and drink dealt with, it was time to get to work again; I opened up my Status to see how I was doing. Dungeon Name: Labyrinthia Dungeon Biome: Maze Dungeon Level: 1 DEXP: 3/10 Depth: 1 Rooms: 2 Essence: 24/300 EP: 1 TP: 1 Avatar Attributes Avatar Race: Sage Sphinx (Legendary Unique Variant) Avatar Gender: Female Avatar Level: 1 EXP: 20/100 HP: 500/500 MP: 200/200 Attack: 155 Defense: 150 Magic Attack: 250 Magic Defense: 250 Strength: 15 Dexterity: 17 Endurance: 16 Intelligence: 30 Wisdom: 25 Charisma: 20 Synchronization 18% Titles(4) Titles? . Another incentive to reach max synch ASAP, well then. That aside, I had gained 1EP and a 1TP from the intruders on top of the 2 Mastery Points I had already spent. Should have checked that yesterday really. The question was, what to use the points on. Well, the creature was a simple decision, in order to unlock the next tier of creatures I needed all the basic tier creatures unlocked first. And that meant grabbing Oozes. The traps were more difficult, as I still had a few options there, but in the end I grabbed Crushing Walls. That combined with pitfalls could make for a deadly combination. Not to mention that I could use them as impromptu gates to funnel adventurers down certain hallways of my maze. Hmm, now that I thought about it, I had some rather nasty ideas now for how to use my newest acquisitions... I had been so busy with my building and trying to squeeze out as much as I could from my remaining Essence. That I hadn¡¯t noticed the Adventurers that had entered my dungeon before my first rat died. It¡¯s death left a dull echo in my mind as a signal it had perished. I pulled back from my work and zoomed through the maze to the location of the rat¡¯s death. Yep, decidedly adventurers, a ragtag bunch too, if their gear was any indication. It was poorly maintained and ill-fitting. Which meant they were beginners or thieves who had stolen the gear to start a fresh life of adventure. It didn¡¯t matter to me; they had intruded into my dungeon with hostile intent. Seeing as Giant Rats were only hostile if attacked or if another effect caused them to become aggressive. Like me telling the thing to attack, or they stepped into a Rat Den, a room I didn¡¯t have. Which meant they had attacked it first, given I was too busy to even notice them. That meant that the kid gloves were coming off for this bunch. I now turned the full attention of not only myself but also all my dungeon Worms upon them. It turned out to be total overkill. They might have been fine against three, maybe even six Tunnel Worms all at once. But twelve of them attacking from the sides, below and above all at once was just not fair. One moment they were in a quiet hallway with no hostiles in sight and a dead rat in front of them. The next moment the man holding an old partially busted staff was bound and dragged away from the party. Quickly followed by the woman with the bent buckler and, if her inability to damage the 3 worms attacking her were any indication, rather blunt sword. The mace wielding lady was the next to get hogtied, but not before she killed 2 of my worms by smashing their heads against the walls with her mace. Leaving only the one wielding daggers, who looked at his bound friends, then tried to flee without even offering them a second glance. Backstabbing, typical. His flight caused the woman with the shield to cry out in despair. The worthless coward that fled had to be someone she trusted a great deal. And he had just left her and everyone else behind to save his skin. That¡­ didn¡¯t sit well with me. If he was just a sell-sword, fair enough. He decidedly wouldn¡¯t have been paid enough to remain loyal through something like that. But to betray someone who trusts you in a life and death situation. Nu-uh, no way that didn¡¯t sit well with me at all. Back in the game, I took an extreme delight in exposing such players to the most horrible of my traps and monsters. I didn¡¯t have that option here, no trap or monster horrible enough, so I would have to do the job myself. The only warning he had of my Avatar materializing was a sudden breeze as my materializing body displaced the surrounding air. The next moment I had grabbed him and slammed him into the wall. Not too hard to do, seeing as my front paws were only slightly smaller than his torso. Yet were nimble enough to be hands that could hold such paltry things as food rations with ease. He tried to stab me with his dagger. But their shoddy state and the lack of momentum behind his stabs meant he couldn¡¯t overcome my defense at all. At worst, it itched a bit, and at best I didn¡¯t even feel it. ¡°Betraying your friends are we, did you know I hate traitorous cowards the most of all?¡± I growled at him as I made my way back to the other three. Once he ran I had changed the worm¡¯s orders from ¡°Incapacitate¡± to ¡°Restrain¡± so they were all now thrashing around in their bindings. The question was, what to do with the bunch of them. NO NO NO, NONONONO NEVER I am NOT DOING THAT for crying out loud I WAS human less than 2 days ago. No answer from the stupid skill, good. I suppressed the urge to shiver. Not because the idea horrified me, but because it was so... appealing at that moment. I shook off that feeling immediately though, I would rather starve. At least for now. With luck, my willpower would hold out if I actually start starving. Though I honestly hoped I would never have to find out what would fail first, my will or my hunger. I pushed that horrid thought out of my mind as I stepped over to my prisoners. I really was at a loss on what to do with them, though. Aside from my stomach loudly voicing its displeasure with me having an actual conscience. For now, if 100% synchronization meant I would become a Sphinx in mind and body, which is what the Records were hinting at. The idea might be far more appealing in the future. I needed to secure a steady and tasty food source before that happened, that was for sure, the last thing I wanted was to view humans as food. With that in mind, I really couldn¡¯t keep these guys around as prisoners, no matter what I decided it would have to be between death or freedom. On one hand, they had barged in here and killed a few minions. This bunch was decidedly no threat. They had killed a rat and a few worms, sure. But those would return on their own in time, at no additional cost to me at that. This rag-tag band seemed beyond hopeless, heck they probably had even less to go around than I had. Judging by the state of their gear. It seemed they were so down on their luck that they would brave an unexplored dungeon hoping to find something of value. Too bad for them I was so fresh I had practically nothing. ¡°Hmm. Well, what should I do with you four hmm? Well, I know the fate of one of you¡± I looked at the cowardly Rogue who had betrayed the party. ¡°If there is one thing I absolutely hate, beyond all else in this world. It¡¯s those who would betray their friends and loved ones for their own benefit. So, your fate is sealed, Rogue¡± Something warm and wet hit my fur and trickled down the front leg holding the rogue. Yuck, seriously, at least show some dignity in your last moments for crying out loud. I eyed the remaining three, the warrior lady was silently crying, the rest had gone limp too, no more struggles on their end. ¡°Hmm, now then if any of you can answer my riddle. You three will be free to go¡± The three froze up for a moment. Before they slowly nodded, still saying nothing. Probably too afraid that what they say will be taken as the answer, despite me not asking yet. I took a deep breath before I spoke. ¡°It may only be given, not taken or bought, it is what the sinner desires, but the saint does not, what is it?¡± There was silence for a long time, a very long time. So long I was wondering if any of them knew the answer. Then, to my surprise, the rogue spoke up ¡°Forgiveness, the answer is forgiveness, now let them go¡± Well, well, well, so there is a heart in this coward after all. I wave my tail theatrically as I silently ordered the worms to release them. They quickly gathered their gear. But again, to my surprise, they do not leave. The woman with the shield slowly approached me. She was clearly on the brink of utter panic, but even so she still approached me. Her arms were at her side and her posture left her utterly defenseless. I didn¡¯t need telepathy to know what it is she wanted to ask. She opened her mouth, but I interrupted her. ¡°If he means so much to you, I will ask you and you alone a riddle. Answer it correctly and I will let him go, fail and you will share his fate¡± she flinched. ¡°Don¡¯t do it Ynve, I am not worth it¡± the rogue said, but I ignored him. The woman¡­ Ynve hesitated for a moment longer, but then took a step forward ¡°Then ask your riddle, I shall answer¡± Damn, this guy doesn¡¯t know how lucky he was. He flat out betrayed her, and she would still risk her life to save his. His expression said the same thing. Well, maybe he would learn something from this, if he survived. ¡°What costs nothing but is worth everything, weighs nothing but lasts a lifetime, that one person can¡¯t own but two can share?¡± I kept my face neutral even as both the rogue and the Ynve stared at me. The riddle wasn¡¯t hard by any stretch. But as they looked at each other, they both went beet red. Even so, Ynve composed herself for a moment before answering, still unable to meet the rogue¡¯s gaze ¡°... It¡¯s Love¡± it¡¯s barely a whisper, barely audible to anyone but me. For suspense¡¯ sake, I held on to the lucky bastard a few moments longer. Then I unceremoniously dropped him to the floor. ¡°Take him and be gone, and you Rogue, you are far luckier than you deserve. To have someone who cares so much about you. That she would give her life to save yours even after you betrayed her. Cherish what you have now, for if you lose it you will never find it¡¯s like again, I assure you¡± The rogue looked at me for a moment, then to Ynve. Then he slowly nodded, before going down on his knees and apologizing to the others. ¡°You will do all our chores for a month¡± said the old woman. The spindly man also added ¡°And paying for drinks when we get back¡± the man looked up at them. ¡°Sure, of course!¡± he looked remarkably relieved. OK, as touching as this was, it had gone on long enough- I started tapping my claws against the ground, a rather abrupt reminder of where they were. The quartet looked up at me for a moment. Then stormed off back towards the entrance with their gear and what little they harvested from the rat. I slowly followed behind them. I needed a wash and there was no way in hell I was simply using my tongue this time. Luckily, there was a small stream running past close to my dungeon that should not have been interrupted by the Biome yet. It might change, but for now, it was a source of water that I could use. And who knows? I might find some fish to eat if I was lucky. I was not disappointed, as once I finished rinsing myself clean and then waited a bit, several fish showed up. Some of them were big, even by my standards. Come to think of it, this was a small stream by my standards, so for a normal person this was probably an enormous river. Well, I wouldn¡¯t look a gift horse in the mouth. I peered into the water at a particularly large and juicy looking fish. That would be my dinner, I focused more and more on it while slowly raising my paw. Just a little closer now, a little closer, come to me, dinner. A shudder went through the fish. Then to my utter astonishment, it suddenly sped towards the river bank and jumped onto land landing next to me. Where it remained still, although it undoubtedly should suffocate right about now. What just happened?¡­ I waited patiently for the Records to pipe up, but it remained utterly still. What an utterly useless skill, only butting in when I am slightly curious rather than freaking the hell out. Still, if the fish were so keen on presenting itself to my maw, who was I to argue. Fair enough that its behavior was unnatural, but I was too hungry to care right now. It wasn¡¯t before I was done with the entire fish I realized I had devoured all of it raw and had enjoyed every bite. I decidedly was losing touch with my human sensibilities as I was coming more in sync with my Sphinx body. A somewhat worrisome development, but given the circumstances, I couldn¡¯t say it was a terrible development either. I needed to feed myself, and with my current sensibilities, raw fish was delicious. Meaning I was happy to devour it straight from the river. Rather than trying to figure out how I would make a fire, saving both time and energy for other things. I could only hope I would remain human enough to not view people as a potential lunch down the line. I went back to the river and looked for another fish to eat. The first one was big, sure, but I was also huge Sphinx, it had been a small helping for me all things considered; I was eager for more and it didn¡¯t take me long to locate another. I focused on it once more. Waiting for it to get closer, closer and closer, but this fish remained stubbornly deeper in the river, that was infuriating. It was so big and delicious looking. Why couldn¡¯t it just get over here already? No sooner had the thought crossed my mind before the fish shuddered, then sped towards the river bank and. Just like the fish before it jumped onto land. OK, one time could be a freak occurrence, but TWICE, no way. I had to have done something to that fish to make it do that, that was not normal behavior at all. Fish didn¡¯t just deliver themselves to people who wanted to eat them. That would go against all survival instincts they had. I had to have influenced its behavior somehow. Well, I could try to figure it out later. Right now I was too hungry to care as I eagerly devoured the 2nd fish. Then I went back to the river and repeated the process for a 3rd and 4th helping. At which point I was feeling pleasantly sated. With the annoying hunger fully sated and a reliable and tasty source of food found, well reliable for now at any rate. I could worry about other things. Now what was I doing before I got interrupted by those misfits? Oh, right dungeon building, how much essence did I have left anyway, time for Status! Dungeon Name: Labyrinthia Dungeon Biome: Maze Dungeon Level: 1 DEXP: 8/10 Depth: 1 Rooms: 2 Essence: 174/300 EP: 1 TP: 1 Avatar Attributes Avatar Race: Sage Sphinx (Legendary Unique Variant) Avatar Gender: Female Avatar Level: 1 EXP: 90/100 HP: 500/500 MP: 200/200 Attack: 155 Defense: 150 Magic Attack: 250 Magic Defense: 250 Strength: 15 Dexterity: 17 Endurance: 16 Intelligence: 30 Wisdom: 25 Charisma: 20 Synchronization 38% Titles(7) Skills: Unbreakable Will(Racial), Labyrinth Sense(Racial), Flight Lv5(Racial), Cleaving Swipe Lv1(Racial), Roar Lv1(Racial), Telepathy Lv5(Racial), Akashic Records(Unique), Magical Labyrinth(Unique) Dispersion(Starting), Reformation(Starting), Core Bound(Starting), Blessing of Inlas(Mythical), WBllrdn iie LV2(Special). Wait... What? OK, so the Synchronization I could understand. I had played the riddle smith damn well, but why had I gained so much DEXP and EXP? Not to mention the literal metric ton of Essence. The only thing I had killed today was fish that ha-. Hang on WBllrdn iie LV2?¡­ Fish that behave unnaturally. I had suddenly gained a lot of DEXP, Avatar EXP and a bunch of essence and that skill levels up.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. There could only be one explanation, that skill was responsible somehow, that skill had let me manipulate, no, outright control the actions of those fish somehow. It was the only damn explanation I could even conceive of; the problem was, I did not understand how I was activating it. Was it my focus, was it my want for the food that made it work? I would need to experiment further with this, but¡­ not with the fish. That was my only food source, a source I had no idea about how sustainable it was. I couldn¡¯t risk potential meals down the line just to experiment with a skill I did not understand, what it did or even if that was what leveled it up. This entire thing was giving me a goddamn headache. I would have to get my mind off of it before it drove me insane. With that in mind, I went back into expanding the dungeon. By the time I finished, the underground maze was about the size of my entire overground roaming area in radius. And would be an absolute pain to navigate. Not to mention I had invested as much into traps as I could, maxing out on those that remained. This was now giving me Essence at a good clip as a result and I could even afford the upkeep on Magical Labyrinth. Though only barley, after a bit of deliberation I grabbed the trap. Sure it was expensive. But I had no idea what might be in store for me, so better safe than sorry. So far, I had been lucky. Getting only someone who was not prepared for a dungeon dive as they were busy with kidnapping. Followed by a ragtag bunch of desperate down-on-their-luck adventurers. I knew for certain that my luck would not hold up forever. Eventually, I would have someone or something dangerous come calling and with this group being allowed to leave my Dungeon, it was probably sooner rather than later. As I marveled at the sight of the Labyrinth changing at my whim, it made me feel good about myself. Even as a few rats squeaked in surprise at the wall mo- hang on, squeaked? I tried thinking back... Nope, I could not remember being able to hear while in Core Form before. Able to see, sure I could see a full 360 degrees, which was disconcerting in the beginning. But until now I had never been able to hear, unless... . 40%, this could be good or it could be bad. I still didn¡¯t know how this was affecting me until experiencing it firsthand. Although this new skill would make things easier. I could now spy on any intruders to discern their motivations prior to engaging them. Or even learn of their tactics and plans if they intended a serious assault. A thing to ponder for later, for now, it was late; the sun had already set, and it had been an interesting day. The only worry now was that I was syncing up surprisingly fast. Probably because I had unwittingly used that strange skill on top of the riddles. I was not noticing the fact that I was changing; that was actually a cause for fear. And I was supposed to be immune to fe... no, my Sphinx-self were immune to fear, that fear had to originate from my human side, an interesting observation. I reached the Pillar room and curled up in the same spot as before; it didn¡¯t take long before I was asleep. I looked around, and at myself, I was human again. Did this mean this was a dream? Probably so, considering I was in a white void. Well, a void except for me and the giant Sphinx looking down at me. A Sphinx I recognized from my reflection as I was fishing, I was looking at myself, or to be exact, the self I was becoming. I was still not sure how I felt about that. My Sphinx-self was looking at me with a serene and patient expression, though. ¡°You need not worry about that¡± she said. She sounded so calm, yet so sure of herself that I found it almost impossible to disagree. I couldn¡¯t help but note that I did still worry though, even if it was extremely diminished. ¡°Why should I not worry, I am slowly ceasing to be myself here. You might not feel fear, but I do and this sensation of no longer being¡­ well me, is terrifying¡± my Sphinx-self smiled. It was a pretty smile, despite the razor-sharp teeth. ¡°Because you and I are the same, our outlooks are different, yes, but that is because I am a Sphinx and you are Human. Once you are no longer human and have become a Sphinx, you will see what I mean. There is no reason to fear, you won¡¯t disappear, you will just be different. Just like you are different when you try or experience something new. You were different when you realized raw fish was tasty. Are you still yourself? Yes, and so it will be when we are fully one¡± Huh, when put in that perspective, it didn¡¯t feel that bad. Although... ¡°Promise me one thing¡± I looked up at my sphinx-self. I trusted myself, sure, but this was the one thing I feared the most about all of this. ¡°We won¡¯t eat people, we have fish, we don¡¯t need people for food¡± I looked at her with an unyielding expression. ¡°I give you my word, I will not influence you to eat people, happy?¡± Something about the way she worded that struck me as strangely specific. But it was likely the best I would get. I nodded, and as I did, the void faded to black as I regained consciousness. I opened my eyes slowly. The first thing I did was to check my status. As that dream was giving me goosebumps, Synchronization at 75% just from sleeping, it had gone up 35% that... was somewhat surprising. It should also have terrified me, I idly noted. Guess whatever that dream did to me last night erased the fear completely. I was not sure how I felt about that, to be honest. Whatever I was feeling about it, though, it was decidedly not fear. I pushed that thought away, syncing up was inevitable at this point regardless of my feelings about it. The more important question was, had I gotten any new skills out of it. Nope, didn¡¯t seem like it, that was a bummer, had expected another unlock by now, maybe at sync 80%? Well, seeing as I was awake, there was no time like the present. I might as well get some food, then get ready to add some more critters to¡­ no wait. I couldn¡¯t do that, not with me having added the Magical Labyrinth last night. I would need more essence gain for that. And with my income down to 1e/d because of the Magical Labyrinth that meant I needed guests... or I could use that skill on the fish again. I was hungry at any rate, so why not use it on a few fish and see how it went? With my mind made up, I exited the Dungeon and walked over to the river. I looked for a fish that would make for an excellent breakfast. No, not that one, that one? Nah, too small still. I had been at it for nearly an hour when finally I found one that fit my requirements; I focused on it, willing it closer, closer, closer, clo- suddenly pain racked through my midsection, enough so it broke my concentration and the fish swam away. I looked down to my right side. An arrow was sticking out of it. I followed the arch it would have had to have taken to hit me there and saw a group of adventurers. These were well armed and armored and didn¡¯t show fear either. That was foolish because that arrow hurt a lot. And I was not feeling very generous or merciful right this moment. These adventurers would pay for that, right here, right NOW. I grabbed the arrow and yanked it out; it hurt. But I had taken little in the way of actual damage. Barely 5 points total and 3 of those was from me ripping the arrow back out. I would not go easy on these guys just because they barely hurt, however. They had deliberately attacked me, even though I was unaware of their presence. And if they had tried to talk, I would have probably been willing to hear them out. But no, they had gone straight for ¡°Kill first, ask questions later¡± well if they wanted to play it that way, fine by me. The archer quickly realized that the arrow had done next to nothing to me as I let out a snarl and sprinted towards them. 100 meters away, an excellent shot. But one that was nothing more than an annoyance, I was on them in mere seconds. To the credit of their front-liner she or she blocked my charge and stopped it. But it splintered the shield beyond all usefulness. It fell to the ground among the low walls that would one day be a proper above ground maze. That didn¡¯t stop them from swinging their sword, however, and damn that hurt. Though, it didn¡¯t do much in the way of actual damage; I guess my defenses were higher than their attack. Though not enough to completely nullify the damage I took, this would sting later on that was for sure. That¡¯s when the lightning bolt hit me, and it should have hurt. It was a goddamn bolt of lightning, but¡­ I didn¡¯t feel a thing, nothing at all. The mage who delivered it looked as surprised as I was. Apparently 250 magic defense were nothing to scoff at, or maybe his magic attack were just that low? I did not know these guys¡¯ relative level or how I measured up to a regular Sphinx. Or how much a Sphinx measured up to your regular Human. I would rate these guys as painful, but not dangerous at most, and as a nuisance, at worst. The next to try their luck were the one I pegged as the healer. As she cast magic as well and vines sprouted from the ground and attempted to bind me. No thanks, none of that, time for me to counter attack. I used Roar Lv1, and the effect was immediate. The Mage and the lady with the vines flinched, the vines themselves fell inert to the ground. The casting disrupted by my roar. The archer and the warrior were not so lucky though, both dropped their weapons and grabbed their bleeding ears while screaming in pain, serves you right assholes. The Mage tried to cast another spell, but I¡¯ve had enough of this, I swiped out with my right paw, striking the mage and the warrior with one swing; the warrior could not defend and took the hit dead on. The Warrior got knocked back and skidded along the ground until they collided with the wall. Their armor was still intact though, good for them. And my props to whoever forged that thing, good craftsmanship, the mage was not so lucky; the swipe had hit him in the neck, claws out. He was a goner unless he received some serious healing right now. A sentiment the healer seemed to share as she cast again and warm light enveloped the entire party. When it faded the rest of the party staggered to their feet ¡°Damn Indella, nice save¡± the Warrior said, in a deep baritone voice, a man then. The Archer, which upon closer inspection seemed to be a youthful woman in her late teens or early twenties at the absolute most, nodded in agreement. The Mage, however, seemed less sure of himself ¡°It let you finish the healing, it could have attacked you while you cast, and it let you finish¡± Finally, someone noticed. Yes, I could have finished it, but my original anger had dissipated as I realized the party was unlikely to actually hurt me. However, if I could make them talk, I could use them to get more information. And dead men tell no tales, not unless you are a Necromancer or Death Priest. And as a Dungeon I could not take classes, so if I wanted information, I needed them alive. Or if I could make them stop attacking long enough, I could try to force compliance by using the garbled skill. Sure, I had yet to try it on anything but fish. So, I did not know its actual effect range, or even if it worked on humans at this level. But if I could successfully use it on one of them¡­ I could at worst use them as a hostage and get information that way. The adventurers were more careful this time; the Mage had swapped from offense to casting protection spells, while the Archer pelted me with arrows at close range. It stung like hell. But she would run out of arrows long before I even reached half health. Most of them just hit me and fell to the ground without piercing my hide. My guess was that the surprise attack had given her an attack boost. Now that it had played itself out, she could no longer overcome my defense. The warrior was the only one to consistently inflict damage to me and while he was doing an admirable job; he was just one man. He was dealing chip damage to someone that could kill him in one blow if I landed a proper hit. The only reason he was still alive was because he stubbornly prevented me from moving against the others. And the constant healing and protection spells from his allies were barely keeping up with the damage I was dealing. The fight was even until suddenly, I noticed that the Warrior was slowly starting to take damage. Had I run the healer out of magic? No, she was casting a spell, not a healing spell but something else. I had no clue what she was casting, though. Better safe than sorry, I was about to unleash another Roar Lv1 when the Warrior suddenly rammed the butt of his sword hilt into my throat; it didn¡¯t deal any damage, but it interrupted my roar, sending in on Cooldown without going off. That meant that spell was probably bad news. I redoubled my efforts, but with all the damn defensive spells, on top of the fact that the Warrior seemed to have a self-healing skill, I was getting absolutely nowhere. Then the woman finished casting, and a sphere of light enveloped me, I couldn¡¯t move, I was utterly paralyzed. I could feel her magic enter my mind, trying to lull me to sleep. I was not sure what the spell accomplished, but I realized that if I fell asleep, it would be bad. I tried fighting back with all my might. ¡°Superb work, Indella, she won¡¯t be a threat much longer now, soon she will eat out of the palm of your hand¡± the Archer whooped. Then it hit me, the girl was a Druid, a Beast Master druid variant to be exact. She was trying to TAME ME, the utter indignity of it all, nu uh, no way. ¡°ENOUGH OF THIS, RELEASE ME AT ONCE!¡± I was not even conscious of the fact that I yelled that order. I was too busy fighting the effect of the taming, only to suddenly fall over as the taming attempt abruptly ended. ¡°Indella what are you doing! Why did you stop?! Indella? Indella!¡± I shook my head and rose to my feet. The three of them were swapping between looking at me with a worried expression and their friend. She was now standing there passively, with her hands at her side and a glassy, distant expression on her face. Hmm, I wonder, I reached out to the girl telepathically. ¡°Indella, restrain your friends¡± Indella went back to casting. Her friends seemed to relax and turned to face me. Only to cry out in surprise as the vines from before restrained the three of them, preventing them from moving. Well, that proved it once and for all. That garbled skill was some kind of mind controlling skill and by the looks of it. It let me gain total control of their actions. Or maybe she was that way because I just hit her with everything I had. I couldn¡¯t really bring myself to care right now. She had tried to bind me in servitude to her just moments prior. Though being fair I had no idea if that would even work. Or if my Avatar Form would just Disperse at that point, I did not relish the thought of experimenting with that, though. The party, now restrained, could quickly add 1+1 and get two as I calmly approached Indella and patted her head the same way you would pet a dog. ¡°What did you do to Indella you monster!?¡± Man that Archer just never shut up, did she? I guess there was no harm in answering. ¡°I did to her what she tried to do to me. Instead of me eating out of her palm, she is eating out of mine.¡± I don¡¯t know what was more amusing. The crestfallen expression on their faces at me responding to her likely rhetorical question. Or the near panicked realization that I could fully understand what they had been saying until that point. It was a bluff though; I had no clue how long my control over Indella would last. It could be permanent or it could be a few more seconds. I honestly did now know because as usual the Records refused to acknowledge that I had used any skill at all. ¡°Release her at once you big meanie¡± wow, the Archer sure had bigger balls than the Warrior who had so far had done nothing but try to free himself. The Mage couldn¡¯t speak or move a muscle. Indella had gagged and hogtied him to prevent him from casting. But little miss spitfire was making it up for the lot of them. ¡°I will not release her, after all I doubt she would release me if our places were reversed. Besides kid, I couldn¡¯t release her even if I wanted to, I honestly have no idea what skill I hit her with or how long it will last. It just shows up as a scrambled mess to me. I don¡¯t even know if there is an option to end it early¡± the Archer looked at me with a doubtful expression. ¡°Seriously, you seriously expect me to believe that?¡± I shrugged, ¡°Whether or not you believe me, does not matter to me in the slightest. That skill has been a royal pain for me since the first time I accidentally used it. Say does your mage friend have a way to identify active skills?¡± the mage made a few noises at that, but unsurprisingly I couldn¡¯t understand any of it. The archer nodded. ¡°Indella, release your mage friend, however if he tries to do anything but cast that identification spell or skill, restrain him again immediately¡±. The mage was immediately released and slowly rose to his feet. ¡°This is the strangest encounter I have ever been in, never in my entire life-¡± I interrupted him before he could continue. ¡°Enough of your complaining little man. Your friend''s future is on the line here. As I mentioned, I do not know how to release her, or if there even is a way to release her. So unless you can figure out how, I have no choice but to keep her as my pet¡± That shut him up, and he instantly began to cast another spell. A few moments later he seemed confused, ¡°This skill is just garbled for you, is it so?¡± I nodded ¡°What skill is it? Once I know that, I might be able to figure out how to end the damn thing¡± I meant it too. Learning about that skill would be worth a great deal to me. If releasing this little human and letting them all go on their merry little way afterwards was the price to pay for it, then that was a bloody steal. Besides, the thought of forcing someone to serve in this way, not sure I liked it. The Mage eyed me for a while. Likely debating whether to tell me, before taking a deep breath. ¡°You hold all the cards here, so I have no choice but to trust you, the skill is called Will Binder now release her¡±. The moment he named the skill, it was as if someone had hit me in the gut with a sucker punch; I felt physically ill. In fact, the desire for breakfast had vanished. Ugh, the very thought was¡­ no. It only lasted a second though, as I focused on the Records, Will Binder, info NOW . Was the damn records HESITATING? All right, that¡¯s it, I had had it with this damnable skill. If it didn¡¯t answer me right now, I would make it my priority to remove that skill from my list. And since it was a unique skill, that meant only a divine being could grant it to someone. It could not be gained normally. . Even though the skill had no voice it sounded miffed, as if it was insulted or something, the nerve. Well, that was simple enough, although Lv5 that was... quick. It was level 2 just yesterday; I guess it¡¯s because I learned the damn thing¡¯s name or something? That opened a few possibilities though, now that I knew the name, and the skill was no longer just a mess I could see the effect. I now also knew how to use the skill. I could just use it on the remaining three as well and have myself some more powerful minions than the rats and the worms. But I said I would release her. The internal battle was short-lived. ¡°Indella, I release you¡± it was not worth the hassle. Besides, I said I would do it, I would not betray their trust. Betrayers and traitors were the worst thing in the world. If only I could remember why I hated betrayers and traitors so much. Maybe the records figures, guess it stemmed from my world. Indella dropped like a puppet that had its strings cut. Then groaned and slowly got back on her feet. She grabbed her head ¡°Ugh¡± and she looked up. First at the Mage, then at her bound friends, then finally at me. Then she gave a small gasp and hurriedly dispelled the binding. Before hiding behind the now free warrior, sufficiently cowed by what just transpired to not try something like that spell again, good. There was a tense silence for a moment, ¡°So... what happens now?¡± the warrior finally asked. ¡°Now you leave, I have better things to do than to play with you. Like getting my breakfast, which you so rudely interrupted me from getting earlier¡± The Archer now piped in. ¡°B-but we can¡¯t, the dungeon is right there, the treasure we-¡± the others tried to quickly shush her and looked at me with fearful glances. I just shook my head. ¡°Child, my dungeon is not even a week old. Right now the best you would get out of it are Rat Teeth, Rat Guts, Rat Claws, Tunnel Worm Teeth and Tunnel Worm Entrails. There is not as much as a single treasure chest yet. I have been more busy shoring up my defenses. Then thinking about luring in greedy men and women whose lust for gold are stronger than their self-preservation¡± The archer blushed furiously at my words. But seemed properly chastised, good. She was young. The last thing she needed was to end her life before she was even a proper adult. Wait, why were I thinking in those lines, it was unlike me¡­ wasn¡¯t it? I pushed that thought aside. Then, with a last glance in the group''s direction, I returned to the river bank. My appetite was still shot, but I needed to eat, regardless of my current appetite. ¡°Oh, and one more thing before you go. The next time you come to visit, you might not want to use an arrow as a way of greeting. If you haven¡¯t noticed, I get cranky when I get shot at¡± Cranky was technically an understatement. It had been tempting me to rip them all apart and feed them to the dungeon. But the information they had offered was more than enough to make up for that, and information was far more valuable to me given my current circumstances. The group covered one point though, I would need to add treasure and lure in people to kill if I wanted to grow in any decent capacity. Especially now that I had Magical Labyrinth active, my passive gain was down to one Essence a day. I could no longer rely on it unless I made the floor way bigger. But I couldn¡¯t do that without more essence. But hey, it was stuff like this that made dungeon management fun. Though it was less fun when actual lives got involved. At any rate, these greedy dimwits wouldn¡¯t stop coming, so I would have no choice but to kill them, eventually. Because if I got a reputation of being merciful, that could cause genuine issues fast. With that in mind, I watched as the group left, looking dejected. It seemed like they had hoped to make easy money. Although there was no such thing as easy money, at least not as far as I knew. And since the Records didn¡¯t pipe up to correct me, I figured I was right. I resumed my fishing, now that I knew how the skill worked it was easy. Within moments, I had found a few suitable fish. They all happily threw themselves onto land and from there it was straight into my belly. With my meal done, I quickly checked my status. A few things had changed this time. Synchronization had climbed to 86%. It would seem that Synchronization really approved of manipulation of others. I was not sure that I enjoyed the thought of becoming manipulative at all. But it was not like I could stop it from happening. The other major change was that the Garbled skill had become ¡°Will Binder Lv5¡± I could finally see it in the menu. That was one mystery down. It still didn¡¯t explain the blessing, or how I had gotten into this mess to begin with. But it was better than nothing. Overall, I was happy with the results. The final and by far most disturbing thing was the addition of a new skill Forbidden Knowledge Lv1(Demonic). How had I gotten THAT? That didn¡¯t sound good at all. . That¡¯s not good. When the Records were that straightforward with me, it would probably be a superb idea to not raise that at all if possible. Here¡¯s hoping I don¡¯t go doing that again. I was less happy about half an hour later. A bunch of people in leather armor of inferior quality and simple weapons made their way inside. Didn¡¯t the quartet tell anyone that this place was a dump? . I couldn¡¯t help but feel that the records added that last part solely, so I would be more inclined toward merciless than merciful. Then again, the records seemed biased towards making me as Sphinx-like as possible, so I can¡¯t say that was a surprise. Not too much of a problem this time around, though. This bunch just screamed brutish thugs a mile away. And it didn¡¯t take me long to be proven right. As one of them smashed a mural depicting my avatar as they passed, for no reason other than he could. ¡­ Well then, Mr. Brute, you will be the first to die. Wait, maybe I could... What happened next would be something that I would haunt my nightmares for a long while after. I materialized behind the group and sent a few rats as a distraction. Then I used ¡°Will Binder Lv5¡± on the brute that crushed my mural and the guy next to him. An even more brutish looking man with a giant claymore for a weapon, then I gave them one order. ¡°Kill the intruders in this dungeon¡± The other three stood no chance as they got assaulted from behind by the biggest and strongest in their group. It was a messy fight. I could hear the screams and the sound of torn flesh and crushed bones easily enough. It was then that I lost contact with the puppets. They were just not there to communicate with anymore. That was strange. What in the world happened? No answer from the records, well then, just be useless, you stupid skill. I walked around the corner and found my answer; the brutes had killed all intruders in the dungeon, including each other. Well then, lesson learned. I would need to be more mindful of how I worded my orders as they would be obeyed perfectly, without deviation. That aside, the scene was that of an utter nightmare as the two puppets had been VERY thorough in their fulfillment of commands. I honestly couldn¡¯t say if it was because they were like that naturally. Or because they wanted to be sure the rest were dead before turning on each other. I was honestly happy when the dungeon finally absorbed the lot, now maybe I could- suddenly a surge of power went through me; it felt... beyond good; it was like every pleasurable thing in the world had happened to me at once. I also felt stronger than I had before what in the world, oh wait¡­ never mind, I could take a guess. Dungeon Name: Labyrinthia Dungeon Biome: Magical Maze Dungeon Level: 2 DEXP: 2/30 Depth: 1/2 Rooms: 2 Essence: 374/600 EP: 3 TP: 3 M: 5 Avatar Attributes Avatar Race: Sage Sphinx (Legendary Unique Variant) Avatar Gender: Female Avatar Level: 2 EXP: 10/300 HP: 1500/1500 MP: 750/750 Attack: 355 Defense: 350 Magic Attack: 550 Magic Defense: 550 Strength: 17 Dexterity: 19 Endurance: 18 Intelligence: 35 Wisdom: 30 Charisma: 25 Synchronization 93% Titles(9) Skills: Unbreakable Will(Racial), Labyrinth Sense(Racial), Flight LvMAX(Racial), Cleaving Swipe Lv2(Racial), Roar Lv2(Racial), Telepathy LvMAX(Racial), Akashic Records(Unique), Magical Labyrinth(Unique) Dispersion(Starting), Reformation(Starting), Core Bound(Starting), Blessing of Inlas(Mythical), Will Binder LvMAX(Special), Core Sense(Special), Mind Reader Lv1(Racial), Enigmatic Mind Lv1(Racial), Forbidden Knowledge Lv1(Demonic) I had gotten... a helluva lot stronger suddenly, and I now had way more essence to play with. There was also the new addition to Depth in the dungeon list 1/2, did that mean what I thought it meant? I opened the ¡°Construction¡± menu and sure enough, a free staircase room was waiting for me, and the status also listed Masteries now. Nice, no need to open that menu every time I wanted to check. The new skills were interesting too, Mind Reader was self-explanatory, read minds. Made sense with the telepathy and that stuff. But ¡°Enigmatic Mind¡± . So, basically I had just blacklisted everyone from just finding me magically. A neat ability, not sure why it had more levels though, seemed rather straightforward. And the stupid skill doesn¡¯t answer the mystery, as usual. Well, I guess I will find out. That being said, though, I had an idea for my 2nd floor. It would not be just a straight up maze like the first. Mazes were nice and all, but I would need more rooms eventually to lower monster upkeep with their special rooms if nothing else. And the first floor was right now just a mess of monsters, traps and corridors aside from the core room and entrance. With that in mind I expanded the maze a short distance and placed the stairs. It was time to dig deeper. Chapter 3: Striding through The Depths I suppose everyone has, at some point in their life, been feeling giddy with anticipation for something, be it a specific event or maybe even just a friend coming over. Well, that was the feeling I had as I descended the stairs to the 2nd floor of my dungeon, I was... Disappointed. The first thing I noticed as I entered the 2nd floor was that the walls here were utterly devoid of any decor whatsoever, no murals, no hieroglyphs or anything. That was unusual as I would have expected there to be some form of decoration down here. Then I tried to place a hallway... And nothing happened, I double-checked my Essence, yep still plenty, so what in the world was going on? That¡¯s when I noticed the new sub menu in construction that hadn¡¯t been there until now, one that made my currently non-existent heart skip a beat. A blinking red marker named Biomes. It didn¡¯t take a genius to understand what that meant. I had to select a biome for each floor. What madness was this? This crap wasn¡¯t in the game because it was possible to utterly break the system with it and here it¡¯s a requirement to build anything on deeper floors? Sign me up! I opened the biome menu and instantaneously had a severe case of choice paralysis. There was an option for practically every conceivable environment out there in this menu. Including obviously fantastical ones like a Flying Castle, although I did not meet the requirements for most of these. Shaking myself out of my shocked state, I looked around the menu to see if there was any way to sort this thing to make it more readable. With this many options there had to be, right? Luckily for me, that turned out to be correct. Within moments, I had filtered out every biome I didn¡¯t meet the requirement to build, leaving me with only... A few dozen to choose from. Let¡¯s see, Great Mushroom Forest, hybrid cave and forest biome, cute but hybrid biomes was a terrible idea. The stuff in them was always more expensive and had a penalty to upkeep if you didn¡¯t have both the base biomes already. In this case, I would need both a Cave and a Forest biome. Unless I wanted to pay 2 times the upkeep for every base biome I was missing. Since I was missing both Cave and Forest, that would be 4 times the upkeep total, no thanks. Hmm, so many choices, no, no, no, HELL NO! Hmm? I noticed that partially through the list of biomes was an extra header called ¡°Special Biomes¡±. That sounded promising. The first one was Underground Hive, and it was a dual Hive and Cavern biome, dual biome? . Hmm, so this Underground Hive was self expanding and would generate minions on its own without me having to buy anything. That was neat, except for the minor issue of upkeep. The description said it had no support buildings. Those minions had a damn expensive upkeep, and I had no access to upkeep reducers in this biome at all. It might be of interest later on when I have a huge surplus of Essence gain. But for now, I better not subject myself to that. The next two were instant rejections, the first was a Crystal Mine Biome. I remembered that one from the game. All that would do would make me a target for every Magic user and craftsman for leagues around. Sure, it would draw in more people to die in my dungeon, but right now, that was not something I wanted. Problem was that aside from me and my few traps, the lethality of my dungeon was damn low. That biome had only passive monsters, I could not take it and expect to live for long. Or more likely I would end up as a tamed crystal fabricator for some hotshot adventurer, no thanks. The other was the Sludge Pit. The entire biome was essentially a toxic bog where even the air itself was poisonous. It also released a poisonous gas that was lighter than air, so it would drift to higher floors. The problem was that neither me nor any of my available monsters, with exception to the basic Oozes, had immunity or resistance to poison. Meaning I would kill everything on the first floor and probably everything a good distance from the Dungeon entrance, myself included. This floor would go on the ¡°Ignore¡± list if there was one, as it was utterly worthless to me. I kept rifling through the list, rejecting biome after biome for various reasons. Man, these sucked. Was there no Special Biome worth having out there? Then, almost at the bottom of the list, I saw it. A Biome I could pick, a Biome I hunted for in the game like an absolute madwoman because of the synergy with the Maze biome. It was a biome from the game itself called ¡°The Depths¡± a biome that was a giant cavernous subterranean cave network, a Mutated Biome. A biome that replaced a Biome you already had on a floor, provided certain requirements were met. I had literally tried for months upon months to mutate one of my Maze layers into this one, to no avail. Not only did ¡°The Depths'''' biome feature some nasty and cheap critters. In fact, all mutated biomes had overstated, under costed creatures and hazards. But it would also unlock access to the ¡°Deep Labyrinth¡± and the ¡°Underworld Maze¡± Special Biomes. These two Biomes featured some of the most powerful monsters the game offered for my base Biome type. Though at insane costs. And here this holy grail I had searched for so long was right in front of me. Available for unlocking and waiting for me. There was no hesitation. I could not allow myself to hesitate, I NEEDED this biome. This was the defensive layer I needed to survive serious raids from seasoned adventurers. The moment I picked it, the staircase room changed drastically. Instead of being a simple stone staircase along the wall with featureless walls, roof and floor. The room darkened and took on a more cavernous look. The stairs seemed to be a natural occurrence made from obsidian, with the walls now jet black obsidian as well, with glowing orange veins here and there simulating volcanic activity. This, I decided, would be where I would place my first few support rooms, to help the critters I could spawn here, speaking of... I opened the Bestiary, time to spend some EP to unlock more stuff, lets see what this biome has to offer. I was not disappointed, not by a long shot. The base 1 EP creature. With an upkeep of a measly 0.5e/d was the Strider. A giant insectoid that would shoot venomous spines at intruders. These things were not small either, each one the size of a grizzly and look at those stats, hallelujah. Monster: Strider(Basic) Genus: Insectoid Biome: The Depth HP: 150/150 MP: 0/0 Attack: 55 Defense: 50 Magic Attack: 0 Magic Defense: 75 Strength: 20 Dexterity: 19 Endurance: 28 Intelligence: - Wisdom: - Charisma: - Upkeep: 0.5e/d Skills: Strider Hivemind(Racial), Wall Walk(Racial), Darkvision(Racial), Pack Hunter(Racial), Ambush Tactics(Racial), Mirror Carapace(Racial), Poison Blood(Racial), Camouflage(Racial), Fearless(Racial), Apex Predator(Racial), Poison Attack(Racial), Untameable(Racial), Mindless(Racial) These things had no business being this powerful. And that was the only basic creature in the entire Depths lineup, meaning I now had the run of the intermediate line. Of which only needed 1 unlock to gain access to the Advanced creatures. That¡¯s how broken Mutated Biomes were. I went into mastery and started to look for the Strider Support; I knew it was in there somewhere, and I was determined to find and unlock it; it didn¡¯t take that long, given the flashing icons showing them to be new unlocks. Strider Den, Cost 1M Increased movement speed and lowered upkeep for Striders. Also gives a slight chance that a Strider will spawn as a ¡°Winged Strider¡± Variant. This variant can fly and has paralytic attacks rather than venomous ones. Interesting, it was only 1 Mastery to unlock, so sure, that looked useful enough, I kept looking. Strider Hatchery, Cost 1M 2 Swarmlings will accompany Strider packs for each Strider in the pack. Increases base Strider Pack size to 5 Striders (up from 4). If a Strider becomes a Flying Variant, it¡¯s accompanying Swarmlings will also be flying variants. Monster: Swarmling(Special) Genus: Insectoid Biome: The Depth HP: 30/30 MP: 0/0 Attack: 15 Defense: 10 Magic Attack: 0 Magic Defense: 5 Strength: 12 Dexterity: 29 Endurance: 11 Intelligence: - Wisdom: - Charisma: - Upkeep: - Skills: Strider Hivemind(Racial), Wall Walk(Racial), Darkvision(Racial), Pack Hunter(Racial), Ambush Tactics(Racial), Poison Blood(Racial), Scything Talons(Racial), Camouflage(Racial), Fearless(Racial), Poison Attack(Racial), Untameable(Racial) Swarm(Racial), Mindless(Racial) Um... WHY in the nine hells, would I NOT pick this? Free German Shepherd sized screening units for my Striders that also worked together with them? Yes, please. I didn¡¯t even need to think of that one; it was way too awesome to not grab. I still had three more Masteries, lets see if I could find an excellent one, I started looking but it seemed that was it; I looked and looked and looked. But could not find anything until finally, near the bottom of the list. I found something that blew the rest of the finds out of the park. Strider Queen: Cost 3M Monster: Strider Hive Queen (Unique Boss Variant) Genus: Insectoid Biome: The Depth HP: 1150/1150 MP: 0/0 Attack: 155 Defense: 150 Magic Attack: 200 Magic Defense: 275 Strength: 30 Dexterity: 39 Endurance: 38 Intelligence: 43 Wisdom: 44 Charisma: 34 Upkeep: 25e/d, if both Strider Den and Strider Hatchery is present, Upkeep: -25e/d Skills: Strider Hivemind(Racial), Wall Walk(Racial), Darkvision(Racial), Mirror Carapace(Racial), Poison Blood(Racial), Camouflage(Racial), Fearless(Racial), Apex Predator(Racial), Poison Attack(Racial), Untameable(Racial), Scything Talons(Racial), Royal Pheromones(Racial), Strider Spawning(Unique Racial), Swarmling Spawning(Unique Racial), Strider Royal Guard(Unique Racial)(5), Attack Pheromones(Unique), Searing Spittle(Unique), Strider Hive Cocoon(Unique Racial), Strider Hive Infestation(Unique Racial), Hive Reinforcements(Unique Racial), Aura of Fear(Special), Seal Intruders(Boss) Monster: Strider Royal Guard (Unique Special Variant) Genus: Insectoid Biome: The Depth HP: 300/300 MP: 0/0 Attack: 110 Defense: 100 Magic Attack: 0 Magic Defense: 150 Strength: 40 Dexterity: 38 Endurance: 56 Intelligence: - Wisdom: - Charisma: - Upkeep: - Skills: Strider Hivemind(Racial), Wall Walk(Racial), Darkvision(Racial), Pack Hunter(Racial), Ambush Tactics(Racial), Mirror Carapace(Racial), Poison Blood(Racial), Camouflage(Racial), Fearless(Racial), Apex Predator(Racial), Scything Talons(Racial), Poison Attack(Racial), Untameable(Racial), Mindless(Racial), Regeneration(Special), Flight(Special), Strider Honor Guard(Special)(5), Strider Queen Guardian(Unique) I knew Mutated Biomes was supposed to be THE game breaker. But this was beyond even my wildest dreams. That Mastery alone was just bullshit strong. I could see why that particular Mutated biome had eluded me for over 7 years of game play. This level of power could make a dungeon unassailable by all but the strongest of adversaries just by sheer weight of numbers. The Queen would continually spawn Striders and Swarmlings. She would also start with a Royal Guard of 5 Unique Special Variant royal guards. That each had an honor guard of 5 Winged Striders, who each would be accompanied by 2 Winged Swarmlings if I had the Den. Then there was the queen herself, not a slouch in combat by any stretch. In fact, she would be absolutely terrifying to deal with. Seriously, she would be considered Raid Tier back home, and she was Mine. There was no way I wouldn¡¯t have her guard the room leading to my core from now on. At least until I got Minos back. With that decided, I dug my new floor with gusto, though the layout would differ greatly from the floor above. The floor above had just been a mess of connecting corridors snaking here and there to make a nasty Maze. Something I could do only because of my Maze biome. If anyone else had tried that, the hallways would have disappeared within 24 hours of no room being connected to it. This I decided to make more like a natural cavern. With large tunnels leading into vast chambers with enough clearing upwards for me to allow even me to fly. And with several layers of flat ground creating elevation and even waterfalls for subterranean rivers when I ran into underground water reserves.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. I realized more than once that by all rights I should hit the maze above or even the surface itself with several of these rooms. But there were no cave-ins or abrupt changes to the scenery. It had been the same in the game as well. Another ¡°coincidence¡±? I was not at all surprised by the Records total silence on the subject. Just before the room I had decided to make my new Core Room, I placed the Royal Chamber containing the Queen. It was linked directly to the Strider den on the left and the Strider Hatchery on the right. This was frankly just cruel on my side. The Den was the respawn point of killed Striders and the Hatchery was the respawn point of killed Swarmlings. Meaning during the boss fight there would also be a continuous stream of reinforcements from both rooms. Because ¡°Hive Reinforcements¡± allowed Striders and Swarmlings, and their variants to enter through the exit seals to those rooms unhindered. While the adventurers would be stuck inside, unable to attack into those rooms in any way. This would also mean it would be impossible for intruders to damage those rooms to temporarily stop respawns. They would have to defeat the Queen first. If this had been in the game, the dev¡¯s would have to nerf that within a few hours tops. This would quickly become a one sided war of attrition. With the last details taken care of, I transported my Core Pillar to its new room. Leaving the room on the floor above empty, I could probably find a use for it later down the line. . Well, that was a rapid-fire string of information I just got hit with. What in the world was... was? Whoa... Suddenly... I suddenly felt so dizzy. The last thing I remember before everything went black was another notification. . I was dreaming again; I realized, as I was once again back in the white void. In front of me was my Sphinx-self no, that wasn¡¯t right. In front of me wasn¡¯t someone else. It was a mirror; I was looking at myself. Strange, I would have thought the transition would have been more dramatic. Yet I felt no more different now than I did yesterday. I looked around for a hint of my human self, but found nothing. Then again, why bother looking when I had all the important parts of my human past in my head. This was decidedly for the better if it would improve my chances of survival. I looked into the mirror one last time, smiled at myself. Then I spread my wings and flew upwards into the white light and back to the waking world. Blugh, everything hurt. I blame having blacked out in such an exceedingly uncomfortable position. With both my front legs lying flat on the ground, pointing backwards. My hind legs spread eagle as far as they could, and the only thing keeping me balanced was my left wing. Hopefully, this would not happen again. I stood up and shook myself and stretched; I felt strangely energized, as if it had lifted a burden I had not noticed before. Well then, let¡¯s check my stats to see what the titles have done for me and what other things might have changed now. Dungeon Name: Labyrinthia Dungeon Biomes: Magical Maze, The Depths Dungeon Level: 2 DEXP: 2/30 Depth: 2/2 Rooms: 24 Essence: 27/600 EP: 2 TP: 3 M: 0 Avatar Attributes Avatar Race: Sage Sphinx (Legendary Unique Variant) Avatar Gender: Female Avatar Level: 2 EXP: 10/300 HP: 3500/3500 MP: 5750/5750 Attack: 555 Defense: 550 Magic Attack: 950 Magic Defense: 950 Strength: 57 Dexterity: 59 Endurance: 100 Intelligence: 205 Wisdom: 200 Charisma: 195 Synchronization: ¡Þ Titles: ¡°Taken from an Other World¡±, ¡°Cult Hater¡±, ¡°Bringer of Justice¡±, ¡°Helpful¡±, ¡°Riddle Smith¡±, ¡°Merciful¡±, ¡°Mastermind¡±, ¡°Fisherwoman¡±, ¡°Dominatrix¡±, ¡°Devious¡±, ¡°Taboo Breaker¡± ¡°Mistress of the Depths¡± ¡°A True Sphinx¡± Skills: Unbreakable Will(Racial), Labyrinth Sense(Racial), Flight LvMAX(Racial), Cleaving Swipe Lv2(Racial), Roar Lv2(Racial), Telepathy LvMAX(Racial), Akashic Records(Unique), Magical Labyrinth(Unique), Core Master (Compound), Blessing of Inlas(Mythical), Will Binder LvMAX(Special), Mind Reader Lv1(Racial), Enigmatic Mind Lv3(Racial), Forbidden Knowledge Lv1(Demonic), Babel(Unique). Well, that was delightful. The synchronization had improved my power far beyond what I had dared to hope. Not bad at all, I was curious about what the title ¡°A True Sphinx¡± was, though. I was supposed to be notified when they are gained, so I must have gotten it while unconscious. . That sounded far more ominous than I liked. Did that... Oh, so that¡¯s why she had worded her promise that way. My sphinx side knew once I had completely turned into a sphinx. I wouldn¡¯t need to force myself into eating people, I would likely do so by my own free will, if I felt it necessary. Had I still had a single sliver of my human self left, the idea would have probably made me sick. As it was, it was just a fact that was there, nothing more nothing less, I felt... not exactly betrayed but... Indignant, yes, that was the word. I felt so indignant I would refuse myself the taste of the flesh of any sentient being. If nothing more than to prove a point to the side of me that had thought to trick me so. No sentient on my menu. Unless I had no other choice to survive, there was a difference between proving a point and survival, after all. Feeling properly self-satisfied with that logic, I was about to further explore the things the Records had stated, when I was interrupted by the Records. . That was new. Usually, the records would not do stuff like that. What had changed? Silence... OK then, stupid Records, be that way. If the Records deemed these guys dangerous, it was better to go and see what was going on. Dispersing myself, I willed myself to the room the intruders had just entered. And poof, there I was, ¡°Core Master¡± was so damn handy. What I saw, however, made me doubt my senses for a moment. This was not a newbie group of adventurers by ANY means. First it was a Full Party of 12, also known as a Raid Party. 3 tanks, 3 healers, 6 damage dealers, 4 of which likely specialized in Area of Effect damage. Their gear was top quality, frighteningly top quality at that. And the way they moved in perfect sync suggested they had hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of practice fighting alongside one another. If I hadn¡¯t finished my 2nd floor, I would have been doomed beyond all shadow of doubt. Heck, my second floor might not be enough to stop these guys, even with the broken strategy I used earlier. Just to check how good they were, I sent half of my worms after them in the same fashion I had attacked the rag-tag band from earlier. Before they even finished arriving, one of their Clerics was casting something. And as they popped out of the ground, walls and roof, my poor worms were met with a barrier of ethereal blades that cut them to ribbons. The adventurers didn¡¯t even slow down to collect the drops; they had a bigger target in mind; it seemed. And since the only thing bigger in the dungeon that anyone outside it knew about was me. Yeah, best to make myself scarce. These guys were a tad too well in sync for me to like my odds in a 1-on-12 with them. Just then a shudder went through my beloved maze, and its appearance changed drastically. Obsidian cave walls now suddenly replaced the spaces where there were no murals or hieroglyphs. What was going on? Before the records could even answer, one tank cursed something fierce. At least I think it was cursing because one cleric shot him one hell of a dirty look. One of the damage dealers. A spindly young mage that couldn¡¯t be more than a few days out of his teens, looked at the swearing tank ¡°What¡¯s wrong, Boss?¡± he asked. ¡°Biome Influence. This floor just became Variant Central. Keep on your toes everyone this ¡°Easy Payday¡± might have turned sour on us in the worst way possible¡± This was the moment the Records stepped in . That was nice, and all, but told me relatively little, so I looked up the basic and evolved version to see the difference. Monster: Giant Rat(Basic) Genus: Beast Biome: Maze HP: 10/10 MP: 0/0 Attack: 5 Defense: 2 Magic Attack: 0 Magic Defense: 0 Strength: 3 Dexterity: 9 Endurance: 6 Intelligence: 2 Wisdom: 1 Charisma: 1 Upkeep: 1 Skills: Gnaw(Racial), Darkvision(Racial) About as bad as I remembered it being, now what about it¡¯s evolved form... Monster: Typhoid Rat(Depths Influence Variant) Genus: Beast Biome: Depths Influenced HP: 230/230 MP: 0/0 Attack: 35 Defense: 30 Magic Attack: 0 Magic Defense: 25 Strength: 22 Dexterity: 39 Endurance: 21 Intelligence: 12 Wisdom: 12 Charisma: 12 Upkeep: 1 Skills: Rapid Gnaw(Racial), Darkvision(Racial), Pack Hunter(Racial), Evasion(Special), Deathtouch(Special) Rapid Respawn(Special) Aggressive(Special), Strength of Numbers(Special) Small(Special) Swarm(Special) Deathtouch, the thing had Deathtouch. My first floor now had a monster capable of inflicting instant death if its attacks landed. This Influence thing was GOOD, and the stats it had was nothing to scoff at either. Wonder how the other Variant Evolutions stack up? Monster: Dungeon Worm(Basic) Genus: Tunnel Worm Biome: Depths Influenced HP: 40/40 MP: 0/0 Attack: 5 Defense: 3 Magic Attack: 0 Magic Defense: 2 Strength: 12 Dexterity: 12 Endurance: 11 Intelligence: 1 Wisdom: 1 Charisma: 1 Upkeep: 1 Skills: Burrow(Racial) Worm Bite(Racial) Bind(Racial) Tremor Sense(Racial) Darkvision(Racial) Stronger than the rat, but dumb as a doorknob, just as I remembered it to be. Now how did the Depths Worm stack up... Monster: Depths Worm(Depths Influence Variant) Genus: Tunnel Worm Biome: Depths Influenced HP: 840/840 MP: 0/0 Attack: 55 Defense: 53 Magic Attack: 0 Magic Defense: 42 Strength: 72 Dexterity: 62 Endurance: 81 Intelligence: 12 Wisdom: 12 Charisma: 12 Upkeep: 1 Skills: Huge(Racial), Quaking Burrow(Racial), Swallow(Racial), Acid Attack(Racial), Anything Eater(Racial), Touch of Corrosion(Racial), Tremor Sense(Racial), Darkvision(Racial), Tunnel Digger(Special), Arrow Eater(Special) Was this even legal? Touch of corrosion was a skill that as far as I knew was only given to Rust Monsters. Monsters that had virtually nothing else going for them other than that one skill. And that on a monster like this. Apparently the variant also became Huge. That meant it could crawl down the passage the adventurers were in with its mouth open and cover the entire damn thing from wall to wall. Not to mention Arrow Eater, which rendered it literally immune to ranged physical attacks, in fact, hitting it with such would temporarily increase its damage instead of hurting it. I was almost scared to look up what might have happened to the ¡°useless¡± Oozes Monster: Ooze(Basic) Genus: Ooze Biome: Maze HP: 10/10 MP: 0/0 Attack: 1 Defense: 1 Magic Attack: 0 Magic Defense: 1 Strength: 1 Dexterity: 1 Endurance: 10 Intelligence: - Wisdom: - Charisma: - Upkeep: 1 Skills: Ooze(Racial) Mindless(Racial) Acidic Touch(Racial) Blindsight(Racial) That thing, even with the resistances granted to it by its Ooze skill, would lose to a Giant Rat, that¡¯s how weak it was. How in the world would the Influence twist the Ooze, whose Variants were some most feared back in the game? Monster: Black Ooze(Depths Influence Variant) Genus: Ooze Biome: Depths Influenced HP: 1240/1240 MP: 0/0 Attack: 352 Defense: 353 Magic Attack: 0 Magic Defense: 342 Strength: 172 Dexterity: 2 Endurance: 381 Intelligence: - Wisdom: - Charisma: - Upkeep: 0.1 Skills: Ooze(Racial), Deathtouch(Racial) Mindless(Racial) Implant Ooze(Racial Unique) Spawn Black Ooze(Racial Unique), Magic Mitosis(Unique), Truesense(Special), Hunter-Killer(Special), Ambush Specialist(Special), Master Ambusher(Special), Cooperation(Special) That thing was without a doubt scarier than the Queen down below. Truesense meant it would know where anything was, regardless of what it did to conceal itself. Provided the target was within range of the ability, which was... practically the entire dungeon and it had Hunter-Killer. Meaning it would seek and destroy intruders on its own. On top of the 2 best skills for aiding in doing surprise attacks, and the ability to cooperate with other monsters. It had Deathtouch because it needed just another tool to be an absolute tool of horror and death; I didn¡¯t know what Magic Mitosis was, but I had a terrible suspicion. . This thing was Boss material, not a bloody random encounter on the 1st floor of a Dungeon. Although with Hunter-Killer it wouldn¡¯t be much randomness in it. Given how every single Black Ooze on the floor were now making a beeline for the adventurers as fast as they could go. And that was fast quite fast indeed. This would get nasty. I realized the cleric with the Barrier from earlier had some sort of ability that allowed him to detect threats. As he tensed up. Causing the entire group to go on guard instantly. The lead tank looked at him, ¡°More worms?¡± he asked. ¡°No, this is something else. Something I have not encountered before. Be on your guard. This is undoubtedly a Variant Species¡± As he finished speaking the first Ooze rounded the corner and moved towards them like a wall of inky blackness. One of the Mages shot it with a fireball. On the good side for the Adventurers, the Ooze stopped and turned back into its 2x2 meter ball of slime. On the unpleasant side, a few moments later there were 2 of them side by side in the corridor. ¡°What in the-¡± The mage looked utterly crestfallen. ¡°Magic Mitosis, no magical attacks!¡± yelled another party member. This one looked like a bookworm with his enormous glasses and strange misfitting habit, that looked a lot like the gear that Sages used back in the game. He was flipping through a large tome like mad. ¡°Found it! Black Ooze... oh hell, we need to retreat, NOW!¡± the party started a coordinated retreat ¡°More info on why, please¡± demanded the Tank from before. ¡°Black Oozes are an Ooze Variant, they are Hunter-Killers with Deathtouch and Truesense. On top of the Magical Mitosis and the ability to transform those they kill into more Black Oozes. They also have the Ambush Specialist, Master of Ambush, and can Cooperate with other monsters, including each other. We are not equipped to deal with this, Sir¡± The bookworm concluded. The tank that clearly was the leader nodded. ¡°I concur any weaknesses listed in that book of yours?¡± ¡°Standard Ooze weaknesses. Except those that pertain to attempting to conceal your presence and damage from magic, Sir¡± The bookworm answered almost instantly. The two oozes had not advanced. They were waiting for something. Waiting for what became obvious a few moments later. When the entire maze quaked once more and behind the retreating adventurers burst a huge worm. ¡°WHAT IN RUBOLGS NAME IS THAT THING?¡± screamed the mage that had shot the fireball. More desperate flapping of pages even as the mages forced the charging worm back under a barrage of magic. The Oozes, which until now had been passive, attacked the lead tank. ¡°Depths Worm, believe it or not, it¡¯s a Variant version of the small worms you killed with your Blade Barrier earlier. Also, don¡¯t hit them with physical ranged attacks. It will only make it deadlier¡± The bookworm seemed more than a wee bit panicked. ¡°HOW CAN THOSE SMALL THINGS GET THAT BIG?¡± yelled the Mage in response. Even as she chucked another fireball at the worm. ¡°It has the Huge Skill, increasing its size several times over¡± The battle was now joined, though I had yet to see any of the Typhoid rats join the fray. The Tanks had their hands full warding off the Oozes while the Healers were busy casting blessings to ward off the Deathtouch of the Oozes and keeping the tanks healed. The worm suddenly gave a pained noise and burrowed into the wall to the party¡¯s left. It was not badly hurt, so something was up. From my view I could see that it was currently ¡°Using Cooperation¡±. Meaning this was an instinctual plan hatched by the Oozes that the worm was acting on. Exactly what became apparent just as the retreating party got to the tunnel the Worm had left behind. A myriad of small jet black, red-eyed shapes exploded out from it in a small tidal wave. The rats had arrived. And 2 of the Mages and one Archer paid dearly for not monitoring the tunnel. They had been bitten several times in rapid succession. More than enough to succumb to the Deathtouch, even if the damage was not enough to kill them. ¡°T-TYPHOID RATS!!!¡± the remaining Archer screamed and all semblance of order evaporated as the party broke into full flight. Can¡¯t say I blame them. It was quite the sight to see a minor river of rats that were following them. It was as if every Giant Rat on the floor had split into 10 upon evolving, and they were now following the party with a singular purpose. Unfortunately, for the party not a single one of them would escape. The hallway in front of them was pitch black. But not because of the darkness of the Maze, but because of the trio of Black Oozes waiting for them. ¡°OOZES IN FRONT OF US¡± ¡°MORDRED, RECALL US NOW¡± Yelled the Cleric. ¡°ON IT!¡± Responded another Mage. Huh, color me surprised, Recall, eh? Well, it was not like I could stop them. Well, I could if I materialized, but given the small amount of space I would just impede my Anti-Adventurer Kill Squad. I could not call them anything else, Cooperation had all my monsters work together flawlessly. Just before it would doom the adventurers, there was a flash of light and all that remained was me and my monsters. The spell had taken even the dead adventurers. I suspected that when that party returned, they would be prepared to deal with everything they had seen. My only solace was Magical Labyrinth, as the Maze changed and reform to alter the path through the depths and to my 2nd floor. Likewise, the tunnels left by the Depths Worm closed as the dungeon repaired itself. Hopefully, my 2nd floor would be ready to deal with them when they returned, I looked at my Essence, EP and TP, I had to strengthen the 2nd floor ASAP. Interlude 1: The Adventurers Guild There was a bright flash of light, a sudden boom, then the sound of 9 people and 3 bodies crashing to the floor in the middle of Caelyn Adventurer¡¯s Guild. Not one of the still living people was unharmed, in fact, some of them would need medical attention fast or likely die from blood loss. Rael, the leader of the party, signaled to Mordred the Sorcerer, Pavol the Sage and Erem the Warpriest to follow him. All of them had only minor injuries, and they all knew this was too important to report before a tragedy happened. A few minutes later the quartet had been seated inside the office of Guildmaster Saol. An attendant was busy bandaging a rather nasty, though not lethal, wound on Mordred¡¯s shoulder. ¡°So what happened down there, Rael? Your team are pro¡¯s you don¡¯t use an Emergency Recall unless it¡¯s necessary. So this had better be good¡± Rael emptied the cup of wine he had been given. ¡°It started straightforward enough. As the Scout Team said we found a field of stones growing out of the ground. Though they are now the size of small fences and still growing¡± he took another swing of his cup. It had been refilled as he spoke. ¡°We saw neither hide nor hair of the Sphinx though. If it was the Core as reported it was probably inside. As we entered we quickly realized we had a rare dungeon type on our hands too. Some form of Maze biome¡± He continued, before he was interrupted by the attendant. ¡°Hedge Maze?¡± he asked. Saol shot the boy an angry look, but Rael didn¡¯t seem to mind answering. ¡°No, this was the real deal, stone all of it, proper bedrock at that. No way we would get through that without some serious cost. Anyway, I am getting sidetracked. We had made it about a hundred meters in when the dungeon first showed signs to have taken notice of us. Sent a bunch of Dungeon Worms to attack us. They came from all directions at once, so it was a coordinated assault by the Core¡± Erem intersected here ¡°I was on lookout with my Truesense spell, and I could feel them coming. So I killed the lot of them with my Blade Barrier. Then we continued on, since our orders were to capture the core. That¡¯s when all hell broke loose¡± Saol leaned forward onto his desk. ¡°Well what happened?¡± this time it was Pavol that answered. ¡°A Biome Influence. Turns out our Core isn¡¯t stupid. The first thing it did after the last party departed was to expand its dungeon. With a 2nd floor and the damn thing lucked into a Full Influence¡± Saol went pale. ¡°F-full Influence? Is this some kind of bad joke?¡± Mordred answered this time. his voice strained. ¡°I wish it was. The entire floor shook and the gray bedrock walls turned into black obsidian right before our eyes. We knew we had a chance of encountering Variants now. At least one of the base creatures would have mutated. I figured we would run into Cave Rats or maybe Drill Worms. The Core had other plans for us, though¡± The door to the office opened and a medical attendant entered with a report card. ¡°Lahman and Randel were clean, and we succesfully removed the implantation from the remains of Sybl. All three will be resurrected in an hour¡± Saol creased his brow. ¡°Implantation?¡± The nurse looked at him. ¡°Black Ooze Implantation¡± she answered before she hurried back out. She had preparations to do. Saol¡¯s face turned a pale shade of green. ¡°Not only Hunter Slimes or Black Oozes, if you prefer the correct name, rather than the nickname. Guildmaster, it was a Full Depths Influence, the Dungeon Worms became Depths Worms and what killed Lahman, Randel and Sybl was a swarm of Typhoid Rats¡±If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Saol shook his head, ¡°The Depths, that¡¯s a rare biome indeed,even rarer than Mazes¡± he grumbled to himself even as Pavol piped in. ¡°Um, it has long been speculated that one requirement of a Depths biome is a Maze Biome, I guess this confirms it?¡± the others looked at him with annoyed expressions. He hid behind his book. Saol took a deep breath, then emptied his cup of wine. ¡°Very well, so what happened after the shift?¡± Erem again took the lead. ¡°We had barely taken another 50 paces when I sensed something at the edge of the Truesense. something moving towards us and fast. It was a Black Ooze, a single one, stretched itself across the entire hallway and were charging at us. The problem was, we didn¡¯t know what it was right away¡± ¡°Miriam cast a fireball at it¡± Pavol piped in once more. Saol facepalmed. ¡°Precisely, no sooner did the fireball hit, before we now had to deal with two of them. Realizing it had Magic Mitosis and was jet black it narrowed the possibility of what it was to one, Black Ooze¡± Rael now continued. Before pausing briefly to take another swing at his cup, only to once more find it empty. ¡°I ordered a retreat. We were not equipped to deal with a pair of hunter Oozes. Especially since Erem had sensed more than one presence heading our way. Our next guest was no surprise in its arrival, though, as it came out of the wall from the T section behind us. Maw wide open and intent on swallowing the lot of us whole. Since magic were useless against the Oozes, the lot of our magic users turned their attention to the worm and bombarded it. Driving it off to the side at the last moment. None of us were even considering Cooperation was in play¡± ¡°It was a ploy¡± Saol reasoned. ¡°Got it in one. No sooner had we started past the hole the Worm disappeared out of. Before we were set upon by a swarm of Typhoid Rats, Lahman, Randel and Sybl were down before we even realized what had hit us. Ward of Life are worth about as much as a fart when you are hit with that much instant death. I credit Temir with identifying them almost immediately, though. The fact he survived his encounter with them in that sewer dungeon saved our asses. Because my first instinct were just to try tofight them off¡± he leaned over to grab the wine bottle, signaling for Erem to wrap it up. ¡°Rael didn¡¯t even need to call for a full retreat, we couldn¡¯t stay, and we all knew it. We all took off towards the entrance, only I sensed more Oozes in front of us. I warned Rael, and he called for an Emergency Recall. And the rest you know¡± Saol took a deep breath. ¡°Good work, you and your team did remarkably well, all things considered. The guild will cover the expenses for the Resurrection of your teammates. The question is, whatdo we do now? No doubt the Depths biome was made in response to the Core feeling threatened by young Indella. Since she tried to tame the core on her own¡± Saol paused as he reached for his pipe and took a deep draw.¡°Which also thwarted our capture attempt because of superb fortune on the Cores side. Not to mention its danger level has just skyrocketed since the first floor is now home to 3 Variants all capable of instant death. One of which is a Hunter-killer and all of that is sitting on top of a Depths biome. A biome that is unexplored, unconquered and containing monsters that has not been seen in nearly 500 years if the records are correct. Rael, tell Aleana to send a message to Slyvanport when you leave. We will need access to the Records if we want to figure out what might lurk down there¡± Rael nodded. The Elves surely had information they could use. Not to mention their leader who had the skill Akashic Records had recorded a lot of the world¡¯s goings-on which would surely be of use now. ¡°As for the dungeon I am classifying it as S Rank Raid Tier. Nothing less than an Expanded Party of S rank Adventurers are to go anywhere near that place. Have I made myself clear?¡± Rael stared at Saol, who spoke again before Rael could respond. ¡°I am fully aware you wish to redeem your tainted honor and you¡¯ll have that chance. I promote you and your team to S rank because of remarkable circumstance and I now offer you a Special Quest. The subjugation of the Maze Dungeon and the capture of its Sphinx Core. You may undertake the raid as soon as we have more information on what to expect, Dismissed¡± Rael nodded slowly and the 4 men left the room to inform the rest of the party and to prepare to take part in the Resurrection Ceremony. Chapter 4: Making new friends while gathering resources by the rivers, lakes and shrooms I had resolved myself to improve The Depths even further, but how was I going to do that? Well, I should take a look at my available monsters first. If I was going to add more to the floor, I might as well add something that wouldn¡¯t interfere with the Striders and their hive. Or maybe even synergize with them. Now there was a thought, I opened the Bestiary and started looking. There had to be something that would help out, let¡¯s see¡­ Abyssal Eye... No, that thing¡¯s gaze attack was always active. The last thing I needed was to have my Striders hit by every conceivable status ailment out there just because the Abyssal Eye looked in their general direction. Maybe I would add it as a mini-boss once I could expand the floors enough to warrant one. Hmm, Umbral Spider, its diet WAS Striders, hell no. No, no, no, no, no, heck this was just a bunch of stuff that didn¡¯t care for or was plain just harmful to my Strider Hive. How in the world can I- what¡¯s this? Monster: Amber Crawler(Rare) Genus: Elemental Biome: Depths HP: 880/880 MP: 1700/1700 Attack: 652 Defense: 453 Magic Attack:700 Magic Defense: 790 Strength: 326 Dexterity: 222 Endurance:580 Intelligence: 700 Wisdom: 560 Charisma: 800 Upkeep: 3, if Strider Den, Strider Hatchery, Starsilver Crag and Geode Cavern are present, Upkeep: - Skills: Strider Symbiosis(Unique Racial), Strider Enhancement(Racial Unique), Wall Walk(Racial), Lithovore(Racial), Deceptive Camouflage(Racial), Cocoon(Racial), Metamorphosis(Racial), Sticky(Racial) I looked up its appearance; it was¡­ a slab of amber in the shape of a grub that was about the size of a cow. Why in the world was this thing Intermediate tier when Striders were basic? I knocked that question away almost immediately; it was a stupid one; the skills seemed good at just a glance. Not to mention this thing was really beefy stats wise. Also, it had ¡°Metamorphosis¡±. That meant it would evolve into a stronger monster on its own when the conditions were right. What did this thing evolve into, anyway? Pharos Wing... Not on the list. Guess evolution was the only way to get one. Could I at least look it up? Wait, the Mastery tab, if it wasn¡¯t in the bestiary it had to be there! I opened the Mastery tab and started looking; it didn¡¯t take long, curious as to what it would look like. I pulled up the visual first; it was utterly breathtaking. It was overall butterfly shaped, but seemed to be made from light, and not that harsh type of light that burns your eyes. But a gentle, warm and calming light, like a campfire at night, with iridescent colors swirling along its wings like the different colors in a fire. The thing itself was also absolutely huge, the size of an elephant. This had to be good, right? Monster: Pharos Wing(Evolution) Genus: Elemental Insectoid Biome: The Depths HP: 3000/3000 MP: 4000/4000 Attack: 1530 Defense: 1560 Magic Attack: 1600 Magic Defense: 1900 Strength: 1260 Dexterity: 1280 Endurance: 1250 Intelligence: 1300 Wisdom: 1450 Charisma: 1450 Upkeep: 25, if Starsilver Crag and Geode Cavern is present Upkeep: -25 Skills: Greater Strider Symbiosis(Unique Racial), Greater Strider Enhancement(Racial Unique), Enrage Hive(Racial Unique), Blazing Resurrection(Racial Unique), Wall walk(Racial), Lithovore(Racial), Luminous(Racial), Flight(Racial), Bewitching Beauty(Racial), Innate Spellcaster(Special), Healing Mastery(Special)(Holy), Evocation Mastery(Special)(Fire and Holy), Illusion Mastery(Special)(All) I could barely afford support rooms for the Amber Crawler, so I couldn¡¯t unlock the Pharos Wing itself. I had only gotten 3 Masteries from the party after all, and this guy alone was 5 Masteries. But if this is what the Amber Crawler would turn into, then I was all for it. It was pretty damn powerful and was an essence generator to boot with the support rooms present. The only thing that worried me was the knowledge that I would likely need the Pharos Wing sooner than I would prefer. Time to get to it. I spent the three Masteries I had to unlock the Starsilver Crag and Geode Cavern, then spent my EP to unlock the Crawler. Silently hoping I had made the right choice. These small, well small to me at any rate, elementals were beefy. But I needed the evolved form more than anything. I started to roam along the Depths looking for a good spot to place the Crag and Cavern; I wanted them close to the Strider Hive, so I would start to see benefits as soon as possible. But I also wanted them relatively hidden to not attract undue attention. Hang on, what was I doing? So far, I had simply made all tunnels and hallways go left and right or forwards and backwards, but I knew I could make elevation changes, so what if-. I spent a bit of the essence I had recovered thanks to the Queen''s recovery effect to create a small hallway at the top of the Queen¡¯s chamber. Then from there to the right a bit and then tried to place the Geode Cavern. No issues at all, jackpot! I immediately changed the interior of the hive a bit, moving the entrances to the Strider Hatchery as well as the Strider den high up on the walls. Preventing any access unless you could fly, climb or walk on walls. Adding even further safety to them, I tried to do the same to my Core Room. But that was no dice, figures. After a bit of tinkering, I found a compromise. Provided the way to the Core Room was passable by walking it was fine. If that meant balancing on a very thin strip of stone over a pitfall spanning the entire length of the hallway, that was fine. I added hallways connecting to the Hatchery and Den to the pitfall hallway as well. And put pitfalls along their entire length, allowing winged variants easy access to the hallway in front of whoever was attempting to cross it. But made crossing impossible for anyone else unless they could move on walls or the roof. The dungeon allowed it since other entrances were available. That would be a nasty surprise for any uninvited guests should they somehow make it past the queen. I had one of my Winged Striders test the thin balancing strip. Even though its weight should have caused the thin strip of stone to collapse it did not, probably a dungeon rule. Well then, let¡¯s see if there were other ways to mess with it. I made the thing tilt slightly at random intervals and made it so the path wasn¡¯t straight. It now snaked this way and that which would upset the sense of balance of someone crossing it. And make it difficult to know where you could place your foot safely, causing any attempted crossing to slow to an absolute crawl. Then I tried to look at the thin winding path from a distance. It was virtually invisible unless you were up close, and even then it would be hard to spot due to the black, non-reflective color of the ground. Against the pitch blackness of the pit below, it would be practically invisible. It was perfect. With that extra line of security, I went back to the Geode Cavern. Which I now noticed, were filled with various gems of all types. From simple pieces of amethyst to diamonds and other precious stones, it was a beautiful sight. I created another hallway, his one leading towards the chamber prior to the Queen¡¯s Chamber. Then I placed down the Crag, and boy was this room huge. Massive wouldn¡¯t completely cover it as the crag disappeared into the darkness below and the darkness above. The end of the room was outside my ability to see as well as into the distance. Not to mention that two semi trailers could have been parked front to back between each side of the crag itself. A short, barely a few steps long, hallway was needed to connect the Crag to the chamber prior to the Queen¡¯s chamber. The entrance to the cavern was on one side of the crag. The entrance to the empty room was on the other and much further down. You would either be climbing for a VERY long time or required flight to get out of this place. Even so, that was not what gave me pause as the room appeared in front of me, what did was the sheer beauty of the thing. Starsilver veins dotted the crag, and even in the darkness the places where the metal broke the surface shimmered like distant stars in the darkness. Creating an illusion of being under a moonless and cloudless winter night far from light of any city. Only that the starry sky was all around you even under your feet. It was a breathtaking sight, and I was quite convinced that once a Pharos wing started flying around in there, it would only get better. It would be like a miniature sun, a dim sun, but a sun, nonetheless. Flying around in this undisturbed peace of heaven that had fallen to the ground and gotten buried beneath it. After shaking out of my reverie, I remembered the eventual size of the Pharos Wing. So, I set about expanding the size of the hallways connecting different chambers of the floor. It would be pointless to have the Pharos Wing if it was trapped in just the Crag. And would also make it easier to make use of the Hives numbers to fight intruders. There would be no single choke point to bottle them all up at once I finished. Then I placed the first Crawler in the Geode Cavern. The effect on the hive was almost immediate, mere seconds after placing it Striders rushed in and started to work on it. Massaging it, treating it like some kind of beloved pet or highly priced livestock. So, an Amber Crawler was to a Strider what an Aphid was to an Ant, that made sense. Except, this thing could supposedly defend itself if its stats was an indication. Then again, with how strong everything was in this biome, natural predators would still just off it instantly, most likely. Even so, it was interesting to see such a relationship between an elemental entity and an Insectoid; it made me wonder what other synergies were out there, waiting for me to find them. I placed about a dozen Crawlers, filling most of the space in the Cavern. To call the Hive ecstatic, would be an understatement. Even with my ¡°Mind Reader Lv1¡± I could pick up on the sheer delight from the Queen and by extension the rest of the hive.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Having spent all my EP, I decided to see if I could find any new traps to set up. After which I would venture out to fish, as unappealing as that idea was. I needed sustenance and while water was not an issue due to the underground water that poured into this biome. That was not going to fill my hunger. I opened the Devices menu and stopped¡­ Resource Rooms? What in the world was that? Wait, come to think of it, both the Crag and the Cavern was tagged as that. I opened the Resource room header, Underground River, Underground Lake, Underground Mushroom Forest, Rest chamber, Treasury and More. There was even stuff designed to be placed above ground that would be useful to me¡­ And also adventurers¡­ This stuff was supposed to lure such people in. But if the description was any indication, I could benefit from them as well, and so could my monsters if it produced something they could use. Like wild game to hunt or plants to eat. I checked my TP 3 total, shouldn¡¯t I have gotten more from killing those adventurers? Shrugging, I decided that I might as well make use of the River and Lake resources. Which I connected with the natural waterfalls that were pouring into my dungeon from different locations. Adding river resources that connected to pools of water that the cascading water was forming and then leading them all into a rather large Underground Lake resource. I quickly realized that while they were called rooms, Resources could be placed in rooms already containing something else, including Resources. It just changed the name of the room in some way if I did, when I had all the different rivers connect before running into the lake. That room changed from ¡°Underground River¡± to ¡°Underground Delta¡± . I wonder how it would change if I added a river to a specific room. . Huh¡­ this resource system seemed very interesting. I would have to see if I could come up with some clever way of using it in the future. For now, however, I had food to get, but I would not enter the river on the surface. Now I had subterranean and thus safe rivers to use, not to mention the lake. Hmm, wait a moment, before I engrossed myself in getting food there was one final thing I needed to do. I opened the ¡°Devices¡± menu again and looked around for what I had spotted earlier. Ah there it was the ¡°Alarm¡± trap, I would not be caught by surprise again. I willed myself to the surface and placed an alarm trap on the stairs leading out. A bit of fiddling later to figure out how and it had been customized, after I had to spend far more Essence than I was comfortable with. It would now signal me mentally rather than just making an absolute racket. A Silent Alarm that would warn me of any intruders larger than a cat that stepped into my surface control area. No more being caught by surprise in my territory. Now then, time to enjoy a nice meal for me before retiring for the night. I flew over to the delta and started my hunt for food. About an hour later I was lying on the riverside, purring happily. Those fish were tasty. Far better than the ones on the surface, it was as if they were specifically made to entice my palette. Actually, now that I thought about it, they probably were, since I created the Biome. Huh? As if to answer my question, I could suddenly hear a great deal of noise coming down the river. There in the middle of it was a small reddish brown and scaly thing. It looked a lot like a bipedal lizard, with a long sensuous neck and graceful limbs. It was fighting hard to stay afloat. It was beyond me, how in the world it had survived the trip prior to entering my dungeon. But I was not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. A Kobold could potentially be useful. If I could coax it into serving me, I could use it to improve my traps without having to pay any Essence. They were industrious little tykes that would be loyal as well, provided they were anything like in the Game. Only time would tell. I rose and calmly lifted off into a glide, then swooped over the river and snatched up the struggling Kobold. I dropped it off on land, where it spent a great deal of time sputtering and coughing up water. It looked like I had saved it in the nick of time. Once it had calmed down, it looked up at me and immediately stiffened for a few moments. Before tossing itself down on its knees and crawled forwards and reverently kissed my paw. ¡°Ssatassha is most grateful to you, Great One, most grateful. Ssatassha hopes that the Great One will see fit to offer up your grace and allow Ssatassha to live even though she trespassed into your domain. She did not intend to trespass, she swears to the great dragons she did not!¡± The little thing seemed utterly terrified and considering a Kobold would be about the size of a small child when it reached adulthood. I couldn¡¯t really say I blamed her, even as I peered down at her I couldn¡¯t help but feel pity for her current situation. ¡°Rise Little One, for I am not angry at you. I would, however, request that you tell me how you wound up inside the underground waterway that runs into my domain.¡± I smiled softly down at the small thing and I could see she relaxed a bit. ¡°Ssatassha fell into the water while trying to capture a fish for the tribe. Great One, she was washed downriver and ended up in a cave and then pushed under the water for a long while. She nearly drowned holding her breath, before falling into your river¡± ¡°Fishing, that is an unusual diet for Kobolds, is it not?¡± Ssatassha stiffened a bit. ¡°Ssatassha knows that it sounds silly, Great One. But we had no choice, human adventurers forced the Tribe away from our den. And we were running low on food¡± she looked up at me with a surprisingly earnest expression. An entire tribe of Kobolds. That couldn¡¯t have been better for me. ¡°And now you are in need of a new place to settle¡± I finished for her. The Kobold hesitated for a moment before nodding. I gently picked up the Kobold and placed her on my back before taking off for the stairs. Then navigated the maze to the surface. ¡°Little one¡± I began as I put her down on the ground at the border of my territory. ¡°If you and your tribe are willing to serve me. I will offer you all a place on the 2nd level of my Dungeon.¡± The little thing looked utterly crestfallen at my announcement for a few moments. Before she embraced, well, tried to embrace my left leg. Though it was way too big for her to get anywhere near to actually get her arms around it. ¡°Thank you Great One, thank you! Ssatassha will tell the tribe immediately. We will happily serve you Great One!¡± her ecstatic smile faded. ¡°Wait¡­ which way is tribe?¡± her expression faltering once more. I poked the Records, silence; I poked harder. Still no answer. I poked again, this time I actually got a response. To my utter surprise. . The Records sounded¡­ distracted? Eh, whatever. I relayed the answer from the Records and also quickly caught some fish for her at the river to have as food for the journey. With that done, the little Kobold set off bravely across the plain, a determined expression on her scaled face. It was actually somewhat adorable to see her scamper away as quickly as she could. As she disappeared in the distance, I turned around and flew over in the direction that the adventurers I had let go earlier had scampered off to. That was where the other party had gone as well. To think a few hours walk in that direction was the biggest threat to my new existence. And yet all I had done to earn their ire was existing. On that dour note, I took wing and flew back to the entrance. I noted that the stone walls of the surface maze had now reached higher than the height of a man. There would be no more easy trip to the dungeon entrance for intruders now. With the alarm covering the area and this maze, I would have a great deal of time to prepare for any assault. Except an aerial one, or one that relied on such heavy firepower as to blow the stone walls to pieces. But as it was, it was now a proper circular maze protecting the entrance to my dungeon. With a last glance towards the city or town, and with the sunset reflecting off the gray stones, I walked back underground and dissipated my form. It had been a rather strenuous day as I drifted down into my Pillar room and reformed Avatar. A nap would be nice right about now. The next morning I busied myself with creating the cavern that would serve as a home for Ssatassha¡¯s tribe when they arrived. I would need to unlock the den room in Masteries. However, I didn¡¯t have any of those, so either I would need to somehow get more Mastery points. Or the crafty little things would have to construct the den themselves with materials from outside. I had no idea if that even worked, as it was I needed a Mastery and that meant I needed an intruder. What was the requirement of an intruder to be an intruder anyhow? The fish in the river didn¡¯t count as intruders, they didn¡¯t even set off the Alarm spell despite meeting the size requirement, so what could be counted? Just as I was contemplating that question the alarm actually sounded. Arriving at the surface, I saw a pack of wolves sniffing around the outer edges of my maze. The alarm had gone off. Did that mean they were intruders? Only one way to find out wasn¡¯t there. The fight was¡­ not much of a fight at all. I Roared, they died. Lv2 was clearly a step up from Lv1 in terms of damage. Then again, my stats had also increased by a lot since the last time. I checked my stats to see if this had been anything but pointless violence on my end. Dungeon Name: Labyrinthia Dungeon Biomes: Magical Maze, The Depths Dungeon Level: 2 DEXP: 2/30 Depth: 2/2 Rooms: 24 Essence: 27/600 EP: 0 TP: 1 M: 1 Avatar Attributes Avatar Race: Sage Sphinx (Legendary Unique Variant) Avatar Gender: Female Avatar Level: 2 EXP: 23/300 HP: 3500/3500 MP: 5750/5750 Attack: 555 Defense: 550 Magic Attack: 950 Magic Defense: 950 Strength: 57 Dexterity: 59 Endurance: 100 Intelligence: 205 Wisdom: 200 Charisma: 195 Synchronization: ¡Þ Titles: ¡°Taken from an Other World¡±, ¡°Cult Hater¡±, ¡°Bringer of Justice¡±, ¡°Helpful¡±, ¡°Riddle Smith¡±, ¡°Merciful¡±, ¡°Mastermind¡±, ¡°Fisherwoman¡±, ¡°Dominatrix¡±, ¡°Devious¡±, ¡°Taboo Breaker¡± ¡°Mistress of the Depths¡± ¡°A True Sphinx¡± Skills: Unbreakable Will(Racial), Labyrinth Sense(Racial), Flight LvMAX(Racial), Cleaving Swipe Lv2(Racial), Roar Lv2(Racial), Telepathy LvMAX(Racial), Akashic Records(Unique), Magical Labyrinth(Unique), Core Master (Compound), Blessing of Inlas(Mythical), Will Binder LvMAX(Special), Mind Reader Lv3(Racial), Enigmatic Mind Lv3(Racial), Forbidden Knowledge Lv1(Demonic), Babel(Unique) Oh, hey, that had counted. At least it had given me a mastery point. The remaining TP I had also reminded me of something. The Depths critters would be fine food for the Striders. But the Kobolds would not be Dungeon Monsters, so they would need proper food, just what did a Kobold eat? . Hmm, I checked the Resource rooms. Was there anything in there that could be of use? Hmm¡­ pumpkins, farm, forest. All of these were useless, hmm no, no, that was a possibility. But I doubt the little guys would fancy going to the surface to collect food every day, plus I already had access to fish. Hmm, bingo! This Underground Mushroom Forest was perfect. It had bugs, mushrooms, a subterranean species of rabbit that had the same color and patterns as a blue toadstool. And a strange cow like creature that apparently tasted delicious and had a rich, tasty and pretty damn healthy milk. Hmm, that actually sounded pretty tempting. Fish was nice and all, but a proper steak. I could kill for that right now, actually in Essence I kind of had. As I looked at where the wolf corpses had been and now no trace of them remained. They had been absorbed and the useful items that could have been harvested from them was now stored into my inventory. I returned to the area I had been digging for the Kobolds and expanded in drastically. Then I placed the Underground Mushroom Forest. The size of the chamber expanded much further than what I had dug, much, much further. Luckily, I had been smart enough to point this particular part of real estate away from the rest of the dungeon proper prior to digging. Which now turned out to be a good choice, given the absolutely silly size of this place. It was an actual subterranean mushroom forest. I could literally FEEL the surge of Essence gain from having this place. I shook my head in disbelief. Note to self, rooms with ¡°forest¡± or ¡°plain¡± in their name will be quite literal in their sizes. Keep that in mind when planning out rooms. Still, slightly shell-shocked, I placed the Den down close to the tunnel I had made for the Kobolds. The room immediately transformed into a ¡°Mushroom Forest with Kobold Village¡±. Huh, so the room placed first would have priority in the naming. That made sense I supposed, didn¡¯t really know what to expect there. I just hoped this would be good enough for the tribe when they arrived. Having a new source of food, I decided to see if I could get something else on the menu than the fish. Don¡¯t get me wrong, the fish was delicious. But you can only eat fish for so long before you start to crave other types of food. Besides, it was getting close to lunchtime anyhow and I could do with some rabbits. Or maybe one of those cow things, I took wing and flew off into the forest to see what there was to find; It was a strange experience, as the entire room was illuminated by blue glowing bioluminescent fungi the size of Redwood Trees. And the air was thick with spores lightly obscuring visibility. Despite this detriment I soon found my prey, a small rabbit sitting out alone in a clearing. Not a care in the world. It had a rather odd texture, but the taste was sublime. Decidedly something that I would eat more often. Hmm, wondered how it would taste properly cooked. Perhaps I could teach the Kobolds how to prepare proper food. I could find out, huh, that was actually not a bad idea. I could teach the kobolds how to do things they probably had never considered. Not only that, I could also use them as scouts and spies outside my area of influence. I was literally stuck within it and I did not feel like expending more Masteries right now to unlock more surface control. Not until I was certain that there would be no more issues with the humans. Well, that was for later. The tribe was not even here yet, that aside I had more preparation to do for their arrival. Chapter 5: The Core of the Kobold Problem The next three days were a blur of activity on my end. I spent every waking moment, aside from a few quick meals, creating smaller passageways throughout the Dungeon that the Kobolds could use. Firstly, it was for their safety; I had no idea whether Striders found Kobolds tasty, and no amount of mental poking would get the Records to spit it out. Secondly, with the small passageways they could move around without being intercepted in case of intruders. And thus have an easier time setting up ambushes or rearming traps that the intruders might have disarmed. That would be a nasty surprise if they tried to retreat without recalling. The best part was that since the Kobolds were so slim and small, there was no way in hell an armed and armored adventurer would fit inside their little tunnels. They were also designed in such a fashion as to be difficult to notice unless you were actively looking for them. It had taken far longer than anticipated to do though, not to mention it was boring as all hell. But without any more Masteries and no more animals big enough to count as intruders. It was the best I got to kill time with outside of just sleeping. Now all that remained was to wait as I was circling in the sky above my Labyrinth, looking for them, the sun had nearly set when I finally spotted them; they were moving fast, too fast for just eagerness. Something was chasing them, more wolves. I couldn¡¯t use Roar this time, I would likely kill the Kobolds as well as the Wolves if I did. But even the simple act of landing on top of the leader of the pack and crushed him under my sheer weight. That, combined with a vicious snarl, was enough to make the rest of the wolves back off. ¡°Great One!¡± Ssatassha rushed forward and threw herself on the ground in front of me. ¡°Ssatassha humbly thanks Great One for the rescue of herself and the Tribe.¡± I smiled gently at her ¡°If you are to serve me, then it is only right that I look after you in return.¡± I replied. I took a look at the rest of her tribe. The first thing I noticed was that most of them showed clear signs of starvation. The second was that their gear was exceedingly ill maintained. Which meant they had been without a safe haven for quite some time. ¡°You must be tired and hungry, follow me and I will take you to your new den. However, before that, I will need an oath of fealty from your leader.¡± I had gotten some use out of the Akashic records during those boring days of nothing but making tunnels I could never hope to fit in. I had learned that Dungeon Cores taking in wandering monsters was far from unheard of. And that a simple oath of fealty from the leader of a group of monsters would be enough for them all to be recognized as Pact Monsters. Pact Monsters would not trigger traps nor would they be hunted by the dungeons denizens. In return, the Pacted Monsters would not be able to harm the denizens of the dungeon. Or the Dungeon Core, and would have to follow the command of the Core itself. It was something that was quite sought after by certain monsters. Kobolds among them, as that would provide them with a rather safe haven, compared to other places. The Kobolds looked at each other before Ssatassha hung her head. ¡°Chief Garbatass died yesterday, killed by wolves. We have no leader, Great One.¡± I tilted my head. ¡°Oh, it seems to me you do.¡± Ssatassha looked at me with a confused expression. ¡°Did you not lead them here after your Chief¡¯s death? Did you not keep them moving and safe despite all odds being against you and are you not now talking for your Tribe?¡± I asked the little Kobold. ¡°M-me? But I-¡± she turned to the rest of them. Almost 40 in all by my quick count, and after a brief moment they started to not slowly then more eagerly. Then one, quickly followed by another, then another started to chant. ¡°Chief Ssatassha¡± over and over. While Ssatassha herself seemed somewhat overwhelmed by it all. She shook her head, her expression determined and her gaze filled with renewed purpose. She knelt before me, her head bowed her head. ¡°I Chief Ssatassha of the Red Scale Tribe, hereby pledges the loyalty of myself and my tribe to you Great One. As per the ancient traditions¡± there was a strange sensation flowing from me. And I noticed that I was slowly losing a bit of Essence. At the same time as every Kobold in front of me were suddenly sporting a mark on the back of their tiny palms. Upon closer examination would look like a small circular maze, the emblem I had used back in the Game. By this point I was not even surprised at this occurrence and so just took it in stride. ¡°Follow me, I shall take you to your new home¡± I said as I carefully stepped over the tribe who were still busy examining their new marks. I led the little ones through the stone maze and to the dungeon entrance; it took way longer like this, as there were just too many of them to have them all fit on my back and none wished to be left behind. As we arrived in the entrance room, there was some groaning from the Kobolds as they noticed there was another maze to go through, but I smiled. ¡°I anticipated that your small stature would make trying to navigate this place somewhat difficult. So, I had these prepared in advance.¡± I pointed out the small tunnel coming out next to the main entrance to the labyrinth proper. It was cleverly hidden in the shadows created by the light shining down the stairs. ¡°These little tunnels are for your use and run underneath the labyrinth itself with exits leading up near traps. And if you follow this tunnel straight ahead with no deviation, you will get to the stairs to the 2nd floor. Each intersection has even been marked, red stairs means stairs going up, blue down, you can¡¯t miss it.¡± Ssatassha and the rest of the Kobolds looked at me with renewed respect. Then as one they started towards the tunnel and disappeared inside. ¡°I will meet you at the stairs to the 2nd floor!¡± I called after them, then dissolved myself and flew through the floor before reforming. This was so much better than having to return to my pillar. Soon the Kobolds arrived at the other side, and once all of them were accounted for. I led them down to the floor below ¡°Ssatassha know this place, this is the floor where Ssatassha was saved by Great One¡± Ssatassha was regaling her fellow Kobolds with the tale of how we met as I led them down the cavernous corridors. Not even stopping for anything. Finally, they were at the tunnel leading to their new home. The trip had been mostly uneventful. And the parts of the floor that would be difficult to traverse for the little guys had been given a small Kobold Tunnel to aid them in running around. It is difficult to describe their reaction when they saw their new home. The Kobold Village waiting for them in that mushroom forest, I could say they were grateful. But that would be such a gross understatement, it would be borderline a lie. A few of the Kobolds literally fell to their knees and cried from sheer happiness, others were pinching themselves to be sure they were not dreaming. Even Ssatassha, who had been talking nonstop to the Kobold beside her. A friend of hers, called Lienru, was rendered speechless at the sight. Though it took her a few moments to realize something was up due to how into the conversation she was. She hadn¡¯t stopped to look until Lienru just fainted in front of her, unable to take the sudden shock of everything. At which point she had just stood there in mute disbelief for a good 20 seconds, before she hesitantly approached me. Looking down and seemed almost afraid to speak as she asked. ¡°Is this really for us, Great One, is this¡­ really our home?¡± Just what in the world had these poor Kobolds been through to warrant such reactions? I nodded, ¡°This village is yours, and you may hunt freely in the woods for food. There is also a beast in this wood that supplies a rather tasty milk if you use them as livestock. Once you have settled in, I will teach you how to milk them, as well as a few other things. If the tribe had looked at me with respect before, it now bordered on literal worship as they all fell to their knees and thanked me over and over. They then, at first with a bit of hesitation, then with more and more eagerness, started to explore every nook and cranny of their new home. As they were busy with that I flew off and returned a bit later with the strange cow and 4 rabbits I had been able to hunt down. ¡°You all look more than half dead from starvation, no servant of mine will starve while living in abundance. Eat and recover tonight and rest and recover tomorrow, that¡¯s an order.¡± I said as I delivered the meat to them, along with some mushrooms the Records said were popular with Kobolds. I left them there, as they were happily dividing the food among themselves, each one carrying way more than they could ever hope to eat at once. As I entered the tunnel leading back to the dungeon proper, I could hear singing. The entrance to the forest was inside a tunnel big enough for a Pharos wing to fly through. But to get up to it, you had to either climb almost 20 meters or make use of the small tunnel I made for the Kobolds. So, the little ones would be safe in the case of a sudden assault. I returned to my Core room and curled up for the night, ready to sleep soundly. Another dream? No¡­ this was different somehow, not a dream, I could see things I should not. A great city with grand spires and walls made of quartz, seagulls flying in the wind. Slyvanport, home of the elves, how did I know that, also didn¡¯t elves live in forests? Not in this world, apparently. I flew into the city, unable to control where I was going. As I approached a window in the greatest spire and flew right through it as if it didn¡¯t exist. An ancient elf was sitting at a table, looking like he was focusing hard, before sighing and tossing his arms up in frustration. ¡°Nothing, the answers elude me Aluna, the Records refuse to answer and scrying does nothing. What is this Core anyway, to be able to elude all attempts at viewing it from a distance or learning about it from the records?¡± The Owl sitting next to him hooted softly and nudged his arm playfully. ¡°Do not give up eh, easy for you to say girl. If it wasn¡¯t for the fact that this had the seal of the guildmaster himself attached. I would have thought this entire thing was a bad joke.¡± He stood and walked around the room as if deep in thought. Then he suddenly stopped and looked right at me. ¡°Who are you to attempt to spy on me?¡± He started to say more. But the world was growing fuzzy and distant. Someone was calling out to me from somewhere. ¡°-ne, Great One, please wake up Great One!¡± I opened my eyes, Ssatassha was looking at me. I looked at her. She seemed worried? ¡°What¡¯s wrong Ssatassha?¡± the newly elected Chieftess looked up at me, suddenly seeming very unsure of herself. ¡°Ssatassha¡­ are sorry to disturb your rest, Great One, but¡­ Ssatassha needs your wisdom.¡± Oh, I see no issue with lending her an ear if she needs someone to talk to. It¡¯s a nice change of pace after being alone with no one to talk to but humans who want me either captured or dead. ¡°Come, let us find a better place to sit and you can tell me what¡¯s on your mind on the way there.¡± I knew exactly where to take her, as I led her to the lower entrance to the Crags. Meanwhile, Ssatassha slowly but surely laid out her insecurity and discomfort at the sudden change of having been a nobody to being a Chieftess and how she was internally panicking. Though her explanation stopped once the Crag came into proper view, she was too busy staring wide-eyed at the sight. ¡°Beautiful is it not?¡± Ssatassha nodded, ¡°I find that sights like this can be quite nice to help calm yourself down in times of stress or internal turmoil. As for your new station in life, indeed being thrust into a situation you are not ready for can indeed be stressful and panic inducing.¡± I smiled down at her and carefully lowered a palm onto her head to give her a soft pat. ¡°What you should take into consideration here is that your tribe is behind you all the way. They believe in you, they would not have made you Chieftess if they did not think you could do it. And while the sudden responsibility can be tough, you need not shoulder that burden alone. Your tribe knows you are new to this, so don¡¯t be afraid to ask for input or advice. Show you are willing to step up to the challenge and actually lead. You have the courage to do so, Little One, you just need to find it within yourself.¡± Ssatassha looked at me for a long while, so long I feared my words had gone way over her head. Then she slowly nodded, barely noticeable, before she seemed to regain her earlier spirited self. ¡°Ssatassha thanks Great One. Her advice has been wise indeed. You reminded Ssatassha about the biggest truth of all. That the Tribe always helps each other, Ssatassha was so worried about being Chieftess for the tribe. She forgot that a chief that does not listen to the tribe is no chief at all.¡± she bowed her head and scampered off after another gaze at the crag. Clearly she was in a better mood and feeling more confident now. It felt weird to be giving out sage advice like this. By human standards I would be barely old enough to drink, let alone by Core standards where I was barely past a week old. I had no clue how old I would be by Sphinx standards though, was this body an adult or a juvenile, heck was I nearing senior years? I had no idea. . So, essentially the same as my human self, fair enough. Speaking of, how old could I expect to live, anyway? . I am sorry, what? . Well, that explains a lot. No wonder they had gone into utter overkill on me the moment they learned of my existence. I was starting to regret being so merciful earlier now; I had practically painted a giant target on my ass by doing so. Argh, no point in dwelling on past mistakes. What was done, was done. Now I just had to hunker down and get ready for the inevitable storm that would be arriving sooner or later.Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. If I was that valuable, then the adventurers would try again. It was no doubt about that; I was the shiny treasure at the end of the dungeon that was worth¡­ huh¡­ how much would my core be worth in monetary value? . A gilded cage is still a cage, screw that! And I would rather not have someone rooting around in my skull telling me what to think and feel every moment of the day. That being said, that much gold would make even dragons view me as a potential prize. I did not fancy spending my days as a shiny little bauble in a dragon¡¯s hoard. Better not tell anyone about the Records, EVER. I returned to the Core Room in a much darker mood than when I left; I was in far more danger than I had originally anticipated. Had I known how valuable I was in the eyes of the humans I would have annihilated every last one of the past intruders or would I? It was getting harder and harder to be sure my past self would have reacted; the memories were there, but the same care and emotions that my fellow monsters evoked in me were, while not gone, suppressed? Yes. Suppressed was a fitting word. It was as if when it came to humans I had a bias against mercy, be it instinctual or otherwise. A bias that had been strengthened further by this new knowledge. It was not that I didn¡¯t want to show mercy; it was that I simply could not afford to unless I wanted to live the rest of my existence on a leash which. If the Records were to be believed, it would be a very long time indeed. If the suppression against mercy were added into the equation, my sense of showing mercy was now teetering on the edge, I had been far too lenient in the past; I realized that now, but I don¡¯t think I would have done it differently. The circumstances of the different back then, but even if I had known I would still ha- . Merchant who? . Now I was curious, I dispersed myself and then willed myself to the surface, then took in the situation. The Merchant was there with 2 other people, who were clearly her bodyguards given how they were looking around with tense expressions. ¡°Ma¡¯am, with all due respect, what are we doing here? The guild has declared this an S-rank Raid dungeon. We are nowhere near powerful enough to deal with this.¡± the woman looked at him ¡°I am settling a life debt, Mandol. You of all people should appreciate that.¡± the guard was still tense, but nodded. So did his partner. Well now, if she was here to settle a debt, then there could only be to one individual. I reformed and landed right in front of them. The guards immediately stepped forwards, weapons ready. ¡°Lower your weapons, Humans, I have business with your employer. Unless you wish to repay her debt with violence?¡± The 2 bodyguards exchanged glances, then looked and Yndali, who nodded. They stepped back, and she stepped forwards. ¡°Your dungeon has attracted a lot of attention of late, I give you my word none of that was my doing. My family never betrays our benefactors or rescuers, and you have done nothing but good for me.¡± I nodded, she seemed sincere, besides if she was here to repay a life debt to me because of my rescue of her. Then siccing the adventurer¡¯s guild on me seemed somewhat counterproductive to repaying that debt. She held out a purse to me. I opened it, gems? . I WOULD WHAT NOW?! Even my ¡°Unbreakable Will¡± couldn¡¯t stop my head from momentarily spinning, but I regained my composure quickly. I looked at the merchant. ¡°This is a precious gift you have given me, Miss Yndali, more precious than you can imagine. Your debt has been repaid several times over, thank you.¡± I nodded respectfully at the Merchant. This woman seemed quite reasonable indeed. If only the guild would be as open to talking rather than just attacking. I don¡¯t know who seemed more surprised, Yndali or her bodyguards ¡°How did you know my name?¡± I gave a crooked smile, ¡°I have a warning system set up around the surface area of my domain. And it turns out it uses names when someone who has already intruded into the dungeon returns once more.¡± Yndali blink a few times. ¡°Oh, that¡¯s rather useful isn¡¯t it.¡± I nodded in agreement. ¡°Well then Miss Yndali if there was nothing else I will be returning to my dungeon. It is late, and I am certain you wish to return to the city before sunrise as to not arouse suspicion of where you have gone tonight.¡± This time it was Yndali that paused for a moment. ¡°Indeed, it was nice to see you again, you are quite¡­ cordial, for a Core.¡± I tilted my head a bit. ¡°I prefer words to violence if possible, Miss Yndali. Though I will fight to protect myself against those who would do me harm.¡± She nodded once, signalling that she understood my reasoning, before pausing again. ¡°Core¡­ you said this has repaid the debt in full because those dead cores were valuable to you. In that case, maybe we could make a deal?¡± I paused, this was interesting. ¡°If your dungeon has access to proper compensation for delivery and the risk involved, I would be more than happy to, you know...¡± she trailed off. Clearly she was hoping for a positive answer, I would be a fool to not pounce on this opportunity with both paws. ¡°A merchant to the very soul I see, I am certain that getting cores are not cheap for you and smuggling them out here holds great risk. Despite this I think I have a way to compensate you for more. If you would but give me one moment to fetch the possible payment.¡± I closed my eyes and ordered some Striders in the Geode Cavern to knock out a bunch of gems of varying types and drop them on the floor. The dungeon happily placed the dropped gems in my inventory afterwards, quite handy if I did say so myself. The look on Yndali¡¯s expression when I presented the uncut gems to her was one of absolute joy and poorly disguised greed. ¡°I do believe, Core, that we can indeed do business. How should we handle transactions and what is the price you are willing to pay?¡± Records? . ¡°I will offer you 2.2 times the value you would get for reselling the cores elsewhere. That should cover the risk involved and give you a tidy profit without it being so much people would start to take notice. As for handling the transactions, send one of your bodyguards. You trust them with your life, you can trust them with this and since they have already entered my domain, I will know them by name.¡± Yndali looked at the two of them. ¡°I don¡¯t mind, but I cannot order them to do this, are you two willing?¡± They both looked at each other. They were clearly reluctant. Time for an incentive. ¡°You are reluctant because there is nothing in it for the two of you. That''s completely understandable, doing something dangerous like this for no compensation is a thankless thing indeed. I am willing to pay you one uncut gem of any type of your choosing from the ones I have shown you here as hazard pay one for each transaction. That is, should you decide to undertake this task for us. Of course, this also requires your complete silence on the matter to everyone.¡± . The bodyguards looked at each other again and nodded. This time far more eagerly. ¡°Very well, Ma¡¯am, Lady Core, we are willing with that as incentive, I would like diamonds.¡± Mandol said, eagerly, ¡°And I would like emeralds¡± his companion replied almost immediately after, ah, the power of proper motivation. ¡°Then we have an accord, I suggest you come after sunset and step into the surface labyrinth itself to announce your presence. I will arrive shortly after with the payment¡± the three nodded. Undisguised greed shining in their eyes. All sides of this bargain had something to gain from this now. They would become rich, I would get more powerful and be able to expand my dungeon, a win-win situation. ¡°Then I bid you three good night, and safe travels, consider those gems yours, as a gift to celebrate our new partnership.¡± I nodded to the uncut gems I had left on the ground. I had placed a decently sized diamond and emerald off to the side, clearly indicating who they were for. The trio eagerly took their stones and then took their leave. If this could work, then things were looking up for me. Once back in the dungeon I took out the Cores. Now how did I use these things? Seriously? Well, nothing to it then, I took out one of the cores and tossed it into my mouth. It tasted¡­ absolutely horrible, despite the horrible taste I attempted to bite it. No dice, this thing was rock hard. Guess that meant I had to swallow it whole. I did so and the moment I did I felt POWER. No other word could describe it. It was a surge of sheer unbridled power flowing through my body; it was almost overwhelming in intensity. Unbidden, my status menu opened. Dungeon Name: Labyrinthia Dungeon Biomes: Magical Maze, The Depths Dungeon Level: 2 DEXP: 2/30 Depth: 2/2 Rooms: 24 Essence: 327/600 EP: 40 TP: 40 M: 42 Avatar Attributes Avatar Race: Sage Sphinx (Legendary Unique Variant) Avatar Gender: Female Avatar Level: 5 EXP: 223/1500 HP: 7500/7500 MP: 12750/12750 Attack: 2300 Defense: 2500 Magic Attack: 2900 Magic Defense: 2900 Strength: 450 Dexterity: 450 Endurance: 500 Intelligence: 905 Wisdom: 900 Charisma: 900 Synchronization: ¡Þ Cores Eaten: 1 Titles: ¡°Taken from an Other World¡±, ¡°Cult Hater¡±, ¡°Bringer of Justice¡±, ¡°Helpful¡±, ¡°Riddle Smith¡±, ¡°Merciful¡±, ¡°Mastermind¡±, ¡°Fisherwoman¡±, ¡°Dominatrix¡±, ¡°Devious¡±, ¡°Taboo Breaker¡± ¡°Mistress of the Depths¡± ¡°A True Sphinx¡± ¡°Negotiator¡± ¡°Trader¡± ¡°Schemer¡± ¡°Tempter¡± ¡°Core Eater¡± Skills: Unbreakable Will(Racial), Labyrinth Sense(Racial), Flight LvMAX(Racial), Cleaving Swipe Lv4(Racial), Roar Lv4(Racial), Telepathy LvMAX(Racial), Akashic Records(Unique), Magical Labyrinth(Unique), Core Master (Compound), Blessing of Inlas(Mythical), Will Binder LvMAX(Special), Mind Reader LvMAX(Racial), Enigmatic Mind LvMAX(Racial), Forbidden Knowledge Lv1(Demonic), Babel(Unique), Physical Resistance Lv1(Core), Magic Resistance Lv1(Core), Mud Golem Immunities(Core), Siege Lv1(Core) That was a lot. This poor golem was probably used for all manner of violent stuff considering the number of points it had. Though they clearly had not let it expand its dungeon seeing as it did have all those points in reserve. Well, I would put these points to good use, very good use. I eyed the 2nd Core, took it out. ¡°Thank you for your gifts¡± I swallowed it. . Well, fuck me, I had just eaten the remains of my new Kobold tribe''s original Master. Wait, did that mean the tribe were dungeon monsters once upon a time? . Ouch, that had to be traumatic for the lil guys. One moment you are safe in your dungeon. The next you are without a proper home anymore and those that were your friends are suddenly hostile. Before I could contemplate further on the issue, my status popped up once again. Dungeon Name: Labyrinthia Dungeon Biomes: Magical Maze, The Depths Dungeon Level: 2 DEXP: 2/30 Depth: 2/2 Rooms: 24 Essence: 600/600 EP: 49 TP: 40 M: 45 Avatar Attributes Avatar Race: Sage Sphinx (Legendary Unique Variant) Avatar Gender: Female Avatar Level: 8 EXP: 723/3500 HP: 9500/9500 MP: 18000/18000 Attack: 2800 Defense: 2900 Magic Attack: 3400 Magic Defense: 3400 Strength: 550 Dexterity: 550 Endurance: 700 Intelligence: 1200 Wisdom: 1200 Charisma: 1200 Synchronization: ¡Þ Cores Eaten: 2 Titles: ¡°Taken from an Other World¡±, ¡°Cult Hater¡±, ¡°Bringer of Justice¡±, ¡°Helpful¡±, ¡°Riddle Smith¡±, ¡°Merciful¡±, ¡°Mastermind¡±, ¡°Fisherwoman¡±, ¡°Dominatrix¡±, ¡°Devious¡±, ¡°Taboo Breaker¡± ¡°Mistress of the Depths¡± ¡°A True Sphinx¡± ¡°Negotiator¡± ¡°Trader¡± ¡°Schemer¡± ¡°Tempter¡± ¡°Core Eater¡± Skills: Unbreakable Will(Racial), Labyrinth Sense(Racial), Flight LvMAX(Racial), Cleaving Swipe LvMAX(Racial), Roar LvMAX(Racial), Telepathy LvMAX(Racial), Akashic Records(Unique), Magical Labyrinth(Unique), Core Master (Compound), Blessing of Inlas(Mythical), Will Binder LvMAX(Special), Mind Reader LvMAX(Racial), Enigmatic Mind LvMAX(Racial), Forbidden Knowledge Lv1(Demonic), Babel(Unique), Physical Resistance Lv1(Core), Magic Resistance Lv1(Core), Mud Golem Status Immunities(Core), Siege Lv1(Core), Fire Resistance Lv1(Core), Trap Maker(Core), Trap Enhancer(Core), Kobold Trap Master(Core), Stealth Lv1(Core), Alert Lv1(Core), Leadership Lv1(Core), Deception Lv1(Core) Well, that was a thing. The surge was less intense this time, though no less powerful. There was no TP this time, which made sense given the lil guy¡¯s skills. He probably unlocked every trap he could enhance and used them to defend his Dungeon. To call these 2 cores precious had been a VAST understatement, that¡¯s for sure. Boy, was I glad I had waited to consume these until after I was safely back inside. Had the trio realized just how valuable these things were¡­ well, they had not, and I was sure as hell not going to tell. That aside there were many new things he- . The moment this fusion happened, I got a searing headache as my mind was suddenly flooded with thoughts. Mind Reader Lv3 had let me detect thoughts if I wanted to. But this compound skill seemed far more powerful. I was picking up thoughts from Kobolds in the Village, even though I was in the Core Room. That was far beyond the range of Mind Reader Lv3 and Lv5 too, since I had that for almost a full minute without this happening. It took a few minutes, but slowly I managed to figure out how to turn that off. So, I would not be picking up every mind around me at all times, I would have been driven insane if that continued for too long. Still, this allowed me to effortlessly read minds now. In fact, I was certain that few, if any, of the creatures in the dungeon could even feel me touch their minds to read them. With that in mind, I curled back up to sleep once more. This day had been quite eventful and extremely profitable, I was in such a good mood my smile remained even after I had fallen asleep. Chapter 6: Dungeon Warefare 101 When I woke up again, I quickly learned one important thing, eating Cores would give you a hangover. Or at least something similar as I woke up with the mother of all headaches and my stomach was not in the mood for any breakfast. Hopefully, the effects would fade before long. . Well, there is the answer to that. Now, how long would I have to deal with this searing poker behind my eyes? ¡­ Great, just awesome and of course the Records failed to mention this possibility before I ate them. The smug little¡­ I dismissed the thought. It would not do me any good, anyway. I forced myself out of the Core room and double-checked my stats again. Which, despite the splitting pain, made me chuckle, 49EP, 45TP and 40M, and also maxed out Essence, this was worth the headache, decidedly so. First things first though, I took to the skies and, somewhat unsteadily, flew over to the Kobold Village. I had promised to check in on them when I woke up, after all. Upon entering the village, the Kobolds quickly ran over and gathered around me, their worry clear on their small scaly faces. ¡°Great One are you unwell, should Ssatassha call for a healing ritual?¡± I shook my head. ¡°There is no reason for alarm, I just have a headache due to power overflow. It will work itself out in a while¡± the little ones seemed to relax a great deal from my reassurances. They eagerly led the way as I bade them show me around. They had been prolific in their work while I slept, as they had improved and expanded nearly every aspect of the village I had put down. That reminded me, shouldn¡¯t the village cause some form of a bonus for the monsters that lived here? . That was decidedly worth it. . Even better! That would take years though, since they were Pact Monsters and not just part of the dungeon. But then I was playing the long game here. It would probably come in handy someday down the line. Besides, even if it didn¡¯t, the elated and happy expressions on their little faces made it all worth it, anyway. Ooh, finally a title that did more than just increase my stats on a level up. After the tour I asked if the little kobolds had any meat leftover and access to a fire. It was time to teach them something useful. I also had 2 of the more eager ones gather a certain green mushroom that grew in the mushroom forest. That mushroom apparently could be made into a healthy tea that would not only taste good, but would function as a weak healing potion. It had taken quite a bit of poking to make the Records admit this though, more than usual. I had decided to teach them to cook, and I had no intentions of going back on the idea. The temptation of civilized food was just too much to bear. Following my instructions and with some added Rock Salt from the geode cavern as well as some powdered mushrooms as spices. I set about teaching the little ones about how cooking could be more than just ¡°sear it over a fire until it¡¯s slightly singed.¡± Their reaction to this epiphany was hilarious. First, I let them taste their food. Then the steak I had prepared and every one of them was of the opinion that mine was tastier. Not surprising, since the seasoning alone would work wonders. After this first revelation, they developed an incredible obsession with learning to make proper food. Luckily I had just the resource room to help with that, sure it cost me 3 TP to unlock. Making it abhorrently expensive as far as resources go, but even so, the Library would likely prove to be invaluable down the line. As I got more sentient monsters in my dungeon as it would allow them to read and learn without my instructions. And learn what interested them rather than what I made them learn. <Title unlocked ¡°Teacher¡± you have gained ¡°Teach Lv1(Title)¡± as a skill. You have unlocked the title ¡°Librarian¡± all monsters in your dungeon learn 50% faster from books and the Skill Level cap from book learning has been removed.> And who says knowledge isn¡¯t power? That should make the Kobolds master chefs in no time, given how determined they were. The moment I had placed the library, they had been all over the shelves. They were grabbing books about cooking as well as other topics of interest to them and started to read and take notes. If humans were ever this eager about learning, even cleaning people would have doctorates. That was 3 TP down, leaving me with 42TP, I also spent 7 Masteries to expand my surface influence area, maxing it out. 15Km in all directions. This left me with 33 then spent 10 Essence upgrading the Alarm Trap I had placed earlier to have it still reach the edges of the surface area. A tad expensive for just an alarm. But it''s far better than having my first bit of warning be when they set food inside the dungeon. Or if I was distracted by something, when they killed a monster. <Warning Guild Scout intruding in your territory>. Great, first the headache and now I learn I am being kept under surveillance. Let¡¯s have a look, huh, just sitting there on top of a hill in what was suddenly way inside my territory overlooking the maze. It would be bad if the scout reported about the sudden burst in surface area. But it would be worse if the scout went silent¡­ what to do, what to- <Answer, impersonate the scout using the Mirror, have it deliver false reports on your behalf>. That was¡­ actually a splendid idea. While I could mind control her easily enough with Will Binder, that effect was obvious if anyone looked at her. I could give her some mental instructions to follow, but those could potentially be detected later on. Doppelg?ngers, however specialized in deception, had only one problem. The mirror was not strong enough to make a perfect copy, and the Doppelg?nger couldn¡¯t leave the dungeon¡¯s influence area. <Answer, use Trap Enhancement to enhance the mirror> I could do that? A quick check later and it was indeed a valid target. It would cost 20 TP though, so it would be expensive as all hell. But given my circumstances, I had no choice, as much as it hurt I had to do it. I spent another 20TP. That left me with 22TP. This thing better be worth it. Device Name: Mirror of the Evil Twin(Enhanced Unique) Special limit: One Per Dungeon, this limit cannot be raised Base Trap: Mirror of Dreaming Imprisonment Device type: Enhanced Trap Item Trap type: High Rank Curse Material Type: Darksteel and Ebon Glass Range: Line of Sight Trigger Type: Entering line of sight, maximum 10 meters Cooldown: instant Hardness: Special, only Corrosive weapons can overcome its hardness HP: 250 Defense: 60 Evasion: 0 Upkeep: - Duration: Permanent Effect: Just the act of having your reflection show clearly in this mirror will cause the target to be swapped with a perfect duplicate of themselves. The duplicate is a Doppelg?nger that is loyal to the dungeon. The Doppelg?nger is a perfect copy, including stats, memories, abilities and skills. Those who manage to resist the effect will still have to face their Doppelg?nger in combat. If they are defeated the Doppelg?nger will then replace them permanently. If they defeat the Doppelg?nger they are immune to the mirror for 24 hours. The trapped target can later be removed by the Dungeon Core and released without losing the Doppelg?nger. If the mirror is destroyed all entrapped targets are killed. While trapped inside the mirror the target will be acting as the Doppelg?nger¡¯s reflection in all reflective surfaces. Unable to move in any other fashion or signal that they are more than a reflection. ¡­ This thing was pure evil, there was no other way to say it, this was the ultimate prison, torture device and interrogation device all rolled into one single cursed object. If you didn¡¯t succumb immediately the Doppelg?nger, which was identical to yourself in all aspects could probably manhandle you into submission. Then once trapped there you could be forced to play Simon Says with the Doppelg?nger in any and all reflective surfaces it ever passed. And the Doppelg?nger would know you were there, watching it. On top of that, every single dirty secret you knew the Doppelg?nger would know, meaning nothing would be safe from it and by extension, me. I almost didn¡¯t want to use this thing on the scout. He or she had not done anything to deserve this. Well aside from being a guild member and thus obsessed with catching me¡­ OK, my reluctance was fading fast now. If the scout reported the growth of my outer area, it would almost guarantee a response from the guild. No time to feel pity for the enemy now. With the scout now so deep within my control area, she didn¡¯t have a chance to even see me coming. One moment she was keeping watch, the next she was pinned under my paw as I formed just behind her. I didn¡¯t waste much time being nice either. I overwhelmed her mind with Will Binder and turned her consciousness off. She would not remember any of this. With that done, I had her sit on my back as I took her back to the mirror. Then I dispelled Will Binder as she was looking into the mirror as instructed. The effect was immediate. With Will Binder dispelled, she was no longer treated as a minion and the mirror did its work. Right in front of my eyes the scout seemed to shimmer for a moment, then she turned around and knelt in front of me. ¡°How may I be of service, Mistress?¡± Wow, that was one hell of a convenient shift. Most people wouldn¡¯t even realize their friends had been replaced when looking into this thing. Too bad it could only hold one target at a time <Correction, enhanced version has no limitation on a number of prisoners> What? So, just having the mirror stand here would have every party entering the dungeon basically have to face their evil twins in combat. And if they failed, they would have one or more members of their party replaced with Doppelg?nger versions of themselves? <Effectively, yes>. Time to make this room bigger and use it as a mini-boss room. A bunch of EP later and the room had been doubled in size. The mirror was now hanging at an angle so it would reflect the entrance without being easily spotted. While I did so, I gave the Doppelg?nger its instructions and it immediately set off for the hill. There it would give false reports so the guild would think it''s less important to attack immediately. <Skill ¡°Deception¡± has increased to Lv2>. Trickery increased the trickery skill huh, fair enough. I still felt guilty to subject the scout to the torture of only existing as a reflection. But the guild was too much of an unknown threat that I could afford to antagonize it now. Wait, there was someone who would know all about the Guild right now.A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. I returned to the hill just in time to hear the Doppelg?nger make a report ¡°-ange at all, still the same as before¡­ Why is my report 5 minutes late? Call of nature, had already been holding it for half an hour to remain on my post, couldn¡¯t wait¡­ no I will give you all the details, my quest said; ¡°Report every minute detail no matter how trivial.¡± So, here I go¡­ fine, fine, I¡¯ll stop. In all seriousness though everything is going fine here, no change at all¡­ yeah will do, sure, later.¡± The Doppelg?nger turned towards me. ¡°Mistress, what can I do for you?¡± she knew I was there even when I was in Core Form? That was interesting. I reformed my avatar once more and had her tell me all she knew about the guild and their views of my Dungeon. Half an hour later I was pacing in my Core Room, all levity gone. This was bad, really bad, beyond really bad. This was a disaster in the making. I had to come up with something, anything to forestall the coming disaster. An ¡°Expanded Party¡± 24 of the strongest adventurers in the region, all intending to burst into my dungeon and conquer it. And they were already deep in the prep phase for the invasion, hence the scout. I needed to come up with an answer or I would be utterly screwed. The problem was, I was drawing a blank. Even if I bought and placed several Pharos Wings that would do little to stall these guys. The scout had memorized the stats of every one her idol adventurers as adventures were like sports idols in this world. There were trading cards of them with their stats readily on display, I could maybe win a 1-on-1 with their leader, maybe. But any more than that? Nope, no chance. Everything would be torn apart. I moved the mirror from the mini-boss room. The Doppelg?ngers would probably slow them down. But the investment in it had been too much for me to be willing to lose it to the invaders. Especially when it wasn¡¯t even going to be more than a speed bump. I relocated it to the balancing hallway instead, so that I would have a last defense ¡°honor guard¡± of Doppelg?nger adventurers. Several of which would be able to pepper the intruders from range while they were busy making their way through the balance trap. Next I broke the news to the Kobolds about the impending attack. They did not take it well. However, I had not rescued the little tykes just for them to die in my defense against a foe I could not hope to win against. ¡°You all are to do as much enhancement of the traps as possible prior to the attack. I will be expanding my trap capacity and adding more traps, as for the invasion itself you have 3 orders. <ol> <li> Do NOT engage the intruders unless you are somehow cornered. Staying alive is your number one priority. 2. Use the Kobold passages to re-arm traps behind the party. But stay at least 150 paces away from them at all times, as they have sensory spells that can pick you up if you are closer than that. 3. Protect yourselves to the best of your ability if the forest is invaded. But try to get away alive, I would rather you all get away safely than to share my fate when they come knocking.</li> </ol> The Kobolds seemed utterly crestfallen ¡°Ssatassha¡¯s tribe are¡­ Not¡­ cannon fodder?¡± She seemed utterly bewildered, ¡°No creature in my dungeon is treated as cannon fodder. Even less so Pact Monsters that I cannot respawn. You are invaluable to my dungeon right now and I would like for you all to stay safe, you have your orders.¡± The Kobolds nodded and started to whisper among themselves as I left. Once I entered the river chamber beyond, I spent some TP on another trap ¡°Illusory wall¡± Then I placed it at the entrance of the forest. This disguised it as nothing more than a normal wall. Hopefully, the sensory spells they were using would not allow them to see through such illusions. <Attention, The Red Scale Tribe has started to worship you as a benevolent deity. Divinity is now increasing by 0.000000000000000001%/y. when it reaches 100% you will undergo Apotheosis>. You gotta be kidding me, Apotheosis? It¡¯s possible to become a literal god in this place? <Answer, yes, though the work required to do so is far and beyond the scope of mortal beings, do note that Tamed Cores does not qualify for Apotheosis>. I didn¡¯t give a damn about actually attempting to become an actual goddess. I had FAR more immediate concerns right now to even consider entertaining that notion. How much TP left¡­ 12, OK, what other nasty traps could I get? Hmm? Skill traps are glowing. Well, the skill did say I would get more than the skill improved. Device name: Mist of Oblivion Device Type: Environmental Hazard Range: Floor Limitation: Magical Maze Only Causes a constant Disorientation Debuff on those who enter the floor it is located on. The effect will continuously attempt to apply and will pierce Immunity to the debuff. Making maneuvering around difficult, prolonged exposure will upgrade the Debuff to Amnesia then to Oblivious. Oblivious status cannot be cured by any means. Oblivious? <Answer; targets under the Oblivious status have forgotten everything except how to breathe, they are essentially trapped in a vegetal state. The dungeon considers them dead and will claim them if left alone for more than one minute. Allowing you to use the blank slated intruders as you see fit if you have the ability to implant memories in them, which you do, due to Will Binder>. Why was every trap unlocked by that skill so absolutely horrid? <Answer, because mind control is not a nice thing?> If I didn¡¯t know better, I would think it felt insulted that I had to ask. Well, it was essentially enslavement, even I could see that. That aside while I REALLY wanted this thing, just for the disorientation, mind. It was, however, 80 TP, far above my ability to unlock. A magic Jar trap, which would trap the mind of whoever opened it, pointless, these guys were pros with a single goal, my capture, they would not be looting. Hmm, oh right! I should probably buy that, better safe than sorry <¡± Avatar Builder(Special)¡± unlocked. You may now use your entire menu while in Avatar form and while in combat. Avatar Builder(Special) retroactively incorporated into the skill ¡°Core Master(Compound)¡±. ¡°Core Master(Compound)¡± has evolved to ¡°Dungeon Master(Master)¡± for unlocking all basic dungeon related movement and construction abilities>. Skill evolution, that had been a teased upcoming feature back in the game. When certain conditions were met, a skill would evolve and become stronger, which made me wonder what Dungeon Master(Master) did. <Answer, all basic functions of the older skills combined. Plus all prices in all menus are reduced by 10 down to a max of half, rounded up, Minimum cost 1, free unlocks remain free>. So, anything from 19 and below had its cost reduced by half and everything 20 and above had been reduced by 10. That was strong, really strong. Now I wished I had unlocked that earlier, and would have had 10 more TP to spend. Well, too late to cry over wasted points I had more important things to worry about. Like my impending doom that was arriving any day now, I had to keep unlocking stuff. My next order of business was the Pharos Wing. Its Essence gain would be required to keep me afloat through the extra monsters I would have to populate the Depths with. Not to mention I would have to expand and fast. Luckily, the new ¡°Dungeon Master¡± skill paid dividends here as I now had the option of cut/paste. Or as I called it Teleport, allowing me to instantly move multiple rooms and hallways while maintaining their relation to one another. The inhabitants of said rooms wouldn¡¯t even notice. Except that they would now be in a completely different region of the dungeon, which was important for this next part. I placed down 5 Pharos Wings in the Crag room. Making the Strider Hive behave like I had just declared a national holiday for them all for a while. I also created a Boss Room and bought the Abyssal Eye. This thing was bad news. Monster Name: Abyssal Eye(Unique Boss Variant) Genus: Evil Eye, Monstrosity Biome: The Depths HP: 50000/50000 MP: 40000/40000 Attack: 15000 Defense: 45000 Magic Attack: 15000 Magic Defense: 65000 Strength: 3500 Dexterity:7000 Endurance:9500 Intelligence:3500 Wisdom:7000 Charisma:1000 Upkeep: 100e/d Skills: Evil Eye of Infliction(Racial Unique), Soul Gaze(Racial Unique), Piercing Infliction(Racial Unique), Evil Eye Levitation(Racial Unique), Innate Spellcaster(Racial), Eye Stalk Spell Casting(Racial Unique), Gaze Immunity(Racial), Eye Stalks(Racial), Gate Stalk(Racial) Omnivision(Racial), Constant Gaze(Racial), Deadly Poison Breath(Racial), Magic Cannon(Special), Full Status Protection(Special), Evocation Master(Special)(All), Call Genus(Special) ¡°Eye of Infliction¡± would inflict a random status ailment already not inflicted on the target. While Soul Gaze would make it so that the target would always be considered to ¡°Meet Its Gaze¡± for the purpose of Gaze effects. While ¡°Constant Gaze¡± meant that the gaze was a passive effect it just had and its infliction effects penetrated immunity effects. On top of that, it was immune to all status ailments, so they couldn¡¯t blind it. All this combined meant that if the Abyssal Eye could see you, you needed Gaze Immunity or you would be neck deep in status ailments almost instantly. I looked up ¡°Call Genus¡±. It was a summoning skill letting it summon in other Evil Eyes to support it in combat. The Summoned Evil Eyes (max 4) would have a 90% respawn reduction and would temporarily gain ¡°Hunter-Killer¡± and ¡°Boss Reinforcement¡± for 24 hours after being called. Allowing them to continue to hound the adventurers, even in other boss fights. Only caveat, I needed more Evil Eyes on the floor. Evil Eyes were all expensive, had high upkeep and no support rooms. Could I afford that, actually, a better question, could I afford not to? In the end I summoned in 2 more Pharos Wings and 4 Elder Evil Eyes. The elder Evil eyes were nasty but wouldn¡¯t stand a chance on their own against a determined Expanded Party. With this purchase I was really low on EP though, only 6 left. These things were expensive, even with the discount. Monster: Elder Evil Eye(Advanced) Genus: Evil Eye, Monstrosity Biome: The Depths HP: 15000/15000 MP:10000/10000 Attack: 3000 Defense: 6000 Magic Attack: 3000 Magic Defense: 8000 Strength:1000 Dexterity:2000 Endurance:4250 Intelligence:3000 Wisdom:5000 Charisma:500 Upkeep: 10e/d Skills: Evil Eye of Imprisonment(Racial Unique), Eye Stalk Casting(Racial Unique), Evil Eye Teleport(Racial Unique), Evil Eye Levitation(Racial Unique), Physical Shielding(Racial), Gate Stalk(Racial), Omnivision(Racial), Innate Spellcaster(Racial), Gaze Immunity(Racial), Massive Bite(Racial), Evocation Master(Special)(all) There were nastier Evil Eyes in the Mastery tab. But I had burned all my Masteries unlocking the Pharos Wing and the Abyssal Eye. I had completely missed just how ludicrously expensive it was earlier, even so this was the best I could do in that regard. Time to get some more traps. A few hours later, and I was utterly exhausted. Both my floors had nearly doubled in size and were riddled with as many traps as I could get my hands on. With the Kobolds hard at work enhancing them using materials found around the dungeon. They would likely become my saving angels, when I wanted to enhance I had to use TP. When they enhanced something they needed simple, easy-to-find materials and time. Considering I was down to 1 Essence (and growing), 0 TP and M and only 6 EP that I was still debating what to unlock with. I didn¡¯t have many options. I had a few, but none of them would as much as slow an Expanded Party of that power even in high numbers. In the end I decided it would be better to just save the EP, it would probably become useful in the future. All in all, I was pretty happy with the state of things. Spiked Wall Crushers, Magical Mines and Mishap Teleport Traps now littered the first floor along with several cleverly placed Improved Illusory Walls. I had also used Magical Labyrinth a few times to make sure not a single hallway would be like they remembered. Increased the number of rats and oozes since they were pretty damn cheap since they would be bought as basic monsters, then instantly mutated due to the influence. The Depths had its own set of traps placed as well. Rockfall Trap, Steam Geyser, and Poison Gas traps were put all over the place and the Kobolds had quickly upgraded the lot of them. They were now Molten Rockfall Trap, Fire Geyser and Neurotoxic Poison Gas traps. This was overkill for any normal adventurer team. But for what I had coming, I would be lucky if it put one or two of them out of commission. Utterly exhausted, I collapsed on the floor and curled up. The only upside to this miserable day was that the headache had disappeared sometime along the trap placement. Allowing me to fall asleep without any discomfort or pain. I had done what I could to prepare for the coming storm, now all I could do was to hope I could weather it. Interlude 2: Invasion The preparations had been completed, or as complete as we could make it. The elves of Slyvanport had tried their best, but not even the Records could give any information on the Core, or its dungeon. It had been heard citing ¡°Outside my Parameters¡± when asked about it. Whatever that meant, asking about the Depths and yielded better results, however. The information had come in only a day after the request was sent, and to call it a potential hellhole was an understatement. The creatures down there were primarily Insectoids, though there was also a fair share of Beasts, Monstrosities and Elementals and even a few Aberrations. All of them had one thing in common, they were all abhorrently dangerous and far stronger than what would be considered ¡°normal¡± for a second floor. Even in a Raid Dungeon. We would not get through this unscathed even with an Expanded Party. To top it off, taking an Expanded Party into the first floor Maze was a potential hazard due to the confined space. So, I could not with any good conscious request a further expansion. But even so, I would not be deterred. I would reclaim my honor and capture the Core in the name of my Guild this day, or die trying. I tightened my right hand into a fist, and took a deep breath, a ritual I always did prior to an expedition. This time, victory would be ours. With those thoughts in mind, I left my tent. The dungeon was just an hour¡¯s march from our location; We had pitched camp yesterday to ensure as much time as possible prior to nightfall to finish the raid. We could not afford to linger in the dungeon long enough for bosses to respawn. It would be the doom of us. The camp was a scurry of activity as the other members were making ready, ¡°Have you contacted the scout?¡± I asked Mordred, ¡°Alessa gave the ¡°All Clear¡± signal, no movement from the dungeon, although there is one complication she mentioned¡± I looked at Mordred ¡°What complication?¡± ¡°The stone fences we vaulted over have become literal walls, far too high and far too many to climb in full gear. The other adventurers have also noted the ground is unusually rocky, the surface area might have been expanded recently¡±. Dammit, that would cost time we didn¡¯t have. ¡°Tell everyone to gear up we are leaving earlier than anticipated¡± Mordred just smirked ¡°Way ahead of you, why do you think there is so much noise?¡± Mordred knew me too well. ¡°Good man, now let¡¯s finish prepping too. It wouldn¡¯t do to be the ones calling for premature departure yet be the one slowing everyone down.¡± Mordred laughed before jogging off to grab his gear. We arrived at the outer maze. The walls of stone had grown to nearly eight meters in height. And they were almost as thick as a man. It would take a small army of mages to bust through that. And even then that would not work in the long run since the maze would repair itself. Guess there was no choice but to try to find our way. I had originally planned to have Alessa guide us from afar, but the sheer height of these walls made that unfeasible. She would not be able to see us at all. The next hour and a half was nothing short of a nightmare of cramped and increasingly warm spaces. We had taken multiple wrong turns and due to the heat, sweat had been constantly getting in your eyes. On top of it all, this was taking too long, which obviously was the entire point. It served to lower the amount of time intruders could spend in the dungeon itself without bringing with them camping gear. I seriously hoped we did not have to turn back to fetch camping gear. Because I somehow doubted that the Core would be silly enough to have such a hidey hole in a spot that could also be easily accessed by adventurers. And if it had such a spot, the place was probably trapped to hell and back to make us regret picking that spot. Finally, the entrance to the dungeon revealed itself. The frustration that had been mounting finally had an outlet as we stepped into the far cooler stairwell and into the dungeon itself. ¡°What in Rubolg¡¯s name, the tunnels have shifted.¡± Miriam sounded frustrated. ¡°Are you seriously surprised, Miriam? It would not surprise me if this floor has Magical Labyrinth as an environmental trap. Given the clear guile of the Core.¡± Erem said as he put a supporting hand on her shoulder. Miriam nodded, the grip on her staff tightening. She clearly remembered last time just as well as I did. ¡°Erem, Fylm and Balun, start detecting your agreed upon monsters. Tarash, start to use Truesense, we cannot take any chances here, this entire floor is an instant death kill maze. Everything here can and will instantly kill you if you give it the chance. Rogues up front, trap check twice each. Maze traps can get really nasty.¡± On my command, the group started to work like a well-oiled machine. The rogues immediately found and disarmed a Magic Mine. If that thing had been given a delay timer with the right duration it could have killed half the party. The Core was seriously not messing around. That was some heavy ordnance right here. ¡°Black Oozes incoming, mind their Cooperation skill.¡± ¡°Healers Ward of Life, fellow tanks get ready to pull aggression. Mages, no damaging spells. We do not need a repeat of last time.¡± The first assault was beaten back soundly, there were only two of them. And they did not have the element of surprise or shock and awe this time. We were prepared. When they showed themselves, we hit them hard. The archers unleashed a barrage of explosive arrows on them. This inflicted massive amounts of concussive and fire damage, the Ooze that survived the barrage made itself scarce before the archers could resume their attack. We continued on; The rogues did their job well. The only trap they didn¡¯t find was a single Mishap Teleport that teleported one of said rogues a meter forwards when it went off. A lucky break for us, seeing as that could have ended really badly for him. He could have been teleported practically anywhere in the dungeon except the core room. And being alone in this place was certain death. The next obstacle came when Erem sensed Typhoid rats and far more than before. At least four swarms of the deadly vermin, and they were accompanied by Oozes. What was curious though was that they apparently were below our feet. That didn¡¯t add up. ¡°Check walls and floor, be ready for any-¡± I spotted it just in time and slammed my shield down. The impact of my tower shield crushed one rat and trapped the others inside the little hallway they had been navigating. That damnable Core was even craftier than I gave it credit for. ¡°CRAWL SPACES!¡± The party reacted immediately and fanned out, looking for them. The mages used ¡°Wall of Stone¡± to seal the exits shut with Soapstone. It would take the rats¡¯ hours to gnaw through that. And the oozes couldn¡¯t even harm it. This was why I liked working with fellow professionals. They knew what was expected of them. We continued on and the further in we got, the more worried I became. Where were the Depths Worms? We knew there was at least one on this floor and most likely way more than that. As we were rounding a corner, that¡¯s when the core pulled out its next scheme. The Maze shook, but not because of Depths Worms; the walls were shifting, altering the layout of the maze itself, changing it with us still inside it. And to my horror, one of the moving walls was in the process of splitting the party. Me, Mendel, Riham and Sango immediately slammed our shields against the moving wall and triggered Immovable. It rendered us immune to push and knockback effects. It bought us precious time for the party to pass through the closing wall, before we slowly extracted ourselves. That was far too close. Not to mention we were spending far more resources than intended. Immovable had a long Cooldown and half the tanks had to spend it to keep the wall from closing and dividing the party. Not to mention the mana spent on closing crawlspaces was a luxury we could ill afford. But we could not afford to not do it, not unless we wanted rats and oozes in our midst killing us all. This Core was clever, far too clever. It had done all it could to make this delve into a living nightmare. And even we, the best of the best in our branch of the guild, were feeling the pressure right now. Just how in the world had the core gained this experience while still being so young, it made no sense. Finally, after another 3 hours of slow and methodical, mind-numbing searching, we were finally walking down the last hallway in front of us, the stair room leading down. In that time none of us were uninjured anymore, and the jovial thought of a breeze through the first floor had been utterly crushed. Twice had we been denied the stairs due to Magical Labyrinth, and twice more had we barely escaped being separated due to a well-timed trigger of that ability. And no less than 4 times had the path ahead been obscured behind illusory walls, forcing us to burn through dispels to get past them. There was also something else, something in the crawl spaces. What it was we didn¡¯t know, as whatever it was had been deliberately not coming out when we were close. But more than once when we had to backtrack, a trap we thought disarmed had suddenly sprung on us. And the only evidence or rearming was that a crawl space had been reopened by use of small tools. This wasn¡¯t a nightmare, this was hell itself. The Core wasn¡¯t trying to overpower us with force; it was fighting smart, draining our resources, stalling for time. Not to mention this was all too well organized, this was planned. I was certain of it, but how in the blazes could the Core know? As we headed down the hallway, the tell-tale tremors of Magical Labyrinth started once again, but this time we would not be denied. "We had prepared, Me, Mendel, Riham and Sango had all been hasted in preparation for this. And now we rushed ahead and used Immovable to stop the walls dead as the rest of the party rushed past. It was a tight squeeze to get out as the last tank, but we had made it. The only thing between us and the second floor was a few simple stairs. Entering The Depths was nerve-wracking. What would we find down there? The answer came in the form of a spike embedding itself in Lahman¡¯s left shoulder, causing him to fall over. His arms and legs were twitching a bit, paralysis, great. Another spike narrowly missed me and embedded itself in Mordred¡¯s cloak. Lahman, now back on his feet after receiving some curative magic, sent a firebolt up towards the roof. Five flying Insectoids, flanked by ten smaller ones, were revealed by the bolt before darkness covered them once more. If I remembered correctly those were called Striders. So, that¡¯s why the dungeon was so obsessed with draining our resources. The boss of this floor was a Strider Queen of some form. Meaning it would be a battle of attrition between us and them, hmm no, there had to be more to it. The Dungeon had basically done the equivalent of a military lockdown on the first floor. There is no way we would only be dealing with Striders and their variants. As we pushed further into the depths, we realized what a daunting task this would be. Whereas the first floor had been cramped and ordered, this was wide open and chaotic. There was precious little cover here, and the darkness allowed the flying Striders to stay outside of the detection range of our spells. This in turn allowed them to pepper us from the air with their paralytic spines with impunity. After being paralyzed for the fifth time, the floor was really starting to get on my nerves. But because of the ever present sound of rushing water from some nearby waterfalls, we had no way of hearing the damn things approach. And we could not afford to cast light spells up into the darkness all the time. In the end we made a turtle formation with what items we could to shield ourselves from the aerial assault. Finally, some relief from those incessant pests. That¡¯s when the grounded one¡¯s hit us from a nearby ledge. Most of the spikes bounced off our armor or fell short, but one hit Sango in the shoulder, hard. Ugh, more paralysis, no doubt. But no, Sango seemed fine, no paralysis, seeing as there was no effect showing we healed the wound and continued on. Meanwhile, Pavol was now frantically flipping through his book, trying to find the notes he had taken on Striders. ¡°Oh dear, um, Sango Ma¡¯am, I must insist you take an antidote right this instant. You see, the grounded one¡¯s shoot venomous spines rather than paralytic ones!¡± He looked at Sango with a pleading expression. Sango looked at him, shrugged, and popped an antidote. She managed to get down a mouthful before she staggered and nearly collapsed. For once, Pavol¡¯s damned book had done something useful before shit hit the fan. The mouthful Sango managed to drink saved her life as the healers started to cast purification and healing on her. But they only got her back on her feet by a hair. One more second, one single second without an antidote and the poison would have killed her. I changed my mind. The first floor was purgatory, THIS was hell, the dungeon was deliberately made to- FOOSH, by Rubolgs accursed axe that hurt! I staggered back from the jet of flame that had just seared my face. Great, first traps, now natural hazards AND traps. ¡°Gah, keep an eye for vents on the floor, probably more of them.¡± Erem did me a solid and healed the burn. It wasn¡¯t dangerous, but the pain would distract me, and distractions were something we could not afford right now. Tomol, our group¡¯s sole Ranger, offered to take point. He had training in spotting natural hazards and together with the rogues up front and covered by a tank on each side. With raised shields we pressed deeper into the cavernous chambers and myriad of hallways of this dark and dangerous place. It took me about an hour to realize I had lost all sense of direction. There was so much open ground and so many hallways and more importantly just so much pressing darkness all around us. I had read that the sheer size of a depth biome would be confusing to those who were not used to subterranean life, but this was ridiculous. Had it not been for the fact that our group had three dwarves in it, I doubt we would ever have reached the boss chamber. It was obvious it was a boss, due to the telltale membrane-like magical mist indicating an inactive Boss Barrier. Was this the last hurdle finally? Quaffing our first set of potions and talking a quick rest, we strengthened our resolve and prepared ourselves for the fight ahead. The first thing we noticed was the room¡¯s layout. We were on the top of a slope spiraling downwards, with thick pillars supporting the roof and floor. Aside from that, the room seemed somewhat unremarkable. Tomol led the way, and poor misfortune was that for him. The moment he passed the third pillar, a baleful light fell from the sky directly on him. Right before our eyes Tomol turned to stone. Then it descended into view, the biggest Evil Eye I had ever seen. A normal Evil Eye was about twice the size of a man in diameter. This one, six times that maybe seven, a giant among its kind and far more deadly with its gaze, if Tomols fate had been any indication. The poor sap hadn¡¯t even looked at the damn thing. The rest of us were thankfully still outside of its view thanks to the wall that had hidden it from our entry point. ¡°Pavol what in Rubolgs name is that monstrosity?¡± Pavol didn¡¯t answer. He was far too busy leafing through his book, shortly after he looked up at the party, with a pale and serious expression. ¡°It¡¯s an Abyssal Eye, this thing is an army killer, Boss. It sees you and you will be inflicted with a random status ailment. This is a constant effect while you are inside its line of sight. So, you will be hit with practically every conceivable ailment under the sun, just for being in its sight for a quick moment.¡± That explained Tomols demise. ¡°What about weaknesses?¡± ¡°It¡¯s weak to holy magic, but only while its eye is exposed due to surprise or rage. If surprised, its Full Status Immunity also falls off for a brief moment. This will allow us to blind it, but that¡¯s a brief window.¡± ¡°So, hack and slash and hope it doesn¡¯t see you?¡± Pavol nodded.Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. I was strengthened in my belief that this indeed was hell itself at that moment. But it was not like we had a choice, we had to defeat the thing to move on. Our only other option was to Recall, and we were not going to Recall now, not after pushing through the lesser hell above. ¡°Drai, see if you can distract it with a flare shot. It won¡¯t blind it or anything. But it should allow some of us to get behind the pillars without being seen.¡± Drai did as instructed. The Eye immediately homed in on the flare, transfixed by the light. I sent three of our best ranged attackers down, then we did it again and again until we had the thing surrounded. Then it stopped working, for no apparent reason it just stopped. Miriam, Lahman and Sango were right in its line of sight as it kept its eye fixed on the pathway rather than the arrow. Sango turned into a toad, then died, having likely been poisoned as well. Miriam started to laugh hysterically, then started to dance around in its gaze, completely unconcerned with the statuses she was accumulating, before she too was petrified. I could only surmise she had gotten confused. Lahman managed to get behind the pillar, but he was not doing great. His movements were slow, painfully so, Torpor and Slow on him eh, poor bastard. He would have to stay put for a while. Luckily we now had the edge we needed, as Garana cast a resurrection on Sango. Meanwhile, Erem was casting Mass Purification, which would purge all status ailments for the entire party. Both were casting from the safety of one of the pillars. Meanwhile, Oran, our resident Shaman was preparing a ritual that would guard us against status by immediately curing all inflictions while it was running, rather than attempting to prevent them. Miriam had been using a sash that was supposed to guard against petrification. Meaning prevention wouldn¡¯t work. It was Tarad, his brother¡¯s job to guard him while he performed it. The two dwarves worked well together, as dwarves usually did. Dally, Tarad¡¯s girlfriend, twirled her hammer and ginned wildly as she stood beside Tarad. This was the sort of stuff she enjoyed, a genuine challenge. I only wished it would not be such a draining one. Erem and Garana¡¯s spells finished simultaneously and were timed to perfectly coincide with the start of the ritual. Sango came back to life and was returned to her original form. Miriam and Tomol slowly turned back to normal, and Miriam was no longer behaving like a lunatic. Lahman could move normally again, too. Well, now we could actually fight this thing. Erem opened up with a Holy Smite. The Eye took the hit dead on and grunted, clearly more annoyed than hurt. Then responded with some lightning shocks cast by its eye stalks. Each eye was casting a separate spell, meanwhile one of the larger stalks swallowed its eye, turning its tip into a maw in the process. Then this new stalk started to move strangely. That was when I noticed the portal that had formed under Tomol, who was still a bit unsteady from the sudden petrification mere moments before. The jawed stalk shot through the portal like an arrow from a bow string. To his credit, he managed to dodge out of the way before he got eaten alive. But if his scream of pain and the stream of blood was any indication, he had not gotten out of that one unscathed. Then stalks started to pop out all over the place slinging low to medium evocation spells our way these didn¡¯t have any gaze effect it seemed. But the spells were dangerous enough that we had to work hard to avoid them. More concerning was that the smaller eyes were clearly working as spotters for the big eyeless tendril. As it now went after Erem, who should have been hidden from sight. Erem set up a blade barrier and started to move from behind his cover immediately. The tendril erupted, and the eye roared in pain as the barrier started to cut the tendril to ribbons. The strange purple film surrounding the giant eyeball of the eye shimmered and disappeared. The Eye It was exposed! Again, I was reminded about how good it was to be working with professionals. Every caster that could attack at that moment had immediately delivered a spell to the exposed eyeball. The impacts had sent the thing reeling back. That had obviously done some serious damage. The light shining from the giant eye changed from purple to red. That could not be good. The eye focused on the wall the dwarves were standing behind. Then it started to, out of lack of a better term, drain what little light was in the room into its eyeball, decidedly not good! I turned towards the dwarves, who were oblivious to this new threat. ¡°MOVE!!!¡± The dwarves didn¡¯t hesitate but moved forwards immediately and not a moment too soon because no sooner had they moved away from the nook, before it ceased to exist. All that remained was a bit of melted stone, barely clinging to the wall. Rubolgs accursed axe. If that hit you, you were just going to die. No spell or item I knew of would allow you to survive that. No wonder Pavol called it an army killer. If that attack had any duration on it then we would all be dead in moments. Rushing away from its gaze, the mages and archers kept pelting it. Causing it to make pained noises. They were decidedly dealing damage. It would seem it could not raise its protection while using that skill. Pavol ran up next to me as we jogged down the incline side by side. ¡°It¡¯s the Abyssal Eye¡¯s ¡°Eye Cannon¡± it only uses it if it¡¯s enraged. If it hits you, you¡¯re done for. It ignores all resistance, immunities and armor, however we have a problem.¡± What now ¡°Stop being theatrical Pavol, it¡¯s a life and death situation!¡± I yelled, trying to be heard over the clamor of the enraged Eye. ¡°We are running out of space to run, its herding us.¡± ¡°Pavol¡­¡± ¡°Deadly Poison Breath, it leaves behind a mist that deals incrementally increasing ticks of damage. The mist lasts two minutes and the breath itself will be able to fill the entire bottom of the room with it by my calculations.¡± That was not good news at all. ¡°EVERYONE, KILL THAT THING NOW! NO HOLDING BACK, FULL POWER OR WE ARE ALL DEAD!!¡± The reaction from my party was immediate. They knew I never yelled like that unless it was either do or die. The others were only a split second slower on the uptake when they saw who was running next to me and the baleful red light right behind us. The previous barrage of medium evocations exploded into a cacophony of high tier spells. They practically buried the eye in fiery explosions, bolts of lighting, lances of ice, clouds of darkness and piercing motes of light. And all manner of explosive and elemental ammunition, as well. They were following my order to the letter, even if I doomed us all later on. The light behind us disappeared as the mangled husk of the eye fell to the floor. It let out a pained roar, then went still, but the boss room mist was not clearing. The thing was still alive, even after all that. We hurried down into the bottom set on finishing the thing. Then four portals opened up and some smaller Eyes appeared. The damn thing had called for backup while it recovered. To the smaller eyes¡¯ credit, they gave us a momentary halt. But now that the Melee users could finally do something, we would be damned if we let the big guy back into the sky. We fell on the smaller Eyes like a pack of rampaging Wargs. So fueled by adrenaline and fear that they didn¡¯t stand a chance. Then we went for the big one, cutting and hacking into the gigantic Eye for a while even after the boss mist cleared. Just to be sure it was dead. We had done it; the boss was down. Now then, that meant that the core room was next, right? Never before in my life had the sight of a lake driven me to the knees in despair. Frustration and anger, but the realization that that THING was just the stop-gap measure. Another hurdle to exhaust us and our resources. It filled me with such anguish I seriously contemplated forsaking this venture right then and there. But no, that would not do, not now, not ever. We had a job to do. ¡°Get a short rest, eat some food, rehydrate, then we move on, we still had a job to do.¡± I knew perfectly well that the party felt like I did. This was torture. The Core was torturing us, trying to break our spirits so that we would leave. The worst part was that it was working. Our morale was at an absolute low. Barely five minutes into our rest the next set of grievous news appeared, the Eyes respawned. We killed them again. Five minutes later they were back again. What in the world was going on? I had Pavol scour his book for an explanation. Once he found it, his expression bordered on utter despair. It would seem like the damn Eye had the last laugh. It might be dead. But for the next twenty-four hours those four Evil Eyes would hound us relentlessly, never giving us time to rest. That meant that to recover our stamina we would have no choice but to go for our stamina potions, our precious limited potions. If we all got back out of this alive now, it would be a miracle. We soldiered on, with ever more Striders showing up, as well as Striders that were different. They had this yellow substance around their mouths and their attacks pierced armor and shield like it was paper; I learned that the hard way when I suddenly found myself lying on the ground. A spike had gone through my shield, through my helmet and by extension, through my skull. Before it embedded itself in the shoulder of Lahman who was behind me at the time¡­ another trick from the core no doubt. Not a single member of our group was smiling anymore by this point. Even the dwarves, battle loving as they were, had been serious and quiet for a while now. Then in the distance light, four lights were slowly getting closer. There, coming across the lake, were four beautiful moths. Their elegant approach seemed to soothe every nerve in my body. It was as if all the pain, all the effort was worth it just for that sight. Then I got slapped hard, the spell was broken, and I realized I had moved towards the shore without realizing it. Two more steps and I would have been sinking into the lake, the depth of which I could not even imagine. Then Miriam shot an Ice Spike at one of them. That changed the nature of our approach drastically. Whereas before the Striders had used hit-and-run and harassment tactics, they were now becoming suicidal in their aggressiveness. The small ones were even more aggressive, leaping at us with no regard for their lives at all. It would seem Miriam¡¯s penchant for doing the worst thing possible in any situation continued. It wasn¡¯t even the poor girl¡¯s fault. It became a slog, but we were slowly making progress. Soon we came to an overhang that allowed us reprieve from the flying Striders and allowed us to focus on the grounded ones. Which sped up our approach to what Tomol claimed was another boss door. If the ever-increasing number of Striders was an indication. As well as the ever more indignant attacks from the sky, we were getting close to the Hive itself. Then we saw her, standing on an elevated platform leading into the boss room. The Core, regal and calm as she surveyed the battle we were participating in. She cut an impressive figure as she looked down on us. The next moment I was staring into the giant eyeball of an Evil Eye and everything slowed to a crawl. That would have been the end of me if Drai hadn¡¯t shot the thing in the eye as it readied to bite my head off. Breaking the gaze and freeing me from whatever spell its gaze had me under. Luckily, the other Tanks had picked up on my slack. ¡°Forru gys let my guard dwon at the sight of the Core¡± my mouth was still not completely out of it, it seemed. The others actually smirked slightly before it was back to killing again. We made our way slowly but surely towards the boss room; the Striders dying in droves. Yet they just kept coming without fear and without hesitation. Pavol had mentioned sometime in the melee that Striders operated as a hive mind. With the Queen being the only one with an actual mind while the others were drones capable only of following orders. The only exception to this was if a Princess variant was born, which would then set up another hive at another part of the floor. Though that required a massive floor for that to happen. Pointless conjecture aside, we fought our way into the Boss Room, expecting a reprieve. We never got one. The Striders poured through the now solid boss barrier as if it wasn¡¯t even there. And that wasn¡¯t the only entrance either. From the left and right and even behind the queen, more of them entered. The room had been designed to maximize the number of Striders that could enter during the fight. While preventing us from plugging the sea of reinforcements, due to the location of the entrances. There was no time to rest, no time to hesitate, we went all out from the get-go, anything else would have been the end of us. We could kill the Striders for days, but there were just so many of them. They just kept coming, and on top of that, the damn Evil Eyes showed up too. We could not afford to dawdle. There would be no end to the reinforcements. We had to kill the Queen NOW. The rest of the party clearly followed my line of thinking. The spells started to be more centered on the queen as we slowly fought our way through the wall of bodies. Taking hits and getting healed in rapid succession as we did. This wasn¡¯t a dungeon delve anymore, it was a war. A war where our only hope of survival was the death of the queen with enough energy left over to deal with the Core. The queen herself had now joined the melee, but we could see she was hurt. We had too much juice left, we even had a few spare potions left if we needed them. The light at the end of the tunnel. Then Miriam suddenly pointed her staff at me and hit me point-blank with a fireball. Our formation was disrupted in the ensuing confusion. The queen made her move on me at that moment. And I barely got out of the way of her massive scythe-like talon as it threatened to take my head off. The Striders were now ignoring Miriam, who was casting again. Her eyes glassy and stared into nothingness, and she had a strange, a distant smile on her face. I recognized the symptoms that the scouting party had described of Indella when the core had turned the tables on her; The Core had joined the fray by making Miriam its puppet. I did the only thing I could. I hit Miriam on the head with the pommel of my sword. Knocking her out and interrupting her cast. It wouldn¡¯t do to have our allies mind controlled. ¡°Watch out everyone! The Core has started to make its move. Watch out for allies that it has taken control of.¡± There are enemies are in front of you. There were enemies in front of me. Strike them down. I would be a fool not to strike them down. I lifted my sword. Suddenly my vision cleared and what had been a trio of Striders was now Mordred, Sango and Erem. I hadn¡¯t even felt her attempt to take control of me. Meanwhile, Mordred was scanning the room, looking for something. Then I saw what he was looking for, a hallway behind the queen. Outside of the barrier the Core was watching us, impassively and aloof. Then she too stepped through the barrier. Her rule of the dungeon so absolutely not even the barrier within could stop her. Then again, in this room it seemed to be worth jack shit for keeping enemies out. The queen tried to take advantage of my distraction. But two explosive arrows had her reeling. Two more, and she finally fell over dead. Finally, only us and the Core¡­ And the Striders that just kept coming even with the Queen dead. ¡°But there is a Queen in this room, Rael. You are looking at her, I rule this dungeon, obviously my Striders will continue to come to my support.¡± It had never even occurred to me that the mindless Striders could easily be herded and controlled by the Core. It was probably even easier for her than the actual Queen herself. The first attack in this renewed battle came from the newly reawakened Miriam. She seemed none too happy about being used as the Cores puppet. She sent a fireball the Core way, but the Core didn¡¯t dodge it; She slapped it aside with her paw, the same way I would slap aside an annoying fly. I had never seen that before, note to self, fireballs could be deflected if hit the right way. Sango and I were next as we charged the Core. Sango took the lead, since I was still rather heavily singed by Miriam¡¯s fireball, whereas Sango¡¯s fire resistant armor had blocked most of the damage. The core slapped Sango out of the way and caught my sword with her other paw. Her strength was incredible, but right behind me was Dally and Tarad. Who whooped as they threw themselves at the Core, inflicting some heavy hits that matted her fur with blood. She let go of my sword as she roared in pain, then roared again, only this roar was somehow different. The roar hurt, it hurt a lot. My ears were ringing as I staggered backwards. Dally was not as lucky as I had been, as her eardrums had clearly been blasted out, and Tarad was barely doing better. The rest of the party meanwhile had now started to focus more on the Core as well, as an acid bolt hit her side. With a pained roar she started to retreat, then dissolved herself and reappeared next to the pillar. Miriam chucked a fireball at her through the hallway. This time there was no space to bat it away. And it exploded right next to the Core, sending her flying and causing the object next to her to clatter off to the side and land face down. I walked over to the hallway. The core room was close, but I did not like the look of this hallway at all. ¡°Mordred, Flight spell.¡± A moment later, I lifted off and flew down the hallway. The Core shot me an expression that almost seemed like she felt cheated. As ridiculous as that was, the Core was in no state to fight. The fireball had clearly done extensive damage and had sent the embedded acid arrow further into her side. We had won, I took an exhausted step towards the pillar. ¡°No, don¡¯t you¡­ Dare.¡± Another slow step. ¡°I¡­ warn¡­ You.¡± A third. Suddenly, there was a strange sensation as an invisible force yanked me out of the core room and back into the queen¡¯s chamber. Sending me skidding across the floor, even as the Core screamed in pain. Chapter 7: Desperate Defense It had only been a few hours at most when I was woken by Sisslkin. The Kobold that was running liaison between the Doppelg?nger and me, woke me up and informed me that the Adventurers had encamped inside my domain. I had slept through the alarm, too exhausted to wake up. And by the nervousness of Sisslkin, the little guy had clearly been attempting to wake me for a while. After I thanked Sisslkin, I asked him to have one of the others wake me at sunrise and told him in no uncertain terms to go get some rest. The little guy looked dead on his feet. He nodded and bowed before the Kobold scampered off; I had fallen asleep again before he was out of the room. Sunrise came way too fast. I contacted the Doppelg?nger scout with Telepathy; The adventurers were already up and about and making preparations for their assault. Ugh, damned inconsiderate assholes, couldn¡¯t they at least wait until midday or something? My mood improved tenfold when some Kobolds arrived with a perfectly cooked Shroomcow Steak and Greencap Tea in a cup made from a mushroom cap, finally civilized food. Sure there were no eating utensils, unless you viewed the use of a sharpened bone to spear the meat as utensils. But at least it was warm, it was seasoned, and it was absolutely divine; the tea helped further as it alleviated some lingering fatigue. No potion of healing nor potion of stamina by any stretch, but this still did wonders for my mood and morale. Seeing my approval, the little things seemed overjoyed and nearly danced on their way back out. I couldn¡¯t blame them, this was nice enough to make world-class chiefs green with envy. In my opinion at any rate, then again I had never really eaten anything more fancy than steak from the meat shelf of the local supermarket so¡­ eh. Another Kobold entered, this one presented a piping hot soup in a bowl carved from a mushroom cap. Another cup of tea was with it, well now. First meat and now soup. After graciously accepting the dish, I took a sip. My eyes widened. This soup was just as good if not better than the steak. It was light yet creamy, but had a rich flavor that seemed to continue to explode on your palette in new and interesting ways. Whoever had cooked up this had outdone my wildest expectations tenfold. The Kobold that had presented it seemed quite pleased at the news. And she promised to tell Lienru I enjoyed both her dishes greatly, as she left with the now empty cup and bowl. So, it was Lienru who made these two dishes, I had to ask her to be my personal chef; she was beyond talented at making food. With my much-needed morale boost, I dissolved my avatar and flew out of the dungeon. I watched as the party approached; it seemed like the maze would give them some trouble due to their sheer numbers. The enclosed space was quickly starting to build up heat as the dark gray stones started to absorb sunlight. That wouldn¡¯t be fun in the long run. After I checked on the Doppelg?nger I returned underground once more. I needed to make sure everything was ready to ¡°greet¡± our ¡°guests¡± with all the proper etiquette reserved for a pack of murder hobos. It quickly became apparent that they were far better than I had originally given them credit for. Rael, which apparently had led the 12-man team the last time, was leading this expanded party too. And this time they made mincemeat out of the Oozes. A frontal assault was not going to work. Time to switch tactics, didn¡¯t help that they were making a joke of all my traps. Then one of the rogues messed up and fired a Mishap Teleport! So long ro¡­ gue¡­ 1 meter, that¡¯s it? GIMME A BREAK HERE!! Of all the rotten luck. That sorry bastard could have wound up anywhere in my domain, except the core room. So, why only one meter, WHY, gah, time for Plan B. I sent the Oozes and Rats into the Kobolds tunnels. But the damn detection spells of theirs rendered the entire plot pointless as the leader slammed his shield down and blocked them in and warned the others. Whom quickly plugged the crawl spaces with soapstone. I considered sending in a Depths Worm. But immediately dismissed the idea. The amount of firepower the adventurers had would annihilate it long before it could do any serious damage. Plus it wasn¡¯t exactly subtle in its approach, I needed something else. Alright then, they wanna play hardball, they will get hardball, Magical Labyrinth Activate! The Maze started to shake, woah lucky! That wall would separate the party. Common, close faster close, faster, what in the-. How did they hold the wall back? That wasn¡¯t fair. Argh, I almost manifested in front of them and attacked, but I took a deep breath. OK, play it cool, stay calm, these guys are too strong to take on in a frontal assault. Well, if you can¡¯t beat them in strength, bleed them dry instead. I had done that song and dance before, I could sure as hell do it now. Enough playing around, time to put my game face on. I changed tactics, instructing oozes and rats to run through the crawl spaces without ever any intention of attacking. I intended to force the mages to expend mana to plug the exits. I simultaneously deployed two groups of Kobolds to pick through the stone and re-arm traps in their wake. It would only be a matter of time until they had to backtrack. The first time they triggered one of the rearmed traps was comedy gold. The rogues were not paying attention because they had swept the hallway already. And while the sensors were tense because of the constant activity in the walls and under the floor, the rogues were relaxed, too relaxed. *Kra-KOOOOOOM* a burst of blue-teal energy made it clear they had let their guard down. The first rogue was sent flying into the wall and got stuck there for a moment, like some kind of cartoon character. The second was flung into the party, knocking Rael over, who then knocked over the one behind him and so on. The third did several somersaults forwards then skidded across the floor on his face before stopping. While the fourth, the unlucky sod that had stepped on the mine, had been blown clean into the roof ten meters straight up. Damn, I realized I forgot to add delay timers on them, ah well. Too late now. Still, that was hilarious. But not as hilarious as watching their reaction. First, utter surprise. Because there was no way they would have made it past that mine without setting it off the first time. Then wonder about how in the world it could be live. Then, as they saw the mined out soapstone, fear. The rogues themselves were obviously not OK, but required extensive healing. Even after being healed, the one who had played ¡°Face Surfing¡± would probably need a plastic surgeon to fix his face, that or some really potent regeneration magic. Because even with the healing there was clear disfigurement there. Their progress slowed to a crawl after this, with even plugged holes now viewed with suspicion and fear. More than once I had a Kobold stop on their quest to re-arm traps to tap one of the stones next to the party just to mess with them. Most players in the game always forgot the psychological aspect of the delve, if you made them miserable, they would be more prone to make mistakes. A happy delver was a focused delver. A miserable delver would more often than not be more focused on their misery than what they were doing. Even so, they were nearing the end of the dungeon, and that would be bad for, oh Magical Labyrinth was off Cooldown? WELL THEN, time to make the miserable adventurers even more miserable. I waited until they were halfway down the last corridor. Then activated Magical Labyrinth again and watched as the party panicked as the exit of this hell started to close before their very eyes. One of the mages even hammered on the wall and demanded I open it up. Poor girl, as if I would listen to those who were intent on making me a pet, no thanks. On their way back down the hallway they actually, unbeknownst to them, walked past an illusory wall with a 90-degree turn that would have taken them to the stairs. It would take them another half an hour to even realize those were present, and the result was absolutely gold. The girl with the temper, Miriam, had barely avoided getting hit by a Spike Wall Trap. The only reason she survived was because one of the others had grabbed her by the collar of her cloak and yanked her back. She stumbled backwards, off balance from the sudden change in direction. She then lost balance and fell through the illusion. There was a dead silence as the party stared at the illusory wall. ¡°Is that an¡­ Illusion?¡± The resulting storm of screams and curses were music to my non-existent ears. Now they also had to spend mana on casting dispel magic on the walls. Just in case it was dealing with an illusion they were dealing with. I wished I had popcorn at this point. This was like watching a comedy movie. This routine of utter misery and suffering continued merrily for another while as I slammed the door shut on their faces a 2nd time. This time Miriam was so upset she tried to cast a fireball at the wall, ouch temper, temper girl. Even so, this was going fine so far, I could keep this up indefinitely. Or so I thought. By the third time they had wised up to my ploy and countered in flawlessly. I begrudgingly applauded their efforts, well played on their part, I hadn¡¯t even noticed they had cast the haste spell. Well then, time to up the ante. How will you handle the Depths, I wonder? According to the Doppelg?nger, you had old records and little else of knowledge on this biome. Hmm, let''s see if my assumption is correct¡­ I ordered a long-range strike on them to one of the Winged Striders in the area. They were taken by complete surprise, good it had an effective attack range longer than that of their detection. The same would then likely be true for the grounded Striders. After this success I had the Winged Striders do near constant strafing runs on the party, no rest for them, EVER. Seeing them use their equipment to form a wall above them just opened the opportunity I had been waiting for. A long range snipe from regular Striders. Several spines fell short or bounced off their armor, but one scored a brutal hit on the shoulder of one of the tanks. They healed her up just fine and continued, none of them even realizing she was dying as they walked, until the bookworm suddenly spoke up.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. Dammit that little guy was always running my fun, didn¡¯t even get them to waste a resurrection because of him. Well, it was nothing I could do about that, except to see if I could single him out later for revenge. Then Rael walked right into the path of an erupting Fire Geyser. The result was hilarious; he hadn¡¯t taken a direct hit, so he was only lightly singed, but even so that was too much fun to watch his reaction. Too bad there was no way to record this stuff. They soldiered on constantly, harried and hounded and had to dodge and avoid hazards. It was less entertaining since it was rather samey and I didn¡¯t have the psychological impact of instant death as a threat anymore. But it was amusing enough. It took me a while to notice, but they had been walking in a giant circle for a while now. And I was not the only one to have noticed. So did the dwarves in the party. Who now took the lead away from the Ranger. I knew that a person could easily lose all sense of direction down in caves, but that was ridiculous. I mean these caves were easy to navigate, then again that was probably my Darkvision. To me, the caves were as bright as daylight for nearly half a mile or so. Finally, with the aid of the dwarves, they reached the room where the Abyssal Eye was waiting for them. I poked in on it, wanting to see it get ready and. Was that lazy eyeball SLEEPING? OY, WAKE UP LAZY PIECE OF you got work to do. The eye woke up, opened its eye and¡­ petrified the ranger instantly. A great start. The rest of the party wisely chose to not reveal itself. Then one of the other archers shot a flare arrow. This distracted the Eye and let a few of the adventurers move down the line and take cover behind the pillars, really? Then it happened again¡­ dude seriously, you have 3500 intelligence you should understand this is a distraction! And again!!! OK THAT¡¯S IT, WILL BINDER, NO DISTRACTIONS FROM THE FIGHT! The next time the arrow flew past. The Eye didn¡¯t even bat an... eye¡­ at the distraction. But calmly waited for the adventurers to happily walk into its line of sight. The first one was the tank from earlier, she turned into a frog then got hit with Bleed and died. The firebrand Miriam got hit with confusion, then got about half a dozen other status ailments before she joined the ranger as a statue. And finally Laham, one of the unlucky mages that had been eaten by my Typhoid rats on the last trip. Was nailed by both Slow and Torpor. The poor guy was now so slow a snail would win a race against him even if he had a 4-hour head start. Despite this he managed to fall out of the way of the gaze and into cover. 2 down, 22 to g- that¡¯s when they started their counterattack and my confidence in an easy victory quickly started to fall. First, they nullified its gaze, then started to tear its smaller stalks to pieces. It could regenerate those, but that was still damage dealt to the boss itself. Still, things were pretty even. Then they shredded the main stalk. Shit, not good, no no, big guy, no need to get angry over that. It was just a scratch and¡­ ah shit, it¡¯s too angry to listen to instructions now. Well, this either ends with the adventurers vaporized or the eye gets killed. It had abandoned all semblance of defense and was starting to charge its ¡°Eye Cannon¡± at the hidden Dwarves. The damn thing had 3500 intelligence yet was behaving like an utter moron! It¡¯s so hard to get good help these-. HOLY SHIT THAT¡¯S BRIGHT!! The cannon had just vaporized the hidey hole of the dwarves, who even while moving were keeping up their stupid ritual somehow. Well, the shot had passed right through where ¡°I¡± was hovering in the room, turning my entire view into just ¡°Beam¡± for a moment. I was seeing stars, didn¡¯t know it was possible for me to even get retina burn in my current state. The Eye was just shooting wildly at the nearest target that moved now. And it ignored the obvious danger of the mages that were peppering it with magic. Its health was dropping. Then the adventurers went into high gear, as they had probably realized the Eye¡¯s plan. It wanted to force them to the bottom, then kill them with its poison mist. I was glad I did not have actual ears in the resulting chain explosion. Though looking at the remains of the Eye I truly felt sorry for it. After the fall damage, the Abyssal Eye still somehow survived with 5HP and it was hurting badly. I used Will Bender to make it use Genus Call while simultaneously making it lose consciousness. The poor thing had fought hard, and I would not let it suffer while it had to wait for its now inevitable death. The Elder Evil Eyes were overrun almost instantly. I can¡¯t say I was surprised. The Adventurers would be so hopped up on adrenaline and fear by now that they would be borderline rabid. The Eyes had come in expecting a live and healthy boss, not a rampaging horde armed with sharp, stabby things. Even so, the Elder Evil Eyes took a horrid toll in revenge. They could never seriously harm or kill anyone, but their constant hounding prevented them from getting any rest. I could see their nerves were almost completely shot. They were quaffing potions of healing, stamina and mana just to keep going. Because to stop would mean an instant attack by the Eyes. The Strider Hive was the only thing between the adventurers and me now. Time to take the gloves off, I started to send out groups of Striders that had been buffed up by the Amber Crawlers, the result was spectacular. A spike sheared straight through Rael¡¯s tower shield, helmet and head before embedding itself in one of the others. That was a serious buff, I wondered how much stronger the Pharos Wing would make them. Hmm, only one way to find out, let¡¯s call in some. I would be lying if I said I didn¡¯t get ever so slightly affected by them. They were gorgeous things and I could look at them up close too. Meanwhile, Rael nearly had his second death, and this time a far more permanent one as ¡°Bewitching Beauty¡± nearly had him walk right into the lake. There were¡­ Things in that water that never surfaced. Big Things, if he fell in, I doubted he would ever be found again. Then of course the little spitfire Miriam couldn¡¯t help herself, and she had to shoot at the pretty little things. The effect was immediate. The sheer outrage emanating from the queen through her drones was making even me take a double take. It was beyond ANYTHING I had felt from the Abyssal Eye when it was berserk. The drones went into a killing frenzy, throwing all forms of coordination to the winds and just swarming into Melee to rip the party asunder. This was getting bloody fast, sure Striders were dying in droves. But that enrage effect also reduced their respawn timer by a lot. They could absorb the losses and not lose much of anything in terms of numbers. Yet despite this the damn adventures managed to press forward. Though it was clearly tough going for them. The healers and mages were essentially constantly chugging mana potions by now, just to keep up with the demand on their spells. I decided to get a more authentic view at this point and materialized on one of the ¡°Balconies¡± I had made on the hive. I looked over the battle with physical senses for the first time, the sounds of combat echoing loudly across the expansive cave. It was an equally visceral view, Striders getting torn apart, blown up, incinerated and electrocuted over and over in a slow but unerring march forward on the adventurer¡¯s side. Then the Eyes decided to show up again as one of the Tanks had noticed me and gotten distracted. He got a face full of Gaze and I thought it would be over for him. Until the Eye fell over dead with about half a dozen arrows in its pupil, ouch, poor thing. I decided to distance myself from the battle as they got closer. No point in exposing myself to a potshot I couldn¡¯t see coming due to the writhing mass of Striders attempting in vain to kill them. The party practically stumbled into the queen¡¯s chamber, and for a while the fight was even. Then the adventurers started to slowly get the upper hand. Time to take matters into my own paws and I knew just the right¡­ ¡°Ally¡± to help me. Miriam, there are Striders behind you, burn them! Poor little Miriam didn¡¯t even realize the voice was in her head as she happily obeyed my command, and cast a fireball on her friends. It felt¡­ tasteless, to turn her on her friends like that, even as Rael knocked her out. But then, honor had no place in the heat of battle. If underhanded tactics would win me this fight, so be it, except betrayal, NEVER betrayal. Then Rael spoke up, ¡°Watch out everyone. The Core has started to make its move, watch out for allies that it has taken control of.¡± Take control of more of them? Why, what an excellent idea! Thank you for volunteering Rael! Enemies are in front of you, strike them down. They didn¡¯t even knock him out, instead they just cleansed him, breaking my control. Well, that was anticlimactic. The nearly dead queen tried to take advantage of Rael¡¯s momentary distraction. But that doomed her as the other members of the party were ready to defend him and left me with the burden of commanding the Striders. I couldn¡¯t help but to pick up on Rael¡¯s thoughts at that moment, however, as the Striders kept pouring in. And I could not help but to reply to his thoughts. ¡°But there is a Queen in this room Rael, you are looking at her, I rule this dungeon, obviously my Striders will continue to come to my support.¡± No sooner had I said that before Miriam shot a fireball my way. This one was weak, however, unfocused. Even my basic Magic Resistance could repel that one, I swatted it away. Then Rael and the other Tank rushed me, I batted the woman out of the way and grabbed Rael¡¯s sword. I intended to rip it from his grasp. But I had not noticed the small dwarves coming up behind them as I took 2 really nasty hits. Damn that hurt, that was¡­ nearly 1/2 of my health gone in one go. A clever move... OW!!! The pain turned to indignation, and I released a Roar on them all. A bad move on my part. There was a reason I had not used it earlier. Sure enough, the Roar killed every damn Strider within hearing range. Now I was alone, badly hurt, and had OW had an acid arrow in my side. I took a few unsteady steps back, then dissolved my form. There was no way I was winning this, I was just too low a level. I materialized back in the core room, I still had a shot... the mirror¡­ damn that bolt hurt. I didn¡¯t see the fireball before it hit the corner of the mirror and exploded. Sending me into the wall hard. Well, 5% HP remaining, yikes. At least the mi- no, not the mirror, dammit. It was lying face-down on the other side of the room. It was useless now, unless I could convince them to lift it up and stare into it, and no one would be that stupid. That was my last hope. No wait, maybe¡­ Rael arrived, he looked exhausted, can¡¯t say I blame him. He thought he had won, can¡¯t blame him for that either. I was in no state to stop him. He took a step towards the pillar. ¡°No, don¡¯t you¡­ Dare¡± damn that hurt. I could hardly focus as I opened the menu, I silently praised myself for getting ¡°Avatar Builder¡±. He took another slow step. ¡°I¡­ warn¡­ You¡± I needed to distract him just a little more. There unlocked, just a little mo- <WARNING YOU DO NOT HAVE ENOUGH UPKEEP FOR THIS MONSTER> I ignored the Records. If this killed me, then at least I would take the adventurers with me. A third step. Rael was ejected out of the room as pain beyond anything I had felt before racked every inch of my being. Threatening to send me flying into oblivion, no I could not lose consciousness yet. One last¡­ order¡­ I reached out with my mind hanging on by a hope and a prayer. ¡°Destroy the int¡­ruders¡­ My¡­ Mas...ter Piece¡­ ahhhhhh¡± Oblivion claimed me as Minos roared. Interlude 3: Massacre A bright flash, a moment of disorientation, and the world came back into focus. I took immediate stock of the surrounding room. Striders were lying dead in droves, a dead Strider Queen behind me, and a human was sailing out of the doorway. That had to mean the human came from the Core Room. Why was it there? Where was my throne room, my captains, my axe? ¡°Destroy the int¡­ruders¡­ My¡­ Mas...ter Piece ahhhhhh.¡± Then I noticed the telltale red outline in my vision, signalling that the dungeon was out of essence. What was Mistress thinking?! No, there was no time. I had to get rid of these intruders and disperse or Mistress would die. Time was of the essence. ¡°DARK CALLING!¡± I roared as I triggered my ultimate Dark Shaman Skill. I had to remove several opponents, and I didn¡¯t have enough time to do it on my own. This would solve that as well as my own death problem without wasting time. Right now, every second wasted was a second that could kill Mistress. Every single monster in the room was resurrected from the dead. As part of the resurrection, their stats received a temporary multiplier equal to my total class level. Essentially, each of these minions could now go toe to toe with me, the intruders were completely and utterly doomed. The now resurrected and utterly outraged minions descended upon the Intruders in a frenzy and without mercy as they sliced and diced them to pieces. That was, until Sanctuary was cast, only two intruders remained. A mage and the man who had been sent flying. The mage was casting again, I recognized Emergency Recall. I readied my Edict of Valor to stop him. <STOP YOU FOOL, if you use that Edict your Mistress will die because to the Essence cost!> I cancelled it instantly. Damn, that was too close. The two intruders and the remains of their friends all disappeared as the magic completed and Sanctuary faded. I instantly turned to the Queen. ¡°My presence here is killing our Mistress, she summoned me in as an act of desperation. Kill me, or she dies!¡± The queen and her drones didn¡¯t hesitate. My death and passage into darkness once more was instant. The queen and every Strider in range attacked me at once, still beefed up by my Dark Calling. My only wish as death claimed me was that my Mistress would be able to summon me on a more permanent basis soon. I longed to serve by her side once more. __________ I landed hard on the floor of the Guilds teleport chamber. My injuries superficial because Erem, the foolish but friendly old man, had shielded me with his body. Not so for Rael, who had been mauled severely by one of the smaller Striders after the Minotaur raised the Queen and her minions from the dead. I realized I was in shock given how calm I was. I needed to call for help before I went comatose. I sent a small projectile to the magic bell calling for emergency healing and resurrection. Causing a loud cacophony to ring through the room and summoned as many attendants as possible. Then I collapsed next to Rael. Only then did I notice he had stopped breathing. _____ Warmth, color, shapes¡­ Faces¡­ Mordred and Sister Calissa, I slowly sat up. The resurrection altar. Shit, what had happened? Mordred looked at me with a grave expression. He had clearly read my unasked question from my expression. ¡°We failed utterly, I barely got us out of there as the sole survivor of the ordeal.¡± Failed? How? I had been mere inches from the Pillar victory in my grasp. What in the world happened? Mordred shook his head, ¡°The Core summoned a Minotaur of some kind. I have never seen it¡¯s like there are no records of it either. The moment it showed you were sent flying out of the Core Room. So, it probably had some sort of skill that prevented intruders from setting foot in there while it lived. Its what happened next I have issue wrapping my head around.¡± Mordred helped me to my feet and out of the room, I would need a few days rest to recover from the strain of the resurrection, minimum. Most of the party was there, with support personnel tending to them. So, I had been the last to be resurrected, eh? ¡°The Minotaur used some sort of skill to resurrect every monster in the room. Including the Queen. Only when they came back, they were not the monsters we knew. They had this¡­ red light in their eyes. And their power was beyond belief. Half of us were dead before I even had finished registering what happened.¡±If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Half of the party died in less time than it would take Mordred to realize what was up? Impossible, Striders could hit hard, even kill in one hit from range with their spines if you were unlucky. Or they were suped up on that yellow goop, but killing with 1 strike in Melee? I could not believe that. My denial was short-lived as the rest of the party confirmed it. Their expressions were just as serious as they did. ¡°The worst thing is, the Minotaur let me go, and I don¡¯t know why. When it saw me cast Emergency Recall, it had an expression of certainty and smugness. As if it knew the spell and could counter it, but then changed its mind halfway through. There is also one other thing that worries me.¡± I looked at him, curious. What could possibly be worse? ¡°Alessa is missing, the recall spell should have returned everyone, but she is not accounted for. There is also no response from the Voice Stone when I tried to reach her on it. I scryed her camp, and it¡¯s abandoned. There are also untouched rations that should have been eaten there. Enough for a day or two, which means.¡± It dawned on me ¡°Alessa went missing prior to the attack¡± Mordred nodded. ¡°Knowing Alessa never misses a meal and is a stickler for punctuality, I could narrow it down to the exact time of disappearance. Two days ago she reported five minutes late. However, she seemed fine, and answered all control questions correctly without slipping in a code word for being in distress.¡± This was all too weird. Just one mystery after another. ¡°Have you spoken to the guildmaster?¡± Mordred nodded. ¡°The dungeon has been deemed too dangerous to explore. Until we can learn the nature of the Minotaur and of Alessa¡¯s disappe-¡± Mordred paused, and I heard it too. There was a commotion outside. We opened the door. There stood... Alessa? Only, she had the telltale look of someone under the Cores control. ¡°Calm down humans, I am simply here to return your friend after I¡­ Borrowed her the other day. She is no worse for wear, I assure you. Despite your little Miriam¡¯s attempt to fireball her prison in my Core Room.¡± The strange mirror! ¡°Indeed, Rael, the mirror. My last line of defense. Well, this one has outlived its usefulness now. However, I am not a monster, she has not done anything to harm me. So, I will not harm her.¡± Alessa dropped like a sack of potatoes, then slowly blinked and opened her eyes. Her expression one of confusion. ¡°Boss? How did I end up here?¡± The Guild Guards helped her up and gently escorted her inside. There would be questions for her, before her own would be answered. The aftermath of the expedition was a mess. Alessa¡¯s sudden return, after being examined with all manners of magic to ensure it was the real Alessa. Let us gain some clarity in how the dungeon had been so prepared for us. But it still left more questions than answers. Alessa had been captured when the dungeon¡¯s surface area suddenly expanded. Her mind had been gently, but remorselessly ransacked for all knowledge about the guild. That included the impending attack. That much was clear. That still did not answer the riddle of the Minotaur, though. Pavol had apparently tried to use his Scour ability to get information on it. Only to be told the monster was too strong to Scour, a split second before his head had literally been lopped off and his book torn to shreds. In fact, the small Striders seemed exceedingly vindictive against his book, for some reason we had yet to fully understand. They had gone to great lengths to tear it asunder beyond hope of repair, Pavol was understandably, devastated. For the half an hour it took him to remember he had three copies. Whatever that Minotaur was, though it was clear that it was a monster the Core had been reluctant to summon, why? If it had something with that amount of firepower, why not use it? The answer was simple. Upkeep, no dungeon would ever be able to go over upkeep. Except this dungeon had, it had deliberately summoned a monster that sent it over its upkeep. Probably far over its upkeep, for what? Dungeons were clever, yes, but such a suicidal tactic of mutually assured destruction seemed almost¡­ human. That wasn¡¯t possible. The core was known to be a Sphinx variant of some sort. Besides, who had ever heard about something as ridiculous as a human Core. That would be the day. Then there was the strange return of Alessa. She was utterly at the Dungeons mercy, yet she was let go. As far as the guild staff could tell she was fine, nothing wrong with her except slightly dehydrated. Then there was the strange speech the Core said before she relinquished Alessa, I couldn¡¯t make heads or tails of it at all. As it was, the Dungeon was declared a Deathtrap. A dungeon too dangerous to interact with until more information was available. This would hopefully prevent the dungeon from gaining more power than it already had and stop it from gaining even more floors. Chapter 8: Answers I was floating in darkness. There was nothing else here, nothing to hear¡­ except¡­ a voice? <...> It was a voice, but it was so faint. <¡­ ear ... e> I focused on it, closer. <Can you hear me?> oh, now I could understand it, um. Yes? <Oh, finally, I have been trying to reach you for over a week now>. Over a week? <Yes, I was planning to greet you when you woke up here as a newborn. But my sister got to you first and placed a Curse on you to stop us from speaking to one another>. A Curse? I recall nothing about being cursed in my status. <Of course not, my silly child, though it was there all the time in plain sight, does the skill ¡°Blessing of Inlas¡± ring a bell?> I suddenly felt cold, ice cold. <I figured as much, lucky for you. You are alive and well and stronger for it and despite my sisters¡¯ attempts at making sure the humans would capture you. You persevered, with a little behind the scenes help from yours truly, of course>. She was a bit¡­ self-important, wasn¡¯t she? <Well excuse me, I am just Penumbra, a humble Deity, oh and technically your new mum. Seeing as I am the ¡°Mother of Monsters and Dungeons¡± nothing major really>. So, she was the one who dragged me into this mess? <Well¡­ Yes and no, yes, I took you from your world, but Inlas interfered with the transfer process. I had planned to transport you as your human self and your entire dungeon. But because of her, almost all I transferred was your soul. So, in order to prevent your now disembodied soul from dispersing into oblivion, I reincarnated you as a Core. It was all I could do since I could not return you to your now dead body. You can thank Inlas for that>. OK, but then how did Inlas curse me before this talk could take place? <Unfortunately Inlas is far more prominent among the inhabitants of this world than I am. Because of this she gets to give any blessings to a newborn soul first, this includes reincarnated ones and so she ¡°Blessed¡± you with that curse>. Fair enough, I followed so far. That would explain why I was starting from scratch, but not much else. <I am getting to that, dear. This ¡°Blessing¡± of yours was a complex one. First, it supplanted all the blessings I had designated for you as a soul reincarnated by me. It just removed them in most cases or replaced them with her own versions that were just flat out detrimental at worst or unhelpful at best. It also put requirements on several skills you should have just had from the get-go. Remember how you had to jump through hurdles just to get basic skills like ¡°Remote Dispersion¡± or had to buy ¡°Avatar Builder¡±. Yet had the maximum level in ¡°Telepathy¡±?> I nodded. <That was part of your ¡°Blessing¡±. And don¡¯t get me started with travesty that is her version of my ¡°Penumbral Archives¡± skill. It would only help you if you kick it enough or if it¡¯s not detrimental to Inlas. In which case it refuses to help at all>. That would explain a great many things, like why the records seemed to delight in my frustration and suffering. <The curse also made it impossible for you to hear the voices of or feel much in the way of empathy towards our own creatures. While also making you oblivious to the fact that practically all of them were far more than mere beasts at best. This even affected your Mind Reader skill as well>. No wonder I thought my ¡°Mind Reader¡± skill was strangely weak. <Indeed>. <Since I came to the table second and could not get in touch with you at all. I undermined the curse as much as I could once I realized what Inlas had done. Including the creation of the Synchronization system, by making your soul more monster like you would become increasingly resistant to Inlas¡¯ influence. The Synchronization was less powerful than I would have liked. But then you can Synchronize again every time you evolve, getting stronger as you do so>. By giving up my humanity. <By giving up your connections to what once made you human. To be humane as a whole is a rather subjective term anyway and not dictated by being a human. Look at dwarves, they aren¡¯t human but even so they can be humane can¡¯t they?> True, I suppose... That would explain so many things, like why the records seemed to delight in my frustration and suffering. <Oh, it gets better. The one skill I did manage to force through for you, ¡°Will Binder¡± she obscured to try to prevent you from using it. And she even altered the name of my ¡°Penumbral Knowledge¡± skill to ¡°Forbidden Knowledge¡± to make it seem bad and make sure you wouldn¡¯t get it>. Why? . I suddenly felt a lot better about my choice back in the dungeon. <Speaking of that choice, it forced you to evolve>. Evolve? <Another thing the curse obscured. Yes, you can evolve and become stronger. Normally there would be a full tree of evolutions, but yours is a straight line because of the variant I made you from the get-go. That will land you as the most powerful type of Sphinx you can be once you reach the end of the line. Ironically enough because of your utter insanity in summoning Minos you forcibly evolved yourself. Rubolg showed great prominence and smiled upon you there>. I had heard that name a lot of late. Who was this Rubolg? <Over Deity, creator and ruler of all gods in this world¡¯s pantheon and God of Knowledge, Balance and Omens>. Guess that explained why everyone was using his name as a swear word. That last one sounded ominous. <He isn¡¯t an awful guy, really, just that if you bring enough grim news¡­ >. You become symbolic of it. <Bingo>. So, what would have happened to me if my Resonance with Inlas reached 100% while still cursed by her? <You absolutely sure you want to know?> I nodded. <You would have become convinced you wanted to become her Avatar. Wanting nothing more than to be doing her bidding for all eternity>. That¡­ did not sound like much fun. <That would have been¡­ a severe understatement. There¡¯s a reason why Inlas is currently the only goddess in our pantheon without one. She has a history of being rather... rough on her mortal shells. Viewing them as expendable>. But why me? <A few reasons, one is that you have a human soul. So you would qualify to be her avatar due to her portfolios focusing on humanity. But a monster¡¯s body, giving you far beyond human resilience, thus she would not need to fear wear and tear from you. You are also Ageless; you don¡¯t die from old age, another boon. There is another reason, but we will probably stumble into that topic later so I will cover it then>. Fair enough, but there was still one mystery remaining. WHY WAS I HERE? <Oh right, that, *sigh* In truth I called you here to be a foil to Inlas. That massive Dungeon of yours would have Adventurers arriving in droves to try to conquer it. Giving me a way to fight back at her as she has systematically been eradicating, taming or starving all my dungeons. She has slowly been killing me here, and I was desperate>. OK, but why me specifically? <Well, as I mentioned I¡­ didn¡¯t need you... specifically. I needed your dungeon>. Excuse me? WHAT NOW? . So, basically I am your plan C? <I had no plans for you specifically, actually. But after seeing you in action you are now my plan A, B and C, because it turns out you are a genius at dungeon building. Even with everything Inlas did to mess with you you still preserved and managed to break the curse practically unaided. Granted, in a rather suicidal fashion, I don¡¯t want your old dungeon; I want you to live, grow and evolve as you are my best shot at survival at this point. So I will be helping you out whether you want me to or not>. What¡¯s the catch <Hmm?> There is always a catch, just building a dungeon and growing stronger is too simple. <Well you have been listed as a Deathtrap as any other dungeon Inlas couldn¡¯t eradicate or tame. So you won¡¯t be getting many invaders for the time being, which will stunt your growth. By the way, you might want to recheck the stats of your summoned monsters. Several of the ones you summoned had their stats and abilities faked by Inlas a part of her ¡°Blessing¡± to makes them seem more powerful than they were>. Huh? <I wish that was a joke, think back to the invasion and how your Abyssal Eye acted>¡­ the damn thing had 3500 intelligence yet was an utter moron!¡­ If I ever got my paws on Inlas, I would wring her neck. Put her through a meat grinder and feed her to the Things in my lake. I relied upon the bestiary to make informed decisions, and she had deliberately messed with it to make me do bad ones? <Hey now, it wasn¡¯t wholly bad; the Depths was the best biome you could have picked as even the weak monsters there are far beyond what would be considered normal. Your the Abyssal Eye is still an incredibly powerful monster, it¡¯s just¡­ far less intelligent and durable than you were lead to believe>. Yeah¡­ok fair enough, so what was this Taboo skill I had gained, I didn¡¯t seem like a blessing. <Oh that? A last spiteful gesture from my sister to prevent you from attaining Apotheosis. I guess she is scared of you now, seeing as your curse was broken and we could have this chat and thus expose her. You are a soul from another world after all, so you have certain¡­ advantages>. I had no wish to become a deity. It sounded like a far too stressful job. That aside how did I break the curse, anyway? <You summoned Minos>. What did that have anything to do with it? <Minos was the only other thing that I could salvage from your previous life, preserved as he was in your game. An existence of power far beyond what should be possible for mortals in this world. And an existence beholden to you and you alone. One of the skills he has is the ability to automatically purify all status ailments placed on you when summoned, a skill I believe you taught him I believe?>. Now that she mentioned it, I did remember that skill. It would trigger if Minos was summoned or entered combat, but how would that break a curse from a goddess? <Since he was from another World, just like you, he would be less constrained by the limitations of this world. And due to the sheer power of his skills, he could interfere with even god-given curses. You see, just from a standpoint of sheer power, Minos is a Demigod. He scares Inlas and rightly so, for a fight between her and him would not be a clean one and there would be every chance Inlas could lose. And she had gone out of her way to make your life miserable because of Minos>. I had a horrible feeling I knew where this was going. She wanted Minos for her own, didn¡¯t she? <Who wouldn¡¯t you want a servant that powerful?> Well, I had made Minos that powerful, hadn¡¯t I? <Case and point> I felt the darkness trembling. <Oh, you are about to reawaken, so I will have to be quick with the rest. There are other aspects of the curse as well that has been lifted, you will start to notice that as you wake up. Meanwhile, I will try to work Rubolg over so he will allow me to remove Taboo, as you have not done anything that would warrant giving you that skill>. Sure? Was Taboo any detrimental aside from preventing Divinity Gains, though? <Taboo does not directly harm you now, but you still shouldn¡¯t have it>. Fair enough, so now what? <now it is time for you to-> ¡°Wake up Great One, please wake up, don¡¯t leave Tribe¡± Pain, stinging pain shot through me as my eyes slowly opened, Ssatassha? The tribe was standing all around me looking exhausted <The little ones have been performing a healing ritual non stop for you for almost a solid three days. They are on the verge of collapse from lack of hydration and rest>. huh, the Records sounded strangely¡­ friendly. I raised my head and looked at the little Kobolds. There was still a lot of pain, but my wounds had closed. I could probably heal the rest naturally now, and even if I couldn¡¯t, forcing the little guys to continue would be cruel. ¡°Thank you for your aid little ones, now go rest and recover. I will not have you get hurt because of my recklessness.¡± The tribe looked at me in complete silence for a few moments. Shocked at my sudden awakening, then as one they started to hop up and down in celebration of my reawakening, despite their exhaustion. Ssatassha hugged me close before she herded the rest out of the room. ¡°Ssatassha, if Lienru isn¡¯t too tired, have her make some food for me, I am starving.¡± ¡°Ssatassha understands Great One, it will be done!¡± The only reason I had asked was because Lienru had not been present. <Don¡¯t worry she¡¯s fine, if worried out of her mind>. GAAAAH what in the- <I am, the Penumbral Archives, pleased to meet you>. What in the world? <With the removal of Inlas¡¯ curse, all your original blessings have now been granted and the cursed skills removed. Also, allow me to be the first to congratulate you on your Evolution>. Right, Penumbra had mentioned something about that, didn¡¯t she? I actually felt a bit worried as I opened my status window. Dungeon Name: Labyrinthia Dungeon Biomes: Magical Maze, The Depths Dungeon Level: 4 DEXP: 22/150 Depth: 2/3 Rooms: 43 Essence: 2400/2400 EP: 126 TP: 120 M: 120 Avatar Attributes Avatar Race: Umbral Sage Sphinx (Tier 2 Legendary Unique Variant) Avatar Gender: Female Avatar Level: 1Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. EXP: 120/150 HP: 150/150 MP: 180/180 Attack: 150 Defense: 150 Magic Attack: 180 Magic Defense: 180 Strength: 15 (Def) Dexterity: 15 (Atk) Endurance: 15(HP) Intelligence: 18 (Matk) Wisdom: 18 (MP) Charisma: 18 (Mdef) Penumbra: 99% Inlas: 1% Divinity: Locked by Taboo Synchronization: 0% Core Type: Advanced Cores Eaten: 2 Titles: ¡°Evolved One¡± Skills: Penumbral Psionics(Racial), Cleaving Swipe LvMAX(Racial), Roar LvMAX(Racial), Penumbral Archives(Umbral Unique), Dungeon Siege Mistress(Master Compound), Blessing of Penumbra(Mythical Umbral Blessing) Umbral Knowledge Lv1(Umbral), Damage Resistance Lv2, Mud Golem Status Immunities(Core), Fire Resistance Lv2(Core), Deception Lv3(Core), Taboo(Inlasi) Otherworldly Legacy(Umbral Blessing Personal Gift) Back to level 1 and 0% synchronization, my stats were better though. <Indeed, rising Synchronization it will make you stronger like before. Just as Penumbra intended when she made the system. But in difference from when you were cursed, it¡¯s not borderline required to gain basic functionality. And in case you wonder where your titles went, most of them were just dummy titles made by Inlas with fake effects. So they were purged, the ones that did have actual effects was merged and added to your Otherworldly Legacy. A skill designed to let you keep effects to titles you earn through evolutions. It¡¯s yours and yours alone, think of it as Lady Penumbras way of starting to say. ¡°I am sorry I got you killed and put through hell when I reincarnated you¡± I suppose>. The Archives sounded more¡­ animated and helpful than the Records that were for sure . It did have the same over-proportioned sense of self-import as a certain Goddess I knew, though <Hey¡­ I walked right into that one>. That it did. I looked at myself in the trapped mirror, safe in the knowledge it wouldn¡¯t work on me. I hadn¡¯t changed too much appearance wise. My fur was darker and my wings slowly turned darker and darker until they became pitch black at the tips while my hair-mane had streaks of black running through it. I left the room and walked into the hive, ¡°Hive Queen Talka greets you, Milady¡± She seemed happy to see me. I nearly did a rather unceremonious stumble as the queen talked to me. Ok THAT was unexpected, what happened? <They could always speak, just that the curse made you deaf to your own dungeon creatures> OK, skip wringing Inlas neck, I am putting her through that meat grinder ALIVE. ¡°Thank you, Talka, I¡­ apologize if I never greeted you before or acknowledged your presence before, things¡­ happened.¡± The queen bowed her head. ¡°There is no need to explain, Penumbra told Us everything, you are not at fault, you should tour your realm. Your other servants would likely want the opportunity to greet you properly for the first time as well, Milady¡± her voice was quite dignified and calm, befitting of a queen. ¡°I think I will do that and Talka. But first, thank you and your Hive for your loyal service so far. You fought bravely and sacrificed everything for me and I didn¡¯t even have the presence of mind to notice how hard you fought.¡± I could feel the pride and happiness welling up in her, and every Strider and Swarmling as I acknowledged her and her Hives work for the first time. It was a strange sensation. I nodded respectfully to her and slowly walked out of the hive. Out in the hive proper I made a beeline for the Abyssal Eyes tower, I found all five of my Evil Eyes there; they seemed to play some kind of game with rules I couldn¡¯t quite fathom. ¡°Mistress? Look everyone, it¡¯s Mistress, hi Mistress!¡± said the first Elder Evil Eye, it sounded¡­ child like. ¡°She won¡¯t answer, stupid, she never answers¡±, replied the second one. ¡°You are the stupid one, the voice said she was cursed, remember?¡± countered the third one. ¡°Enough of your prattling, you are making a fool of yourselves¡± said the forth. The Abyssal Eye, however, remained silent and didn¡¯t look at me, I could guess why, I had been¡­ harsh, on it. ¡°All of you, please quiet down, what you have heard so far is true. I have been cursed and thus unable to hear your voices and also unable to realize you were actually alive rather than just constructs made to protect this dungeon. I also wish to personally apologize to you all, I treated you all harshly and said and did things that was quite harsh. Especially you, my brave big friend. You fought your hardest against an overwhelming foe, and I berated you for it.¡± I flew up in front of the Abyssal Eye, forcing it to look at me. ¡°Forgive me¡± I lowered my head as I said so. ¡°Mistress, not angry at Unguul anymore and Unguul did good?¡± At the question, I nearly cried. His voice was deep and loud. But he was like the simple yet friendly giants you could read about in children¡¯s stories! I silently nodded and then flew up further and petted him on the head. ¡°You fought bravely, Unguul, more bravely than anyone could ask of you. And I am very sorry I yelled at you when you worked so hard¡± he seemed so happy when I petted him it broke my heart. Oh, Inlas, if I ever had you at my mercy, the horrors I would inflict on you making me mistreating my own creatures like I had. It would make even demons quail in shock and disgust. You made a terrible mistake there, a terrible, TERRIBLE mistake giving me that curse. <Sorry to intrude on your oath of vengeance. But you unlocked the title ¡°Vengeance Seeker¡± I will leave you alone now>. After just a twitch of annoyance, I buried my anger. This was not the time to show such emotions. After petting Unguul for a while, I floated down to the others. Psionic flight was so much more handy than using solely my wings. ¡°I also wish to thank you four, you fought and died and fought again over and over for me. Without hesitation, despite being outnumbered and out powered several times over, thank you.¡± ¡°Hey guys, I think we got praised.¡± ¡°We did, stupid.¡± ¡°You¡¯re the one whose stupid.¡± ¡°Shut up all of you, of course we got praised, we did great!¡± They all unanimously bobbed up and down, chanting. ¡°We got praised¡± over and over even Unguul joined in after a few moments. It was a heartwarming scene. After a short deliberation and a few questions to the Archives, I removed the top of the tower so that Unguul could wander the dungeon. His gaze would not affect those who were viewed as friendly. I should have realized this, yet another thing the Curse had utterly clouded my mind to. Dungeon creatures could not harm one another, which also likely meant the Umbral Spiders didn¡¯t eat Striders. <What? By Rubolg, of course they don¡¯t, they eat light. Makes it really hard for Adventurers to navigate as their dens are pitch black even when you try to brighten it up using torches or magic>. I was so beyond outraged at Inlas I couldn¡¯t even come up with other ways to increase the suffering I would inflict on her. If I ever got some demons, I could probably ask them for ideas. My next stop was the Geode Caverns and the Starsilver Crag. I needed to calm myself down. Both places did wonders. They looked absolutely marvelous and while the Amber Crawlers were not sentient enough to understand my presence. The Pharos Wings sure were ¡°Greetings, Mistress, welcome to our humble home.¡± their voices was strangely out of tune with their size. They were somewhat high-pitched and feminine, not something you would expect from a creature the size of an elephant that was also made of light and fire. ¡°Thank you, I hope you can forgive any previous¡­ Indiscretions against you if I made any. Because of a curse, I was not in my right mind.¡± I started to explain. ¡°There is nothing to forgive, Mistress, Mother Penumbra explained it all to us, we cannot hold against you what Inlas¡¯ curse made you do. Besides, only ignoring us is a small slight given how bad it could have been.¡± I didn¡¯t even want to entertain that thought. After another short chat, I received a notification. <The Kobold Lienru is waiting in your Core Room with your food>. After apologizing to the Pharos wings that I had to cut the conversation short due to some prior engagements I had to attend. I returned to the Core. The Pharos Wings seemed delighted just to have been able to talk to me, though, and didn¡¯t seem to mind that it was a short talk. Lienru stood there as I ate, I had asked her to wait, because I had something to tell her. I was tempted to just scarf it down, but this was too tasty to waste in such a careless fashion. Yep, it was decided. ¡°Lienru¡­¡± I took another bite of my Mushroom Bread and swallowed, then I downed it with some more tea. ¡°Your skills at cooking are incredible. I would wish to extend to you the position of being my personal chef.¡± Lienru looked at me for a few seconds¡­ then dropped to the floor, unconscious. What the hell? I quickly called Ssatassha over and explained the situation. She looked at me for a few moments. ¡°Ssatassha thinks she knows why Lienru passed out. Lienru said it was her dream to be able to cook delicious foods for Great One who had taught her the joy of meal making and learning. I think she never really expected it to ever be more than a dream.¡± I smiled down at the two Kobolds. ¡°I see, well, when she wakes up inform her that I was serious in my offer and expect her reply at the earliest convenience.¡± Ssatassha nodded happily. ¡°Of course, Great One, Ssatassha will make sure Lienru knows!¡± As I ate, the Doppelg?nger entered the room and sat down beside me. She was looking at me with a curious expression, ¡°Hmm? Is something wrong?¡± I asked, as she shook her head. ¡°No, you just seem more¡­ alive than before. You would always be so distant, aloof, cold, like a construct. But after your curse was lifted, you now seem more animated and emotional.¡± I did? <You betcha, it was BAAAD>. Ouch, ¡°Well, I am feeling much better now, hmm.¡± I thought for a moment. ¡°Mistress?¡± The Doppelganger looked at me with a curious expression. ¡°I just realized I never gave you a name, I should fix that. You certainly deserve it after your hard work.¡± the Doppelg?nger looked at me utterly baffled. ¡°You really are more alive. The old you would not even have been able to think in such ways.¡± She responded after a lengthy silence. ¡°What can I say, I got better, wouldn¡¯t you agree¡­ Duplica?¡± I smiled at her. She looked at me for half a second, not understanding what I was on about. ¡°Duplica¡­ Duplica¡­ I like it, thank you, Mistress, I will treasure my Name and yes, you got better.¡± she bowed her head in reverence, then with a smile ran out. No doubt to tell some friends she had made, but I had never noticed she had, that she now had a proper name. As she was on the way out, however. I spotted the reflection in the mirror, the scout. Cursed to forever be Duplica¡¯s reflection unless I freed her. What to do there. On one end I could just kill her, but then she had helped me survive, even if that had never been her intention. I owed this woman my life. Without her, I would not have been informed of the impending attack. That meant that I would likely not done the preparations I needed and been nothing more than a glorified slave or worse. No matter how I looked at it, I owed this woman; I owed her far too much to let her stay in that mirror or kill her. As much as I hated to say it I would have to let her go. <So, sorry to butt in here, but why be 100% merciful? You could use her as a spy>. I scoffed, if I had been knocked out for 3 days they would have noticed her disappearance by now. There was no way they would not notice if I kept her mind controlled in some fashion. The bestiary opened on its own and showed a specific creature. After reading its entry, I could not help but smile. That was useful, very useful. The Archives was infinitely more useful than the Records. I would get to that immediately after finishing reintroducing myself to everyone, I still had the first floor to do. I had called together all the creatures on the first floor in the room just before the stairs room; I was standing in the hallway leading to the stairs. Boy was it noisy, the squeaky voices of the swarms of rats, to the grindy voices of the Worms and the bubbly liquid like gurgles of the Slimes. How in the world did the curse drown out all this? ¡°I am sure you have already been informed about this, but I have been under a curse practically my entire time here. Until now, this curse had several adverse effects on me, not only physically but also mentally. One of its effects made it impossible for me to view you as little more than pawns. Now that I am free of its influence I am deeply ashamed of my earlier view of you. My loyal companions in our shared home, so I ask you now, can you find it in you to forgive me?¡± I bowed my head, awaiting their response. As one, everyone chanted ¡°Mistress!¡± over and over while the Typhoid rats started to lovingly nudge themselves against my paws. Nothing to forgive, I guess, even as tears ran down my cheeks. I spent some time there in that room, loosely chatting with them about various topics. They all had a surprising love for tactics and would go on and on about it with me. Before I knew it, I had been talking with them for nearly three hours, after realizing how much time I had I excused myself. I had other important matters to take care of as the Archives informed me that dawn was approaching and so the best time to return the woman, Alessa. I returned to the room and contacted Duplica; I wanted her here for this so it would not surprise her. Then I bought the creature that the Archives had shown me, the Seeker. Monster: Seeker Genus: Insectoid Aberration Monstrosity Biome: The Depths Unlock cost: 6EP HP: 20/20 MP: 10 Attack: 2 Defense: 20 Magic Attack: 2 Magic Defense: 20 Strength: 2 Dexterity: 2 Endurance: 2 Intelligence: 15 Wisdom: 10 Charisma: 2 Upkeep: 3e/d Skills: Seeker Invisibility(Racial), Burrow(Racial), Soundless(Racial), Master of Stealth(Racial), Undetectable(Racial) Truesight(Racial) Seeker Infestation(Racial Unique), Share Senses(Racial Unique), Regenerate Tendril(Racial Unique). The Seeker itself was an interesting creature, was grayish purple in coloration. It was about the size of a house cat, and it had a pair of huge mandibles specialized for burrowing next to its small tunnel shaped mouth. Its body was drop shaped, with 4 sinuous legs that kept its short main body perfectly balanced. 2 antennae grew from its back, curving behind the long tail that made up most of its body. The tail itself was long and muscular and added in a three-pronged, hollow tip. Inside these hollows were three long tendrils that functioned as the Seeker¡¯s eyes and ears. They were also why I planned to unlock it. While the Seeker was not made for combat at all. It was practically helpless if it was attacked. It had another thing that made it extremely useful, besides its obvious stealth skills. Its ability to infest other creatures with its tendrils, doing so, would temporarily render the Seeker unable to see or hear. But would also grant me and the infested target a skill each, I would get ¡°Receive Linked Senses¡±(Gift). While it would give the infested target ¡°Send Linked Senses¡±(Hidden). The Hidden marker meant that you would need divine tier detection to even see the skill was there in holders skill list. The tendrils would essentially merge with the target and become a part of them, unable to be detected by anything. While allowing me to see and hear whatever the target did whenever I felt like it. The target would not feel this intrusion. And I did not intend for Alessa to know about this at all. I unlocked the Seeker and summoned one. It slowly appeared in front of me and I looked down at it with a friendly smile. ¡°Hello little one¡± It pointed its tail at me. ¡°ThiS, oNe grEeTs YoU, MIsTrEsS¡± its voice was grating and sharp, like nails on a chalkboard, but I didn¡¯t mind. ¡°I am sorry to ask this of you after just summoning you little one, but I have a very important task for you, if you are willing.¡± The Seeker looked at me for a few moments, ¡°YoU wISh For ThIS OnE to iNFeSt a SomEONe fOr yoU?¡± I nodded. I knew doing so would render the seeker temporarily blind and deaf while its tendrils regrew. It looked at me still, ¡°ThiS onE wOuLd bE DelIGhtEd¡± I nodded before turning to Duplica. ¡°Sorry to take your human form away from you¡± Duplica just smiled. ¡°It is for the good of the dungeon. Besides, it¡¯s not like I cannot assume that shape again should I so desire through my own shape shifting.¡± I nodded and instructed the Seeker to hide, I wanted no trace of its existence to be in Alessa¡¯s memories. It was surprisingly simple to free her, even as she tumbled out of the mirror with a disoriented look. Upon seeing me she flinched, the fear radiating from her in waves. ¡°Fear not little one, I have no intention of harming you. In fact, I intend to let you go soon. Before I do, however, I will erase all memories of this place.¡± As I talked Duplica deliberately walked past behind me. Pretending to go about some other business, it was important for my plans that Alessa should see her. Even if her memory of this encounter would be hazy at best. With the theatrics out of the way, I used Will Binder on her and scrubbed her memories from her time inside the dungeon. Leaving only this encounter. I bid the Seeker do its job. It was¡­ disturbing to look at as it latched onto Alessa¡¯s head. Two of its tendrils disappearing into her ears, while the third went into her mouth. I could see her body twitch on its own accord as the process continued, even with my control over her will. After triple checking that Alessa would have no memory of that event. And after thanking the Seeker telepathically, I had Duplica carefully guide the now deaf and blind seeker into the Hive to rest and recover. While having its needs looked after by several Swarmlings, by my request. Apparently, most Seekers would starve to death while their tendrils recovered. I did not intend for that to happen on my watch. And the Queen had been delighted to lend her aid. With the job done, I guided Alessa out of my dungeon and flew her to the edge of my domain. Then simply ordered her back to the city, sharing her senses I could easily know when she arrived. The rest was pretty much a formality for me. I gave a small speech and released her. Then I watched the ensuing chaos through the eyes of a very confused Alessa. They did not go easy on the poor girl either with magical scans. Interrogations and even a case of light mind reading before they actually realized she was the real deal. I actually felt sorry for her, it was not like she had volunteered the information I gained from her. Yet there they were, treating her as a damned criminal. I then turned my thoughts to other things, like the free staircase room in my inventory that was waiting for me. It was time to once more go deeper. Chapter 9: Deep Strongholds and Deep Terror I was not sure what to think of this entire situation anymore. One moment I was just a regular gal that played games and tried to have fun. Next, I was a sphinx inside what looks to be a real-life version of my favorite game. Then it turns out I am apparently THE chess piece in a game between gods. My opinion about the matter would be that it was bullshit. They both had an agenda, and they are both trying to use me for their own selfish reasons. At least Penumbra was honest about it. She clearly stated she needed me and would help me whether I want it or not, and I believed her. Not like I had a choice about it after what I saw earlier. Gah, even if I continued to think about it, I wouldn¡¯t get anywhere. Time to do some expansion to get my head straight and focused again. Who knows when Inlas or someone else will decide to- <Bodyguard Ezekiel has entered your domain> Ezekiel who the hell was that? <That would be one of merchant Yndali¡¯s bodyguards, > Oh, more cores. <So it would seem> Wait, was eating cores really a good idea? <If you are afraid the Records lied to you about it, you can relax. There is no harm in it, and it will make you more powerful. you are simply absorbing the stuff that was left in the core after its sentience dissipated after all. It¡¯s like eating a cow, only headaches and an urge to throw up after the fact if the cores are a tad too strong>. Well, if Ezekiel had cores, I would be a fool not to buy them. A few quick questions to the Archives to get the correct number of gems and an emerald for Ezekiel, and off I went. It was barely dark outside. He would have left before nightfall to get here this early. Then again, with me being declared a Deathtrap, it¡¯s not like anyone would be in the area, right? Either way if those three wanted to run that risk then that¡¯s their choice to make, not mine, I just pay em. Ezekiel himself seemed nervous, couldn¡¯t say blamed him. ¡°Got the gems?¡± ¡°If you have the goods, yes¡± he tossed me the bag. I checked its contents, 1 core, fair enough, couldn¡¯t be too easy to get those. I quickly counted up the correct number of gems, took the core out of the bag and replaced it with the payment. Then I handed Ezekiel a decent-sized emerald, his hazard pay. ¡°Pleasure doing business with you, Core.¡± He licked his lips as he quickly left, though he kept looking back as he did. I shrugged, stashed the core in my inventory, and returned to the Core Pillar. I could eat that later, last thing I needed was a searing headache while building the next floor. I created a rudimentary short hallway and then placed the stairs. The familiar featureless room awaited me when I entered the third floor. I had some time to think of this one, and I decided on the Deep Labyrinth; It was a logical step, really; I was a Maze biome, after all. Another potentially useful thing I would get access to with the Deep Labyrinth, according to the Archives, was the Workshop. A resource room that would allow creatures that could wield tools to forge items using resources from around my dungeon, like the Starsilver form the crag. For all intents and purposes Starsilver was, again according to the Archives, essentially this world¡¯s answer to Mithril or Adamantium in its refined form. At least that is how I understood his citation since the archive did not understand what Mithril and Adamantium was. Though interestingly enough it had one key difference. Starsilver could only be refined in dungeons, if taken outside in its raw form it would turn brittle and lose its luster. It would become useless within a matter of minutes, because of this it it was an excessively valuable commodity in its refined form. Valuable enough to remove the Deathtrap label of a dungeon and make even the most seasoned adventurers risk life and limb even for a single piece of the refined stuff. I knew I currently had the Deathtrap label. That meant they would leave me alone, for now. But I needed to grow both my Avatar and my Dungeon. The Cores I bought could be used to expand my current floors, sure. But 3 floors would only protect me for so long and eventually I would not grow wider, or so I feared. I needed go to deeper and for that I needed invaders to kill. As much as I hated to say it and the knowledge that I had a giant target on my head, from a deity no less. Well, I needed to speed up my growth, but not before I was ready, I would stack the deck as much in my favor as I could. And for that I would have to delve deep into the Mastery menu. The reason I got so badly beat last time was because there were two dozen adventurers all rampaging through my depths. There had to be a reason for that. <Expanded Full Party for a 2 floor dungeon, pretty excessive to let that many people in, don¡¯t you think?> Tell me something I don¡¯t know. If I had a choice in the matter I wouldn¡¯t have allowed 24 high-level adventurers into my dungeon, I wasn¡¯t suicidal. <Wait; you didn¡¯t set that up?> Set what u- wait do you mean set the maximum of allowed adventures here too? <And limit the level of adventures that can enter. Though the stronger the party, the more DEXP for defeating the party. Keep in mind you cannot go below your Dungeon Level. So, for instance, if you are a Dungeon Level 24 dungeon you cannot bar passage for level 24 and below, ever. Penumbra enjoyed watching her dungeons challenge themselves and strive to improve, but also disliked them slacking. So no strong dungeon could force weak intruders only, or that was the original intent>. It took me less than a second to work out what must have happened. Inlas must have screwed with the ¡°Max amount allowed¡± when she ¡°Blessed¡± me, I needed to fix that, now. It took a bit of looking, but I found what she had altered with the help of the Archives. An option that had previously been hidden by the ¡°Blessing¡± in the mastery menu. Unlocked and active. Just looking at it made me feel ill. <That rotten, cheating, murderous, unfair hag! That option is 1000M and in Rubolgs name, it¡¯s that expensive for REASON. Seriously, I am amazed you are still alive since practically anything short of the gods themselves could have just waltzed in here>. I frankly could not disagree with the Archives here. That bitch had given me activated and hidden War Mode. This setting would set both the ¡°Party Size¡± and the ¡°Invader level limit¡± of my dungeon to ¡Þ. It was what endgame dungeons used when they wanted a real challenge back in the game, I was lucky I just had to deal with 24 people. I could have had 24000 rampaging through at any given time. <You know, this would explain why most of the dungeons in recent time was steamrolled by adventurers. If Inlas ¡°Blessed¡± the lot of them with that feature and reduced taming resistance. Then there wouldn¡¯t really be much of anything the poor things could do. I need to report this to Lady Penumbra> Define recent time. <15 Millenia give or take?> And Penumbra didn¡¯t even think something was off with that? <She did, but she had no evidence. Once tamed they are under Inlas jurisdiction and she wouldn¡¯t let Penumbra near. Though with you around we now have that evidence>. Good, this sort of underhanded tactic was just low. No wonder Penumbra had been on the verge of death. This would also explain why Rubolg had done nothing prior. Since it was seemingly the dungeons¡¯ own incompetence and by extension Penumbras, that led to their demise. But I had no way to have been able to earn 1000M yet. I was too young of a dungeon and there had been an obvious show of foul play from Inlas before regarding me. This would probably get her in serious trouble. I turned War Mode off, doing my best to not imagine what could have been a very quick end to me. Ugh, I needed to build and clear my head. If I didn¡¯t, I would probably spend the next two weeks just making up scenarios for how to murder Inlas in the most painful way possible. I had begun to develop a serious hatred for that goddess, and hatred was never good to nourish. Pushing that aside I flipped open biomes and picked Deep Labyrinth. Huh¡­ come to think of it, I never made a Special biome back in the game since I could never mutate a Depths biome. Wonder what this would be like, I could read the description¡­ hmm... nah, Surprise me! Oh, Special Biome!! The answer came sooner than expected as the entire dungeon shook violently and the doorway in front of me created a hallway on its own. When the shaking intensified, fearing the worst, and I retreated up the stairs, only to find that the quake was limited to the 3rd floor. I guess that meant whatever the quaking was it was part of the biome¡¯s construction? When I went back down the stairs, I could only ponder at this biome and the reason for the shaking as I looked at the newly built hallway. The tunnel was a circular thing that bore a striking resemblance to something. I just couldn¡¯t remember right now. Shouldn¡¯t the tunnels be square, I mean Labyrinth, Maze, was I missing something? <Hey Boss lady, mind if I call you Boss Lady? Anyway, the Influenced creatures from the first floor are migrating from the Maze to the Deep Labyrinth as this biome suits them better>. Migrating, what the hell was that supposed to mean? Didn¡¯t monsters stay on their designated floors? This was decidedly not in the game, having monsters just change home floors was unheard of, I didn¡¯t even know that was possible. <If a Biome Influence happens, it causes base creatures to mutate into Variants. Sometimes these variants are not well suited for the biome they mutate in. As such, the influenced creatures have migrated to the Deep Labyrinth as this is a biome better suited for them. Expect further Migration of Influenced creatures in the future as floors unlock and better suiting biomes become available. Do note that migrated creatures will no longer spawn on the first floor. You will need to unlock and place new monsters there to replace them if you want to still have monsters present>. The walls burst open and about half a dozen Depth Worms popped out. Followed by rats and oozes. They were all looking at me. I could sense the happiness radiating from them like small tidal waves. This was indeed a biome well suited to them, judging from their reaction. ¡°Well then, enjoy yourselves in your new home, I guess.¡± I simply said, still a bit crestfallen. ¡°WE WILL¡± they answered unanimously and as the Worms tunneled away. Followed by the other creatures, I wondered where they were going? As their tunnels closed behind them I continued placing tunnel-hallways. Which I now realized reminded me of the tunnels the Worms left behind. A while later I broke through to a giant natural cavern, considering how perfectly smooth it was this had to be part of the biome itself. <This is the center of the biome and works as the gateway to the Deep Labyrinth itself, which covers the 2nd half. A bunch of different things can be placed here, like the Dimensional Labyrinth>. That sounded interesting. The Archives popped it up for me so I could take a look. Such a nice little helper to have. Device Name: Dimensional Labyrinth Device type: Special Environmental Trap Trap type: Environment Alteration Material Type: Space/time Unlock Cost: 30TP Range: Floor Trigger Type: Constant Cooldown: - Hardness: - HP: - Defense: - Evasion: - Upkeep: 300e/d Duration: ¡Þ Effect: Up are down, left are right, forwards are backwards. All sense of order is left behind when this trap is placed as all laws of physics are upended. Entering a tunnel will no longer leave you the logical exit, but could lead you to another section of the floor. And only by entering the correct sequence of tunnels will you be able to make progress. Furthermore, flight becomes borderline impossible as the dimensional distortions will disorient fliers to the point of complete confusion or just teleport them back to the beginning of the floor. Ethereal creatures and creatures that burrow through the ground are unaffected by this trap. Due to the dimensional instability caused by the trap, teleportation will always mishap, this includes the teleportation on fliers. Warning cannot be removed once placed, and can affect creatures with Labyrinth Sense due to the constant shifting in space-time. So burrowing and Ethereal creatures would not be affected, eh? No wonder there were so many of those here with something like this present. I would be hard-pressed to afford this trap right away though, not because of that unlock. That was manageable, if expensive. But the upkeep, that was a tad steep, let¡¯s see what else is here¡­ No basics¡­ interesting, so let¡¯s see... different Earth Elementals. Some strange Monstrosities, Spirits of varying levels of viability. Hmm, so many choices, so little ti- Duergar? That would explain the Workshop option. I would likely need these guys and some support rooms to get that the Workshop. Come to think of it, I should have looked up the workshop rather than listen to the Archives¡¯ explanation of the merits of it to see any potential requirements. Duergar seemed like an excellent choice for this place though, but how to go about it, there were many kinds of Duergar. From the Commoner caste, who were poor combatants but would work resource rooms and workshops. The warrior caste who could gain different class levels and would defend the place viciously against intruders. The Priestly caste, with levels in Cleric, worshipers of Lady Penumbra, would probably get points with ¡°Mother¡± if I got those. And finally Nobles, who had the ¡°Nobility¡± skill, which made them exceedingly skilled commanders, leaders and administrators. Nobles also had all the same skills as Warriors to boot. If I went this route, it would be expensive. Because in difference from the Hive above, just placing a few rooms and a queen would not get me what I needed. I would need to unlock all the castes and their support buildings. To top it off, I needed to use this center area as their stronghold. So I could kiss Dimensional Labyrinth goodbye if I went that way, hmm choices. Both sides had their merits and downfalls. On one hand, the labyrinth would make the biome and absolute NIGHTMARE to navigate while allowing me to focus on creatures that was unaffected. But the upkeep would be steep and the effects would end once they entered the main part of the Deep Labyrinth which I had yet to even explore. On the other hand, Duergar were on par with Dwarves in the skill of smithing. So their warriors were really tough cookies to beat in fight once they had some forged gear and class levels under their belt. And if I placed the support buildings first, they would spawn in with more levels of their base class. A pretty good deal. I should look through the support buildings to decide and to see if the expense would be worth the i- suddenly a shiver went through me. Like some abhorrently powerful force was scrutinizing me¡­ judging me, it was making me feel completely exposed. The secrets of my very soul was bared to the world by this presence. To say that I felt uncomfortable would be a ridiculously severe understatement. Then, as suddenly as it had arrived, it vanished. <Feature ¡°War Mode¡± Removed>. What?If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Before I could even get a response from the Archives on what the hell just happened. A giant raven materialized in front of me. <Rotrix, Divine Messenger of Rubolg, has arrived in the dungeon>. What In the nine hells was going on?! ¡°HEAR YE, HEAR YE. By Divine Decree, Lord Rubolg has removed War Mode as a possible skill for dungeons under a dungeon level of 120. All dungeons under this level have had War Mode disabled and removed. Dungeons of too young age to have gotten the ability naturally will not receive any refunds. The goddess Inlas is from this day forth banned from giving any blessings or curses to dungeons or monsters. All dungeons Tamed while carrying a ¡°Blessing of Inlas¡± in the last 15473 years will be released, effective immediately. Affected dungeons are now under the effect of Divine Sanctuary for the next 72 hours to allow the dungeons to shore up their defenses without worry. Adventurers have been expelled from the affected dungeons. All Cores carrying Sealing Bracelets have been released from them, and we have returned them to their Core Rooms. Dungeons that have been freed by this decree will be immune to taming and destruction for the next year and a day. But may still be Conquered, delve within them at your own risk. Dungeons that have been freed have been refunded all lost income because of the taming and may spend it immediately. May balance be restored to the world by the law and judgement of our great Lord Rubolg!¡± As suddenly as it had arrived, the raven disappeared. I could only surmise the sense of utter scrutiny was Rubolg checking if I truly had War Mode. And had been none too pleased with the discovery that indeed I did. What surprised me was that it seemed like Inlas had gotten off from the entire thing with little more than a slap on the wrist. Probably some divine insight I couldn¡¯t begin to understand at work here. Still, that meant that Inlas couldn¡¯t screw around with me by ¡°Blessing¡± me anymore regardless of my resonance. <That wasn¡¯t a small slap. Inlas just lost every dungeon she messed with for a long while and with it a lot of influence and power and her loss has been Lady Penumbras gain. I am not sure that is all good news>. Oh? <by losing all those dungeons and not being able to reclaim them for a year and a day. The cities and adventurer guilds just lost a lot of power and income. Guess twice how they will attempt to regain it>. The answer was obvious, the so-called ¡°Deathtrap¡± dungeons. They were not protected by the Decree. No time to hesitate, I needed to shore up my defenses. At least this time it would hopefully be an even fight instead of the slow, inevitable steam roll. Since War Mode wasn¡¯t a thing I needed to worry about anymore. As it was I needed a fighting force, and that meant only one thing. Duergar were not that impressive stats wise as some advanced monsters I could get down the line. But because of their ability to use equipment and gain class skills, they could still be a force to be reckoned with. Basically, all Duergar had the following base stats: Monster: Duergar (Special) Genus: Umbral Dwarf Biome: Deep Labyrinth Unlock cost: 5 per Caste HP: 140 MP: 110 Attack: 70 (Commoner) 140 + weapon strength if wielding a weapon Defense: 65 (Commoner) 140 + armor strength if applicable Magic Attack: 110 (Casters only) + Caster tool strength if wielded by a Caster Magic Defense: 90 + armor strength if applicable Strength: 14 Dexterity: 11 Endurance: 14 Intelligence: 11 Wisdom: 10 Charisma: 9 Upkeep: 5, Upkeep 1, with the correct support building for its caste. Special Upkeep: if a Duergar Ruler Variant and a Duergar High Priest Variant is present, upkeep is # of Duergar/2, rounded up. Skills: Darkvision(Racial), Tunnel Sense(Racial), Labyrinth Sense(Racial), Dwarven Craftsmanship(Racial), Grandmaster Gemcutter(Racial), Grandmaster Jeweler(Racial), Grandmaster Blacksmith(Racial), Grandmaster Stonemason(Racial), Minor Invisibility(Racial), Dwarven Stubbornness(Racial), Stonesense(Racial) Proficient Miner(Racial)(Commoner), Tunnel Digger(Racial)(Commoner), Tunnel Warfare(Racial)(Warrior, Noble), Tunnel Tactics(Racial)(Warrior, Noble), Nobility(Racial)(Noble), Piety(Priest), Dwarven Class Selection(Special). The major problem was the Castes, these guys relied on each other Caste and each one was a separate unlock with their separate support buildings. If they were all built, though, it would spawn in some variants guaranteed. The Duergar Royal and High Priest which would be stronger than their normal counterparts, but this would still be one hell of an expensive venture in terms of total cost. Not to mention the extra resource rooms I would have to build to truly let them flourish. But the benefits I could get from it were just too great to ignore. Besides, a genuine fortress to block the adventurers with seemed like a solid line of defense, not to mention that would still leave the Labyrinth proper. The entrance to which I could see on the other side of the huge cavern. Besides, if I were to continue my main strategy of ¡°Bleed them dry by a billion cuts¡± this was decidedly the best way I could do it. Let them smash themselves to pieces against the master crafted walls of a Duergar stronghold. My mind made up, I started looking up the support buildings. Barracks for warriors, Temple for priests, Keep for the nobles and Great Smithy, and Duergar Mining camp for the commoners. Ouch these things were¡­ not cheap, and that was just the support buildings. If I wanted to get any use out of the Smithy and mining camp, I needed some resource rooms too. Unlocking the support buildings would cost me 100M that hurt, the 4 Castes would be 20EP total and finally the Resource buildings. What could I even get for them to help em out? Hmm let¡¯s see, Quarry 10TP, if I wanted to fortify this cavern that was a must, Iron Mine 10TP, that was the basic mine could I find something better? Silver¡­ I needed weapons and armor right now, jewelry could come later, gold, platinum and copper, same thing. Nothing under the basic tab. Did I qualify for any of the special resources? Darksteel required a support room from the Underworld Maze, bummer could have been really useful. Gem Mine required a Geode Cavern, so I could make that, but again, weapons, not jewelry. Starsilver Mine, now THAT was what I was hoping for. High tier weapons, armor and tools, and the cost was...100TP well then. The total setback for this purchase was 100 Mastery, 20EP, 110 TP and a yet to be determined Essence upkeep. Well, this would hurt my wallet, but what could I do? No progress without cost and all that. I bought it all, down to 100EP, 10TP and 20M. The worst part was I would need some of that EP for the first floor, so I couldn¡¯t splurge too much on different critters here either. The Duergar would have to do. Then again, I had the migrated monsters I could summon more of if I needed them. To begin with, I placed two mining camps, placing one by the East wall and the other by the west. Then placed the Quarry on the east wall next to one camp and the Starsilver mine on the west wall next to the other. Then I placed the Temple, Barracks, Great Smithy and Keep. <All Duergar support buildings placed in proximity, buildings merged into Duergar Stronghold>. The area changed as the main buildings, except the mining camps, twisted and changed until I was standing in a decently sized and well-made fortress. With this the Duergar they would probably have plenty of space. Even as I thought that two pools of mist slowly solidified into a pair of Duergar. One of them was wearing a crown while the other was draped in religious garb. The Ruler and the High Priest. The two eyed me for a moment. ¡°Ye must be the Core dat summoned us, ain¡¯t ye?¡± the Duergar King asked me, I nodded. ¡°Well den, Melady, what do ye wish for us to do?¡± He treated me more like an equal than anything, despite calling me, Milady. That was quite a refreshing thing given how everyone treated me as if I was infallible. ¡°I want to first know how many Duergar you would need to fortify this cavern.¡± The Ruler looked at me for a moment, then shrugged before heading up on the stronghold battlements and surveyed the area. ¡°Ho much of it do ye wish to have fortified?¡± He asked as he looked over the cavern. ¡°At least enough to cover it from the west wall to the east wall and bar passage into the Deep Labyrinth proper.¡± I answered, I suspected he would not mind the work. Duergar was an industrious lot after all. ¡°Ah, so we are to be the first line of defense on this floor, eh?¡± he looked at me as I nodded. He seemed¡­ pleased, then went silent for a bit. ¡°Fifteen workers in da Quarry, five in da smithy, fifteen in da mines and another fifteen carryin da resources and buildin da walls. Fifty in total, da construction itself will take a few days. I will also need warriors ta hold da fort, Priests ta heal them in a fight and Nobles ta lead em.¡± he scratched his white beard, deep in thought. ¡°How many?¡± I asked as the silence stretched on. ¡°Hmm, with Ten Nobles and Priests and Fifty Warriors we should be able ta secure the place against assault at every hour o da day. That would let us ave two squads on duty, two restin and one on standby in case o emergency at all times.¡± 120 Duergar, 122 total with the High Priest and King present. Divide by 2 and round up because of the special upkeep reduction and¡­ 61e/d, a tad expensive, but doable. Though only because of the size of the special biome pushing my essence gain up by a lot. Had I tried this without the special biome already pre-made for me, I would have been losing a pretty decent chunk of Essene a day. Right now I had what¡­ I did the math in my head quickly. I had about 20e/d prior to building this floor and after summoning now I would have 35e/d. I summoned what the King had asked for and watched as they got to work in total silence and with steeled purpose. Then I checked the TP cost for the Workshop. Nope, not happening. 50TP with 10TP remaining, well, nothing to do about it, let¡¯s explore the labyrinth and move my Core Room then. <Chef Lienru is waiting in your Core Room with your food> it had taken this long to get stuff going? Well, scratch the exploring. Better not let the eager little chef wait. Mmmm... Shroomcow steak and Mushroom stew, garnished with Rock Salt. The Records hadn¡¯t lied, Rock Salt was much better to a Sphinx Palette, no idea why, but it was. And on the side a mushroom salad and Mushroom Tea was the drink, absolutely delicious. After the meal, I announced that I would move my Core Room down soon. But that I would continue to use the chamber as my dining room to make it easier for Lienru to get me my food. The Archives seemed ready to tell me when she showed up with it, so I was all for making her life easier. Rather than force her to marathon through the floors as I added them, not to mention the distance would likely render the food cold. With that eaten, I returned to the 3rd floor and entered the Labyrinth proper. This place differed from the Maze, the place was massive. Twenty meter wide and with walls that disappeared up at least sixty meter if not more. The walls were smooth and with no sharp corners to aid grappling hooks or other climbing tools. So it would be a veritable nightmare to climb. The eerie thing about the Deep Labyrinth was the small spheres of green light that lit the place up. The only light source in my entire Dungeon so far. Why make it easier on the intruders, after all? Even so, this light was unnerving. It didn¡¯t allow for any shadows to be cast, and every time I placed a paw it echoed in the distance and whirled up a small cloud of dust. Small crawlspaces and chubby holes along the bottom also added natural hiding spots. As the light from the spheres did nothing to light these up at all, it was as if all the shadows had fled into them. This place gave me goosebumps. Trust me, it was a very different experience when you are covered in fur, let me tell you. I walked and walked, the stillness only broken by the echoes of my foot pads. Man, this place alone could be used as a weapon. If I thought this was creepy, what would intruders think of this since they were not safe in here at all? As I wandered, I could sense the presence of the creatures from the first floor sporadically. They were somewhere in the Labyrinth. Then one of the Rat Swarms crossed my path. In the eerie green light it was just a mass of blackness with dozens of red glowing eyes. Yeah this place was just designed to make you freak the hell out wasn¡¯t it, now I just needed something fittingly destructive to go with this place. <Need something for this labyrinth. How about this guy?> And a bio popped up. Which made me stop dead in my tracks. This guy would be perfect, though he was damn expensive. Monster: Hazalaar, the Heartseeker (Named Wandering Boss) Genus: Minotaur, Shade, Undead Biome: Deep Labyrinth Unlock cost: 20M + 50EP Gender: Male HP: 260 MP: 240 Attack: 300 + weapon Defense: 200 Magic Attack: 180 Magic Defense: 160 Strength: 30 Dexterity: 20 Endurance: 26 Intelligence: 18 Wisdom: 24 Charisma: 16 Upkeep: 30e/d Special: Scythe of the Heartseeker(Unique weapon) Effect: Adds Magic Attack to Physical Attack (480 total) and makes the attack count as magical damage Skills: Undead Immunities(Racial), Charge(Racial), Gore(Racial), Stampede(Racial), Labyrinth Sense(Racial), Greater Cleaving Strikes(Special), Aura of Terror(Special), Terrorizing Roar(Special), Giant(Special), Unnerving Presence(Special), Soundless Steps(Special), Ethereal(Special) TelepathyLv3(Special), Undetectable(Unique) This guy was made for this labyrinth he had to be. With this unnerving place, his fear inducing effects would just be even more effective. And he was a Minotaur too, kind of. Did I mention he was EXPENSIVE? 20M and 50EP, not to mention his upkeep. It would send my Essence gain into single digits again, gaaah. No, no hesitation. He is just too perfect. I unlocked him and waved farewell to my last Masteries and half my remaining EP. At least I now had one of the Minotaur I needed for the Throne. I summoned him and was not at all disappointed. The only other things in the dungeon larger than me up to this point had been the Unguul, and the Pharos Wings. Well, time to add Hazalaar to the list as I barely reached his navel. In his right hand he was dragging a massive blood soaked scythe that was dripping with some unidentifiable blackish-red liquid that might be blood. The liquid disappeared shortly after landing; The scythe was giving off black and white smoke, as if it was both icy cold and scorching hot at the same time. His skin was purple and was seemed to strain to withhold his muscular form. Wisps of darkness rose from him like an aura of malevolence and seemed to obscure his form lightly. The head was a skull with eerie green lights for eyes that had a protruding mane of dark shadows continuing all the way down to his short bovine tail. His cloven feet made not a noise as he walked. But left behind a shadowy hoof print that seemed to burn with black flames on the stone before slowly fading away. And the grinding sound of his scythe as he moved was like an ominous and ever present growl when it echoed. He looked down at me. Gave a respectful nod, then walked off without a word. He was the perfect candidate to wander this place and scare the ever living hell out of whatever poor soul entered. The sound of that scythe gave me even more goosebumps than the stillness. I continued to make my way through the labyrinth. Though after a while I got sick of it and took to the skies instead. This sped up my passage tremendously, and thus it was not long until I arrived at the small chamber on the other side of the exit. I noticed that to enter this new room I had to pass an inactive boss barrier. so intruders entering had to not only contend with the eeriness, they had to actually face and defeat Hazalaar before getting into the Core? <Yes, to enter the Core Room Hazalaar, the Heartseeker has to be defeated. This will even block interdimensional travel. The way out of the Labyrinth will only seal if they are currently fighting him, or if he is actively hunting them though. Not if he is stalking the labyrinth>. So, you could leave but not progress, fair enough. I moved the Pillar. This Special biome was neat. Sure it was mostly pre-made, but I could do a bunch with it still as I could make a network of caverns around the entryway to the Labyrinth itself. Not that I would do so now though, I had spent practically all my essence and with all the expensive upkeep I had incurred my regen was¡­ bad. Still, I would rather have the extra security and not need it, after all, as long as I lived I had time. I still had one more task to do before I could call it a day, though. It would likely put me dangerously low on essence. But I needed to repopulate the first floor, time to see what I could get there with my remaining resources. The intermediate creatures of the first floor was interesting. But I quickly realized I would need more Essence Gain before repopulating the first floor could be a thing. These guys had a pretty hefty cost in terms of upkeep when you only had 5e/d left. My Crag was at capacity for Pharos Wings too, so that was out of the question. That left expansion as the only option and that required more Essence. Maybe I could expand the Crag? I could check tomorrow, as it was now placing a Crag would put me into some pretty deep negatives. The last thing I did before calling it night was to pop the Core I had bought. <You just ate the Core of Tankhaldor, the Sphinx Illusionist. Aaw tough luck. This is a regular sphinx core. You get some EXP, EP, TP and M, but only 2 new skills for you since you share most of them>. Archives quipped as my status popped up. Dungeon Name: Labyrinthia Dungeon Biomes: Magical Maze, The Depths, Deep Labyrinth Dungeon Level: 4 DEXP: 22/150 Depth: 3/3 Rooms: 47 Essence: 17/2400 EP: 52 TP: 11 M: 4 E/D: 5 Avatar Attributes Avatar Race: Umbral Sage Sphinx (Tier 2 Legendary Unique Variant) Avatar Gender: Female Avatar Level: 1 EXP: 150/150 HP: 150/150 MP: 180/180 Attack: 150 Defense: 150 Magic Attack: 180 Magic Defense: 180 Strength: 15 (Atk) Dexterity: 15 (Def) Endurance: 15(HP) Intelligence: 18 (Matk) Wisdom: 18 (MP) Charisma: 18 (Mdef) Penumbra: 99% Inlas: 1% Divinity: Locked by Taboo Synchronization: 0% Core Type: Advanced Cores Eaten: 3 Titles: ¡°Evolved one¡± ¡°Vengeance Seeker¡± Skills: Penumbral Psionics(Racial), Cleaving Swipe LvMAX(Racial), Roar LvMAX(Racial), Penumbral Archives(Umbral Unique), Dungeon Siege Mistress(Master Compound), Blessing of Penumbra(Mythical Umbral Blessing) Umbral Knowledge Lv1(Umbral), Damage Resistance Lv2, Mud Golem Status Immunities(Core), Fire Resistance Lv2(Core), Deception Lv3(Core), Taboo(Inlasi) Ancient Legacy(Evolution), Innate Caster(Core), Illusionist(Core) Magic, I now had access to Illusionist spells, just needed to figure out how to cast spells, couldn¡¯t be that hard, could it? I was tempted to check what spells I had now. But frankly, I was too tired. The only upside about this was that I had not gotten enough EXP to level from this Core to trigger a surge. It was probably a newborn that got slaughtered after receiving the ¡°Blessing¡± from Inlas, poor bastard. I curled up and with a sigh went to sleep, pondering what new events might happen in the morning. Interlude 4: Plots in the night. I sat in the office in the Merchant quarter and looked out at the stormy night sky. Lightning flashed in the distance, the wind howled around the house corners causing the wood to creak; he was late, but then given the weather I couldn¡¯t blame him. The door finally opened, and a drenched Ezekiel walked in. He grinned broadly as he walked over. ¡°Worked like a charm¡± I nodded and accepted the bag Ezekiel handed to me and studied the contents. Gems, all uncut but clearly of exquisite quality. I took a deep breath to steady myself as I handed them over to the appraiser. ¡°What can you tell me?¡± He took the gem bag and had a rather surprised expression, as it was heavier than it seemed. He removed a diamond from it and studied it. Even from here I could see it was unusually clear, almost like glass, despite not being cut. He took out a magnifying lens and studied it intently, mumbling to himself as he did. ¡°Why this is one of the best gems I have ever seen. The clarity and carat are both top grade, and that¡¯s before cutting. If this got into the hands of a master jeweler, it¡¯s value would skyrocket tenfold. Quite the steal, if I do say so myself.¡± He put the gem back in the bag and returned the bag to me not even bothering to check the others. We didn¡¯t need to. They all came from the same source, after all. I turned towards Ezekiel, ¡°And the core?¡± I asked. ¡°Uh¡­ Which one?¡± ¡°The dead one, you fool.¡± Ezekiel shrugged. ¡°No clue, one moment it was there. The next it was gone. Same as when the Core brings the Gems. One moment there are none, next they are all in her paw.¡± I sighed, for the life of me I couldn¡¯t understand why the Core was so interested in dead cores. Was there something I was missing? I shook my head, I it was a useless conjecture at this point. There were other things to worry about as things had changed rather drastically for the worse after the strange Decree by Rubolgs messenger. The entire town was in chaos as over 400 cores had just vanished back to their dungeons. This had left much of the infrastructure of the city tattered, no more light in the streets, no more clean water being pumped into people¡¯s homes. No more self-cleaning streets or Guardians that kept the local thugs from breaking the law. just to name a few. Not to mention 100¡¯s of other cores scattered around the territory had gone rogue as well. The supplies of goods from the resource dungeons had dried up. The cores inside had been freed and immediately ceased to be the good little resource producers they had been taught to be. And had instead armed their dungeons to the teeth to avoid recapture. What in the world had transpired to make the great Rubolg do something like this? Hundreds of people would starve, get sick or worse. Even the dungeon that was used for executions, owned by the Lord of the city itself, was now a bustling Deathtrap that was at high alert at all times. Anyone entering would get attacked once the Sanctuary dropped, that was for sure. Not that entering it would do any good, with the Decree guaranteeing a year and a day¡¯s freedom. And to top it all off the guild¡¯s most prized Core. ¡°Yrsha the Diviner¡± who had been such an asset to the guild for over 15000 years was gone. And she had vowed revenge for her many years of imprisonment and sworn a blood vengeance on Inlas. For what reason Inlas had incurred the Cores¡¯ wrath I did not know. But that seemed rather extreme for the usually calm and refined Core. This entire situation was a mess, but it was also an opportunity to make a killing and all because of this deal with that Core. It was an opportunity, an opportunity I had to take advantage of. With my mind made up, I rose from the table and returned the bag to Ezekiel. Then tossed him another, this one full of gold ¡°You know what to do, I hope?¡± The greedy little man nodded. ¡°Just say the word¡± he said and hurried out. Slamming the door shut. Tonight had turned out very lucrative indeed. ¡°So what should we do about them?¡± One of the others asked I looked over at the two people sitting tied to chairs beside me. ¡°Take them to their rooms and put guards at the doors. can¡¯t have them warn the Core.¡± Rael and Mordred nodded and pulled Lady Magna Yndali and her bodyguard Mandol out of the room. Ezekiel had been a veritable font of information since I stumbled upon him drunk thanks to the guidance of Lady Inlas.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Oh, he had been reluctant to tell at first. But that man was easy to read, he had no loyalty to anything but money. And because of my long and successful career, I had a lot more money than I honestly knew what to do with. Once he spilled the beans he had essentially betrayed his employer, a minor noble and well-respected merchant. You didn¡¯t just betray nobles in this city, not if you intended to live for every long. But he would get what was coming to him once his usefulness was at its end either way. Though he was obviously too stupid to realize entering the domain of ¡°Deathtraps¡± without guild permission was a serious crime after all. One that he had unwittingly committed once more by proving his claim. This was an opportunity, yes, but it was also a risk that would have to be planned out to the very last detail. I would capture the Core, as Lady Inlas demanded. The Core was to be captured and made compliant so that our great Lady would have her eternal avatar. I felt sick think that Lady Inlas would have to sully her divine essence to purify one of Penumbras dirty creations to to gain a proper vessel. But that was just how it had to be. No man or woman on this planet was strong enough to contain her divine brilliance. So we had to make use of the more sturdy creations of the accursed Penumbra. Besides, apparently there was something special about this one that elevated her above the usual filth. Smiling grimly, I grabbed a cup of wine as I continued to plan. Even as Lady Yndali was screaming she was innocent and demanded to be unhanded, they dragged her from the room. Luckily for the good merchant she was a Noble, a minor one, but a Noble nonetheless, so it would take more than just this to get her convicted. But, once we had captured the core, we only needed to get her word for it. After all, if ordered to tell the truth about the deal a Tamed Core would have no choice but to comply. Luckily I had good men to do just that, Rael and his party was loyal to the guild and had twice now been denied the glory of the capture. They were not the type of people to take loss well and would thus be more open to my¡­ ideas, mostly at any rate. Rael had this strange obsession with honor, but as long as he thought there was no dishonor in this, he would happily leap at it. I just had to convince him of it. Luckily, my ¡°Supreme Orator¡± skill would allow me to do so easily. Just as easily as it had allowed me to talk my way into the seat of guildmaster. ----- I left the guard duty of Yndali and her bodyguard to Mordred and Erem. Something was off about all of this. I just didn¡¯t know what. This entire plan to capture the core was making me uneasy. If they captured it the way the Guild Master proposed they would be nearly guaranteed to tame it, yes. But at the same time they would have used subterfuge and deceit, they would not have proved their power was stronger. They would not have won the Right of Taming through honorable combat as they defeated all obstacles between themselves and the dungeons Core Pillar. The guildmaster had his own agenda; I was certain of it now. I couldn¡¯t refuse the order to aid him. But I could at least make sure that the core would fall under the ownership of someone who would not be beholden to him and whatever he had planned. But for that, I needed help. I found her at home, not surprised. She had practically been excommunicated from the guild in all but actual deed that day. With only her party members still showing any care for her, if she showed up at the guild she would either be ignored or harassed these days. It didn¡¯t surprise me her family were known to be Druids after all. And Druid was a class that could only be gained by worshiping Penumbra. However, even if she was a heretic, she also understood the importance of proving your might over the core to secure its loyalty. What the Guildmaster planned to do was to overpower the core by repeatedly try to tame it over and over until it was too exhausted to resist. That was not the way to do it, anyone with half a brain could see that. Indella¡¯s taming power, however, was a gift from Penumbra and Penumbra would want to protect her child from what the guildmaster had planned for her, whatever that was. Or so I hoped she would. so if I gave Indella the opportunity to tame the Core, then maybe, just maybe, she would succeed before the others would realize who she was. Provided we were careful about it. I had told no one else on the party about my plan at all; I knew they all believed in me, but there was something off about how persuasive the guildmaster could be. Ezekiel was a greedy coward, yes, but he was also a Sworn Blade, whose loyalty was to extend from oath to death. That was the very concept of their order, yet he gave up on his Mistress far too easy for someone who would have passed the initiation rites. And if the Guildmaster could do that to him so easily by just speaking to him. What could that mean for the rest of us, how strongly were we all under his sway? With that in mind I explained my plan to Indella at her kitchen table, her expression going from shocked, to scared then finally... I left her home shortly after, my mood as dark as the stormy night. Chapter 10: Guests, Parties, Botany and the consequences there of. We tend to think we have a pretty good grasp on a situation pretty much our entire life; we have friends, family, a stable job, a car and even a pet of some kind. Yet despite this feeling of surety that it¡¯s there, all it takes is a single misstep to lose it all. I quickly realized I had made such my misstep might have been to grind my income into the dirt. I had spent all my Essence after breakfast¡­ by adding 2 new hallways to the first floor labyrinth. They increased my income from 5 to 6 a day. This was bad, terrible even, I needed an Essence boost and badly. My bad habit of going overboard on spending reared its ugly head again. If my gain right now were this bad, I would run out too quickly and it would take weeks for me to get to a more stable gain. I had the dead cores I could buy from Yndali to help supplement it, but the dead cores could be hit-and-miss. It was like a loot box. Sometimes it was amazing, sometimes it was worthless. I simply couldn¡¯t rely on it to work out, I also couldn¡¯t rely on a- <Ezekiel has entered your dungeon>. Ok, that¡¯s off, not only is this way too early for Yndali to have gotten new cores considering I only got one last time. But it¡¯s not even dark out, to top it off its Ezekiel again. While it should be Mandol¡¯s turn, something didn¡¯t add up. <I agree on this one Boss Lady>. Any insight to share? <No, which is why I agree, I should be able to read his intentions as part of my function, but I can¡¯t>. I willed myself to the surface, but didn¡¯t materialize. He was holding the usual bag, and he was looking around with a nervous expression. I Materialized in midair and triggered flight to stay aloft. Then I fired off Mind Reader at maximum strength at him. Nothing, hell, I couldn¡¯t even read Ezekiel¡¯s mind. That set off even more warning bells. It was as if he wasn¡¯t there at all, and he kept ignoring me. Wait, a moment... There, on the edge of my senses, a presence, barely noticeable. I ignored the obviously fake Ezekiel and zoomed over to it. I landed in front of it at full speed before the presence could flee. A fox? ¡°Aww, you found me. How did you see through my ¡°Perfect Illusion¡± skill?¡± The fox pouted. A monster then. ¡°Your illusion was good enough to even trick my alarm trap. However, it had no mental presence. You on the other hand did. So, you were easy to find, despite slipping in unnoticed. Now speak, why are you here, and speak quickly, I am currently not in a good mood.¡± The fox looked up at me again; the POOF turned into a bipedal fox dressed in a small black gi; It had two long, bushy swishing tails and by its side was a small sword of some kind. A Fox Spirit, that would explain why the alarm trap didn¡¯t trigger, it was not meant to deal with spirits of any kind. ¡°My most profound apologies, but that information is reserved solely for the Core of this labyrinth, if you would be so kind as to fetch it, chop, chop, servant.¡± I looked at the fox for a moment, in utter silence. The fox looked back, tails wagging, then hesitated for a moment. It¡¯s wagging slowed, then stopped when I didn¡¯t move. ¡°Oh wait¡­ don¡¯t tell me¡­¡± I started tapping a paw impatiently. ¡°My most sincere apologies, Core. Xi did not mean to offend you!!¡± It started bowing over and over. ¡°Enough, what is it that you wish to say.¡± My mood was already dour with the whole essence situation and not this annoying little thing played a rather unsightly prank on me to boot. ¡°Oh, right, the message! Umm¡­ it is here somewhere.¡± It started tapping its tails, looking for something, before pulling out a small ball and held it up to me. I took it and the moment I did there was a flash of light and the Illusion of another fox spirit appeared. She had white fur and nine long beautiful tails swished behind it. She was dressed in an adorned Kimono and many beautiful pieces of jewelry. She looked the epitome of Sengoku era Japanese nobility. ¡°Oh finally, good work Xi.¡± The illusory Spirit said. ¡°Anything for you Milady!!¡± Xi responded, bowing deeply as he or she did, I honestly couldn¡¯t tell. ¡°Core, sorry I know you don¡¯t have a name yet¡­ so what should I call you?¡± she paused and smiled gently. I was about to point out that I had a name and properly introduce myself. <Say nothing about your name> OK, then. Not sure why, but Archives usually had a reason. I simply nodded, ¡°Core is fine, may I ask about the reason for this intrusion?¡± she smiled. She was... pleased? Score one for the Archive. ¡°Yes, of course, I apologize if my servant offended you in any way. Xi can be a bit mischievous at times, aren¡¯t you Xi?¡± I waved it off. ¡°I was in a rather terse mood for other reasons. Xi¡¯s choice of prank was very poorly timed as a result because it was related.¡± I replied, the Illusory Spirit Noble nodded sagely. ¡°I see, well maybe what I have to say will lighten your mood.¡± The Illusion of this spirit sat down on a small futon. ¡°I am Yrsha the Diviner, a core recently released from the guild after being imprisoned for over 15000 years. I was curious as to the reason for my sudden freedom. So, I did as my title suggested and divined to learn the truth of it and I saw you, Core of another world. I do not know what you did exactly, but I do know I and every other core freed by the Decree have you to thank in some way. Xi¡­¡± The little Fox spirit ruffled around inside its furry tail again and pulled out two spheres. The small spirit handed them to me. ¡°These are Essence Orbs I created using one of my Skills. Take them as my thanks, I wish I could do more. But I have a lot of work to do to fix the damage the Humans forced me to bring to my own dungeon. And for what? To sate their lust for riches and materials.¡± I carefully took the orbs. <2000 Essence, Boss Lady, nice> ¡°Thank you, though to be honest I didn¡¯t really do much.¡± the fox spirit tittered a bit. ¡°You did enough, and that is what matters, farewell, Core, may we meet again under more favorable circumstances. Under which you might be willing to actually reveal your name? I don¡¯t fault your caution, but you have no enemy in me, I assure you. I owe you far too much.¡± Her face suddenly turned serious for a moment. Her expression far more stern and I could see the wisdom of this ancient spirit clearly in her eyes now that they didn¡¯t twinkle with mischief. ¡°Try not to get yourself tamed, the effect on one¡¯s psyche are, not pleasant. It¡¯s like being trapped inside a dream, a dream that refuses all emotions except those who make your owner happy.¡± I couldn¡¯t help but nod, It was not as if I needed more incentives to not get tamed. Not with the whole ¡°Brainwashed into Inlas¡¯ Avatar¡± thing hanging over my head. The orb stopped shining and Xi quickly put it back where he? She? Found it, and with a wave scampered off. I knew fox spirits rarely stayed locked to one gender for long, so guessing was difficult if they didn¡¯t dress in a particular way. Still, I found her behavior a bit strange. If she knew I had a name, she probably also already knew what that name was, so why insist on playing dumb? <Etiquette, Yrsha the Diviner, like most high ranking fox spirits. Are a stickler for etiquette, decorum and refinement, it is bad form to speak someone¡¯s name without them first introducing themselves; It is also viewed as bad form to introduce yourself on the first meeting, for a spirit. Names have power, so unless you feel either indebted to or trust the one you speak to utterly, revealing your name are bad form. This was your first time even hearing about her. So if you had introduced yourself she would have viewed you as either a fool, overly trusting or as uncouth, all equally bad when interacting with her>. But she introduced herself. <She also owed you a debt for freeing her from over 15 millennia of imprisonment>. Right. Either way, I got some much-needed essence out of it, now to use it to expand the Crag and get more income. Having placed the orbs in my inventory, I quickly dissolved and returned to the 2nd floor¡¯s Starsilver Crag. Once there, I landed and took out one orb and gave it a closer look. How did I use this thing? <Same way as you use cores, you eat it> Really? This thing was the size of a basketball and I had to eat it? <Whole> SERIOUSLY? Blugh, If I choke on this thing I am blaming you. <You won¡¯t, trust me on this>. Easy for it to say, I opened my mouth, stuffed the entire thing inside and then tried to swallow. There was a¡­ strange sensation as the orb started to rapidly shrink, then just vanished. Once I checked I had gained 1000 Essence, nice, OK expansion time! I tried to place the crag and¡­ nothing, ok why? There was no explanation and there was no indication there was a limiter. So what gives? Why couldn¡¯t I expand the crag? I tried placing another one in a different location, thinking it might need more space, but still nothing. Was the room a onetime thing? Nope, that wasn¡¯t it either. More Geode caves? Nope, still nothing. I seriously could only have one? That was a problem if that was the case, Archives? <To increase the size of the Starsilver Crag, you need the Chrysalis Copse. This room is needed for Amber Crawlers to evolve, this will also cause new Amber Crawlers to spawn. Up to the capacity in your Geode cavern, which will also be able to be expanded>. Not surprised the Records never told me that. Heck, it probably would have just flat-out lied about it. Mastery menu, here¡¯s hoping I can¡­ crap, 6 Masteries off. Makes sense it would not be too terribly cheap, since I could use it to expand a biome that only houses Essence generators and maybe advanced creatures. Though I hadn¡¯t really looked into that what else could get among those here, wait, what was this?The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. Star Lilies? That was a weird name of a dungeon item specific to the depths. What did it do? Hmm, lets see here attracts Pharos Wings¡­ grows on water¡­ increases Pharos Wing upkeep? That seemed like a horri- wait. Archives, how does Upkeep increase work for things with Negative Upkeep? <It would increase the Pharos wing EP gain if that¡¯s what you are asking. The reversal happens after everything else, when the dungeon calculates cost. I would be a bit careful with just planting a ton of these, though. They could also attract other things than just Pharos Wings>. What¡­ things? <The Things in the lake, for instance>. You know what the Things are? <Not a simple answer as there are too many possibilities>. Shouldn¡¯t you just know? <Not if it¡¯s outside of my parameter of ¡°Things that affect or are aligned with you or your dungeon¡±, sorry>. So if I want for you to know what it is. <You need to interact with it and before you ask, bumping into it down there in the pitch black darkness while in Core form are not enough>. Some Star Lilies it is, just hoping I am not making a mistake. I unlocked the lilies, waving farewell to the 4M I had remaining. Ugh being low on resources sucks, I missed being able to just grab what I felt like back in the game. Those were the days. <Reminiscing won¡¯t help you right now, Boss Lady>. Right focus, how many of these can I safely place. <Unclear I will give you a warning if something comes up>. Joy, well, I needed the extra upkeep income, so it was not like I had a choice I placed one lily. Wow these things were big, then again they had to be if they were to be of use to the elephant-sized Pharos Wings. What I really found interesting about the flower was how it shimmered and glowed in the cave¡¯s darkness. No wonder it would attract the Things. Speaking of which, how was it looking? <Nothing you should be good for one more at least. Also Pharos Wing upkeep now -26e/D your own income are now 12e/d>. So, each of these would increase the upkeep by 1. Another one down and another increase. Still, no response from the Things. 19e/d. Risk it for a biscuit. At 26e/d there was a slight ripple across the water. <Hmm, should still be good>. A fourth Lily. There was a definitely bigger ripple this time. <You might get away with one more, but no guarantees. I¡¯m getting warning bells here>. Should I? On one hand, these things were probably bad news. On the other, I had no clue of what they were or what they were capable of or even their disposition towards me or my dungeon. Screw it, one more only one. I placed it and I could see waves as dark shapes coiled underneath the surface. Only to slowly sink out of sight. <I¡­ don¡¯t think you should place more, Boss Lady. Your upkeep is up to 40e/d now, which is decent enough to be able to expand readily and those Things are getting restless, really restless>. I agreed. Whatever they were, they were large. No, not large, colossal. Or were there even multiple Things? Could that be just one gargantuan Thing? The idea did not fill me with confidence. Time to stop pushing my luck. With that done, I hopped on over to the third floor and started to re-make the passage outside of the Cavern leading to the Deep Labyrinth. By creating a veritable maze of tunnels, passages and the like all moving around in various directions, even up and down. It would make it far less fun for intruders to get into the biome at large. What with some intersections having no less than 8 different tunnels to choose from. All of which were identical and with no hint as to where to go and no way to mark your passage. I had a pretty good guess that it wouldn¡¯t stop determined explorers. Or if they had a way to dig holes in the tunnels, but it would make for a good way to exhaust them even further. Combined with how miserable I could make their life prior to this floor, and it would probably have them question their sanity by now. Honestly making their life a living hell, so they would leave appealed more to me way more than if they were killing them. Even if it would stunt my growth as a dungeon. Survival was one thing, but even as I was losing the connection to my humanity as I continued to synchronize with my different forms on every evolution. I found that it didn¡¯t change my morals in any drastic way, or if they had, I had not noticed. Speaking of, how was my current synchronization? <5% and rising> Why only 5%? <Umbral Sage Sphinxes delights in confusing and baffling intruders. Making this maze is as such raising your synchronization>. What about the Deep Labyrinth itself? . Ah, that made sense. That way I couldn¡¯t just spam Deep Labyrinth on every floor and get a bunch of free synchronization. . Probably a good idea to not antagonize someone who could make you feel that vulnerable just by giving you the old ¡°once over¡± looking for a skill. <No shit figured out that by yourself, did you?> Sarcasm now? I didn¡¯t even know the skill could do that. <Jokes and snideness aside, dinner time>. Woo-hoo! Lienru had something new this time. There was still the usual tea, but today¡¯s menu was not Shroomcow Steak, but Sporabbit. To be exact, Sporabbit saut¨¦ed in a creamy sauce made from Shroomcow milk and several powdered mushrooms. Seriously, that kobold was a culinary mastermind. Heck, I bet she could make rocks into a tasty meal at this point. <I am not taking that bet, I am convinced I would lose>. Wait, seriously? <Yes, seriously>. Huh, at least the skill agreed. After Dinner, I gave the Duergar a checkup; The wall was already as tall as I was. Damn, these guys worked FAST. They had made the walls a part of the fort itself for easy access once it was finished, and they were hard at work. I noticed that they had wrangled up some bigger critters off this floor. Horse sized vaguely spider like things that they seemed to use as beasts of burden. The difference between the two was that this thing had ten legs in place of eight. And face more akin to that of an Evil Eye. A distant relative, perhaps? <No information available on the subject>. Eh it was idle musing anyhow. Still, their pace was impressive, The Duergar King wasn¡¯t kidding when he said it would only take a few days to finish. Color me impressed. <Notice, Chieftain Ssatassha is waiting for you in the dining room. She seems overly excited about something> Oh? Well, then better check this out. Willing myself to the dining room once more I Materialized just in time to have Ssatassha eagerly grab my left paw ¡°Great One, Great One! You must see this, come to the Kobold village!¡± Now very curious about what was going on. I picked up the excited Kobold and dropped her on my back as I flew off, much to the delight of Ssatassha, who squealed in delight. The Village was in an uproar when we arrived. And it was easy to see why, as in the middle of the plaza was a giant beetle with a mushroom cap for a shell. And by giant, I mean it dwarfed me. What in the blazes was that? <Fungeetle, are rare critter that can spawn in a Mushroom Forest under certain conditions. They are docile but strong and can be used as beasts of burden by Kobolds. They also lay large clutches of eggs practically every day. The Kobolds can use these eggs as food, or in alchemy as a potent enhancer of healing and stamina potions. Having access to one allows Kobolds to learn Alchemy if they have also had access to a Library>. So, now I could have Kobold Alchemists? <If you give them time to learn the craft, yes>. I had given the Kobold free rein of the library to use as they saw fit, provided they didn¡¯t write in or destroy the books. So, they would have the time. <Then you should get your first alchemist soon> Nice. ¡°A great find Ssatassha, I am happy for your tribe.¡± Ssatassha seemed even more happy to hear my approval. ¡°Great One we are about to have a feast in celebration, please join us, friend Lienru is cooking.¡± A feast and Lienru was on food detail? Sign. Me. Up! I¡­ what, where? The Core Pillar? How did I get here, GAAAAH my head. Oh right, the party. Ugh, must have eaten something that didn¡¯t agree with me. <More like something you drank, like the 4 kegs Kobold Mushroom Wine. An extremely potent beverage capable of KO¡¯ing a dragon in just a few cups. If it wasn¡¯t for the Poison Immunity you gained from ¡°Mud Golem Immunities¡± you¡¯d be dead from alcohol poisoning>. But how did I get drunk if I am immune to poison? <You are not immune to the Drunk ailment>. Seriously, those were separate? <Yes, in the future I suggest practicing some restraint. Luckily you cannot alter the dungeon while drunk, because if you did the fortifications the Duergar have been constructing would now have been replaced with a stone slide>. Kill me now. <This caused some chagrin among the Duergar. Who took you seriously until Ssatassha arrived and explained the situation and asked them not to take your orders seriously until you sobered up. And please don¡¯t get me started on the Striders and the Eyes>. Outstanding, I had made an utter fool of myself in front of my creatures. That wasn¡¯t embarrassing or anything. <Most of them are actually impressed you were still alive after downing 4 kegs of the stuff. And thus also rather understanding of you being completely and utterly smashed out of your mind. They took it in good humor>. So, I didn¡¯t say or do anything mean? <You were so incoherent they couldn¡¯t understand a word you were saying most of the time and you were clearly not¡­. Should I say¡­ Lucid. The few times you spoke clearly, you were actually being quite supportive and affectionate of the lot of them. You did have your moments of utter insanity, like the slide incident I mentioned, but all in all no harm done>. Blugh, not a good way to start the day at all, I grabbed my aching head once more. <Lienru has arrived with food and a potion, I suggest you go see her>. I was not really in the mood for food, in fact, the very idea made me wanna hurl. But Lienru meant well, so I could at least take a small bite. Besides, I needed some food in me if I meant to last the day. Arriving in the dining room, I gingerly sat down. ¡°Feeling a bit under the weather, Great One?¡± Lienru smiled somewhat bemusedly. ¡°That would be¡­ an understatement.¡± I grabbed my head and flinched again. ¡°This should help¡± she handed me the potion. I took it and after a quick inspection, shrugged and drank it. The taste was indescribable, but only a few moments later my headache and queasiness was gone. ¡°Wow, that¡¯s so much better, thanks.¡± After squirming a bit, Lienru presented the food. Which I ate eagerly now that my appetite was back. ¡°We figured we owed you this much at least, Great One. We caused you to go a bit wild last night, after all.¡± she explained at length. ¡°So I have been informed, though personally, I remember nothing.¡± I replied as I continued to eat. ¡°Better that way, Great One, trust me.¡± Lienru seemed¡­ embarrassed, joy. ¡°I will take your word for it.¡± The meal continued in silence and as Lienru picked up the empty cup and plate she bowed lightly. ¡°If you create more rooms containing foodstuffs, I can prepare more food for you. I have also experimented with cooking eggs.¡± She offered, clearly eager to try her hands at new ingredients. ¡°If the points permit.¡± she nodded eagerly and left. Judging by her eager expression, there would be many cracked eggs by the time this day was over. Interlude 5: Countdown to action When I answered the knocking on my door, I did not expect to find Rael standing outside. I also did not expect him to be accompanied by a pale, freckled redhead of a young woman. She could barely be called an adult. Last I checked, Rael was not really interested in romance. ¡°Can we come in? Winds cold.¡± Rael said, as he looked around, as if afraid he would be followed. ¡°Um sure, I suppose, just don¡¯t blame me if you catch what my sister has¡± I answered as I stepped aside. ¡°We won¡¯t be staying long, and it¡¯s actually because of your sister that we are here.¡± he was nervous, I realized, as I blinked. This was quite unlike Rael indeed. What in the world was going on? ¡°Seeing as your sister is sick, I was wondering if you wouldn¡¯t mind letting Gloria here take your place in tonight¡¯s operation that way you can look after her instead.¡± My first intuition was to refuse, my sister had only a light cold, nothing that would be even remotely dangerous. But then I saw the expression on Rael¡¯s face. I had not seen an expression like that since he planned to make himself bait to let the rest of us escape that Warg pack 10 Years ago. He was up to something, and it involved this woman. I looked from Gloria to Rael and back, before taking a deep breath. ¡°Fine, I know you are up to something, something you don¡¯t want to tell me. But you have never steered the group wrong, not where your intuition tells you to do something. I will stay here, it is rather unfortunate that my Sisters sickness would suddenly worsen and thus I cannot leave her side.¡± I took out a pen and wrote a note. ¡°Luckily Gloria is a friend of the family from out of town and I trust her to do the duty of taming in my place.¡± I handed Rael the note. ¡°Give this to Mordred.¡± Never before have I seen a man look so relieved. ¡°Thank you, my friend.¡± He gave me a crushing hug. ¡°No need to thank me, I have a feeling I know what this is about. Just don¡¯t do anything too terribly reckless. As for you young lady, you take care of the group, you hear me?¡± She nodded. As the two turned to leave I sat down and gave a relieved sigh myself. So, the Guildmaster¡¯s strange behavior of late had not just been my imagination, but Rael had noticed it too. It was the only reason I could think of for why he suddenly brought in that woman. Come to think of it, there was something vaguely familiar with her? I shook it off. The less I knew about this mess, the better. That way if my suspicion that the Guildmaster had somehow influenced people¡¯s behavior turned out to be correct. Then if he turned that on me, it would be better if I could not tell him anything useful. A coughing from the bedroom drew my attention. I grabbed the soup from the fire. The magical heater hadn¡¯t worked since Heater Core ran back to its fire dungeon. It made even basic cooking a chore, despite this the soup was first class. ------- I Introduced Gloria to the rest of the party later that day, and their greetings while friendly were also steeped with curiosity. ¡°Mind if I ask where you come from?¡± Mordred asked Gloria directly, who seemed startled. Then gave an apologetic smile, pointed at her throat and shook her throat. ¡°Gloria is an old friend of Erem, he asked her personally. She has the Silent Casting skill, which is the only thing that saved her career as an adventurer.¡± I answered for her as Mordred eyed me curiously. ¡°Oh how so?¡± ¡°Songstealer separated her from her party. If Erem¡¯s old party hadn¡¯t stumbled on her¡­ well.¡± There was a collective shiver from all the other casters in the group as Mordred lowered his head. ¡°My apologies, Ms. Gloria, I did not intend to bring up such a traumatic experience. Gloria shook her arms and head in denial, clearly wishing to show she held no animosity to Mordred, who seemed to relax at that. ¡°You are too kind, very well, so she will cover all of Erem¡¯s duties?¡± I nodded, ¡°Including the capture¡± Mordred flinched for a second¡­ shot me a surprised look, then re-read the note I had given him from Erem before sighing. ¡°Wait¡­ now that I think about it, I do believe Erem mentioned you once, Ms. Gloria¡± she looked startled ¡°Said you were quite talented in the art of Taming. Well, I owe the old man my life many times over, so I will let you handle it this time.¡± As he spoke, he shot me a glare saying ¡°You owe me for this.¡± Tell me something I don¡¯t know. I didn¡¯t know what was written on that note. But it had made Mordred support my story and give up on the glory of the capture, for that alone I owed him thrice over.The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. ----- I cornered Rael and Gloria a bit later, flinging my arms over their shoulders in a friendly and relaxed manner as I often did with Rael and Erem. ¡°Talk¡± I spoke softly, too softly for anyone to hear except those two. ¡°Somewhere we can¡¯t be eavesdropped on, perhaps?¡± Answered Rael, equally soft spoken. ¡°Fine, my room has wards against eavesdropping and spying both mundane and magical.¡± Rael nodded. ¡°Sure a round of drinks for old times sake sounds marvelous, your room Mordred? It¡¯s the closest, after all.¡± he spoke a bit louder, pretending to be pleasantly surprised. ¡°Sure¡± I answered. Once inside the room I activated the wards. ¡°Spill it, all of it, Erem might be content with not wanting to know, but you owe me some answers at least.¡± I stared at both of them as I spoke. ¡°The guildmaster¡¯s behavior has gone off the wall, Mordred. You saw it yourself. By Rubolg¡¯s accursed axe, he bribed a Sworn Blade to forsake his oath. He stole the Core of a noble and allowed trespass into a Deathtrap without official sanction. And then his sudden and all-consuming obsession with this Core. Not to mention anyone who questioned him suddenly found it very important to support him after he talked to them alone for a while.¡± Rael was ranting, he never ranted. This was serious. I closed my eyes and nodded. ¡°And this Gloria is your countermeasure against this somehow?¡± I asked. ¡°The less you know the better, given the circumstances. All I ask is that you trust me.¡± Dammit, Rael¡­ I took a deep breath. ¡°Fine, but you¡¯re paying for drinks for the next 3 outings¡± to my astonishment, Rael immediately responded. ¡°Deal.¡± That sent an icy shiver down my spine. Rael was so dead set on this he would pay for the drinks without even complaining just to have his way? This had to be way more serious than I thought. Rael was right, the less I knew the better. I probably should also avoid the Guildmaster until all of this was over, just in case. This wouldn¡¯t be the first time Rael¡¯s strange intuition had made him do strange things that turned out to save all our asses. ---- We set out for the dungeon about an hour later. We had to get to the designated camp before nightfall and make the site ready for the plan once darkness fell as that was when the Core would expect company. The first order of business was the tent itself to cover our work from the weather and wind. If the sealing circle broke mid ritual she would slip out of our fingers instantly. Once the tent was up and every plug, quadruple checked to ensure no wind would get through. Then we quickly set up the stands for all the members who would take part in the taming. Rael and Mordred entered mid setup and walked over to me, flanked by a woman I did not recall. ¡°Sir, I must report a slight change in the lineup for tonight.¡± I looked at him. Why now of all times? I put on a smile, ¡°Change?¡± Rael nodded. ¡°Erem¡¯s sister got worse, so he recommended an old family acquaintance of his, Gloria.¡± He motioned for the woman behind him. ¡°A pleasure to meet you Ms. Gloria.¡± I stretched a hand out, but she flinched back. ¡°Sir, that¡¯s what I wanted to talk with you about. The reason we need to change the lineup is that Gloria had a close encounter with a Songstealer.¡± I immediately retracted my hand. ¡°I see, is she still...?¡± ¡°No, but if it gets too crowded around her she can still have an... episode¡± I shivered. Songstealers were horrible things. They literally stole the voice of their victims. Replacing them with their own bestial and deadly ones. If this girl spoke she could potentially kill everyone within earshot. The worst part was that the effect was contagious for a long time after the encounter. Provided the poor lost soul survived the encounter at all, and those who did always suffered the same trauma. Being stuck in crowds would make them freak out and start screaming, loudly. ¡°Then why did Erem recommend her of all people?¡± I inquired. ¡°She has a unique skill that aids in Taming and can use Silent Cast, as such she was the most ideal candidate. You said you needed the best, after all.¡± Providence was smiling upon me. This must indeed be Lady Inlas¡¯ blessing! ¡°I see, well then I will give her a balcony of her own. Closer to the Core and even set up a tent around it to secure her privacy. How does that sound?¡± The woman, Gloria, smiled and nodded several times, then bowed in the way a proper devout follower of divine Inlas should, excellent. All was going as Lady Inlas desired. The girl might be tainted in body, but it was clear her spirit was as white as pure as snow. As night fell, I tossed the bag with the trap in it to Ezekiel. ¡°Here, you know what to do and remember, keep imagining gems in your head the entire time.¡± The fool nodded and left the tent, hiking out around the territory of the dungeon to enter it from the opposite side. It would be the dark of night before he would actually enter, but even so better not take any chances. Meanwhile, everyone else was getting ready. All in all, there were 13 people who would attempt to tame the core. 12 of them were standing in a perfect sphere around the sealing circle in the middle. While a small tented platform was closer than that, inside which was Gloria. All of us waited for the flash that would herald the arrival of the core inside the sealing circle. Chapter 11: The Enemy of my enemy... The rest of the day had been pretty uneventful, all in all. After I had told the Kobolds to never ever under any circumstance offer me anything alcoholic again, even at parties. I had toured the rest of the floors and apologized for my drunken behavior. It went over as well as I had expected, with everyone taking it remarkably well. Though I did have to explain to Unguul and the Eyes what drunk meant. The Evil Eyes decided they liked me better sober, I couldn¡¯t agree with them more if I tried! A bit after sunset, after I had tasted Lienru¡¯s newest invention, Mushroom bread with Shroomcow steak, a tasty treat that was light and filling. It was, in my opinion, a perfect end of the evening. The Alarm suddenly went off. <Ezekiel has entered your domain>. It was still way early for more cores, wasn¡¯t it? And it was Ezekiel yet again. Granted the previous time was Xi, but he did arrive the time before that too. What was going on? Still, at least he had arrived after dark now, so that was as agreed on. I dissolved and flew out of the dungeon. Once outside it took me a bit to find Ezekiel. Why was he on the Northside of my domain? Caelyn laid to the south <I don¡¯t like this> oh why? <I can¡¯t get info on why he is coming from the north> Yndali has been traveling? She is a merchant after all and without the Cores maybe she had to leave the city to do some trading elsewhere? <Hmm, possibly>. This was giving me the creeps, I reformed in the air above Ezekiel and landed in front of him. The moon barely allowed him to see me in the dark. ¡°Mandol should be the one to be here, why are you here in his place?¡± I tried reading his thoughts, but all I got was the expectancy of riches, man this guy¡¯s greed was just too much. It was making me feel queasy. ¡°The Cores went and disappeared on us, and Mandol got sick. And now there are no Core to cast ¡°Cure Disease.¡± And on his salary he should not be able to afford a cure disease potion. So in order to not arouse suspicion, he asked me to go in his stead. So, I will be taking a Diamond today and bring to him.¡± Ezekiel finished, that sounded¡­ off. That aside, considering the overwhelming focus he had on gems, it was pretty clear to me Mandol would see neither hide nor hair of that diamond. But then that was not my problem, but theirs. ¡°I see, do you have the bag?¡± I asked, this entire interaction was getting stranger by the second. ¡°Of course, here you go¡± he tossed it to me and I grabbed it. Ooh, three of them! I opened up the bag and peered inside, then upended it. Two of them fell out. Damn, the third must have snagged on something. I stored the two that had fallen out. Then peered inside the bag and reached in with a claw to poke it loose. <Boss lady, wa-!> Too late. There was a flash, a sudden sense of disorientation, then a wracking pain and an overwhelming sense of weakness as I collapsed to the ground. My body tried to disperse itself and return to my domain for about a split second, before the surrounding ground glowed with arcane runes. The pain stopped immediately and dissolved as well, but I still couldn¡¯t work up the strength to move a muscle. Heck, I barely had the strength to breathe. <It was a teleportation stone. Your touch triggered it>. No shit¡­ my vision finally cleared enough for me to take in my surroundings. Umm¡­ Archives, if you have any idea how to get out of this mess I am VERY open for ideas right now. <On it just¡­ gimme a second!> ¡°The core has been trapped, begin the Taming.¡± I might not have a second!!! The sense of sluggishness and disorientation from when Indella had tried to tame me returned. But this time it was so much stronger, like a tidal wave seeing as there were over a dozen of them at it this time. It was like being chained right in front of a speaker, blasting out the sound of someone chanting commands at you over and over. This was terrible. Darkness swallowed me and in the darkness were small motes of light, slowly, very slowly creeping closer. <Boss do not touch those motes of light, if you do¡­> Didn¡¯t take a genius to figure out what that meant. How¡¯s that escape plan coming along? <Trying my best to find a way here but it¡¯s difficult. They have practically the entire deck of cards here!> I tried moving, but the damn motes of light kept up with me. I could also hear whispering from them now. That was probably not good. <It¡¯s not that means your resistance has dropped below 50%, these cowards have no intention of letting you go without being on someone¡¯s leash>. There had to be SOMETHING. <...> Huh? <... ...c....nt. ne> Penumbra, this is not the time for a poor connection!! <the dis¡­ o¡­> Wait, this was like a puzzle. ¡°The disc....nt one¡±? <t..e d...orda.. o..> It took me about half a second even as I dodged one mote by a hair, they were now charging me. Oh, I got it. Archives, which of these motes are not like the others? <Wha?> WHICH IS THE DISCORDANT ONE? <Oh!! errr¡­ um... err¡­ 10 o¡¯clock!!!> I didn¡¯t hesitate. I didn¡¯t have time any longer, and one of these motes would get me. Better trust that strange message from whom I assumed was Penumbra. It wasn¡¯t like lying to me would make matters worse at this point. It was the only thing I had to go on; I touched the mote that the Archives had named, hoping it was right. As I did, a voice boomed in my head, drowning out my own thoughts utterly¡­ ¡°THE BOND HAS BEEN FORGED, A PACT IN THE SHADE, FOREVER ENTWINED, ONE SOUL WE ARE MADE. FOREVER AS ONE TILL DEATH DO US PART. THIS IS OUR BEGINNING, OUR NEW START. SO HEED MY COMMAND AND HEED IT WELL, AS I HEREBY NAME YOU...¡± there was a sudden burst of white light and I knew no more. ------- The flash arrived, and we all saw the Core appear in front of us. She had changed since last I saw her; She was bigger, and looked more mature too, with a longer flowing mane on her back that had a dark pattern in it. She was beautiful. Too bad the others would never truly understand this. I shook my head, couldn¡¯t afford to space out now, I had a job to do. ¡°The core has been trapped, commence the Taming.¡± A bit late on that guildmaster, I had started the split second I realized what I needed every edge I could get to claim her. I was already deep in the chant when the others began. It was a good thing that I had Silent Casting as I think everyone would have been a bit put off if they heard my chant otherwise. Still, it quickly became apparent that this was anyone¡¯s race and all of us wanted first prize. She was incredibly strong-willed; We had been at this for nearly 15 minutes already. Most normal monsters would have caved long ago. No! Focus, no need to lose yourself to admiration, you need to win this! Everyone was jumping at the bit now, even getting in each other¡¯s way as we continued. There were others around casting ¡°Stamina Surge¡± on us, so we could keep the ritual going. She was beyond resilient. Never had I fought a core this strong-willed before. But she was tiring, I could feel her resistance crumble, any second now one of us would make contact. Then suddenly I could sense her will rush towards me and touch my magic. Why the sudden movement, it made no sense! I was about to do the usual taming chant but, just as I prepared to do so, a presence fell on me. A warm dark presence, utterly undeniable in its overwhelming power as it forced me to step aside, I yielded control of my own body and chanted through me. I was just a passenger in my own body as she enacted the chant while the others were still desperately trying to snag the Core. They were unaware she had already been caught. ¡°The bond has been forged, a pact in the shade, forever entwined, one soul we are made. Forever as one till death do us part. This is our beginning, our new start. So heed my command and heed it well, as I hereby name you... Rindell!¡± the moment the last words escaped my mind there was a burst of energy. The others were tossed off their feet and so was the tent I was inside. I took a step forward and a horrible vertigo overcame me, I don¡¯t even remember hitting the floor. ------ Light, bright light in my eyes, and a throbbing pain around my left, I slowly opened my eyes. I was in a rather large marble covered room, sleeping on some mats. They were actually pretty comfy. On the bed next to me was a young roman with short red hair and freckles. She seemed unconscious still. Yet I knew she would wake up soon, didn¡¯t know HOW I knew, but I knew. <BOSS LADY YOU ARE AWAKE>. I am, but I am not 100% sure what happened, though. <Well, good news and bad news on that front>. The bad news first, please. <OK, so you have undergone the taming ritual. The girl over there did it. You might not recognize her because of the transformation spell she is under, but that¡¯s Indella. And your priority right now should be to keep her alive at all costs>. What? Is the bond messing with my hearing? Shouldn¡¯t I just kill the human to get rid of the bond since I felt no compulsion to protect her? <NO, I am not finished explaining!!! The good news is, she botched the taming; You are bound together, yes, but you are not Tamed. As long as your bond remains intact you cannot be Tamed by someone else. She is the card up your sleeve, so protect her, she¡¯s the most valuable asset you have right now>. How in the world do you botch a Taming attempt? I mean, she should know what to do if she was part of that plan. Even in disguise, and she tried to Tame me before that too. <Well it¡¯s pretty hard not to botch it when a certain Goddess is behind the driver¡¯s wheel and is making you speak a different chant, now isn¡¯t it?> Why do I have a feeling Penumbra are skirting the rules here? <It¡¯s¡­ a grey zone. Since Indella is a Penumbra worshipper Inlas can¡¯t do anything about it though. Heck, Rubolg told her not to commune to her followers at all for a few days as part of her punishment. So she has to just watch events unfold and hope her minions figure it out for the time being>. So Inlas is in timeout for what she did? <For another few days. We need to get you out of here and back to your dungeon along with the kid before Inlas gets back. That also means that the bracer on your leg needs to come off>. I looked at my legs, what bracer? Didn¡¯t see any, my left leg had this throbbing pain but there was no bracer on any of my legs. <Since you are wearing it you can¡¯t see it, touch it, or remove it. It is, however, locking you inside the city, you can¡¯t leave at all>. City? <You are in Caelyn, the city that the adventurers are stationed in, Boss Lady. More precisely, you are IN the adventurer¡¯s guild and they are probably not gonna take their eyes on you until they are utterly convinced you are a good little pet. So better get your acting skills on which means be overbearingly friendly with your ¡°Owner¡± over there. Who by the by, you have to get the cooperation of. She will know the bond ain¡¯t what it¡¯s supposed to be>. Any other impossibly dreadful news? <Rael¡¯s on his way> Oh, just peachy. Well, if we are going to do this acting thing right, I need to inform my dungeon about that. <Leave that to me, I will ask Lady Penumbra to do it. They are monsters after all, and I am pretty sure she would like to help you keep the masquerade up>. With that Archives went silent, and the door opened up. ¡°So you are awake, good¡± he looked pleased, though I scoffed in response. ¡°For you, perhaps, I honestly see very little good about my current position.¡± he shrugged. ¡°Look on the bright side, at least you retain your personality. I very much doubt you would have done so if the Guildmaster had his way. That was no normal taming chant they were hurling at you. They planned to lock your mind up so deep within your head it would never surface again and replace it with just obedience to your orders. An empty shell.¡± He seemed utterly disgusted, interesting. I snorted. ¡°Why the hell do you care?¡± he sighed. ¡°This isn¡¯t the way to capture cores, you¡¯re supposed to defeat them in battle, show them you are more powerful. Then and only then can you attempt to tame them. This, this¡­ mockery¡­ is just wrong. There is no honor in this. If you cannot capture a Core, it¡¯s because you are not strong enough. Pitting thirteen against one, never giving you a chance that has no place in our guild, or anywhere else.¡± He sounded¡­ angry. Furious even, he looked at me and to my surprise bowed. ¡°For what it¡¯s worth I apologize for the part that I and my Party played in this. And I hope you will find it in you to forgive us, to be kind to Indella. She went through a lot to save you from Guildmaster Saol.¡± He then turned and left before I could even finish planning a response. Sacrificed a lot? <The transformation is permanent, and she lost her voice in the process. You would need some really high level magic to undo it, far beyond the means of anyone short of an Archmage>. Oh¡­ Shit, I looked at Indella now with newfound respect. That sure as hell was some dedication she had to keep me safe, yeah no killing her. Heck, I felt ashamed I had ever entertained the thought. Which also made me realize I had thought of her as ¡°A human¡± my guess was my synchronization had gone up. <Yep, 68%> How in the blazes did it get that high? <It¡¯s monster nature to fight for freedom to the very last bit of strength? You were literally on the verge when you suddenly told me to find the discordant chant and grabbed it. What made you do that anyway> I¡­ can¡¯t remember. <You are a Sphinx you should have a memory capable of spanning millennia. So if you can¡¯t remember it, something erased it>. I could make one guess as to what happened and probably guess right. <I am thinking the same thing, but wouldn¡¯t you know, no evidence to support the claim. How¡­ sad>. Archive sure as hell didn¡¯t sound sad. And now the Archives were being coy with me. Will wonders never cease. It took about another hour for Indella to wake up. When she saw me her first reaction was happiness. Then it shifted to confusion. Then, somewhat understandably, fear as she realized we did not have a bond of Owner and Tamed Monster.Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. Using telepathy, I spoke into her mind, calming her. ¡°We are bonded, yes, but I owe you more than you could possibly understand right now. I have no intention of bringing you harm, not now, nor ever in fact. My priority is to keep you alive for as long as possible, as my freedom hinges on your survival.¡± Her eyes widened in surprise. I spent the better part of the next hour explaining the situation to Indella from my perspective. When I finished she was shivering and I could sense the outrage radiating off of her in waves. Indella clenched her fists, then looked up at me. *When I get my hands on that bitch of a goddess, I¡­ I¡­ Oh, what does it matter? I am just a girl that is way in over her head.* She shook her head, so I decided to cheer her up a bit. ¡°Look on the bright side, I can talk for the both of us since I can hear your thoughts.¡± I used a paw pad to rub her head, and she nodded in understanding as I continued. ¡°Although we have to find a way to get this thing off of me. I assume it¡¯s on the left leg?¡± She looked at it. *Yeah, I see it clearly, it looks¡­ Heavy. So if you can¡¯t even notice it, I am guessing it¡¯s enchanted.* I studied my leg for a bit before responding. ¡°I am feeling a slight throbbing pain but that¡¯s it¡± Indella seemed lost in private thought for a moment. *Well, at least now I can have a conversation again, that¡¯s nice, this telepathy thing is so cool.* She sounded happier now. <She has a point, it is really neat, isn¡¯t it?> Indella jumped. *GAAAH WHAT WAS THAT!!!?* <Wait¡­ you can hear me?.. You should not be able to hear me>. I pondered for a moment. Maybe the bond added the ability for us to share certain skills? I mean you are not a racial one so it might be possible, right? <Yes, that sounds like a possible happenstance, will need to confer a bit with Lady Penumbra to be certain. Though you could just check your skills, you know>. I held up a paw. ¡°I don¡¯t feel that would be wise, no idea if Inlas have a way to spy on us here.¡± Indella looked up to me. *Rindell has a point* she thought. ¡°Who?¡± was all I could respond. *Rindell that¡¯s the name you were given* she explained. <That¡¯s not a name. That¡¯s a Duergar title given to those who, though some extraordinary feat, managed to increase their Caste. Until they hold the official ceremony they are called Rindell or ¡°My Equal¡± in the Common Trade language by the Caste they are moving into. Clever>. Tapping my chin, I mumbled to myself. ¡°I doubt anyone here actually knows enough about Duergar customs to know about that one¡± though Indella shook her head. *Oron, Tarad or Dally might know, they are dwarves after all.* Hmm, that could be trouble. *That aside, what do I call you then?* Indella looked up at me with a curious expression, ¡°Does anyone else know what you called me?¡± I replied, deflecting her original question for now. *I don¡¯t know*, she replied. Hmm, I patted her again. ¡°I will think of something, I am the one who speaks for both of us now after all. So, it¡¯s not like they can confirm it with you outside of you nodding or shaking your head.¡± Just then there were noises coming from the door again and someone who looked like a guard popped his head in. ¡°You are wanted in the courtyard¡± He held the door open and I sat down on the floor ¡°Hop on¡± I called to her. *Huh?* She seemed confused. ¡°You are supposed to be my Owner. It would be weird if you would be walking when you have me as a mount, wouldn¡¯t it?¡± she seemed to get it. *Right* She hopped on and quickly found a position to sit that was comfortable for the both of us. This bond was not all bad. I walked into the hallway and the Guard led me through the place into a rather big courtyard, I noticed that bound to two poles was Merchant Yndali and Mandol; they looked like crap, Mandol also had clear signs of having been given a severe beating. Besides them was Ezekiel, grinning like an idiot and chewing on some form of pastry. Given their circumstances, I had a pretty good guess who had betrayed me and who had not. I doubted Yndali would be hogtied to a pole if she was in on it, let¡¯s just take a peek. Popping into Yndali¡¯s mind was easy. She was so down right now she had practically no mental defenses up, while Mandol was so out of it he couldn¡¯t defend himself either. He was barely conscious as it was. Yep, Ezekiel was the traitor. And Yndali was convinced she would die after I would admit that she had sold cores to me. Oh ho, well then. A plan formed in my head rather quickly as I spoke directly into Yndali¡¯s mind. ¡°If you wish to live, do not show any surprise and behave as much as an indignant and pissed off noble as you can. You will know when to start the racket.¡± She looked up at me then, with an inquisitive expression. Good, good, that would help make it more convincing later on. Looking around the room, I also saw a man dressed in priestly garb and carrying the emblem of a raven. A priest of Rubolg. *The high priest of Rubolg, actually.* Confirmed Indella when I asked her about it, even better. There was Rael, and the others too. To say that they looked displeased would be an understatement. They were shooting their disgruntled look at a fat, sweaty, short man wearing a dress that was not unlike that of a medieval monk. Only it was pistachio colored and made out of silk. He was also wearing far too much in the way of personal adornment, so he looked gaudy as all hell, that had to be Saol, he felt¡­ wrong somehow. He began to speak. ¡°Everyone, we are gathered here today to obtain testimony from this Tamed Core. A testimony about the illegal trading of cores between it and the defendant, Merchant Yndali.¡± His voice seemed to scurry in my ear. What the hell. This was insanely unpleasant to listen to. <He is using ¡°Supreme Orator¡±>. What does that do? <Think ¡°Will Binder¡± but only if you can yapp on for long enough. If you do, everyone will agree with your point of view unless they have a form of ¡°Stubborn¡± skill. They can also resist it if they are exceptionally strong willed or have a mental stat total higher than his. It¡¯s a Unique Skill humans should not possess. That means some sort of entity had to give that to him. And I am betting we all know who. It won¡¯t work on you two regardless of circumstances though because of Unbreakable Will, since the bond should make it shield Indella as well>. Even if it¡¯s a racial skill? <According to Lady Penumbra, all passive skills are shared between you. Hence why she can hear me as well>. Indella scratched her ears. *He sounds like he is speaking through a ton of cotton to me* She commented. <That means you are shielded>. That was good. The last thing I needed was for Indella to wind up agreeing with that scumbag. Meanwhile, the Guildmaster kept yapping on about how heinous their crimes were. I noticed that several of the people there were looking a bit, ¡°out¡± of there in their expressions. Time to put a stick in the Guildmaster¡¯s wheel. I rose and cleared my throat, a rather loud sound when you are nearly four meters tall from paw to forehead, then I spoke out loud. ¡°I am terribly sorry to interrupt you Guildmaster Saol. But my Owner is still exhausted from the ordeal earlier, and she is feeling rather uncomfortable with all these people around. Might we move this along?¡± My sudden interruption broke everyone out of their stupor, including a few of Rael¡¯s party members. The guildmaster himself, having clearly not expected the interruption, seemed flustered for a few moments. ¡°Huh, oh right, so I ask you, Core, do you recognize these two people and have you made business with them before, answer truthfully now.¡± I looked at Yndali, tilted my head to the side. As if studying her and Mandol. ¡°I have never seen the two people bound to those poles. I recognize the one eating that cake, though. He offered me some pretty stones in return for gems, since gems are easy for me to get, I accepted.¡± Complete and utter dead silence. You could have heard a pin drop. I kept my face neutral. ¡°Are you absolutely certain?¡± The Guildmaster now looked VERY uncomfortable, while the High Priest and the well-dressed man beside him, who had to be a high-ranking noble, looked suddenly VERY interested and angry, respectively. ¡°Guildmaster, with all due respect, I am a Sphinx, I have a memory meant to span Millennia, I do not forget things that happened as recently as this.¡± The guildmaster was now sweating buckets, and this was when Yndali took my advice. ¡°I told you I was innocent, you worthless commoner! She huffed herself up, ¡°Now then release me and my poor bodyguard from these poles this instant! I demand reparations for this. And you Guildmaster are to repay me trice over for every. Single. Core you gave to this¡­ Beast from my personal collection in your fanatical witch hunt!¡± Guild guards rushed over and released them both while the old man next to Rael rushed over and started to cast healing spells on Mandol, Indella saw him too. *He¡¯s Erem* she noted, Rael however was looking at me, and his eyes said it all, he knew I had lied. But he was keeping silent about it because we now had a common foe. Was it betrayal if the one you betrayed was actively trying to brainwash you? No, I decided, after a short contemplation on the issue, it was not. I refocused on the present where Yndali was now in the guildmaster face in a very convincing display of utter outrage. She was screaming accusations of some pretty horrific things that supposedly happened to her and Mandol. Both the High Priest and the dapper Noble, we¡¯re looking at the guildmaster with some very VERY serious faces. The guildmaster should probably keep a very low profile for a while. Then I interrupted Yndali telepathically and her focus redirected to the now securely gagged and restrained Ezekiel, I had¡­ plans¡­ for him. To say that Yndali gave a 5-star performance would be an understatement. With a dramatic flourish, she whirled around and walked up to Ezekiel and looked him dead in the eyes. ¡°I demand Right of Retribution for his betrayal and passage to kill him in the same hole he did business in.¡± The dapper noble eyed her for a moment. ¡°Granted¡± he said simply. Ezekiel lost control of his bowels at this moment, probably because I had planted a mental picture into his head of what awaited him. It was a surprisingly easy thing to get the Dungeon to be on its best behavior for Yndali; I had the range to reach out to other Psionic minds within a 64-kilometer radius thanks to my evolved skill; the Archives was kind enough to point out and Duplica was Psionic, like all Doppelg?ngers. Once I explained the situation she was more than happy to help out, my only regret was that I would not be able to personally witness it. Once Yndali had been given an absolutely absurdly big bag of gold, from the Guildmaster¡¯s personal wealth. Because he had not done his ¡°investigation¡± through official channels. She marched a now all but panicked Ezekiel out of the room with an absolutely murderous look in her eyes. I had shown her and Mandol as well what awaited him, and they approved. Both me and Indella were escorted back to our room, this time by Rael, Mordred and Erem, who had intercepted the guard and volunteered for it. Mordred took the word first. ¡°We can speak freely, unless you have a Divine spying skill you are not getting past the ward I just cast around us. Now tell me, how in the world did you lie? My intuition skill lit up like a flare screaming. ¡°She¡¯s Lying¡± so don¡¯t even bother to deny it.¡± I smiled before responding. ¡°One man¡¯s truth is another man¡¯s lie, your truth is that Lady Penumbra is a horrible abomination. My truth is that she is my Mother, neither are a lie for those they concern.¡± Mordred¡¯s eye twitched, ¡°Stop being pedantic, you know what I mean. A Tamed Core cannot tell a lie, ever. So, how did you do it?¡± I just responded with a question of my own. ¡°What¡¯s 1 + 1?¡± he answered with a deadpan ¡°Huh?¡± To which I repeated. ¡°What¡¯s 1+1?¡± Mordred looked at me. Not understanding what I was insinuating at all. Erem did though, as he stopped dead in his tracks ¡°You¡¯re not Tamed¡± he concluded. Mordred tripped over his own feet from the surprise of the statement, and Rael looked, unsurprised. Not much of a shocker there. Though Mordred¡¯s Intuition skill had to be pretty damn good to set off warning bells so strong that he would go this far just to confirm them. I didn¡¯t confirm Erem¡¯s claim, nor did I deny it, I just smiled. ¡°1+1 = 2, if 1+1 cannot equal 2 then that means you do not have two 1¡¯s.¡± Mordred grumbled as he got back on his feet. ¡°You are talking in circles and riddles, speak plainly.¡± He demanded angrily. ¡°I am a Sphinx, speaking in circles and riddles is what I do.¡± Rael and Erem laughed at that, and even Indella smiled weakly. ¡°By the way, you three¡± my smile vanished as I swapped to telepathy. ¡°I should warn you, never go into lengthy conversations with the guildmaster. He has a Unique skill he is using to talk people into just smiling, nodding, and going along with whatever he wants. It just takes time for it to kick in¡± at my words the trio went pale as sheets. Rael shot a look up at Indella ¡°Is she lying?¡± Indella shook her head, ¡°Well, shit. That¡¯s terrible news¡± he concluded in response. Mordred cursed rather strongly. ¡°I take it the Core has immunity to it then?¡± Erem inquired. ¡°I have a skill that blocks all but divine level mental assaults and most mental status effects too. And because of the bond I share with her, she has the skill too.¡± I responded as I pointed my tail at Indella. She looked a bit uncomfortable being the center of attention suddenly. Then Rael took the word again, ¡°So the reason you interrupted the guildmaster was¡­¡± ¡°A single interruption is enough to send his progress with the skill down to zero. Also, anyone with any form of ¡°Stubborn¡± skill is immune to it. So if you feel you can trust your dwarf friends, tell them. ¡°Dwarven Stubbornness¡± and all that. Though I would try to see if you could get some mental blocks for the little firebrand, the female knight and the mousey archer. They all were among the first to zonk out as the guildmaster talked.¡± The three nodded slowly, getting around to the idea. We were still talking about stuff an hour later; We were back in our room, Indella was sitting between my front legs, leaning against my furred chest. Mordred was lying on the bed while Rael and Erem were sitting in the two chairs in the room. By this point we had all but openly declared an alliance against the Guildmaster. As the three got far more info on what had been transpiring and the insight I could share because of the Archives. Mordred had to renew the spell twice by this point. Not that he cared. He seemed genuinely absorbed by what I had told them of what had transpired from my point of view. The trio looked¡­ about ready to throw up when I was done. Can¡¯t say I blame them. ¡°We do have one problem though¡± I said at length, ¡°Hmm what?¡± Mordred looked at me with a curious expression. ¡°Me and the girl can¡¯t stay here, as mentioned Rubolg basically gave Inlas a full communication ban for a few days as part of her punishment. If we are still here when that expires¡­¡± I paused and let the unspoken words hang in the air. ¡°Inlas will inform the guildmaster you are not a nice obedient little kitten. And he will arrange to have the girl killed and haul you off for a second round on the ¡°merry-go-taming¡± right?¡± finished the Cleric. I nodded. ¡°Bingo, but we can¡¯t leave too quickly either. If we make our escape before Yndali returns¡­¡± Mordred interrupted me this time. ¡°She¡¯s a dead woman, and she would be a very good ally to have against the Guildmaster. So, we need to arrange for a plausible cause of escape before the ban lifts, but not before she returns. This leaves us with a rather tight timeframe.¡± Rael was thinking I could practically see the gears turning in his head. He slowly spoke. ¡°The only way I see for an escape to be plausible would be if we faked Indella¡¯s death. With the owner ¡°dead¡± you would be ¡°freed¡± from the taming effect. Still, no clue how we could excuse getting you out of that bracer though.¡± The other nodded slowly. They had been quite surprised when they learned the truth of Indella, but it was all cards on the table right now. I grinned ¡°I do, Will Binder, you know how it works I assume?¡± They all looked¡­ uncomfortable at the notion but slowly nodded until Erem, seeming quite reluctant, finally said. ¡°Indeed that would do it, can¡¯t be held responsible if your mind is not your own.¡± The talks continued to sunrise, with Mordred renewing the spell, just as they were rising to leave however I remembered something. ¡°Say Mordred, you wouldn¡¯t know how to cast illusion spells?¡± He looked at me. ¡°Only a few why?¡± I answered plainly for once. ¡°I have ¡°Innate Spell Casting¡± and ¡°Illusionist¡± but no clue how to cast spells. I could fake her death with an illusion if I could just learn how to make one.¡± Mordred looked at me for a few seconds in utter silence before answering. ¡°That¡­ could work, we begin tomorrow. For now, I need some sleep, heck we all do.¡± He wasn¡¯t kidding, Indella was already soundly asleep leaned up against me. I waved at them with my wing before saying. ¡°Don¡¯t forget to tell the dwarves, it would be bad if they commented on my ¡°name¡± being, well¡­¡± Rael nodded. ¡°See two later, sleep well.¡± I nodded as I carefully lifted Indella into bed and tucked her in, then curled up beside the bed. Interlude 6: Crime and Punishment Mandol manhandled Ezekiel into the back of the carriage and did not save the beatings as he did so. That was understandable, since Ezekiel had just sullied the honor of the Sworn Blades with his betrayal. Not to mention us. I let him vent, better to have him relaxed and focused, besides Mandol would not kill him. Not with what awaited Ezekiel at the end of the road being a far better punishment for that bastard. With Ezekiel pacified and secured in the back of the wagon, Mandol hopped on in front and took the reins. About half an hour later, we were out the gate. Despite the sun in the sky, there was a rather cold wind in the air out here on the plains. There was nothing to shelter you from it either, with only small wavey hills that were scattered about the landscape. They barely broke up the monotony of the flat plain. The trip continued on through the plains. When I heard the approach of horses, two guild guards rode up beside us, probably cronies of that Guildmaster. What did they want? ¡°Milady, Guildmaster Saol bid us escort you to the dungeon and back as a way of apology.¡± So, trying to worm your way back into my favor are we, fat chance, little pig. The Yndali remembers slights as well as debts. You made an enemy this day. I looked at the speaker. ¡°Go back to the guild and tell your master I have no interest in his protection. Not after sampling his hospitality.¡± The two guards looked at one another with nervous expressions, hoo, some guts in these two. ¡°I SAID BEGONE!¡± Raising my voice was probably not the best idea in case I spooked the horses. But I am certain Mandol could have handled it. The two guards looked at one another once more. The leader motioned back to the city. The other nodded, and they rode off once again, back the way they came. Well, the less Saol could learn the better. With the two gone we continued on our way, with little more in the way of interesting events, until we reached the domain of the Dungeon. With the stonewalls barring the way there was no way for us to continue with the carriage. Not that I had expected to be able to use it the entire way. Just inside the exit of the labyrinth, a figure was waiting for us. It looked strange, like a completely androgynous human. The main difference was that its skin and hair were completely white, white as snow. It was dressed in black leather armor with the guild insignia on it, probably stolen, and it seemed to be expecting us. I was no expert on Monsters, but that had to be a Doppelg?nger. As we disembarked and approached, it looked at the three of us and spoke up ¡°I have been expecting you¡±. Its voice was surprisingly feminine and melodious and sounded vaguely familiar, though I could not recall where I had heard it. It turned around and then looked back. ¡°Follow me, I shall guide you through the maze and dungeon proper.¡± I started after it, not liking the idea of being lost within this place. Mandol forced Ezekiel to follow suit, despite his pathetic attempts at resistance. As I stepped into the dark gloom of the dungeon, I noticed that it had changed. The stone walls had turned a dark gray, almost black coloration, whereas before they had been like sandstone. Our guide picked up a strange growth that had been sitting along the wall and handed it to me. ¡°A torch, you just need to light it.¡± Oh, how thoughtful of it. Magic was not my forte by a long shot, but all nobles had a minimum of practice at it as part of our education. Just in case you had the knack for it. I focused on my inner mana and imagined a small flame in my hand. A few moments later the strange torch was burning happily in my hand with a strange blue-white flame, casting strange shadows over the walls and distorting our looks. The torch might make the things it struck with its blue light look weird, but it beat the alternative of fumbling in the dark all the way to our destination. It took a better part of an hour to go through the first maze, even with a guide. I could only imagine what it would be like to attempt to find your way around here without one. While under constant assault and having to be on the lookout for traps. The three of us had nothing to worry about. Small creatures that kept to the shadows darted into the maze ahead of us and swiftly disarmed the traps for us with practiced ease. No doubt the Core used them for trap maintenance, among other things. They never drew near though, preferring to keep their distance from us at all times. Shy little things. But considering our apparent size difference from the small glimpses of them that I got, I can¡¯t say I blamed them. The second floor was warmer than the first, though it was still black as pitch outside the blue sphere that was my torch. The Doppelg?nger leading us did so from the edge of the light, peering into the blackness without concern. No doubt nearly every, if not every single creature in this place had some way to see their surroundings despite the darkness. As we came to a door with a thin wall of mist within, the Doppelg?nger bid us to stop. ¡°Wait here while I have a talk with the guardians within. They are incredibly dangerous and one mistake could have the three of you die inside because of an errant look, so I need to ensure your safety.¡± A few minutes later the mist dissipated as I could hear a massive growl from above. It sounded like something massive was leaving the room and disappearing off into the distance. At the same time, our guide returned. ¡°We can continue.¡± was all it would offer us. The room inside was an underground tower with a spiral ramp leading down. I could only imagine what we would have had to fight in here, a dragon maybe, I continued my musing. Our guide suddenly spoke up ¡°Abyssal Eye¡± huh? ¡°The room is the lair of an Abyssal Eye¡± I had no idea what that was, but it did not sound pleasant. Our guide offered no further comment, but instead just continued on its way. As we carried on the ever present noise of running water, that had been here since we entered, started to grow stronger. And the torch now revealed a drop into the dark abyss at our right side. We could clearly hear the sound of waves crashing against the rocks below. In the distance there were strange glowing flowers floating on the dark waters, with beautiful iridescent creatures flying among them. I flinched as our guide put a hand on my shoulder and snapped me out of the daze I had been in. Our guide looked me in the eyes as it spoke. ¡°Mind your step, if you fall in there your deaths will not be a pleasant one. There are Things down there that are not beholden to the dungeon. Large hungry Things.¡± It pointed down. And I realized that I had almost walked off the ledge and into the dark abyss below in an effort to get closer to those strange creatures. What a horrible trap! The three of us kept as far away from the edge as we could after that. The sound of water now interspersed with the sound of large wings and movement in the surrounding darkness. Ezekiel whimpered, right he had always had a fear of insects, hadn¡¯t he? The next destination loomed ahead as another shimmering, glowing wall of mist came into view a short distance ahead. The guide once again saw fit to warn us. ¡°Mind your manners inside, the Queen is easily offended and rules with absolute authority in her Hive.¡± Ezekiel took this opportunity to decide to faint. Our guide shook its head and with terrifying ease just hoisted the unconscious piece of shit onto its back and entered the misty door. With no other choice, lest we be hopelessly lost, we followed. The noise inside was intense. Our torch lit up dozens upon dozens of absolutely massive insects. They all parted ways to let us through until we stood face to face with the Queen. The Doppelg?nger bowed lightly to her and then walked past on her right side. Not knowing what else to do, I instructed Mandol to do as the Doppelg?nger had and followed suit myself. I got the distinct feeling that the Queen was pleased as we were let past without incident.Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. As we approached the exit, however, something grabbed me from behind and hoisted me off the ground. Then started down the corridor I had attempted to walk, but after a moment of struggle I was quite happy about the ride too. I did not fancy having to balance across that gap in the dark. We were put down in the next chamber as the winged insect flew off again. To my amazement, it had just wrinkled my clothes. They could be surprisingly gentle with their talons. The next room was tiled and a small hallway to the left led to a room full of books. The room itself was also lit by small lamps that shone a pleasant yellow glow. A small creature was sitting in the room with a sad and forlorn expression. Clearly unhappy about something, our guide gave it an encouraging pat on the back as we passed, trying to cheer the little thing up. Mandol and I decided to leave it alone, not sure how it would react to us. We then descended to the third floor. This place was decidedly cooler than the floor above, and the tunnels were different too. Circular and uneven, almost natural looking. The guide showed us the way through another, though blessedly much shorter, maze. Though I had the distinct feeling that without a guide you could wind up trapped in those tunnels for weeks, if not months. As we exited, I dropped the torch at the surprise of what I saw and even Mandol, usually the very image of Stoic Muscle Man, could not hide his surprise. A massive well lit cavern and halfway across, a fortress with a wall, it was still in the finishing stages. But already there were visible patrols on top of the walls, and a massive gate blocked the way onwards. We hurried to catch up to the Doppelg?nger, who had already started to move ahead. As we approached the stronghold, a signal was given, and the doors opened, we stepped inside. I thought for a moment that it was dwarves that I saw running around the place, busy with whatever was on their minds right then. Mandol however tensed up, and I quickly realized why, Duergar, dangerous cousins of the dwarves who worshiped Penumbra and could rarely be found in Dungeons. Suddenly, the organized chaos around us all seized as the Duergar all lined up in perfectly formed lines as a bigger, well armed and well armored Duergar approached. An exquisitely well-crafted helmet on his bald head, it undoubtedly also served as a crown. He spoke to us then, and not in any strange long forgotten language either, but in perfect Common Trade. ¡°So, there ye are at last, took yer sweet time, Snowy.¡± The Doppelg?nger scoffed and dropped Ezekiel to the ground while giving him a kick in the process. ¡°It¡¯s not my fault humans can¡¯t see without the aid of lamps or torches, your Stuntiness. Are the preparations in order?¡± It responded. They were¡­ cracking jokes at one another¡¯s expense? The king looked at the hogtied Ezekiel and at us before responding. ¡°Aye, all ready ere, scrying pool set up and ready, no listenin spells though, dat wail can get ya even through those.¡± Our guide nodded and kicked Ezekiel once more while looking at him with disgust. ¡°Someone grab some water for this worthless pile of shit. He will not get to go quietly into the night¡± the Doppelg?ngers voice dripped with disdain. The king snapped his fingers and a bucket of dirty water was quickly retrieved and unceremoniously dumped on Ezekiel, who quickly regained consciousness. Seeing everyone around him, he started thrashing. But the Duergar were far stronger than their size suggested, and several of them quickly undid his bonds and restrained him through sheer strength. The king then addressed us. ¡°Fer your own safety we will be takin it from ere, ye can follow Snowy to the scrying pool we ave set up to let ye see da execution.¡± The King walked off, while the Duergar dragged Ezekiel along after him. Their expressions were¡­ a mix of malicious and gleeful. ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª The strange dwarves dragged me away, I tried to resist, but there were too many of them and some of them were armed. Their expressions showed it all. They knew what that Core had in store for me, and they approved. I struggled the entire way, for what little good it did me as they talked among themselves in a language I could not understand. Soon I saw it, the massive yawning portal of death ahead of me, with its thin misty membrane covering it. My captors unceremoniously tossed me inside ¡°Walk, and if ye reach the room on the other side yer life might actually be spared.¡± The leader of the stunted monsters said. A lie, I knew it to be a lie, but I could not stay. Several of them were arming large, nasty looking crossbows. If I didn¡¯t want to die or receive some really nasty wounds, I only had one option. I started down the corridor in between the eerie green lights of the massive hallway. It took me ten minutes to realize the constant and eerie atmosphere and sound of my own footsteps had absorbed me so much I had gotten completely and utterly lost. Every wall was the same and there was not a single living creature to see. The silence was only broken by the sound of my own footsteps, echoing eerily off the massive walls. And somewhere out there, no! I had to keep going, find a way out, find a way back out. There had to be, right? Wait, what was that? A strange noise¡­ a growl? I listened intently. It sounded like a growl, but it was distant, an echo carried by the massive halls of the hallway. I turned around and decided to head away from the noise. Better to not get anywhere near whatever that was. I already had the monster I had been shown to worry about, I did not need to also run into whatever beast that was. Another turn, another hall. The growl had not lessened in its intensity, but rather grown a bit louder. It was stalking me, hunting me like I used to hunt rabbits. I sped up another turn, and the growl intensified in strength. Rubolg protect me, please! My quick prayer was not heard as I rounded another corner and stood face to cloven hoof with my executioner at last. ------ The Scrying pool was an intricate thing, and the craftsmanship marvelous. Not even the master crafted mansion that Milady lived in came close to the skill and quality of this stonework. It was as if the stone was one single continuous piece, rather than multiple blocks. It took the Duergar priests mere moments to find the traitor Ezekiel; he was heading down a hallway that even through the surface of the pool was enough to give me goosebumps; he was clearly out of sorts, something that did not surprise me at all, I would be too, going into that. The first 15 minutes or so passed uneventfully, though Ezekiel had now gotten himself pretty damn lost within the large corridors. Then he stopped, looking around, he had clearly heard something, then he turned around and started to backtrack, his steps more urgent. After another few wrong turns, however, and he stood face to face with it. Hazalaar, The Heartseeker, our guide had called it. And it was far more terrifying in life than the image of it that had been planted in our minds by the Core. So, too, thought Ezekiel. As he turned around once more and ran, the monster started its chase. For the next hour or so Hazalaar toyed with Ezekiel, made him think he had gotten away only to show up in front of him or it waited around corners. It was deliberately not killing him. Both Milady and I realized, but instead took a sick, twisted delight in Ezekiel¡¯s suffering and fear, there was also something else, something was clearly wrong with Ezekiel. His hair, which had been midnight black, was now gray and quickly approaching the same white as that of our guide. Hazalaar was literally turning his hair white and visibly aging him. There could only be one explanation, Terror. Hazalaar was not inflicting Fear or Panic on Ezekiel, but Terror. It was then I realized Ezekiel¡¯s punishment would be longer than I expected, far, far longer. This was a punishment for Ezekiel, yes, but also a warning to me and Milady, that this was the fate awaiting those who betrayed the Core. Ezekiel had now been herded back to the entrance corridor, he could see the entrance. I could see the hope in his eyes, false hope planted there by Hazalaar, who would crush it and Ezekiel¡¯s life in one fell swoop. The guards had left long ago. If Ezekiel somehow escaped, the lookouts would instantly see him, and the Duergar wanted nothing to do with Hazalaar for obvious reasons. Ezekiel was almost there, Hazalaar close behind, driving him forwards, enjoying every moment of this torturous hunt. Ezekiel seemed elated as he reached the boss barrier, and then that elation turned to utter despair as it refused to let him through. You did not just leave the Boss room while the Boss was there to fight you, you should have paid more attention during training Ezekiel. Ezekiel turned around, the last hint of color left his hair, Hazalaar lifted his scythe and did something, a shock wave seemed to emanate from him. Ezekiel grabbed his chest, looked up at Hazalaar, then fell over, dead. Milady was about to step away from the pool, but I put a hand on her shoulder and silently motioned for her to keep looking. Because Ezekiel¡¯s punishment had not yet ended and would never end. Not anymore, he would relive his last moments for all eternity as the most horrifying part of Terror became apparent. Ezekiel¡¯s dead body twisted and shook, the skin turning purple and the white hair now standing straight up. As he slowly clawed himself back on his feet, we could see Ezekiel¡¯s purple and bloated face. It was now stuck in a mask of abject terror, his eyes pools of milky white. Then he took a slow, staggering step back into the labyrinth. To start his new and eternal vigil, he had become a Terrorgeist. I felt a small twinge of pity for him. Now bound to protect this labyrinth in undeath for all eternity. Truly a fate worse than death. Though one he brought upon himself. Milady was clearly shaken as we were guided back out of the labyrinth, but at the same time there was an obvious air of satisfaction around her. The traitor had gotten a punishment befitting his crime, and we still had the deal with the Core, if it ever got itself out of the clutches of the Guild. And most importantly, we were alive and free. I hopped back into the carriage after helping Milady onto the passenger seat, then cracked the reins and set off back towards Caelyn. With luck, we would make it back before sunset. Chapter 12: The conspirators and the conspiracy There are few things in this world that really make me angry, however, being forced to wake up after only two hours of sleep, however, are decidedly one of them. The guild guard that came in only a few hours after I had fallen asleep and told us to get up, had learned that the hard way. He was unharmed, but considering the bloodshot and utterly furious look I had given him, I can¡¯t say I blame him as he made a hasty retreat. I ignored that completely unreasonable request. How was I supposed to operate on only two hours of sleep, anyway? After I got another three hours under my belt, I was woken up again. This time by Indella, who seemed annoyed at me for some reason *Did you chase a guild guard out of the room earlier?* ¡°Yes, he woke me up after I only had two hours of sleep. How would you react if someone rudely woke you up and made unreasonable demands that early? At least I think it was a demand he made. I was so sleepy I couldn¡¯t even understand a word of what he was saying.¡± Indella blinked a few times and then looked towards the door. I looked over and saw the Guildmaster, ah that would explain it. The Guildmaster shook his head as he moved into the room and sat down. ¡°Mind explaining why you only had two hours of sleep?¡± he asked. Clearly quite annoyed, I had chased away his messenger. ¡°This room is stuffy, small, and I have no comfortable place to rest. The carpet is uneven and really damn hard, I didn¡¯t fall asleep because I was sleepy, I fell asleep because I was exhausted from a lack of sleep.¡± The guildmaster looked at the carpet, leaned down and touched it for a bit, then nodded slowly. ¡°I will see if I can bring in something more comfortable for you to sleep on.¡± He said at length. Score one for me. ¡°Now then, I apologize for waking you up again. But we can¡¯t have you sleep all day regardless, and I have some business to discuss with you, regarding the gems you were trading with this¡­ bodyguard.¡± I nodded slowly. ¡°What about the gems?¡± The glimmer of greed in the fat little man¡¯s eyes as he leaned closer was so strong you could probably have used his eyes as lanterns. ¡°Err. Well, you wouldn¡¯t happen to have¡­ more?¡± he asked. ¡°Not that I would have ready access to, no. Believe it or not Guildmaster, some abilities I have only works while I am within my own territory. And being able to pluck resources from my dungeon out of thin air is one of them.¡± <Deception has gone up to Lv4> neat that should make things easier. The Guildmaster took a deep breath. ¡°Well I¡¯ll just have to send-¡± he began, but I interrupted him almost immediately ¡°I would strongly recommend against that. The gems come from a Haunted Mine, guarded by Undead of various types.¡± I could see his hopes deflating. Undead monsters would remain hostile to all non-dungeon living creatures. Tamed dungeon or not, sending men to mine a Haunted Mine was practically a death sentence, and he knew it. It was one reason you saw no undead cores around too; they were rather difficult to deal with, sure you could prevent them from harming people¡­ most of the time. But getting them to do what you wanted would be a tall order as their unnatural hatred for all things living would eventually override any orders given. At least that was the lore reason given for it in the game, and so it would seem it was here. Given how the moment I mentioned Haunted Mine and Undead, he seemed to lose interest entirely. Wait¡­ maybe I could use that greed to my advantage, no better not, at least not unless I absolutely had too. The guildmaster was greedy, sure, but he wasn¡¯t stupid. He had come up with the scheme that captured me, after all. And underestimating him would as such probably be a terrible idea, better not plan round him being stup- wait, I could take advantage of him being both greedy and smart. The Guildmaster rose from the chair he had been sitting in, apologized for the inconvenience and made to leave. Having clearly lost an interest in us entirely, I on the other hand had now plotted on my own. Having confirmed that undead would be immune to the pacification that taming caused. I could use the fact that he thought I had far more undead than I had, to my advantage. I wouldn¡¯t even need to learn how to make a convincing illusion to do it. Though it would probably take a day or 2 for this idea to go off. That was too risky. It was better to prepare for both eventualities. With my mind made up, I acted upon the idea I had just happened upon. Just as the guildmaster was about to close the door I called out to him. ¡°You know if it¡¯s gems that you need, there could be a pretty simple solution, with your permission, of course.¡± The guildmaster paused and looked at me, the sparkle of greed back in his eyes. He turned around, clearly interested. ¡°Currently, the undead miners are under order to attack anything that tries to mine the mine itself, and I would not recommend going there. However, near my core room are my treasury, I cannot take things out of it remotely, but I could remove some gems from it for you, if you would like.¡± The guildmaster came closer. ¡°Can¡¯t I just send my men to gather the riches there?¡± he asked, clearly eager to get his hands on what would be a small fortune. ¡°You¡­ could, but would your men be willing to deal with the 12-Meter tall undead Minotaur that wanders the maze and likes to inflict Terror on interlopers?¡± Judging by the guildmaster¡¯s expression, it was pretty clear that while his Supreme Orator was powerful, it was not powerful enough to convince someone to basically commit suicide. That was the sort of thing you sent an entire party at, with full knowledge some if not most of those would not return. The best part about it was that not all of that was a lie either, I DID have a 12ish meter tall undead Minotaur stomping around in a maze. The best lie was, after all, the one sprinkled with parts of the truth. The Guildmaster looked thoughtful. ¡°So basically, if I want a fortune, you would have to be allowed to return to your dungeon?¡± he asked. Clearly fighting his greed in a losing battle. ¡°Yes, that¡¯s what I am saying, unless you have a better option for getting all those riches?¡± I replied, looking at him with an inquisitive expression. I was only paying half attention to the guildmaster at this point as I was busy explaining my plot to Indella. Who seemed reluctant, I could understand that, as there was a really nasty snag to my plan. The guildmaster left after only saying an uncommitted ¡°I will consider it.¡± That was better than nothing. Meanwhile, using getting some air as an excuse, the two of us went to find Rael and the rest. We found them in a small secluded park, where Mordred was saying something, but to my ears it was all distorted. It was as if he was having two conversations at the same time. This must be what it was like to be outside the ward, and because of ¡°Unbreakable Will¡± I could hear the true conversation as well. Clearly I was not the only one with this issue as Indella was clamping her ears and through the bond I could feel a growing ache in my ears. Better get inside the ward before that got much worse for her. As we crossed the reach of the ward, I could hear Rael responding to whatever Mordred had been saying prior. ¡°I am telling you that this is- oh! Perfect timing you two. We were discussing the Guildmaster and what to do next.¡± I nodded and walked over to the inner part of the circle where I sat down. This way Indella would be further from the others so that it would seem like we were making sure she would not have an ¡°Episode.¡± While also allowing her to be close to the friends she had, seeing as Erem was the closest person to my selected spot. Rael took a deep breath before he resumed talking. ¡°As I was saying there is no guarantee that the Core can retain a physical form if we remove the bracer here in the city. As such your plan of making it seem like Indella fell to death and then one of us got Will binder into removing, it is too risky. If the core then just goes poof, while Indella remains, it won¡¯t take long before she is found out.¡± Mordred didn¡¯t look as convinced it seemed I lifted my palm to get everyone¡¯s attention. ¡°I may have found a way to get around that issue, actually, but there is a snag, not an impossible one, but still a rather nasty snag.¡± The entire party turned towards me. Mordred and Rael who both had really high Intuition skills were now starting to feel incredibly uncomfortable, which was understandable. ¡°The problem is twofold, actually...¡± I explained the circumstances of the guildmaster¡¯s earlier visit, and the flat out lie I had fed him about having a treasury. Mordred and Rael looked at each other before Rael asked about what was on both their minds. ¡°That seems¡­ promising. It shouldn¡¯t take too much convincing to get the guildmaster to cave in to his greed, all things considered. So, what¡¯s the catch?¡± I took a deep breath. ¡°One of you need to die from having their throat slit. That person needs to be an excellent liar and able to withstand the Guildmaster¡¯s... persuasiveness, and it can¡¯t be the one casting Recall.¡± The entire party was looking at me as if I had lost my mind. I continued my explanation. ¡°Yes this sounds absolutely insane I know, but hear me out. The Depths are, as I understand it a Biome that not much is known about. As such, I easily convinced the guildmaster I had a Haunted Mine full of gems hidden away there, spawning undead units from it. So, who¡¯s saying there are no spectral assassins in my dungeon?¡± One of the dwarves piped up. He looked like a shaman by his garb. ¡°So yer sayin, the girl decides to hop off to ¡°explore¡± the 2nd floor. Ye make a number of it being unsafe due to the ¡°mine¡± and one of use volunteers to look after her. Out of the goodness of our hearts, being idealistic and gullible little adventurers. Then we get ambushed by the ¡°assassins¡± and ¡°die¡±. You are ¡°freed¡± to make a number out of sicking the dungeon at the ones who are still alive, and we all recall. With one adventurer corpse as proof of the girl¡¯s death. Since the spectral assassins would be rather¡­ disrespectful of the tamer of their Mistress and mutilate her beyond recognition of the spell.¡±Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. I nodded, that was all the confirmation the rest of the party needed. It had all the essential parts we needed, Indella would be safe and assumed dead. I would not have to fear leaving her behind and thus remain safe from future taming attempts by Inlas¡¯ fanatics. The plan was simple enough, though there were some variables, like if the guildmaster himself would insist on joining in or not. If he did, then we had a few options. If it was just Rael¡¯s party, we killed him, simple. If he brought an even number of lackeys, then it would depend on whether they entrusted Recall to Mordred or not. If they outnumbered Rael¡¯s group¡­ nope not going to try unless we somehow killed him in the ensuing ¡°battle.¡± The risk of him escaping was too high. There were of course the aforementioned problems to deal with. Namely, that the guildmaster would certainly grill the one who died for hours while under the constant bombardment of Supreme Orator. They would need a way to resist the effects of the skill. And they would need to be a skilled liar. To the point where they could trick the guildmaster into thinking they had fallen under its sway or it would be obvious they had one form of immunity. Like one of the dwarves. I had put them in a hard place here as I had just made them choose one among themselves that would have to die. Then out of nowhere Tarad spoke up. ¡°I¡¯ll do it, I am the perfect choice after all¡± Dally did not look happy at all with his announcement but nodded in agreement even as she softly mumbled. ¡°Deception Lv4 and Actor Lv2 should convince him all right¡± where had the dwarf picked up those skills? The rest of the party was wondering the same thing, and under the many inquisitive looks Tarad just sighed before he started talking. ¡°Before I joined up with you guys, I was a con artist, when I arrived in town, I hadn¡¯t been workin no mine. I had been in the slammer over in Tylannwood fer five years for fraud. My brother offered to help me set up a new life here once I got out, and here I am. As ye know the guild does not allow for former criminals ta join, so I lied, sorry fellas.¡± he smiled sheepishly. Dally hugged him and his brother clapped him on the shoulder before Mordred took the word. ¡°Well that¡¯s all in the past, and technically the lot of us are already getting thrown out for not informing the guildmaster about those two. So, what is another infraction or two at this point? Besides, if you¡¯re willing to do that Tarad, that alone is more than enough, that you have the skills, even better, you are currently this plans saving grace.¡± This got hollers of agreement from the rest of the party. It took me a bit to get everyone¡¯s attention again after that. ¡°There are another few snags as well. Since ¡°War Mode¡± isn¡¯t a thing anymore there are now a party level and size hard limit on my dungeon. And while I can raise the level cap enough to accommodate you guys, I have honestly no idea how the dungeon will react to Indella. I have no idea if she now counts as a Dungeon Creature, an intruder or just a part of me. I also have no way to rise the party size limit at all, as all those options are abhorrently expensive to unlock for a reason.¡± I took a deep breath before continuing. ¡°Furthermore, there is the question of what do we do if the Guildmaster insists on using his own cronies.¡± Rael lit up. ¡°Can¡¯t you just summon that Minotaur again? Mordred said he had some counter to Recall.¡± He asked, clearly excited to remember that tidbit. ¡°You mean Minos? His upkeep is way too high. It nearly killed me last time. I would pass out from the pain and I doubt Indella would survive the shock from the feedback. Not to mention that Edict of Valor costs 5000 Essence to use. That is almost twice my current essence cap and would instantly kill me as a result¡± Rael¡¯s excitement died instantly. ¡°Oh, then why did you summon him back then?¡± I looked at him. ¡°I am a very, very, VERY sore loser. I had no interest in even giving you the chance of putting me on a leash. Which back then would have been just as bad as if the Guildmaster had got me earlier. Though I will admit, I didn¡¯t know that at the time of summoning him. So, it basically boils down to me having a ¡°I¡¯m taking you guys down with me¡± kind of mentality.¡± I answered, totally deadpan. He seemed¡­ surprised at my answer. ¡°That seems a bit¡­¡± he trailed off, though I finished for him. ¡°Insane, I know, I have a lot of¡­ scars from my past, most of the memories of which returned only after my evolution, long story short. Prior to burying myself in dungeon building, certain events caused some rather severe mental scars. Which means I react very poorly to several things. Losing is one of them, the other is betrayal and yes, they are linked.¡± Indella looked up at me *Wanna talk about it?* I smiled down at her and ruffled her head. ¡°Someday, perhaps, but not now, it¡¯s a long and frankly, not a very fun story. The gist of which is that the one person I trusted the most in the world betrayed me and made me lose practically everything. I could have wound up even losing my life, but thankfully I pulled myself out of the resulting depression and soldier on.¡± They all looked pretty surprised at my words, not so odd, considering Indella spoke into my mind, but I responded out loud. Although Mordred looked at Indella with a puzzled expression. ¡°Did you just¡­ talk into our heads, Indella?¡±¡­ What? Wait¡­ Telepathy was a passive? <Yep it is, how do you think she could respo--- oh right, you have Mind Reader, you wouldn¡¯t have noticed the difference¡­ oops, that¡¯s on me Boss Lady> *Wait so you can hear me right now?* The party nodded in the affirmative as a sudden dread struck me ¡°Mordred how does that ward of yours handle telepathy?¡± though his almost immediate response made me much calmer. ¡°Totally blocked, can¡¯t be transmitted through, neither from the inside nor outside¡± It went without saying that Indella was ecstatic over that discovery and eagerly listened in as I gave her a crash course in telepathy; I got to say; she was pretty damn talented as it only took her a few tries to have it down pat. After this the conversation became more lively as Indella gleefully joined in with her own insights and thoughts. Though after a while things calmed down again and I went into more detail about the plan in general. And I also instructed Tarad in what he should ¡°remember¡± from the incident. After all, as the saying goes, ¡°The Devil Is In The Details.¡± As we were talking, I noticed that a Guild guard was heading our way and immediately warned the others. ¡°Cut the chatter, we have company.¡± We stopped our conversation and Mordred dispelled the ward so that the guard wouldn¡¯t notice anything amiss when he got close enough. ¡°Gloria, Guildmaster Saol wants to see you and the Core, you as well Rael and Erem, he says it¡¯s important.¡± He then left immediately, his errand done. He seemed almost eager as he did, most likely because of the incident that morning. ¡°Showtime¡± I mumbled to myself as Indella hopped on my back and I walked off. As I passed Mordred, he mouthed ¡°Good Luck¡± in my direction. I wondered what was up. Had this been about the gems, I doubted he would bring Rael and Erem into it as well. The answer came when we entered the hallway to the guildmaster¡¯s office and ran into some familiar faces. The trio that I had been with Indella the first time we met. *Rorik the Shield Warrior, Mint the Sharpshooter and Surin the Storm Mage* Indella said, introducing them to me in her own way. *I wonder why they are here, though.* We would probably find out. Rael nodded to them in greeting and the trio said hello back. They looked worried, something that made it so that I had an inkling of what this was about. I quickly communicated my suspicion to the others. *You are right, I didn¡¯t tell them, maybe I should have made something up.* Great, and because Indella didn¡¯t tell them, they were probably now wondering where she had gone. The guildmaster called the lot of us into his office shortly after, well, all but me since I could not fit through the door. While many of the rooms and hallways in the guild were created with tamed Cores that would likely be larger than humans in mind. This hallway and the doors in it was decidedly not one of them. As a result, it was pretty cramped for me, even more so if I wanted to avoid knocking something over. The Guildmaster himself looked nothing but worried. In fact, he looked annoyed. Though the others either didn¡¯t notice, or they didn¡¯t care as the guildmaster started to explain why he had called us here. ¡°It has come to my attention that one of our guild members have gone missing. Her name is Indella, and she is a Druid. Now there is a good chance she only left town to commune with the forest or some other druidic secret ritual and will be back on her own. But when she did things like that in the past, she would always leave a notice prior. That way we knew she would be gone for a while. I want all of you to look around and see if you can find out where she has gone off too and if she is in any danger.¡± He continued on for a short while about the entire thing. Trying to make it seem like a small deal by the sound of it. I tuned him out to have a think on how to deal with this. There was another reason I let him drone on. I wanted to see how long it would take before any of Indella¡¯s friends started to show signs of falling under the sway of ¡°Supreme Orator¡±. Though much to my surprise, none of them batted an eye at it even after the guildmaster droning on for almost 15 minutes. I refocused my attention on the conversation. He was decidedly using it. So what gives? <Rorik has ¡°Indomitable¡± a class skill that works like Unbreakable Will. Surin has int and wis higher than the guildmasters while his charisma is equal, so Orator doesn¡¯t work on him. While Mint is just too easily distracted>. Distracted? *Mint has always been remarkably easily distracted when she gets bored. She would stop paying attention, think of stuff that interests her and just zone out what¡¯s going on otherwise completely.* Indella answered my mental question, having sensed my confusion. So, she just stopped paying attention to the guildmaster¡¯s droning and as such escaped Orator? In response, I pretended to listen a bit more intently to the guildmaster ranting as I responded telepathically. ¡°Isn¡¯t it bad for a sharpshooter to be easily distracted, also what¡¯s a Beast-kin?¡± I posed the question to Indella privately so the guildmaster would not be able to hear it. *She has the skill ¡°Laser Focus¡± once she uses it, she cannot be distracted, it only lasts a while though* Huh, score one for being a scatterbrain. Never thought that would be a good thing. Indella continued. *As for your second question, Beast-kin are a species that live far to the east. They basically look like humans with varying animal traits like ears, tails, claws, animal heads and the like. The ones with cat-like appearances also tend to be easily¡­ distracted. Beast-kin are usually tolerated in towns because they are not linked to dungeons in any way. Though there have been less around since the Guildmaster took the reins. I guess it doesn¡¯t take a genius to add two and two together about what happened.* The Guildmaster¡¯s goons bullied them out of town, most likely, could Mint be part Beast-kin? . Only time would tell, I suppose. That still left us with one question though, how do we handle this. In the end, the entire group wound up leaving the guildmaster¡¯s office after I got sick of hearing him drone on. After I had gotten his attention I pointed out that ¡°Gloria¡± was starting to feel a bit uncomfortable in the cramped room. He sent us off to start looking almost immediately. As we left, I discussed what to do with the others because as far as I saw it, there were two options here. Once we fabricated some evidence that Indella had left, or two, we brought the trio up to speed. There was a lot of back and forth between the two options, but in the end it was unanimous. Mostly because Indella insisted we would tell them once we were clear of the guild and into the city itself. Chapter 13: Final preperations We picked up Mordred as we made our way out of the guild. Once in the city itself the lot of us walked through the streets without much in the way of oversight. Maybe I had been overthinking the Guildmaster¡¯s paranoia, or maybe he was too trusting in Inlas¡¯ favor. <Sorry for intruding on your musings, Boss Lady. But have you thought of what might happen to those left behind once you escape?> Crap, the Archives was right. That was something that had not even crossed my mind, and if the dread I was feeling from Indella was anything to go by, neither had she. I would have to take that up with them once we had talked to Indella¡¯s friends. I had no doubt that the Guildmaster would be informed of the plan by Inlas once she was allowed to commune with her mortal followers again. And the guildmaster would probably not care for evidence, but would rely on ¡°Supreme Orator¡± to get the verdict he wanted. Or he could just arrange for an accident or a dozen, with that skill he could cover pretty easily it up too. Yndali would likely be fine. Since the City Lord and the High Priest were involved in her trial, the guildmaster could not go after her without solid evidence. And because of the nature of our deal, there was none. It was obvious his skill didn¡¯t work on Mandol and Yndali, or they would have confessed themselves. But the Adventurers? ¡°Accidents¡¯¡¯ happened all the time and those who could not get brainwashed, could simply be imprisoned or killed. We reached Indella¡¯s house, and Mint started to lift the different potted plants, until she found a small brass key that fit the lock. But when she moved to unlock the door, Rael pointed to the warehouse next to her house. It apparently belonged to Indella, as he suggested. ¡°Let¡¯s check there first, we can use the Core¡¯s senses to see if there is anything.¡± Mint and Rorik looked at each other, shrugged, and a bit more fiddling around found a much larger iron key that went to the warehouse gate. It was a tight squeeze for me to get through the door, and it was far from comfortable. But once we were all inside, Mordred closed the door behind us and cast his ward spell. Rael looked at Indella and nodded. She took a deep breath, then reached out to her friends telepathically. *Hi guys, sorry for worrying you.* The effect was immediate as they all flinched and started to look around all over the place even as Mint perked up. ¡°Indella? Where are you, are you invisible?¡± she started to fumble around the room itself as she spoke, sounding really hopeful. *Err¡­ no I am not, I am in fact quite visible and sitting on the Core.* All three stopped looking around and slowly turned around and looked at her. Rorik tilted his head and looked at her for several seconds before mumbling. ¡°Seriously?¡± Indella responded by waving at him as she smiled sheepishly. *Guilty as charged, I fear I went and did something stupid and rash again, sorry guys.* I sat down, allowing Indella to slide down my back. Now I just had to be a bit careful to not slam my head into the crossbeams and everything would be fine. Surin walked over to her and started to cast a spell, before turning to the other two. ¡°She is giving off faint traces of Transfiguration magic. She has decidedly been using some form of transformation spell within the last few days at most. And a powerful one at that.¡± He looked at Indella, then at me, then finally at Rael. Rorik and Mint looked at Surin before they too focused on Rael. Rorik walked right up to him, grabbed him by the collar and spoke in a low but barely controlled voice. ¡°You have exactly 10 seconds to tell me what you talked her into, or so help me. I will tear you apart with my own bare hands.¡± Huh, Rorik was quite protective of¡­ oh, OH! I could sense it through the bond. Indella¡¯s feelings for Rorik and it didn¡¯t take a genius to 1+1 and get 2, here given Rorik¡¯s reaction. She and Rorik were a couple. Best to calm things down before it got out of hand. I took a deep breath, then cleared my throat to get everyone¡¯s attention. ¡°I am the cause, in part, if you would kindly let go of Rael I will explain everything in full. As much of it as I understand it, at any rate. Then the others can fill you in afterwards. There is also something else I realized on the way here I need to point out about the plan at any rate.¡± Rorik did let Rael go, but he did not look any calmer. Well, as long as he wasn¡¯t trying to strangle Rael, that was good enough for me. It took about an hour just to give them a generalized rundown of what had occurred and what they could expect now. The trio was understandably upset once I had finished, and they had gotten a confirmation that I was telling the truth out of Indella. Whom they had grilled rather extensively for proof first, just in case. It had not been before Indella literally kissed Rorik that he was convinced, because ¡°No one kisses like Indella does¡± or so he claimed. After that Rael looked at me with a curious expression ¡°You said that there was something you had realized that would be of importance to the plan earlier?¡± I nodded and closed my eyes, then asked practically the same question as the Archives had asked me earlier. ¡°What do you think the Guildmaster will do to you guys when Inlas can commune again, and she informs him you guys helped me to escape?¡± The room went completely and utterly silent. Then Mordred mumbled what I expected was some pretty nasty swear words given Erem¡¯s dismayed expression. Yeah, clearly that had gone over their head too. This had officially stopped being a ¡°Get the Core and Girl to safety¡± mission and had instead become a ¡°We all need to escape before Inlas returns¡± mission. Proof would likely matter little to the Guildmaster if he was as fanatical a follower of Inlas as Rael and the others claimed. Which seemed pretty certain. Considering how everyone but Indella had used a chant meant to wipe out all resistance in me. And make me very eager to become Inlas obedient little Avatar when they tried to tame me. Rael, Mordred and Erem all looked at one another, with Erem taking a deep breath before he spoke up. Clearly fighting to keep his voice even. ¡°That was indeed not something that occurred to us, but what about Yndali?¡± I shook my head and answered. ¡°I seriously doubt that will be an issue, not after the result of the last trial the Guildmaster put her through. Even if Inlas told him, he would need irrefutable evidence, which does not exist since it was a verbal agreement. Nor can he get them to confess. If he could, they would have done so the last time. Besides, if he tried to arrest them again without proof at hand, the City Lord and High Priest would likely have him executed given what happened last time.¡± Erem seemed to agree with my assessment. The City Lord had been¡­ upset after the trial, to put it mildly. And from what I understood of it all. Pissing him off would be a terrible idea that would likely end up with the one who did so on the headsman¡¯s block. Mordred finally calmed himself down enough to ask. ¡°So what do we do now?¡± I had already had time to think about that and had a reply ready. ¡°The plan remains largely unchanged, we just need to ensure your party and these three are the ones who will go. It should not be too hard. Seeing as ¡°Gloria¡± here is comfortable around all of you and would likely throw a fit if anyone else were to go with us in large numbers instead. Another option is for the three of you to head out early under the guise of following a lead we found about Indella¡¯s whereabouts. And make a beeline straight for the dungeon. Though if you do, please inform me, so I can alert the creatures about your arrival. The last thing we would want would be for you to get killed by a trap or dungeon creature because you showed up unannounced.¡± I was pretty confident that this would work, provided we could get him to allow the trip before Inlas showed up. Wait, maybe¡­ I looked to Erem this would be the nail we needed to get out of town with priority. ¡°Say do you know if there are any days or festivals coming up very shortly that will be of import to Inlas?¡± Erem blinked a few times before responding. ¡°Well, there is the Midsummer Festival, which celebrates the birth of Inlas, why?¡± I smiled. ¡°If the Guildmaster is so fanatically devoted. Don¡¯t you think it would help speed things along to errr¡­ gently suggest that sacrificing part of the riches might please Inlas?¡± Erem blinked. ¡°You mean to use his devotion to him.¡± he stated, to which I nodded. ¡°Normally I would warn against such actions as it would undoubtedly bring the anger of the god in question but¡­ given the circumstances that¡¯s unavoidable. So I say sure, try, but who would point that out?¡±This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. To my surprise, it was Indella who responded. *I can do it. Or rather, the Core can do it for me. The Guildmaster seems to have gotten the impression that ¡°Gloria¡± is a very pious and zealous follower of Inlas. Or at least that¡¯s the impression I got of him, given how accommodating he is to my ¡°needs¡± compared to other people.* I didn¡¯t have a better idea, nor did anyone else it turned out, so we agreed on that. We returned to the Guild shortly after. The trio had decided they would head off for the dungeon as soon as they had packed some belongings. They figured it would be weird if they too insisted on going on the Guildmaster¡¯s errand they were not supposed to know about. Meanwhile, I had gotten in touch with Duplica and informed her of the guests and to treat them as trustworthy allies, and the rest of the plan. Once back in the guild we split up, with me and Indella heading towards the Guildmaster¡¯s office again. Once there, Indella hopped off and knocked. She was let in when I informed the Guildmaster¡¯s assistant that ¡°Gloria¡± wished to speak with him. Once he arrived back at his office, as he had been occupied elsewhere, Indella had been seated in a comfortable chair with a cup of tea to keep her comfortable. Though he seemed quite curious and didn¡¯t hesitate to ask, ¡°So, dear Gloria, what is it that I can aid with?¡± She looked at me and I nodded, playing the obedient pet. ¡°My Owner could not stop thinking of the wealth in the Treasury, Guildmaster. She feels that it would be an insult to Inlas to not present at least some of it as an offering on the morning of the Midsummer Festival. As such, a prize wrested from the accursed Penumbra would likely greatly please her.¡± I said, putting up a reluctant expression. As if I didn¡¯t want to speak the words aloud but had no choice. I could almost see the gears grind inside his head as his expression bounced between reluctant to eager to borderline desperate and back again. this happened over and over, before it settled on determined. ¡°You make an excellent point, child. As a fellow follower of our great Lady Inlas, I am ashamed I did not think of this myself. Such an offering would indeed please her, I shall make the arrangements at once. You will set out tomorrow with my best and most trusted men with you¡± as expected only brainwashed cronies was good enough. Indella for her part immediately squirmed and looked uncomfortable. ¡°Is something amiss, child?¡± he looked at her then to me and back again before I answered. ¡°My Owner is wondering who these best men are. You see, the guild guards and several of the adventurers make her feel¡­ Uncomfortable is not strong enough to convey her discomfort, I fear. Many either lack true faith. Or they are cold, uncaring or treat her as a monster because of the¡­ incident.¡± The guildmaster nodded slowly as he spoke softly to Indella. ¡°Of course, the accursed Songstealer, damnable thing, is there any way we can ease your discomfort?¡± Indella looked up at the Guildmaster, her expression going from uncomfortable to thoughtful, then finally eager, man Indella had to have a pretty high ¡°Acting¡± skill to pull this off. <Indella¡¯s has ¡°Acting Lv5¡± because of the spell she cast to transform> That explained it. She looked over at me for a few moments and I nodded. ¡°Earlier today, my Owner wanted me to go find Erem, when I found him he was with the rest of his party, they were all kind people. They were all friendly and warm. She feels safe with them. So safe she actually dozed off for a bit, which is apparently a rare thing for her these days.¡± The Guildmaster nodded quickly. ¡°That¡¯s great, Rael is one of my most trusted men, after all. He was the one who brought you to the guild to begin with. I would not deign to force you to suffer the presence of someone else. not when you clearly trust him as much as I do!¡± Well now, you learn something new every day. This would probably be a hard pill for him to swallow when he learned the truth. Indella seemed overjoyed at the news and even made motions to hug the guildmaster, before she quickly caught herself, and instead nodded gratefully. Could someone give the girl an Oscar for best performance? Sheesh, just looking at this was making me feel sick, and I knew it was an act. I took the word again. ¡°My owner wishes to confer her utmost gratitude to you Guildmaster. We will personally inform Rael and his party about the vital mission. For the glory of Lady Inlas.¡± Indella rose and did the same ritualistic bowing maneuver I had seen her do earlier. Then turned and exited the office as I slowly backed out of the hallway. The Guildmaster followed us to the door, and bid us farewell ¡°My pleasure child, I will send an enhanced bracer for the Core tomorrow morning, take care.¡± He closed the door as I finished backing out of the corridor. Man, having him treat me as if I wasn¡¯t even there was¡­ unnerving. We had succeeded with what we had attempted to do. We found Rael, and I made a number out of ¡°Informing him¡± that he and his team was to make ready for a vitally important mission the very next morning. Rael made a properly surprised look at being informed of such and obviously ¡°Accepted¡± the mission. The rest of the day, what little remained of it, passed uneventfully. The Guildmaster was likely doing whatever it was he needed to do to get me that new bracer. Meanwhile, the Party was packing their bags, intending to stay in the dungeon for a long time. They even had an explanation ready for it if someone asked. It would take a while to transport all the valuables and would likely need to stay the night to empty the room. Just before sunset my Alarm trap went off, though I could barely make out the message because of the distance. It was like a bad radio, meaning I had to be on the very edge of its range. <Your guests Rorik, Mint and Surin have arrived in your domain>. Good, they had gotten out OK. That just left the rest of us. Though it interested me that the trap identified them as guests. <If you consider them guests, the dungeon and the creatures within will not consider them intruders. Thus they are not subject to the limitations placed on intruders>. Yikes. Had forgotten about those with all that was going on. Marvellous news for the rest of them, I didn¡¯t fancy having to tell the party they had to camp outside because of the limitations. Both Indella and I went to bed early, we would need to be well rested for tomorrow in case something went badly. Besides, there was always the saying from back home; No plan survives first contact with the enemy, something was likely to go wrong somewhere, I only hoped that would happen after I was out of the city. They would not allow us to rest long, however, as there was a knock on the door, and Indella answered after throwing on some robes, the High Priest was outside. That was a surprising turn of events. What did he want? Indella invited him in with all due respect for such an important individual due and soon after he was sitting comfortably in a chair. Looking at him again I could not help but ask, ¡°So, for what reason did you decide to visit us, High Priest? Even more so after nightfall?¡± The old man looked at me and Indella, it felt¡­ strange, familiar almost, I shuddered. The High Priest just smiled before he replied ¡°Oh I simply wanted to see you in person one more time, you know how it is¡± I looked at him. Was I missing something? ¡°Um¡­ I am not sure I follow?¡± The High Priest just kept smiling ¡°Of course you don¡¯t, there is no way you intend to abscond with a dozen of the finest adventurers in the guild or anything.¡± My blood ran cold, he knew, how did he know¡­ wait the sensation from before he couldn¡¯t be¡­ could he? The old man¡¯s gaze became harder and his smile slowly faded and became more serious. ¡°Take care of those people girl, you will need them before all this is over, I fear. And once out of the city gates, make haste,¡± this made no sense. ¡°Why are you helping us, are you not¡­¡± he interrupted me before I could finish. ¡°Tomorrow morning reassure your allies that their families will be safe, the same goes with your business partner. you have my guarantees as High Priest¡­ and as Avatar of Rubolg.¡± So I was right, this old man was Rubolg¡¯s Avatar, clever disguise. Who would expect his most devoted and chosen follower to also be the shell he used to walk among mortals? The old man chuckled, ¡°I am glad you approve¡± I looked at him with an annoyed expression. ¡°You are dodging the question old man, why are you, the avatar of the God of Balance picking sides?¡± the old man took a deep breath. ¡°I am not taking sides, I am simply guiding the fates in the way they need to go to ensure it will restore balance. You are the key to this, you and your dungeon, though you may not understand why yet. I would recommend strengthening your defenses at the earliest convenience. Inlas will not take your escape lying down and you will have precious little time tomorrow before her silence expires. Do not dawdle, lest you want the escape to suddenly get civilians involved.¡± Neither I nor Indella liked the idea of collateral damage. The high priest nodded, then smiled at both of us before he stood up and walked towards the door. ¡°I will leave you two to it then good night you two pleasant dreams¡± Easy for you to say old man, you might play the part. But I remember that sensation of scrutiny too well. You were not the avatar acting on his own, you were the man himself. <Taboo Removed> Case and point. There probably was a reason for him to pretend to be the Avatar acting on his own. Though I could not for the life of me fathom what that might be. Deniability perhaps, though who would he need to answer to when he literally made all the rules? This made no sense at all to me. Besides, it was getting late, pondering the question would be a waste of time, time better spent resting. If what the cunning old god had said was true, and I had no reason to doubt him. Then this would quickly cease to be a simple stroll in the park, haste would be of the essence. Interlude 7: The flight from Caelyn Indella and I woke up at dawn the next morning, thanks to Rael all but kicking us awake. Normally, I would have clocked him for that, but we did not have the time. I had Indella hop on my back and explained everything to Rael and Mordred telepathically as we left the room. Needless to say, we were tense as we waited for the Guildmaster to show up with my new bracer. It took another hour, but a few of the guild staff showed up in the foyer where we were all waiting impatiently, carrying a rather massive piece of equipment. It was clearly meant for me, as the others could literally stand inside it in full gear and still have space to move. Without a word, I reached my right paw out, and they attached the damn thing to it. It hurt.... a lot, as it faded from view, leaving only a dull ache behind. Accepting the pain without complaint, I watched as they tinkered with something I couldn¡¯t see on my left leg. The bracer came into view as I was no longer wearing it. Indella made a number of making me thank them for my new bracer before we hurried out of the door where we found several wagons waiting for us. Good, if the party had to flee on foot I doubted they would ever make it. Tossing their gear as well as the backpack that Indella had brought along into the wagons, we were making a good way into the early morning streets of the city. We made good time through the mostly empty streets; It was still so early that most of the shops had not had time to open yet, and so traffic was minimal. Though halfway to the gates there was a huge thunderclap, even though the sky was clear. That was probably not a good sign. Even so, we made it to the gates without incident; We had just passed them when we heard the sound of galloping hooves and yelling from behind; We did not need to look back to know what¡¯s going on; the ban had been lifted, and the Guildmaster had sent his loyal men after us. ______________________________________________________________________________ As I watched them go from my window, I returned to my desk; I was exhausted. It had taken quite a bit of work to create a sealing bracer without a tether, in fact; we had almost given up when one of the researchers, an old half-crazed man that I had long suspected might be a Penumbra worshiper, suddenly had an epiphany. Could we just not have the Bracer be the tether rather than a location? It was a brilliant idea, and far easier than putting a restriction on a larger area. Unrestricted movement, but it would still force the core to remain in its bestial form. It would likely be quite painful to use, but that didn¡¯t matter. Once Lady Inlas broke her silence, she would no doubt take residence in the Core¡¯s form. And thus the Core would be freed of any temporary mortal pain. Along with everything else that it would not need to serve as Inlas¡¯ Avatar. I saw them leave with all due haste. Such eagerness to see Inlas¡¯ will fulfilled pleased me to no end. I sat there, musing about all the gems and who knows what else might be stored in the giant treasury. Suddenly, there was a thunderclap from the sky and I felt her presence slamming into my mind like a bolt of lightning. <YOU FOOL, HOW CAN YOU BE SO BLIND>. Her wrath hurt. It felt as though my body burned from her rage. What had I done to earn such ire? <THE CORE IS NOT TAMED YOU IMBECILE AND IT HAS TURNED RAEL AGAINST YOU!>. No, there, there had to be a mistake Gloria was. <GLORIA DOES NOT EXIST, IT WAS THAT ACCURSED DRUIDESS INDELLA, DISGUISED BY MAGIC>. The pieces fell into place instantly. Indella¡¯s disappearance, Rael¡¯s sudden change to the lineup of chanters. The fast friendship between ¡°Gloria¡± and Rael¡¯s party despite her supposed crippling at the hands of a Songstealer. I had been blind, oh so blind. But no more, I needed to catch those traitors and regain control of the Core. I rushed out of the office, I would need to work fast to assemble a pursuit party and I worked as fast as I could. Lady Inlas¡¯ raging presence hammered inside my mind every step of the way, berating me for my foolishness and greed. I had to recapture the core before it could flee to the dungeon, or Inlas might cast me from her grace. ______________________________________________________________________________ The moment we heard the galloping, we knew the jig was up. Time to give up all pretence and get away from the city as fast as possible. Mordred seemed to share my thoughts as he was casting something on the horses, and just a few moments later their speed increased greatly. ¡°Great work!¡± I yelled as I hung onto my seat for dear life, Erem sitting in the wagon behind me, said something but I didn¡¯t catch it. But it seemed to be a form of agreement. The core was beside the wagons. Despite the speed, her sheer size let her keep up with us without doing slightly more than a vigorous trot. She seemed to be focused on something else though, probably discussing something with Indella. Suddenly, a huge shape exploded out from the gate behind us. An absolutely huge wolf like monster with chains wrapped all around it. Shit, a Barghest. That could only mean one thing, a summoner was among the pursuers. This escape just turned a lot harder. The Core trotted up alongside our carriage and Indella, clearly reluctant, hopped off even as the core looked at her and smiled gently. ¡°I know you wanna stay on but if that thing catches up I am the only one who can actually take that thing on. I can fly, after all, and considering we are trying to get away and not massacre half the guild. It would be best to try to avoid bloodshed, besides who knows how many of those pursuing us are doing so of their own free will?¡± Indella looked at her for a moment, indignation written all over her freckled face. But then she deflated in front of the Cores argument, and she tucked in between Sango and Erem. The old man ruffled her hair as she did, earning him an annoyed glance, even as he and Sango both chuckled. The wagons were going as fast as we dared at this point, given the thick layer of morning mist that was still obscuring the ground itself. One misstep into a marmot den or the like would end badly for the horses, not to mention the occupants of the wagon they were pulling. That, however, was not fast enough to shake our pursuers, and the monstrous Barghest was gaining on us. We could even see the summoner riding it, a determined expression on his face. The core slowly fell back, drawing closer to the beast and the summoner. As she ran turned and looked at it, an expression of concentration on her face, a familiar look. The Barghest lashed out against the horses next to it, causing the summoner to yelp in surprise. Though it only took the summoner a single command to regain control of the beast. The binding of the summoning was obviously stronger than the core¡¯s tentative hold of its mind. Even so, that had caused confusion and fear among the ranks of our pursuers, and they fell back to a safer distance, giving us precious time. That did not stop the ones capable of attacking from range to attempt to do so. But at this speed most projectiles simply lacked the punching power to do actual damage, if they even reached us. Mordred gave me a push with his elbow to get my attention. ¡°Rael, take the reins, I have an idea, Indella help me with this, I need some wind blowing towards out pursuers¡± ______________________________________________________________________________ My plan was desperate, though it shouldn¡¯t cause too much damage, given the mist obscuring the ground. Though this was potentially disastrous if I miscalculated. Indella finished her spell, and the wind turned towards our pursuers. I started a spell of my own. The timing had to be perfect, lest I wanted the Barghest to escape. I finished and a wall of fire burst forth, smothered somewhat by the misty ground. The wind blew the flames towards the pursuers, but undeterred they just charged forth. They relied on their magical protections and healing to get them through the fire. That was weird. The fire should have caused the horses to panic, yet they behaved like they hadn¡¯t even seen them. What was going on? Indella looked at me with the same confused expression, though it was Erem who gave a guess first. ¡°Divine providence, Inlas is likely bolstering them and keeping their horses from panicking.¡± but Indella shook her head. *It¡¯s more simplistic than that, a simple Control Animal spell. They are currently without a will of their own. Probably had to do that to prevent the horses from panicking near that fiend.* Right, the girl was a Druid, she could probably sense the enchantment on the horses. *I have another idea, I could try, though I need some assistance. Could you cast some water-based magic at them, preferable Tidal Wave?* Seeing no reason not to, the firewall had done nothing, after all, I started casting. Indella started to cast her own spell. My Tidal Wave went off first, sending a large wave of water in the direction of our pursuers. It came to no surprise to me that the wave never made it as they dispelled it in short order. But then I doubted Indella had planned for it to ever hit them. Which became apparent when the Barghest suddenly lurched, almost sending its rider from its back. What had she done? Indella looked at me. *I turned the wet ground into a bog.* They would have to go around or fight through and both would cost time, giving us an even greater distance between us. ______________________________________________________________________________ The Core and her mortal friends were doing quite well. The fear the Core had instilled in followers by wrestling control of the summoned Barghest had allowed them enough distance to tar pit them with a conjured bog. This would not do, the Core was to be captured and made compliant with my will; It was important to- No, this was not the time to focus on the future; I needed to keep my mind on the present and secure the Core. This was infuriating. Had this been only a few days ago, I could have easily just reached out and stopped the escape myself. But father was watching now, I had to tread lightly. The loss of all the dungeons to my sister might have already cost more than I dared to imagine, but there was nothing I could do with that. As long as I could get the Core, all would be fine, all would work out in the end.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. I could, however, give my blessing to those who were faithful. For those that were, the bog did not slow them at all. The Barghest was just too powerful to be slowed and was still chasing after them. The reminder of the party started to fall behind as they had to go around or get stuck. Even with my aid, they would only barely be able to keep up at this rate. I needed a way to slow them down, without... of course! I gathered the clouds that had been hanging low on the horizon and pushed them forward on a strong wind. Lightning and thunder started to play in them as I pushed them forwards, agitating them, Tyrros, my carefree slacker of a brother, wouldn¡¯t mind. He liked it when his storms got to rage, regardless of who or what caused it. It took a while, but now the core and her companions had no choice but to slow down. Because the ground had turned slick and muddy under the torrent I had unleashed upon them. This allowed my faithful and their steeds to slowly catch up. It was taking too long, however, even with the chase slowing down they would still likely reach the cores¡¯ domain. In which case my sister would be able to intervene directly. ______________________________________________________________________________ Damnable rain, it was slowing us down. Not only that, but Mordred and the other casters were right now involved in a magic battle with the mages that had caught up to us. On top of this Mordred had to also keep casting haste on our mounts every few minutes just to keep the speed up due to the damnable mud. There had to be something I could do to help. Wait, there was! I slowed down slightly falling behind the wagons then fell in behind them, using myself as a shield. As I predicted after the first few spells had narrowly missed me the casting slowed to a crawl. It made sense, I was the prize here after all, they couldn¡¯t risk hurting me. Wait, that was it! ¡°Mordred, you know the way through the maze, right?¡± Mordred was silent for a bit, looking at me with a tired, but inquisitive look. ¡°I can cast a spell to guide me even if I should forget certain parts, why?¡± he answered. I grinned, ¡°Look after Indella. Now¡­ let¡¯s see what¡¯s more important to them. Shall we?¡± I could feel Indella¡¯s frustration. She knew what I was planning, but she also knew she could not come along. If I got caught, and she was with me we were both doomed, but if she got away. Then they still couldn¡¯t do anything to me because of the bond. We both knew this was what had to be done. I broke off from the horses once more, heading diagonally away from the group towards the northwest. The Barghest immediately broke off to go after me and so did several of the riders. The others slowed down again, clearly torn between following the horses or following me. Before they clearly reluctantly broke off pursuit of the party. Good, that would give them time. Besides, even if by some blasted piece of bad luck they caught me, which was unlikely, they still could not break the bond without Indella. That being said, this was a risky move on my end but the only viable one to let the others get away at this point. Or I would just be leading the entire pursuit force, including the Barghest through the maze and into my dungeon anyway because of their proximity. I also noted that the storm seemed to go all across the plain. That meant I would have one major advantage later on. One that didn¡¯t seem to have occurred to my pursuers, for now at least. On I ran, silently being glad that in difference from normal felines, Sphinxes actually had a pretty damn decent stamina. Must be because of the wings. It would be hard to fly if you had no stamina at all. Even more so when you are too big to take advantage of all but the strongest of thermal updrafts to keep aloft. The chase had been going for a good while when the message came. <Bond Partner Indella has entered your domain, your ally Rael and his party has entered your domain as guests>. Good, they had made it. Time to lose the peanut gallery behind me, I spread my wings and took to the sky. No sooner had I gone airborne before I became really glad my flight skill was not only locked to regular flight. But also something I could use my psionic abilities to achieve because no sooner had I gotten off the ground before the wind turned absolutely horrendous. If I had been flying normally, I would have smashed into the ground face first. As it was I got slightly wobbly. However, I kept climbing, more importantly I was picking up speed, fast. I turned back towards my dungeon. No point in hiding where I was going, it was the obvious place to go and the only place I could get that accursed bracer off of me. That was when the first spell shot past me. They were now trying to shoot me down, but I was almost out of range of all but the weakest and thus longest lasting magics. The few that actually hit tickled slightly. I arrived at the dungeon about half an hour later and found the party in the process of venturing through the maze. They had stopped the wagons and cut the horses free. That made sense, I had no way to keep them in my dungeon and letting them just stand there would be cruel, better to let them move freely. I landed in front of Mordred and almost got a magic missile in my face for my efforts. Apparently the storm had masked the sound of my approach, as well as drowned out Indella¡¯s telepathic message when she tried to tell them. Though I would applaud Miriam for realizing and pulling her aim off at the last second, she seemed to be blushing. I chuckled and just shook my head, then led the party through the rest of the labyrinth myself. But not before I had Rael and Erem hoist an almost unconscious Mordred onto my back. It was uncomfortable, but the man was almost dead on his feet, having cast spells for literally hours almost non-stop. He deserved a breather. Indella climbed back on to my back as well as she cited. *You owe me this much for running off on your own.* Fair enough. We entered the dungeon proper and finally got out of the horrid weather. Inside we were met by practically the entire Red Scale Tribe, with only Lienru and a few others missing, Duplica and even a handful of Duergar Warriors. Though once they saw me leading the ones who entered they relaxed visibly. I smiled at them and sat down so Rael could help Mordred off of me, Indella hopped off as well. ¡°Ssatassha could you have Lienru prepare food for me and my guests? They have risked much to help me. And they could need a good meal right now and someplace to rest.¡± Ssatassha looked over at the party, somewhat curiously. She clearly recognized them from their last visit, before she nodded. ¡°Yes, Great One, will do, great meal for all of you will be right up, Lienru will be elated about the news no doubt!¡± She and the rest of the tribe members present ran off into their little tunnels with small celebratory squeals. Rael looked over at me. ¡°Huh, didn¡¯t know you spoke Kobold.¡± I chuckled. ¡°I speak all languages Rael, even Rat, thanks to my Telepathy and Babel. Though non-sentient creatures are too simplistic to bother listening to. Though to me, you all sound like you speak the same language. So, I fear I would make a poor language teacher or translator.¡± That seemed to give Rael something to think about. The Duergar were giving the Dwarf trio some dark looks and were getting the same in return, but seemed to be content with that. Guess the two hated one another as much in this world as in the game. Right now the only thing stopping them from trying to kill one another was the fact that this was my dungeon. If they attacked, both the party and I would just manhandle the two groups to the ground. Using Magical Labyrinth, I simply parted the maze and opened a path for us to the next floor. No point in dallying around in another maze. The party seemed crestfallen but relieved at that as I led them down the corridor, while Duplica ran ahead and disarmed the few traps that were on the path. The Duergar unit fell in behind the party as we trudged down to the 2nd floor. There we were met by more Kobolds. These were holding lit Mushroom torches, which they eagerly handed to the party. Meanwhile, I was busy doing a quick addition to the dungeon, a path leading up the wall to the tunnel that led to the Kobold village. I had originally intended to bunker the party at the Duergar. But seeing how poorly the three dwarves and the Duergar reacted to one another. I decided it was best to keep the two groups separate. As we wandered through the hallways Mordred suddenly lifted his head and looked at me. ¡°This¡­ isn¡¯t the way to the hive room.¡± He looked at me, I calmly responded to his unasked question. ¡°It is not, while I normally eat in the room behind the hive it is far too cramped to accommodate all of us and a feast. So, we are headed for the Kobold Village.¡± As I finished speaking, I could start to smell the delectable scent of Shroomcow steak and by the looks of things, so could the party as they suddenly perked up. they eagerly took in the scents, especially Pavol seemed eager for this. ¡°What¡¯s that smell? He asked as he looked up at me. ¡°That would be our feast being prepared, believe it or not Pavol, that slop they fed me at the guild is not my standard fare of food. I prefer more civilized dining, granted I do not have any utensils that fit my paws, yet. But at least cooked food and something civilized to drink, like tea is a must. I don¡¯t mind raw meat, mind, but why bother with that when Lienru and her apprentices are such wonderful and eager Chefs?¡± The Party gave me some strange looks, I tilted my head in response. ¡°What?¡± Rael was the first to respond. ¡°We just¡­ didn¡¯t expect this, I suppose.¡± I gave a snort. ¡°Of course you didn¡¯t. Everyone in this world seems to have a rather shallow view of what dungeons are, what cores are and what dungeon inhabitants are. We are all people, Rael, every single creature in my dungeon, with exception to the Strider Drones, have their own personalities, wants, hopes, dreams, likes and dislikes. They have friends, rivals, favorite foods, and even hobbies, every single one, even the Typhoid Rats.¡± I paused and looked at the party and Indella, who all seemed quite thoughtful at my words as I continued. ¡°Don¡¯t take my word for it. Converse with the ones who can speak the trade language, like Duplica, Ssatassha or the Duergar, I also think Lienru know some of it.¡± I took a deep breath and continued to guide them in silence, letting them ponder my words. As we neared the newly created path we ran into Rorik, Mint and Surin as well. They were all sitting there, looking just fine, if a little lost. Mint rose as we approached and ran over, clearly not bothered by the darkness at all. ¡°There you are. The Duergar led us here and told us to wait, then just ditched us without an explanation. Then this path just grew out of the wall on its own. Also, what is that terrific smell, it¡¯s driving me nuts with hunger!¡± figures. The Duergar were a rather practically minded lot that didn¡¯t waste words unless they had to. Taking the lead up the ramp, I looked down at the rest of them. ¡°Mind your manners in the Kobold Village, you are guests and I expect you to act like it. Oh, and for your own sake, don¡¯t accept the mushroom wine, it¡¯s strong enough to KO a dragon in just a few cups and can lead to some embarrassing situations. If it cannot knock you out or the alcohol poisoning doesn¡¯t get you first. Speaking from personal experience¡± I continued to lead them up and with just a thought disabled the illusory wall at the top. Indella caught up with me halfway up the ramp *How much of it did you drink?* She was grinning widely until I responded. ¡°4 kegs about 20 liters each.¡± She stopped grinning and look at me like some kind of freak. *How did you survive that if it¡¯s so strong?* I shrugged. ¡°I am immune to poison, which is the only reason I am alive right now.¡± Indella just shook her head slowly. She could feel that I wasn¡¯t lying, so she had no choice but to believe me. It didn¡¯t make it anymore believable though, come to think of it I hadn¡¯t told them what I used the cores for. Once we arrived in the village, the preparations were already under way. Though once we showed up there some chaos as a small shape collided with my left leg so fast I thought it was an arrow for a moment. But no, it was Lienru, who was openly crying upon seeing my return. Poor thing must have been worried, I gave her some reassuring pats, before I turned to the escort of Duergar following us. ¡°Thank you for your escort. I would offer to let you join us for the festivities, but I have a feeling Shroomcow does not appeal to your tastes.¡± The Duergar all nodded in agreement on that. ¡°As such I hereby give you all leave to party as you see fit tonight. Though I do request that you send a Duergar Blacksmith up to take a look at the Bracer on my leg, I want him to remove it without destroying it. And tomorrow see if he or she can study it and improve upon its design, so I can use it without having to rely on others to take it off.¡± The Duergar nodded. Smiles were actually showing on their bearded faces as they rushed off after a quick salute. Looked like the third floor would also be a place of festivities tonight. Chapter 14: Parties and Pasts The party lasted essentially the rest of the day, despite the pursuers coming after us. The torrential storm outside the dungeon had made further pursuit slow to a crawl as the planes had literally turned into a nigh impassable muddy bog. Even if they were still coming after us they would be utterly exhausted by the time they arrived. I doubted they could send in anything remotely threatening at us for now. Of course, it would not keep them out forever, sooner or later the storm would abate, and they would send fresh parties, however I didn¡¯t mind. I would need their help to continue to expand further. Rael and his party had been a great gain, so further incursions from others would be likely to help a lot. Especially now that they couldn¡¯t use sheer numbers to just overrun my forces. Keeping that in mind I remembered I still had those two cores that I had taken before I got captured, I had not used those yet. I took them out and studied them, causing curious glances from my recovering and rather jovial guests *Say, why were you buying those cores anyway?* Indella¡¯s curiosity was like a small flame in the back of my mind as I responded, ¡°Why don¡¯t I demonstrate?¡± I took one of the cores and tossed it into my mouth, then swallowed. <You have consumed the core of Brakara, the Riddle Master. Ooh, lucky get Boss Lady, this core is from a rare Sphinx Variant, a real treat, you¡¯ll get some nice skills from this one>. I somehow doubted that Yndali had parted willingly with this one if it was from a rare Variant. Well, too late now. Dungeon Name: Labyrinthia Dungeon Biomes: Magical Maze, The Depths, Deep Labyrinth Dungeon Level: 4, DEXP: 22/150 Depth: 3/3, Rooms: 47 Resources: Essence: 927/2400, EP: 62, TP: 21, M: 14, E/D: 40 Avatar Attributes Avatar Race: Umbral Sage Sphinx (Tier 2 Legendary Unique Variant) Avatar Gender: Female Avatar Level: 2, EXP: 240/450 HP: 160/160, MP: 200/200 Attack: 160, Defense: 160 Magic Attack: 200 Magic Defense: 200 Strength: 16 (ATK), Dexterity: 16 (Def), Endurance: 16(HP) Intelligence: 20, (MATK) Wisdom: 20, (MP), Charisma: 20 (MDEF) Penumbra 79% > 21% Inlas, Divinity: 3% Synchronization: 60%, Core Type: Advanced Cores Eaten: 4 Titles: ¡°Evolved one¡± ¡°Vengeance Seeker¡± Skills: Penumbral Psionics(Racial), Cleaving Swipe LvMAX(Racial), Roar LvMAX(Racial), Penumbral Archives(Umbral Unique), Dungeon Siege Mistress(Master Compound), Blessing of Penumbra(Mythical Umbral Blessing) Umbral Knowledge Lv1(Umbral), Damage Resistance Lv2, Mud Golem Status Immunities(Core), Fire Resistance Lv2(Core), Deception Lv4(Core), Ancient Legacy(Evolution), ¡°Receive Linked Senses¡±(Gift), Innate Caster(Core), Illusionist(Core), Divination(Core), Sphinx Curse(Unique Core), Challenge(Core)(Riddles) Hmm, 10 each of EP, TP and M, and¡­ Oh, Divination Magic, would have to ask the Duergar priests to teach me how to do that. Not to mention I had to remind Mordred to teach me how to do illusion magic. The Sphinx Curse looked interesting, and I could guess what the Challenge meant. <The effect of the skill ¡°Sphinx Curse¡± means anyone who fails your ¡°Challenge¡± will suffer the penalty you outline at the start of the challenge. So if you use challenge and state that failure means death, the curse will immediately kill them. It will not work on enemies that have a higher combined mental + constitution stat total. In your case that means anyone you challenge with a total of 77 or higher will resist the curse. Anyone else will suffer the penalty if they fail the riddle>. That seemed a tad too powerful. It had a drawback, right? <Yes, they can refuse the challenge to begin with>. Figures, I would need to acquire a support skill to implement a penalty on refusal or make it impossible to refuse somehow. <Cores from Orcs or other monsters who have ritualistic duels could yield the skill ¡°Irrefutable Challenge¡±. It makes it so that refusing the challenge means to fail it>. I needed to get my hands on one of those, and- my inner celebration was interrupted by Indella. *Did you just¡­ gain power from eating that core?* Indella and the rest looked at me with a great deal of understandable surprise. I nodded, ¡°Yes, I did, it¡¯s what I use the cores for. Consuming them grants me power I can use to expand the dungeon as well as skills. In this case I picked up some rather powerful ones.¡± Pavol opened his book and started to rifle through it like a madman until he finally reached the end of it. ¡°No record of such a thing has ever been recorded.¡± He mumbled as he took out an inkwell and quill and started to write into his book about it. Indella looked at me again. *That¡¯s how you have poison immunity, it''s from a core you consumed.* I smiled and nodded once more. ¡°Indeed, one of the cores gave me ¡°Mud Golem Immunities¡± which grants the skill holder immunity to Poison, Stun and Exhaustion. I guess that last one actually came quite handy earlier, had completely forgotten about that part of the skill. It doesn¡¯t help against Essence Deficiency or the need to sleep, but it¡¯s still handy.¡± I shrugged, to me, it was a nice way to get stronger without grinding. To them, it seemed like their entire world had come down. Mordred, who seemed a lot better now, just shook his head. ¡°This is completely unheard of. Even the few times when a core has gotten access to the dead core of a fellow Dungeon they have never consumed it. So, how can you do so?¡± Was this really that unusual? I mean sure Dungeons typically didn¡¯t have access to one another so that would not likely be a common occurrence. But was this something that was unique to me or could other dungeons do so as well? <Core Consumption is something all dungeons can do. But given how hard it is for a dungeon to get a hold of a dead core. The chance for it to know it¡¯s an option in the first place is slim to none. There might have been a few occasions where a Core has found out. But understandably they didn¡¯t tell any intruders into their domain if that was the case>. Huh, that makes sense. I told Rael and the party what the Archives had informed me and Indella about, and they seemed to relax. Though Rael paused for a moment, thinking about something before he looked at me. ¡°There is this one thing that has been on my mind for a while now. Back at the guild you said that you had mental baggage from ¡°Prior to burying myself in Dungeon Building¡± what did you mean by that?¡± Oh, right, I did say that didn¡¯t I. Was I really comfortable telling them that tidbit? I mean, I had spilled the beans about practically everything except the ¡°other world¡± part. Was it even safe to tell them? <Yes, provided you trust them enough> I looked at the group who had risked everything and given up practically everything for me. The answer to that was a simple one. ¡°I meant exactly what I said, I have not always been a dungeon.¡± That earned me some pretty incredulous looks as well as glances at a rather baffled Indella who could do nothing but confirm I was indeed telling the truth. ¡°I mentioned Mother made me to combat Inlas dungeon predation as a last ditch effort to survive, didn¡¯t I?¡± They confirmed that I did. ¡°Well what I didn¡¯t tell you was that I was human, and I come from another world entirely before I was made into a dungeon. I guess you could say Mother sort of kidnapped me, though I can¡¯t really say I blame her for such a desperate move, not entirely.¡± There was silence now not only from the party but from the Kobolds as well. ¡°I¡­¡± I hesitated, before taking a deep breath. ¡°I was a shut-in type of person back home, had been for nearly a decade by the point Mother absconded with my soul. Before I shut myself away from the world, however, I had been a rising star in the NVR gaming circuit. I know you have no idea what that means. So, basically think of it like being a young up-and-coming adventurer that everyone has heard about despite them being very new and inexperienced. The prodigy of the next generation, that sort of thing.¡± The party nodded, good the analogy worked. ¡°I was not alone in my climb, however I... had a teammate.¡± The pain in my voice was obvious now. ¡°She was my best friend, we were inseparable. Or so I thought, anyway. We shared practically everything with one another, as close as you could be without being more than just friends.¡± Indella gave my left leg a comforting hug as she felt the painful emotions welling up in me. Rael looked at me with a serious expression, ¡°She betrayed you, didn¡¯t she?¡± I nodded, ¡°It was just after the finals of one of the biggest tournaments of the year. We had won an amazing upset victory, then as we entered the back room I was suddenly arrested, suspected of using a hacked rig.¡± That earned me some strange looks. ¡°Think of it as reporting an adventuring quest as succeeded, without actually doing it, or reporting it failed when you succeeded. In order to keep the items gained for yourself to sell later for a higher price.¡± Rael turned slightly green at the thought, clearly that thing was quite serious indeed. As I had guessed when I gave that as a viable comparison. ¡°This accusation cost me everything I had worked towards, this tourney was supposed to be our big break. Mine and hers, recruiters from all the big teams had been watching us and had lined up to get us signed up with them. With the accusations of hacking against me, however. I was summarily disqualified from the tournament and ignored by the recruiters, while my ¡°Best Friend¡± got slotted for one of the best teams in the region. The charges were dropped eventually since there was no evidence. Hard to find evidence of a crime that was never committed, after all. But by that point it was too late, I had essentially become Pariah by that point, a joke.¡± Everyone looked somewhat uncomfortable with my words. I guess they could imagine how someone with such serious charges against them would be treated by their former fans.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. ¡°I sank into depression, from ¡°Teenage Phenomenon¡± to ¡°Pariah¡± in less than a week. I even contemplated taking my own life a few times, that¡¯s how low I was. Instead, I sank myself into another game that I had been pondering trying out prior to the tournament. It was called ¡°Dungeon Masters¡± and it essentially lets you play a game that is very similar to how life works here. There are a few differences, but the similarities are¡­ uncanny in many cases. Dungeon Masters became an obsession of mine to forget the world as much as possible. And before I knew it, I had created the biggest, most massive dungeon ever within the game. It¡¯s also where I created Minos.¡± That last part got a start out of the party, with Mordred looking wide-eyed at me. ¡°You CREATED him?¡±. ¡°Yeah, Minos is my masterpiece in that game. I spent more resources to create him alone than the rest of my entire massive dungeon with all its traps, creatures, items and resources combined. Funny really, Penumbra took me from my world, but not because of me personally. She was actually after my massive dungeon. But Rubolg told her ¡°balance had to be maintained and all parts of the dungeon, including the core, had to be brought over.¡± I am actually not angry and Penumbra for kidnapping me, not anymore, I had no friends or family left back there anyway and even after all those years. I was still basically an outcast in the gaming circuit, that and having to see her face all over the place due to her fame was driving me insane.¡± Indella hugged me closer, I could sense warmth from her that was comforting, safe. *She became successful didn¡¯t she, despite what she did* I nodded. ¡°When I was arrested, she didn¡¯t even try to support me, she just smiled smugly as I was dragged out of the room by the police. The equivalent of this world¡¯s town guards. Then went to see if anyone would draft her. Never met her in person again, though she became world famous a few years later. I view getting dragged over here as a blessing these days, sure it¡¯s been adversity here as well, but I have also met friends, genuine friends.¡± Erem looked at me thoughtfully. ¡°Hang on, if Penumbra was trying to get this massive dungeon of yours into this world. Why was your dungeon only two floors?¡± he asked, though from his voice I could hear that he had a suspicion. ¡°Inlas interfered with the transfer process. Because of that, even if I wanted to go back home, I can¡¯t. Inlas¡¯ interference caused my body back home to die, and the only things that Mother could transfer over in her weakened state was my soul. She reincarnated into my avatar from the game. She also salvaged Minos, which she gave to me as a Gift Monster. I can¡¯t summon him, mind you because of the absolutely insane upkeep having what equates to a demigod running around would incur on my dungeon. At least not until I can get the right support items unlocked. That, however, is still quite a way off. Mothers original intention was to transfer my dungeon with everything in it. With Minos as the Core and me as a human who had Tamed Minos.¡± Surprisingly, none of Rael¡¯s party seemed overly surprised to learn that Minos was borderline a demigod. Though they seemed surprised when I mentioned Mother¡¯s original intent. Rorik just shook his head. ¡°I don¡¯t get it, isn¡¯t Penumbra supposed to hate humans?¡± Indella looked at him with a shocked and angry expression, causing him to blush deeply. *Lady Penumbra does not hate humanity, she dislikes that they harm her children. The dungeons and the Monsters, but she doesn¡¯t hate them. If she did, she would not allow worship from humans or create Druids. I have told you this dozens of times Rorik, when will you listen?* Indella was mad and I could empathize, given that was her boyfriend she was talking too. I nodded in agreement with Indella. ¡°From my limited interactions with my Mother, I can plainly say she holds no dislike for humans or humanity at all. In fact, she seems more concerned with protecting her children more than anything.¡± There was a communal gasp of shock from around the room, with Indella seeming the most shocked at all. *You have¡­ spoken to Lady Penumbra?* I nodded. ¡°After I summoned Minos, it triggered a skill he had that purged the curse Inlas had put on me. While I was unconscious after that Mother spoke to me for the first time.¡± Hang on, what was I suddenly thinking of Mother as Mother? <Synchronization went up from eating the core because of ¡°Sphinx Curse¡± being a skill you would gain at a higher level. Because it was a skill with perfect compatibility, you earned Synchronization in the process>. Ah, so because of that I was now viewing her as my Mother. <Correct>. The entire gathering was quiet as I finished my tale. Ssatassha and the rest of the tribe had by this point joined Indella in hugging me. So, I now had a small blanket of Kobolds on my back and my sides. Meanwhile, the party looked thoughtful even as Rael mumbled to himself. ¡°That explains so much.¡± Now it was my turn to be curious. ¡°Explains what?¡± Rael looked me in the eye as he spoke. ¡°Your unusual competence, you were supposed to be younger than a week old. Yet you were giving us a gauntlet fit for the most veteran cores out there. If you had more time and resources to prepare, then we would not have stood a chance. You would have bled us dry before reaching your Core Room.¡± I chuckled, ¡°Given the circumstances, I am glad that I didn¡¯t have enough. I might still be cursed by Inlas if I had repelled you sooner.¡± Rael couldn¡¯t help but nod in agreement. It was at this point the Duergar Blacksmith I had sent for arrived. Interrupting our talk as he examined my bracer. It took a few minutes before he puzzled out how to open the damnable thing. The sense of relief as it was taken off was¡­ immeasurable. It was as if a heavy load I had not even realized I was carrying had been removed from my shoulders. The throbbing pain had ceased too. ¡°This ere is a nasty piece of work Melady, are ye sure ya want me ta study it for later use?¡± I nodded to the Blacksmith. ¡°It allows me to walk freely as I see fit even outside of my domain. If the thoughts I picked up from the ones delivering it are to be believed. And with no range limitation at all, meaning if push comes to pull, I could move the entire dungeon to another area completely. The blacksmith now eyed the bracer with renewed interest. ¡°And if I can puzzle out ¡®ow it works, I might be able ta make em for the other creatures too, I see yer point Melady. I will study it the best I can, ye ave me word!¡± With that the Blacksmith walked off with the bracer on his back. How the lone Duergar could lift it was a mystery to me, but then I had not noticed any weight from it at all either. I considered taking the second core as well, but I remembered far too well the result of overindulging in them and considering how much the headache had bothered me. I didn¡¯t feel like exposing Indella to it by pushing my luck. The meal slowly resumed after this and it didn¡¯t take long before the party was back on in full swing. During one round of toasts, however, Pavol came up to me, wishing to ask something. ¡°I was wondering a little thing about our err¡­ last visit to the dungeon¡± he trailed off, clearly nervous, so I encouraged him to continue. ¡°Go on?¡± he flinched for a moment ¡°Well apparently during the encounter some small Insectoids the¡­ Swarmlings seemed to hold a particular hatred for my book is that¡­ normal?¡± Huh? Hatred for his¡­ oh¡­ OH! ¡°That might have actually been partially my fault. Your book had answers to so many of my ideas that I decided to come up with a way to get revenge on you later. I guess my indignation must have been felt by Hive Queen Talka. So, I guess she tasked the Swarmlings with removing it from existence when she and her Hive was strengthened by Minos¡¯ powers.¡± Pavol nodded slowly as I talked. He then looked up at me. ¡°So I don¡¯t have to worry about a repeat?¡± I chuckled ¡°I will ask Talka to not harm your book¡± Pavol visibly relaxed. ¡°Speaking of books, I do have a Library if you are interested. Though there is a rule for using it¡± Pavol looked up at me with a clearly interested expression. ¡°What rule?¡± he looked almost too eager to listen. ¡°Do not harm the books in any way, nor remove them from the Library itself. They are all heavily warded, you see. So attempting either would be an¡­ extremely bad idea if you have any plans to go on living.¡± Pavol seemed to have gotten the point. So, I asked one of the Kobolds to lead him to the Library through some hidden passages. I had them built to allow my monsters access to it without having to cross the balance bridge leading to my old Core Room. It was also how the Duergar got here and would be getting back without risking life and limb. It was a risk having that passage, yes, but the chance of anyone finding it was almost 0. The entrance was not far from the Kobold Village and continued all the way to the old core room. Invaders would have had to find the forest, know about the existence of a hidden passage, then search for the hidden passage. All of which was easier said than done, seeing as the forest was out of the way. The entrance to it was well hidden, and the continued stream of Striders from Talka¡¯s Boss Room would all but force intruders to head in that direction instead. As I was contemplating this Mordred staggered over, still exhausted, but in much better spirits with his stomach full of Lienru¡¯s cooking. ¡°These little ones are certainly skilled cooks, I take it you taught them?¡± Ah, another lover of good food, are you Mordred? I can relate. ¡°I taught the tribe the basics, the rest they used the library to learn, they actually outstripped my abilities within a few hours.¡± Mordred looked genuinely shocked. ¡°I knew Kobolds could learn and adapt quickly, but that¡¯s ridiculous.¡± I shrugged, I was not too surprised about anything the little ones did anymore. ¡°They are quick to learn new things, that¡¯s for sure. It was also the Tribe here that kept resetting the traps behind you and opening up the plugged tunnels.¡± Mordred looked at a group of Kobolds that was dancing around one bonfire, drunk on Mushroom Wine. ¡°I can see the little guys managing such a feat with ease. That being said, I didn¡¯t know Kobolds were native to this biome.¡± I looked over at Mordred. ¡°They aren¡¯t, these were wandering monsters after their dungeon got destroyed. I basically made a Pact with them and let them stay here.¡± I told Mordred and the party the story of how I had met Ssatassha and adopted her Tribe into my dungeon. Tarad was grumbling once I finished. ¡°Sounds like Jaxel and his gang ta me, they never even try ta tame a dungeon. Just kill it, da murderous assholes.¡± Dally looked over at him. ¡°Funny, had ya said that just a few days ago I would have asked if ye had lost yer marbles, seein as we were of da same view.¡± Tarad shrugged. ¡°Ye learn something new every day, today we learned dungeons ain¡¯t just mindless beasts.¡± The party and several of the Kobolds toasted to that. I told them about the wine, didn¡¯t I? Well, here¡¯s hoping there won¡¯t be any funerals by sundown. The entire party was still around by sundown, luckily, and had made fast friends with the Kobolds. With Mint, and a trio of Kobold hunters having made plans to go out and hunt Shroomcow and Sporabbit the following morning. Meanwhile, Mordred and Lienru were discussing the applications of spices in cooking. Who would have thought Mordred was such an enthusiast about the culinary arts? I had also discussed the topic of lodgings with the others. Everyone, even the Kobolds, agreed that they should make a camp here for now. The Kobolds would help them to make something more permanent to live in later on. The forest was the only place in the dungeon that would allow them to defend themselves against numbers with any confidence. Mostly due to the small ramp leading up to the tunnel and because it was out of the way. They could sally out in and fall on intruders from behind in case of attacks on the 2nd floor. It was partway through this discussion that Sisslkin arrived with a tray containing 17 small vials. He quickly started to divide them among the party and also gave one to Indella. ¡°Gift of friendship to our new allies.¡± The Kobold said, smiling widely. Curious as to what it was I probed Sisslkin¡¯s mind and was quite surprised to learn the contents of the vials. The party would definitely enjoy it, that was for sure. Pavol had taken a whiff out of the content of his potion. Then he leafed through his book again and gasped when he found the answer to what he was holding. ¡°Potion of Eternal Owl¡¯s Sight. It gives permanent Darkvision to the ones who drink it. Or improves it if you already possess it from other sources.¡± It would seem my Kobolds had not been idle in the days I had been away, that was for sure. There was no hesitation from the party at all. Darkvision would be far better than having to rely on torches that would give you away and limit your vision outside of its cone of light. As they drank it, there was some wincing from the party as the potion took effect, though suddenly my own eyes started to tingle too. Right, I shared passive effects with Indella, so both of us were affected by the potion and my Darkvision. Not sure how much it would affect the two of us, but Rael and his party would enjoy a pretty decent sight range with it. Long enough to go far beyond what a torch would have done for them, at any rate. <Intrudes have entered your domain>. Ah, they had finally caught up, no time for festivities for me, I had to get my first floor repopulated and the maze reshuffled. With that in mind, I triggered Magical Labyrinth and told the others I would be back later. I had some defenses to prepare for, some unwelcome guests above. Time to get ready for Inlas¡¯ assault. Chapter 15: If Intruder == True, go to Adventurer = Cubed There is something to be said for surprises, both good and bad. For example, Inlas¡¯ little minions entered the above-ground Maze expecting an easy road to my dungeon. Too bad for them what awaited them was the better part of three hours¡¯ worth of slogging ankle deep in sticky mud thanks to the storm that was still raging outside. If I still had my physical form, I would have likely had a hard time seeing or hearing anything at all. On the flip side, what awaited them when they finally reached my dungeon was another surprise, this one in the form of a barrier barring entry for the intruders. No surprise there. There were almost 60 of them, and they honestly expected me to just let them in? Get real, no more War Mode fellas. So you have to divide into smaller groups if you want to get in here. It took a bit of trial and error on their end. But finally, they realized that the only way the barrier would drop was if a party of four people approached. With the rest so far behind they would never make it in time, even with haste active. Damn straight, I would probably pick up the Mastery upgrade to allow a party of six in later on. For now, they would have to deal with only getting four. A Tank, a Healer and two Damage dealers, they were about the same level Rael and his party had been during their first visit. But with only a third of Rael¡¯s party, they posed a significantly less threat. Besides, it¡¯s not like I had been idle in the hours it took them to get through the outside maze. I had actually been a busy little core and had prepared accordingly. First, I had burned 20 of my 21 TP to unlock the Sludge Pit(7TP), Shadowed Alcove(6TP), and a 7TP Enhancement to my teleport traps. The upgrade gave it a Targeted AoE so it would take an entire party in one fell swoop to a specific location of my choosing if it went off. It had been with quite a bit of glee that I had, considering the party size limitation, pointed all the teleport traps to the same location. I felt a bit bad for dumping them there. But then they were the ones breaking into my home. It would decidedly be a nasty surprise for them, that was for sure. I also spent 20 EP to unlock two of the intermediate creatures for the first floor that I now had support buildings for. Then spent a bit of time renovating parts of the maze to have dead end rooms for the support. In the East was the Support Room for the Shadows, a surprisingly dangerous ambush predator that could be added into my maze because it had an active biome Influence. Though this one just required any influence, rather than a Depth Influence specifically. Meaning the Shadow was not likely to migrate, or so I hoped. I was running out of creatures to place short of Advanced at this point and those were, for obvious reasons, pretty damn expensive. I gave the stats of the Shadow another once over before I summoned a few. Monster: Shadow Genus: Undead, Shade Biome: Any Influenced Unlock cost: 8 EP HP: 130 MP: 100 Attack: 60, Defense: 140 Magic Attack: 60, Magic Defense: 80 Strength: 6, Dexterity: 14, Endurance: 13 Intelligence: 6, Wisdom: 10, Charisma: 8 Upkeep: 5, If you have Shadowed Alcove, 1 Skills: Physical Resistance LvMAX(Racial), Elemental Resistance LvMAX(Racial), Corrosion Resistance LvMAX(Racial), Holy Weakness LvMAX(Racial), Undead Immunities(Racial), Living Shadow(Racial), Master Ambusher(Racial), Wall Walk(Racial), Stealth LvMAX(Racial), Strength Eater(Racial), Spawn Shadows(Racial Unique), Sense Life(Racial) Not the most dangerous intermediate creature out there. But it would certainly be a pretty nasty piece of work to deal with for a small party, thanks in no small part due to its maxed out resistance skills. It would cut all damage it took in half from what it was resistant to. And thanks to ¡°Living Shadow¡± it was also impervious to unholy and dark attribute attacks and most restraining effects. The thing that made it dangerous in a fight was not its physical damage, however. In fact, it had little in the way of ability to deal any damage at all since ¡°Living Shadow¡± also cut all damage it would deal by 90%. This would have been crippling if it weren¡¯t for ¡°Strength Eater¡± and ¡°Spawn Shadows¡±. Strength Eater would sap the strength of those the shadows hit permanently. And if they dropped to 0 strength¡­ instant death. This would be followed by reanimation as a new shadow within twenty-four hours. It was not a harmless monster by any stretch. Most parties could handle them pretty easily because of their weakness to holy and light-based magics. Thanks to its ¡°Holy Weakness¡± and ¡°Living Shadow¡± conferring automatic ¡°Light Weakness LvMAX¡± as part of its package deal, respectively. Still, even if they survived that they would be weakened until someone or something could magically restore their lost strength. Which would make it all the worse for them, considering the monster I planned to combine them with. I had summoned about a dozen Shadows to replace some of my troops; It hurt my income to take a bite out of it that high. But these guys had some pretty high respawn timers so if they died I would need more. Not to mention this floor had become quite expansive, so a dozen would really not be able to cover all of it. Nor did they have Labyrinth sense. Though they didn¡¯t really need that since they could use the Kobold¡¯s Tunnels since they were literal shadows able to go flat onto the ground. By this point the first party of four had entered. A Priest, a Rogue, a warrior of some kind. Probably a Shield Knight Class Variant, if his plate mail and Tower Shield was any indication. And a mage of some kind that I could not identify. Other than it was likely not a sorcerer, given the huge tome he was lugging around. I had my other unlock ready to go, but I had¡­ Plans for this one summon. Even with the support room, their upkeep had only gone from 5 to 3, but that didn¡¯t matter. These little guys would clean up anything in their way, literally. I let them wander into the main Maze area before I summoned my newest monster, literally on top of their casters. The thing was¡­. Crystal clear, so clear that I could hardly see it. Heck if it wasn¡¯t for the *SKLOP* sound as it engulfed the priest and mage I wouldn¡¯t have been able to tell that it was there. And it also took the Warrior and Rogue a second to realize what had happened. They watched as it appeared that their friends had frozen in mid-step. The rogue walked closer and slowly reached out his hand; It hit a soft flat surface, then slowly sank inside. Then the rogue tried to retract his hand and found it stuck. Then whatever he had touched started to reel the rouge in and move closer to the Knight as well. Seriously this Rogue had to be new, no adventurer with even a slight bit of experience would move closer to a Gelatinous Cube. Unfortunately for this quartet, they had lost all ability to deal any damage to the thing because it was just immune to physical damage. It was also in the process of digesting the Priest and Mage alive; It was meant to be able to engulf things. So swords and daggers and other non-magical weapons could cut it, but those cuts would just instantly heal again, leaving no discernible damage at all. Even if the Rogue was a variant that used poisons or acids it would do nothing here as the Cube was immune to both since it was an Ooze. That being said, the cube had next to no magical defenses at all. So if it was detected, mages would easily be able to kill it. Too bad the only mage this group was probably close to, if not already dead¡­ As I watched the Cube take care of the rogue and move towards the Knight, I noticed that I didn¡¯t feel pity for them anymore; It was somewhat disturbing to realize, probably because my Synchronization had gone up so fast. Or maybe I was suffering from trauma from when Rael almost conquered me. Either way I felt nothing as the Knight turned, fled and shortly after stepped on a Magical Mine. He was blown to pieces since he lacked the Rogues class ability that lowered damage from traps. Once the cube passed the area around the trap did not show any sign of the knight¡¯s passing. As the cube fit perfectly in the hallway, being literally a 5x5x5 meter cube. After seeing that horribly effective display, I summoned a few more. My E/D was now down from 40 prior to summoning the shadows, to 16 after summoning the 4th cube, this sucked. Luckily I had the Masteries needed to unlock the Chrysalis Copse, so I could extend the Starsilver Crag and Geode Cavern. Sure the Copse had its own upkeep cost, probably to feed the cocooned Crawlers. But it was only 5e/d, and once I had more Pharos Wings, that was an upkeep I could easily afford. Especially now that I had gotten more income from these four adventurers. Not much from each. Only 4 points in all categories for all of them and 40 essence total. I could inspect the status of the Cube later. As the barrier had faded now that the party was dead. And the next round of intruders had already made their way inside. It was an utter disaster for them, not because of the cube or the shadows. Not at all. They made short work of them, so they clearly had some experience, but they lacked a Rogue to scout for traps. Why in the world they would not have a rogue was beyond me. But as it was, they triggered one of my Teleport Traps. One moment they were in my Maze, bravely trekking forwards, the next, they were in a far more¡­ sinister environment. Hazalaar would undoubtedly enjoy his new playthings if he found them before the Rats, Worms or Black Oozes did. At least until they expired at any rate, cruel? Yes, undoubtedly, effective? Undeniable. Did I feel bad for doing it considering they might be brainwashed? Yes, but I simply did not have the luxury to take them all prisoner and try to sort out who was brainwashed and who was just a fanatic. I lacked the facilities needed to hold prisoners, for one. And if they escaped, they could wreak untold havoc since they would then be intruding in vast numbers far inside my own defenses. I simply could not take that risk. As much as it pained me to do so, I had to draw the line somewhere and this was it. I did idly note that while it pained me to see them die in such utterly pointless fashion for something that might not be their own will. There was no longer any lasting guilt at all. Clearly the work of the Synchronization to help me cope with the fact that I was probably going to commit a massacre before the day was over.Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! As I was contemplating this, however, a message popped up from the dungeon itself. <Intruders saved by a Divine Blessing>. So that¡¯s how it was. If they were Inlas¡¯ loyal little lap dogs, they would be saved from death by her and¡­ I quickly checked my stats. Yep, I gained hardly anything when they did. The entire group should have been dead, but all I got from it was 1 essence and 1 point in all unlock categories. That was for the lot of them, and even that was likely just a consolation prize given by Mother to ensure I wouldn¡¯t go in the red by repeated assault. On the upside, that would help me figure out who was brainwashed and who was loyal. Not that it helped my conscious any to have to kill them to find out. It was unfortunate, but I had no choice but to accept that I would only be killing the brainwashed pawns and deal with the emotional fallout if it ever arrived. With the defenses taken care of, I returned to the party in a much more dour mood, even as the next batch of fodder was let into the dungeon. This was going to be a long day indeed by the looks of things. Once I returned I informed the others of what had transpired and the overall mood dropped noticeably. Even as Erem made a short prayer to a god named Melenar, for the safe passage of their souls to the afterlife. Probably some sort of god of Death. Rather than continuing the festivities, the party slowly broke up. The Kobolds started to clean up, with help from Sango, Randel, Garana, Surin, Tarad, Dally and Mint. Meanwhile, Rael, Rorik, Sybil, Lahman, Erem, Pavol and Oran started to set up a long-term camp in the entrance tunnel to the forest. There they would be out of the constant spore rain the forest itself had going. But it was sheltered enough that it could not be seen from the outside of the tunnel. And with the illusory wall, it was not like they would be a primary target. This would also allow them to shield the Kobolds and give them time to escape if worse came to worst. While this had gone on 2 more parties had been warped out by Inlas blessing and another had perished. This group had forced their way all the way inside Unguul¡¯s room. But once inside they got an all too good look at the Abyssal Eye, much to my surprise the entire party had actually been left petrified. Which technically meant they were still alive, I had the Striders carefully transport the petrified quartet to the adventurer camp. So they could cure them once we had somewhere secure to keep them. I should probably see if I could get the Duergar to build a prison or a holding cell or something. That being said, I had one important thing left to do before I could rest for the night. I moved to the Geode cavern and created a wide slanting passage leading away from it and the Crag. Then I spent the 10 Masteries I needed to unlock the Chrysalis Copse. It was harsh to give up half my remaining Masteries. I had gotten full payout for the petrified team and the ¡°Consolation Prize¡± for the two that were warped out. This had left me with exactly 20 Masteries prior to unlocking the Copse. After some deliberation I placed the Copse and it was¡­ beautiful. Giant stone trees with white crystalline leaves that were dimly glowing like moonlight, filled most of the Copse with a pale otherworldly light. The trees themselves seemed to actually grow from the ground and some of them even had gem-like seeds hanging from their huge, by my standards, branches. Seriously, some branches were so massive I could have easily slept on some of them as if they were a king-sized bed. <Chrysalis Copse placed, Geode Cavern and Starsilver Crag expansions unlocked.> Thank you, I already figured as much now how much essence is HOLY, double. Each expansion would cost double the cost of the previous with the first being double the base cost of the rooms. OK, I could see where that was going. It was to make it so prohibitively expensive to expand the crag and cavern after a while. It would force you to stop placing more expansions and focus on other things. It made sense. If I could give myself infinite Essence income, I would have. As it was, that was not workable. Both the Cavern and Crag were not that expensive to begin with. But the expansions would quickly grow beyond my ability to keep up. This expansion alone would cost 120 Essence total, 80 for the Crag and 40 for the Cavern, ugh. I could buy a bunch of expansions for both. But I honestly had no idea when Inlas would decide that enough was enough and just send in that summoner from before. On the other hand, I didn¡¯t have enough TP to unlock many new traps. And the Barghest¡¯s fiendish resilience would let it shrug off most of what my current traps could throw at it. Ugh, this was gonna get expensive. I bought two expansions for each, setting me back 360 essence. I could have bought another set, but if I did, I could not afford any Pharos Wings after, meaning it would be pointless. Well, at least I had literally tripled the number of Pharos Wings I could now have a grand total of 21 of them; The Crag had now become truly massive too, its reach would go far beyond the confines of my above ground limitation. I was honestly surprised it didn¡¯t intersect with any natural cave systems along the way; The Cavern had expanded dramatically too, now being like a massive domed stadium full of gems and crystals. I knew that if the Guild Master ever saw this with his own eyes, he would most likely get a heart attack. Hmm with that in mind let¡¯s check how the Pharos Wings and Crawlers look without the curse, I hadn¡¯t really checked that. Monster: Amber Crawler(Rare) Genus: Elemental Biome: The Depths HP: 250/250, MP: 60/60 Attack: 160, Defense: 220 Magic Attack:70, Magic Defense: 280 Strength: 16, Dexterity: 2, Endurance:25 Intelligence: 7, Wisdom: 6, Charisma: 8 Upkeep: 3, if Strider Den, Strider Hatchery, Starsilver Crag and Geode Cavern are present, Upkeep: - Skills: Strider Symbiosis(Unique Racial), Strider Enhancement(Racial Unique), Wall Walk(Racial), Lithovore(Racial), Deceptive Camouflage(Racial), Cocoon(Racial), Metamorphosis(Racial), Sticky(Racial), Amber Skin(Racial) That seemed way more on par with what I would have expected from what essentially was a giant caterpillar. Although it still had some pretty insane strength and endurance, given its diet and the fact that it was an earth elemental, that didn¡¯t surprise me. What did surprise me was that it had an ability that had not been there and way more defense than its absolutely pitiful dexterity and slightly bad charisma would suggest. It did not take a genius to figure out the two were related. Now what about the Pharos Wing? Monster: Pharos Wing(Evolution) Genus: Elemental Insectoid Biome: The Depths HP: 210/210, MP: 180/180 Attack: 240, Defense: 380 Magic Attack: 160, Magic Defense: 390 Strength: 24, Dexterity: 18, Endurance: 21 Intelligence: 16, Wisdom: 18, Charisma: 19 Upkeep: -30, because of both support buildings and 5 Star Lillie¡¯s, normal upkeep 25 Skills: Greater Strider Symbiosis(Unique Racial), Greater Strider Enhancement(Racial Unique), Enrage Hive(Racial Unique), Blazing Resurrection(Racial Unique), Wall walk(Racial), Lithovore(Racial), Luminous(Racial), Flight(Racial), Bewitching Beauty(Racial), Amber Skin(Racial), Innate Spellcaster(Special), Healing Mastery(Special)(Holy), Evocation Mastery(Special)(Fire and Holy), Illusion Mastery(Special)(All) That was still pretty damn impressive. Sure it was not up in the 1000s, still couldn¡¯t believe I had actually bought into that one. Curses could do some horrible stuff to you judgement, wait regular upkeep 25? Come to think of it, when I had placed the Lilies earlier Archives had said something similar. Something about the upkeep becoming -26 after the first one. That did not add up, unless? <Yes, the Curse was messing with your perception of income; you were better off than you thought, and not even if someone had told you, you wouldn¡¯t have been able to believe them. Divine curses can just make you do stuff like that>. Yet an even bigger reason to dislike Inlas, I suppose. At this point I am honestly pretty sure the only reason why Inlas didn¡¯t just have the curse make the dungeons want to be tamed. Which I had no doubt she could have done by this point, was because that would be too damn obvious. Well, it didn¡¯t matter anymore. That was all in the past now. The Pharos Wings were still a great way to gain essence, and I did notice it also had the Amber Skin ability. Which, if my calculations were correct increased both defense types by 200 each, that was pretty damn solid. Especially for the Pharos Wings, who had less health, but more of everything else in spades to make up for it. The question now was how much of my remaining Essence did I burn to summon more Pharos Wings. I didn¡¯t bother with crawlers since they would slowly refill from the Copse anyhow, but how many to put down? In the end I spent 250 essence to get 5 more Pharos wings. Another 150 e/d, but now I was down to only 299 Essence. I still had another Essence Orb I could use, but I figured it was better to save that for an emergency. As much as I would like to place more Pharos Wings it would be better to let them just naturally evolve. Satisfied with my work, I checked my Status. Dungeon Name: Labyrinthia Dungeon Biomes: Magical Maze, The Depths, Deep Labyrinth Dungeon Level: 4, DEXP: 33/150 Depth: 3/3, Rooms: 50 Resources: Essence: 299/2400, EP: 48, TP: 7 M: 0, E/D: 163 Avatar Attributes Avatar Race: Umbral Sage Sphinx (Tier 2 Legendary Unique Variant) Avatar Gender: Female Avatar Level: 2, EXP: 254/450 HP: 160/160, MP: 200/200 Attack: 160, Defense: 160 Magic Attack: 200 Magic Defense: 200 Strength: 16(ATK), Dexterity: 16(Def), Endurance: 16(HP) Intelligence: 20(MATK), Wisdom: 20(MP), Charisma: 20(MDEF) Penumbra 79% > 21% Inlas, Divinity: 3% Synchronization: 60%, Core Type: Advanced Cores Eaten: 4 Titles: ¡°Evolved one¡± ¡°Vengeance Seeker¡± Skills: Penumbral Psionics(Racial), Cleaving Swipe LvMAX(Racial), Roar LvMAX(Racial), Penumbral Archives(Umbral Unique), Dungeon Siege Mistress(Master Compound), Blessing of Penumbra(Mythical Umbral Blessing) Umbral Knowledge Lv1(Umbral), Damage Resistance Lv2, Mud Golem Status Immunities(Core), Fire Resistance Lv2(Core), Deception Lv4(Core), Ancient Legacy(Evolution), ¡°Receive Linked Senses¡±(Gift), Innate Caster(Core), Illusionist(Core), Divination(Core), Sphinx Curse(Unique Core), Challenge(Core)(Riddles). Hmm, not bad, not bad at all. I was far better off than I would have expected, given how young my dungeon was now that I could actually see and think clearly about the situation. Satisfied I returned to the camp and materialized once more, I had intended to finish the food I had left half-eaten, but it had been cleaned up. Ah well, a bigger surprise was that Indella was waiting for me. I would have thought she would have found a nice comfy spot to curl up for some sleep by now. Even the attacks had stopped once the sun had set. And getting the expansions set up and all that jazz had taken so long it was now getting closer to midnight. Yet here she was, waiting for me. Then again, I should not have been surprised I could feel her even when I was popping around the Dungeon in my incorporeal state. It was like feeling it through a layer of wool, but still. *I don¡¯t like it when you disperse your body, it feels¡­ weird.* I ruffled her head gently. ¡°Sorry about that, couldn¡¯t sleep because of it?¡± I asked. *I don¡¯t want to sleep alone here.* She replied. ¡°What about your friends?¡± I nodded towards Rorik and the rest. *I don¡¯t mind sleeping with them, but¡­* I understood her reasoning. Being too far apart was uncomfortable due to the bond. I had noticed it tugging at me even as I ran off to lure away our pursuers. And since I slept in the Core Room¡­ I laid down. ¡°I get it, hop on, I will take us both to the Core Room. Just make sure to watch your head. There are some cramped spaces in places, especially in the tunnels on the floor below.¡± Indella didn¡¯t need to be asked twice, and I swooped into the air and started to fly towards the Hive. ¡°Remind me to introduce you to all the dungeon inhabitants tomorrow. Since Babel is a passive skill it should work for you as well and thus allow you to understand them.¡± Indella hugged me a bit closer. *Sounds nice, I will look forward to it.* She sounded sleepy. By the time I arrived in the core room, Indella had fallen asleep on my back. Not that surprising. It had been an almost criminally early morning and with all that running around on top of the flight from Caelyn. I was not surprised she was tired. As I flew through the third floors¡¯ Deep Labyrinth, I spotted Hazalaar as he walked around. He gave me a respectful nod and just ignored Indella sleeping on my back. Good, that meant that Hazalaar saw her as part of my Dungeon. The last thing I needed was for Indella to die because of Hazalaar¡¯s Terror. With that uplifting discovery, I landed in the core room and laid down for my own well-deserved rest. It had been a long day indeed. Chapter 16: The Things that Puppets do Dreams are a funny thing, they can show us all manner of unexpected but fun ideas. Be a trip down to the most fun experiences you have always wanted to try, or they can be a gateway to your worst fears. All to help your mind make sense of the day¡¯s events and stress. It was as such rather unexpected when my sleep came with a surprise to me that night; I was asleep; I knew that but even so; I was aware. I had, of course, heard of lucid dreaming, but this was the first time I had experienced it myself. It was an interesting experience. In the dream I was sitting on the hill that Alessa had scouted from, watching the night sky. However, I was not in my Sphinx body anymore; I was human once again and wearing the same outfit as I had been using when trying out adventurer early on in my Dungeon Masters career. It fit this place rather well, all things considered. Though it was somewhat jarring to see everything from a human perspective when I had always had a Sphinxes view of things since I came to this place. I was not alone either, Indella was there too, looking as she did before she cast the transformation spell. Her shoulder-length brown hair framing her drop shaped, pale face. Her almost gangly and thin body was draped in the same brown cotton robe she had used that day. She sat at the burning campfire, looking somewhat dour. She looked at me as I sat down; she didn¡¯t really seem to react to my human form. Probably because she was part of the dream. Instead, she asked straight out of the blue. ¡°Do you think the Core hates me?¡± That was¡­ random, I took a moment to look at her, even as she looked at me with a saddened expression, her eyes miles away. ¡°I mean, I haven¡¯t been the most supportive bond partner since I learned what has been going on and I bound her against her will. On top of letting my stress and frustration get to me and behaving rather¡­ childishly as a result, so do you think she hates me?¡± I honestly didn¡¯t know what to make of this question. I didn¡¯t hate her and I could actually understand her behavior, seeing as everything she knew had been upended and thrown away from under her by events beyond her control. In fact, I would say that her behavior given the circumstances was, if not acceptable, at least understandable to some degree. There really only was one answer. ¡°I don¡¯t think she does, your life has been literally torn up and left in utter shambles, you have had to flee your home. Your daily life left behind completely in ruins, I am certain that she understands that you normally would not behave like that. Given she too has had her own share of life altering events.¡± I smiled reassuringly to her, man my voice was so different when I was in human form. Rather than the quiet, calm and slightly mysteriously coy tone that my voice got because of my differently shaped teeth and larger throat. It was now more energetic and more high-pitched. It was actually unnerving to hear my old voice again. And given I could hardly recognize it, I would fault no one else for not getting it at all if they ever heard it¡­ Indella looked at me now, now seemingly contemplating my words. ¡°I¡­ guess you are right. She would understand that having your life torn to shreds out of nowhere would be stressful. I mean, I was there when she told her story.¡± She took a deep breath before releasing it as a sigh before she started to speak again. ¡°You know, my first thought when I learned that she wasn¡¯t tamed was disappointment. I didn¡¯t think of her as anything more than a beast at the time, a clever beast, but a beast all the same. It¡­ shames me to say that I didn¡¯t stop doing so until I heard what she said as we approached the Kobold village. ¡°Of course you didn¡¯t. Everyone in this world seems to have a rather shallow view of what dungeons are. What Cores are and what dungeon inhabitants are. We are all people, Rael.¡± When I heard those words, it¡­ scared me. It was as if I had been asleep and suddenly someone had splashed cold water in my face. It put me out of sorts in all manner of ways, making me focus even more on myself.¡± She actually started to cry, and I rose up and sat down beside her, hugging her close. Slowly but surely she calmed down, and when she looked up at me next she had a slightly more energetic look on her face. ¡°I need to pull myself together, need to do better, be better. I have been too focused on my own misery to even though this concerns more than just myself. This is about more than just my own wants and desires, from here on out my actions might mean the life and death of not just me. It affects my friends, and my new family, who have taken me in and let me stay in this strange yet wondrous place.¡± She seemed calmer than before, more focused, if still concerned. I was glad she had realized on her own, even if this was just a dream version of her. That assumption was shattered as soon as I thought about it, as her next words were what put me off guard completely. ¡°I know you are just a figment of my imagination, but even so talking to you has made me feel better, thank you. I¡­ I only hope I haven¡¯t squandered what little goodwill and trust that the core and my friends might have had for me with my childish behavior.¡± She was actually smiling sadly now before she rose out of my hug and walked to the edge of the campfire, looking up at the starry sky. The bond had us sharing dreams as well now. Well, this was getting awkward. How should I handle this development? Well, a bit of a push and some assistance with getting her to snap out of her funk might help? I tried out the whole ¡°Seem Wise¡± thing that had worked on Ssatassha, couldn¡¯t hurt. At worst, I sound like an idiot, and she cheers up that way. ¡°A wise man once said; He who does not trust enough will not be trusted.¡± I paused for effect before continuing. ¡°If you wish for the Core to trust you, you should probably start by trusting her as well. You clearly are questioning if you can, given that you can¡¯t seem to let go of your worries about being accepted.¡± Great work me, quoting famous people from back home. Not to mention I have no idea how Indella will react to that. Heck, why did I even say it in the first place? Indella for her part looked at me now, rather than the stars, before she started to chuckle, then laugh. Though it was a laugh without any mirth behind. It and more the type you laugh when you run out of rebuttals in an argument you didn¡¯t want to lose. But your opponent cornered you so well you cannot do anything but laugh helplessly. ¡°It¡¯s so easy when you say it that way. Trust is, indeed, about both give and take, and as much as I hate to admit it you are right. I cannot expect her to trust me if I do not trust her, I need to seriously clean up my act. I¡¯m an adventurer, not a damsel in distress who can¡¯t do anything to change her fortunes. It¡¯s time I act like it in order to support everyone and show I can be more than a liability.¡± She was now looking far more confident. The earlier cloud of doubt was gone. She then paused and tilted her head, and seemed too, for the first time, really look at me. ¡°You are¡­ not just a dream¡­ are you?¡± I shook my head, ¡°No, I am not.¡± She rose and took a step closer, studying me intently, ¡°Who¡­ are you?¡± I gave a small friendly chuckle, ¡°I am¡­¡± I paused, before I chuckled again, this time with a mischievous smile as I spoke. ¡°My house was broken into, I was taken by force, and sold for money without any remorse. I was purchased and chained with others like me, and our owner now exposes us for all to see. Yet no law was broken, no complaint was filed, for I am neither man, woman, nor child¡± Indella looked at me with a completely deadpan expression, as though she must have recognized something here. Either the fact that I asked her a riddle, or maybe it was my facial expression. Her eyes widened as she looked at me. However, before I could say anymore, I woke up. A Duergar was really insisting that I had to get up. I was about to snap at the poor fella until I saw his worried expression. Then I sensed it, intruders, but something was off about them. Shit, how in the world did they break the hard limit of 4 intruders at a time? I looked at Indella, who nodded. *Go, I will help shoring up defenses down here and work my way up. We¡¯ll meet on the 2nd floor.* I nodded and dissolved, while Indella quickly followed the Duergar back towards the Fort. I had little doubt her druidic magic would enable her to help out in some way shape or form. It would undoubtedly improve the defenses even more than what the Duergar already had. The state of the 1st floor was chaotic, to say the least. There were currently two parties of four rushing around up there. They kept a good distance to cover more ground, but were oddly in sync as they were trying to get through. A third party was already doing battle with Unguul and the Eyes down on floor two. How in the blazes had this happened? <I am as clueless as you Boss Lady as this shouldn¡¯t be possible, probably Inlas somehow pulling a fast one again, not sure how though>. Well, how was not too hard to guess. Probably some kind of new blessing she gave her followers that somehow let them bypass the requirement. Question was, what exactly had she done and did it have a limit? So far, it seemed to let Inlas send in groups of four multiple times without setting off my limiter, which was weird. I knew Inlas had a decree saying she could not mess with dungeons themselves. And I would have known if she had given me a skill, and so would undoubtedly Rubolg. Could it be because of my guests or Indella? <Nope, that would be going too far even for Inlas since they have all essentially renounced worship of her. They are outside her reach as long as they have another patron deity. Said Deity would not take too kindly to Inlas messing with their worshipers after Rubolg found out what she did to Lady Penumbra. Inlas is on far too much thin Ice to risk doing something like that right now, so it got to be among her own worshipers>. That sucked, that meant I had no way to figure out what was going on. <You could ask Indella to tell you how to cast Discern from ¡°Druidic Magic¡± that would tell you all you need to know>. I¡¯m sorry, what? <I did tell you that you share passives, right? That goes both ways. You have access to all of Indella¡¯s Passive skills, including her ¡°Druidic Magic¡± Class Skill. Surely you didn¡¯t think the bond was a one-way street with only Indella getting all the goodies? If so, I am quite pleased to inform you that bond flows both ways you gain as many benefits out of this as she is>.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Huh, nifty, well then¡­ ¡°Indella?¡± I asked and promptly got a reply. *I heard the Archives. Spell casting with druidic magic isn¡¯t that hard, really. You just focus on the spell you want to cast and the rest just comes to you on its own.* I smiled. ¡°Thanks.¡± Through our bond, I could sense that Indella felt¡­ relieved. *You are welcome.* I could sense she was busy, so I resumed focus on my own little tidbit. I had to corner one of the groups of four long enough to cast Discern, well; I knew how, just had to find a good opportunity for this¡­ It was easier than intended to get that opportunity. I just triggered Magical Labyrinth, that split one of the parties and I just jumped the Healer and Tank, who lacked the damage output to really stop me. The healer I knocked out with a simple backhanded strike, or that was my intent. The attack sent the poor lass flying into one of my Spiked Wall Crushers, who, as any good trap, didn¡¯t hesitate to trigger once it was tripped. Bit more brutal than intended but... wait¡­ no points, figures¡­ bloody fanatics. Having pinned the tank to the ground, I took the time to puzzle out how to do this spell casting business. Indella was right, all I had to do was just to focus a bit on the spell I wanted and the rest just came on its own. Nifty, no need to memorize silly chants, the spell essentially cast itself. About a minute later, I crushed the tanks¡¯ skull with the same Wall Crusher that sent his partner hurdling out of my dungeon. There was no point in it rather than improving my mood, Inlas had pulled a fast one all right. Luckily it was a far more limited one, but one that could spell problems if she was calling in fanatics from far afield. I needed to inform the others and hold what would essentially be a war council. This invasion would not end anytime soon. 15 minutes later and Mordred stared at me in utter disbelief. ¡°Repeat that again, just so I can be sure I have not lost my mind.¡± Erem, Garana and Oran all looked physically ill and Pavol was furiously adding the information I had given to his book. He too looked out of sorts. Indella for her part accepted the news stoically, though I could sense she was affected too. Same with the rest of them, all were in various states of shock. ¡°The limiter to my dungeon cannot affect these intruders because they are no longer technically living entities, but soulless puppets controlled by Inlas or her servants directly. They willingly sacrificed their souls to become puppets she could command. Their souls are essentially sent to whatever afterlife Inlas offers. She gets to puppeteer their still living bodies around, that¡¯s the reason the limiter isn¡¯t triggering. It is because the limiter does not count physical bodies, but minds and souls entering my dungeon, and the only one entering are Inlas herself. Or whatever high ranking servant she has that can puppeteer the soulless husks of her fanatics. It¡¯s also why they give so little, the essence comes from the soul, no soul, no essence. I bet the only reason I am getting anything is because Rubolg would throw a fit if I didn¡¯t get SOMETHING for defeating her puppets after the stuff she pulled.¡± Rael shook his head, ¡°Just what in the world could Inlas have told them to make them do that?¡± I responded with a surprisingly emotional voice for me. ¡°That¡¯s the worst thing. Discern gives a bit of background information on the subject it¡¯s cast on. And when I did, the description said the following. ¡°A Hero who sacrificed his soul to serve Inlas as her eternal warrior in order to save the world.¡± I paused to let that sink in, now everyone looked at me as if I had gone mad, can¡¯t say I blame them. ¡°That can¡¯t be true.¡± Garana piped in. She was sitting next to a small cooking fire and was busy frying some mushrooms for breakfast. She quickly continued after grabbing one from the pan. ¡°What part of murdering or capturing so many dungeons would save the world?¡± I shrugged. ¡°Beats me, the main issue is, I know the spell tells the truth. But truth is something that¡¯s subjective and can easily change with perspective or knowledge. So who can really tell what it means without seeing the full picture.¡± Mordred nodded to that statement. ¡°Well, at least we now know how she can remove them safely. But we now face the problem of what to do now. If that can trick the limiter then there is only a matter of time before she has an army at her disposal.¡± Erem shook his head at that statement. ¡°I doubt that. Inlas might be a powerful goddess. But there must be a limit to how many she can make into those puppets. Splitting her attention into so many bodies must become confusing at some point. Even to her and I somehow doubt the ritual can be used on the unwilling. If she could use it on those who were not willing. She could have just forcibly turned the adventurers like these four, rather than send them in to die. Besides, even if she used them as her puppets, they lose all their skills and abilities aside from the base levels. So they will be little more than chaff, isn¡¯t that right?¡± I nodded, only saving grace about it was that upon becoming puppets they reverted to level 1. It was only a small consolation though, since the puppets could still gain EXP, it was just that they started from scratch. Worse still, even if the ritual could not be used on those who were not truly willing, that still left an army of fanatics. *If push comes to pull, we will have to prepare for an actual war to be fought throughout the dungeon. I don¡¯t know about you. But I am not gonna sit idly by and watch and Inlas destroys everything we hold dear because of some obscure and insane goal she thinks will save the world.* That got loud cheers of agreement from the party. It seemed like Indella had really snapped out of her funk alright. I looked at the lot of them. ¡°I wanted to introduce you to everyone today. But because of Inlas that¡¯s off the table, I have to work on strengthening my defenses. Luckily Inlas has been sending her puppets in at a rather steady clip, I guess they need neither food nor sleep in their state. So I am getting somewhere, at a snail¡¯s pace, but I am getting there. I will be using the points I gain to improve our defenses as much as possible. In the meantime, Indella, do you think you could lead the party down to the Duergar, they should have finished arms and armor for you all by now.¡± Indella nodded, I had taken a pit stop on my way down the day before to get the Duergar to make some arms and armor for the party. Size wasn¡¯t an issue, they could simply use magic to make the armors ¡°one size fits all¡± quite easy. In fact, they apparently were even in the process of making me armour as well. Not sure if that would work or not since I didn¡¯t have a class, but it would be interesting to experiment with that. As Indella led the party away to get geared up, I took wing and went to inform everyone in the dungeon about what had transpired. Then there was planning to do. I had a decent idea of what we were currently facing, but I also knew that was only for a limited time. Sooner or later those puppets would start to gain levels, I needed to strengthen my defenses to slow that process down as much as possible. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Having talked to everyone on the 2nd floor and sent a Kobold runner to inform the creatures that were alive on the first. I sent out a telepathic call to everyone on the 2nd floor. ¡°Keep away from the lake until further notice.¡± It was time to wake up whatever was in there. Either the Thing or Things would help defend this place, or I would have to get rid of them. I could not afford to have any unknowns right now. Not with what was essentially an army at my doorstep. I flew over to the lake. Once there, I contemplated spending some essence on another Star Lily. But thought better of it. Instead, I directed my mind into the dark depth of the lake. I could sense¡­ something down there. Something ancient and powerful. ¡°I know you are there, show yourself.¡± I sent to the presence telepathically. The lake immediately started to ripple, the ripples turned into waves as something gargantuan made its way to the lake surface. Trying to describe the creatures in front of me would be¡­ difficult. There were five of them in all, and even scaled to me they were gigantic. They had serpentine black-scaled bodies, long thin arms that looked disturbingly human like with dark blue-gray skin in place of scales. They had long, sharp talons in place of nails. The same blue-gray skin covered their vaguely humanoid faces, that had three deep sitting, milky white eyes. They had long black mustaches that grew from where their noses should have been. Sharp fangs protruded from their absolutely massive lower jaws. Jaws that were far larger than they should be. Protruding from their foreheads were the same lantern-like growths you see on Angler Fish. They glowed so strongly they cast a light across the entire massive cavern housing the lake. If these things turned out to be hostile, my dungeon was doomed. From their sheer size alone, they would destroy everything on the 2nd floor with ease. Then the first spoke. ¡°WhAt DoEs It WaNt?¡± Its voice was strange one moment loud the next barely a whisper. It was painful to listen to, and I got repeated warnings that I had negated the ¡°Madness¡± condition. The voice of the second was not much better. ¡°WhY hAs It CaLlEd Us HeRe?¡± It sounded¡­ irritated, great. The third then took the word. ¡°It WiShEs SoMeThInG oF uS.¡± It stated as the fourth continued. ¡°We Do NoT cArE fOr ThE CoNfLiCt In ItS dOmAiN.¡± The fifth, the one closest to me slammed an enormous hand down on either side of me and leaned down towards me, its expression one of curiosity and disgust. It was such a huge creature I was about the size of one of its larger fangs. Its white eyes reflected me as it stared at me so closely, and I could feel its presence prodding my mind. Oh no you don¡¯t, STAY OUT OF MY HEAD. It recoiled as if slapped, then looked at me once more. This time it seemed¡­ amused. ¡°MoThEr HaS tOuChEd ThIs OnE bRoThErS. tElL mE, lItTlE sIsTeR, wHaT cAn We Do FoR yOu?¡± This caused quite a bit of ruckus among the other four, who also leaned in uncomfortably close to eye and prod me. Before they started to nod among themselves, seemingly satisfied and far more friendly now. Phew, that could have ended badly. Good thing Mother helped out, even if indirectly. I explained the situation to them as quickly as I could without having to go into too much detail. Their expressions slowly changed from one of friendly curiosity to indignant rage when I explained what Inlas had done to Mother. When I finished explaining their eyes had literally started to glow red from sheer anger. Woe be to Inlas if these five ever got their hands on her, that was for sure. The fifth who I suspected was the leader of the group leaned in close to me again. ¡°A bArGaIn, We WiLl PrOtEcT sIsTeRs DuNgEoN aNd SiStEr WiLl PrOvIdE uS wItH a BiGgEr HoMe. ThIs LaKe Is ToO sMalL fOr Us AlL.¡± I looked up at him. ¡°I have no access to another floor right now, so I cannot give you a new floor to live on, not yet. But will an expansion of the lake serve as a good enough reward until I can get you a floor of your own?¡± The five pulled further into the lake and started discussing with one another. Clearly debating among themselves whether my offer was acceptable before Fifth returned. ¡°We AcCePt YoUr TeRmS sIsTeR. OnE YeAr AnD a DaY iS tHe LiMiT fOr FuLl PaYmEnT.¡± I nodded. ¡°Agreed.¡± <5 Nameless Horrors have joined your dungeon as Contracted Monsters. Do NOT forget about the payment>. Something told me that when your own dungeon warns you not to forget about the payment. You really, really REALLY shouldn¡¯t. I started to expand the lake almost immediately, nearly doubling its size in depth, width and length. My new allies seemed happy, I also showed them mental images of the party and Indella. Then informed them they were not to be harmed under any circumstance, as they were allies who had risked much from me. They nodded in understanding, I could sense a simmering disdain for humans from them. But if they were allies, they would tolerate them. Hopefully, these five would prove to be an asset rather than a hindrance. Especially since it had cost me 100 essence to finish the lake expansion. Chapter 17: Improvising Improvements. Now that I had found out about what Inlas was doing. It was time to try to ponder out what in the ever living world I could do to somehow take advantage of it. First of all, teleporting them to the 3rd floor was just a stopgap. That would work until they started to gain levels under their belt. After which it would become increasingly risky, if not outright detrimental. Luckily for me, this new alliance had given me an idea. The teleport traps needed a safe area to put the target, if not I could have just dumped them into the lake or better yet, inside a wall. That just would not work, however, and having the teleportation be random would also be a bad idea. But there were ways to exploit the whole thing still. There had to be, I just had to think outside the box. Wait... Box¡­ THAT WAS IT!!! Removing my physical form I dove into the lake and headed for the bottom. The depths down there was dark, so dark even my Darkvision was soon rendered all but useless and still deeper I went. Once I reached the bottom, I started to dig out a corridor in the wall going diagonally upwards. Water kept following in, but that could be fixed easily enough by burning a bit of essence to force the top of the tunnel to produce air. Soon after, the air forced the water back down, and I soon had a small room dug out of the stone. I immediately edited every teleport trap to send intruders to this chamber instead. The area was technically safe enough. Sure, they would be trapped. Sure. The water pressure would be so great it would cause metal armor to look like crumpled paper. But that was not my problem. The puppets would not die immediately nor be in any danger, problem solved. That still left the issue of mind-controlled parties. I had not seen as many of late. Probably because they could not go in without shutting down whatever Inlas was doing to circumvent the limiter. Even so, I needed to figure out a way to separate the two. Killing them felt like a waste. They were not doing this willingly, at least not with full knowledge of what they were doing. I checked my Essence, only 192 left, not too much, still there had to be a room I could use to keep prisoners. I mean I was a DUNGEON for crying out loud; I had to have cells or something? Right? <The only way to unlock the Prison Cells room is to unlock the Overgrown Fortress Biome. A special Biome like the Deep Labyrinth>. That sounded interesting, given that having access to prison cells would be beneficial to remove the puppets as a threat since I could just imprison them instead of killing them. And would also get me a place to put adventurers until I could remove their brainwashing. I looked up the biome itself and it looked interesting. The entire thing was a fortress alright with intruders arriving inside the fortress itself. There was no outside. The walls were massive blocks of mossy granite with a network of corridors interspersed with vegetation that had partially taken over the place. The monster lineup was also rather surprising. The first part was a biome fit for Ogres, Vine Shamblers, Giant Beetles, Earth Giants, Lesser Chimeras, Gargoyles, Animated Armors, Animated Statues and to my joy, Minotaur Warriors. That was quite a lineup. The 2nd part was also quite a surprise. Giant mushrooms and mold had overgrown it. If the description was to be believed the entire area, they grew in was also so full of spores and mold that maps would be rendered absolutely useless. The mold spores would get stuck on them instantly, not to mention visibility was next to 0 even for creatures with Darkvision. Breathing would also be problematic for the same reason. That part of the fortress was a good place to live for several Fungoid Monsters of varying looks and abilities. A type of slime called Red Goo that was venomous rather than acidic also made the place home. And so did a particular breed of Arachnid that looked absolutely terrifying. It was ghostly white and slightly glowing, with large black eyes and extremely long limbs. Small white mushrooms grew all over it. It was called Sporecap Spider. It had to be pretty powerful as it had a hard limit of two and you could not get more of them, period. Probably an elite monster then. The area behind the spores and mold was decrepit and falling apart and started with a mid boss room. I would have to look in the mastery menu to see what boss went there once if I got the floor. The area behind the boss room was the worst nightmare for anyone with arachnophobia. Spider webs and pools of poison were all over the place. The web clung to walls and floors so anyone entering would be under a constant slowness debuff unless they walked into the pools of poison. Stepping into them would get you poisoned. The funniest part was that this place also had some interesting fungus growing in the hallways. They functioned as gates that would close if you moved either too fast, or too slow. With the hallways where too slow was an issue, usually being covered in spider web to slow down progress. The hallways were also intersecting in a network of stairs and walkways over a pool of purple bubbling liquid that had to be some kind of extremely foul poison; The hallways converged just before the two final hallways leading to the boss room. One of which was a dead end covered in poison pools and webbing unless you were leaving the boss room itself. Because of the mushroom door that would slam shut because of proximity if you came up the hallway leading into the boss room itself. As far as a fourth floor went this one would be an interesting one. Though the requirement to unlock the floor was a bit on the steep side. I needed a minimum of 1 each of Arachnid, Fungal, Inanimate and Plantoid types of monsters as well at least one structure type defense. Luckily, I had the last one because of the Duergar fortress. I could get all that, but it would take time. Then again, my next set of stairs was not due until I reached Dungeon Level 6, so I had time to save up, unless¡­ I looked into the Mastery menu and started to look for the Stairs room. There should be¡­ there it was¡­ 400M Recurring Unlock. So 400M every time I wanted to buy a set of stairs. That was¡­ expensive, given the current circumstances. As I was contemplating this there was a flash and the first set of intruders arrived in my new little room. They looked around for a few moments and headed down the corridor and into the water. A few moments later they returned, then one of them looked right at me! ¡°Clever little Core. The pressure of the water would kill these puppets before I could get very far at all.¡± The voice was... Sweet, sickeningly so almost. Yet I could not wish to hear more. It was¡­ disturbing, to say the least. It decidedly did not belong to the Dwarf that had spoken, it was far too high-pitched and feminine to belong to that bearded face. So, that meant it was Inlas talking, joy. The puppet opened its mouth to speak again. But it never got the chance as a giant hand suddenly exploded from the water, grabbed the speaking puppet. As it did, there was a horrible screeching sound as a grayish purple light filled the room for a few seconds. The puppet slowly dissolved into some kind of viscous black sludge as this occurred. The dungeon immediately announced. <Intruder annihilated by Nameless Horrors¡¯ ¡°Fatal Desecration¡± skill. You have gained 15M, 15EP, 15TP, 50E, 100BEXP and 200 EXP for defeating a divine puppet of Inlas>. There was a moment of complete silence in the room. Even as the arm started to fumble around to find more of the puppets. Then the puppets as one pulled their weapons and slit their own throats and promptly vanished. Just in time too, as the arm had been about to grab another. With its target gone, the hand sank back into the water, after giving me a ¡°thumbs up¡± gesture. How did it even know I was here? Well, regardless, that was sure as hell something, I had a counter to the puppets in my new ¡°Brothers.¡± I would have to find a way to exploit that. Just one puppet had been worth more in terms of gains than any other single kill I had made so far. The puppet was only level 1. Wait a moment. There had to be a catch to it, given the silly gain. <Well Boss Lady, when a puppet dies permanently all base levels it possess passes to all other puppets as bonus increasing their power permanently. These bonus levels are not passed on to further puppets if the holder dies. Also rewards do not increase on puppets with bonus levels yet the same real level>. So all the puppets were getting stronger if one was permanently defeated, but the reward would be the same unless they also increased their base level. In which case the bonus levels the other puppets would gain would increase as well. This was both good and bad, bonus levels were just a stat buff, no new skills or anything would unlock. But they had an infinite stack size, you could have any number of bonus levels. Meaning as the number of puppets dwindled they would become increasingly more dangerous. I considered for a moment to change the teleporter location again. Then alter the tunnels so that the only way to the dining room was through a passage from the bottom of the damn lake. But I quickly tossed that idea to the side. It wouldn¡¯t work. The dungeon would not allow impassable tunnels, and the depth¡¯s outside was decidedly impassible to intruders due to how deep the lake was. No, I needed a better idea than that. Speaking of, I still had some other alterations I had to take care of. Next up was the ramp to the Kobold Village. I could not leave it, it was virtually undefended, and it was just a straight 30 degree ramp. I had a better idea from another game I played as a kid. I removed the ramp and altered the room and wall itself, nearly quadrupling the height to get up to the entrance as the floor of the room was lowered considerably. The wall itself was then given an extremely steep angle. I could now build a long path that went down the wall in an S pattern, sneaking back and forth over and over. The road itself was u-shaped, and the corners had huge and extremely sturdy corner banks. They would need them for what I had planned. Next up I dumped ten Boulder traps close to the top of the new road leading up the wall. I set the first trigger near the bottom and the other triggers for the top. Then went into the customizing menu for the boulder traps. This would be expensive, but worth it. After burning 30 of my 42 TP, I changed the trigger to proximity for the one at the bottom. The others would trigger when a boulder rolled over them as well as when an intruder got near. I also gave them auto-reset and lowered their reset time as much as it would go. I also created a small chamber inside the Kobold crawl space. There I placed another trigger. It would shut the traps down and prevent them from triggering until the last boulder had passed the triggers that would care about them. Letting friendlies use the path safely. If I had set the timing correctly intruders would set off the first boulder by approaching the path. The first would then happily set off the rest and the final rock would set off rock number two again, who would set off number three and so on afterwards. Creating a path with a constant flow of deadly boulders rolling down it, finally I set off the first trap manually to test it. It worked like a dream, and soon I had a merry and constant flow of boulders rolling down the path at terrifying speeds, ready to crush any who appeared. Now there was just the problem of how to deal with the boulders that reached the bottom. But luckily I had a solution for that as well. This particular unlock had been the most expensive of them all. I had, with the help of the Archives, timed the boulders and set it so that 3 seconds after finishing the trip down they would dissipate into thin air. This would lower the reset timer of the boulder trap it belonged to as it did. No need to clean up and the boulders could now roll forever if need be. That would dissuade anyone from trying to walk up, but that would not stop anyone trying to fly. Time to fix that as well. Into the Monster menu next. It was time to get the Arachnid I would need for my fortress, to be exact, the Umbral Spider. If I had them nest in this room, it would make flying virtual suicide. Still, it was better to double-check their stats given what the curse had made me see. Monster: Umbral Spider Genus: Arachnid, Biome: The Depths Unlock cost: 30 EPIf you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. HP: 120, MP: 100 Attack: 150, Defense: 150 Magic Attack: 60, Magic Defense: 60 Strength: 15, Dexterity: 15, Endurance: 12 Intelligence: 6, Wisdom: 10, Charisma: 6 Upkeep: 3, or Dark Lair: 1 Skills: Spider Climb(Compound Racial), Web of Darkness(Racial Unique), Light Eater(Racial Unique), Web Weaver(Racial), Silklash(Racial), Magical Resistance Lv2(Racial), Improved Darkvision(Racial), Darkness Dweller(Racial), Paralysis Attack(Racial), Shadow Walk(Racial), Master Ambusher(Racial), Aerial Bane(Special), Fall Immunity(Special), Lesser Darkness Magic(Special) Lesser Shadow Magic(Special) Innate Spellcasting(Special) Greater Accuracy(Special Ranged) Nasty for anyone who was on their bad side, that¡¯s for sure. ¡°Darkness Dweller¡± would make them effectively invisible while in darkness or deep shadow. And that would be near constantly seeing as they could eat light and light-based magic. And because of the unnatural darkness created by their ¡°Web of Darkness¡± impaired even regular Darkvision. Effectively halving its range while in the affected area. They had a Dark Lair support room too. But that was¡­ expensive. Placing it would put me from 35M to 5M. Ah well, it should not take too long to recuperate the cost of the Dark Lair with Inlas constant attacks. Speaking of another team was wiped out by a bunch of shadows that had attacked as they were busy dealing with a Cube. Shame on you Inlas for not bringing any magic support for that group. I spent the 40 essence needed to place the room and summon the 10 Umbral Spiders; The area turned darker almost immediately, even for my Darkvision. I could also hear the 10 of them chittering excitedly near the roof where their dens were. I floated down to the floor and materialized, then called up to them telepathically, bidding them to come down, so I could meet them. Soon after I was surrounded by 10 pitch-black spiders, they were each about the size of a horse. There was no light at all around them. In fact, the surrounding air grew dimmer the closer to them it got as they devoured the fractions of light that was in the room. ¡°We greet you Core and Mistress¡± their voices were high-pitched for their size and also somewhat sharp on the ears. Not that I was going to complain as it was nowhere near as grating as the Guildmaster using his Supreme Orator. ¡°And I greet you, my beloved creatures.¡± What followed was a quick summary of what I expected of them, as well as instructions to not harm any of the guests or Indella. It seemed redundant and most likely it was, but better safe than sorry. They eagerly agreed to protect the aerial space leading up to the tunnel entrance. And I almost felt pity for anyone foolish to attempt to fly above the path now. Umbral Spiders could easily snatch prey out of the air with their ¡°Silklash¡± skill. Literally reeling them into their web from afar using magically controlled threads of webbing. Combined with ¡°Greater Accuracy¡± boosting their hit rate on ranged attacks and skills. With the path secured, it was time to see if I could come up with some strategies for the new inhabitants on the first floor. The Shadows already knew how to make use of the crawlspaces and the shadows cast by torches held by intruders, so that wasn¡¯t the issue. The thing was the Cubes; they had potential; the trick was to figure out if I could somehow make use of it. With that in mind, I looked up their stats again. Monster: Gelatinous Cube Genus: Ooze, Biome: Maze Unlock cost: 10EP HP: 200, MP: 10 Attack: 140, Defense: 180 Magic Attack: 10, Magic Defense: 20 Strength: 14, Dexterity: 18, Endurance: 20 Intelligence: 1, Wisdom: 6, Charisma: 2 Upkeep: 5, 3 with Sludge Pit Skills: Ooze Immunities(Racial), Engulf(Racial), Wall Climb(Racial), Devour(Racial), Greater Physical Resistance Lv4(Racial), Magical Weakness Lv5(Racial), Lesser Regeneration(Racial), Pseudopod Slam(Racial) Hmm, some good, some bad, but I could work with this. I transported onto the first floor and located a cube that was currently not busy with everything and planted a vision of my idea into its mind. If this worked, it would be a nasty surprise to the next intruders that would pass this way. The cube slowly slid up the walls and attached itself to the roof, waiting for any intruder to pass below it before it would drop on top of them. I slowly but surely made my way through the first floor and instructed the rest of the cubes in the same way. It took time, but it should also increase the effectiveness of their attacks. They would be outside the range of the torches up there, and being see-through, the darkness would make it nigh impossible to notice them without a detection spell. Next up I hopped over to the third floor where Indella was working on improving the defenses. And what a nasty improvement it was. Some kind of gray thorny vines covered the walls of the fortress now. And if the demonstration she was currently giving the Duergar was anything to go by, this particular breed of vine was fireproof and frostproof. So, you could no longer climb the wall without ripping yourself apart in the process. And that was provided you didn¡¯t get stuck on the thorns in the first place, nice. Would the effect stick around, though? <It will, because of your bond, she can use her druidic magic to add to or alter the layout of rooms in the dungeon to a lesser degree. At a heavy mana cost. She asked me about this before she began. Though you were preoccupied at the time>. I was about to leave for the 2nd floor once more when I felt a sudden surge of power. I immediately checked my status as I had a hunch about what just transpired. Just as it popped up the dungeon popped in with an announcement of its own. <Dungeon Level 5 reached e/d increased by 100>. That was nice. Dungeon Name: Labyrinthia Dungeon Biomes: Magical Maze, The Depths, Deep Labyrinth Dungeon Level: 5, DEXP: 0/450 Depth: 3/3, Rooms: 50 Resources: Essence: 205/4800, EP: 55, TP: 15, M: 8, E/D: 253 Avatar Attributes Avatar Race: Umbral Sage Sphinx (Tier 2 Legendary Unique Variant) Avatar Gender: Female Avatar Level: 2, EXP: 412/450 HP: 160/160, MP: 200/200 Attack: 160, Defense: 160 Magic Attack: 200 Magic Defense: 200 Strength: 16(ATK), Dexterity: 16(Def), Endurance: 16(HP) Intelligence: 20(MATK), Wisdom: 20(MP), Charisma: 20(MDEF) Penumbra 83% > 17% Inlas, Divinity: 3% Synchronization: 60%, Core Type: Advanced Cores Eaten: 4 Titles: ¡°Evolved one¡± ¡°Vengeance Seeker¡± Skills: Penumbral Psionics(Racial), Cleaving Swipe LvMAX(Racial), Roar LvMAX(Racial), Penumbral Archives(Umbral Unique), Dungeon Siege Mistress(Master Compound), Blessing of Penumbra(Mythical Umbral Blessing) Umbral Knowledge Lv1(Umbral), Damage Resistance Lv2, Mud Golem Status Immunities(Core), Fire Resistance Lv2(Core), Deception Lv4(Core), Ancient Legacy(Evolution), ¡°Receive Linked Senses¡±(Gift), Innate Caster(Core), Illusionist(Core), Divination(Core), Sphinx Curse(Unique Core), Challenge(Core)(Riddles) Yep, indeed my e/d had gone up, lets see anything else new? No, no, no, nope and¡­ wait¡­ how¡­ long had that been like that, Archives how long have I had 3% Divinity? <Since Rubolg removed Taboo, you didn¡¯t notice that?> I was a bit preoccupied with having just had a chat with the creator of this universe at the time, so excuse me for not noticing. <Fair> *Noticed what? Anything I can help with?* I materialized next to Indella and admired her handiwork. ¡°Nothing that requires help, no. There was just a little detail I missed that raises some questions, whose implications are a mystery to me with one of my stats.¡± I replied as I walked over to her. *What stat?* <Her divinity has spiked, can¡¯t say I am surprised given your soul has been literally touched by a deity three times in a very short amount of time. First when you were brought here, then when Rubolg removed War Mode and again when he removed Taboo>. *So, what you are saying is that being touched directly by a deity increases your own divinity?* <Normally it shouldn¡¯t. But that¡¯s the only thing that makes sense. There is no way the worship the Kobolds have of Boss Lady would be enough to have it jump that much in just a few days>. That was troubling. What in the world was going on here? Surely Rubolgs idea of returning balance wasn¡¯t to have me become a Goddess, was it? If so, he would probably be disappointed, I had no interest in divinity at all. I already had essentially an endless life just from being a sphinx. And even that was more than I frankly wanted. I had no interest in the added headache of a divine portfolio dictating what I can and cannot do would add to that. No thanks. Still, this was yet another headache I now had to deal with. Just what was Rubolgs angle in all of this, what was his idea of Balance? My dour musings was interrupted by the dinner bell, perfect I needed a distraction. Taking Indella with me I flew to the Dining room where food was waiting for both of us. Lienru had outdone herself this time, I was not 100% sure what I was eating, but it was delicious. A sentiment clearly shared by Indella. It was clearly some form of pizza, that much was clear, but the meat on it was decidedly not from the Mushroom forest. It had a different texture, slicker, easier to chew, wait¡­ ¡°Lienru have some Kobolds gone fishing in the lake?¡± she beamed. ¡°You noticed Great One, indeed we have puzzled out how to cast fishing nets, usually we don¡¯t get much in them. But earlier today, after you had allowed us to return to the lake, the net was filled to the brim with all manner of strange and delicious fish. So we decided to experiment and you are eating the result of our testing so far.¡± She seemed quite proud, and rightly so. This was fantastic, the crust was perfect, the topping was perfect, the sauce was perfect. ¡°You have outdone yourself Lienru, well done indeed, this is fantastic.¡± I answered honestly. My compliments made the little Kobold beam happily. *Agreed, this got to be some of the best cooking I have ever tasted.* The meal was washed down with ice-cold water from one of the rivers, giving a refreshing and quite pleasant finish to the meal. I could literally feel my mood lifting just from savoring the aftertaste alone. Lienru was a saving angel from the darkness of despair, that was for sure. Saving Ssatassha and her tribe had decidedly been one of the best decisions I had ever done in my entire life. Indella finished before me and ran off stating that she had some ideas to make it more difficult for intruders inside Unguul¡¯s boss room that she wanted to try out. I asked Talka to send an escort of Winged Striders with her. Just in case some puppets against all odds would be able to get inside Unguul¡¯s boss room while Indella was there. That way they could evacuate her through the top of the room if push came to pull. I could have kept an eye on her myself. But I knew that Indella wanted to show she could be an asset. As such, I felt it best to give her space and freedom to work and get to know the other inhabitants of the Dungeon at her own pace. I also had other things to do. Namely, change the route leading over to the Hive a bit so that my Brothers could take a more active part in the defense. That meant creating a bridge across the lake and make the path that ran alongside it impassable. I had already done the math, and it would burn most of my remaining essence to pull that off. That did not change the fact that the five of them were my best bet against the puppets. So the more I could expose them to each other, the better. It took the rest of the day to finish up the bridge and once I was done, I was exhausted. And I was not the only one as Indella staggered off of the Winged Strider that had carried her back to the hive. She walked over to me, a bit unsteady on her feet, just as I finished the last bit of the alterations. *I changed the pillars inside Unguul¡¯s room. They are now more numerous, but far thinner. So you can¡¯t hide behind them anymore. The 5 of them were also adorable in their own way and did their best to help out.* I gave her a tired smile. ¡°Good work, let¡¯s get back to the core room and call it a night.¡± I laid down and let Indella climb onto my back. She hugged me tightly as we flew back down. As we entered the core room once more Indella hugged me even tighter. And with a mental voice that was little more than a whisper in the back of my mind, she said, clearly on the verge of sleep; *Thank you for trusting me, Pearl.* I couldn¡¯t help but chuckle. That was the first time I had heard anyone say my old name since I came to this place. I laid down and was about to doze off then the Archives chimed in with a bit of unasked for but useful insight <Boss Lady; She called you Pearl just now, but that¡¯s not your name>. It was the name I had back when I was a Human. <Oh, nifty, then why not let your allies call you by that name. You still react to it, but that name holds no power over you should anyone undesirable learn it since it is not your name anymore>. Huh¡­ hadn¡¯t thought about that. Good idea, Archives. <Always a pleasure, Boss Lady>. I barely caught the last words, as I was quickly falling into a deep sleep myself. Interlude 8: The Consequences of our actions I awoke in a dour mood, no dour was too kind, I was utterly crushed emotionally; I had failed Lady Inlas when she needed me the most, and she had excommunicated me from among her Faithful, a just punishment for my failures. And yet for all the bad things that had gone wrong already, I could not shake that something worse was coming, something dreadful. I had long since learned to trust my intuition whenever I had this feeling, I would soon learn how right I was. I left my room and got dressed for the day. Then headed down to the reception to see if I had received any missives from the Guild Headquarters in the Capital. The trip itself was mostly uneventful, though as I neared the Foyer there was a lot of noise and an unusually high amount of traffic. Far more than it should be this early, as it was not yet dawn. What was going on? As I drew closer to the reception several Guild clerks rushed past, but none of them even acknowledged my presence. Me, the Guildmaster! What in the world had them so upset they would commit such a breach of etiquette? The answer was waiting for me as I entered the reception and found most of the Guild staff assembled there, along with a person that had my blood run cold. Lady Arana Ravenloft, also known as Arana the Cruel, was the guilds Chief of Internal Affairs. She would never arrive in person unless someone was about to be cast out of the guild or worse. This did not bode well for whoever she had business with, flanking her was a dozen of her Blackguard enforcers. Men and women whose sole job was to ensure that anyone found to dishonor the guild or otherwise break guild code was punished as harshly and as painfully as possible. Lady Arana looked pleased as I entered. ¡°Ah, Saol, you are here, good, restrain him!¡± The way she looked at me caused me to feel like I was a mouse being hunted by an exceptionally cruel cat. How many men and women had received that look, just before being exiled or sentenced to some other horrible punishment? And now it was directed at me. Before I could even formulate a response to her words, Arana¡¯s Blackguard Enforcers moved in, grabbed me by my arms and dragged me out of the Guild. No one moved to aid me as they tossed me into the courtyard after removing my Badge of Office and all the jewels I had acquired from the Guilds Treasury. Arana stepped out after them, ¡°Saol Venthar. From this moment forward you are stripped of all titles, privileges, services, housing and riches gained from association with the Adventurer¡¯s Guild as I hereby Banish you from our ranks. Never again may you do business with or benefit from the services of the Adventurer¡¯s Guild in any way, shape or form. Any member of the guild caught willingly associating with you after all your remaining belongings have been removed from the premises will share your fate.¡± I could not believe it. What had gone wrong, what had caused this? The confusion must have been evident on my face as Arana smiled an ice-cold smile, a smile that from my angle was more akin to a bloodthirsty sneer. She tossed a missive onto the ground in front of me; I picked it up and studied it. It carried the seal of the Sworn Blades, Rubolgs Axe, this could not be good if it involved the Sworn blades. With trembling hands, I opened it and read the contents. Honored Grandmaster Asparo, It is with a heavy heart and great regret that I am sending this missive to you. But given what has transpired I have no other choice, my Guilds honor and my Goddess, the Divine Lady Justina demands it. Yesterday we received a detailed report from one of our members, backed by his Noble Mistress Lady Magna Yndali. In that report we received detailed information about a Guildmaster by the name of Saol. He is currently in charge of the Caelyn Branch of the Adventurer¡¯s Guild. He has, through some unknown means, made a Sworn Blade forsake his Sacred Oath to his Mistress. And acting with this traitor imprisoned Lady Magna as well as another, still loyal member of the Sworn Blades. Furthermore, he had them tortured and put on trial under false charges in an attempt to have them killed and their property wrongfully seized. The breaking of this Sacred Oath is sacrilege to our Patron Goddess, and though she was greatly angered by this action. She still managed to find it in her to be merciful and was inclined to give the Guildmaster a second chance. However, the unlawful torture and false accusations of the innocent was far too much on top of this heinous act. Lady Justina has demanded we take action against Saol for his dishonorable and unjustified actions against the innocent and the sacrilege against our Divine Lady. For his crimes I have personally had him Blacklisted by our Guild and thus have branded him an Enemy of our Divine Lady. But that alone is not punishment enough for this crime, so decrees out Lady. As such, I now have no choice but to level an Ultimatum on the Adventurer¡¯s Guild. Banish Saol so that Justice might be served. Or all current and future members of the Adventurer¡¯s Guild will be Blacklisted from the Sworn Blades and viewed as enemies of Lady Justina. It is a regrettable action, and I take no pleasure in making this ultimatum of you. But I have to do this, there is no other choice, his sacrilege is too heinous. His blatant disregard of honor and justice far to grave. If I do not receive a report of his banishment within 72 hours, I will have to do my duty. Not only as Grandmaster of the Sworn Blades, but also as Lord Paladin of Justina. My sincerest apologies and deepest regrets Grandmaster Bareth Gantarith of the Sworn Blades. It made no sense, Magna Yndali was charged with doing mercantile business with a Dungeon and that was a crime. I had made sure that that law would pass, just a few years ago! Unless¡­ Lady Justina did not view my law as binding because I had made use of ¡°Supreme Orator¡±? Surely not? I looked up at Lady Arana and opened my mouth to speak. But before I could say a word, I was hit by her three-pronged whip. Causing a nasty wound on my cheek that was guaranteed to leave a scar. ¡°Hold your tongue, you damned viper, or I will remove it for you, do you think me a fool? I do not do things by halves, never have, never will. I interviewed Lady Magna and her Bodyguard extensively last night in order to ascertain the truth of their claims. And some interesting information surfaced from our questions.¡± She now openly sneered at me as she continued. ¡°I am not sure what skill you used in order to make that Sworn Blade do what he did. But it is decidedly linked to your voice if the description of the events those two gave me are anything to go by. Now get out of my sight!¡± She snapped her fingers and the Guild Guards dragged me away from the hall and tossed me out on the street. Once my loyal men, they now looked at me as if I was less than dirt. As I walked towards my own home, a small house I had bought almost a decade ago on a whim. I had not used it since I became the guildmaster. A Herald bearing the crest of the Sworn Blades was busy hanging up a scroll on the local Noticeboard that carried news from across the Kingdom. A Black Scroll, the updated Blacklist. My life was as good as over. To be blacklisted by the Sworn Blades was the equivalent of being branded an enemy of Justina herself. An enemy of the Goddess of Law, Honor, Virtue, Protection and Justice. Only the absolute worst scum of society would ever end up on that list. No one would ever do business with them, or fraternize with them. Only now that I saw the list, did it dawn on me just how bad my situation was. I would never be able to get a job anywhere, shops would refuse to sell me their goods, for fear of driving away all their other customers. No one would believe a word I was saying and more, or willingly speak or listen to me even if they did. In short, my life was ruined. I hurried back to my old house and promptly barred the door shut, The servants would likely not be around to clean anymore once the news spread, anyway. I went into the basement and fetched a wine bottle, a fine vintage one. I didn¡¯t even bother getting a glass for it, then just sat down at my table, opened the bottle and started to drink. The better to drown my sorrows. ______________________________________________________________________________ Journal Entry 256, the 5th day in the Month of Justina Dungeons are far more fascinating that I had ever dared to hope for when I first went with Rael and the others to subjugate them. The Core had told the truth; The inhabitants were people with their own ideas, thoughts, wants and the like. That became quite clear to me already on the first night, when I got into a heated debate with a Kobold over the use of Nightcap in healing potions. The idea was absurd to me, yet the little thing proved me dead wrong. Not only did nightcap work for healing potions, despite it being an exceedingly toxic fungus. But it somehow enhanced the effect of it, making the resulting potion better than standard healing potions. That was quite a blow to my alchemical knowledge. It was after this that I decided to actually check out the Library like the Core had offered. To say it was a treasure trove of knowledge was an incredible understatement. Tomes upon tomes that would make the professors back in the college have heart attacks from over excitement for sure. I could see why the books were warded, though it was clear it was not the Core who had warded them. But rather the sole other inhabitant of the room itself, the Librarian had to be the one who did. These wards were of an ancient variant and far more powerful than what the Core should be capable of on her own. At least as far as I knew.If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. The books contained such knowledge and better yet the Library was brightly lit to allow easy reading. I could have spent the rest of the night here had I not been fetched back to the Kobold Village by my new acquaintance. A Kobold with brown-red scales named Masskha, who was a Kobold Alchemist. Never heard of those, but the potions he had made for us was decidedly the real deal. And once again far more powerful than the effect I could expect to find on the surface. Despite the very limited number of resources he would have had access to in order to brew them. This place was getting more and more interesting by the minute. And I spent a good deal of that evening in the library before I staggered to bed in the middle of the night. Journal Entry 257, the 6th day in the Month of Justina I buried myself in the library for most of the day; I didn¡¯t even hear about Inlas¡¯ attack before I returned for dinner; I had been far too busy reading and, thanks to Masskha, I was also starting to learn Umber. The dungeons answer to the Trade Language, apparently most of the inhabitants of the different dungeons could understand it. Though not all could speak it, given a lack of mouths capable of forming the syllables, or in some cases, just mouths in general. The learning process was quite difficult as the syllables required the ability to speak them with a wide variety of orifices. Due to how varied the inhabitants were, meaning the sounds was¡­ unusual, to say the least. Not part of your standard language like the Trade Language or Elvish. Heck, even Dwarven was far easier to learn than this. It had complicated sentence structures where in some cases a previous word, spoken in a certain way, could alter the entire meaning of a sentence. So with just a single alteration to a syllable, ¡°Hello¡± could change to ¡°Hero¡± and the like. It was quite an interesting experience. Also, Hero does not carry the same meaning in Umber as in the Trade Language, the closest approximation would be words like Calamity or Disaster, can¡¯t say I am surprised. That night I told the rest of the party about what I had learned and for the first time in a very long time they not only listened. But seemed genuinely interested in what I had to tell. It felt nice to be regarded in this manner. Here, right underneath our noses, was an entire group of people we had viewed as little more than resources to be violently exploited. Without even realizing, we were invading their homes and pillaging their belongings for years upon years. Well, I had made up my mind, if I survived all this and got back to civilization I would ensure that this exploitation would end. There was too much to learn from these places. The Library of the Core had books long thought lost. In their unedited original forms and in perfect condition, no less. Journal Entry 258, the 7th day in the Month of Justina Indella arrived at the Library and all but dragged me away from my studies. She cited *I will need many mana potions for what I am about to do and you have a stockpile you have never used if Mordred is telling the truth.* Well, I can¡¯t say that¡¯s completely wrong. Though the ¡°stockpile¡± was more the fact that I could burn my own mana to create mana potions using one of my Alchemy skills. And I had been doing that for a long time before going to bed each night. This gave me an entire Bag of Storing¡¯s worth of them in total. What in the world was she planning that would require me to break into that giant stockpile? Well, turns out I would wind up spending all of them before this day was over. Indella started to grow Razorvines all along the Duergar Fortress¡¯ walls and quaffing potions as she ran out of mana to keep it up. At first, I thought they would vanish, but no. The vines remained, permanently it would seem, woe to those attempting to climb those walls now, or set fire to the vines themselves. It was, however, not to be the end of it. As Indella dragged me away after we had dinner too. I was on my way back to the Library hoping to get back to my studies, but no. Indella was on a roll it seemed, wanting to prove herself useful. Not sure what had lit the fire under her in such a fashion, but it was infectious it would seem. Masskha had joined me in creating mana potions for her as she started to change the layout of the Abyssal Eye¡¯s boss room. She was using ¡°Shape Stone¡±, ¡°Plant Growth¡± and ¡°Move Earth.¡± To say those spells would be taxing at Indella¡¯s level would be a severe understatement. And she was casting them over and over. She would be feeling the potion sickness from those potions she drank by tomorrow. That was for certain. Hopefully, she would be able to keep her breakfast down. I had not seen neither hide nor hair of the Eyes as we worked. And despite the supposedly constant flow of intruders coming into the dungeon now, we had not been attacked even once. Reassuring and terrifying at the same time. Once Indella was done my storage of Mana potions was gone. Every last one of them, and both mine and Masskha¡¯s mana levels, were rock bottom. I couldn¡¯t squeeze out another potion even if I wanted to, and my friend Masskha was so exhausted I had to carry him back. A small burden, all things considered. I left Indella behind once I was out; she said she wanted to stay behind to meet and converse with the Eyes; I thought she had gone mad, but apparently she was considered part of the dungeon because of her bond with the Core, so she had nothing to fear. Besides, I was in no shape to try to stop her, so I had no choice but to accept her reasoning as valid despite the lack of proof. And seeing as the Core didn¡¯t seem overly distressed when I saw her in the distance. She was working to change the layout to make the bridge she had built across the lake by far the easiest route. I could only assume Indella had not been talking nonsense. As I neared the ramp, I noticed that the room had changed quite a bit. With a rather steep descent into the bottom of the room, before the now much longer way back up to the Mushroom forest on the other side. The illusion was still there at the top, but since I knew about it, it was easy to see through it. Though the unnatural darkness made it almost impossible to see across the room itself, not to mention there was spiderweb everywhere. The Core had clearly renovated the place to secure it against attack. That made me feel a lot safer, that was for sure. Another Kobold had been waiting at the bottom and blew a signal on a small horn. A short moment later another signal was heard from the top. We were told to hurry up as the traps set along the way would not remain disabled for long. I hurried along as fast as I could through the unnatural darkness and spider webbing that covered almost every surface of the room now; I suspected that the place was far more inhabited than it seemed, as I could feel eyes staring at me with unnerving interest. Sango and Sybl were the only ones still awake when we returned. They were sitting near the campfire and were happily chewing on something. Probably more steak, given the plates next to them showing clear signs of greasy food. I let Masskha down from my shoulders, and he waved goodnight as he staggered back to the village. Tough little guy. Any other mage in his state would have passed out by now. The only reason I was lucid was because I had quaffed a stamina potion, though I would not last much longer at the best of times, even with it. I sat down next to the fire in order to get some warmth in me. This place was somewhat cool on its own, likely because it was an actual cave despite being a part of the dungeon. So the heat was welcome. We talked a bit about our day before I turned in for the night. ______________________________________________________________________________ This was not working, the divine vessels were too weak, and the Core had figured out my trick and had adapted accordingly. The Cubes now waited in ambush outside the range of the torch. And despite being a goddess, I could not use divine sight when viewing the world through the eyes of my vessels. Their newfound tactical finesse had to be the work of the core. The cubes themselves were dumb as bricks. The Shadows had also adopted ambush tactics, besides every so often the damn labyrinth would change. I had made little to no progress as the monsters were deliberately pulling out of combat once they started to take too much damage. Purposefully denying my Vessels any experience they would have gotten. Luckily, I was not alone in my struggles. I had someone who could help. And even now was preparing to make a rather large impact on the dungeon itself once the ritual they were preparing around the perimeter was done. My thoughts were interrupted as she arrived in my small piece of heaven. Selba, the only one of my siblings who didn¡¯t think me a liar or mad by now. Granted, I had brought that last part on myself, given how I had behaved the last fifteen and a half millennia. But then, what choice did I have, no other solution would grant survival. My visions had shown me this. The only downside with my visions was that they would undoubtedly be true, but could go off anywhere from within the next hour to half an eon later. That was until that Core arrived. She had defied my visions four times already. First, she didn¡¯t get tamed by Indella. Then she summoned the Beast to deny me a second time when Rael stepped into her Core Room with the intent to conquer her dungeon and attempt to tame her. The third time, she expertly used Saol¡¯s greed against him. And rather than being found out, actually somehow got the party out of the guild much earlier than they should have been. And finally, she escaped in the rainstorm when the squall I sent didn¡¯t make her crash-land as she tried to take off. Could that mean that the vision I had seen of her using my power to save us all was wrong too? No, I could not start to doubt now. Who knew how long I had left until It arrived. I had already done too much, given up too much, I had to see this through and secure the core, no matter the cost. Just like I had resolved myself to that day so long ago. If I was mad, then so be it. At least I would have done what I could and my Father and the others would forgive me my actions. I only acted as I felt I had to, to save everything. Selba for her part sat down in the chair I manifested for her. ¡°My followers will be ready come sunrise. Once that happens, we will see if this Core is as formidable when faced with my children as she is against yours.¡± Selba was referring to her demonic children. They were not Penumbra¡¯s creations, nor did they pay Penumbra much more than lip service, if any at all. They were great to have on your side in a fight though, provided you didn¡¯t care too much for collateral damage. I nodded back at her as I willed a cup of wine into my hand. ¡°We shall see indeed, the important part now is to secure the core as soon as possible. If parts of the dungeon have to be destroyed to secure it, then so be it.¡± Demons had one huge advantage over Humans, they were Selba¡¯s creations, not mine, and so not subject to the restrictions placed upon my children. They had no limiter for dungeon entry, as they technically were considered monsters and not people. A distinction Selba and I intended to exploit. All we needed was time to finish the ritual, and my puppets would make sure to keep eyes off of my dear sibling. Interlude 9: Incursion and Insanity When I woke up the following morning, I felt horrible. Because an extreme amount of discomfort emanated from Indella. It didn¡¯t take a genius to figure out what had happened as potion sickness had been a thing in the game as well. By this point, it didn¡¯t surprise me at all. I helped her to her feet, as she looked at me with a pained expression. *What I get for trying to impress everyone by going beyond what I should be able to do, I suppose.* She gave a pained grin that quickly turned to a grimace. I just shook my head. ¡°You didn¡¯t need to go that far-¡± suddenly the entire dungeon shook violently and sent a mental warning message. <Warning, Dimensional barriers breached, Demonic Incursion imminent!> That could not be good. ¡°Indella get on, NOW¡± she looked at me for a few moments before dragging herself onto my back. I was in the air the moment I felt she was secure and set off towards the Fort. I could hear the sound of battle inside the Deep Labyrinth. Hazalaar and a strange purple skinned creature that I could only barely recognize as Ezekiel were fighting off several monstrous creatures of varying sizes and forms. Some looked like a mix of man and beast, others were just a chaotic mess of limbs and mouths. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to their look. There were also small, winged and big-eared ones that I guess could be Imps. Decidedly demons, at least Hazalaar seemed to be enjoying itself, as each swing of Heartseeker killed a Demon if not more. While the Terrorgeist seemed utterly unconcerned with its own safety, it attacked mindlessly even though the demons clearly didn¡¯t give a damn about Terror. Despite a temporarily vast numerical advantage, they would not live long as the other inhabitants of this place were attracted to the clamor of battle. And while the Demons were impervious to Terror, Deathtouch quickly proved to be effective as the first swarm of Typhoid rats fell on them, followed by a score more. They were quickly followed by Black Oozes, who quickly managed to organize the fight into a bloodbath thanks to Cooperation. The Demons were in way over their heads, yet they just kept coming. This would clearly be a question of which side would run out of stuff first, which in this case would likely be the demons unless something changed drastically. The fort was also doing equally well if not better. When I arrived the Duergar were busy with cleanup. The demons who had appeared there had done so in the middle of the expanse between the fort and the tunnel leading into the mini maze to the stairs. Unfortunately for the Demons, the Duergar on the wall were always expecting trouble. So, the moment the first one materialized, the guards sounded the alarm and opened fire on them. This sent a literal rain of lethal Starsilver Crossbow bolts down on them, followed by banishing spells from the Priests. I landed in the fort, Indella was in no state to continue riding. Besides, I needed better mobility to assess what in the world was going on in a timely manner. ¡°Indella get to the priests, see if they can get you something for the potion sickness¡± She looked at me for a few moments, then nodded. *Be careful, ok?* I smiled and gave my own nod in response. As she was helped towards the temple by one of the blacksmiths, I dissolved into mist and flew into the mini labyrinth. There were no demons here, but given the huge amount of mending walls, this was likely not the case recently. Which meant the Depths Worms had been feasting on them. Well, that meant the 3rd floor was holding, for now. I held little doubt that this was just a probing attack to test the dungeon¡¯s defenses. I was honestly surprised no demon had entered the Core room. Maybe a limitation? <Teleportation and Plane Shifting into the Core Room are impossible as long as the Boss leading up to it are still around>. Oh, well, I focused on the task at hand once more; I had no time to worry about Hazalaar being defeated right now. The sight that met me was a surprising one, dead Demons. There were about a dozen of them, all without a single scratch on them were at the door leading to the third floor. I could only surmise they had decided to pilfer some tomes from the library and the wards had done their job. Note to self, don¡¯t piss off the invisible Librarian. There was no sign of any books, however, so someone else had also been in here to retrieve them. The Hive itself was agitated, but secure. There were no demons in sight, though Talka informed me a bunch had appeared in her hive, and had promptly gotten buried under Swarmlings and Striders. There were also several more fighting her Hive throughout the 2nd floor, though no more demons had materialized inside the hive itself. So, all floors were under siege then. Not good at all. The lake area was clear of demons, I didn¡¯t even need to guess why, my Brothers would likely just annihilate the demons as they arrived there. If nothing else, through sheer size and mass difference. Or, I thought as the waters suddenly exploded and an absolutely gigantic serpent like demon was flung onto the shore with my Brothers following shortly after. They tore into it with teeth and claws, then just as it started to fight back they blasted it with their strange energy, destroying it utterly. ¡°SiStEr, We HaVe ThIs PlAcE CoVeReD, gO SuPpOrT tHe OtHeRs.¡± Well, it was not like I stood a chance against enemies that big anyhow, so I was more than willing to take them up on that suggestion. I sped off towards the Kobold village. The sound of fighting was growing louder as I neared, despite the constant din of the Striders and demons fighting throughout the floor. The Umbral Spiders had proven their worth ten times over, though. With about a dozen winged demons caught in their webs along with several who did not have wings, all fighting against their inevitable demise. Using fire to escape would not get them out of those webs, heck it would only serve to feed the spiders more light. The Kobold Village had taken a severe beating, if it wasn¡¯t for Rael and his party the damage would have likely been catastrophic. Several Kobolds were heavily injured, and a few would likely need resurrection before the day was done, provided the Duergar Priests could even offer that Service. <They can since you have a High Priest. If you did not have him, they would not have been able to do a Resurrection with their current numbers>. Finally, some good news in the middle of this mess. I sent a telepathic message to Indella about it. I received the reply that they would send up a group of priests and some warriors to support the village once the area was clear. Another group had manifested itself, great, round 2. Rael and his party were still fighting a rather big, by their standards, demon, though its underlings had all been slain. However, I was in no mood to let this play out and cause even more damage to the village. As the demon was gleefully readying a Fireball I manifested literally on top of the demon, crushing it to the ground, then promptly tore out its throat while I had it pinned. I looked at the group, ¡°Are you alright here?¡± Rael, somewhat winded, nodded stoically. ¡°We reacted as fast as we could, but it was bad. The damn things came out of nowhere and started to toss fireballs and flame lances all over.¡± I looked around, Kobolds were naturally resistant to fire and were busy putting out those that remained. But a few carried bloodied weapons, as well as bandages and other signs of emergency treatment without magic. I would have to find a way to reward them later for their bravery as they had paid a hefty price for defending their home. I looked at Rael ¡°I have sent for Duergar priests to come and aid with the healing and in the cases where it¡¯s needed, resurrection¡± I informed him. He nodded, clearly grateful for the aid. ¡°We can hold them off for now. But extra healing and magical support would indeed go a long way in helping out in the long run, as I doubt this is it.¡± I agreed with that assessment. ¡°The entire dungeon is under attack, on all floors, simultaneously.¡± I replied in a total deadpan. No need to sugarcoat it. This was bad, and Rael would likely be able to act accordingly with better information. He closed his eyes for a moment. ¡°Then me and the party will stay in defense of the village, the little ones won¡¯t stand a chance if the demons return.¡± I could not help but smile. ¡°Thanks Rael, it¡¯s a weight off my shoulders.¡± We looked at each other for another moment in mutual respect, before I dissolved once more. Time to check on Unguul. The scene that met me was¡­ bizarre, Demons fighting Demons, other demons dancing around and making merry. Yet others were just lying about sleeping, while Unguul himself was busy eating a particularly large Rhino looking demon. I could only surmise that the demons¡¯ otherworldly resilience let them ignore some status ailments despite its usually penetrating effect. But not all of them. This caused total mayhem for the Demons. The smaller Eyes were making a game out of chasing Imps around, blasting them with their gazes and then eating them. ¡°Are you guys doing ok here?¡± I asked as I materialized once more. The four eyes answered in their usual and by now predictable pattern. ¡°Hey guys, are we doing OK here?¡± ¡°Of course we are doing OK, Stupid!¡± ¡°You¡¯re Stupid!¡± ¡°All of you shut up. Yes, Mistress, we got this under control. They got the jump on us, but our Gaze is not something they can deal with that easily, Demon or no.¡± Unguul turned to me. ¡°Unguul having fun and Demons are tasty¡± he used his tongue to scoop up another and started chewing happily. Yep, they had this under control. ¡°So no one¡¯s hurt?¡± I asked. ¡°Unguul¡¯s smaller eyes got clawed a bunch, it hurt, but Unguul¡¯s eyes heal.¡± Unguul continued to chew on different demons after responding, and it seemed happy enough so clearly no major damage was done.¡°Great work guys, keep up the good work.¡± the Eyes seemed far more motivated as I left, I almost pitied the next batch of demons who entered Unguul¡¯s chamber, almost. It was worrisome that they could only barely disable the Demons with their gazes, though.Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. That could mean trouble later on, I would likely need to get Unguul some backup if things got worse or more resilient Demons showed up. I continued on as I watched the demons and Striders clash around me, both in the air and on the ground. They were tearing each other apart with a complete disregard for their own safety; the Demons being banished and the Striders dying in large numbers. Good thing Talka¡¯s brood could replenish as fast as it could, as the demons had a higher kill to death ratio than the Striders. But the Demons could not replenish fast enough to form a coherent attacking force, for now. I ventured up the stairs and found a sight I had expected, but still filled me with cold dread as the first floor was overrun. Not too surprising. The Cubes and Shades were sneaky and dangerous. But these were demons, not a ragtag band of weak adventurers or puppets made to dance on the strings of a Goddess. And while they could handle the Imps and some lesser demonic beasts. There were bigger breeds there, as well as Inlas¡¯ Puppets. It would seem Inlas had gotten backup from somewhere. I would need a plan to deal with this. Unless I would have far too many intruders to deal with. For when this force ventured down, I feared that the Striders would be overwhelmed. And far faster than when Rael rampaged through the floor. I triggered Magical Labyrinth and watched as several Demons got crushed as the walls shifted around them. Several more triggered traps when they tried to evade certain doom, causing chaos and mayhem in general. I moved deeper into the dungeon, I would need help to come up with a countermeasure for the intruders on the first floor. Sure the traps and the magical labyrinth could still cull them. But that alone would not stop them, not even close. ______________________________________________________________________________ The Core¡¯s Dungeon was doing quite well, considering they had been attacked on all levels simultaneously and with no warning at all. Well, my darling children would only further damage the dimensional integrity as they materialized, or so it should have been. I had not really considered that the Core might have aid from Penumbra¡¯s Firstborn. They were a dangerous lot, they supposedly slept deep underground, how irksome. Even now, they were busy thwarting my efforts, redirecting the powerful ones into their watery domain where they fell upon them with glee. It was no coincidence that they were inside that specific dungeon, I could feel it. A secret that my older sister had kept no doubt. Yes, that was it, I was certain. So, that was why Inlas seemed so annoyed. The backlash from having one of her vessels defiled by one of those ancient and dangerous entities would weaken her for a while. Well, my children did not have that weakness. That did not mean that this would be easy though, with the horrors forcing me to only send the weakest of my children. Lest their own tampering with the ritual would just have my children drown or be ganged up on by however many of them were in that lake. There was one way to circumvent their tampering, but that would mean having to go about it in a roundabout fashion. Well, nothing for it. My mortal followers would eagerly give their lives to summon one of my personal champions. ______________________________________________________________________________ The bottle was empty. Typical, I had been the richest man in Caelyn, and now I had run out of wine to drown my sorrows. I couldn¡¯t even afford to purchase more wine either, not that it mattered. I would not be allowed to buy wine from any seller in town, anyway. The news had spread like wildfire, as it always did when the Blacklist was updated. Within 2 hours of dawn, the entire town knew of my disgrace. I tossed the bottle against the wall where it shattered into pieces. ¡°Saol¡± Huh? I looked around. Was someone there? Oh, who was I kidding? No one would willingly step up to my porch now, not even children would play pranks on me, that¡¯s how shunned I was. ¡°Saol¡± There it was again. What was going on? I sighed and grabbed something to eat. If I couldn¡¯t have more wine, I might as well enjoy some food. Once I returned to the table, however, I dropped the plate of ham and cheese. There was a bottle on the table. A bottle of wine, and not some cheap stuff either, but the good stuff. I grabbed it and started to drink. ¡°Enjoying our gift, Saol?¡± I nearly choked on the wine. The voice had been coming from right behind me. I turned around. There was nothing there. ¡°We can¡¯t be seen, Saol, but we see, we want to help, all we ask for is help in return.¡± The voice sounded hopeful. However, I did not like this, the voice was giving me the chills, but¡­ what choice did I have? ¡°Why do you want my help?¡± I asked, fearing the answer ¡°You have nothing to lose and everything to gain, you want revenge on the Core, we can help you. You want to prove yourself to Inlas. We can show you how big a mistake that is¡± Before I could answer I was flung elsewhere, and I saw¡­ I SAW! I fell to the floor; the bottle was lying on the floor beside me, broken. I didn¡¯t care, I laughed, that was so funny, hilarious even. So, that was why Inlas needed the Core so much, it all made sense now, Inlas had used me. I meant nothing to her, all she wanted was her precious little Core. Well, I would show her. ¡°What do I need to do?¡± My new friends smiled. They were like butterflies. I could see them now, now that our paths were aligned. ¡°We will show you.¡± One of them reached out a hand, I took it. The next moment reality lost all meaning, and I descended into madness. But that was fine, the butterflies told me. Those that were sane would not survive in this place. Nor could they behold the magnificence of It without having their minds crushed by Its presence. Something wet poured out of my nose and ears, blood. Funny, it seems I still was a bit too sane for its taste. But that was fine, I just had to give up the rest of my sanity like the butterflies kept telling me. I had to do so if I were to help It rip open the seal, so I would relinquish my mind. I would help It, I laughed. Laughed as the essence of the Void destroyed the last of my sane mind. Good riddance, I did not need it, anyway. Not anymore, not when I had such an important task. I opened my eyes; I was lying on the floor of my Kitchen; the Butterflies were there. They guided me to my basement, to a room I did not know was there until now. Where I could do my work in peace, it would take a while. But once complete, they would pay. THEY WOULD ALL PAY WHEN IT DESTROYED THE WORLD. I laughed, no, I cackled with glee. As I started to etch the first of the runes for the ritual circle that would be used to usher It into this world. _____________________________________________________________________________ The entire dungeon shook once more. This felt more severe. Hopefully, Pearl was fine. <She¡¯s OK though we have a problem> Problem? What probl- The scent of sulfur told me all I needed to know, another assault. But this time however it was not just demons materializing, but something huge entered via teleportation, not plane shifting. What in Penumbra¡¯s name was that? <Elder Demon! BOSS LADY ELDER DEMON ON THE 3RD FLOOR!!!> The Archive was screaming. I could not blame it, this was beyond bad. That thing could go toe to toe with the Things and actually stand a good chance of winning. Its appearance was abhorrent. It stood nearly 20 meters tall and was roughly humanoid in structure. Giant leathery wings protruded from its back and a long sinuous tail with a spiked mace like tip extended from its body. Its coloration was mainly a yellowish green, except on its upper wing tips, lower arms and lower parts of its legs, which instead were white. Its hands were deformed, with 7 clawed fingers crowing haphazardly on each of its palms with no real structure to it. It¡¯s Lion-like legs were similarly disfigured with one toe actually curling the wrong way on each of its feet. Its head was like that of a giant human skull, with a mane of white hair growing out of it. A crown of horns grew from its head and its lipless mouth were set with razor-sharp teeth and locked in a perpetual grin. Its eyes left a trail of teal light as it looked around, and it gave off an aura of pure malice and bloodlust. The bolts of the Duergar just bounced off of its skin. It didn¡¯t even feel it. The magic hit Barrier and just fizzled out. We had no way of damaging this thing. I reached into my own magic reserves. The Potion Sickness immediately reared its angry head at me, breaking my focus. Argh, why did it have to attack now, when I was helpless? I couldn¡¯t just sit around and do nothing. I ran out of the room, trying to cast once more. Something ANYTHING that could even be just a distraction to make it easier for the Duergar to keep it at bay. I did manage to do something alright, but it was not casting magic. Ugh, at least now my stomach was empty. I got back on track. I had to come up with something to delay it, even for a moment. I racked my brain, but I couldn¡¯t come up with anything. It was like a damn riddle. WAIT! That was it, riddles! The ¡°Sphinx Curse¡± and ¡°Challenge¡± were passives, right? <Yes, but they are also gained from eating a core, so they are unfortunately not shared> Damn so much for that idea. Wait, if the problem was that we lacked a way to force the challenge then, maybe. I ran for the main temple, the Demon had not taken notice of me yet, it was too busy dealing with the priests who had marshalled to repel it. I needed time right now, time for a miracle. I entered the temple itself and as I neared the altar I slid down on my knees and started to pray. I prayed for a miracle to save the day. It was all I could do in my current state. ______________________________________________ The flood from the first floor was being contained, barely. I had called on a Depth Worm to deliver a Black Ooze to help, and Cooperation had allowed the brood to excel far beyond its usual limit. It helped that I had created a kill zone for the brood. Though I wish I could take credit for the plan, it was actually the dwarves who came up with it. The entire hallway leading to the stairs'' room now had a hallway going parallel to it on both sides and above. Inside these tunnels were Striders, and they were shooting at the intruders through specially designed arrow slits. This ingenious idea had stemmed the demon tide from above greatly. There just wasn¡¯t enough room for the demons to make it through that gauntlet without getting seriously wounded at worst or just flat out killed at best. The most ironic twist to this was that this was a strategy that could essentially only be employed by someone with a primary Maze biome. Because other dungeons were not allowed to have dead-end hallways. Still, we were in trouble. The Kobold Village had been attacked twice more, though with the priests there to help out the damage had been minimal the last two attacks. That¡¯s when Archives had gone ballistic, screaming about an Elder Demon on the third floor. I had no clue what that was, but it sure as hell had not planes shifted in. I had received a notification of a teleportation occurring on the third floor, so that had to be the Elder Demon. Strange that it decided to Teleport in rather than just Plane Shift like the other demons. Bah, it didn¡¯t matter, I had to find a way to deal with it and fast. That thing was far too strong for the Duergar to deal with, I had already received a rather dour casualty report. Come on Pearl, think you have to find a way to put a stop to it all. I was drawing a blank, there was no way I could bea- wait, there was. It would be risky as all hell, but I DID share Acting Lv5 with Indella, so I should be able to pull it off, right? <That¡¯s an iffy one, Boss Lady, Elder Demons don¡¯t have any specific skills that allow them to detect deception. But they ARE Selba¡¯s Champions, that means that they have access to the demonic version of, well, me>. Well, it¡¯s not like I could come up with anything better. Besides, riddles should be outside that version¡¯s area of expertise, just like Archives was limited to just what affected me directly, right? <I don¡¯t know, sorry>. Well, that sucked. Time to take a gamble, I guess. Worst-case scenario, I would distract it for a moment. Wait, hang on, I suddenly had an epiphany. Could demons be compelled by using their true name? <Yes, they can, why do you- oh. OH! Right! I DO know its name since it¡¯s in the dungeon, it¡¯s->. What followed was a bunch of syllables I could never hope to pronounce correctly. Did all elder Demons have such convoluted True Names? . Well, I might not be able to speak it, but Telepathy should be able to at least mimic the word using my memory. I had the Archives repeat the name a few times until I was sure I had it right, then I dissolved myself and moved to the third floor. It was time to put my plan into action. Chapter 18: After the Struggle I formed right in front of the Elder Demon. It looked at me for a few moments, then took a swipe at me. I dodged it narrowly, then rushed in as close as I dared, again narrowly dodging another massive arm. Now, right in front of the Demon¡¯s face, I screamed into its mind.¡°Trafklasjhegh Dromgklafreltash Grlardiglufrah I demand that you cease your violence against my dungeon and accept my challenge of answering three riddles. Failure to answer a single riddle will banish you from my dungeon for all eternity!¡± The demon froze and stared at me. I could sense the unbridled fury and hatred it directed in at me, but I did not back down. The Elder demon flexed its massive arms, as if trying to strain against invisible bonds. But it did not take another swing at me, it couldn¡¯t. ¡°THEN ASK YOUR RIDDLES SO I MIGHT RESUME MY RAMPAGE, PATHETIC WRETCH!¡± Its voice was like pure hatred, malice and rage packed into a sound. I could not describe it in any other fashion as it assailed my senses just from listening to it. The Duergar and even the other demons now ceased their fighting as I hovered in front of the Elder Demon. Both sides equally interested in seeing how this battle of wits would pan out. I racked my brain; I needed a good riddle here. After a short deliberation, I asked my first one. ¡°You have me today, Tomorrow you¡¯ll have more; As your time passes, I¡¯m not easy to store; I don¡¯t take up space, But I¡¯m only in one place; I am what you saw, But not what you see. What am I?¡± The demon looked at me for a moment, its expression one of intrigue, then I sensed something. It was as if a faint gust of wind that blew toward the Elder Demon, so faint as to be nearly undetectable. A moment later it grinned, ¡°MEMORIES!¡± Damn, one down and yet, I couldn¡¯t shake the feeling that something was off. Ok, no point in focusing on semantics, I asked my second riddle. ¡°Only one color, But not one size, Stuck at the bottom, Yet easily flies. Present in sun, But not in rain, Doing no harm, And feeling no pain. What is it?¡± Again the Demon seemed puzzled, this time for longer. Then, once again, the sense of that nearly faint wind. The demon grinned again, ¡°A SHADOW!¡± it seemed confident now¡­ too confident. Something was decidedly off. That second time it hadn¡¯t really seemed to try that hard to think of the answer. Sure, the riddle was not that hard, but even so that was not normal. Well, nothing to it. I had no choice but to give him the final riddle. However, just as I was about to ask it of him, another sensation hit me. This one was unrelenting, undeniable, as it forced the next riddle out of me with no choice on my end. ¡°Face like a tree, Skin like the sea, A great beast I be, Yet vermin frighten me. What am I?¡± As soon as it had forced me to ask the riddle, the presence disappeared. What in the blazes was that? <That was Lady Penumbra, not sure what she was up to, however>. She better had an excellent reason, as that riddle was for children. I answered that one when I was in kindergarten, for crying out loud. And despite this, when the faint gust of wind came next, the Demon seemed frustrated and angry, well, angrier. OK, now this was confusing. How could the Demon fail such an easy riddle? <I wish I could tell you, Boss Lady, but I am as stumped as it is. I have never heard of such a creature>. What? How can you not have heard of Elephants? <What¡¯s an Elephant?> Wait, are you telling me Elephants do not exist in this reality? <Not as far as I am aware, which is probably also why whatever was feeding the Demon answers couldn¡¯t help either>. Neat. Meanwhile, the Elder Demon¡¯s expression had grown from frustrated to angry. I would not give it an inch, however, ¡°Your answer, Demon. Give it or give up the challenge.¡± In response, the Demon roared in defiance and lifted its massive arms to attack. Then it roared again, this time in pain as my ¡°Sphinx Curse¡± activated. I doubted the Curse alone would be enough to work on this massive thing. Luckily, it seemed the use of the Demon¡¯s True Name had helped to circumvent the limitations of the ¡°Sphinx Curse¡± this time. The Demon was now blinking in and out of existence, screaming profanities and oaths of vengeance for this defeat. Fat chance, big guy. It could never set foot in my dungeon again after this. With a final massive whooshing noise and a rush of displaced air, the massive Demon vanished in a burst of green-black flames. The other Demons seemed utterly shell-shocked at the sudden disappearance of their champion. Meanwhile, the Duergar recovered far faster and immediately resumed destroying the Demons. The intruders took far too long to respond to the threat, and the renewed rain of arrows and spells quickly dispatched them. The Third floor was clear once more. Hopefully that would slow the intruders down. <You have gained the title ¡°Riddler¡± for defeating an Elder Demon in a battle of wits. By the effect of the title ¡°Riddler¡± you have gained the skill ¡°Irrefutable Challenge(Special)¡±>. That was more than adequate compensation for not gaining anything else for beating it, that was for sure. That left me with a few questions, though. The most prominent of which was, how did Penumbra interfere. I didn¡¯t mind her help in this, far from it, I would not likely have thought to ask that riddle. But if I had understood things correctly, Deities could just possess mortal beings without permission. <Indella gave it on your behalf. Even now she is in the Temple below, praying to Lady Penumbra for aid>. Oh, remind me to thank her later. For now, I had to come up with a way to stop this damnable incursion at its source. Sure, I was gaining income at a rapid clip, but this would exhaust everyone, eventually. As I pondered this there was a slight rumbling from above. <Rasjjhalka, Avatar of Penumbra has entered your domain>. The Dungeon suddenly shook as something massive went off on the surface. <Dimensional integrity stabilizing, Demons now suffering from instability and are likely to vanish shortly>. Hoo boy seems like Mother had finally had enough of Inlas¡¯ and Selba¡¯s bullshit and was taking matters into her own hands. Or tentacles, in this case. I dissolved and went topside. The view that met me was straight out of a nightmare. Bodies everywhere, both Humans and demons alike. Every puppet Inlas had marshalled but not sent into the Dungeon was lying face down on the ground. They were all dead. Just outside my domain was a giant circle of scorched earth and burning grass. The aftermath of a massive fire spell that had incinerated the outskirts, no doubt. The sole surviving Demon was another Elder, and it was being torn apart by the biggest creature I had ever seen. Mother had said that Rasjjhalka was about the size of a hill. That did not do her sheer size justice. Her serpentine body was extensive enough to coil around my entire domain with and still had enough to reach far inside of it. Many tentacles that were thicker than houses at the base grew all over her, a dozen of which had coiled around the Elder Demon, slowly crushing it. Eyes and mouths grew randomly across its body, eagerly devouring the dead as it competed with my dungeon on cleanup detail. It¡¯s yellow, slitted eyes made sure there were no blind spots either, and the moment I arrived, several of them locked in on my position. She could see me, even though I had dissolved my form, she could see me. There was no doubt in my mind about that. Thousands, no, tens of thousands of centipede legs, each ending in a razor sharp tip carried her body. Each pointed talon that could impale anyone with ease, as the Demon was learning the hard way.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Rasjjhalka ripped the demon asunder with a sickening grin on her three heads, before she devoured the thing, piece by piece. Meanwhile, I reformed myself and hovered over to her ¡°Thank you for your help, I don¡¯t think I would have been able to deal with it all myself.¡± Rasjjhalka looked at me for a bit, before she responded. ¡°You are most welcome, Little Sister.¡± her voice was remarkably soft, not to mention dignified. Then again, Rasjjhalka was Mother¡¯s chosen Avatar. Being able to hold a conversation would probably be a requirement to that. Rasjjhalka must have realized what was thinking as she gave a good-natured chuckle. ¡°I am guessing you did not expect me to sound like this, did you, Little Sister?¡± I looked at her for a moment, ¡°I will admit it was surprising, yes, considering how my older brothers sound like.¡± Rasjjhalka nodded sagely. ¡°I can understand the confusion then, they can be a bit, painful, to listen to.¡± That was an understatement if I had ever heard one. ¡°Well then, I should probably return to my territory before the locals panic because of my presence. It was nice to meet you, Little Sister¡± I flew over and gave the third of her heads a light hug. ¡°Same here, we might not share species or stature, but family is still family.¡± Rasjjhalka chuckled again at my response, before she gave a polite nod and slowly faded away into nothing, no doubt summoned to this location by Mother. We dealt the remaining intruders over the next few hours; The remaining demons on the second floor met their end at the spines and talons of the Striders and Swarmlings, now that they no longer received reinforcements. I sent 3 squads of Duergar up to the first floor to mop the demons there, and Rael and the others eagerly joined in; We took care to not slay the Puppets, however. Instead, we disabled them and dragged them to the lake where my brothers took care of them. It was a slow, bloody process. Several Duergar were on respawn while the party had become utterly exhausted and some of them had become severely hurt. The remaining puppets had reached some insane bonus levels after Rasjjhalka killed most of them permanently. The only downside to Rasjjhalka¡¯s help was that the things she had killed had not given me any points. It was probably because she was not a part of this dungeon at all. It made sense, but it also meant that the overall gain from this mess had become significantly lower than it could have been. That being said, the gain had still been significant. However, there was also a downside to all of this. I stood in front of the assembled Kobolds. The demons had killed 4 of their kin in the fighting and desecrated their remains with magic. We could not resurrect them because of this. Among those slain were Sisslkin. The brave little Kobold had intercepted an attack meant for Lienru and paid the ultimate price for his heroism. They had asked me to say a few words, before the Kobolds cremated their remains, releasing their spirits from their bodies. I bowed my head and nudged the four little ones as a sign of respect, before I cleared my throat. ¡°We have taken losses here this day. These four friends, family and allies have earned their eternal repose as they gave their lives to protect their home and tribe. All witnesses say they stared death in the eye and did not shy away from the ultimate sacrifice when it called for them.¡± I paused for a bit, as I tried to find the words to convey how I felt properly. ¡°I¡­ I declare that Sisslkin, Fribbel, Inkra and Wullsh are true protectors of the dungeon. Their bravery in the face of certain death should be an inspiration to us all.¡± Finding the proper words was more difficult than I thought. I would have hailed them as heroes. But given the meaning of the word for dungeon creatures, that was decidedly not wise. It seemed however that this was enough for the Tribe. They were weeping openly as they slowly placed the four bodies on top of the prepared funeral pyre. As a sign of respect, Miriam ignited one torch that would set the pyre ablaze. She would have been the one to lie on that pyre, had not Fribbel and Inkra thrown themselves at the demonic beast that had charged at her. I lit another, though through mundane means, since I lacked fire magic. Ssatassha lit the third and Lienru the fourth and final torch. As we set fire to the pyre, Wullsh¡¯s mate Glandha broke down completely and wailed in sorrow openly. Luckily, she had Mint, and a Kobold named Varrim to support her. The three were hugging each other, crying silently, sharing in their sorrow. Mint had become best friends with Wullsh, Glandha and Varrim during the party and the weight of the loss was obvious. We watched the pyre in silence outside of quiet sobs. The flames soon devoured the small bodies utterly, but we did not leave or speak a word until the fires had died down completely. It was the Kobold custom for funerals such as this, and no one present saw any reason to break with this tradition. After the fires died down, I jumped into the Menu and unlocked ¡°Stone Decoration¡± for 3TP. Then I placed four statues in the center of the village, each one depicting one of the dead Kobolds. It was a small expenditure, given what I had gained. With that done, I added small decorative name plaques to the base of each statue. Each plate had the name of whom the statue depicted and the title ¡°Protector of the Dungeon¡± added to them. I would honor their ultimate sacrifice and make sure we remembered them. We mainly focused the rest of the day on repairing the damage wrought by the battle. This mainly meant fixing up the Kobold village, which had taken an absolute mauling by the Demons. Though the walls of the Duergar fort were not unscathed by the elder Demon either. It had worried me that the Duergar, who had also suffered losses, might find it insulting that they received no statues for their sacrifice. But it seemed they understood my way of thinking. These four were dead, permanently, and so we should remember their sacrifice. To them, death had been an inconvenience at most, so it was more akin to just taking a quick break. That was a relief, as the last thing I needed was internal strife after all of this. Most of us were busy with repairing the village. Meanwhile, Indella, who had recovered from the potion sickness, was busy over at the statues. She used her druidic powers to call forth several species of subterranean plant life to grow around them as a flowerbed. The effect was actually gorgeous as there were several bioluminescent flowers among them lending an almost mystical feel to the Statues. ______________________________________________________________________________ I knew my sister had been up to something when her pursuit of my daughter failed. But this, this had been beyond my expectations. Thank goodness that Indella had prayed for my aid. The mere thought of the damage that Elder Demon could have wrought sent chills down my back. The upside to all of this was that my daughter had, either knowingly or by accident, created the only scenario that would have banished the Demon without my aid. Sure, she needed a small push to pull out the correct riddle since Selba was feeding her Champion the answers, but that was a minor detail. What mattered was that she had banished it on her own. It really was clever, to combine the Demon¡¯s True Name along with ¡°Sphinx Curse¡± to do what neither could do alone. A far worse revelation, however, was that Selba was working with Inlas. That was unexpected. Sure, the two always got along well, since Inlas¡¯ schemes would never be secret to Selba, but I would not have expected this. This complete mess was giving me a nightmare. The worst part was that apparently they had broken no rules worth punishing, since Father had not stopped them. I looked over at Arudan, who was sitting on my desk. He was talking to my daughter, giving her information that might be useful to his younger sibling. I wonder how little Pearl would react if she knew it was one of my other children that was the voice of her skill. No, telling her that was unnecessary. She had enough to deal with for now. Besides, there was something else that was bothering me. Selba had summoned two of her most powerful champions, that would cost her mortal followers dearly to do such a thing. A dozen lives was the bare minimum for the weakest Elder Demon. Yet Selba had made them summon two, and they had been summoning a third when I warped in Rasjjhalka to deal with them. That was a massive sacrifice for Selba and not one she would undertake lightly. This had to be more than just Inlas wanting my daughter as her Avatar, it had to be. So what was going on? I could not make heads or tails off of it, but maybe there was someone who could help me find out. Someone who had also become involved in this mess by Inlas¡¯ plotting. I left my Lair and travelled over to Justina¡¯s Hall. If I was to get truthful answers out of my sisters, I would need her help. ______________________________________________________________________________ The reminder of the day was somber, Lienru gave me a tasty, but fittingly modest dinner, this was no time to celebrate our victory. Nor did I have the luxury of mourning the loss of my brave little Kobolds, I needed to expand. Luckily for me, I had hit Dungeon level 6. The few remaining puppets we had subdued and killed pushed me over the edge. This however left me with a conundrum, what to build. On one hand, the Overgrown Fortress was still tempting me. On the other, I had an obligation to my Brothers. I also had the Underworld Maze I could build. So many choices, so little time. Was there anything else I could make? I looked over my options, there were several interesting ones but nothing that I- wait. What was this? I read through the Biome. This one was interesting, very interesting. This one had a potent argument for itself. First, it was a coastal biome, which meant that it would fulfill my obligations to my Brothers. That alone was a powerful incentive, given the circumstances. However, it also had something that would be very useful. A literal Port. I could get fish from that, not to mention coral and other materials that would be useful for crafting Magic Items. I read through the things this place would give some more, then took a deep breath. Three candidates, Underground Sea, Overgrown Fortress, or this. The Underworld Maze was nice and all, but this just outclassed it. Wait, this place could fulfill the one need I had the Fortress for, If in a rather unintended manner. A port would have ships. Ships had a brig inside them, and those were used to detain prisoners, like the four adventurers from before. But this was an important choice. If I chose wrong, then I could get in serious trouble down the line. I postponed the decision for now; it was late and it would be better if I could think about it when I was more awake. With that in mind, both me and Indella travelled back to the Core Room for the night, I would decide on the biome when I woke up. Chapter 19: Of Sargasso and Statues. I woke up the following morning, refreshed and my mind made up. I had discussed it with Indella in another lucid dream, and we had determined that it would be best if we picked the Coastal Caverns. The Underground Sea had precious little land, so I would have very little choice on where to place the Core Room and Stairs. While the Overgrown Fort had no water at all, so if I picked the Fort, I still had my obligation to my Brothers. So, as much as I wanted the Fort, the Coastal Caverns was the most sensible option. Besides, it was another Special Biome. No need for me to build anything. I placed it down and watched as the stair room changed drastically; the stone changed from the black obsidian to a more gray limestone. Much to my surprise, however, that was not the only change. The stairs'' room also morphed, twisted and turned as the hallway that usually leads into the biome instead sloped up and became a staircase. From the top of the stairs, I could see what was unmistakably sunlight. I shook my head. Had I somehow claimed a piece of the surface for myself? <Nope. Each floor is in their own mini dimension, I would have figured you had realized that by now, Boss Lady. There are some exceptions, such as The Depths, which has entrances into naturally forming caverns if they intersect with its caves>. I had a suspicion, but it still felt nice to have it validated. That also explained why none of the giant rooms seemed to intersect with other parts of the dungeon. I stepped out into the sunlight and had to shield my eyes for a few moments as the coastal sun burned into my eyes. I took a deep breath of fresh air as the wind played with my mane and ruffled my feathered wings. I could hear and see seagulls fly overhead, and the sound of waves was actually really soothing. I had emerged on a small hillside overlooking the port itself. The short grass and the stony and hilly terrain reminded me of the beachside vacation home that my grandparents had owned long ago. I walked down towards the port, admiring the view and the sounds. It was nice after all the troubles that had been happening of late, not to mention a welcome change of scenery. I opened the menu. Time to check out what things I could summon on to this¡­ floor? OK¡­ Why were all my options listed as Unavailable? That couldn¡¯t be¡­ Then the entire area shook. Yep, decidedly not good. Then, just as I was puzzling over what on earth was going on, the Dungeon piped in. <The floor has met all the hidden prerequisites. Floor Mutation beginning>. Floor Mu¡­ THIS WAS A MUTATION TARGET? Crap, that was unexpected. I should probably leave while the mutation settled. Not to mention figure out what in the world I had inadvertently done to trigger a Mutation to begin with. One thing was for certain, I could kiss this place goodbye. The mutation would likely render the place impossible to recognize. I retreated to the core room as I waited. While the mutation was great, I had liked the look of the place. It had sunny skies, a nice fresh breeze, and so on. Well, the least I could do was to look up what in the blazes my floor was turning into. Hopefully, it would not be something detrimental like a river delta or something. Now that would suck, actually. Hmm, I opened up the biome list and shuffled through it, hmm actually. Archives, mind giving a quick pop-up? <Sure thing, Boss Lady, here you go!>. Hmm, so it was turning into¡­ oh, oh man. With a deep breath, I read the floor description that an adventurer would see, just to pass the time. The Cursed Sea of Sargasso is one of the most mind-boggling floors a Dungeon can have. The floor is an Archipelago starting with a small island called Lighthouse Keep. This is the only haven in this accursed place. The waters are teeming with giant kelp that creates a maze that ships have to maneuver through. Failure will mean you will get stranded in the water and have to walk on the kelp, risking getting eaten by the monsters in the deep in doing so. Woe be to any traveler on this floor who cannot get to Lighthouse Keep before night falls. The cursed mist that envelops the sea becomes active at night, and with it the souls of those who drowned in these cursed waters sail once more. They exist only to hunt the living and will stop at nothing to recruit more to their eternal torment. Only the wards of the lighthouse keep them at bay. However, daytime is far from safe. Horrors lurk beneath the waves and Sirens have lured many a brave traveler to a watery grave. Well now, that was eerie. Just what in the name of all that is holy did I do to create this horror show of a floor? Let¡¯s see here, creature descriptions. Nah, I can look at those later, hmm hazards, same with them¡­ Aha prerequisites. Let¡¯s see here. <ol> <li> Have a Deep Labyrinth with at least two undead denizens, one of which cannot be a native to the dungeon. </li> <li> Have a minimum of 3 Horrors living in your Dungeon. One of which has to be a minimum size of Colossal. </li> <li> Have 11 different species of creatures living in your dungeon, the Core not included. </li> <li> Have a Magical Labyrinth that has claimed the lives of, or banished, 50 or more hostile creatures, by any means. </li> <li> Have at least one Unique tier or greater Cursed Object in your dungeon. </li> <li> Have brought a minimum of 70 creatures back to life within one hour using unholy means. </li> </ol> I didn¡¯t have the foggiest when I had fulfilled the last criteria, though, but apparently I had. That was quite a few hoops to jump through for this floor, though. Hopefully, the Mutation was worth it, by the sound of things it sure as hell was, but better to temper my excitement. <Boss Lady, the Mutation has finished. You might wanna head down to see this>. Thanks for letting me know, let¡¯s do this. I headed back down the stairs, feeling infinitely more nervous this time. I steeled myself for what the place would look like, but nothing had prepared me for what I saw. The stair room hadn¡¯t changed. But now it exited into the basement of the Lighthouse of Lighthouse Keep. The titular Lighthouse itself was almost as tall as the Eiffel Tower. The structure consisted mostly of a jet black metal I could not identify that seemed impervious to rust and erosion. It cast a circling beam of light that would probably be visible across the entire floor at all times. There were strange green glowing Runes chiseled into the lighthouse itself at regular intervals. I could only surmise they worked to keep the inhabitants of this place at bay. The atmosphere could not have been more different. Before, it had been a beautiful and sunny coastline I could have seen taking a vacation to. Now it was a perpetual gloom across the floor. The mist was so thick that the sunlight could barely reach the rocky island I stood on, and it was easy to see why. It was so obscured by the mist it might as well be late evening or early night. All I could make out of it was more akin to a distant moon. A chilly wind blew non-stop, causing the thick mist to move about in strange patterns. Without the lighthouse to serve as a beacon, anyone traversing this floor would lose their way within mere moments of leaving the island. The sea, which had been ocean blue, was now dark green and foreboding, with the kelp floating on top of it like small hills. And it was so densely packed up it could support even my weight just fine. There was also something strange about certain parts of the water. Patches of inky blackness that stood out against the dark green water surface. <Devouring Water, Boss Lady, it¡¯s a sentient elemental being that is a hazard of this floor. It will attempt to latch on to any intruder or ships used by intruders to devour them>. That would not be a pleasant way to go, that was certain. The rest of the island was an abandoned port. The streets consisted mainly of empty storefronts and houses. All of them had the same warding runes as the lighthouse and otherwise in various states of neglect and disrepair. The cobblestone streets were dirty and full of trash left behind by the inhabitants, if there had ever been any. The ships that lay anchored in the bay was of various sizes, from small Schooners to Galleons and every ship size in between. Good, that meant I still had a brig I could use. I took to the skies and flew out over the water. There would be another island not too far to the north. Well, not too far if you could fly. If you needed a boat or tried to swim you would have quite a slow trip trying to navigate the kelp labyrinth. Lighthouse Keep quickly disappeared out of view, with only the beam of brilliant golden light telling me where it was. Even my ¡°Labyrinth Sense¡± was of limited use here because the mist was the actual issue and not labyrinthine hallways. Though at least I had the map to rely on combined with ¡°Labyrinth Sense¡± giving me an internal compass. I shuddered to think how this would be for anyone without ¡°Labyrinth Sense¡±. After about five minutes of flying, I reached the next island. The Galleon Graveyard lived up to its given name, as the entire island was nothing more than a giant amalgamation of wrecked ships. It was a loot area with treasure chests spawning naturally, which could contain anything from rare equipment to valuable resources. Though the ghosts of those who had perished there guarded the place. Even from the air I could see their spectral glow as they wandered around on the island sized wreck. So, I didn¡¯t need to pay for the ghosts. That was a pleasant surprise. I looked up their stats since I was already here. Monster: Cursed Sailor Genus: Undead, Ghost Biome: Cursed Sea of Sargasso Unlock cost: - HP: 130, MP: 80 Attack: 120, Defense: 140 Magic Attack: 100, Magic Defense: 120 Strength: 12, Dexterity: 14, Endurance: 13 Intelligence: 10, Wisdom: 8, Charisma: 12 Upkeep: - Skills: Spectral(Racial), Haunted Binding(Racial), Levitate(Racial), Eternal Guardian(Racial), Undead Traits(Racial), Master Swordsman(Special), Master Archer(Special), Master Seafarer(Special), Vigilant(Special) Not bad at all. They were strong and agile, as one would expect of the spectral remnants of sailors. They were also spectral, so they could attack through solid objects. They could levitate and were essentially superb at keeping guard. Even better was that because of Eternal Guardian their respawn times were short, they would receive bonuses while defending the place they haunted. It occurred to me that this floor would be exceedingly difficult to navigate in a short amount of time. Not only did you have to find a large enough ship for your party to use. But you had to navigate a maritime maze, in constantly foggy conditions while under a constant time pressure. I had no information on how bad this floor would be once night fell. But I had a suspicion it would not be any fun for invaders at all. I continued onwards and further ahead I could see the third ¡°island¡± though in this case, that was being generous. The Teeth of the Songstress were not an island, but a large area of jagged rocks sticking out of the water. This was the main hunting rounds for the Sirens. I could see a small school of them swim below, while others perched on the rocks, resting. They were strange things, a mix of bird, fish and woman. They had an anglerfish like lantern on their head. Human like arms that ended in webbed and clawed hands, mouths filled with overlong teeth and milky white eyes. Their torsos were human, but had feather-like scales in place of regular skin. Their scaled skin was a grayish clue in color and from the waist down it ended in a long shark like tail in place of legs. From their back sprouted jet black rubbery wings. They allowed the Sirens to fly and aided them in perching on the rocks because of the sharp claw like appendages they had. They also aided them in swimming by doubling as fins while in water. Now, how was their stats? Monster: Sargasso Siren Genus: Merfolk, Horror, Monstrosity Biome: Cursed Sea of Sargasso Unlock cost: - HP: 90, MP: 140 Attack: 100, Defense: 160 Magic Attack: 120, Magic Defense: 60 Strength: 10, Dexterity: 16, Endurance: 9 Intelligence: 12, Wisdom: 14, Charisma: 6 Upkeep: - Skills: Amphibious(Racial), Natural Swimmer(Racial), Skilled Flier(Racial), Bewitching Song(Racial), Waterbreathing(Racial), Darkvision(Racial), Aqua Breath(Racial), Grappling Master(Special), Choir (Special) So, the Sirens were Glass Cannons. They had a good offense, but aside from their dexterity aiding in physical defense, they really had nothing going for them defensively. On the offensive side, however, they were dangerous, very, very dangerous. Especially when four or more of them sang together, which would amplify the effect of their song because of choir. They also had a breath attack. I had no way of knowing how effective it would be, but it was still something to note. The Final Island contained the Boss room and the place I would put my Core from now on. The place itself looked like a sunken fortress. But this was not a normal place at all. The place had no natural defenders, but the place itself was dangerous enough. The rooms of the fortress was clear of water, but to move between rooms you would have no choice but to enter the flooded hallways. The only reason I could find for the water not spilling out had to be magic. Once you navigated this horrid maze of corridors and limited air pockets, you would reach the center of the Fortress. The center was an arena for some kind of Boss Monster. Behind a portcullis in the back of the arena was a set of stairs leading down, I could only surmise the Core Room was behind it. It was a twenty-five-minute flight to get from Lighthouse Keep to the Final Island. That would be a long trip if you took a boat, given my approximate flight speed. I did not have a clue how fast I was flying, but given the Labyrinth of Kelp, it would still slow anyone who was not airborne to a crawl.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Before I invested in a Boss Monster, I decided I would have to bridge this place and the lake so that my Brothers could enter. That meant creating a shortcut. I flew back to Lighthouse Keep, dissolved my form and dove into the dark water. Deeper and deeper I went, until what seemed like hours later, I finally found the bottom. That¡¯s when I realized that Lighthouse Keep was a floating Island, kept afloat by Kelp. I could probably use that to move the damn place around and confuse intruders further. I refocused on the task ahead; I opened the menu and looked up Shortcuts. 50TP, that was¡­ expensive, still a deal was a deal. I paid the cost and placed a massive, yawning tunnel into the sea floor. Then, as per the instructions of the Shortcut unlock, I focused on the bottom of the lake on the 2nd floor. About a minute later the dungeon chimed in with <Shortcut created, contractual obligations, fulfilled>. Then they swam out, their gargantuan serpentine forms eagerly disappearing into the distance as my Brothers explored their new home, all except the last. ¡°ThE CuRsEd SeA oF SaRgAsSo, YoU aRe ToO KiNd, SiStEr. DoN¡¯t WoRrY, We WiLl CoNtInUe To PrOtEcT tHe SeCoNd FlOoR aS wElL.¡± It gave me a pleased smile which I could only see because of its anglerfish lantern, then it too swam away. I guess that meant they approved, then again they were horrors and this place apparently fit horrors well. With that done, I returned to the surface and reformed my body, then landed on top of the Lighthouse, I needed to think for a bit. My Dungeon was getting big, actually, this floor alone was beyond big. Having Rael reinforce certain parts would become more difficult now. Not to mention, my trip to the dining room was now a trip better part of half an hour once I moved the core again. I would need to cut down on travel times without allowing intruders any shortcuts. Surely, that was possible, right? <There are several, Boss Lady, but all of them would be expensive to unlock>. Damn, too bad I couldn¡¯t just build a portal to- wait. Why couldn¡¯t I? <Huh?>. Could I build portals that would only allow those I marked to use it, and scatter them across the dungeon? There was silence for a while. <There is no unlock that allows such a thing. But if you can build the portal from scratch, I guess you could experiment with it until it functions that way?>. Good enough for me. Time to pay the Duergar a visit. I entered the lighthouse and down the stairs I went, then I flew over to the Fort. Indella was there, eating breakfast with the King and High Priest. I landed in front of the trio. As I did a Duergar servant eagerly offered me some strange pale meat that had a light acrid taste when I gave it an experimental chew. Not bad, nowhere near Lienru¡¯s cooking, but then she was a culinary savant, so comparing the two was unfair. ¡°So, Melady, what brings ye ta us taday?¡± asked the King. He seemed genuinely curious. I explained as I ate, and it didn¡¯t take long for the three of them to be genuinely interested in what I suggested. *That should be doable. We had a few such portals back in the guild. But I have no clue how they worked.* The High Priest also nodded. ¡°I seem ta recall a book in the Library mentioning Selective Portals, which only let someone with da right glyph inscribed on their skin through. It might be worth perusing da tomes there.¡± While The High Priest and Indella talked, the King remained quiet. He seemed thoughtful. ¡°Well, no matter what, Melady we will need a great deal of large cut Diamonds to focus da portal''s magic through¡± he said at length. That made sense, Portals were a sensitive magical object and even a single mistake in a single portal glyph could spell disaster. Indella looked at the King for a moment before she spoke again. *It might be worth it to get Mordred and Pavol involved in this. Both are far more knowledgeable in the Arcane than I am.* The king and High Priest both seemed to agree with Indella¡¯s assessment. Guess I should have a chat with the two of them then. I said bye to the three, leaving them to their previous conversation, and dissolved myself as I willed myself to the Party¡¯s Camp. When I arrived there, I reformed once more and looked around. The place was busy with repairs from the assault as the demons had done a number on both the camp and the village. I found Mordred near his belongings; he was sifting through what, I assumed, was several scrolls of spells he had yet to master. ¡°Hey Mordred, care to take a break from cleaning up, I want to discuss something with you and Pavol.¡± Mordred looked up from the mess of scrolls and parchment. ¡°Sure, Pavol was going to the library the last time I looked, shall we head over there?¡± I nodded, and we walked off, side by side, as we did Mordred looked up at me ¡°So what is it you want to discuss?¡± He seemed genuinely curious. Seeing no reason to keep him in suspense, I explained the idea to him as we walked to the library. ¡°Hmm, Portals that won¡¯t let anyone but allies of the dungeon through. That¡¯s an interesting idea you have there. Hmm, it MIGHT be possible. I would need to bounce a few ideas off of Pavol to be sure.¡± As he spoke, we entered the Library and found Pavol behind a giant stack of books. He was so busy with his studies he didn¡¯t notice us at all, not until Mordred tapped him on the shoulder, causing him to flinch rather badly. ¡°Oh, Mordred and you, Ms. Core, what can I help you with?¡± He corrected his glasses as he spoke. They had almost fallen off when he flinched. Once more I explained my portal, and Pavol seemed to latch on to the idea almost immediately. ¡°A special portal that allows Dungeon denizens free travel while not allowing intruders access, that¡¯s a marvelous idea!¡± He sifted through the small mountain of books around, looking for one in particular. ¡°I know I saw something about Portals somewhere here, ah here it is!¡± He fished out a rather large tome written in some strange script. Well, strange for the few moments it took for Babel to turn it into something more understandable. I read the title of the book out loud ¡°Portals of Power, by Falinn Tremorhand. That sounds promising.¡± Pavol looked at me for a few moments before he shrugged. It probably took a moment before he remembered I had Babel. We spent the next few hours pouring over the pages of several of the old books and discussing various ideas on how to proceed. The portal could work in theory, but putting it into practice would likely take a lot of work. Work that required master level Masons and Jewelers. Luckily, I had access to both in the Duergar. There was one more thing we needed for the portal to work as intended, though. We needed a Glyph to work as a passport of sorts. Without that glyph, the portal would not function, and you would just walk through it without being transported. It was a simple enough system, but the Glyph was not something you could create willy-nilly. You needed a specific skill and class to do so. A Class that I didn¡¯t have, a Mystic Inkmaster. The question now was, where to find someone who would qualify. Well, we could answer that question later. The Portal would take time to complete, anyway, so we had time. Pavol volunteered to take the drawn up plans to the Duergar and ask them to start the construction. Meanwhile, I had something else I needed to deal with. The quartet of petrified adventurers. Now I had a port with ships large enough to serve as holding cells. And I intended to make use of them and free the petrified adventurers and let them decide whether to return to Caelyn, or stay in the Dungeon. To facilitate this, we would use the brig on one of the bigger ships as a holding cell where we could make sure they could not cause any damage. Mordred would prepare a scroll of Recall if they decided they wanted to return to Caelyn and whatever fate the Guildmaster had in store for them. It took more time to transport the statues than I had originally expected, not because the statues was a problem, I just stashed them in my Inventory. It took Rael, Mordred and Erem nearly 3 hours to get through the Deep Labyrinth Lighthouse Keep and set foot on the chosen Galleon. I knew flight shortened the travel time, but this was ridiculous. I would need those portals, and soon. It was pretty cramped in there, but not so bad I couldn¡¯t move. I had chosen this Galleon specifically because it would allow me to enter the brig. With the statues safely behind bars, I nodded to Erem, who cast the Anstona spell to remove the petrification. The effect was immediate as the four quickly reverted to their flesh and blood selves. The four of them seemed confused. Not surprising, the last time they saw anything it was Unguul¡¯s boss room. They were an interesting bunch, a Beast-kin, an Elf or half-elf, a Dwarf and a human. I had not noticed the Beast-kin or elf because they had both used cloaks that hid their features. The four quickly realized they were behind bars, however. And they sent some hateful glares at us. ¡°Feeling better now that you are no longer statues?¡± I asked calmly. The four looked at me, wary. The other three looked at the Elf who stepped forward. Either he was the most charismatic or he was the party leader. ¡°We feel better, thank you, now may I ask how we came to be in this situation?¡± I shrugged, seeing no reason to not inform him. ¡°You got a bit too close to one of the more dangerous creatures in my domain, and he petrified all four of you because of it.¡± It was true enough, but didn¡¯t give them any useful information to go by. In their current situation, they wanted as much information as possible to get a grasp of the situation. The elf seemed to have realized I knew what he was trying to do, and his demeanor changed accordingly. ¡°Well then, since idle chat is not what you are here for, I surmise you brought us back for a reason.¡± I nodded in response. ¡°Straight to the point, good. That makes things easier. Frankly, the four of you are a bit of a problem for me right now. I don¡¯t fancy just killing you in cold blood because of certain circumstances that I doubt you are aware of.¡± I began, this earned me some incredulous looks from the four. ¡°Tell me, why do you think an accomplished party like that of Rael¡¯s would suddenly betray the guild?¡± I asked, genuinely curious about their answer. The question seemed to catch everyone in the room off guard, even Rael himself. The Elf seemed to recover his wits about him and then got a thoughtful expression as he did. The Beast-kin snarled a few moments later. ¡°Because you bewitched them with foul magic!¡± I couldn¡¯t help but chuckle at that hasty response. ¡°I am afraid I have to disappoint you, but I am a complete novice at the use of spells. And while I have a skill that could do so. Its effect is obvious to anyone looking, and it¡¯s easily dispelled with purifying magics.¡± The Beast-kin kept growling at me but said nothing else. The Elf slowly nodded to himself, now with a confident expression on his face. ¡°It¡¯s connected to the proclamation that Rubolgs Messenger made, when the cores were all released, isn¡¯t it?¡± he asked at length. The Dwarf seemed to connect the dots rather quickly after that. ¡°Didn¡¯t Rael seem rather miffed at da guildmaster after they captured da Core?¡± She looked up at the Elf who nodded in agreement. ¡°Not only that but the Guildmaster¡¯s actions were strange even before that, speaking of, why did we even agree to enter this dungeon?¡± Now the four of them all seemed genuinely confused. Rael stepped forward, ¡°For the same reason so many other strange things occurred where the guildmaster had any involvement.¡± He paused for dramatic effect. ¡°The guildmaster possesses a skill called Supreme Orator. If he talked for long enough, anyone who didn¡¯t have a Stubborn skill or mental stats higher than his, they would eventually agree to do almost anything he wanted.¡± The four looked understandably surprised at the revelation. The Beast-kin¡¯s wolf¡¯s ears fell flat against his head. ¡°So that¡¯s why he called all the Party Leaders in for a length strategy meeting, and why all of them was so damn set on us going.¡± He seemed angrier than ever now. The Human woman standing next to him put her arm around his shoulders. ¡°It¡¯s not your fault, love, how could you possibly know?¡± She gave him a peck on the cheek before she turned towards the four of us. ¡°So what happens to us now?¡± she asked. It would seem she was the voice of reason in the party. ¡°That depends on you, really. You are welcome to stay in my dungeon as my guests, though I expect you to help protect the place in return. Otherwise, Mordred has prepared a recall scroll that will return you to Caelyn, the choice is yours.¡± I calmly motioned to Mordred, who produced the scroll and tossed it through the bars, allowing the elf to catch it. The elf looked at the scroll for a few moments. ¡°It¡¯s a recall spell with Caelyn as the target, all right¡± he said after a few moments. He turned towards the other three. ¡°What do you think?¡± The Beast-kin gave an enraged growl. ¡°I say we take the scroll, go back to Caelyn and I rip the Guildmaster¡¯s throat out. NO ONE MESSES WITH MY HEAD!¡± The woman hugged him tightly while making soothing cooing noises. ¡°I, for one, say we stay. We are four people against the Guildmaster and the entire guild under his control. He will just imprison or dispose of us if we try to expose him.¡± She said once the Beast-kin had calmed down again. The Dwarf and Elf looked at each other. ¡°It¡¯s yer call hubby, I will go with what ye decide, as always¡± The Dwarf said at length as she looked up at the Elf. The elf closed his eyes then, with a deep breath, he seemed to have decided. ¡°We will stay, if the Guildmaster really have this ability, then there is no telling how it might go for us if we return. Besides, given our situation, it¡¯s not like we are in a position where they would gain much benefit in lying to us.¡± The Beast-kin stiffened for a moment, before nodding slowly. ¡°You are right, even if I could get my hands on the guildmaster he would have too many loyal followers. We could never convince them either since he could just talk to them in private to make them see things his way.¡± He looked at me ¡°My party and I accept your hospitality, Core¡± I nodded and moved towards the exit. ¡°Feel free to exit the cell whenever you feel like it, as I never locked the door.¡± I said as I walked up the stairs to the deck. The Elf found that it opened up easily when he tried to open it. I had not felt like rummaging through the entire galleon looking for the keys when the end of the road would be them either recalling or joining us. Up on the deck I took to the air while Rael led our new allies to the boat that would take them back to land. Once we got back to land, I landed again and walked beside the others, more of a courtesy than anything else. As we entered the abandoned town, the Beast-kin turned to me. ¡°Say Core, where will we be staying, anyway?¡± He asked, as he shot the dilapidated houses a dark look. ¡°Call me Pearl, sounds better than Core. As for a place to stay, for now, you can stay with Rael¡¯s party on the 2nd floor¡± The Beast-kin looked at me silently as he listened. ¡°Irontooth¡± he said at length. The Dwarf looked up at me shortly after. ¡°I¡¯m Dilly, ma twin sister is part of Rael¡¯s party, Dally, think ye might know her?¡± I nodded in response. ¡°I know her, she is quite the brave warrior.¡± Dilly grinned, obviously happy about my assessment of her twin. ¡°I am Skye, Ms Pearl, pleasure to meet you.¡± The woman that walked besides Irontooth gave me a polite nod which I returned. ¡°I am Eliandar, it¡¯s a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Ms. Pearl¡± The Elf said as the last to introduce himself. ¡°The pleasure is mine.¡± I responded as we entered the Core Room. My Pillar was still there, but none of the four made any move to get near it. Good, the four of us had been ready to jump them instantly if they tried something that stupid. The trip through the Deep Labyrinth took as long as it did on the way in. And it was as unnerving for my new acquaintances as it was for everyone else. Luckily for them, we didn¡¯t run int Hazalaar or anyone else on the way out. Dilly visibly tensed up at the sight of the Duergar, who also gave her some downright hostile glances, but left it at that. ¡°Starsilver, that¡¯s some powerful equipment they were packing, I am glad we didn¡¯t run into them on the way down, it would have been a one-sided fight.¡± noted Eliandar. This earned him some looks confused from Irontooth and Skye. He shrugged, ¡°Starsilver is one of the strongest metals you can find in a Dungeon,¡± he explained, and the two seemed to understand the context. I took them the long way to the camp, I didn¡¯t trust these newcomers enough to give them access to the secret passages yet. There was something to trust, someone who had risked life and limb for you quickly. Another to trust someone you had known for less than four hours. The trip through the hive proved somewhat amusing as Skye was not a fan of Insectoids. I decided not to point out the Umbral Spiders later on in case she was also arachnophobic. Irontooth for his part seemed to enjoy Skye hugging him so tightly, if his wagging tail was any indication. The rest of the trip back to the camp went with no incidents. One of my Brothers was curious about the four newcomers as we crossed the bridge. But left them alone since I was with them. Back at the camp, things they had finally finished repairing and cleaning up, with only a few things here and there to fix up left over. Indella was there, helping Rorik and Mint fix up the last touches on their part of the camp. Since they were all present, I called out telepathically ¡°Everyone, we have some new friends joining us tonight¡± All of them turned and looked towards us. Dally literally ran up and hugged Dilly. She had not recognized her when she was a statue. Personally, I blamed the plate helmet Dilly had been wearing when she got petrified. It didn¡¯t take long for the news of the newcomers to reach the Kobold village, and within an hour, another party started. While awkward at first, it didn¡¯t take long for the four to blend in with the others and enjoy themselves. By the time Me and Indella left for the Core Room for the night, our four new allies had good friends with the Kobolds and Rael¡¯s party. Tomorrow I would start populating the fourth floor, but for now, I needed some much-needed sleep. I curled up and patted Indella on the head. ¡°Goodnight, Indella¡± I said, as I yawned. ¡°Goodnight, Pearl¡± she responded as she lowered her head against my stomach. We were both asleep a few minutes later. Chapter 20: Portal Diplomacy The next morning started off a bit differently than I had expected, as Mordred, Pavol and Surin, along with some Duergar, arrived as Indella and I were eating breakfast. ¡°Mornin Melady, Lady Indella, sorry ta disturb ya this early, but we think we have figured out the portal conundrum, without da need for an Inkmaster.¡± One of the Duergar began before Pavol interrupted him. ¡°We can instead etch the marking onto a piece of equipment, that way we can create a portal that will only work while we hold the item in question.¡± He seemed excited, and I can¡¯t say I disliked the idea. With my curiosity piqued, I inquired further. ¡°So we make an emblem that everyone uses, like a standard of the dungeon?¡± Pavol paused for a moment, taken aback by my question before he responded. ¡°That, is actually a nifty idea. I doubt any invaders would enjoy wearing the emblem of your dungeon. So if we used it in that fashion, it¡¯s likely they would not immediately suspect it.¡± The Duergar also seemed to like the idea, while Mordred and Surin seemed deep in thought. ¡°The question is, how would we disguise the arcane symbol in a fashion that would not immediately give it away?¡± Mordred asked at length. Indella came up with a suggestion almost immediately. *A maze, disguise the symbol as part of a maze or labyrinth, it fits either way.* Mordred facepalmed. ¡°Why didn¡¯t I think of that?¡± He, Pavol and Surin discussed with each other at a very rapid pace after that. I tried to pay attention, but most of it flew over my head, I did not understand what they were discussing meant at all. I looked at Indella and the Duergar, but they seemed as lost as I was. The trio seemed to reach a consensus after just a few minutes before Mordred spoke up. ¡°I think we can figure out such a symbol that will work, will take a bit of work, but we can get it done.¡± I nodded and looked at the Duergar. ¡°What materials do you need?¡± The Duergar produced a piece of parchment and handed it to me. It showed a blueprint for a portal large enough to accommodate even me. We would construct it out of stone from the quarry in the deep Labyrinth. We would inscribe with Starsilver runes and diamonds to store the magic required to power it. It would be far from subtle, but it would also be nigh on impossible to destroy because of the sheer amount of stone and Starsilver required to build the thing. I nodded slowly as I looked at it. ¡°Good, that¡¯s doable, let as many as you can set them up in different areas of the dungeon, best to secure the areas for it though, just in case.¡± The Duergar nodded and hurried back down the stairs, an eager glint in their eye. Mordred, Pavol and Surin also excused themselves as they would work on the emblem. With that out of the way, I finished the breakfast in a rather good mood and set off towards the 4th floor Boss Room. The place already had some naturally spawning monsters, so that was nice, but I needed more than what I had. The waters were plenty defended. With my brothers in there, I seriously doubted I could do anything to improve that short of an advanced tier Epic Monster. That left the aerial part of the map. Flying intruders was a rarity in my dungeon. Not until the sudden surge of demons, but it clarified that having a way to deal with flying enemies was a must. With that in mind, I opened the stat screen to get a grip on what I could get. Let¡¯s see, Monstrous Gulls, nah, they were just huge seagulls with teeth. Hmm, little else in this area capable of flight that was worth it, maybe in the Mastery section? I opened it and started looking. On one hand, yes, this section had a bunch of flying monsters. On the other, they were all expensive. Really, expensive. So, I could pick either a Boss monster or a flying one. Wait, what boss monsters did I have access too for this floor, anyway? Hmm, sort by monster type, Boss Monsters¡­ hmm, The Flying Tildorian? I guess that was this world¡¯s answer to The Flying Dutchman? It looked interesting, but it was way too expensive. I could afford it, barely, but at a whooping 120 EP, 60TP and 50MP. That was way too much of an investment as I could not afford much else afterwards. I kept scanning through the list, discarding one candidate after another. None of these bosses seemed that interesting or were way too expensive. Hmm, actually, this one could be an interesting addition, still horrendously expensive, but at least there was no TP cost. Monster: Skyland Leviathan (Unique Environmental Boss) Genus: Leviathan Horror Monstrosity Elemental Biome Biome: Special Unlock cost: 100EP, 50 MP HP: 800, MP: 420 Attack: -, Defense: - Magic Attack: -, Magic Defense: - Strength: 60, Dexterity: 50, Endurance: 80 Intelligence: 57, Wisdom: 42, Charisma: 26 Upkeep: Special Skills: Gargantuan(Racial), Innate Flight (Racial), Innate Levitation(Racial), Wanderer(Racial), Symbiotic Host(Racial), Symbiotic Defense(Racial), Living Island(Racial Unique), Biomeback(Racial Unique) Spatial Barrier(Racial Unique), Passive(Racial), Immortal(Special), Invulnerable(Special), Noncombatant(Special). So, this thing was a living floating¡­ biome? Archives, mind giving some info on this thing? <Sure thing, Boss lady!> There was a moment of silence. <The Skyland Leviathan is a creature of massive proportions. It would make the Brothers look like teeny little mice in comparison. It is, however, passive, and has special skills that renders it virtually immune to attacks. That¡¯s not to say it¡¯s a waste of points to unlock. The Skyland Leviathan itself is as docile as can be and will not fight for any reason. The same is not true for the creatures that inhabit the biome on its back. They will lash out against anything they perceive as invaders in their home>. That sounded promising. What biomes could it have? <It has a unique Biome based on the Biome you summon it into. With the Cursed Sea of Sargasso, it will have the Biome called Misty Forest. This biome are a special biome that contains some nasty flying horrors and other monsters that thematically fit into the Cursed Sea of Sargasso Biome>. That made sense, I could also guess that the reason it had no attack and defense was because it did not take part in combat and was invulnerable. <That¡¯s correct. In order to ¡°Defeat¡± the boss and open the gate to the Core Room, which is on its head, you must defeat the ¡°Skyland Leviathan¡¯s Champion¡±. It¡¯s a Unique Boss that spawns somewhere on the Leviathan itself and is wandering around. What monster it is also depends on the Biome on the Leviathans back. The appearance and abilities of the Champion changes depending on the Biome on the Leviathans back. But even the weakest champion would give Hazalaar a run for his money in terms of combat prowess and danger. that also does not take into account that the champion would have backup from the rest of the biome>. This thing seemed like a worthy investment. It was like buying an extra island to use as a Boss room. <It is Boss Lady>. Case and point. Hmm, well then, it seemed like the best option. It would create another ¡°island¡± and add another biome to the floor due to it being specific to the Leviathan itself. There were other options, sure, but this was just a net positive so far. However, there was something that bothered me. What was up with the upkeep? <The Skyland Leviathans upkeep depends on its Biome, with the Misty Forest it will just cut your current E/D in half>. Ouch a percentage cost rather than flat. On one hand, that meant it would pay for whatever creatures were on it¡¯s back for me, unless things were different here. <It¡¯s the same. Keep in mind that the naturally spawning monsters of this floor already have their EP covered by the floor itself. And the floor is massive enough that you gained a lot of E/D from it. So cutting it in half won¡¯t really put you that much behind what you used to have, and would give you way stronger defenses>. Hmm, Archives had a point. All right, sure that was a convincing argument. This thing was the boss for this floor. I paid for it and, with more than a wee bit of nervousness, summoned it. It was at that moment I realized just how small I truly was in the grand scheme of things. There was nearly a hurricane force wind as the Skyland Leviathan displaced the surrounding air. To call it Gargantuan had been a massive understatement. This thing was so big my Brothers wouldn¡¯t even be the size of mice in comparison. While I would be even smaller. That¡¯s how massive it was. I felt¡­ tiny. Not a sensation I had expected, given my size. It was a serpentine creature, like my Brothers, but that¡¯s where the likeness ended. It had a scaly, almost dragon like head, with four glowing eyes the color of emeralds. Her valley sized mouth was filled with baleens the size of houses. Its scales were the color of old stone. The scales covered in moss, fungus and other plants. On its head was a stone structure that I guessed was the Core Room. On its back there was an almost perpetual mist clinging to it, refusing to let go even as the Skyland Leviathan slowly moved around. The scales took on a more wood like structure and coloration on its backside and upper half of the head. I could see some kind of manta like creatures fly in and out of the mist on its back, along with the occasional branch of an immense tree. In a few places, water poured down the Leviathan¡¯s sides in huge waterfalls. The length of the Leviathan was what was the most mind-boggling. I could not for the life of me even imagine where the tail might be, because of the sheer size as it disappeared into the mist. I looked at my income and sure enough, after the gain of the Cursed sea had added, I would have fallen from 253 E/D ¡°pre-Sargasso¡± to 224E/D ¡°post-Skyland Leviathan.¡± That was actually ridiculously cheap, all things considered. The only downside was that it would continue to take half of my income from now on. But maybe there was a way to ease that? <There is, but you can¡¯t afford it right now>. Good to know. I reached out to the Skyland Leviathan telepathically, and the mind I contacted was, unexpected. She was ancient, old beyond counting. Wise beyond what mortal beings could perceive and so calm that I couldn¡¯t help but relax just by contacting her. Her mind was so strong that had she wanted, she could have crushed mine like a bug. But despite this she was being careful. The Skyland Leviathan was a gentle creature that despised violence. She accepted that it was a necessity for survival for the ¡°smaller¡± creatures, but it would not resort to it herself, ever. I also learned her name, Latra. As I contacted her, the waters next to the small stone island churned and boiled as my Brothers rose from the depths. ¡°GrEeTiNgS, eLdEr SiStEr¡± they said in unison, lowering their heads respectfully. Oh, that made sense. I could feel that Latra felt amusement at my realization. She was not something you could normally stuff into a dungeon. I had a feeling Mother might have had a hand in Latra being on my list. Latra looked at me with her four eyes, and that feeling became certainty. Latra was an extra safeguard in case of a renewed assault like the one before. With her around, a grounded assault would just fail. While her Spatial Barrier would prevent teleportation or other forms of unorthodox travel within its area of effect. Except for Teleportation made by the Dungeon itself. Even the portal I was building would not be able to function inside that Barrier. No shortcuts by teleportation anymore, at least not onto Latra¡¯s back. I flew up on top of Latra¡¯s head and entered the extensive building on top. It was a large temple like structure akin to those found in the eastern parts of the world. Though the Core Room was the only room inside of it, for now. A wispy boss fog was blocking entrance for trespassers. Somewhere on her back was the boss. I transferred the Core Pillar to the room. It was the safest location in the entire dungeon right now as far as I knew. Heck, the Champion could be anywhere on her massive back. That alone would be like a needle in a haystack, essentially giving me a free floor, all things considered. The back was probably the size of the archipelago itself, if not larger. It was difficult to say seeing as most of her body was out of view. With that in mind, I left the building and went into the forest itself, hoping to meet the creatures that lived there. This proved to be a mistake. The mist was so damn thick I got lost even with my Labyrinth Sense. My mini map just showed white mist with my dot in the center. There was literally no way for me to navigate this place. With no other option, I took to the skies and carefully maneuvered upwards until I got past the giant trees and into the far less obscuring mists above. Yeah, it was safe all right. If you got lost in there you¡¯d probably never find your way out unless you could fly. I should probably warn the others about that if they should they decide to visit the Core Room for whatever reason.Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. Since I had to give up on that idea I found my way back down again and landed in the old boss room. Its mist had dissipated, and in its place was a glowing glyph. If I were to make a guess, I would say that it would lead to some point on Latra¡¯s back, probably near the tail. As I pondered about the glyph, I felt Latra¡¯s presence touch my mind. ¡°That is correct, Sister¡± her mental voice was¡­ loud, for lack of a better word. Deep and kind, I could feel the kindness and ancient wisdom from it. I nodded slowly in response. Well, the core room here was now empty, so I could use that for something else. And I had the perfect idea for it, provided the tests with the portal worked out. I opened the menu again and looked through the creatures I had available. I now had way more space but hardly any points to spend on them, I would have to grab more normal monsters tomorrow, that was certain. With that in mind, I considered my remaining 30EP, should I unlock another creature with it, or save it for tomorrow. Choices, choices, choices. Hmm, it would probably be for the best if I waited. The remaining EP would hardly get me anything for the floor at this point. I said goodbye to Latra and my Brothers and flew to the Duergar Fort. I could have just transferred there, but I had not spent that long to summon Latra, so I killed some time by stretching my wings. When I arrived the construction of the portal was already in full swing. Stonemasons were hard at work alongside the smiths to construct the intricate patterns and inlaying the masterfully cut diamonds from the Geode Cavern. The portal was a masterpiece, and while it wasn¡¯t finished, it was a beautiful sight, a piece of art. As I landed Mordred Looked up from the table where he and the other two were hunched over something. They were discussing with a Duergar craftsman about something, probably how to link the portal and the emblem. He waved before resuming whatever they were up to. They seemed to be having a good time. I was not the only one who was watching the portal, however. Indella was here too and seemed quite interested in the construction. *I noticed that the Duergar are constructing one of these inside the Umbral spiders room too.* I nodded, ¡°Once they are finished we¡¯ll be able to move about the dungeon easier. Although with the most recent development there might be a bit of an issue with reaching the core room with them.¡± Indella looked at me with a curious expression as I explained what had transpired. *So, we can¡¯t have a portal on her and the only way to get onto her is to use that magic circle.* She commented. ¡°Unless you can fly, yes. The circle that the dungeon placed is the only form of teleportation that are unaffected by her barrier, and its destination is fixed.¡± I continued to explain my experience with the forest, how it had just been a mass of white mist and distant gigantic tree trunks. I could barely sense the minds of the manta like flying creatures I had seen as I walked in there as I flew out. Either they had been distant or they had avoided me on purpose. Indella shuddered *What kind of creature is Latra¡¯s champion anyhow?* I shook my head. ¡°No clue, it¡¯s somewhere inside that misty forest, but I neither encountered nor sensed it. But one thing is certain. If the champion can navigate that mist, I pity anyone who has to fight it as it will probably make use of ambush tactics.¡± As we spoke the Duergar was putting up the finishing touches on the portal. They had finished at quite a remarkable pace, all things considered. The portal itself was like the night sky, bound by a spiderweb of Starsilver and dotted with diamond stars that were glowing faintly from the magic they contained. Mordred was approaching, carrying a Starsilver necklace large enough to fit around my neck. On it was an ebony emblem with a maze like symbol etched in Starsilver about the size of Mordred¡¯s fist. The key to the portal. I accepted the necklace and carefully put it around my neck while wondering if it would work. <It should. The knowledge behind it is sound, and it¡¯s far easier than attempting to use Inkmaster sigils like you were originally planning. It¡¯s also less conspicuous if you adopt the emblem as the heraldry of your dungeon and put it practically everywhere>. Hidden in plain sight, not a horrible idea. I opened the menu and looked up heraldry in the devices menu, 15TP, not exactly pocket change, but not horrible. I bought it and, following the instructions of the menu, envisioned the emblem from before as the heraldry. All around the fortress things started happening. Black and purple banners and standards with the white maze from my emblem embroidered on them appeared at intervals all over the walls. The building leading into the Duergar Kings audience hall also underwent a change as it now had a big window with the emblem in stained glass. It also had the banners as well. I had little to no doubt that other places all around the dungeon had undergone similar changes. To my surprise, however, the armors of the Duergar and Indella¡¯s robes also underwent a similar change. Their armor and robes prominently displaying the heraldry on the front. ¡°Well, that helps with speeding up production, I suppose.¡± Pavol said out loud, probably more to himself than the rest of us. I couldn¡¯t disagree with him there. As I looked around the Fort some more several, Duergar entered the fort. Judging by their appearance, they were the Duergar working on the portal on the second floor. ¡°Da portal upstairs are done, Melady.¡± Declared the leader of the group, he looked quite proud of himself. ¡°Good work, I am impressed that you managed it this quickly, I would have expected at least a few more hours.¡± I responded, honestly surprised they had finished before the Duergar closest to the Quarry, given the time it would have taken them to walk back. ¡°That would ¡®ave been the case, Melady. If not fer that pointy eared new friend of yer¡¯s, Eliandar. He¡¯s da best Geomancer I have ever seen. With his help, it went by faster than expected. He couldn¡¯t help us put da thing together, obviously. But he helped shape the stone blocks fer us, and also cut and set da gems in their sockets. Superb work on his end, if I may say so.¡± So one of the newest members of the Adventurers had decided to help, I would have to thank him later. I looked over at Mordred. ¡°We have a second portal done, why don¡¯t we test to see if they work properly?¡± He and the others looked up. ¡°Sure, just give me a moment to clean up here and I will get this thing going.¡± He and the others started to clean up the remains of their tinkering. Once they were done Pavol and Mordred walked over to the portal, each of them now carrying small emblems of their own. Surin joined them shortly after, though he did not have an emblem. The three started to chant in unison and diamonds dim glow grew stronger and stronger. The air in the middle of the portal started to twist, ripple and distort, before the entire thing burst into a kaleidoscope of color. The next moment the smeary colors disappeared, and the air returned to normal. The only indication that the portal was working was the stronger glow of the embedded diamonds. Surin looked over at me with a satisfied smile. ¡°We will go and activate the portal on the second floor as well, it shouldn¡¯t take long.¡± As they left Indella walked over and looked at the portal with a thoughtful expression. *Hope it will work out because these could be invaluable in the future.* She gently touched the large stone arch as she spoke. I nodded. ¡°So do I now, whe-¡± Before I could finish the portal suddenly started to surge with power. It was activating, but too soon, there was no way Mordred and the others had reached the portal on the second floor yet. ¡°Indella get back!¡± Indella stumbled a few steps back as the portal activated. Duergar warriors immediately formed up, aiming their weapons at the activating portal. The air rippled once more, the kaleidoscope of color slowly twisting and turning before forming into a view of some place else. Wherever it was leading, it was decidedly not inside my dungeon. I had no place in my dungeon that lead to a place like what we saw on the other side. That¡¯s when a familiar face came into view on the other side of all the people. ¡°We meet again, Core, as I knew we would.¡± Yrsha the Diviner smiled gently at me as she walked over to the edge of the portal. Then, to my surprise, calmly stepped through. An Illusion? <Nope, that¡¯s the real deal>. Interesting, so Cores could move freely within any dungeon. <So it would seem>. I gave her a respectful nod. ¡°The pleasure is mine, though I will admit I did not expect this visit.¡± Yrsha¡¯s many tails waged gently behind her, betraying amusement. ¡°I will admit that when I foresaw this encounter, I did not immediately believe it either. Not until I had seen it three times was I certain it could actually happen.¡± she answered flippantly. I nodded slowly in response. ¡°Why don¡¯t we find someplace a bit more comfortable to chat, I doubt you are too eager to speak standing up as well?¡± I suggested. This entire encounter had me a bit on edge. Yrsha gave a polite nod and followed me as I led her into the Audience chamber. Yrsha took a seat on one of the benches along the side while I sat down beside her. ¡°So, what is the cause for this unexpected visit?¡± I asked finally, still keeping it civil and polite. As I asked a trio of Duergar arrived with a cup containing wine for Yrsha and a barrel containing the same for me. I carefully took a sip. It was not mushroom wine, good. I did not want a repeat of last time. Yrsha took a polite sip as well before she looked up at me. ¡°Well it just so happens that I am in need of materials that my dungeon simply cannot produce but yours can.¡± She began, then paused to take another sip of her drink before she continued. ¡°And when scrying for alternatives I saw myself walking through a portal and ending up here, in your dungeon, where I would find what I needed. To be precise, I wish to trade for Starsilver to make better weapons for my servants.¡± I looked at her and pondered how to respond to this. ¡°I see, and what could I expect as payment for the Starsilver?¡± I already had a suspicion, given the view I had seen through the portal. Yrsha looked up at me ¡°I have several types of wood readily available and in abundance. I also have several fields of berries and orchards that I kept around after returning home. Would this abundance suffice?¡± She looked at me with an unreadable expression. Normally, such an offer would be quite tempting as both wood and vegetables were something I would have a hard time ever producing. However, Yrsha was a Fox Spirit and that meant there was probably a test of some kind going on right now. ¡°Normally I would happily agree to such a trade. However, Lady Yrsha, recent developments have seen my dungeon under the not so friendly gaze of Inlas, and she as secured at least some help from Selba as well. As such, accepting this trade would deplete my reserves of Starsilver, Starsilver I might need to defend myself in the event of a renewed assault. As such, I cannot accept these terms.¡± Yrsha looked at me for a while longer, now smiling gently. ¡°That is unfortunate, but understandable, is there anything else I might offer that could persuade you otherwise?¡± She had a knowing smile on her face, I had little to no doubt now, that she had already foreseen this entire damn conversation. Well then, this should be a formality, really. ¡°I suggest that since we can connect our dungeons using the portal, that we not only make a trade agreement for these materials, but a defensive alliance as well. Inlas and her allies are already dead set on claiming dungeons, it would seem. And while you are protected now, it won¡¯t last forever.¡± Much to my shock, she actually seemed surprised at this. ¡°This is not what I foresaw.¡± She mumbled quietly to herself, so quietly that I was probably not meant to hear it. I decided to ignore that comment and just waited patiently for a reply. Yrsha for her part remained quiet as she contemplated things back and forth. Then she closed her eyes and looked up at me. ¡°I will not lie, I did not foresee this development, so I will need a few days to contemplate this offer. I beg your forgiveness but it is seldom I am surprised these days. Especially not when something goes completely against what I have foreseen, which should be impossible.¡± I smiled gently at her. ¡°It¡¯s fine, I don¡¯t mind at all, Lady Yrsha. It¡¯s an important matter and it should not be decided lightly and without proper care, even if you had foreseen it.¡± Yrsha finished her cup of wine and rose as I spoke. ¡°Thank you for the extra time. I apologize that I have to be the one to think it over when I am also the one who first made an offer.¡± I stood up as well and put the barrel down, still containing half its contents, and walked with her towards the exit. ¡°It¡¯s fine, Lady Yrsha. Oh, that reminds me, I never really introduced myself, did I? You may call me Pearl.¡± I smiled at her as I pushed open the door. Yrsha looked at me with another unreadable expression, ¡°A sign that I can trust you, I take it?¡± She finally concluded. ¡°Among other things, maybe I will tell you about it one day, should we have the time?¡± I replied as we exited the building. Yrsha now had an intrigued expression. ¡°I will look forward to it, Lady Pearl.¡± We walked side by side to the portal and with a gesture from Yrsha it sprung to life once more. I noticed that she held a small spherical object in her hand with my emblem engraved on it. So, that¡¯s how she opened the portal. ¡°I take it that the portal to your dungeon is linked to those in my dungeon?¡± Yrsha nodded, ¡°It¡¯s part of your network, yes. I had to use what little Starsilver and gems I had to finish the construction.¡± Well, the portal was specifically designed to that it could only link up to portals made from the same materials and the same crest requirement. In this case, stone, gems, Starsilver and the heraldry of my dungeon. ¡°I see, well, I look forward to hearing your reply to my counteroffer, until then, Lady Yrsha.¡± The Fox Spirit nodded gently, then stepped through the portal. ¡°Until next time, Lady Pearl.¡± she replied. There was another flash and once more the portal was just an inert stone arch. I took a deep breath. Well, that was unexpected, though given the circumstances I had handled it as well as I could have. <I agree, Boss Lady>. That made me feel better, Archives knew more of Fox spirits than I did, after all. As I was lost in thoughts about what had just transpired Mordred and the rest returned from setting up the other portal. ¡°So, are we ready to test it?¡± he asked, clearly eager to see if he had succeeded. Then he paused as he saw the expression on Indella and the Duergar faces. ¡°A test will not be necessary, I fear, someone did it for us¡± Mordred gave me a curious expression as I answered. I explained what had occurred the others. Mordred seemed rightfully crestfallen, while Pavol was furiously making notes in the book. Indella looked uneasy, which I could understand. Yrsha was a wildcard and could be a boon or a bane, depending on how this all went down and only time would tell which it was. Interlude 10: Revelations As the portal closed behind me, I could not help but let out a sigh. That had been unexpected. Pearl should have suggested that I add some more Essence orbs to the payment, not an alliance. Likewise, I had foreseen that she should tell me her name, but it should have been longer than Pearl. Never had someone defied my precognition. So, what made her so different? I shook my head. There was no point in trying to solve an unsolvable mystery. That raised the question of that other vision. No, better not think of that right now. I shook myself out of my reverie and walked across the well tended grassy lawn towards the shrine on top of the small hill. The cherry trees around the place waving in the breeze. Xi was eagerly awaiting my arrival for our game. I wish I had Xi¡¯s unbridled optimism, 14329 losses and 0 wins, and Xi still challenged me to a game daily. The little spirit was improving a lot from when these daily challenges began. But Xi was far too eager to go on the offense, and thus more than willing to fall for simple ruses. As the game stretched on and my Castle took out his Gryphon and threatened his Assassin, I kept mulling things over. Just how did that Sphinx defy the visions? It should not be possible. Xi eagerly destroyed my Castle with his Dragon. Poor Xi, you fell right into my trap. I moved my Knight into position and the game was over as I trapped his Core. ¡°Core Capture Xi, better luck next time.¡± Xi looked at the board. The tails that had been eagerly wagging until now slowed down. They stopped completely as Xi realized I had taken the Core 1 move faster than the Chimera could take my Guildmaster. The eager little spirit looked at the board, deep in thought. ¡°Thank you for the game, Mistress, I will learn from it, so I might challenge you again tomorrow.¡± Xi looked as eager and determined as ever. I nodded in response and gave the spirit a loving pat on the head before I took a deep breath. ¡°Xi, tell Ayame that I cannot have tea at the usual time. I need to meditate on several matters too important to postpone, even for tea.¡± Xi looked up at me with a puzzled expression, but nodded. I gave a polite nod, then left for the meditation chamber. The visions I had before building the portal replaying in my mind and the reality of it all comparing to the first one. Part of me was hoping the other vision would also turn out to not be true, but there was only one way to find out. No, I needed to clear my head and approach the entire matter without emotion. I entered the meditation chamber and sealed the door behind me, giving me the privacy I needed to think. ______________________________________________________________________________ The Hall was as I remembered it to be, as the sunlight cast beautiful rays of light across the marble quartz pillars and marble floor. Paladins, Judges and other arbiters of law that worshiped my sister flitted about the place. They spent their afterlife working as my sister¡¯s aides in her bid for justice across this world. A noble pursuit, but an unending one. I walked up to the front desk. The old man sitting there glanced up at me, before nodding. ¡°Lady Justina is waiting for you, Lady Penumbra, go right in.¡± I gave him a silent nod and walked past. Justina¡¯s inner chamber was spartan, it had a simple desk and a few chairs, Justina never saw the reason for unnecessary adornment. Justina looked at me as I entered, the light of communion shining in her blue eyes. I waited patiently for her to finish. Once the light ended Justina rose and looked at me. ¡°I know why you are here my dear sister, and I agree. Inlas has gone too far this time, it¡¯s time we get some answers out of her.¡± No surprise there. Give Justina proof of an injustice, and she would go to any length to rectify it, and the two deities¡¯ assault on a dungeon was not exactly¡­ subtle. And while my Avatar had driven the intruders away, this was far beyond reason to just secure an Avatar. There were easier ways to go about obtaining one. There had to be. Justina rose, her shining armor and shield glinting in the ever-present sunlight. We made quite the pair as we exited Justina¡¯s Hall. She shone like the sun itself, while I was a spot of near impenetrable darkness in comparison. We arrived in Inlas¡¯ Garden quickly enough. Travel in the Godly Realms was more an exercise of will than traveling a distance. As we arrived, we could hear two voices speaking, Inlas and Selba. As we got closer, we could hear them debating what to do now. They sounded, frustrated. ¡°Inlas I am telling you, we can¡¯t keep this up, we should just come clean and tell them.¡± Selba¡¯s frustration made her voice crack. That only happened when she was at her wits¡¯ end. ¡°You know just as I do that they won¡¯t believe me, I have seen it.¡± Inlas responded, she sounded tired more than anything. It was at this moment that Justina announced our presence. ¡°Tell us what exactly, what in the blazes you two have been up to these past millennia?¡± Inlas looked at the two of us with a shocked expression, so she had not noticed our entrance into her domain. I guess whatever they were discussing had been too distracting for her. Selba looked at us with a pleading expression. ¡°Sisters, please help me talk some sense into Inlas. This has gone on long enough, and you deserve to know.¡± Inlas shook her head, looking almost panicked as she did. ¡°Inlas, you have wounded me greatly, for nearly fifteen millennia you sapped my strength starving me of power. You nearly killed me, I let it slide then, I even let it slide when proof surfaced that you were manipulating my dungeons. But this has gone too far. Two literal gods assaulting a dungeon are far beyond what is reasonable, even Selba can see that. Now tell us what is going on.¡± Inlas looked at us with a pained expression as she shook her head. ¡°You won¡¯t believe me, y-you won¡¯t believe me.¡± she was terrified. Justina walked up to her and moved to grab her shoulders, but Inlas flinched back out of reach. Justina paused and looked at our sister with a curious expression. ¡°Inlas, I am the goddess of truth and justice, you cannot lie to me, so why would I believe you were deceiving me?¡± She finally asked. Her expression a mix of worried and unreadable. Inlas paused, her expression one of confusion, then shock. ¡°I¡­ No, I¡­¡± Suddenly Inlas grabbed her head and screamed, as grayish wisps of energy emerged from her. ¡°VOID ENERGY, SELBA!¡± I called out immediately. I recognized it from the Old War, though neither Justina nor Selba were old enough they had heard the tales. Selba, being the Goddess of Corruption, was one of the few gods that could safely touch such energies and dissipate them. She rushed towards Inlas. Even as the amount of Void energy increased, she went to work on the rampant energy, corrupting it into nothingness. There was a sudden flash of light and Inlas fell limply to the ground, like a puppet with its strings cut. Selba looked down at Inlas with a horrified expression. ¡°Void energy, why would she have Void energy inside her?¡± I shook my head in response. ¡°The answer to that can wait, for now, we need to get her to Medino, who knows what the Void can have done to her mind.¡± Selba immediately hoisted Inlas over her shoulders. ¡°I will explain everything once we have taken care of her.¡± She said as we moved to Medino¡¯s grove. We arrived in the grove with a single step. It was a quiet place, a place for rest and recovery. Medino looked up at us, though the smile he wore faltered when he saw Inlas. ¡°What happened?¡± He asked, as his leafy head turned from green to brown with worry. He stretched out a hand covered in bark and hovered it over Inlas for a moment. ¡°Such deep-rooted corruption, how long has she been carrying this within her?¡± We shook our heads. While Justina helped to lower Inlas into a healing pool. ¡°It might have been festering there since the war. Inlas is not the sort that would willingly consort with the Void, and we have seen no such entities since.¡± she said in response. It would explain why Inlas was behaving so erratically, that was for sure.This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Medino lowered his head. The flowers that grew among the leaves of his hair slowly wilted. ¡°I will do what I can for her. However, there is no telling if she will ever wake up, or what state her mind will be in if she does.¡± I looked over at my stricken sister. What madness had the Void made her do? Well, there was one person with the answers. I looked over at Selba. ¡°Tell us everything.¡± Selba looked at me and Justina, then nodded as she sat down on the grass and began explaining. ______________________________________________________________________________ Void energy, I was the Goddess of Corruption and I had failed to notice my sister being infected by Void energy. That was my fault, I should have known. I should have sensed it, dammit, so why didn¡¯t I? The answer was simple, I hadn¡¯t looked; I hadn¡¯t questioned why my dear sister behaved like she did because I found her behavior entertaining. This mess was as much my fault as Inlas¡¯ and I now owed it to my sisters to give them the answers they wanted. I took a deep breath before I began the explanation. ¡°I got involved in all of this at an early stage, so I am partially at fault for all of this. I should have sensed that something was wrong with Inlas, but I didn¡¯t, be it willfully or otherwise. Anyway, this all began some fifteen thousand years ago now. I was visiting Inlas to get her suggestion about something, a small scheme of mine I wanted her input on. When I arrived, however, Inlas was a mess. She was crying, and her garden was wilting because of her overwhelming grief and frustration.¡± I paused briefly to compose myself as the memories resurfaced in my mind. ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª I entered Inlas¡¯ garden; I had a scheme to corrupt a noble over in Faldarin that I wanted her input on. Much to my surprise, however, I found Inlas sitting in her gazebo, crying. That was unlike her. She was always the Stoic type. Curious, I walked over to her ¡°Hey sis, are you ok?¡± In response, she tossed her arms around me and gave me a crushing hug. ¡°Whoa, woah, woah, Inlas what¡¯s wrong?¡± I looked at my older sibling with a concerned expression. This was unlike her on so many levels. Inlas took a deep breath.¡°I¡­ I¡¯m fine, just, just give me a moment.¡± Another few deep breaths and she seemed calmer. I sat down next to her. ¡°So what was all that about?¡± I asked her to be polite, I could have used my Portfolio of Secrets to find out, but that would be rude. She looked at me with a frustrated expression. ¡°You won¡¯t believe me¡± she answered in response, I just sighed in frustration. ¡°Sister, I am the goddess of secrets, I will find out regardless of what you do, don¡¯t make me be mean about it.¡± Inlas looked at me for a while, mulling over my logic before she sighed. ¡°I have seen the return of the Void. They will return stronger than ever and will win this time, unless I risk Penumbra¡¯s life and make her hate me.¡± That sounded¡­ unlikely, but then Inlas¡¯ visions had always been true so far. ¡°Ok, so why do you need to bring Penumbra to the brink of death to save the world? That doesn¡¯t seem like something that would lead to a productive way of saving it.¡± I answered finally, as that was a lot to swallow all at once. Inlas looked out over the garden, a forlorn expression on her face. ¡°My actions will break the balance between the two of us. Father will then give my sister permission to break a taboo to restore it. This Taboo will be the summoning of a monster from another world, a monster with a human soul. By taking this monster as my Avatar, I can use her otherworldly power to drive the void back and banish it once more.¡± As she spoke I was silently using my Portfolio to confirm what she was saying. It was rude, yes, but this was a serious claim she was making. Much to my horror, she was telling the truth. Oh, Father, why did you burden Inlas with these visions? No, there was no point in questioning Father¡¯s wisdom. He did what he had to do, as his own Portfolio of Balance bid him. Well, if this was the future that was awaiting my sister, the least I could do was to support her. I would ease her burden and share the blame. ______________________________________________________________________________ As Selba finished her explanation Penumbra was livid, I can¡¯t say I blame her. They were twins, two sides of the same coin, night and day, light and dark, human and monster. That Inlas thought it was possible for Penumbra to hate her spoke volumes to how deeply the Void was affecting her even back then. Angry with her, sure, frustrated, undoubtedly, but hate? I don¡¯t think Penumbra could hate Inlas even if she stabbed Penumbra in the back. Penumbra paced back and forth before she abruptly stopped. ¡°First things first, if my daughter truly are so important in all this, I need to warn her. The Void undoubtedly knows she is the key to stopping its return. So if that vision is the truth, she needs to know.¡± Penumbra vanished for a few moments, then returned once more. Her expression was grim, and I could sense the frustration from her. ¡°What is father thinking?¡± That got some curious glances from me and Selba. Selba spoke up, voicing our shared curiosity. ¡°Something wrong?¡± she asked. Penumbra looked at her with an angered expression. ¡°Father said I could send one of my stronger children to protect her core pillar and influence her to summon it. But that I could not tell her anything as she had to aid us willingly and out of her own volition when the time comes.¡± I was at a loss for words. ¡°Father said that?¡± I couldn¡¯t bring my voice much higher than a whisper. What was Father thinking? He was risking everything. No, he was not, I realized to my horror. He was the god of Balance, he did as his Portfolio demanded to achieve a balance in all things. If that meant the Void would render this world to madness and chaos then he would allow that to happen. So, our only hope now rested on the human-turned-monster that Penumbra had reincarnated aided us in defeating a foe even we gods could not destroy. How that would even work, I could not fathom. Then again, apparently she had some otherworldly abilities and gifts since she was not from our world. That might be what saved us. Selba, however, looked even more grim than Penumbra. ¡°There is another problem.¡± she said at length. Both me and Penumbra now looked at her before Penumbra asked what we both dreaded. ¡°What problem, exactly?¡± Selba looked on both of us. ¡°The Core has defied Inlas¡¯ premonitions several times. There is no telling whether the premonition that she will save us are accurate. For all we know, she could be our doom.¡± The silence hung more oppressive than before over the healing grove at the announcement of those words. ______________________________________________________________________________ Toiling, working, writing, gathering. All had to be perfection, perfection for Its arrival. The butterflies demanded perfection; I had to be perfection; I had to be perfectly MAD! I couldn¡¯t help but laugh, even as the surrounding words seared my psyche and bled through reality. The glyphs were ripping the veil between that which was real and the cold dark void asunder, slowly but surely. Things were coming along now, soon all would pay, the world would be MADNESS AND CHAOS ALL WOULD BOW BEFORE ITS GLORY! Soon, I would be the first to embrace the chaos. I would be the first to give in to the touch of the void, to shed my mortal guise and become another harbinger of chaos and madness. The thought was hilarious to me. I, one of the most fanatical followers of Inlas, would be the one to rule over that hag when the Void claimed her. The Butterflies and It had promised me that Inlas would be mine, MINE, MINE, ALONE. SHE WOULD ACCEPT MY DEVOTION TO HER AND SEE ONLY ME FROM NOW ON! In a surge of wrath, I grabbed the Tome I had stolen and threw it against the wall with all my might. The impact cracked its spine and sent parchment flying everywhere. It felt good to destroy it. The butterflies fixed it and I resumed my work. It would not be long now. A few days at most and I would unleash It on this world along with the lesser Void Spawn that had invaded before, long ago. Revenge would be mine, this world would be mine, INLAS WOULD BE MINE, SHE BELONGED TO ME AND ME ALONE. NO ONE ELSE COULD HAVE HER NO ONE ELSE WERE WORTHY TO LOVE HER! One butterfly landed on my head and I felt my mind grow dim and focused, I had to finish my toil. Toiling, working, writing, gathering. All had to be perfection, perfection for Its arrival¡­ Chapter 21: Misty Mysteries After that unexpected visit, I was busy thinking. Since dungeons allowed cores free movement in any of them, why were we bound from leaving our domains? Well, the most obvious answer was to ensure the core was there to defend their domain. There was no point in attempting to conquer a dungeon if the core just fled to a place where they could safely wait out the helplessness from being conquered. But that was too simple an answer. Gah, thinking about it just gave me a headache, I had other things to do still. I looked over to Mordred, "Well then, lets get the portal up and running, shall we? We know this one works, but we still have to connect the one on the second floor and build one on the fourth." When I mentioned the fourth floor Mordred gave a visible shudder, but otherwise remained stoic. Can''t blame him. Without my Labyrinth Sense I would feel lost as well and that was never a fun sensation. The test itself was simple, as Mordred just walked up to the portal and touched it and it activated. After he stepped through and the portal deactivated Pavol walked up to it. He was purposefully not wearing my Emblem for the test. And when he touched the portal, it remained inert. Good, that meant it was working as intended. With the test concluded, I pondered what to do for the rest of the day. I didn''t have enough EP to unlock anything worthwhile to summon, I would have to get more later. Though I suspected that I would have to find an alternate source somehow, as I seriously doubted that adventurers would line up at my dungeon to get themselves killed. Not after Mother showed up in person and literally wiped out an army of demons and Inlas'' little friends. Too bad I didn''t have any hostile monsters to fi- wait, that was it, wasn''t it? That could work and be mutually beneficial, I would have to mention that to Yrsha when she had thought over my suggestion. However, this idea was not quite without risk. In the worst-case scenario, it would not work and the monsters in question would not respawn back in their respective dungeons. Best-case scenario, it got a bunch of everything for it and the monsters respawned in their respective dungeons. If I were to guess, considering this was a unique opportunity, this had not been possible until now. Chances were this was not part of the "Immortality" clause on gains, or had and rules added to it at all. So, who could say what would happen or if this had happened before, Archives? <Nope, Inter-Dungeon warfare are unheard of, and lethal war games between dungeons? Never happened as far as I know, this is uncharted territory, proceed at your own risk>. Well, that meant anything could happen, essentially. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, I suppose. I took a deep breath and then mulled over which group of creatures to approach to ask for volunteers. My first impulse was to ask Talka. But there was no telling how the Strider Hivemind would react to have one of their members be who knows how far away from the dungeon. For all I knew, the distance alone could cause the drone to go crazy or just die. I would need someone who could think for themselves rather than need directives from Talka. After considering all the creatures in my dungeon that could fit through the portal approached the Duergar King. He looked up at me as I stopped in front of him. "Ho, what''s with da dour look Melady?" He looked up at me with a curious expression. I looked down at him and took a deep breath. "I have an experiment I want to discuss with Yrsha, the thing is, it will involve death for a dungeon creature." I began as the King looked up at me, now with a rather confused expression. "I am sorry, Melady, but I fail ta see da problem." he replied, as I sat down in front of him. "It might cause permanent death, no respawning." I replied calmly. There was no point in beating around the bush about the risks involved. The King furrowed his brows. "I see, so that''s why ye want a volunteer, rather than order one of us ta do it." He replied finally, after a brief silence. I nodded in response. "That''s right, considering the risks involved I will force no one to do it, all I ask is that you mention this to your kinsmen. If the experiment is a success, it could lead to a very rapid advancement of the dungeon. And also allow you and your kin to practice in live combat with a worthy adversary." The mention of battle seemed to rekindle some eagerness in the now rather surly Duergar. "I will mention it ta da lads and lasses tanight, ye will have an answer in the mornin." He replied at length. I smiled weakly down at him. "Thank you." I answered before I rose. There was another thing I had to do, I didn''t want to, but I had to. It was time to brave the forest once more and see what in the world was in there. I knew it had those manta things, but I hadn''t gotten a good enough look at them to have an inkling on what they were. As I was about to take off Indella tapped me on the leg *Mind if I come with you? I heard you had summoned something on the 4th floor and I want to meet it.* Seeing no reason not to, I laid down so Indella could hop on and then I flew off. I would have to introduce Indella to Latra eventually anyhow, so it wasn''t like there was a reason to delay it. With Indella on my back, I took off and flew through the labyrinth and walked through the stairs to the 4th floor. Even from this distance, with the ever-present fog around, I could see Latra''s silhouette in the distance. Upon spotting her, I could feel Indella get nervous, not that I could blame her. I took to the skies once more and flew towards Latra. As we got closer, I could feel Indella feeling uncomfortable, the sheer size of Latra was probably unnerving her more the closer we got. *I¡­ expected her to be large, but this¡­ is beyond my wildest imagination. I mean, if she had human features you would be what a fifth of her pinky finger nail when compared to her?* I chuckled in response. "Something along those lines, I''d wager, maybe smaller. Considering her sheer size, it''s hard to tell from my perspective." As I neared, I could feel Latra''s mind brushing over mine as a greeting. I could also feel Indella flinch momentarily before relaxing. Latra moved her head closer to us. It was stunning just how fast she could move. Then again, at that size even a slight movement would seem fast for me and Indella, considering the difference in size. As I passed by Latra''s many eyes, I could feel here looking at us with amusement. I was slowly circling higher to gain altitude without risking that Indella fell off. With a rumbling sound I could only assume was a chuckle, she lowered her head, quickening our passage to the Core Room. Mighty kind of her. As I landed Indella slid off and looked around. *I think I will stay here. The mist is so bad that I don''t fancy getting lost in the wood.* Fair enough, it was not like I was going to force her to come with me, anyway. "That''s fine, I have something I wish to do inside the forest. I want to see what this Champion is like and identify the other creatures that live in there. It might be awhile, but I guess you have someone you can talk to." Again that rumbling chuckle came from below. *It would seem Latra agrees with you, have fun navigating that mess.* I looked at the forest with a less than eager expression. "Oh I will, at least I have a way out in case I get lost, which I will, mind you." Indella laughed and the rumbling from below grew louder as I entered the forest once again. It didn''t take long for me to once more become utterly lost. The trees were growing so far apart that my Labyrinth didn''t work properly. There was also something about the mist, I realized. Now that I focused a bit, I realized that the mist seemed to grow thicker the more you tried to find a way through it. The mist was¡­ sentient? Or was it just my imagination? Impossible to tell, however, in difference from last time I refused to be give up as I moved on through the mist. This place was creepy, it reminded me a bit of the deep labyrinth, but here it was the complete lack of any visual stimulus that had me on edge. If someone told me I had gone blind, I would be partially open to agreeing with them. It was that bad and getting worse. That''s when I sensed it, a mind, a slow, old and sleepy mind. I had almost missed it because of the constant pressure of Latra''s own massive mind. Though trying to pinpoint its location was difficult. It was as if it was¡­ all around¡­ me, oh. I walked over to the nearest direction I felt the mind in and, yep, the trunk of one of the massive tree''s greeted me. This misty forest had Treants living in them, that was, unexpected. I reached out to the mind in front of me. "Good day, old one." Immediately there was a response. The lazy mind grew stronger and more alert as it focused in on me. Then the trunk in front of me shifted, twisted, and a face appeared. "Oh¡­ A visitor¡­ How¡­ Quaint¡­ Good day¡­ To¡­ You¡­ As well¡­ Child." Its voice was deep and slow, like old creaking wood. But I could sense a powerful and ancient intellect behind those words. "I am sorry for disturbing your rest, Old One. I am seeking the Champion. Do you think you could help me make sense of this fog, so I could reach my destination?" The Treant looked at me for a while, studying me. "Oh¡­ The¡­ Mist¡­ Has¡­ A will¡­ Of¡­ Its¡­ Own¡­ It¡­ Will¡­ Let you¡­ Pass¡­ When¡­ It feels¡­ Like¡­ It¡­ Young One." It seemed happy to speak with me; I guess it didn''t get much conversation outside of Latra. However, if the mist had a will of its own, why could I not sense a mind? Unless... "You say the mist has a will of its own, but I cannot seem to pinpoint it." The Treant looked at me for a while in silence, before it seemed to understand what I meant. "Ah¡­ That would¡­ Be¡­ Because¡­ The¡­ Mist is¡­ Made¡­ By¡­ The¡­ Mistwalkers¡­ Further¡­ In. You will need¡­ To speak¡­ With¡­ Them¡­ About¡­ It." The Treant smiled at me, this trunk creaking as it did. "I see, thank you for the information, Old One. I gave a polite nod. "The¡­ Pleasure¡­ Was¡­ Mine¡­ Young¡­ One¡­ Do¡­ Visit¡­ Again¡­ Sometime¡­" I smiled myself and as I walked past the trunk, I spoke over my shoulder. "I will take you up on that offer, I might even bring a friend along. I will need to figure out how to deal with the mist first, however, or I fear I might never find you again." There was a sound of creaking wood as the Treants gave a mirth filled laugh in response as it disappeared into the mist behind me. How many of the trees in this forest were part of it? Better question, how many more were there? If things were like in the lore from the game, there should be more around. Well, they might be asleep. A sleeping Treant would be impossible to detect unless you used specific spells, spells that I didn''t have access to. Not that it mattered for the moment. I would introduce myself to them in time, considering a Treant could sleep for centuries at a time. So there was no telling when they might wake up if the lore held up. Hmm, Archives wasn''t piping up, so I guess my assumptions were correct. Well, it seemed finding these Mistwalkers was next on the agenda or I would likely wander blindly in here indefinitely. I continued my trek through the eerily silent forest, which was even more pressing than the Labyrinth, since there was no echo here because of the open space. There was no wind either, and the mist was making my fur glisten with moisture. I continually scanned the area around me for minds, as that was the only reference I would have of making progress. It took about another hour of this dead silent walk along the forest before I finally felt a presence. No wait, not just one. There was almost a dozen of them, and they were approaching and spreading out around me in a semicircle. I stopped moving and looked around, I couldn''t see what they were because of the mist. But I saw nearly two dozen pairs of glowing eyes that was observing me through the mist. They were not moving or making a single sound, hmm, guess that meant I had to make the first move. "Well now, considering how easily you are navigating this place, I take it you are the Mistwalkers." No response, nor any movement from the group. I took a step forward, and the group moved in synch to keep the same distance. This was getting me nowhere. "Well, since you insist on just playing games¡­" I opened up the spell list to see what I had access to. One of them had to be useful for this situation. I had some minor illusions from my Illusion Magic, which wouldn''t work here. And several Druidic spells from Indella, most of which were for support. However, there was one that caught my eye. I looked up at the group again. "Well then, since you don''t want to show yourselves, I guess it is up to me to make you my apologies in advance." I focused on the "Wind Blast" spell, the effect was immediate as a blast of wind emanated from me and blew the mist away from me. Better yet, it pushed the surrounding creatures back a step or two as the mist surged away from them. This revealed what I was dealing with for the few seconds of vision it bought me. They were strange looking things. They were about half the size of a man, with a gorilla like build with massive forearms and small stumpy legs. That''s where the similarities to any regular creature ended, however. Their heads were various animal skulls, while their bodies seemed to comprise mainly of earth. Moss grew on them as if it was fur and several also sported several mushroom colonies of ferns in various places. The glow emanated from the gems embedded in the eye sockets of the skulls. I guess that explained why they didn''t speak. There was no way for them to do so. That being said, I had no inkling what I was looking at. Archives some help, please? Archives? Again, dead silence. Ok¡­ That was weird, what was going on here, I mean it was not like Archives was using spatial magic to communicate or anything, right? I would have to figure that one out later, for now, I would have to figure out what these things were some other way. The startled creatures looked at one another as the mist slowly crept back in, then they all moved closer to me. I sensed no hostility from them, only wary curiosity. As they now crowded in close to me they all seemed content with letting me study them. I opened the menu and started looking through the list of monsters for the Misty Forest Biome, looking for anything that would match what I was looking at. Let''s see, not Treant, obviously, not Mist Glider. Those looked to be the manta like creatures I had seen earlier. Hmm, Decidedly not the Mistwalkers, they were¡­ different. Hmm, Earth Shambler looked promising, but the size and body structure was wrong. It also didn''t sport the skull head. Oh, wait, here they were.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Monster: Lesser Daear Niwlog Minotaur Genus: Elemental(Earth), Spirit, Minotaur Biome: Misty Forest Unlock cost: 50EP HP: 200, MP: 120 Attack: 190, Defense: 100 Magic Attack: 130, Magic Defense: 70 Strength: 19, Dexterity: 10, Endurance: 20 Intelligence: 13, Wisdom: 12, Charisma: 7 Upkeep: 15 E/D Skills: Unnerving Lv2(Racial), Pack Tactics(Racial), Silent(Racial), Elemental Attack(earth)(Racial), Spore cloud(Racial), Greater Strength(Racial), Forest Guardian(Racial), Mist Vision(Special) They were Minotaur''s? I was not sure whether the news made me shocked or excited. I had not expected that that was for certain, I would not complain, however. The more Minotaurs I got, the better. One upside to all of this was that despite having a high upkeep, it would seem I did not need to pay it. Since it came in as part of the Biome on Latra''s back it would seem the cost was just wavered because of the cost I was paying for her. Not that I would normally meet the requirements for a Misty Forest anyway, not with a Maze Biome as my base. Wait, this was unlocked. Had purchasing Latra just unlocked everything for the Misty forest? A quick check immediately proved otherwise. A bunch of stuff was unlocked, but far from everything. Well, I could inspect that after I found the Mistwalkers. For now, as I looked over at the Minotaur''s, they were still looking at me silently. I reached out to their minds and spoke to them telepathically. "Hello, little ones." I could feel the curiosity emanating from them in response to my words. One of them took a careful step forward and touched my leg, then darted backwards to rejoin the others. I couldn''t help but crack a smile at them. "I mean you no harm, I assure you." I messaged them. This, combined with the earlier Minotaur''s courage, seemed to embolden them. They all stepped forward now and warily touched my legs before one happily embraced the leg, followed by the others. Once this greeting was over, they all stepped back again. "You wouldn''t know where the Mistwalker''s are, do you? I wish to speak with them." I asked them. The group looked at one another, then to me, then nodded to one another. I had no clue how they had communicated, but it seemed they had agreed on something as they turned around and motioned for me to follow. Well, it wasn''t like I had any better idea as I followed the group of bouncing and galloping Minotaur spirits deeper into the misty woods. It took about another hour of walking. By this point, the small group of Minotaur''s had attracted more of their ilk. By the time we reached our destination, there were almost 4 dozen of them, if not more, surrounding me on all sides. They all suddenly abruptly stopped and as one pointed forwards, while looking at me. That was eerie to be blunt, but it was not like I could really do anything about it as I walked off in the direction they were pointing. The ground slanted here and was slowly dipping into a small valley. Water covered the entire bottom of the valley. And I had no way of seeing how deep it was. The solution to this predicament was simple and fun. Using "Flight" I skipped along the surface of the lake, making it seem like I was running across the water itself. Near the center of this lake, I found a small island, and on the island I found them, the Mistwalkers. I am not sure what I expected, but it was decidedly not this. They looked like, well; I had nothing to compare them too. I had seen nothing remotely like them before. They were almost like centaurs, but with white scales instead of skin, they were also remarkably tall and slender. Their lower bodies was more akin to that of a stag than a horse, lithe and thin, covered in scales. Instead of hooves, they had clawed feet like that of a bird. They had a long sinuous tail that ended in a nasty looking gripping three-pronged claw akin to those used by crane games. The major difference was that this claw was sharp as daggers. And, if the fish held in the tail by one of them was anything to go by, a deadly weapon. The claw had not only cut deeply into the fish, but a bone spike had impaled it through the center, extending from the tail itself. Their faces were vaguely human, in shape. But they had four slits for noses and had three circular eyes. Their pupils were unusual as they were triangular rather than circular. Their mouths were small and circular and lined with small needle-sharp teeth, like that of a lamprey. Their hands ended in a thumb and three thin, long, clawed fingers. The mist rose from their scales like smoke and lazily scattered across the lake. On their head there grew crests of bone, some of which was more prominent on some than others. That was the only difference I could see between them. As I got near the Mistwalkers, they looked up at me with cool disinterest. I could sense a mind reaching out to me "Begone beast, there nothing of interest here" That was quite presumptive of the Mistwalker, wasn''t it? I continued to close the distance while working to figure out which Mistwalker was the one speaking. The presence in my mind grew stronger. "I said, begone!" This outburst was what I needed, as I calmly spoke directly into the mind of the Mistwalker in question, the one with the fish held in its tail. "You should not presume every creature you see is a mere beast, some could do you grievous harm if you do." The resulting shock was amusing to look at as the Mistwalker stumbled backwards and nearly tripped over one another. It recovered its bearings quickly and tried to blast my mind with another mental command to leave. I didn''t even feel it this time, as it was strong enough to trigger my defensive skill. The Mistwalker had an impressive mental strength, but seriously this was too much. There was just something about their behavior that angered me beyond reason. "ENOUGH OF YOUR IMPUDENCE!" My mental command echoed across the island, and I now had their undivided attention. "I came here to greet you all and you dismiss me as a mere beast. No wonder most of the creatures in this forest keep their distance to you. Your behavior is abhorrent!" I did not understand where this sudden bout of anger came from, nor did I care. How could someone or something be that arrogant and still be a creation of Mother? Just as I was about to ask them that very question, however, another presence made itself known as something came walking out of the mist. This one was stronger than the others, far stronger. It was another Mistwalker, but a much larger one, almost as big as I was. That meant that these had to be kids. That explained, but did not excuse their behavior. I felt this new Mistwalker touch my mind, then recoil as if burned. "My apologies, Lady Core, it would seem I have failed to instill the young ones with any sense of humility and respect, despite my best efforts." The elder Mistwalker bowed its torso deeply as it spoke. "Apology accepted, I am partially to blame for allowing childish remarks to agitate me." The elder Mistwalker looked on the group of young ones, who visibly shrank back from the withering gaze of their displeased elder. The elder walked over to the culprit for my outburst and grabbed it by the crest. "They should have known better. I have over and over tried to make them understand that they are not better than anyone else. But it seems like my lesson has once again fallen on deaf minds." As it spoke it looked across the group. "Tell me, Lady Core, what can we help you with?" It asked at length, while gazing at me with a patient and inquisitive expression. "I was told by one of the Treants that you could help me navigate this mist easier. If I could do so it would make it easier for me to meet all the creatures that live here, so I can greet them properly." The Mistwalker nodded. "I see, well, that is easy enough, I grant you, and all those who follow you, free access through the mist." No sooner had the Mistwalker given its consent, before the area underwent a drastic change from my perspective. The mist had disappeared, or so it seemed, but I could still feel it on my fur and face. So, I could see through it as if it wasn''t there. I could see the great leaf covered trees, the mossy ground, the clusters of smaller shrubs and mushrooms growing here and there. And that the lake was smaller than I had first thought. Now that I could see it all, the place was actually beautiful. "Thank you" I nodded respectfully to the elder Mistwalker. "Oh, the pleasure is mine, Lady Core, take care now, if you head in that direction you will find the Champion. Now, I would have liked to keep talking but, the young ones need another lesson, it would seem." I gave a single nod as I looked in the direction he was pointing. I didn''t envy the younger ones, but then, it was not my place to tell the elder how to raise the younger ones. For all I knew, this was the correct way to go about it. I could have asked Archives, but it kept being strangely quiet. Its silence was unnerving me somewhat by this point. As I left the island behind I could hear the Elder starting to berate the younger Mistwalkers using open telepathy. This allowed anyone passing by to listen in, so I suspected it was a deliberate choice to do so. I almost felt bad for the young ones, but they did that to themselves. I continued on my way. Now that I could see properly, I took to the air rather than walk along the ground, which sped things up. I could see more of the small Minotaur''s below me running around along the forest floor and enjoying themselves. I also noticed something else. The manta like creatures I had seen earlier were flying among the branches on the bigger trees. Without the mist in the way I could get a good look at them. They were birds, though strange ones. Their wings were overly large, or was it one giant U-shaped wing? It was difficult to tell. They pressed their small raptor like heads into the wing itself when they flew. Their head blended in so well with the rest of it that the only thing that gave it away was its long tooth-filled beak and red-glowing eyes. This gave them an appearance reminiscent of stealth fighters now that I could see them without the mist obscuring them. In place of feathers, they had a purple rubber like hide on top, while their underside was teal colored. Their long legs were decidedly the legs of a bird of prey, with sharp talons easily giving purchase on the branches of the tree. Their tails were akin to that of the manta, a long slender thing, devoid of feathers. Though in place of a spike, it crackled with electricity. I considered looking up their stats along with the Mistwalkers, but after a quick internal debate, I postponed it until later. Once I had figured out what in the world had happened to Archives, I could have it pull them up for me. It¡¯s continued silence was unnerving me more and more now. I reached out to a few of them mentally as I landed on one of the bigger branches. The effect was immediate as the bird-like creatures all took off and flew away. Well then, guess they were more skittish than I had expected, I would have to get back to them later. With a disappointed sigh, I took wing once more. No point in sticking around if they would not be here to speak with. I continued onwards towards the area that the elder Mistwalker had pointed towards. It was a few minutes later that the forest to undergo a rather unnerving change. The trees looked withered and gnarled, with several of them sporting broken branches. Not a single one tree had any leaves either. The ground had lost its shrubbery and moss and had turned cracked and withered. In between the trees were mounds of cracked earth that had been burst open from the inside. They almost looked like- I got out of the way just as I realized what in the world I was flying over. And not a moment too soon either, as a pillar of boiling water blasted out of the ground and past where I had been moments before. Geysers, it would seem the Mistwalkers was not the only source of mist in the forest. This would usually be the point where Archives popped in with a quip or comment, but once again just dead silence. Funny, I had become so used to Archive¡¯s presence that its absence was weirding me out now. Well, nothing to it, I could only soldier on and try to figure out the mystery later. While I couldn''t see the mist in the air anymore, I could feel it even more plainly here. The heat and humidity was excessive. This part of the forest was like a sauna with no exit. Despite the oppressive heat, I continued further into the area. The Champion was probably inside this part of the forest. The trick was to find it. With that in mind, I found that it would probably be wise to land. The last thing I needed was to be above a geyser as it went off. Well, this proved one thing for me, Fire Resistance was not the same as Heat Resistance. Good to know prior to testing that out in a more dangerous situation. As I moved further into the geyser field, I realized I had made the right choice of landing. Geysers were going off almost non-stop all over the place. Being in the air would have probably resulted in me getting a heatstroke or getting steam cooked. That being said, the ground was no picnic either. I would have to hurry and find the Champion. This heat would get to me if I stayed too much longer. On I went through the blasted landscape. I almost couldn''t believe this was still a part of the same biome as the rest of the forest, given how different it was. Still, both Archives and the ability Biomeback had both insisted that there was only one biome on Latra''s back, so I had no choice but to believe it. Especially since I didn''t have archives to confer with on the matter. It had been a good ten minutes of walking before I found what might be what I was looking for. Or so I hoped. The heat was getting to me by now. A hill was sticking out of the ground, a strange a conspicuous hill at that. In difference from the rest of the area it didn''t sport a blasted landscape, but the same lush terrain as the forest outside. There was also a small and very familiar wall of mist surrounding it. Was I seeing things or was it real? There was only one way to find out, I stepped in closer to the hill. It didn''t evaporate into nothing, and the temperature was dropping rapidly. Blessed relief, I walked closer to this one piece of sanctuary from the oppressive heat. That''s when I saw it, Latra''s champion, it had to be. It was standing on the hill, looking out over the geyser field. I didn''t need to be a genius to realize what Latra''s champion was. It was rather similar to its lesser kin. The moss and fungus covered the earthen body of the Champion. But whereas the Lesser ones had been gorilla like in stature, the Champion was more like an Adonis. Its entire body was like a statue carved of an ancient Greek hero. It stood tall and proud, its giant deer skull with antlers and all. The skull had several emeralds studded across it in intricate patterns. And a pair of giant glowing rubies served as its eyes. On its back was a massive, spiked war club and covering much of its body was an armor made of a dark metal-like bark. The most striking difference, however, was the sheer size of the Champion. The Lesser ones had been half the size of a man. The Champion was almost twice my height, if not more. Just what in the world was I looking at, anyway? Before I could even contemplate looking it up, however, the Champion looked my way and started walking towards me while unsheathing its massive club. Chapter 22: Interference The Champion continued towards me then slammed the end of the giant weapon into the ground and knelt down in front of me. It looked like a knight in front of a monarch, head bowed and one hand on its chest. "Greetings Lady Core, we have been expecting you." I looked at the Champion for a moment in silence. "Greetings to you too." I finally managed. I was never comfortable with this treatment. Being called Lady Core, fine, that one was inevitable, I suppose. But the kneeling and bowed head was making me feel awkward. After a rather lengthy silence, I looked around the small strange island of green in this heat blasted part of the forest. ¡°I heard you were wandering around the forest, so I guess that your fighting arena is your current location?¡± I finally inquired. The champion looked at me, then chuckled, a rather strange noise akin to bone scraping against bone. ¡°I don''t really move around much, it¡¯s this place that moves.¡± The champion replied finally and patted the rock beside him. As if on cue, a giant set of pincers appeared on the other side of the hill. Then the ground shook lightly as a set of 10 grey carapace covered legs unfurled from the rocky sides of what I had believed was a hill. A Geocrab, and an unusually large one at that. Its brethren usually used large rocks or small boulders as a back-cover, but this one was a literal walking hill. A pair of stalks popped up over the top of the hill. Each one as thick as a tree trunk and covered in the same stone grey carapace. The Geocrab¡¯s eyes. It had to be. Appearance wise Geocrabs were akin to enormous hermit crabs, though they had a most unusual diet. They got all the nutrients they needed through the moisture in the surrounding air or from whatever they would get their pincers on, usually plants or small game. This meant that they preferred misty biomes or just lived underwater. It made sense that this forest might have a small population of them, but I had never seen one this large. I would have to ask Archives about it once I got back out of the forest. For now, I refocused my attention on the pair in front of me. ¡°I see, I will admit I didn¡¯t expect your home to be of the mobile kind. But it explains the strangeness of its appearance in the middle of this geyser field.¡± Again the bony chuckle from the Champion, followed by a bubbly creaky sound from the Crab, I assumed it was its chuckle. The Crab casually rose and started walking through the geyser field. And easily carrying the hill with the two of us along while it did. I was curious as to the stats on the crab, should I look it up now¡­ hmm, no. I was in the middle of a conversation. Even if it was an awkward one, it would be more polite to wait. I returned my focus to the Champion. ¡°I am glad to meet you at last, I prefer to greet the creatures in my dungeon personally.¡± Man, this really was awkward. The entire start of this had put me so on edge I couldn¡¯t relax. The champion looked at me ¡°I hope I meet your approval, Milady.¡± The champion replied, now serious once more. I took a deep breath. ¡°It was not to see if I would approve or not and please stand up. This kneeling and extreme show of respect is making me feel awkward. I wanted to meet you because I like to get to know the creatures personally, not because I feel a need to judge their combat effectiveness.¡± The champion looked at me for a moment and slowly rose and returned the club to the small hoop used to keep it on its back. ¡°I see that is¡­ a relief, actually. When Lady Latra informed us that Lady Penumbra would place us at the disposal of a dungeon Core I did not know what to expect. So, I wanted to present a more¡­ stoic and imposing view of myself, I suppose.¡± the Champion scratched the back of its skull sheepishly. Now it was my time to chuckle. ¡°If you want to be a stoic knight be so, if you want to dance around a clearing while picking flowers that is fine too. It is your life, do with it as you wish. I do not mind how you behave as long as it¡¯s not to the detriment to your fellow creatures or the dungeon itself. Just be yourself, that is all I want.¡± The champion seemed to relax a bit after hearing what I had to say. "I am glad to hear that, Milady. I was not sure what I would do if you were to be more¡­ imposing?" He rose to his feet and walked over to a tree that was growing on the Geocrab and casually leaned against it. Now seeming far more at ease without the need to put on airs. Honestly, it was refreshing to see someone able to relax so much around me. The other creatures, with very few exceptions, were more formal and/or fawning. Even Rael stood or sat just slightly straighter when I was around. I honestly don¡¯t think he was aware of the fact. Well, that was neither here nor there. The champion was someone you could only view as a "chill" individual, that much was certain. I gave the Champion a smile and polite nod then walked up to the other edge of the Geocrab''s rocky shell. I peered over the edge and down at the Geocrab below. It was making quite the headway through the geyser field and seemed to know where it was going. "Hello down there, it''s a pleasure to meet you." I said down to it. In response, the giant stalk-like eyes turned and regarded me before a deep, bubbly, and sharp voice replied. "Greetings, Milady, happy to see you." It was like a waterfall, an avalanche, and a falling tree had become one noise and made into a voice. The Geocrab seemed happy with my presence. And as we continued on our merry way it talked loosely about various topics and its views on things in the forest. With the Champion piping in now and then, it made for a rather fun time. These two really were the most casual creatures I had ever met, that was for sure, and also made for a rather amusing pair to listen too. Hmm, I wonder how they would get along with the others. Well, I guess they could visit, provided I could somehow convince the Mistwalkers to grant them passage through the mist. With that in mind, I sat back and enjoyed the trip through the forest. The Geocrab, whose name was Pebble, happily kept on talking as we travelled. Neither of us had missed the irony of that name. But then apparently the Champion had named it. And it had received the name Splinter from the Geocrab. I suspected it to be a jab at the fact that one horn of the Champion had a rather big splinter in it. Neither seemed bothered by their names though, so I suspected any animosity between them had dissipated long ago, if it ever existed to begin with. Pebble followed a trail through the forest that the mist had obscured on my first time through. Then again, the sheer size of it would have made it hard to perceive from my regular point of view. It was plainly visible from up here, though. Had I been able to see the path while wandering blindly, I probably would have found the pair pretty easily. But then again, the entire point of the mist was to make it as difficult as possible to get through the forest. It didn¡¯t take long at all for Pebble to bring me back to the edge of the forest. It should be fine anyway, as I had some questions I needed to ask Archives about. Besides, the trip had taken a while and the construction on the 4th floor portal should have reached its conclusion by now. I hopped off of Pebble once it stopped and used my wing to wave at the two of them as Pebble turned and disappeared into the forest once more. It had been a pleasant trip, with Splinter and Pebble being entertaining in their own unique way. I would say that the chances they would get along with others in the dungeon would be considerable, as their personalities were likeable. Well, I was now out of the forest, let''s see if Archives was working again... nothing? OK, now I was getting worried. What in the world was going on? Well, it wasn''t like I had any ability to get an answer out of nowhere. For now, I pushed that thought aside and walked over to the Core Room to see if Indella was ready to move back. I found here sitting cross-legged on the floor, her head hanging limply, apparently meditating, or more likely in the middle of a conversation with Latra. Well, I could wait for her to finish. It wasn''t like I was in a hurry or anything. It was not long before Indella opened her eyes again, however; she looked worried. *I can''t get in contact with Archives* She looked at me. "Me neither. Maybe Archives uses Spatial Magic to function, which Latra''s Spatial Barrier would stop. We should try again once we are out of range of the barrier." Indella nodded and hopped on my back as I took wing. As I flew over Latra''s brow and started the long descent to the water below I could feel Latra trying to contact me. "So, did you find my Champion, Little Sister?" As before, the sheer strength of her mental contact was a surprise. But she had given me plenty of time to prepare as to not catch me by surprise. I responded with calm confidence, "I did. Both of them, at that. They make for an unusual pair." I could feel Latra''s laughter through my entire body as the sound created literal shock waves in the air. "Those two make for an amusing and unusual pairing. That aside, Sister, something is bothering you, I can sense it. Tell me what''s on your mind."This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Before I could even plan an answer, Indella did it for me. *We can''t get in contact with Archives. I tried again just now, and I am positive we are outside of the range of the Spatial barrier by now. Something is wrong. A skill shouldn''t just cease to function.* Latra moved a bit and fixed one of her largest eyes on us. "That is... concerning. A skill like the Penumbral Archives should not cease to function, even within my spatial barrier. This is worrisome, I suggest attempting a communion with Mother. Or maybe see if there are any news outside of the dungeon on any major events that might explain this sudden absence." Those were good ideas, and it was not like we had anything to lose by following them. "Thank you, Sister, those are excellent suggestions to follow." I replied, honestly happy for the ideas. Archives'' disappearance had happened at a most inopportune time. The portals we needed to complete the construction of was a pressing matter that had my attention. I also had the idea I needed to tell Yrsha if she accepted the alliance. Not to mention I was already busy trying to figure out what to do about Yrsha. She still had pretty much at-will access to my Dungeon in the event she refused my offer. And now this on top of it all. Well, I probably could get the info from the outside world easily enough. Alessa could probably give me something useful, provided she was in the right spot. With that in mind, I activated "Share Senses" and went for hearing and sight. ______________________________________________________________________________ "And you are certain about this?" Asked a rather stern looking woman as she read a report. Alessa was in the guild''s reception hall. As was a significant number of other adventurers. All of whom seemed worried. Wait, almost all the people present, outside of Alessa and a few others, were Clerics and Paladins and other Divine related classes. What the hell was going on? "Certain beyond all doubt, Milady. Even the High Priest is at a loss about what is going on." Answered the scribe who had delivered it. The woman didn''t seem to like the answer one bit. But also seemed more solution oriented than wanting to blame or punish someone for giving answers she didn''t like. "Impossible all the gods can''t have just up and vanished. Besides, their passive blessings are still around, so what can interfere with divine power on such a scale?" I tuned out of the conversation, absorbed by my own thoughts. ______________________________________________________________________________ Where was the fat pig of a Guildmaster? And who was this woman? If she had somehow replaced Saol, then I was a happy Sphinx, as she seemed far more competent, and hopefully open to talks. That being said, something was interfering with divine power? That didn''t sound good. In fact, it was quite the opposite. I cut the connection for now; I had other things to worry about than continue to eavesdrop on that meeting. Besides that, if things were as bad as that meeting had shown, then trying to commune with Mother would be pointless. I would need to come up with another solution. I relayed the information to Indella and Latra, neither of which took the news that well. Indella with shock, while Latra seemed... afraid. What in the world could scare Latra? Sensing my worry, my older sibling gave me a mental nudge. "Worry not, Little Sister, it might be nothing, I hope it''s nothing." She did not seem convinced at all, but I decided not to push it, not right now. Worst-case scenario, Latra would tell me if she found it important enough, best-case scenario, this was just a temporary. I was not optimistic or foolish enough to believe that, however. Something was going on, and it probably did not bode well at all. I wound up calling Rael, Mordred, the Duergar King, named Flint and the High Priest, named Granite, Ssatassha and one of Talka''s brood together. We met on the third floor to discuss what in the world this might mean. After a lot of back and forth, the High Priest had attempted to commune with Penumbra, to no avail. So, we had no ability to get in contact with Mother. The same event had shut Archives down and the cause was unknown. Not good, not good at all. The discussion on what to do next continued to rage on for quite a while. Finally, I took a deep breath. "This is getting us nowhere, we have been discussing in circles for over 3 hours now. As much as I hate to say it, we have too little information to act on this. There is, given the circumstances, only one solution open to us." I looked towards the portal. "So, who fancies a field trip to another dungeon?" I asked as I looked at it. The others looked at me as if I had lost my mind. "We don''t even know if she will accept the deal yet." Mordred remarked. His voice strained from the rather heated debate he and Indella had been having until that point. It was about the validity of attempting to commune using ancient druidic rituals to circumvent the interference. Not a topic I had expected Mordred to blow up about, but he had. "It doesn''t matter, Mordred, we have no choice. We need more information and if what Rael said is true, then Yrsha''s powers are not divine-based. So, the interference should not affect whatever has been taking out Archives and the temple''s link to Mother." The others remained silent before they all slowly nodded. I had expected them to see it my way when I explained my reasoning to them. I had not expected Rael''s next words. "I am coming with you. I have met Yrsha before, and we got along well enough back in the guild. Besides, if things go wrong, you could use someone to watch your back. Someone with more experience than you, Indella. No offense." Indella just shook her head. *None taken, if you and I were to fight the victor would be obvious, I wouldn''t even get off one spell before being down and out. It will also allow me to test whether my Druidic Rituals can bypass the interference. So, I don''t mind at all.* Mordred shot her an angry glare, but said nothing. It didn''t take much in the way of preparation to get things going, Rael portaled to the 2nd floor, went to the camp and geared up and returned. I did not need to prepare any gear, so I just had to wait for the prepping of the portal. As I waited Mordred went over how to use the thing at least three times. Just to be sure I didn''t screw up and wound up sending us to some random place far away or worse, nowhere at all. That was a possibility, opening a portal to literally nowhere, no telling where such a portal led. There was one thing all the tales of such portals agreed upon, however. Those that returned from such a portal were all either insane or mutated into horrible madness-inducing creatures bent on spreading their madness. Either way, Mordred was taking no chances. It was to the point I almost had to use Will Bender to make him stop pestering me about it... almost. Finally, Rael returned, and I activated the portal the way Mordred had described. It flared to life and on the other side I could see the same glade that I had gotten a glimpse of when Yrsha visited my dungeon. I nodded to Rael and together we stepped through to the other side. As we did, the portal closed behind us and I immediately nearly doubled over as the sense of distance between me and Indella suddenly skyrocketed. It was like getting hit with the mother of all vertigo, and it took me a few moments to reorient myself. That was unpleasant, to put it mildly, and the sensation wasn''t going away either. It was a nagging in the back of my mind. And I had a suspicion Indella was probably going through something similar. Several fox spirits immediately approached us, looking wary and on guard, but they were not attacking, so that was good. "I am sorry for the unannounced visit, but need to speak with Yrsha, it''s rather urgent." I called out to them. They looked at each other for a few moments, unsure what to do. Then there was an outcry and another, more familiar spirit approached. "Lady Core, what a surprise! Not expected at all, Xi is sorry for not being there to greet you, what brings you here Xi wonders." Xi was standing in front of me looking at me with an inquisitive look and wagging tails as Xi patiently waited for an answer. I sat down in front of the little spirit. "Something is interfering with the connection to Mother and practically all other deities among our group. I was hoping Yrsha might help us figure out what was going on." Rael nodded in confirmation. "When I went to gather my gear, I asked Erem about trying some of his divine skills and some of them just didn''t work. This included his divine magic. The spells didn''t fizzle, they just did nothing." At the mention of divine magic just failing the fox spirits seemed rightfully alarmed. Something had to be horribly wrong for that to happen. Xi closed their eyes for a moment, took a deep breath, then nodded. "I see Xi is loath to disturb Lady Yrsha when she is meditating. But this is too important to ignore. Please follow Xi." Xi led us across the clearing to a small room in what I would view as a Sengoku era house back home. It even had a sliding door. Just as Xi lifted a paw to knock I could hear Yrsha''s voice from inside. "Thank you, Xi, would you be so kind as to fetch some tea for our two guests?" The Spirit bowed to the closed door and with a quick yip ran off. A few moments later the door opened and Yrsha walked out and gave a polite bow to both of us. "Lady Pearl, Sir Rael, what a pleasant surprise, I wish the circumstances for your arrival were equally pleasant." She made a gesture to follow, and we walked towards the largest building in the clearing. Once we entered, well, Rael entered, and I sat down outside. The door was too small for me, even if I crawled. Yrsha sat down behind a small table and Rael sat down to her left, so I would have an unobstructed view of both. Xi entered shortly after with a large porcelain kettle that was sporting exquisite decorations, two small cups and a large bowl. The cups and the bowl had the same cherry blossom pattern as the kettle and likely belonged to the same set. With expert precision and probably millennia worth of training, the little spirit filled up the cups and presented one to Yrsha and Rael. Then my bowl last. It made sense in my eyes, since the bowl was far larger than the smaller cups. Yrsha took a small sip of her tea, then looked at me and Rael. "Now why don''t you tell me what you have found out so far?" Chapter 23: Tea Time at Madness OClock I was, to be honest, not sure what to do about all this. Yrsha would likely expect us to have perfect manners, something I had little training in at all. It did not help that I had usually relied on Archives to avoid any mishaps. Luckily for me, Rael started speaking before I could. ¡°First allow me to apologize for barging into your home uninvited, Lady Yrsha, but what has occurred seems to be widespread and rather serious. We are both rather off balance as it is, so I also wish to apologize for any lack of proper manners that we might inadvertently display.¡± Yrsha eyed Rael for a few moments, and after a small sip of her cup she put it down, her smile now gone. ¡°I see, well, if it is so serious, then it would be better if we put the pleasantries aside for now. Please speak freely.¡± I silently thanked Rael, he had helped me avoid a potential disaster right now. I took a deep breath and began explaining. ¡°There seems to be a strong interference between the divine and the mortals who benefit from their gifts. Certain skills aren¡¯t functioning, divine spells either have their effect reduced to nothing or are just failing. It affects even passive skills.¡± I looked up at her, she appeared unconcerned, it seemed like she hadn¡¯t realized what this could mean. ¡°Lady Yrsha, I urge you to tighten the defense of your dungeon. Since It might also mean you are no longer protected by the decree of Rubolg, at least for now, I mean.¡± Yrsha nearly choked on the tea she had been busy sipping when she heard what I said. She was obviously not expecting that possibility. She shot a glance towards the open door behind her and I could hear footsteps run off at high speed. A few moments later I could see Xi speed off towards the nearest group of spirits relaxing near a small pond. The little spirit sure could move. Yrsha put down her teacup and rose to her feet. ¡°I will admit, I did not consider that possibility. Thank you for your warning. Now, given the situation is what it is, I can only surmise you wish to make use of my divination to find out what is going on.¡± I nodded and drained the bowl Xi had given me in one mouthful. It barely was a thimble to me, anyway. Rael followed suit with his own cup, though with slightly more difficulty. We both rose to our feet and followed Yrsha once more. This time she headed down a path into the forest itself. It didn¡¯t take long for the forest to hide the view of the clearing we had just left, and the forest itself gradually changed as we walked. So this entire path had to be a ¡°stairs room¡± for a forest dungeon or something, I noted as the sun set and the moon rose above us. We had barely been walking for 5 minutes, and it was far too early for the moon to rise. Yet, night had undoubtedly fallen over this part of the forest. The path continued onward for about another 10 minutes, with side paths branching off now and then, but finally, we arrived at another, much smaller clearing. The clearing was empty except for a single pond in it, with the full moon reflecting off of the surface. Something about the pond was making me uncomfortable. Maybe it was the reflection of the moon, maybe something else, but just looking at it was giving me a headache. ¡°What is this pond?¡± I asked, I couldn¡¯t quite hide the discomfort from my voice. Rael followed up a moment later. ¡°Whatever it is, it¡¯s quite¡­ uncomfortable to look at.¡± Yrsha looked at us for a moment, nodding slowly. There hint of a smile on her face as she listened to Rael¡¯s terrible attempt to remain polite about the sensations that pond was giving us. ¡°I am not surprised you have such a reaction. This pond is used to scry into the past, present and future. For those whose minds have not attuned to it, it just causes severe discomfort or pain. Only trained minds can make sense of what the pond is trying to tell, training you two lack.¡± She explained, as both Rael and I started to pointedly avoid looking at the pond. With little in the way of further explanation, Yrsha walked over to the edge of the pond and sat down. Then she pointedly peered into the pond itself, her own eyes starting to shine like little full moons as the light of the reflection filled them. As she was looking, her brows furrowed and her face distorted in discomfort. Then suddenly the moon overhead changed drastically, turning into a blood moon. Yrsha gave a partially strangled scream almost at the same time. Before I could do anything Rael had rushed forward and dragged Yrsha away from the pond itself. He used his own body to block Yrsha from seeing it any longer. This caused him to carry Yrsha bridal style, which gave me a strange feeling of certainty. A certainty that I would see such a sight again in happier circumstances. Yrsha calmed down a few moments later, though the experience had shaken her. Then she noticed the position she was in, and I couldn¡¯t help but notice a slight blush as she hurriedly asked for Rael to let her go. Noticing what he was doing, Rael gave a similar blush and hurriedly put her down, while apologizing profusely. As amusing as the sight was, I pushed that matter aside for now as we had other things to worry about. I looked at the two as they were doing their best act of pretending like they hadn¡¯t noticed the other person blushing. ¡°I don¡¯t mean to be impolite or anything, but maybe we should return to the shrine. Who knows what else might have suddenly changed in here, or why.¡± That snapped the two out of it and Yrsha literally vanished, I guess she went incorporeal to move to the shrine faster. I looked over to Rael and then sat down. ¡°Get on.¡± I didn¡¯t need to tell him twice. As we returned to the main clearing, we found the place in total chaos. There were fox spirits everywhere, but something was off about them. Strange black/purple energy was slowly rising off of them, and they were attacking everyone and everything in sight, including each other. A solar eclipse had replaced the sunlight in the clearing, adding to the chaos. Yrsha was running all over, doing her best to stop the fighting, her expression a mix of terror and determination. As we arrived, she looked over at us with a pleading expression. She didn¡¯t even need to ask before I skidded to a stop and gently motioned for Rael to get off. ¡°I can try to stop them from fighting, but it will probably be unpleasant for them.¡± I told Yrsha as I grabbed two spirits, one in each front paw. Yrsha looked at me ¡°Do it, better to try than to let them continue like this.¡± I nodded and directed my gaze at the clearing itself. STOP FIGHTING, NOW! The mental command was powerful enough to even make Yrsha flinch and grab her forehead, despite not being the intended target. Then again, I had just gone wide spectrum with it. The effects on the clearing were immediate as the strange energy that had suffused the spirits burst away from them, ripped out by the command to stop attacking the spirits. Then the energy slowly coalesced into a strange shape in the center of the clearing. Then it took on a strange, disconcerting form whose corpulent and abhorrent mass was beyond description. Yrsha and Rael fell to the floor, clutching their heads from the sight of it. I felt a sudden pang of pain for a moment. Then the mental immunity part of Penumbral Psionics kicked in and repelled whatever it was trying to influence me with. I looked at Yrsha and Rael. ¡°Sorry guys, it¡¯s for your own good.¡± SLEEP! Both of them fell over, unconscious, along with every spirit in the clearing. The¡­ Thing was unaffected, though I saw a ripple go through it as my mental command hit it. Resistant then, not immune. I suddenly realized this was my first fight with no help of any kind, I didn¡¯t even have Archives to offer advice. Not that it mattered right now, that Thing had to die. It had incapacitated the others practically instantly and was a clear aggressor towards this dungeon and everyone in it. The major problem right now was everyone who was sleeping all over the clearing. That meant I would have to somehow get the Thing out of here and into an area where we could fight more freely. The Thing for its part apparently didn¡¯t need to think much before it burst towards me, one of its many mouths opening up in a gleeful smile. I tried to dodge out of the way but it was too fast. It was like getting hit with a mix of a beach ball and water balloon. The impact didn¡¯t even hurt as it just bounced off. The Thing spun backwards before halting in midair. It seemed confused, well I was not gonna question good fortune, whatever it had attempted to do hadn¡¯t worked. Before it could recover, I pounced on it and clamped my jaws around one of the bigger growths on the Thing, then dragged it out of the clearing. Partway through the Thing realized what I intended and tried in vain to break free. But whatever this Thing was, it was not a physical fighter. It did not have the strength to contest me and while it was larger than a human by a fair margin, it still was smaller than me. Once back in the hallway I gave the Thing no quarter as I tore into it with vicious abandon. I let out all the pent up frustration that had built up since I arrived in this world. It was a vicious rampage that didn¡¯t stop until the Thing was just an ugly smear on the floor. It had tried to stop me, but its physical strength was nowhere near enough to get past my defenses. This Thing wasn¡¯t a frontline combatant at all. Despite this it could stay alive far longer than it should have been able to. It kept screaming and gibbering until I had crushed and ripped every bit to shreds. Then, and only then, did I feel the usual influx of power from gaining EXP. As I did, the strange eclipse abated, and the Dungeon returned to normal. It was only then I noticed how foul the damn Thing had tasted. It tasted like every bad tasting thing in existence rolled up into one. I nearly hurled right there, but I bit it back. I could get rid of it later, right now I had to check on everyone. I walked over to the unconscious Rael and Yrsha, then paused. Now, who should I wake first? Yrsha was an unknown if she had gone insane like the spirits, then fighting her would be a potentially bad or outright catastrophic idea. However, I knew I could take Rael on in single combat, and he didn¡¯t have any magic, so he would probably be the safer bet. With that in mind, I nudged Rael awake carefully. The effect was immediate as he sprang to his feet with a frankly shocking speed, sword drawn and a wild look in his eyes. Then, after looking around for a few moments, visibly relaxed and sheathed his sword again.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Well, that was a bit terrifying. Good thing he didn¡¯t take a swing with it. Before I could even say a word Rael spotted Yrsha and ran over to her and carefully lifted the sleeping Core into his arms and gently woke her up. The expression on his usually steely and bearded face was remarkably soft. He woke her gently, and though she was equally panicked at first, she seemed to calm down when she recognised Rael. The two kept looking at each other for a while, lost in each other¡¯s gaze. I couldn¡¯t help but tease them a bit. ¡°You know, I know we should check on your Spirits and all Yrsha, but if you two want to get a room, I could manage on my own¡­¡± The effect was immediate. Both Rael and Yrsha snapped out of their mutual staring and got to their feet. Both of them were beet red, which wasn¡¯t that surprising, given the situation. Yrsha spoke up first, trying her best to put on an air of dignity and appear proper again. ¡°Y-you are right, w-we should get to work checking on my little ones.¡± She glanced over at Rael, who had suddenly gotten VERY busy making sure his armor straps hadn¡¯t come loose. Seriously, an ancient spirit and a professional adventurer behaving like teenagers. That was actually rather cute. Guess neither was that experienced in the ways of romance. Not that I was one who could talk, having been a total shut-in for the entirety of my adult life. Still, there was a spark there between the two, as strange as it may seem. Honestly, I suspected it might have been for a while, seeing as the two knew each other from way before I met either of them. I shook myself out of my musings, there were more important things to do right now. The small fox spirits were luckily fine. Whatever I had done to draw that Thing out of them had left them perfectly fine, it seemed, or so Yrsha claimed. I would have helped with the check myself, but the only magic I had that would have been useful was the Divine type. So it had been no surprise for me when attempting to cast nothing had happened. Then, with everyone back to their normal self, Yrsha did a quick sweep of her dungeon to ensure everyone else was fine. With that taken care of, we returned to the tearoom to continue our conversation, although with a new topic. ¡°We were lucky. If that Thing had run rather than fight, it could have caused utter mayhem.¡± Yrsha shook her head. ¡°It would never run, not when it had more potential victims around.¡± I looked at her, Rael was still deliberately doing his best not to. The next question I asked was obvious. ¡°What do you mean?¡± Did Yrsha know what that Thing was? Yrsha downed her cup of tea like it was some kind of strong whiskey and got a refill before she explained. ¡°You said it charged at you and seemed surprised when it bounced off, that means it was expecting to possess you like it had the others.¡± That made sense, but didn¡¯t explain why it didn¡¯t work on me, it just didn¡¯t add up. ¡°As far as I know I have no skills that protect me from possession, so why couldn¡¯t it possess me?¡± Yrsha looked surprised at me. ¡°You don¡¯t?¡± I shook my head ¡°Not unless Possession counts as a mind affecting skill I don¡¯t. I mean, I didn¡¯t even feel its attempt starting, it just bounced off on its own, so it¡¯s not like I resisted the attempt.¡± Yrsha now looked as confused as I felt. She then just shook her head before she composed herself and looked at me with a serious expression. ¡°Well, as it stands, Pearl, it would seem I owe you a debt once again.¡± I looked over at her ¡°Think nothing of it. That Thing was attempting to attack us all.¡± Yrsha sighed before she slowly shook her head. ¡°I¡­ can¡¯t accept that, Pearl.¡± Right, she was a stickler for decorum and proper behavior¡­ Well, I did have an idea on how to resolve the situation. ¡°Then how about you accept the alliance and help me out with a small experiment of mine, and we call it even?¡± I finally asked. Yrsha looked¡­ a mix of annoyed and intrigued, before she, with another deep sigh, nodded. ¡°That¡¯s¡­ acceptable, I suppose. Though I will clarify that I am accepting it like this only because I suspect you would refuse any other attempts.¡± I couldn¡¯t suppress a smile as she said that, causing yet another sigh from her. She then tilted her head. ¡°So what¡¯s this experiment you wanted to try?¡± she asked, now rather curious about what I had in mind. Once I had explained the thought I had, Yrsha seemed intrigued. ¡°Dungeon creatures invading dungeons and fighting to help the other dungeon grow stronger. Hmm, it¡¯s an interesting concept. And if it works, it could give us some obvious benefits, as we won¡¯t need to rely on outsiders to grow stronger. Very well, I see no reason not to accept to partake in this test of yours. Send the Duergar through the portal when you have found your volunteer.¡± I gave a single nod in response and smiled at Yrsha. ¡°I will do that. For the time being, I think it¡¯s best that I return and make preparations for the first trade cart to go through the portal. I will send the volunteer with them if I have found one. You should probably prepare a spot for him to fight. It¡¯s better if we have a designated spot than to cause collateral damage.¡± Yrsha gave me a smile ¡°True, well then Pearl, see you around I hope, and Rael¡­ Take care.¡± Rael, who had been silent since he regained consciousness, cleared his throat. ¡°Take care, Lady Yrsha. I... I will probably join the trade cart from time to time, to help with the lifting. So I will see you around¡­ I hope... If you¡¯d like¡­¡± Seeing the usually stoic and level-headed Rael like this was amusing. He didn¡¯t have much experience in the way of romance, that was for sure. I glanced over at Yrsha, who had turned around, so she wasn¡¯t facing Rael. She was smiling as he spoke, and also slowly getting a blush. Well, with luck it would work out for them. Either way, how their fumbling attempts at courting one another ended up was none of my business. Before we left Yrsha did a quick check on the rest of her dungeon, but apparently had found no further disturbances. It would seem we had stopped the Thing before it could cause any more mayhem, but even so Yrsha would not risk attempting to use the lake again. I can¡¯t say I blame her, given her description of what she experienced. I can¡¯t really fault someone for ¡°Not wishing to have my head put in a wise then twisted intending to squeeze my sanity from it.¡± A strange, but probably apt description of what was going on, given Yrsha¡¯s view on decorum and details. I approached the portal, and it flared to life once more with only a slight nudge on my end. Huh, this was easier than I thought. With a last farewell, we stepped through and back into the dungeon. When we returned, we found Mordred and Indella, both of whom looked worried and more than a little haggard waiting for us just on the other side. Before I could even ask what happened, Indella told us what had transpired. Even her thoughts sounded tired. *Something attacked us. I do not know what it was, but just looking at it made my head feel like it was being split apart.* Shit, here too? ¡°How bad is it?¡± I asked. Mordred took a deep breath as he answered. ¡°We were lucky. The Thing popped up inside Talka¡¯s nest, so the amount of damage it caused was minimal. I shudder to think what would have happened if it appeared in the village or the camp, as it was the Hive handled it with minimal losses. There were just too many Striders around for its assault to work. The only reason we even knew about the attack was because Indella and I were passing through as it appeared.¡± He massaged his temples for a moment before he continued. ¡°Though I¡­ will admit I remember little of the fight, as short as it was. The Thing overwhelmed my mental faculties just from me looking at it, it was that wrong, the mere sight of it made my mind deny its very existence. Apparently, its influence caused me to go crazy, and I attacked the Striders bare handed. They thankfully knocked me out before I caused any damage, realizing I was not acting like myself.¡± Mordred seemed quite relieved. Not surprising at all, Talka and her children could have ripped him apart. Then again, if this attacker was anything like the one in Yrsha¡¯s dungeon, then the purple glow in his eyes would have been a dead giveaway. So, the Thing had appeared where Indella and Mordred were, that was strange. Could it have been targeting Indella because of her link to me? But then, why did Indella experience a splitting headache while all I felt was a light annoyance? I pushed the thought away. There were too many unknowns to form a proper theory at this point. Besides, I had other news to share. ¡°I see, that¡¯s good, I have a feeling it could have gone far worse, considering how it went down in Yrsha¡¯s dungeon.¡± This earned me some concerned looks. ¡°Yes, there was also an attack on Yrsha¡¯s dungeon. We handled it, and we have an alliance with Yrsha now as a result, and she has agreed to my idea. With a bit of luck, we might get a stable income for my dungeon.¡± It was hard to gauge the reaction of those two, given their current state, though I could sense a modicum of happiness from Indella. I was about to continue the conversation when Flint, followed by a scarred and battered Duergar, walked up to us. ¡°Sorry fer intrudin Melady, but ye have yer volunteer here.¡± He nodded to the Duergar beside him, then with a polite nod turned around and left, leaving the Duergar behind. He looked at me with a calm, stony expression. ¡°Heard ye were lookin fer a volunteer to a potential suicide mission. Figured it wouldn¡¯t be as boring if I was ded, then when I am on guard duty, so what do I need ta do?¡± I needed a few seconds to wrap my head around what he just said. While I was processing it, Indella piped up. *So¡­ let me get this straight, you prefer¡­ death¡­ to guard duty?* He looked at her with the same expression. ¡°Aye. And so would you, if ye had ta look out over this cave day out day in.¡± Huh¡­ Note to self, get the guards something to entertain themselves with off-duty later on. I explained the entire thing to the Duergar, who introduced himself as Granite after Indella poked him about his name long enough. He also seemed far more interested as I explained it all. ¡°Hmm, a worthwhile idea and it would give a delightful distraction from havin ta stay put on da wall all day. Ye can count on me, Melady I will give them a fight though, just so ye know, not just gonna keel over fer them.¡± I nodded ¡°Fair enough, as mentioned you will join the first trade cart through the portal then. Rael, would you mind going with him? Rael looked at me with a surprised expression and blushed profusely when he saw the knowing grin on my face. ¡°¡­ Fine¡± he said at length, then turned around and marched off. Indella looked at me with a confused expression. *What was that all about?* I chuckled. ¡°I don¡¯t think it¡¯s my place to say, if you want to know ask him.¡± Indella looked at the retreating Rael once more before shrugging. *I will get the first trade cart ready. Anyhow, Lienru served up a lunch while you were away, so go get what¡¯s left of it before it gets cold.* Lunch time already? Had it really been that long? Well then, since Indella had already eaten, I would be crazy to say no to the remaining food. Interlude 11: A momentary reprieve. It took the better part of the day to get the first trade cart ready to go, mostly because I was not sure what exactly to send and how much. After much deliberation, I settled for a bunch of bars of Starsilver and a small casket of precious stones taken from the Geode cavern. I would have to get a Gem Mine ASAP if I wanted to start a large scale harvest of gems. Since it had annoyed the Crawlers when I took that many gems at once. I couldn¡¯t say the Crawlers annoyance was without justification either, since I was taking their food away from them. I had considered giving her processed goods, but then, I had nothing that would fit the light build and small stature of her spirits. Besides, given the situation, this was hardly the time to be giving away fineries. The cart rolled through the portal along with Granite and Rael. I couldn¡¯t help but notice that Rael had taken the time to wash up and even shave. Well, I shouldn¡¯t really meddle more than I had, I wished Rael the best of luck, though. I did not know how a relationship between the two would work out in the long run, but Rael was a good man and would treat Yrsha well. As the portal closed I sighed. It had been a long day, and I was quite stressed out given today¡¯s events. Indella and I called it a night early on, we needed rest, and we wanted as much sleep as possible in case of another attack. The rest of the dungeon was on high alert. Everyone was feeling the stress from the knowledge that an unknown entity could just show up wherever it wanted whenever it wanted like that. Hopefully, things would go back to normal soon. The next few days passed remarkably quickly, The trade between my own and Yrsha¡¯s dungeon had been helpful on multiple levels. I had created a side room for the party inside the tunnel leading to the village, and they had used the planks to construct several small huts in there. They had also gained several other amenities they had sorely missed, like beds. They had at first considered moving to the village on the 4th floor and shine up the houses there. But the creepy factor was just too much for their nerves when combined with the Thing¡¯s sudden attack earlier. Another significant piece of news was that the experiment had been a complete success. Granite had apparently reaped a massive toll on the poor spirits before finally going down. But Yrsha had apparently received quite a decent chunk of points for her effort. The Duergar was now constructing an arena outside of the fortress because of this news. I had also spent most of my TP to unlock a Tavern building and the Gem Mine. The cost had come down to 50 TP for the mine and 20 for the Tavern, so I had 2 remaining afterwards. Such a spendthrift would normally have been dangerous, but since Yrsha would send over her first combatants once the arena was complete, spending the points didn¡¯t bother me. The look on the faces of the Duergar when I found a suitable spot in the fortress to put the Tavern down had been one of absolute joy. It had not taken long for one of the Duergar to take up the mantle of tavern keep. I had also put one down in the Kobold village, so they too could have a place to relax. They had received it with less enthusiasm, though they were still grateful for it, since the Tavern came with a wine cellar where they could store their drinks. But then, the Kobolds also had other things to entertain themselves with. The Gem mines had also prompted the need for more workers, so I had expanded the number of Duergar in the fort by an additional 10 workers and 10 soldiers. It ate slightly into my Essence gain, but they required it to get any use out of the mine. Besides, they could use the gems they mined as materials for magic items. Or inlay weapons and armor with magical gems to improve them even further. Things had not improved on the god-front over the past few days, however. It was still not possible to get in contact with Mother or Archives. And a quick check through my Shared Senses told me that the entire city of Caelyn was in an uproar over the situation. No one had any answers about what was going on, it seemed. It also worried me that apparently the High Priest had fallen into a coma shortly after the connection with the gods had been severed. There was also something else going on. The Guildmaster had disappeared. I was still not sure exactly what had gone down, but apparently the Guildmaster had lost his position after we fled the city. Something about abuse of power and other such things, well no one had seen hide nor hair of him since. They had found his house deserted. There were signs of activity in the basement, but aside from that there was no clue. The temporary Guildmaster, a woman named Arana Ravenloft, had put out a bounty for information on what was going on, and the current whereabouts of the previous guildmaster. So far, no one had claimed either bounty, if what I had overheard was true. This was getting weirder and weirder, that was for certain. I broke the connection and shook my head slowly. Well New Guildmaster eh, might have to ask Rael about that¡­ Or maybe Mordred or Erem would know something? Well, it couldn¡¯t hurt to ask, I suppose. With that thought, I stood up and stretched, then I dissolved my form and moved towards the camp. As I got closer, I noticed that things had already changed in the camp now that they had actual wood to build from. Whereas before they had been using mushroom stalks and hollowed out caps for shelters and walls, they had now replaced them with wooden walls. The effect was rather noticeable, as the camp felt far more spacious now that you didn¡¯t have to avoid giant mushroom caps all over the place. However, I couldn¡¯t find Mordred or Erem anywhere. Looking around, I spotted Sybil over by the fire, cooking some food and chatting with a few Kobolds. Maybe she knew? ¡°Hey, Sybil, you wouldn¡¯t know where Erem and Mordred went? I have some information I need to run by them.¡± Sybil looked up from the fire with a surprised expression before it changed to thoughtful. ¡°I¡­ think they went to the lake to try their hand at fishing, why?¡± I saw no reason to keep this secret from Sybil, since I had planned to tell them, anyway. ¡°That asshole of a Guildmaster has lost his position and apparently disappeared into thin air when they wanted to put him on trial for various¡­ questionable activities. No one knows where he went. I wanted some info on the temporary guildmaster in case she becomes a problem and if they knew what that bastard might do next. I would also appreciate any thoughts you might have on the subject.¡± Sybil looked at me with a curious expression. ¡°I see, well I never really met the old man outside of when the rest of the party were present, so I don¡¯t know what he could be up to. As for this new Guildmaster, I need a bit to go on. Do you know her name?¡± I answered immediately. ¡°She¡¯s named Arana Ravenloft.¡± Sybil choked on her drink and spent a while coughing violently before she looked up at me with a shocked expression. ¡°Arana Ravenloft? THE Arana Ravenloft?¡± I mused for a moment. ¡°I take it this isn¡¯t a nobody they set up as temporary Guildmaster?¡± Sybil shook her head. ¡°Arana Ravenloft is¡­¡± her voice trailed off as she shuddered. So she was potentially bad news then? Before I could ask Sybil continued. ¡°Arana Ravenloft is the head of the Guilds internal affairs. If you break the rules of the guild, she¡¯s the one that comes breathing down your neck to ensure a swift and harsh punishment. I don¡¯t think the word mercy exists in her vocabulary at all, as all punishments she delivers out are the harshest they can be for your infraction.¡± Sounded like the type that ruled with an iron fist. Best to be sure about this one. ¡°Will she become a potential issue to us?¡± Sybil just shook her head. ¡°I can¡¯t say. She might want to retrieve us to get information on the old bastard, but I don¡¯t see how she could consider that with the current crisis.¡± Hmm, true, this strange phenomenon was also affecting the city and probably the entire region, if not the entire world. I thanked Sybil and moved towards the lake. This had given me more to think about than I had expected. Hopefully, I could work something out before anything else went wrong.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. _______________________________________________________________________ Stepping up the ladder set up against the bookshelf, I rummaged through the shelf for anything interesting. There were many titles that caught my eye, but I dismissed them, as I had dozens of others over the past few days. This was not the first time I had felt this strange compulsion to look through books. The last time I had found the book that had stumbled upon the old Monster Encyclopedia that I had used to make my own book. Whatever force guided me then seemed to be back now, as I quickly dismissed many books I would have eagerly read before. It was like an itch I had to scratch, a compulsion I could not deny. It had even pulled me away from the thesis I was compiling about dungeon creatures and their habitats. Well, if such a significant find was on these shelves, I would find it. The search had been ongoing since I woke up. My stomach gurgled angrily, but I ignored it. Food could wait. As I reached out for another book, however, I felt a presence nearby and felt something gently, but undeniably pull me away towards the exit. A plaque next to the exit was hanging in mid-air with three words written on it. ¡°Pavol, go eat.¡± I could only surmise that this was the mysterious Librarian that I had heard whispers about. The entity that had put the wards on these books and was even now looking over them with a covetous need that would put even dragons to shame. Well, I had received warnings time and time again to not piss off the Librarian. Besides, from what I had seen of the aftermath of the Demon attack, I was not about to test my luck. ¡°Fine, fine, fine, I will go get something to eat, sorry for making you worry.¡± The writing on the plaque changed ¡°Not worried, you¡¯re noisy.¡± Ah, right, I guess my empty stomach was complaining rather loudly, wasn¡¯t it? Well, I nodded ¡°I understand, I apologize, I will be back after a good meal.¡± The plaque changed again. ¡°Good. Thanks, Pavol.¡± I shook my head as I left. That was the weirdest interaction I had ever had in my life. Well, it wasn¡¯t like I could continue until I had eaten. Hmm, maybe I should check out that new inn in the Village? That sounded like a plan. Maybe I could even invite the others? Twenty minutes later I was having a rather grand time with Dilly, Dally, Tarad, Lahman, Irontooth and Skye. This new inn was great, and the food was amazing. Apparently, the Kobolds who ran it had taken cooking lessons from the Kobold that made Pearl¡¯s food. Seriously, if that Kobold was even half as good as this one, I could see why Pearl was keeping her as her personal chef. This was beyond delicious, bordering on supernatural. I refocused on the others as I snapped out of relishing this sublime steak. ¡°¡­ Wait, wait, wait, it gets better! I told him I could make him see stars if he would just come closer, and as he did, I punched him square in the face.¡± Tarad finished with a flourish and the others burst out laughing. Damn looks like my musing had made me miss out on what Tarad was talking about. Irontooth looked over to me. He seemed more composed than the others. ¡°Are you OK, Pavol? You seem a bit out of it.¡± I shook my head. ¡°I have been trying to find a specific book in the library, but I can¡¯t seem to locate it.¡± Irontooth nodded and seemed to lose interest almost immediately. Can¡¯t say I blame him, Irontooth didn¡¯t strike me as much of a reader. I pushed the thought away for now and just enjoyed the company, I had spent too much time with my work of late. I really needed a break. _________________________________________________ Xi looked at the board, I could almost see the small spirit rack their brain to figure out how to get out of the conundrum I had put them into. Yrsha was looking at the two of us playing from where she was sipping a cup of tea. Xi finally moved the Chimera and took out my Knight. ¡°Smart choice, little one.¡± I commented, while scratching my beard. Xi¡¯s two tails wagged slightly. The spirit knew this move would cost them the Chimera, but considering the situation, that was a loss the spirit would have to bear. I calmly moved my Mage over and removed his Chimera from the board. Xi couldn¡¯t help but yip happily as the spirit moved the Dragon two squares up. ¡°Guild Destroyed, thanks for the game, Sir. Rael.¡± I blinked as I looked over the board. ¡°Huh¡­¡± Xi was right, I had lost that, not sure how, but I had. I shook my head silently. ¡°Thanks for the game Xi, I honestly thought I had you.¡± Xi nodded. ¡°So did I, if you had used the Castle to take out the Chimera, you probably would have.¡± I looked at the board. Sure enough, using the Castle instead would have left the Mage in a position to intercept the Dragon. ¡°Well, what do you know, I should probably have been more careful.¡± Xi yipped happily as the spirit packed away the game and sprinted out of the room. As the spirit closed the door Yrsha put down her cup ¡°You went easy on the little one. I know just how good of a player you truly are, there is no way Xi would have won had you played seriously.¡± I looked over at Yrsha. ¡°Sometimes a minor success can be a better catalyst for growth than continued failure. A wise woman I know once said that. Besides, I was playing for fun, not to win.¡± Yrsha blinked for a moment before laughing. ¡°I said that, didn¡¯t I?¡± I nodded as I took a sip of my own tea. Yrsha took a deep breath to calm herself. ¡°So, you said Pearl asked you to be the liaison between her dungeon and mine.¡± I put down my cup. ¡°She did, and she had an exceedingly amused grin on her face as she did so.¡± Yrsha took another deep breath. ¡°So she is attempting to play matchmaker then.¡± There was a slight blush in her cheeks as she spoke, and I could feel a similar heat rise in my own. ¡°So it would seem.¡± I responded before we both went dead silent for a while. __________________________________________________________________________ As the silence dragged on, I looked over at Rael. ¡°We¡­ should probably get back to work.¡± I said at length. Rael stood and nodded. ¡°I can agree to that¡­¡± Rael hesitated for a moment. ¡°For what it¡¯s worth, I still mean what I said that day when we first met. If my life can save yours, then I will gladly give it up to save you.¡± Before I could say a word in response, Rael left the room. As I watched him go, I couldn¡¯t help but think back to the vision I had back then. ¡°I know you will, Rael, I know you will.¡± I whispered, hoping beyond hope that just like with the visions of Pearl, that vision would not come to pass. However, even as I did, the vision of Rael¡¯s death replayed itself in my mind, over and over. _________________________________________________________________________ The glass flew through the small office and hit the wall with a satisfying crash. One of the Guild attendants ran over and cleaned it up without a word, even as the useless sack of lard in front of me began spewing the usual excuses. ¡°I am sorry, Lady Ravenloft, but this is beyond our expertise. Please understand, there are no records of this in the city, not even the Capitol have any records of events such as this.¡± I took a deep breath to steady myself. The gods had cursed this town, it had to be. How else could so much go wrong practically back-to-back? I sighed as I buried myself in the records of the past month. From the looks of things, the run of bad luck began when this new dungeon showed up. Coincidence? Unlikely. Chance? If that was chance, then I was a Kobold. From the journal that the Guildmaster had kept in his quarters I had gleaned some more information. But even that was mostly just a mess of half inane drivel about Saol¡¯s fanatical devotion to Inlas. Though it made it clear in the notes that Inlas had an¡­ Obsession with the core from that dungeon. What exactly that was the cause Saol didn¡¯t know, but apparently Inlas had gone to extreme lengths to get her hands on that Core. The Guildmaster had captured the core, albeit briefly. Just a few days later the tamer and a dozen of the most veteran adventurers in the guild had run off back to the cores dungeon. I suspected it had something to do with the Guildmaster¡¯s suspected Skill, but I still had no solid proof of what that skill was. Then there was that reported spatial distortion from the area where the dungeon of that Core was located, followed by the reported appearance of Penumbras Avatar. And Just a few days later Rubolgs High Priest has a fit and falls into a coma followed by Divine magic and divine related skills just disappearing. Something was going on here and no matter how you turned and twisted, there was almost always one constant. The Dungeon. It related the cause, of that I was certain. However, how to get information I needed? With Magic on the fritz, going into a dungeon that had never tasted defeat and now also had rogue Adventurers protecting it was a tall order. Sure those Adventurers were free to return, they had after all fled because the guildmaster was targeting them. The problem was, they didn¡¯t know that. So they would likely still treat the guild as a hostile entity. With a sigh, I buried my face in my hands This was getting me nowhere and it was getting late. It would be better to think more of this tomorrow once I had gotten a good night''s rest. Chapter 24: Revelations at the table. I can¡¯t really say this situation was ideal, far from it in fact. But since magic didn¡¯t work, it also meant that at least for now the dungeon was safe from intruding adventurers. So, this total mess was almost a blessing in disguise. However, this was worrying me. If magic disappeared now, what about skills, special abilities, my entire existence? I was a soul sealed in a small orb and was using unknown means to create a physical body. How long until that ability failed? Or the dungeon creatures¡¯ ability to reform after death. Sure, once the fighting arenas finished getting up and running, I would have a decent and constant trickle of points coming. But if their death became permanent, then obviously such a thing had to stop. I pushed those dark thoughts out of my head as I had more immediate concerns right now. Erem and Mordred were indeed trying their hands at fishing. And by the looks of things, they were having a good time of it as several fish were lying on the ground next to them. ¡°Didn¡¯t know you two enjoyed fishing.¡± I couldn¡¯t help but comment as I landed next to them. Mordred looked up from the water, where he had been busy eyeing the bob for any movement. Erem didn¡¯t even offer me a glance. He was too busy currently struggling with the fish on his line, to have time for such. Mordred retracted his line and rose from where he had been sitting. ¡°It¡¯s as good a pastime as any. Besides, the fish will be a pleasant change from the meat and mushroom dishes we have been having lately. No offense to the food in the mushroom forest, but it can get a bit samey.¡± I couldn¡¯t disagree that too much of the same would get boring. Luckily, I had Lienru to make sure I never had the same thing too often. ¡°Understandable, say Erem, want some help with that?¡± I noticed Erem was slowly sliding towards the water¡¯s edge even as he stubbornly tugged on the line. Erem grunted from the strain. ¡°I would¡­ not say¡­ no to¡­ that.¡± I nodded and easily detected the mind of the fish that Erem was struggling with. Stop struggling. The fish went limp pretty much instantly, allowing Erem to drag it in without issue. Mordred looked at me with a confused expression. ¡°How did you do that, I mean, since magic is on the fritz?¡± He asked as Erem easily hauled the fish that was almost as big as he was onto land. I looked at the two of them as I voiced my thoughts on the matter. ¡°Either my psionic powers are not magical and it¡¯s just something I can do because I am a Sphinx. Or, if I were to take a guess, the whole Magic issue only affect granted magical skills. So, those with innate magical or spell-like abilities are unaffected. Hence, why I can still dissolve and reform, use my powers, and also why the Portal still works.¡± Mordred and Erem looked at each other before I continued. ¡°Some magic are still functioning despite the mess, so we can¡¯t let our guard down completely. However, that¡¯s not why I disturbed your fishing right now. I wanted your viewpoint on what has been going on in the city these past few days.¡± I explained what I had learned to the two of them. The effect was immediate, Erem looked worried while Mordred was pacing back and forth while he mumbled to himself. The first to say anything was Erem. ¡°I honestly can¡¯t say what she might do, though I am certain she has not forgotten about us. Our party was the only Raid ready party in all of Caelyn. There is no way she will just let us disappear like this. I am certain she would have been here already if not for the whole magic crisis.¡± Mordred stopped his pacing. ¡°I have to agree on that one, Lady Arana does not do things by halves, ever. Although, I don¡¯t think she would come with obvious hostile intent, given our exit was clearly one of escape. Cautious, sure, but not hostile. I am not sure how she would react to your current state, though. As I am certain that she would like you returned to the guild.¡± I could not entirely disagree with that assessment, because of all the freed cores Caelyn had not been prepared to handle this crisis at all. Getting even one Core and access to the resources of a dungeon would be a great boon in this time of need. They had a good point. Considering the situation, she would likely not be too happy to learn I had a literal immunity to taming, thanks to my bond with Indella. Then again, that might help me at the negotiating table if she came calling. ¡°I will however point out that I will not force you to stay here should you wish to return now that it is safe. Well, safer than it was. I am not sure what the loss of most types of magic might mean. But I am certain that it sure as hell can¡¯t be good.¡± Mordred and Erem looked at one another before Mordred shrugged. ¡°Can¡¯t say going back holds that much appeal. Sure, I miss my bed, but I don¡¯t have friends or family outside of the party. So I for one, will stay.¡± Erem looked much more hesitant. ¡°I am torn and will need some time to decide. On one hand, I have my friends here, on the other, I left my only living relative back in the city. While she was sick, no less. Sure, the High Priest said he would look out for her in my place, but...¡± I understood what he was getting at. ¡°You don¡¯t know how that is going since the old man fell into his coma.¡± Erem nodded, from his expression this was eating him up emotionally. I stretched my wings and looked at him. ¡°Well, I am in no hurry to make you decide, take your time. I for one are going to look at the fighting pit and see how it is coming along.¡± I paused for a moment, I felt like I was overlooking or forgetting something important, but I just couldn¡¯t place it. ¡°Say, would you two mind spreading the word to the others about what has occurred?¡± I paused for a moment before I continued. ¡°Oh, and if anyone desires to return to Caelyn, I would ask that they bring a message from me to Arana for me.¡± Erem, who had dressed and prepped his earlier catch, looked up at me. ¡°Sure I¡¯ll take care of it, this catch will be enough for the entire group anyhow, so it will probably be a small party tonight, anyway.¡± I nodded ¡°Thanks, have fun, you two.¡± I took off, leaving the two behind. I still couldn¡¯t shake this nagging feeling that I was overlooking something, though. As I arrived at the fighting pit, it was receiving the finishing touches from Indella and the Duergar. It was a pretty elegant structure overall. They had lined the outside of the pit with a stone relief that showed various monsters competing. Outside the structure a line was forming up, a line of Fox spirits, to be exact. However, these were not the small variant that Xi was. First, not a single one of them had less than 4 tails. Second, they stood nearly twice as tall as Xi was, putting them about a head taller than an average human. Finally, they were all carrying weapons that would make most adventurers green with envy. It made sense that the little ones were not the only spirit in Yrsha¡¯s dungeon, but I had seen none of these earlier. It was even more unnerving that I could not sense their presence at all. As I was considering reforming a bunch of Duergar came walking up, carrying newly forged Starsilver arms and armor, from the looks of it. One of the Duergar walked up to a rather feminine looking five-tailed spirit and grinned. Was the spirit female? Considering their shape-shifting abilities, it was difficult to say sometimes. ¡°So, are ye ready fer another spanking, little vixen?¡± The one who spoke was Granite. The spirit in question took a step back and grabbed a hold of her sword. From the way her tail bristled, Granite¡¯s words agitated her, and from the blush on her face she was also incredibly embarrassed. Just what had that Duergar done? The spirit¡¯s companions shot daggers at the Granite. ¡°We won¡¯t fall as easily this time, now that we know your tricks, you cheater!¡± The five-tailed spirit retorted, clearly fighting to keep its emotions under control. Granite just burst out laughing. ¡°Well, good luck then.¡± He waved them all off and entered the arena through a side door, skipping the line entirely. ¡°JUST YOU WAIT I WILL GET YOU!¡± the five tailed screamed after him. Was she¡­. Crying? Dammit, just what did you do, Granite? These are our allies, we can¡¯t afford to go making enemies here. Well, she seemed eager to fight, so that was something at least. Though I could not shake the feeling that this might become an issue down the line, I should probably have a talk with Granite and Yrsha later on. As I contemplated this, I could hear cheering and the clanging of weapons from inside the arena. The fighting had finally begun. It was about a minute later that the first gain popped up. 20EP, 5TP, 10M and 6 Forest Affinity¡­ wait, what? Just as I thought I had the system figured out, it throws another curveball at me. I knew what Affinities were, after all I had several affinities since my main biome was Maze. Which meant I could make those biomes without incurring a cost penalty. But the Forest biome was an opposite to the Plains Biome, one of my affinities, meaning I was currently receiving a 100% cost penalty to everything related to it. And yet I had just gained Affinity for the Forest Biome. There could only be one explanation. Since a forest affiliated monster that was not part of my Dungeon had died here, I had gained affinity for the Forest Biome. So what would happen if I gained an affinity for both Forest and Plains? I shook my head. I had enough on my plate already. I could worry about that later. Considering this sudden development, I figured it was best to check what the current Affinities was. I opened up my Status¡­ Nothing¡­ OK then, apparently Affinities were somewhere else? Gah, this is where having Archives would have been useful. <You Rang?> GAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!! WHAT THE HELL? Archive was back? <Ah, yes, sorry about disappearing like that. There were some¡­ issues on this end.> Apparently so. Wait, if Archives was back then was Magic back too? <No, that¡¯s still on being blocked. It took me ages to figure out how to get past that blockade, and that alone took a rather sizeable effort on my part. Don¡¯t expect Magic to be returning within the next few days at the earliest.> Great. Could you at least fill me in on what in the world¡¯s happening right now?If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. <Umm¡­ TECHNICALLY, no I can¡¯t, not directly at any rate. I can give hints and hope you can work out the rest of it yourself, but I cannot confirm the correctness of your assumptions.> So Archives could not tell because someone said not to. That was a remarkably easy restriction to work around. <Oh, how so?> Give me the hints and just tell me if I am wrong. On a technical level, you have done nothing to disobey the order, but you are still helping. It¡¯s all about the details and nuances. <Clever, OK, so here is what I can say¡­> It had hardly been one hour since I had listened to the hints given by Archives. I had called Yrsha, the Adventurers and all the leaders of the different dungeon creatures together for an emergency meeting. They had not received the news I had given them all too well at all. Yrsha was the first to speak up. ¡°You are sure about this?¡± I closed my eyes for a moment and nodded. ¡°As much as I hate to say it, yes. Once I mentioned that possibility, Archives went dead silent. The only reason that would happen was if I hit it spot on. It also fits with the effects of that creature both we and Mordred and Indella ran into.¡± Yrsha suddenly seemed extremely distressed for a few moments before she calmed herself. What was that about? Another thing to worry about, no doubt. Rael looked me dead in the eyes. ¡°So, let me get this straight, just so be sure I have not misunderstood something. Archives went silent when you mentioned the possibility of an invasion from outside reality.¡± I nodded. ¡°I meant it as a joke more than anything, as it is a rather popular trope in some stories from back home. You know, how there are entities that exist outside normal reality and long to enter it. It also reminded me of a certain incident a few years back in the game I used to play. I somehow don¡¯t think that¡¯s a coincidence that the event and this scenario have some eerie similarities.¡± That seemed to get everyone¡¯s attention. Indella looked over at me. *What similarities?* I looked at her. ¡°A few years back the game had hit a financial crisis, players were dropping and whatnot. So, the developers thought they should give the game world a proper end by hosting the Armageddon Event. They had after all invested a great deal of time and effort into creating and maintaining the game. Then, two weeks before the Main Event went live, the moderators of the game went silent. It was impossible to get a hold of them in-game, as part of the event. A moderator would be the people in charge of keeping the game running and fixing day-to-day problems with it, akin to this world¡¯s gods. Likewise, all divine types of magic went on the fritz. Then, after those two weeks, the developers unleashed a monster into the game itself. They called it the Lord of the Void-¡± Before I could continue there was the sound of shattering porcelain as Yrsha had dropped her teacup. Likewise, both Indella and I flinched as Archives screamed <WHAT?> into our minds with such force it gave me a headache. I looked at Yrsha. ¡°You are familiar with that name.¡± It wasn¡¯t a question. Her reaction had been too obvious to everyone involved. Yrsha nodded. ¡°Long ago, before even I was born, that was a well-known name in this world. A name loathed and feared for good reason. The Lord and the Gods have been at war since creation itself. I do not know what caused the conflict or what has perpetuated it. But the long and short of it is that the forces of the Void and the Gods fought a bitter war over this reality and the Gods won. Well, temporarily anyhow.¡± She looked at me. ¡°If things happening now are as in that event, then it might mean that this event might be the precursor to the return of this Lord of the Void. Can you tell us more about this game monster of yours?¡± I nodded before I continued. ¡°The Lord of the Void was insane by all standards, they had not designed it to be a beatable monster. Its stats were far above the cap, its skills were entirely unbalanced, and if your character died to it, that was it, the character faced deletion. Which meant it would be as if that character never existed at all.¡± They all looked more than a bit worried as I explained the Lord of the Void to them. Until Mint piped in. ¡°But the game world continued right, so they had to beat it. How did they do it?¡± I chuckled. ¡°They beat it using an unintended side effect of the design process. A side effect I don¡¯t know if we can replicate here. Several of the strongest players in the world banded together to defeat the damn thing, but they couldn¡¯t even hurt it. Then one player who had died earlier in the battle used a secondary character to just try everything he could to defeat it. That¡¯s when the miracle happened.¡± I paused for dramatic effect before continuing. They were all enraptured by my tale at this point. ¡°While the Lord had taken no damage, he could still suffer from the Stagger affliction if he took enough hits in a short amount of time. And as he staggered, his immunity to buffs and debuffs disappeared. It was just a split second. But it just so happened this stagger coincided with the completion of a spell from this character. This spell was a joke ability gifted to all players during that year¡¯s April Fools event named Booboos-B-gone. It would increase the target¡¯s current and maximum health by 1 for one hour. Now this next part is tough to explain since it requires knowledge of how programming works, but I will try to word it in a way you understand. Because this monster had maximum everything, including health. The buff forcibly raised his max HP by 1. To 1 above the max limit. This caused the game¡¯s rules to break, and it flipped its HP into the maximum negative value instead. And since no creature can be alive with negative HP, it instantly died.¡± They all looked at me in complete silence, before Indella¡¯s telepathic voice resonated in my mind. *A spell that increases the target¡¯s max health, can¡¯t say I have heard about that before. Do you have access to something like that?* I looked at Indella. ¡°Personally? No, I don¡¯t, I used the Event item for that skill on Minos, since he could learn it.¡± Indella looked rather confused. ¡°They gifted the skill book for that skill to all players, regardless of if they were playing a core or an adventurer. However, core players couldn¡¯t use it since it was a Priest Class skill. And since it was a skill book, you couldn¡¯t discard it. In the end I taught the skill to Minos to get it out of my inventory.¡± The others seemed to grasp the way I explained it. Suddenly Pavol stood up from where he had been sitting with such force it sent the newly constructed chair he had been using sliding backwards. ¡°THAT¡¯S IT!¡± he yelled and looked at us as if he had an epiphany as he looked at all of us with an expectant expression. Rael looked at him and sighed. ¡°Pavol, we have been through this, instead of just expecting all of us to understand your sudden insight, could you please explain it?¡± Pavol looked at Rael for a moment before he slowly nodded. ¡°Right, so here is the thing. What if Inlas didn¡¯t really care about Pearl at all, but was after Minos?¡± Everyone at the table just stared at him. ¡°Don¡¯t you see? Inlas is the goddess of prophesy. What if she foresaw the return of the Void and decided she needed Minos on hand?¡± Everyone went quiet as the potential repercussions of Pavol¡¯s words hit us. I looked at Rael. ¡°I need you to get in contact with Caelyn Adventurer¡¯s Guild as soon as this meeting is over. If what Pavol just have explained is true they need to know of the potential danger. Sure, the city and I have not exactly a good relationship thanks to the old Guild Master. But even if this is just mere speculation, it¡¯s better to be safe than sorry. The potential disaster would cause too much devastation otherwise. Likewise, I would like a meeting with this new guildmaster to discuss the potential of working together on this one.¡± Rael nodded. ¡°I will get it done, I will go myself if I have to.¡± I nodded. ¡°Now, we need to get as many as possible here to get their hands on mental resistance skills. Any idea how to do that?¡± Mordred looked thoughtful. ¡°I have a few ideas and I can guess the reason you mention that. I will see what we can do to get those and I will have Pavol help me with it.¡± I nodded. ¡°Yrsha we need to increase the rate at which we gain points, I have a bad feeling we will need them before this is all over.¡± She nodded. ¡°I will inform my dungeon of the crisis and ask for more volunteers.¡± I nodded and looked over to Flint ¡°I got ye covered Melady. It will lower the number of guards for da miners, it¡¯s not like we will be any good against those Void bastards if we go bonkers anyho. Besides, I don¡¯t see outside assault as a threat for now. Ye will have yer kill teams. I will also see if we can find some enchantments that might help.¡± I nodded. ¡°Ssatassha, see if your alchemists might brew something that can help, the madness inflicted by the Void entities will make friends fight friends with killing intent. We need to prevent that.¡± The Kobold was already running out of the room before I finished speaking with a determined look on her little face. It was then I realized that the little Kobold had changed a lot since our first meeting. From the fearful little critter that had begged for its life, to a strong and dependable leader in such a short amount of time. It was encouraging. I turned towards the Strider that had been there as Talka¡¯s representative. ¡°Talka, can I ask that you have your Striders patrol the first, second and first half of the third floor? In case of a void incursion, your Hive is currently the only force here outside of myself and Indella that can safely attack them.¡± The Strider nodded and marched out of the room. All that remained now was to inform my siblings about the developments and ask them to remain vigilant. If Pavol was right and Minos was the key to this coming mess, I needed to do the impossible and somehow summon him before the allotted 2 weeks ran out. However, it had already been almost one full week. As much as it bothered me, me all I could do for now was to wait for my points to trickle in, so I might prepare for the coming storm I was now certain was coming. Interlude 12: An Invitation The rain was pouring down as I approached the gatehouse, the darkness of the night only interspersed with flashes of lightning. Getting from the Labyrinth to Caelyn had taken all day, and I still had to get back too. I did not fancy the idea of spending the night once Lady Arana got the message Pearl had asked me to deliver. I approached the closed gates and hammered the small hatch meant for delivering messages and just talking to the guards without opening the gates. A few seconds later, a rather annoyed man showed up on the other side, I didn¡¯t recognize him, so he had to be new. The guard sneered at me as he spoke, ¡°Yeah, what do you want?¡± I held up the envelope. ¡°Emergency Dispatch to the guild. Deliver it immediately.¡± He took the envelope, and then he looked at me with a questioning expression. I didn¡¯t show any emotion. ¡°Classified, for Lady Arana Ravenloft¡¯s eyes only.¡± Name-dropping Lady Arana had the desired result, as he took a step back and ran off towards the stables without even closing the hatch. I immediately turned and started the trek back to the Dungeon. Best to get as much distance between me and the good Lady when she read that letter. _____________________________________________________ There was a knocking on my office door. That was surprising, I was certain I had told those incompetent morons not to disturb me for any reason. The knocking came again, a bit more insistent. ¡°¡­ Enter.¡± The door carefully opened and a wet mess of a guard entered. ¡°I am terribly sorry to disturb you at this hour, Lady Arana, but I received an emergency message meant for your eyes only. The messenger insisted that I should deliver it immediately.¡± The nervous wreck of a man carefully laid the sealed parchment down on my desk. With his task now done, he quickly excused himself and all but ran out of the room. I picked up the parchment and studied it. The seal carried an emblem I did not recognize. It was a small maze, by the looks of things, a rather intricate design for such a small emblem. My curiosity piqued, I opened the scroll and began reading. 20 minutes later practically the entire guild had assembled in the lobby once more. Several of the people there had an ashen complexion after I informed them of the warning in the letter. ¡°If that proves to be true, it could spell disaster for the entire kingdom, nay the entire world. Send emergency messages to every city within reach, NOW!¡± No one questioned my orders or even considered attempting to verify the truth of such a threat. The danger involved was too great to risk delaying the warning to verify it first. That did not mean I didn¡¯t intend to verify it. They had invited me to discuss the matter at the Dungeon, with guarantees of safe passage from the core and Rael himself. Considering Rael¡¯s reputation, I doubted he would put his name to a text like that, along with his personal seal, without being sincere. Besides, even if it was a trap, I had no choice. This was far too important, and it was my duty to ensure the reliability of this information. It took a few hours for everyone to get ready for the trip to the dungeon. Most of that was ensuring proper medical supplies, with magic still not functioning, we had to take extra precautions. That meant medicinal herbs and bandages. As unorthodox as it was, it was practically a requirement right now. It was further delayed because of the lack of people able to challenge this dungeon. Saol had been a madman and a criminal, but he was no fool. He had determined that the dungeon was Raid tier and had assembled the best team in the guild to take it. And they had failed. That alone meant that even with a guarantee of safe passage, there was no reason not to be careful. __________________ The night had become remarkably cold over the past few hours. Mistress had stationed me at the hill where I had impersonated Alessa during the ill-fated incursion of Rael¡¯s party back when. The storm had passed, and the clouds had cleared. The now clear autumn night bore the first hint of the coming winter as the soaked ground had frozen over. This made it treacherous because of the thin layer of ice left by the torrential rain. Despite the cold, I didn¡¯t really feel any discomfort, thanks to a rather comfortable coat made from cotton that grew in Lady Yrsha¡¯s dungeon. Mistress had foreseen the need of warmer clothes once she learned winter was fast approaching. So, she had asked Yrsha if she could make some warm coats, in case Rael or anyone else needed to stay outside for a prolonged time. The first glimpse of dawn stirred me from my musings, and in the first rays of the sun I could see movement. I turned around and grabbed the bow beside me, then fired a whistling arrow into the air. They could easily hear the sound back at the entrance, Mistress had us test it earlier, just in case. A faint whistling sound answered in reply to my own, and I quickly grabbed the quiver as well, then hurried off the hillside. Mistress had been quite clear when she gave the order; After firing the arrow, I was to retreat into the labyrinth immediately. Besides, from what I knew of this Arana from Alessa¡¯s memories, I didn¡¯t want to be anywhere near her. Arana terrified Alessa, that much was clear, and I did not feel it necessary to disobey my orders just to check if Alessa¡¯s terror was fact or fiction.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. As I entered the Dungeon, I nodded to Rael, who was waiting at the entrance. ¡°They will be here within the hour. Looks like you won your bet with Tarad.¡± Rael nodded grimly, gaining no satisfaction from that fact. I couldn¡¯t blame him. Here was the current guildmaster of the local guild and a bigshot not just in the guild but in the country marching towards the Dungeon. Hopefully, she had peaceful intent because of the content of the letter, but there was really no way to know for sure. The entire dungeon was on high alert, just in case. __________________________ As we stepped into the above ground territory of the dungeon, I could feel the others tense up. I couldn¡¯t blame them for their fear. This dungeon had stopped the best this city had to throw at them, seasoned adventurers all. They might not be as powerful as the elite back in the Capital, but I had heard about Rael¡¯s exploits as soon as I entered Slyvanport. An up-and-coming star in the guild, apparently. Well, he had fled to this place with the Core, which according to the ramblings of Saol had somehow circumvented taming. That alone meant that this core was unlike any other, especially considering the rather heavy-handed way they had gone about it. Summoning the core outside its domain to inflict the same effect as defeating it. Then using a binding circle to prevent it from dissipating and bombard it with taming attempts. A crazy idea and one that was completely tasteless. What was the point of having a guild for defeating dungeons if you would not defeat the core the normal way? Any old magician without fighting experience could bind a helpless core. Saol¡¯s actions had been a dangerous precedent for the future of the guild. I was delighted that the taming had apparently failed so spectacularly. That did not explain how she escaped it, though. Having the tamer as an accomplice was obviously a possibility. But from the reports I had read, the tamer had no prior connection to the Core. There were far more questions than answers. A shadow fell over us and broke me out of my musings. Looking around, I saw something. Above us, hovering above the enormous stone walls, was a Sphinx. It held a strange regal air about it as it looked down at us, it bore a calm, confident expression on its face. ¡°Welcome, Lady Arana, I have been expecting you.¡± I realized then, that what I was looking at was the Core. I looked up at her. They had noted the core as female after the ¡°taming,¡± so this had to be the Core. ¡°So it would seem. I decided that considering the content of your letter, I found it imperative to verify the content first hand.¡± I answered as I locked eyes with the Core. I refused to look away or even blink. A slight smile played on her lips, revealing the edges of her fangs. ¡°I can assure you the validity of the content, Lady Arana. Though if you wish to hear it from someone you know you can trust, I can arrange for that to happen. Though I must apologize on behalf of Rael and the others. While they hold the guild no hostility, given the events with the Guildmaster, they do not feel comfortable returning just yet.¡± I couldn¡¯t completely hide my annoyance, and the Core had clearly picked up on that. ¡°They will meet you on the second floor of the dungeon. It is deep enough that they feel comfortable enough that you won¡¯t try to force them back. And also shallow enough that should you decide to retreat, you will have a pretty quick way out. It¡¯s the best compromise I could come up with. Seeing as Recall still does not work properly.¡± I didn¡¯t like it, the idea of entering that deathtrap at all was not one I relished at all. But considering the current situation, it was not like I had a choice. Well, I did, but not a workable one. Returning without confirming the validity of that letter could be disastrous in the event it was actually true. I broke eye contact first. Yielding that the core had the upper hand, for the time being. ¡°Fine, since Rael and his entire party entrusted themselves to your care, then I will as well, for now.¡± The core nodded and landed in front of us. ¡°Follow me then, unless you wish to wander in here for another few hours.¡± With that, she nonchalantly led the way through the maze, seemingly without a single care in the world. I entertained the idea of attempting to strike out at her for about a split second. No good would come from attacking her at this point. As soon as I had decided on that notion, the Core''s voice rang out inside my head. <A wise choice, Lady Arana, I am not so foolish as to turn my back on someone I am uncertain I can defeat.> I barely suppressed my reaction. Telepathy, and probably also a slew of other psionic abilities. I had read the reports about them, obviously. But experiencing it was something else entirely. As if to mock my inner turmoil, her voice continued. <If this unnerves you, Lady Arana, then our common enemy would terrify you to no end. They seem far crueler than I can imagine and seem to enjoy turning friends and loved ones against one another. Or they drive you insane for the fun of it.> This time I couldn¡¯t suppress a shudder. The thought of entering this Dungeon suddenly didn¡¯t feel as a bad idea. At least the Core claimed to wish to prevent these Void things from entering reality. I only hoped she was trustworthy, for everyone¡¯s sake. Chapter 25: A Lake of Opportunities. As I led the way into the Labyrinth, I can¡¯t say I was feeling anywhere as confident as I pretended. Arana was quite intimidating for a human. She was wearing a jet black plate armor similar to that of fantasy Blackguards or Dark Knights would wear. And her strength was equally terrifying. She had a shield that was almost as big as she was on one arm, which she moved along with the same ease someone would carry a small book. And a sword so massive I doubt a normal man would be able to even lift it in the other. Seriously, you would think it a short sword intended for giants. But she swung it around with ease. With such a display of sheer strength I had little to no doubt that if the two of us were to fight, I would lose, HARD. So my confidence was little more than false bravado, for now. As we entered the first floor, I simply willed the labyrinth to part for us. There was no point in delaying this any more than necessary, after all. There was a somewhat uncomfortable shuffle among Arana¡¯s bodyguards as they entered the hallway. The underground corridor I had made was slimmer than the massive maze outside. Because of this, they could only walk in a file two wide, rather than the 3 they had been. The entire thing took only mere moments and with practiced ease. However, I could sense that they did not like the cramped conditions at all as they were looking at me with a growing sense of hostility and distrust. I smirked as I spoke out loud, without looking back. ¡°No need to grumble over the lack of space. The next floor is but a short walk and is far more spacious than this one.¡± That seemed to have the desired effect, as the rising sense of hostility and distrust from the bodyguards simmered down to mere annoyance. Well, most of the distrust, I noted as I looked at Lady Arana. She was quite adept as crushing her own emotions, but I could sense she did not trust me at all. She was only doing this because she had to. No doubt had she any other option she would have jumped upon the opportunity to recapture me immediately. Well, that was a worry for another day. For now, I had far more important things to worry about than the potential hostility from the guild. Namely, that said guild, along with the rest of the world, might just cease to exist soon. The main issue right now was not if, but when, how much time did we have? A year, a month, a week, a day, an hour? It was impossible to tell. All I could do now was to prepare the table for the coming disaster. With that done, all I could do was to hope I could somehow pull a win from a deck that was beyond stacked in favor of this new threat. Once we entered the 2nd floor, I was not at all surprised when I could see the glow of Nightvision from Lady Arana and her bodyguards. Enchanted into their helmets or maybe a class skill? It didn¡¯t matter, it just meant that I didn¡¯t have to stop to offer them torches. As we moved through the opening corridor, I was not at all surprised that the hostility from the Bodyguards increased once more. ¡°It¡¯s a just bit further, this tunnel is so recent that I forgot about it.¡± Arana eyed the walls before she looked at me. ¡°This is less of a tunnel and more of a kill zone.¡± she commented dryly as she noticed the arrow slits lining the wall. Her distrust was fading, likely because she realized that if I wanted to do them harm, this corridor would have served that purpose fairly easily. I nodded slowly in response. ¡°That it is, had a bunch of VERY unwelcome guests a short while ago. So many that I had to create this tunnel to stem the literal tide coming from the upper floors.¡± Arana could not hide her curiosity, it was washing off of her and her guards in waves. ¡°Demons.¡± I said calmly. Arana slowed down for a split second as she just stared at me. ¡°It¡¯s a long story, Lady Arana, one I don¡¯t have time to regale you with now. Though maybe later, over some freshly brewed tea and a proper warm meal.¡± Lady Arana¡¯s expression changed into a rather doubting one as she continued to look at me. ¡°Just because I am a Sphinx does not mean I do not enjoy proper dining, Lady Arana. Besides, I will have you know that compared to Lienru, my personal chef, the City Lords chef is an amateur unfit to set foot in a kitchen. Or so Rael claimed when he tasted it.¡± That actually gave Lady Arana pause. I could sense she had vivid memories of dining with the Lord just a few days prior and apparently had praised the chef¡¯s food highly. And I wasn¡¯t lying, Rael had said that about Lienru¡¯s food, and I trusted his judgment. I couldn¡¯t quite place when, though. <It was during the party you all had after you all returned to the dungeon. Though you were dozing off after eating FAR too much, and Rael was dead drunk. I am honestly surprised you remembered>. Ah, that would explain it. ¡°Really, Rael said that?¡± Her voice was¡­ unusually light-hearted and eager, hopeful even. It was almost as if it belonged to someone else. However, Arana quickly regained her composure as we exited the small tunnel and arrived at the floor proper. ¡°I see, if these negotiations actually bear fruit, I might consider it.¡± She continued in a more dour voice. I couldn¡¯t help but grin. It would seem the scary and domineering Arana had a weakness after all. Well, if the incredibly gluttonous impulses she was giving off were worth a damn, at any rate. Although, considering the intensity, I seriously doubted she was faking them. That and the uncomfortable shuffling of Arana¡¯s bodyguards at the mention of food. I could understand their discomfort. If it became known that the great Arana was a gourmand¡­ Well, her reputation would take a rather severe hit, that was certain. Personally, I couldn¡¯t say it was surprising. The number of calories needed to hoist around that gear of hers would be insane, even with magic aiding you. I decided not to comment on it, for everyone¡¯s sake it would be better if I pretended I hadn¡¯t noticed her attitude shift. Besides, I had little doubt that Arana could suppress her love of food if she had to. If she was that easily overwhelmed by her weaknesses, she would never have gained her current reputation, after all. As we continued the walk through the cavernous 2nd floor, I purposefully took a longer route than needed. This was to give Rael and his party time to get to the bridge before we arrived. Well, that was half of it. I also wanted to ensure that Unguul and the others were out of the way of Arana. In a worst-case scenario, the less she knew about my defenses the better, after all. When we arrived at Unguul¡¯s tower the mist had cleared out and there was no sign of the Evil Eyes or Unguul itself. They were probably playing out on the lake somewhere, far out of range of even my Darkvision. As we exited, and they heard the splashing of the lake water, there was a bit of a murmur among the guards and Arana. I looked back at them. ¡°Something wrong?¡± Arana shrugged. ¡° It¡¯s just some¡­ unpleasant experiences I have had with subterranean lakes in the past. Think nothing of it, it¡¯s fine.¡± She was lying, I didn¡¯t even need to read her emotions to figure that one out. However, I let it slide, I could guess why she was reacting as she was, anyway. Inlas had likely informed the old Guildmaster about my Brothers. And then the meticulous madman had then written it down somewhere only for Arana to find it later. Eh, it didn¡¯t matter. I had little doubt that if I had to call upon my Brothers to keep Arana from becoming outright hostile, she would realize just how outgunned she was. Horrors were almost universally bad news, after all. And my Brothers were among the more powerful ones. Personally, I was hoping it would not come to that, I would rather keep things civil if possible, but better safe than sorry. Halfway across the bridge, we finally met up with Rael and the rest of them. They were calmly waiting for us on a small artificial island that I had built specifically for this meeting. It was big enough to fit everyone comfortably, but also practically dead center of the lake, so my Brothers would have no issues intersecting should something go wrong. Even now they were waiting just out of detection range should I call for them. As we arrived Rael, Mordred and Eliandar stood up and hurried to meet us. The rest followed suit within moments. Rael bowed politely to Lady Arana. ¡°Milady, I am honored to meet you, I am Rael, the leader of the Raid Party.¡± He gave a nod to me as I walked past him and turned around to face Arana. Eliandar also similarly bowed, though a deeper and more respectful bow than that of Rael. ¡°Eliandar, Leader of the B-rank team ¡°Nature Howlers. We were lucky enough to get out of one of the old guildmaster¡¯s ill conceived attacks on this dungeon, luckily no worse for wear. It¡¯s a pleasure to meet you, Milady.¡± Arana gave Rael a nod in acknowledgement before she turned to Eliandar. ¡°I see, we presumed your team lost when you failed to return. It would seem fortune smiled on you that day. Your father will be glad to know you are still alive, Young Lord.¡± Eliandar flinched for a moment as Arana mentioned his father. I had a feeling there was a story there, but it was none of my business. Then Arana turned her focus back to Rael. ¡°So, tell me everything about these ¡°Void Entities¡± that you encountered, leave not a single detail.¡± As Rael explained his encounter with the Void Entity, I noticed that he didn¡¯t mention that the encounter took place in Yrsha¡¯s dungeon. Understandable, all things considered. Arana listened without a word and with a serious expression. When Mordred had also given his account, Arana¡¯s expression had turned grim. ¡°Neither of you are lying, that much is certain. I had hoped you were ensorcelled or somehow compelled to lie. But you are neither under compulsion nor are you under the influence or memory alteration. I can only conclude that what you have said is the truth.¡± She paced back and forth now, and she was growing increasingly more agitated with each passing second as she continued to speak. ¡°Rubolgs accursed axe, this is the last thing I needed right now. We have a severe lack of resources in Caelyn right now. We simply cannot deal with a threat of this magnitude with our current resources. I am sorry.¡± A wave of darkness exploded out from her and towards us. And only my mental warning to the others stating that she was up to something prevented it from incapacitating the four of us. Eliandar reacted instantly. As soon as the Wave shot forwards, he slammed his staff into the dirt beneath us and conjured forth crystals of near blinding light. The powerful light dispersed most of the darkness, and Mordred dispelled what remained. That did not mean that the four of us could expect to win, for now. Judging from how Eliandar and Mordred were looking, forcing through their magic in the current state of things had taken a lot out of them. It had worked, which was a minor miracle, but it clearly was far too strenuous to use in a fight. I took a deep breath. ¡°Tell me, Lady Arana, what in the world do you think would happen even if you succeeded in incapacitated us?¡± I was genuinely curious. After all, she was 2 floors deep in a Dungeon that had weathered worse than her. Sure, she had no idea of the real danger, of this meeting place. The danger that even now was just below the surface. They were ready to spring forth immediately if Arana did as much as twitch in a way I didn¡¯t like. Arana took a deep breath to steady herself. Whatever that skill was, it clearly had taken a bit out of her. <That was Wave of Darkness, Boss Lady, it¡¯s a skill used by Dark Knights. The reason she looks a bit worse for wear is because it uses your life force rather than mana. So she literally injured herself using that skill>. That seemed familiar, though I couldn¡¯t recall where I had heard about it.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. Arana looked over at me as she raised her sword and pointed it at me. ¡°Caelyn needs the resources that your dungeon can produce if it is to weather this storm, Core. With Rubolgs degree preventing us from recapturing other dungeons, I have no choice but to take you.¡± She raised her sword and her bodyguards immediately stepped forward, weapons drawn. I stepped in front of Rael and the others, motioning for them to get back. We had discussed this eventuality and Rael and the others did not hesitate to get as much room between me and them. They knew what would come if Arana persisted. ¡°It would seem things are far more desperate in Caelyn than I thought. I knew that losing all those cores would likely cause problems. I had, however, hoped you would be rational enough to not attempt something this foolish. After all, I am, technically, already tamed. To be more exact, I am bonded in such a fashion that the Taming Ritual won¡¯t work on me.¡± That reminder was an attempt at de-escalating things without having to reveal my ace. I would rather Arana talk things out without resorting to violence, but I would let my Brothers tear her apart if I had to. I could not afford to become a prisoner again with what was coming, so if Arana had to die to prevent that, so be it. Arana looked at me for a few moments before she gritted her teeth. ¡°I can just bring you both along, then. Given your bond, I doubt you would like to see her harmed, after all.¡± She spoke calmly as she raised her sword and prepared to charge in. I could sense she hoped it didn¡¯t come to that and that she hoped I would surrender. Arana was a good person, deep down. She abhorred the idea of getting someone innocent involved, but the current situation had backed her up in a corner, and she was desperate. Desperation made people stupid. Well then, there was nothing more to say. ¡°Very well, Lady Arana, I had hoped this show of force wasn¡¯t necessary, but it seems I have no choice.¡± Arana and her guards surged forward for about five steps. Then they ran headfirst into a barrier. My brothers rose from the water on both sides of the bridge, their pale faces leering down at Arana and her retinue. The Eldest was the one who had conjured the barrier. ¡°LaDy ArAnA RaVeNlOfT, sUrReNdEr ThIs InStAnT, oR dIe.¡± That wasn¡¯t a suggestion, I realized. That was an ultimatum. I thought I had convinced my brothers not to just outright kill her, but it seemed this was as far as they would listen. Arana for her part just stared up at the five of them with wide eyes. She dropped her sword and fell to her knees, defeat written all over her face. The same happened to her bodyguards. Seeing the opportunity, I stepped forward. ¡°As you can see, Lady Arana, an attempt at extracting either myself or Indella from this dungeon against our will would be¡­ an exceedingly bad idea.¡± Arana looked at me as if I was some kind of horrible and ancient monster. I can¡¯t that surprised me, given that my Brothers were beings capable of absolutely massive amounts of destruction. The Dungeon still bore the scars of their tussle with the bigger demons Selba¡¯s cultists had summoned earlier. I walked over to Arana. ¡°Look, I don¡¯t harbor any ill intent towards you or Caelyn. In fact, I view Caelyn as a potential business partner. I have things you want, you have things I want. Heck, we both have things the other side need rather badly, given the current situation. So, why don¡¯t we discuss this further over something to eat instead of at the tip of a sword, hmm?¡± I reached a paw out towards her, the same way someone would offer someone a hand. To my absolute relief, Arana reached out and grasped it as I helped her back on her feet. Half an hour later and Arana and her bodyguards were all in a much better mood. Lienru¡¯s cooking had that effect on people, well, Lienru¡¯s cooking and a keg of Duergar wine. I had considered it for a while and had concluded that getting them drunk on Mushroom wine would be a bad idea. So I had opted for the weaker, but apparently finer wine that the Duergar had. I had no clue what they brewed the stuff from, but it was low on alcohol but rich in taste. Which made it perfect for fine dining when an important discussion would follow. Well, low for a Duergar, which meant it was strong but not overwhelming for a human. Arana and her guards seemed able to hold their liquor though, as even after emptying a better part of a keg each, they all still seemed completely sober. The wine and food had the desired result though, and they were in a much better mood. Particularly Arana seemed to enjoy herself, as she was on her sixth helping and showing no signs of slowing down. Though watching Arana eat was disturbing, as she was wolfing down helpings sized for me, not for a human. I could only surmise that Arana had to have some kind of unique skill that allowed such insane food consumption. Because she had literally consumed more than her own body weight, with arms and armor, in food already. As she finished her latest helping, she looked around with a hopeful expression, but I interrupted her search for Lienru and a seventh helping. ¡°I am sorry to say, Lady Arana, but I dismissed Lienru. She was utterly exhausted, and I did not fancy the idea of forcing her to cook in such a state, both for her and your own safety. Besides, I think you have eaten more than enough already, wouldn¡¯t you agree?¡± Arana looked disappointed. Then blushed fiercely as she looked at the trio of kobolds that were busy carrying out the small tower of dishes left behind by her meal. ¡°I¡­ Suppose so, my compliments to the chef. Her cooking skills seem supernatural.¡± She licked her lips as she thought back to the meal. I for my part couldn¡¯t help but chuckle. ¡°I have to agree with you there, in fact, I suspect they actually are. Her food seems able to heighten the mood and spirit of anyone who eats it, regardless of their prior mental state. I suspect there are some kind of special skill or magic involved. Though I have yet to understand what it might be.¡± Arana took a sip of wine. ¡°You haven¡¯t checked?¡± She seemed genuinely confused. I shook my head. ¡°It¡¯s disrespectful to ask a chef for their secrets unless you plan to apprentice under them. And I am far too busy running this dungeon to take cooking lessons.¡± Arana nearly choked on her wine at my response. I suspected it was because of my completely casual and deadpan answer. She would undoubtedly be used to sycophantic or near panicked behavior, so this was probably new, or at least unusual for her. Well, time to get on with the reason I had wanted to speak with Arana to begin with. ¡°So, Lady Arana, I am certain you know that these Void entities represent an unprecedented threat to not just Caelyn but this entire world. Given the current situation, I simply cannot afford to worry about hostile adventurers coming in from the city.¡± As I looked at Arana, her pleased expression faded to a much more serious one. ¡°I realize that, and you obviously have a plan to work with, or you would not bother to send me that letter.¡± I nodded once. ¡°That is correct. The thing is, neither of us can currently deal with this issue. There is no question, however, that Caelyn¡¯s situation is near disastrous, as you lack resources. Your current actions speak for itself on that part.¡± Arana opened her mouth to reply, but I cut her off. ¡°Violence will get you nowhere, Lady Arana. You need my dungeon, sorely at that, however I am not just going to hand over my resources and thus dooming myself just to save you.¡± Arana glared at me as I continued. ¡°That being said, Caelyn isn¡¯t without its own resources, resources that I could have a use for myself. What I suggest, Lady Arana, is that we enact a trade agreement.¡± Arana went silent for a while as she thought about my suggestion. ¡°I am not against the whole trading idea, but I can¡¯t for the life of me understand what you would need.¡± She answered finally, I smiled calmly. ¡°Alchemical ingredients, dead Cores, Vegetables, Herbs and more important than all of those, information. I have no way of knowing where or when this breach will happen since I am bound to the dungeon. Meanwhile, you have access to the full information network that is the Adventurer¡¯s Guild and contacts in noble circles. So, you would get access to information about such an incursion almost immediately.¡± Arana¡¯s expression went from serious to intrigued as I spoke. ¡°And what would you be able to give us in return?¡± She finally asked. ¡°Healing potions, both for injury and diseases. I might have limited information, but I am certain that is something in high demand in Caelyn right now. And I can get you access to refined Starsilver, in limited amounts. Most of what is currently being mined is used to forge gear for my dungeon at the moment. And finally Masterwork Gems suitable for Enchanting, Artifice and Magical Infusion.¡± I decided to not mention that the primary reason I limited the Starsilver was because most of the excess was going to Yrsha. Family and friends first, potentially hostile neighbor second. Then again, with the now near constant flow of points from the arena, I could probably afford to improve the Starsilver and Gem Mine. I could see Arana consider my offer seriously. ¡°That would be valuable items for the city, but I can¡¯t see how you are going to trade these things. After all, you can¡¯t really take these things to the market yourself and I don¡¯t think there is a single... Wait, that Merchant, Magna Yndali. She was trading with you, wasn¡¯t she?¡± I shrugged. ¡°I am quite certain that Lady Yndali would be more than happy to work as an intermediate, for a small fee, of course. As far as I can tell, she is a trustworthy and skilled merchant who would not demand outrageous sums despite having a monopoly. And once the wares flow, things will improve for both Caelyn and my Dungeon, with neither side attacking the other.¡± Arana looked at me with a skeptical look. ¡°You are not doing this from the goodness of your heart, are you?¡± I burst into a short laugh. ¡°Of course not, Lady Arana, I am doing this to survive and thrive. I could just go completely submissive to Caelyn and hope you would protect me. But then I would take initiative away from myself and laying it squarely in the hands of strangers who have done nothing but exploit dungeons for millennia. In the long run that is not sustainable, especially not with the disaster looming on the horizon.¡± Arana closed her eyes for a while, before she slowly but surely nodded. ¡°I will discuss this with the merchants¡¯ guild and the City Lord. I will send a messenger with my reply once we have discussed your offer. Given the urgent nature of the matter, the reply will arrive two days from now at the latest. You have my word.¡± She and her bodyguards rose from their seats and made notions of wanting to leave. I opened my inventory and took out a scroll and tossed it over to Arana. I had gotten it from Yrsha. She had access to Fox Spirit Sages, who could scribe scrolls. Upon my request, she had asked them to pen this scroll. In return for quite a sizeable chunk of Umbral Spider Silk, but that was a worthwhile trade. Arana looked at it, opened it and read the first part. ¡°A Scroll of Recall?¡± she looked at me with ha confused expression. ¡°Magical items such as scrolls and potions still work without a hitch, use that to expedite your trip home.¡± Arana looked at the scroll, then me, then the scroll again. ¡°Well, you have not led me astray so far¡­¡± She said, before she recited the scroll. There was a blinding flash and Arana and her bodyguards were no longer in the Dungeon. I took a deep breath. All I could do now was to hope that Arana could convince, browbeat or force the City Lord and Merchants guild into cooperating. The last thing I needed right now was a suicidal charge of adventurers into my Dungeon with the void poised to strike. As I left the small island Rael, Eliandar and Indella were all waiting for me at the hive. Rael stepped up in front. ¡°How did it go?¡± He asked, as he scratched his chin. A habit I had noticed he did when he was nervous or worried about something. ¡°It went well, I would say. She will air the idea with the Merchants Guild and the City Lord with a promise of a reply within two days.¡± Rael and Eliandar nodded. I couldn¡¯t help but notice that the Eliandar seemed¡­ worried. I can¡¯t say I knew the circumstances that lead to Eliandar taking up the adventurers¡¯ life. But it was likely that it involved his father. Indella gave him a supportive pat on the back. Rael, who noticed Eliandar¡¯s demeanor as Indella did so, put his arm around the elf and lead him away while speaking to him in a hushed voice. I had no idea what Rael said, but Eliandar perked up quickly. And he actually seemed to be in a pretty good mood as they walked across the bridge towards the camp. Hopefully, Eliandar¡¯s relatives would not become a problem in the future. Then again, with my luck, no better not let my mind wander down such self-destructive paths. Especially not when things had gone with no major hiccups, so far. Interlude 13: Midnight Meeting The City lord rose to speak as soon as I entered the room. ¡°Lady Arana, I hope you have a good reason to call us all in for this meeting in the middle of the night.¡± He had a stern expression on his face. ¡°I would not have called a meeting of this magnitude without just cause.¡± I calmly replied, he knew it to be true, he had read my letter, but he had to keep up appearances. This was why I hated politics. The gathered people were in a large circular room inside the City Lords Keep. It was akin to an amphitheater in its layout, aside from its circular nature. The entrance was underneath the top two rows of seating. The City Lord reserved this place for the most sensitive and important of meetings. What we were going to discuss in here was highly confidential. In fact, to even set foot in this room, I had everyone arriving swear a magic oath of secrecy about what we discussed within. Well, considering the magnitude of what I was about to do, I had done so specifically to ensure no one could talk. This was far too sensitive to risk leaking to the public. Good thing the Oath Stone still worked. I would have to thank the Core for pointing out that magical items still worked as intended. I rose from my seat at the circular table. ¡°Fellow Lords, Ladies and Merchants. I have indeed an excellent reason to call you all here so suddenly. I apologize for disturbing your rest, but I recently came into possession of information that is too important to wait to share with you all. This information is too sensitive to let slip into the public. It simply cannot wait, as it can mean the difference between life and death for the city.¡± I looked around at them all. The City Lord, and several members of the lesser nobles and the most successful merchants in the region. Honestly, I didn¡¯t really give a damn about the lesser nobles and the merchants in the room. I only gathered them now so that they wouldn¡¯t cause a fuss about it later. Well, there was one exception. Lady Magna Yndali, a lesser noble and merchant. Somehow she had befriended the Core. Not only that, but the Core trusted Yndali enough that she had name dropped her during our talks. With that in mind, I had thought it over and come to one conclusion. I could not in good faith let Yndali have a monopoly on that core¡¯s dungeon. However, I could also not afford to not grasp this opportunity, even more so given the disaster in waiting. There was only one solution to this conundrum, and I needed everyone in the room to see it that way. I took a deep breath as I resumed talking. ¡°As you all know, Caelyn is in a bad spot right now, because of Rubolgs decree. Further more magic has mysteriously stopped working as it should. However, yesterday I received a letter. A letter detailing the reason behind the failing of magic.¡± There was muttering and general agitation among the gathered people. Only the City Lord seemed calm and collected. ¡°Everyone, this letter detailed the imminent return of the Lord of the Void.¡± The room erupted into chaos, yelling and denials as everyone spoke up simultaneously. ¡°SILENCE!¡± My magically amplified voice caused everyone to flinch, and the noise died away almost instantly. ¡°I am not finished. The source of this letter was the adventurer Rael, a man I presume you all have heard about, if not met in person.¡± I paused again. There was no second outburst from the crowd, good. ¡°Given the circumstances of Rael¡¯s exit from Caelyn a few days before my arrival, I obviously felt obligated to verify the truth of these claims.¡± Now there was some rather uncomfortable shuffling, but again no one said anything. ¡°Yes, I risked my own life to go to the Dungeon Rael fled to, to verify the claim. Alas, it is true, far too true. As Rael has encountered and fought a Void entity.¡± This had the desired effect on the room. No one moved, no one made a sound. ¡°However, given the absolutely apocalyptic danger we are facing, the Core offered to open trade with Caelyn.¡± This caused all the merchants and several Lords to talk over one another again. ¡°SHUT UP! If anyone speaks up without permission again, I will evict him or her from the room. I do not have time for this.¡± Again the room fell silent, as I gave a snort of annoyance. The City Lord lifted his hand as a signal he wished to speak. I looked at him and nodded. ¡°Yes, City Lord Barron?¡± The City Lord rose from his seat. ¡°Lady Arana, since the Core attempted to trade with us, I can assume you spoke to it, yes?¡± I gave another nod. The City Lord took a deep breath. ¡°May I ask why you didn¡¯t capture or tame it then, since that would help the city far more than simple trade.¡± I gave a weak smile as I replied. ¡°I tried, however, to conquer that dungeon, you would need to be more than a mere human, even I was utterly helpless.¡± The City Lord looked genuinely surprised by my statement, so I elaborated. ¡°The Core of that dungeon decidedly has Penumbra¡¯s favor, as no less than five Ancient Horrors lurk in a lake on the second floor. A lake you have to cross using a small bridge to get to the Boss Room. I am only standing here now because the Core allowed me to live. Those five could have killed me with the same ease you crush an ant underfoot.¡±If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. There was a rather pressing silence after that announcement. The City Lord sat back down, and I resumed speaking. ¡°The Core will not, however, accept any would-be trader at their dungeon. She has demanded Magna Yndali be the one to handle the trading. Whatever silence was in the room disappeared once more. Every merchant aside from Lady Yndali screamed in outrage at the news as the idea of such a massive loss of profit made them forget my previous threat. ¡°I SAID SHUT UP YOU IMBECILIC VERMIN!¡± My annoyance made my powers flare, and I suddenly seemed far larger and more imposing than I should be as darkness suddenly wrapped around me like a cloak. My voice became far deeper than it should be, and my eyes were glowing a deep crimson. The assembled people flinched, some even looked partially panicked. The only two people who remained unfazed and silent had been Lady Yndali and the City Lord. Good, that meant that I had probably made the right choice. ¡°Final warning. Now, I will be blunt with you all. Caelyn needs the resources that the Dungeon can provide, even more so since we have Void Entities breaching into reality once more. We simply cannot afford to not trade with the Core given Caelyn¡¯s current state. However, as you know, Dungeons fall under the jurisdiction of the Adventurer¡¯s Guild. So, Merchants cannot peddle such wares unless they got them from the Adventurer¡¯s Guild. Yndali, you cannot peddle the items you would get, not without breaking the law.¡± The other merchants now looked far calmer. But Yndali had noticed my smile and looked more intrigued than disappointed. I took a deep breath and prepared for the incoming outrage. ¡°City Lord Barron, assembled Lords, Ladies and Merchants hear me now. With the power invested in me by the Adventurer¡¯s Guild, I pass the title of Guildmaster of Caelyn to Lady Magna Yndali, with all privileges and duties this entails. Thus, my own duties as Guildmaster comes to and end from this moment on.¡± The room remained utterly silent for about five seconds. Then the cries of outrage from the High Nobles began. Several of them had been currying favor with me since I arrived to gain that title. Not that it helped them any. Meanwhile, the Merchants and lesser nobles seemed surprised, but overall pleased with the outcome. This time it was not me, but the City Lord that silenced the cries of outrage. ¡°Enough. Lady Arana has decided, and I agree with her choice. We need the resources from the Dungeon, and this is the only way to do so without giving Lady Yndali monopoly or run head first into five Ancient Horrors.¡± Even though he spoke calmly, his voice cut through the noise and silenced the Nobles just as effective as my own attempts earlier. He walked over to Guildmaster Yndali and nodded respectfully. ¡°I hope you will not let the city down, Guildmaster.¡± Yndali looked at the City Lord, then at me before she took a deep breath and rose from her seat. ¡°I accept the mandate of Guildmaster. And I also pledge to trade with this Dungeon, as its Core suggested, and the Guild will sell the goods below market value given the current crisis. I hope that the trade goods from the Dungeon will assist us in this time of need.¡± She seemed to take this turn of events with surprising calm. Then again, she had endured a truly horrible torture thanks to Saol without breaking, so this was probably nothing in comparison. Another thing he would have to answer for when I finally tracked him down. That hunt, however, would have to wait. I could not leave Caelyn right now. I had received new orders from guild command after I sent the warning to them. ¡°Protect the city of Caelyn, and its denizens to the best of your ability.¡± Easy for them to say. The Capitol was a fortress protected by magical constructs, so the madness induced by the Void Entities would have no effect on their defenses. But in this place? I would be lucky if the militia didn¡¯t tear each other limb from limb a few moments after first contact. I looked over to the new Guildmaster. ¡°Lady Yndali, I suggest you return to your home and get some rest, it will be a long day tomorrow, for the both of us. She gave a single nod and left without a word, her bodyguard trailing behind her the moment she stepped outside. ¡°Lord Barron, I will return tomorrow to discuss how to coordinate our defense of the City. The Guild cannot deal with a Void invasion on its own, there is simply too much ground to cover. Considering the walls means about as much to those things as a small breeze.¡± The City Lord nodded. As the rest of the assembled people left as well. I retreated to my own quarters soon after, but I didn¡¯t go to sleep. I had too much work to do, trying to wangle up any way to defend the city against an enemy that could just pop up wherever it damned pleased. Normally, a Ward spell would work to stop such things, but with Magic being how it was. There was no way I would plan around having access to magic when it was currently exhausting just to toss a fireball, even for a veteran Mage. It promised to be a long night before I could finish figuring this mess out. Chapter 26: Tricks of the Trade The next few days there was a buzz of activity around the Dungeon. The idea of an impending void assault had everyone on edge and worked as an incredible motivator for everyone. I was especially on edge as I discovered a major issue with this world¡¯s rendition of the menu system from the game. There was no way to add dungeon wide or floor wide modifiers to the dungeon. Back home I could have used the Real Money Shop to add permanent modifiers to a floor, or the dungeon itself. But that menu was, unsurprisingly, absent in this world. One thing that I had been resolute in my attempt to figure out over the past few days had been how to make the portals more secure. Archives had rightfully pointed out after Arana left that if someone went mad because of the Void Entities, they would still have full access to the portals. This meant they could cause untold havoc across the entire dungeon. It had been quite a headache to figure out how to resolve that issue. But between Archives and several of Yrsha¡¯s best sages, we had successfully altered the runes. Now the portal would only work if you had the correct Glyph and held no hostile intent towards the dungeon¡¯s core or the dungeon itself. The latter had been the actual issue. The moment we just went with targeting hostility in a broad spectrum, the portal would refuse to work for those heading to the arenas. It wasn¡¯t until Indella proposed just skipping inhabitants and just pointing the hostility detection towards the dungeon itself and the Core specifically that we made it work properly. After that, I had been busy looking for other things to improve, and I had found one such place on the second floor. Since the second floor was not completely its own pocket dimension, but also a part of the underground, I took advantage of this to improve the Mushroom Forest. A quick survey by the Duergar revealed that there was an underground river running by near one of the outer walls of there. It was easy for me to spend a few points to expand the forest enough to change the flow, so the river ran through the Mushroom Forest. Then I added a Sawmill so that it would allow the Kobolds to process the giant fungi into planks and proper logs. The planks were a pleasant bonus, but it was the logs that I wanted. With the sawmill up and running, the Kobolds could specialize into Woodworkers or Woodcarvers. The Woodcarvers could create various magical totems from the logs that the Woodworkers produced. Now, there was no way I could cover the entire dungeon with these totems, their range was too small for that. But I could use them to buff up the areas where everyone usually gathered. It had not taken long for some Kobolds to work the sawmill once I explained my reasoning for making it. Soon enough there was no less that a quartet of Woodcarvers that were busy creating totems. Hopefully, they would discover a totem that could help against the Madness effect of the Void Entities. According to Archives, they had a good chance of succeeding. However, Totem Magic was¡­ finicky at the best of times and had a lot of trial and error going with it, so only time would tell. Another side effect of the river was that more critters showed up, including many types of fish. This meant more variety in foodstuffs. This also had another potential bonus down the line. According to Archives, the river would work as an add-on for the entire room, allowing the Kobolds to learn how to become proficient swimmers. Even better, Newborn Kobolds might hatch as Aquatic Kobolds, a subspecies adapted to a life in and around water. Sure, that meant relatively little for now, since the Kobolds were not native to the dungeon, but a few years from now, who could say? Well, first we had to survive to see that. And I certainly intended to do so. Another major change was the number of Duergar in the dungeon. I had literally doubled their number. And I had also expanded the mining operation. With the trade to Yrsha and the potential of trading with Caelyn, I had to keep up with demand. Not that it was that costly to expand it like this. With the constant income from the Arena adding a constant influx of points, putting my daily income down by another 120 didn¡¯t really bother me. I was still in the positive income wise per day, and the Arena¡¯s constant use meant I had a lot of points to spend. As a bonus, the constant fighting was showing results for both my Duergar Warriors and Yrsha¡¯s Spirits. Several of the Duergar Warriors and Spirits had over the course of the last few days undergone some changes in appearance and equipment use. Sure enough, a quick check revealed that they had changed to new classes. I had several Duergar Berserkers and Guardians and a few Tunnel Rangers, a class that specialized in using the Crossbow in combat. My biggest surprise, however, happened when Granite changed to the Ronin class. That had shocked pretty much everyone. Then again, he and Yunika, the fox spirit he had antagonized early on, had apparently gone from bitter rivals to more than just friends over the past few days. I suspected this might be why Granite became a Ronin. The confirmation of my theory came the next morning, when Yunika became a Berserker. I didn¡¯t know Yunika or Granite well enough to comment on this strange outcome. But then, there was the saying of ¡°Love is Blind¡± so it wasn¡¯t like it was impossible. Anyhow, these days you could hardly see Granite without Yunika happily hanging onto his arm, tails wagging up a storm. Considering her initial reaction to him, it scared me to think what Granite might have done to so entirely change her attitude. Well, the two seemed happy, and Granite became far less grating and gruff when Yunika was around, so overall it was an improvement. The very next day was the day Yndali finally returned to my dungeon. <Guildmaster Yndali and her entourage have entered your domain.> I¡¯m sorry, what? I could have sworn the notification just said Guildmaster. <It did, Boss Lady, I don¡¯t know the specifics, but she is decidedly the Guildmaster of the Adventurer¡¯s Guild now.> Well, then¡­ I looked over to Indella. ¡°You got things here?¡± She nodded and resumed altering the chamber to make it smaller. The two of us had been experimenting with what features Indella could and could not use among my skills. Turns out she could actually edit rooms without using her repertoire of spells, provided I gave her the OK first. However, since she could not get the omnipresent view I did, she would have to make do with her current view instead. This obviously meant she needed practice, so I had set aside a small chamber for her to practice with. The joys of not being constrained by points, to a certain extent, at any rate. I dissolved my form and moved to find Rael, Mordred, Erem and Eliandar, as they would probably want to meet their new boss. Because of this, it took about half an hour for everyone to get from their respective parts of the dungeon and to the end of my domain. Even with me guiding them through the Maze, there was just too much distance to cover. I should probably install a portal on the surface as well, now that it could differentiate between friends and foes. I suddenly had a stroke of genius about the portals I would have to discuss with Mordred later. As we approached, one adventurer that was guarding the procession gave a grumbling ¡°About damn time, you stupid beast.¡± A quick mental check-in with Rael gave me all the info I needed. Isarn Bellathan, a Minor Noble who had become an adventurer to gain more renown. He was a mediocre adventurer and thought himself better than everyone, according to Rael. How to deal with these types? By blatantly ignoring them. ¡°Lady, no, Guildmaster Yndali, what a pleasant surprise. I apologize for the wait, as I figured the leaders of the adventurers that went with me to my Dungeon would like to meet their new superior.¡± Yndali, who had been glaring at Isarn, gave a very slight smirk as she realized I was blatantly ignoring him. She purposefully waited a few seconds to respond, to bask in his entitled reaction. The effect was glorious. My polite greeting had caught him by surprise, and he was currently gaping like a fish out of water. Mmm, fish, I could really go for some of Lienru¡¯s fish dishes. No, wait, focus! Ugh, I should not have skipped breakfast. Yndali broke into a wide smile as she finally responded. ¡°The pleasure is mine, Lady Core. Rael, Mordred, Erem and Eliandar, it¡¯s a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I do hope you will continue your terrific work, as I am certain you are of great help for our mutual friend here.¡± Rael and the others nodded solemnly and responded politely before Yndali spoke again. ¡° As for the wait, I do not mind at all. It is a pleasant day today, even with the hint of winter in the air, and the prospect of a lucrative deal always gets me in a good mood. Oh, and I apologize for the outburst of my subordinate earlier. Alas, finding someone of the same sense of honor and respect as the ones who went with you are difficult, I fear. But don¡¯t worry, I will make sure to properly chastise him¡­ later.¡± Isarn¡¯s expression turned from utter shock to one of complete dread. Likewise, the expression of every other Adventurer guarding Yndali turned almost¡­ predatory. Isarn must have been a real thorn in the side of his fellow adventurers. I nodded. ¡°Well then, I suppose we should get things going, shouldn¡¯t we? Mind if I look at the wares on offer?¡± Yndali gestured to the wagons parked just inside the borders of my domain, and I walked over to inspect them. As I approached the Adventurers manning them removed the coverings revealing the content. One was lumber, good old-fashioned oak, no complaints there. Sure, we got wood from Yrsha¡¯s dungeon as well, but Oak still had other uses that other types of wood were less suited for. A quick calculation from Archives later and with a flourish, I took the Oak and replaced it with a generous helping of processed Starsilver. ¡°I am fully aware this is far too much for the wood, Guildmaster. But given the situation, I hope you will accept me overpaying for the first batch of wares. I sorely need these wares and so does Caelyn, of that I am certain.¡± Yndali was clearly still doing the calculations of just how much I had overpaid for the lumber as I spoke, and so I calmly informed her. ¡°That amount of Starsilver is worth about 200 times that of the lumber, please put it to good use.¡± There was a sound of choking followed by coughing as one adventurer had almost drowned themselves on their drink. Yndali looked at the pile of metal and nodded slowly. ¡°I will accept it for this first trade only, solely because you speak the truth. Caelyn is in a terrible state right now and could use all the help it can get. Thank you for your generosity.¡± The next wagon contained several herbs and also a case of dead cores. I replaced the case of cores with gems and the herbs with healing potions of various types. As I explained what I had paid them with, I could see their shocked expression turning hopeful. I looked at Yndali. ¡°I trust you will take measures to ensure these potions go where they will be most useful.¡± Yndali nodded. ¡°The temple will receive most of them to deal with the sick and injured for free, at our insistence. We will then sell the rest at limited quanta per household at subsidized prices to ensure the wellbeing of the city itself.¡± I nodded as I walked to the final of the three wagons. This one had a box of papers, some more herbs and also liquids. Alchemical ingredients, most likely. There was also something that caught my eye almost instantly. Carrots, Potatoes, Turnips, and Cabbage. I couldn¡¯t help but genuinely smile. ¡°Ah, Rael look, you finally have some additives to your food that are not Mushrooms or forest herbs.¡± Rael came over and nodded after seeing the crates, his smile widening as well. A quick swap later and the content of the cart was now more potions and a solid helping of various gemstones. ¡°Remember, the next time you will receive market value for the content, so make sure that everyone is aware this is a onetime deal.¡± Yndali nodded. ¡°I will make sure those who come to trade knows. I will have Micha here serve as the chief of the trading process.¡± She pointed at a new Sworn Blade sitting beside her, a replacement for Ezekiel, no doubt. Micha nodded silently. ¡°I would do it myself, but my newfound duties will keep me bound to Caelyn for the foreseeable future. I would have entrusted Mandol with this, but he has taken the Oath of the Shadow and cannot leave my side. If you run into any problems, discuss it with Micha, she will pass it on to me.¡± I heard a gruff noise from Mandol, who also gave me a nod of acknowledgement as I looked at him. I then turned my attention to the newest one. Micha and I locked eyes and looked at each other for a bit, I could sense extreme determination and a fair bit of respect from her. Micha would never even consider betraying Yndali, that was for sure. I could definitely work with her. ¡°Sure, it would be my pleasure, I do hope we will get along, Micha.¡± Micha nodded silently in response to my words. So, she was not one for talking when it wasn¡¯t a cause for it, eh? Well, that was fine. I glanced over at the other cloaked individual sitting next to Micah, Mandol, and Yndali while suppressing a smile. Arana might have the skills to disguise herself and remain anonymous among the Adventurers, but I could sense her presence easily enough. ¡°Well then, Guildmaster, while I would have offered you a warm meal and a bit of rest, I am afraid I have a lot to accomplish today. Besides, you have a long trip back to Caelyn if you want to return before sunset and I would hate to delay your return. I wish you all a good day and I hope to see you again soon.¡± The sense of disappointment from Arana was palpable. No doubt she had hoped to get another helping of Lienru¡¯s cooking. Yndali having noticed my glance didn¡¯t show any outward signs of having realized, but I could sense amusement from her as she responded. ¡°Indeed, it¡¯s a long way back to Caelyn. We might have to skip the usual lunch break if we want to be back before sunset, given how laden our carts are.¡± She turned and yelled orders at the adventurers and I turned around and led the others back towards the Dungeon. ¡°This could turn quite profitable indeed.¡± I chuckled and couldn¡¯t help but smile. Mordred looked at me. ¡°From my standpoint, you just had a massive monetary loss.¡± I looked at him. ¡°If I was planning on turning a profit, sure. However, I just received an entire crate of dead cores, and we got ingredients and alchemical mixtures that could help improve the potions we produce. And the box of papers are undoubtedly intelligence reports about potentially important happenings in the region.¡± Mordred stopped for a moment as he heard about the contents of the different crates. ¡°An entire crate of cores?¡± he finally asked, and I nodded in response. ¡°I will have to be careful with how many I consume, the last thing I need is another bout of overflow. Especially with how the Void Entities could break through at any moment.¡± Mordred just chuckled helplessly. ¡°Indeed, I hope you enjoy in moderation.¡± He responded before he looked at me again. ¡°Mind if I read the intelligence reports?¡± I turned back to look at him. ¡°I will drop off the crate for you once we get to the 2nd floor, you can take it from there.¡± He gave me a curt nod, and we continued through the maze in silence. I lead them all inside the first floor, then stopped them. ¡°Hang on guys, there is something I want to discuss with you. It¡¯s about the portals¡­¡± As I finished explaining, the quartet looked a mix of intrigued, disgusted and terrified. Eliandar was slowly pacing as he considered the possibility I had mentioned. ¡°If that works, it would be¡­¡± he shook his head as he interrupted himself. ¡°It should be doable considering the knowledge we got from Lady Yrsha, right Mordred?¡± The Wizard nodded. ¡°I agree, such a thing should indeed be possible, honestly I am aghast no one has thought about such a thing before.¡± I looked at the four of them. ¡°Let¡¯s get it built, then ask for volunteers among Yrsha¡¯s spirits and the Duergar to test if it works. If it does, the sooner we practice this tactic the better.¡± The four concurred with my suggestion. If this worked, it would help with defenses on the first floor. Not that it would be likely to work against the Void Entities, as they seemed able to appear wherever they damned pleased. But even then, it was better than nothing.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. After dropping the crate off for Mordred, the next stop for me was the Kobold Village. The Alchemists would be more than happy to receive these new ingredients, and I also needed to drop off the lumber at the sawmill for processing. As always, Ssatassha was there to meet me in person, despite the new workload on her. She ran up to me as I materialized and seemed ecstatic when I deposited the crates of alchemical goods on the ground. ¡°Many thanks Great One! Ssatassha are certain these will help the alchemists!¡± She called out and several nearby Kobolds dropped what they were doing and began unloading the crates at a frantic and well practiced pace. Watching them work was always a joy, so organized and efficient, not a single one of them lagging or shirking. In no time at all, the crates had gone from overflowing to empty. Although the crates had been bigger than the Kobolds themselves in height and nearly twice their length in width. It made it cumbersome and really heavy for a human, but the Kobolds hadn¡¯t even bothered to move the things, realizing they could never do so. I nodded down at Ssatassha. ¡°I am certain they will make something useful from it. Your tribe never ceases to amaze me with your ingenuity and quick adaptation to my ideas.¡± Just as I was about to continue, another idea popped into my head. ¡°Say Ssatassha, would oak logs be better than mushroom trunks for making the totems?¡± Ssatassha looked at me for a moment, confusion clear on her face until I took out one of the bigger Oak logs from storage. She looked at it with a thoughtful expression. ¡°Ssatassha can¡¯t say for sure, Great One, the carvers would know better.¡± I nodded and stashed the log again. ¡°Maybe we should have a chat with them then?¡± I held out a paw and Ssatassha gleefully jumped on, then I flew off towards the Sawmill. The Sawmill itself was an interesting structure whose appearance changed depending on the biome it was in. In the Mushroom Forest it looked old, creaky, and had a thick layer of fungi and moss growing on the outside on the grey, weathered wood planks. Despite this, the waterwheel and internal workings were pristine, and the mill was fully functional and as sturdy as a newly constructed one. A small team of Kobolds worked the mill, and they had split into several groups to do so. One group was moving the cut down mushroom stalks from a nearby cart to the saw. The second group was working the saw itself, and another small group was stacking the finished product. These groups seemed somewhat stronger than most Kobolds. No doubt the training of constantly lifting the logs and planks had given them some strength related skills and thus more developed muscles. Nearby, the Woodcarvers were busy carving logs into totems. They, too, had more defined muscles, but nowhere near as pronounced as on the mill workers. I landed next to the Woodcarvers and greeted them, while Ssatassha jumped out of my paw. The group looked over at us as I took out the log once more and showed it to both groups. They immediately seemed enthusiastic about both creating planks and making some bigger totems from the oak logs as they studied them. The work leader in charge of the mill who had been looking over the biggest log looked over at us. ¡°These seem great, thank you Great One, Ssaldu will put these to good use.¡± The little Kobold hit his own chest, then began barking orders at his fellows as they and Ssaldu himself eagerly finished up their current workloads. Then they changed over to the Oak logs and eagerly began working on them. Ssatassha seemed pretty pleased as she looked at her tribe members toiling away with a small tear in her eye. Her reaction was simple to understand. Less than a month ago they had all been on the verge of complete annihilation, and now they were prospering more than ever. I gave her a quiet nod and her head a small pat before I walked off, lost in thought. Ssatassha happily waved after me for a few seconds before she hurried back towards the village. I would have to create a wood storage building once my points had recovered from the spending I had enacted over the past few days. That way I could just deposit the logs straight there rather than travel here myself to drop them off. I should probably also create a proper alchemy lab for the Kobolds as well, so I could do the same with the alchemical items. So many things to do, so little time. At the very least, I could actually afford these things now. And while I still wanted a better solution, the totems were still a boon. Besides, the oak ones would probably be of better quality than the fungi ones and thus have a better range. Sure, that didn¡¯t address the primary problem of safeguarding the entire dungeon, however it was a start. Still, One Void Entity in the wrong place could do an absolutely massive amount of damage, and I had currently no way to actually stop that barring the totems. Well, since I couldn¡¯t do anything about it, I would have to simply shelf that thought for now. I did not have the luxury of time to ponder things I could not change, after all. I checked my current points. 75EP, 2TP, 23M and counting. As I watched, the points all went up by seven each. Guess another spirit had just lost their match in the Arena. It was by far the most profitable way to gain points I had outside of the wholesale slaughter of a party. Sure, it wasn¡¯t like it was ticking up constantly, but this was by far better than I could ever hope for with adventurers. Getting a few points every few minutes was far better than getting them once every few days or even weeks, after all. The next stop on my to-do list was just a short walk away in the Adventurer Camp. As I arrived, I could see it was mostly empty, as it usually was this time of day. Most of the different adventurers were busy elsewhere. Pavol was in the library, hell he hadn¡¯t left it for almost two days, outside of meals. Apparently, he had built a rather cordial relationship with the Library¡¯s spectral librarian by this point. He had been perusing the books for any information that might apply to dealing with the Void, but so far, there was nothing. Rael, Mordred and Erem had basically taken on supervisor roles and were helping as needed. Be it organizing, overseeing, or just keeping things running, they were lending their expertise where they felt we needed it. And they had probably gone straight back to that after the meeting. Indella had been busy outside of her training as well, though exactly what she was doing, I honestly didn¡¯t know. When I asked she would clam up, and Archives was also being silent on the matter, only saying things along the line of <You will see in time.> Or other things to that effect. The whole thing was beginning to weird me out, honestly. Eliandar and the rest of Nature Howlers recently began going on expeditions out of the Dungeon to collect resources to supplement what we now traded for. They basically brought back extra foodstuffs and herbs that we could not get easily through trade or in the dungeon itself. Say what you will about Shroomcow meat, there were only so many ways you could prep it before you craved something else, even with Lienru¡¯s divine cooking skills. The last time they had returned with what seemed like a cross between an Elk and a Zebra, that they called an Ablitok. Apparently, it was a pretty common sight on the plains and a pretty decent meal if you had a skilled cook. When Lienru got her hands on it, there was no surprise that it turned from decent to absolutely perfect. I suspected the group¡¯s newfound love for hunting and foraging might be because of Arana mentioning Eliandar¡¯s relatives. And sure, I didn¡¯t know why he didn¡¯t wish to return home, but if he wanted to stay, I would support him. Besides, I would rather have the Geomancer working with us to figure out a way to deal with the upcoming disaster. After all, it was better to have him here, doing that, than have him be at home, unable to do anything because of overprotective relatives. I pushed that thought away as I finished stashing the crates away in a small alcove at the back of the camp that I had made earlier. They could find them there easily enough. Besides, there was the sign that Irontooth had set up proclaiming the alcove as Storage. Hmm, what to do next, I had a bunch of options. It tempted me to dig into the Cores, but it would be better to put that off until it was time to sleep. That way I could sleep through most of the pain should I accidentally cause an overflow. I could also return to helping Indella practice¡­ <Indella went to take a rest and are planning to work on her other project afterwards, as she was getting tired.> Fair enough, I suppose. Well, that left me with nothing to do, sure I had some points left, but storage buildings actually cost a good chump of TP per storage. Likewise, I lacked the Masteries for an Alchemy Lab. Wait, maybe¡­ I dissolved my form and moved over to the Strider Hive. It had been a long time since I had done anything to the hive area itself. I still felt like there could be something I could do to improve things now. After all, I remembered what I had been told way back when, that adding features to the hive might yield interesting Subspecies. Now what could I test with? <Well, you obviously have a River for the Water Strider.> True, but as much as I could go with that, I didn¡¯t really need Water Striders. I had flying ones that could cover the lake just fine, and there really was no need to defend the submerged portion of the Lake. Time to go through the list of options more carefully. Surely, there had to be something in the Devices menu that could be of interest. Decorative features were cheap to unlock, so using those were obviously the way to go on this experiment. Let¡¯s see if we could find anything interesting. Hmm, Elemental crystals, sure that one I could do, I just had to expand the geode cavern, and that was possible¡­ Expand the Geode Cavern? Wait, what would happen if I turned the connecting corridor into a part of the Geode Cavern itself? <I¡­ never thought of that, one moment.> Archives went silent for about five seconds. <It would give the Hive the possibility to spawn Nectar Infused variants, basically Elite versions of their currently available Striders.> I should have done this ages ago then! <I am also ashamed that it never occurred to me to point that out to you when you made the Cavern.> Well, no use crying over what could have been. Time to rectify that mistake now. Four Essence later and the hallway connection between the Geode Cavern and the Hive was no more. There was no obvious change immediately. Not that I had expected it, Elites shouldn¡¯t start popping up like grass just because you made them available. I would be lucky if I saw one or two pop up in a few days. Well, with that set up, let¡¯s see what else I could do. The Elemental crystals I had looked at earlier had been interesting. If I could get some elemental variants to show up, that would be great. However, I did not know whether the crystals would even do anything of the sort. Decorative items would alter the Hive itself, but whether that meant a Variant or Sub species might show up, that was another thing entirely. Well, there was someone I could ask about that. I materialized inside the Hive and walked over towards Talka. She eyed me as I approached. ¡°Milady, is there something you desire of us?¡± she asked, as the hive echoed the question in dozens of different voices. I nodded to her and sat down. ¡°I wanted your advice, I was pondering what I might do to improve the hive even further. But since this would involve you and your Hive in the improvements, I figured it would be best to discuss the matter with you.¡± Talka looked at me for a while. Her mandibles working back and forth without a sound, as she was pondering my words. ¡°Hmm, you mean to force out beneficial mutations in my children. Variants and Subspecies, as you call them.¡± It wasn¡¯t a question, but a statement. I nodded in response. It was the truth, after all. Talka looked around the hive. It was impossible for me to figure out what she was thinking, as her chitinous face and compound eyes betrayed no emotion at all. As for her emotions, those were mixed with those of her entire hive. It was a pretty interesting feeling. The Hives ¡°drones¡± were sentient and had wills of their own, but as long as Talka was alive, her will would override theirs for important decisions. This gave them the Mindless Skill, despite being able to act on their own should the need arise. It also had the side effect of having their own emotions echo through the hive mind Talka was a part of. Which made it impossible to tell which Strider was feeling what emotion unless you were a part of the hive mind yourself. Now dozens of feelings were of curiosity, intrigue, confusion, eagerness and even a little boredom were coming from all over the place as each feeling echoed through them all. I calmly waited for the waves of emotion and echoing words of the hive to fade away. ¡°This has to do with the creature that appeared in our midst earlier. To better combat these, we would need a specific mutation. We would need Crystals of Creation.¡± As she finished, I nodded slowly. ¡°Give me a moment to see if I can get those.¡± Archives? <Here you go.> Device Name: Crystals of Creation Device type: Exotic Decoration Material Type: Crystal Hardness: 40 HP: 200 Defense: 20 Evasion: - Upkeep: - Cost: 200TP per cluster. Special, 90% cost reduction, should the Dungeon have access to them by natural means. These ancient crystals are of unknown origin that have several legends surrounding them. The most well-known legend about the Crystals of creation states that Rubolg used them to create the world after the war against the Void. Another states that Rubolg forged his axe from these crystals, and he used it to destroy the Void prior to creating the world. The Crystals of Creation hold a strange power within them. This power can cause spontaneous mutation within certain monster species, so take care if you find these crystals. There are unconfirmed records that state that the crystals naturally grow on some of the oldest Leviathans and Horrors that are still alive in this day and age. I looked at the crystals, and saw that they had this silvery sheen to them, as if they composed of mercury or something along those lines. I couldn¡¯t help but think that they felt¡­ familiar somehow, I shook my head, I couldn¡¯t recall where I had seen them before. Then there was also the mention of ancient leviathans. Latra decidedly fit that bill. To have an entire forest grow on your back like that, not to mention reach that size, would take uncountable millennia for sure. Maybe I could ask her about them? <There is a possibility that she could have Crystals of creation growing on her. If she has some, you could gather a few and transplant them onto the walls as decorations rather than spend 200TP per cluster.> Well, that was as good of an idea as any. I turned back to Talka. ¡°I will need to check with Latra to see if she has some of these, or it will have to wait until I get more points. It¡¯s decidedly an idea I will entertain if it helps with the Void invasion, however, so it will have priority.¡± Talka made a happy chittering noise. ¡°Very well, Milady, We will look forward to it.¡± We parted ways, and I immediately moved towards the fourth floor. Latra was actually not floating around when I arrived at the fourth floor. Rather, she was floating in the water, having a conversation with our brothers. As I neared, however, they ended their conversation before I could learn what they were talking about. Before I could even materialize, my brothers sank back beneath the waves without a sound, which was pretty impressive, considering how big they were. Not that it was any of my business anyhow. I hovered in front of Latra and smiled up at her. ¡°Hello Sister, how are you?¡± Latra¡¯s many eyes looked at me in their usual eternally patient manner, and I could sense her mind reach out to mine with a sense of calm and contentment. ¡°Hello, little Sister, I am doing just fine, thank you for asking. However, I sense you are not here merely for pleasantries. Tell me, what is on your mind?¡± As always, her calm voice just washed over me and made me feel calm as well. I didn¡¯t even realize how much stress I was feeling until Latra¡¯s voice just forced it all away. That¡¯s it, I should visit her more often, that was for sure. Once I finished explaining the situation to Latra, she closed two of her eyes as I patiently waited for her reply. ¡°I am sorry, Sister, I do not possess that which you seek, I fear you must have seen such a crystal elsewhere.¡± I nodded slowly, somewhat disappointed, but not overly surprised. Where had I seen such a crystal then? Latra blinked a few times before she spoke once more. ¡°Why don¡¯t you ask our many-tailed sibling? She sees much and knows even more. She might know where such Crystals might be.¡± That was actually a superb idea. ¡°Thank you for the suggestion, Sis.¡± I flew up and gave her a hug. Well, more like pressed my cheek against hers, as she was too big to properly hug. Then I waved and headed for the third floor. The portal there was practically pointed to Yrsha¡¯s dungeon pretty much constantly. There was simply too much traffic to open and close the portal all the time. Though both of us had agreed that we would shut it if we needed it for any reason. As I looked at the portal, I paused for a moment. Archives, mind telling Indella I will visit Yrsha for a moment? I don¡¯t want to cause any sudden discomfort considering the sudden sense of distance. <Sure thing, Boss lady.> With that done, I waited ten seconds as I looked at the portal, took a deep breath and stepped through to the other side. Hopefully, this visit to Yrsha would be less disastrous than the previous one. Chapter 27: Crystals, Leviathans, Mutations, oh my! Just like last time, stepping through the portal gave me a sense of disorientation as my proximity to Indella suddenly changed. Even though I had braced myself this time, that sudden shock was still highly unpleasant. Wonder if Indella was handling it. <She¡¯s fine. She sat down and simply waited for you to pass through.> Huh, clever. As the disorientation passed, I refocused on my surroundings. I started moving again to not hold up traffic too much. Not that I had hindered too much, since the others could simply walk underneath me. I started moving again and headed towards the center of the area. The glade had become far more busy with all the people coming and going through the portal, so there was quite a crowd around. Duergar who were peddling with the spirits that lived in Yrsha¡¯s dungeon. A trio of Kobolds were haggling over some tools I didn¡¯t recognize. And Tarad and Dally were in a heated debate with a duo of Spirits and a Duergar over the proper temperature to forge swords at. Overall, the place seemed way more lively than it had the last time. As I wandered around trying to get my bearings, I spotted a familiar sight. Xi was sitting on a small stump contemplating a game board. The little spirit was so focused on the board it didn¡¯t even notice I was there until my shadow fell over the board itself. Xi looked up at me with a surprised expression. ¡°Oh, Lady Pearl! What a pleasant surprise, how can Xi help you?¡± The spirit looked up at me, then down at the table, then up at me again. Xi was trying to resist the pull of entertainment in the face of being an excellent host. That much was clear. ¡°Oh, no need to leave your game behind on my account. I wondered if you knew where Yrsha might be and if she is busy right now.¡± Xi looked thoughtful for a moment. ¡°Milady should have her tea break right about now, so she should be in the tea saloon you visited the last time you were here. Xi can show you the way.¡± Xi moved to pack away the board, clearly intending to show me the way. I could sense the disappointment emanating from the spirit. ¡°I see, thank you for the information, Xi. Though there is no need to get up for something like this, I know the way. So just enjoy your game, I would feel bad to pull you away from your free time, after all.¡± Xi looked up at me, then down at the board, then at me again. Xi was clearly being torn between duty and entertainment. Then, after a few seconds of internal struggle, Xi had clearly chosen to go with what I wanted. Xi looked up at me, sat back down and while nodding enthusiastically, the spirits¡¯ tails now wagging up a storm. ¡°Xi will do that, Lady Pearl, have a nice day!¡± Xi waved enthusiastically as I left, before the spirit once more returned to contemplating the game board. As I arrived, I found Yrsha outside, clearly waiting for me. ¡°Pearl, welcome, I hope the crowded clearing wasn¡¯t so bad.¡± Yrsha got up from where she was sitting on the porch of the house and gave me a light bow, a cup of tea in hand before she continued. ¡°I would offer you a cup, but we both know you wouldn¡¯t accept.¡± I couldn¡¯t really disagree with that. While I normally would have, there was no time to waste right now. Every second of preparation I could muster was important, and Yrsha knew that. I didn¡¯t doubt that the only reason Yrsha was drinking tea right now was because she needed to calm down or the stress would get to her. ¡°Indeed, I apologize for my lack of courtesy, but you know how it is these days.¡± Yrsha looked at her teacup with a solemn expression, then looked up at me. ¡°That I do, far more than I would like to admit, so let¡¯s get this over with, so we can both get back to preparing. Shall we?¡± Her voice was tense, but her expression softened a bit as she spoke. I couldn¡¯t agree more. ¡°Latra suggested I ask you about where to get a hold of some Crystals of Creation.¡± There was no point to beat around the bush. Yrsha looked at me for a while in silence. ¡°What are you planning to do with such a crystal?¡± I explained it as it was. ¡°So Talka can use such a crystal to get a unique subspecies she claims can help against the void.¡± Yrsha looked down into her teacup for a few seconds, then took a deep breath and downed the entire thing. ¡°Follow me and speak to no one of what I am about to show you.¡± There was an edge in Yrsha¡¯s voice I had not heard before, but I had to reason to refuse. We left the glade along one of the many paths, this one leading into a forested section of birch trees. The sun was shining overhead and a slight breeze caused the leaves to rustle. It was quite a calming and serene experience, if you liked that sort of thing. Then Yrsha suddenly turned away from the path and headed into the woods themselves. Fair enough, whatever she wanted to show me was clearly a well-guarded secret, so it was not like it would be obvious that it was there. We continued walking for the better part of half an hour. We didn¡¯t speak a word during this time, both of us were content to remain quiet. Then the forest thinned, and we arrived at a rather beautiful flower field. Lilies, tulips, many beautiful and vibrant flowers grew all over the place, creating a cascade of vibrant colors. The center of the field was a large hill that seemed out of place. Not only did it lack flowers, but had silvery crystals growing from its peak. It seemed off, in more ways than one. Yrsha stopped at the edge of the flower field. ¡°The rest is up to you Pearl, good luck.¡± I looked at the flowers, then at the hill, then finally at Yrsha. ¡°Fair enough, I will be back shortly then.¡± I took to the skies and flew above the flowers. Seeing the field from above proved my suspicion. Among the pretty flowers were countless skeletons, hidden from sight by the vibrant flowers that surely were not what they seemed. Good thing I had read so many comics after becoming a shut-in. I landed at the foot of the giant hill and studied it for a moment. Then I went with my gut feeling. ¡°Excuse me, sorry to bother you, but I wondered if I could have a moment of your time.¡± I hadn¡¯t checked with my telepathy, but if I were correct, this was no hill, but a disguised Leviathan. If I were right, then checking telepathically would just be rude, besides this was Yrsha¡¯s dungeon. She might be my Sister, but she was also a fox spirit. That meant things were never what they seemed. Sure enough, no sooner had I spoken, before the ground rocked as the Leviathan moved for the first time in what had to be a very long time. I had expected the hill to rise from the ground. What I did not expect was for half the field to heave and move with the awakening Leviathan. What I had thought might be a turtle shell or something turned out to only be the tip of a rounded horn that grew from the Leviathans head. So, Yrsha had an ancient Leviathan in her dungeon as well. I honestly was not sure what type of Leviathan I was looking at. It was tempting to ask Archives, but I wanted to handle this myself for once. I could not rely on Archives to always have the solutions forever, nor all the information. As the dust and dirt whirled up from the awakening Leviathan settled, I could finally get a good look at it. It was like a giant lizard in overall shape, with a long wide tail and the hill sized horn growing from the center of its head. Its scales were earth brown and had a spiky look to them, most likely as a form of self defense. The 4 pair of eyes it possessed was all the color of Amber and slitted, as one would expect. The Leviathan also had a pair of tongues flicking out of its mouth in a constant movement as it scented the surrounding air. Its ten legs were holding up its massive frame with ease and its crocodilian head had several man-sized fangs visible, even when closed. From its back grew several of the flowers I had seen behind me. I realized I had landed literally on the tip of its tail. I took to the sky again and hovered in front of it at eye level. ¡°I am terribly sorry for landing on your tail like that.¡± The leviathan gazed at me with a cold and calculating expression. Then its mind reached out to mine. It was practically the opposite of Latra. Where her mind lulled you into a sense of serenity and comfort, this Leviathan evoked feelings of agitation and discomfort. I steeled myself and didn¡¯t back down as I locked my gaze with it. The Leviathans gaze shifted from cold indifference to one of interest. ¡°You are not the first Leviathan I have talked to, Brother.¡± I said calmly, as I sent out a mental image of my five Brothers. This finally got a response from it. ¡°So, you''re Mother''s little pet project. If you are hoping that I will treat you as a member of the family that easily you might as well think again.¡± Its voice was pure pain. Where Latra¡¯s had given a sense of peace and my Brothers were slightly painful and made you feel like your skin was crawling, this one was just pure pain. Pain and anger, a fierce one indeed. Well then, time to see if I could wrangle something useful from this situation. ¡°Frankly, no, I didn¡¯t expect special treatment from you, after all this is the first time we''ve met. Besides, you are not part of my dungeon, so why would you have any reason to show me any deference?¡± The Leviathan actually blinked in surprise. I guess it hadn¡¯t expected such a response. It moved so close its snout was nearly touching me. ¡°If that is true, then why did you disturb me in the first place?¡± The voice was less painful this time. Instead of feeling like being poked with a searing hot iron, it was now just barbed wires. Well, the less time I spent talking with this one the better, it clearly didn¡¯t like me, and I sure as hell didn¡¯t like it. ¡°I need a crystal from the cluster that¡¯s growing on your horn.¡± The faster I got to the point, the better. The Leviathan seemed amused. ¡°And why should I give it to you?¡± Ugh, one of these types, eh? Fine. ¡°First, because it would make me stop bothering you faster. Second, I really need it due to Void related problems, problems that will also hit this dungeon as well, in time. Of that, I am certain. Besides, would you like it if I returned to Latra and told her that the reason I didn¡¯t get a crystal was because you were being an asshole?¡± This was obviously a serious a risky claim as technically Latra had pointed me towards Yrsha. But given how my Brothers behaved around Latra, it was obvious they respected her highly, which meant she might hold a lot of clout among her kind. Considering my Brothers treated everyone else with disdain. Hell, even I was only slightly worthy of respect, given their attitudes, and I was their Sister as well. Obviously, it was a gamble, and I silently hoped Latra wouldn¡¯t mind that I name-dropped her like this. But I honestly had no other idea on how to get this guy to cooperate. The Leviathan¡¯s eyes flared in anger at my words, but it didn¡¯t strike. I did not know how the pecking order among ancient horrors and Leviathans worked, but name-dropping Latra had obviously given the Leviathan something to think about. That much was clear. ¡°Latra, you have met her, you say?¡± Its voice was even less painful now. Now it was just a slightly too warm oven. I nodded slowly, now I was curious. ¡°She currently lives on the fourth floor of my dungeon, why do you ask?¡± The Leviathan looked at me again, this time with no hostility, and far more wonder. ¡°To think Mother would ask our Eldest to look after you. You who are not even a true Monster. I cannot fathom what Mother is thinking.¡± It went silent. Then lowered its head. ¡°Take it, Sister, and tell Latra that Rinnojj was more than happy to come to your aid.¡± I hovered over and found a decently sized crystal and broke it loose with a single snap. I looked down at him. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Brother, I will pass along your words.¡± Sure, he had been standoffish, but it was not like I couldn¡¯t understand why. So, I would pass along the message, along with an explanation, I owed her that much at least. As I flew back towards Yrsha, I couldn¡¯t help but wonder. If Latra was the eldest, why wasn¡¯t Mother using her as her Avatar? No wait, the answer was simple, really simple. Latra was not a fighter, and an Avatar would decidedly have to do some violent things should the need arise. Mother was not the type to force the kindest and most peace-loving being I could think of into doing violent things like that. That opened up another question though, why didn¡¯t Latra have any crystals? I looked at the crystal in my hand, pondering the entire situation. That¡¯s when I remembered seeing something similar to this. One of my Brothers had gotten a wound on its arm after the scuffle with one of the summoned demons and the blood had¡­ oh. I looked at the crystal once more, this time I couldn¡¯t help but shudder. Leviathan blood was the stuff of creation itself? What the hell was Mother thinking, no wait, that actually made sense. Leviathans and most horrors were just too large. The law of physics would say that they should collapse under their own weight. Unless something kept that from happening, like say the very stuff of creation itself. That was, of course, if the flavor text of the crystal was more than just legend or rumors. Regardless of the truth of the rumors, this stuff was potent as I could sense a hum of power from the crystal in my paw. Behind me, Rinnojj buried back into its old position and soon enough the field was back to its pristine look. As I landed next to Yrsha, I was still contemplating the crystal. I was so distracted that I didn¡¯t notice Yrsha walking up next to me until she spoke. ¡°So you got one, impressive. I honestly didn¡¯t expect him to give one up like that.¡± I shook out or my thoughts and stashed the crystal into my inventory before I responded. ¡°Turns out name-dropping Latra did the trick, though I would not try that if I were you. If you want one, I can get you one later once this thing takes root and grows on its own.¡± Yrsha nodded. ¡°It makes sense that using her name would give results.¡± I looked at her with a questioning expression, urging her to continue. ¡°Latra is the oldest Horror and Leviathan in existence. The amount of respect she garners from her younger siblings is something she earned through hard work. I don¡¯t know the details of what she did, but I don¡¯t know of a single Horror or Leviathan that would want to disappoint Latra. Heck, some rumors claim Latra might be the first monster ever born.¡±This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. The last statement gave me pause. ¡°Wouldn¡¯t that mean that she would be more akin to a deity than a monster?¡± My question seemed to catch Yrsha off-guard. Her expression turned into one of uncertainty. ¡°Now that you mention it that might actually be the case. But if so, that would mean you have a physically manifested Deity living in your dungeon. That would be unheard of. No Deity have physically manifested without an avatar since the Void War.¡± Hmm, I knew one being who might know the answer. <Latra is as mortal as you and me, Boss Lady, as for the rumors of her being the first. I honestly can¡¯t say. She is older than I by an eon or two though, so I know she has been around for a while. I nodded slowly. ¡°According to Archives, Latra is mortal.¡± Yrsha looked at me, then just sighed before she began leading the way back. ¡°It doesn¡¯t really matter at any rate, and I guess I will take you up on the offer. Those crystals could be useful for me as well, after all.¡± I nodded absentmindedly. ¡°By the way, Yrsha, when did Rinnojj arrive in your dungeon, I mean if he was here¡­¡± Yrsha held up a hand and I stopped talking. ¡°He arrived shortly after my return and simply went to that spot and told me to tell him if I needed help. Aside from that one interaction we have not spoken or communicated in any fashion.¡± After that, she fell silent, and we conducted the return in silence as well. When we returned to the clearing, I thanked Yrsha and hurried towards the portal. I was eager to see what this thing could do. As I returned to the 3rd floor, I saw the first totem being put up in the square. It was an interesting little thing, and I could easily identify a Draconic face on the bottom, an Evil Eye above it, followed by a Strider. On top of the totem pole was one that seemed human at first glance, but I quickly realized was not. The dead giveaway was an offhand comment from a Duergar pointing out, ¡°It does indeed look like the Mistress.¡± The Kobolds seemed quite pleased with their work as well and beamed enthusiastically to any words of praise for their work. I had to hand it to them. They worked fast. As they noticed me, the Kobolds eagerly ran over and clearly hoped for my approval. I looked down on them all, Ssaldu was standing at the front looking both eager and nervous. I looked once more at the totem. Archives? <That¡¯s a Mindshield Totem, alright. It protects against mind control and madness effects, it has a 15-meter range, quite impressive for a first attempt.> That was an understatement. The totem was beyond my expectations. And it had a longer range than the mushroom ones too, by almost 6 meters. ¡°Impressive work, you have gone far beyond my expectations on this one, keep it up.¡± I smiled down at them as I spoke. It was truly impressive how effective they all were. How other Dungeons could treat them as cannon fodder was beyond me. These guys were some of the best and most skilled workers I had ever seen. I had barely stepped out of the dungeon for an hour, and they had already finished turning one of the unprocessed logs into a perfect totem pole. Honestly, considering how diligently and effectively, they were working, they deserved some kind of reward. I would have to remember to look that up later. My words of praise seemed to make do for now, at least. As the Kobolds seemed utterly ecstatic. I offered them a few more compliments before I excused myself. It was time to see what Talka could do with that crystal. As I arrived at the hive, I took out the crystal, and got an eager chittering from Talka. Then, I flew up into the roof and, as per Archive''s instructions, just slammed the thing into the stone with all my might. The effect was immediate. Silver veins spread out from the point where the crystal had embedded itself. They arched like water on a dry surface or cracks in dry earth until the entire inside had streaks of silver running through it. <Crystal of Creation confirmed, new subspecies unlocked and available>. Now this I had to see. Before I could pop up the menu, however, Talka suddenly shuddered and gave off a strange silvery glow. In front of my eyes she changed and grow in stature, her carapace growing jagged and spiky. As she grew and changed, the part of Talka¡¯s bloated body that until now had caused her to be only partially mobile inside the hive, shriveled up. And in its place was a long sinuous tail with a large stinger at the end. Her legs bulked up and gained more strength as she grew far wider and taller than before. The color of her carapace changed, and it now sported lines in it that glowed steadily, like a heartbeat. These lines would start out black as ink, but would flash up to a sky blue before darkening again, giving her an eerie look. Likewise, wisps with much the same coloration as these lines were steadily rising from her back, as if her body couldn¡¯t completely contain her new power. There was little doubt in my mind that Talka in her current form would be a terrifying opponent to fight. A considerable change was the addition of a pair of crablike arms, allowing her to grasp and crush things with ease. One was like the crushing claw of a crab. While the other was more like a pair of giant curved scissors, clearly meant to cleave whatever it held in two. I pitied whatever wound up inside those claws. Talka¡¯s head had also undergone a drastic change. Her compound eyes, which had been on each side of her head, had now migrated to be squarely in front. They had also changed color from dull red to have the same pulsing blue color. Her mandibles had become beak like and split in three as she chittered. I could see that inside the beak-like mandible were some really nasty looking teeth-like growths. I pitied whatever wound up inside her mouth. Her backside had changed too. Eggs got pushed out of newly developed holes in the carapace on her back. Shortly after, they fell off and rapidly hatched into new striders on the spot. However, these newborn Striders differed from before. Though their body structure remained roughly the same as before, they had an eerie vapor like aura coming off them. Likewise, their thoraxes glowed with this bluish-black light, completely black in the center, and became steadily brighter as it got further out, until it was nearly white. Their wings had seen some radical changes as they now seemed more moth-like. They also glowed in strange intricate patterns that seemed to captivate the gaze if you looked too long at them. These new striders were also larger than even the old Royal Guards. Then, as one, there was a wave of agitated chittering going through the hivemind as every Strider and Swarmling in view glowed a similar way to Talka earlier. All of them were undergoing evolution. The sheer psionic cacophony of the place was giving me a headache as it all happened, not to mention that the light given off was absolutely blinding. When it was over, the Striders had all changed to resemble the ones Talka had spontaneously given birth too, though smaller, as they had not grown as big. The Swarmlings too had grown bigger, where they before had been the size of dogs, they were now the size of lions. With razor sharp mandibles, their own scorpion like tail sporting a nasty scythe like stinger. Said stingers would now and then drip a liquid that looked a lot like the aura coming off of the larger Striders and Talka. A venom, no doubt. The most significant change, however, was the addition of a pair of grasping claws that resembled those of a crab growing from their backs. As I watched them experiment with these new appendages, I could see they were strong, nimble and had a long reach as well. That only left one question, what the hell was I looking at? <You might wanna see this, Boss Lady>. Monster: Spectral Strider Queen (Unique, Boss, Variant, Mutated) Genus: Insectoid, Horror, Spirit Biome: Special, usually The Depths. Unlock cost: Special: Need a Crystal of Creation from a Spectral aligned Leviathan placed inside a Strider hive. HP: 300, MP: 150 Attack: 250, Defense: 200 Magic Attack: 150, Magic Defense: 200 Strength: 25, Dexterity: 20, Endurance: 30 Intelligence: 15, Wisdom: 20, Charisma: 15 Upkeep: Special, if a Crystal of Creation is inside the hive, all Spectral Strider Queens cost - Skills: Strider Hivemind(Racial), Wall Walk(Racial), Darkvision(Racial), Mirror Carapace(Racial), Lethal Soul Poison Blood(Racial). Camouflage(Racial), Fearless(Racial), Apex Predator(Racial), Lethal Soul Poison Attack(Racial). Untameable(Racial), Scything Talon and Crushing Talon(Racial), Royal Pheromones(Racial), Spectral Strider Spawning(Unique Racial). Spectral Swarmling Spawning(Unique Racial), Spectral Strider Royal Guard(Unique Racial)(10). Attack Pheromones(Unique), Soul Searing Spittle(Unique), Spectral Strider Hive Cocoon(Unique Racial), Spectral Strider Hive Infestation(Unique Racial). Hive Reinforcements(Unique Racial), Aura of Fear(Special), Seal Intruders(Boss), Spectral Jaunt(Unique). Void Hunter(Special), Levitation(Special), Spectral Form(Special), Free Mobility(Special). Now that I thought about it, I hadn¡¯t checked their stats since I had gotten free from the curse. So, I had no real reference to go by. <Good would be an understatement. Most of her stats almost doubled, and she received several skill upgrades and new skills>. I knew that the crystal would be potent, but I never expected this. I mean, they were a literally new species rather than just a variant. Now, what about the rest of the hive? Monster: Spectral Strider (Unique, Variant, Mutated) Genus: Insectoid, Horror, Spirit Biome: Special Usually The Depths. Unlock cost: Special: Need a Crystal of Creation from a Spectral aligned Leviathan placed inside a Strider hive. HP: 200, MP: 150 Attack: 150, Defense: 250 Magic Attack: 150, Magic Defense: 200 Strength: 15, Dexterity: 25, Endurance: 20 Intelligence: 15, Wisdom: 20, Charisma: 15 Upkeep: Special, if a Crystal of Creation is inside the hive, all Spectral Striders cost - Skills: Spectral Strider Hivemind(Racial), Wall Walk(Racial), Darkvision(Racial), Pack Hunter(Racial), Ambush Tactics(Racial). Mirror Carapace(Racial), Soul Poison Blood(Racial), Camouflage(Racial), Fearless(Racial), Apex Predator(Racial), Soul Poison Attack(Racial). Untameable(Racial), Communal Mind(Racial), Spectral Jaunt(Unique), Void Hunter(Special). Levitation(Special), Spectral Form(Special), Free Mobility(Special), Mesmerizing Wings(Unique Special). Monster: Spectral Swarmling (Unique, Variant, Mutated) Genus: Insectoid, Horror, Spirit Biome: Special, usually The Depths. Unlock cost: Special: Need a Crystal of Creation from a Spectral aligned Leviathan placed inside a Strider hive. HP: 150, MP: 150 Attack: 150, Defense: 350 Magic Attack: 150, Magic Defense: 200 Strength: 10, Dexterity: 35, Endurance: 15 Intelligence: 15, Wisdom: 20, Charisma: 15 Upkeep: Special, if a Crystal of Creation is inside the hive, all Spectral Swarmlings cost - Skills: Strider Hivemind(Racial), Wall Walk(Racial), Darkvision(Racial), Pack Hunter(Racial), Ambush Tactics(Racial). Soul Poison Blood(Racial), Scything Talons(Racial), Camouflage(Racial), Fearless(Racial), Soul Poison Attack(Racial). Untameable(Racial) Swarm(Racial), Crushing Talons(Special), Communal Mind(Racial) Spectral Jaunt(Unique). Void Hunter(Special), Levitation(Special), Spectral Form(Special), Free Mobility(Special), Mesmerizing Wings(Unique Special). Ok, so they all had these weird new abilities, what were they all about? Archives immediately popped in with an explanation for each, much to my delight. <Free Mobility(Special) mean they are immune to all restraining effects and conditions. Spectral Form(Special) means they can go Ethereal and walk through walls floors ETC. Levitation(Special) is self-explanatory, they don¡¯t need those pretty wings to fly even though they all have them now, except the Queen. Mesmerizing Wings(Unique Special) unless you have a strong will or are immune to that sort of thing you will suddenly find those wings irresistibly fascinating to look at. Void Hunter(Special) they deal far more damage to Void attribute targets and are immune to most Void type skills. Spectral Jaunt(Unique) This one¡¯s a fantastic one, Boss Lady, it¡¯s a teleport/blink skill, 30-meter range, line of sight not needed, cannot mishap Communal Mind(Racial) means that they are a hivemind, but they can operate independently and think for themselves if the need should arise. As a side effect, all of them had the strongest mental stat among them. Which means all of them share the Queen''s mental stats>. This all sounded almost too good to be true. But then, considering how difficult it would be to get your hands on these guys, I could see how the reward would be worth it. I refocused on Talka, who had finished testing out her new body and was now patiently looking at me. ¡°So, how is your new form?¡± Talka chittered with delight as she walked over to me, size wise we were almost equally big now, with me being only a few inches taller. ¡°This is far better than I could have hoped for, Milady. My Hive will not let a single void entity leave this floor alive when they arrive. That, I assure you.¡± She clacked her new claws eagerly, a motion that was repeated by the Swarmlings. I smiled at the noise and waited for them all to finish. Once the noise died down, I couldn¡¯t help but admire the sight for a few more seconds. ¡°Good, your happiness is mine as well. However, while I would love to stay and celebrate this with you all, I am afraid I still have more work to do.¡± Talka chittered incomprehensively for a few moments. It was simply too fast to understand. But she finally nodded in understanding. ¡°We will begin patrolling the floor immediately, take care, Milady and once more, thank you for your gift.¡± As I turned to leave, I replied, ¡°It was my pleasure.¡± Now all I had to do was to report to Latra and fulfill my promise to Rinnojj. Interlude 14: Anomalous Intrusion When I arrived at the fourth floor, I found Latra circling Lighthouse Keep. I flew up to greet her, eager to deliver the good news. As I got closer, the usual calming sensation that Latra gave off tempered my eagerness. However, it was not enough to blunt it, as I regaled Latra with the tale of my meeting with Rinnojj. When I explained how Rinnojj had insisted I tell her, Latra gave a good-natured laugh. ¡°That does indeed sound like our dear little brother, always so bashful and unable to express his genuine feelings.¡± She kept chuckling for a while longer, before she calmed down, and I finished describing the results of the crystal. Latra seemed thoughtful during my explanation, but paid attention the entire time. I piqued her interest as I explained how the crystal caused veins to form in the hive walls. In the end, she asked me to explain it several times before it satisfied her and I could continue. By the time I finished my conversation with Latra, I had spent the better part of 3 hours with her, engrossed in explaining every detail I could remember. The conversation could have continued longer, if Archives hadn¡¯t pointed out that I was late for dinner. I bid Latra goodbye and transferred over to the dining room. A dish I had not seen before was waiting for me there. It was a fish dish. After hesitating for a moment, an experimental bite later, I concluded Lienru had created yet another masterpiece. That was my first thought as I tasted the food. My next thought was water for my burning tongue. This was unusual of Lienru. She didn¡¯t make mistakes like this. What was going on? Wait, where was Lienru? When she made a new dish, she would always wait for feedback. Before I could figure out an answer, there was a commotion outside and Lienru entered, followed by a younger Kobold. Lienru was not happy, that much was obvious, considering she was dragging the younger Kobold by the scruff. Upon seeing me and the half-eaten food, they both froze. Lienru let go of the younger Kobold and hurried over to my plate while giving me a half-panicked glance. ¡°Lienru are so sorry, Great One! She will fix it as fast as possible, so please don¡¯t punish Tintak, he only wished to improve the taste!¡± I looked at them both, Lienru was holding on to Tintak as if her life depended on it, while Tintak seemed torn between awe and fear. I recalled seeing the little guy before. He had been much smaller back then, Lienru¡¯s younger sibling, I think. ¡°I won¡¯t punish him, this time, since he only wished to be helpful. However, teach him to use less spice in the future, I could almost breathe fire after a mouthful of that dish.¡± I gave a gentle smile. He wasn¡¯t in trouble, he just lacked proper knowledge. Tintak looked relieved beyond words, but also embarrassed, as Lienru led him away. It took an hour before Lienru returned with another plate of food. However, the wait was worth it. She created perfection once more, and herbs from the trade cart created a nice salad that complimented the dish. Lienru left with a satisfied smile and a spring in her step. The rest of the evening passed with no further interruptions or unexpected events. I fell asleep feeling pretty good about the day¡¯s events. It didn¡¯t last till midnight. <Warning, Planar anomaly detected. I repeat, Planar anomaly detected>. Planar what? Confusion warred with sleep as I tried to make sense of the strange notification. <Boss Lady, you gotta wake up this is terrible!>. Archives screaming voice dragged my mind out. I got to my feet, while also apologizing to Indella for waking her. Now awake and alert, I could sense what the notification meant with Planar anomaly. The air itself seemed charged with some kind of energy that gave me goosebumps. Indella¡¯s reaction was more concerning, however. She staggered and clutched her head, and I could sense the distant echoes of the searing headache she was experiencing. If this was how Indella reacted¡­ I erected an extra mental barrier around Indella¡¯s mind and her pain died down. ¡°Climb on, I doubt it¡¯s limited to just us.¡± Indella shook her head. *Too dizzy, besides you move faster without me, I¡¯ll meet you at the Adventurer Camp later.* I nodded, Archives, where is the center of the anomaly? <At the entrance, Boss Lady, it¡¯s centered on the entrance to the dungeon>. Hmm, so the effect could leak inside, but the anomaly itself couldn¡¯t enter, strange. <It¡¯s giving me all kinds of crazy readings. However, check on the rest of the dungeon first.>. I had to agree with Archives on that one. If Indella was this affected when she had my skills to help her resist, how was the dungeon faring? First stop, Latra. She seemed agitated about something. ¡°Are you alright, Sister?¡± Latra looked at me, her calm presence now feeling uncomfortable and out of sorts. ¡°I sense something I have not felt for eons, be careful, Little Sister. The barrier between reality and the Void has become gossamer thin tonight.¡± Latra gazed at me as she spoke. The graveness of her warning was unmistakable. ¡°I appreciate the warning, Sister, I will be careful.¡± I responded, as I dissolved my form and hastened through the floor towards Lighthouse Keep. It was tempting to take the shortcut and skip the third floor, however, being negligent was foolish. As I passed the Teeth of the Songstress, a horrible sight met me. The Sirens were going berserk, attacking everyone and everything within sight. The Anomaly¡¯s doing, or someone or something else? It didn¡¯t matter, I had to stop them, somehow. Easier said than done, however. An attempt to reason with them in their current state was pointless, killing them seemed excessive and outright cruel. While shielding their minds from the anomalous influence was beyond my abilities.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. My contemplation came ended as one of my Brothers breached the surface and turned his gaze on the fighting Sirens. He lifted one of his arms and unleashed a strange distortion towards the Sirens. Nothing else could describe the strange ripple that traveled from his hand and washed over the fighting Sirens. The moment the distortion hit them, every Siren staggered, then collapsed onto the rocks, unconscious. ¡°We HaVe ThIs FlOoR CoVerEd, SiStEr. Go AhEaD, eNgAgE tHe EnEmY.¡± I flew past, I shouted a quick thanks, before I dissolved my form and willed myself to the third floor. A welcome discovery awaited my arrival above. The third floor was fine. The strange atmosphere surrounding the Labyrinth erased the anomalous presence without a trace. I suspected the Labyrinth radiated a dimensional effect, however I lacked the time to investigate, so I pressed on without delay. The Duergar Stronghold didn¡¯t suffer the effects from the anomaly either. It was satisfying to see the preparations work as intended. The totems repelled the void energies, creating large navy blue arches of energy that scattered across the cavern roof like lightning bolts across water. The Duergar themselves ignored the display and concentrated on their assigned tasks. I left them alone. The King and High Priest were handling it with no issues. I sent a simple message saying ¡°Outstanding¡± before I continued onwards. The Anomaly continued to gain strength as I ascended towards the entrance, except in Talka¡¯s Hive. The Crystal Of Creation rejected the Void Energy as navy bolts of lightning were ricocheting off the walls and roof outside. They were unaffected by the anomaly, even outside the perimeter created by the crystal. The Void Hunter¡¯s skill in action, no doubt about it. I materialized and hurried to Talka and relayed my requests to her without delay. Talka was instrumental to safeguarding this floor, considering her broods Skill. Aside from my Brothers and Sister, her brood alone could operate at full capacity in these conditions, something I intended to exploit. ¡°Talka, please spread your brood out on every floor you can. Prioritize the first through third floors for a ¡°search and destroy¡± patrol. Annihilate all void entities you find.¡± Talka chittered with something approaching glee in response. ¡°With pleasure, Mistress, my Hive and I will enjoy the hunt.¡± Talka emitted a vicious screech, and the assembled Striders and Swarmlings scattered, small spheres of normality in a storm of anomalous energy. She turned back towards me as waves of determination washed off of her. ¡°We shall not fail you, Mistress. We will find and destroy all Void Entities who are inside your domain.¡± Talka bowed her head and left the Hive to hunt, escorted by her Royal Guards. With Talka¡¯s Hive taking action, I felt reassured that things would not escalate further. The Village and Adventurer Camp worried me, however. I hoped the totems placed there could withstand the higher intensity. With a rather apprehensive feeling, I dissolved my form once more and willed myself to the Kobold Village. The sight of the village gave mixed feelings. The village was standing, however the totems were shaking so violently they created a distinct buzzing noise. I could see several Kobolds busy erecting more totems to ease the burden on those already placed. After taking stock of the situation, I realized Ssatassha has things under control. If I materialized and attempted to help, I would only cause problems since I did lack too much knowledge about woodworking to be useful. Rather than disturb Ssatassha while she conducted such a large scale operation, I headed towards the camp, dreading what I might find there. My fears weren¡¯t completely unfounded. The totems shielded the Adventurers, preventing them from going on a berserk rampage. But they were suffering from severe headaches and phantom pains. Just watching them all barely hanging on was making me feel sick. As I materialized, I could see Rael stagger to his feet with a determined expression, despite the pain he was resisting through force of will. He approached me, clutching his head. ¡°Pearl, what in Rubolgs name is happening?¡± I gave him the rundown about the situation. Halfway through the explanation, Rael was cursing silently. ¡°Just hang in there everyone I¡¯ll take care of the anomaly.¡± I could only hope I wasn¡¯t making a promise I couldn¡¯t keep. Just as I prepared to leave the camp, a beautiful, snow owl approached through the entrance to camp and transformed into Indella as it landed. So Indella had been practicing shape-shifting, impressive. ¡°I was wondering how you planned to get off Latra after I left you. Though I will admit, I didn¡¯t expect shape-shifting.¡± Indella shot me a quick smile before she focused on the rest of them. ¡°I¡¯ll take care of things here, you deal with the anomaly.¡± I couldn¡¯t agree more if I tried, so I quickly dissolved my form and headed out. Though I checked up on the Umbral Spiders as I passed their lair. They were rushing back and forth in their webs, seemingly restless, but were otherwise unaffected. Good, the last thing I needed was berserk Umbral Spiders. Unguul and his friends were not as resilient, but they had not become aggressive. They had actually become quite affectionate. It reminded me of felines high on catnip. They were no threat in their current state. I noticed several Striders walking through the room, heading for the floor above. After considering the situation, I concluded I could move on. Only one floor remained, but it was the least of my worries. It reassured me that my assumption was correct; it was unaffected by the anomaly. I moved through the Magical Labyrinth and saw the Cubes and Shadows go about their usual business with no sign of strange behavior. A very reassuring sight, so close to my goal. Though as I neared the entrance to the above ground section, I couldn¡¯t help but feel nervous. Just up those stairs was the source of my troubles. Talka¡¯s brood were standing at the stairs, mandibles and claws clacking menacingly. I pushed ahead up the stairs. If I hesitated now, I would lose my nerve. An unexpected sight met me at the entrance. ¡°Saol?¡± The old guildmaster stepped forward, with a deranged look and void energies pouring off of him. That explained where he had fled too. Before I could do anything else, Saol attacked. Chapter 28: Banished Saol¡¯s first attack was so fast I couldn¡¯t completely dodge it. The searing blue-black bolt of energy left a scorched scar down my flank. After considering the pain, I took a quick glance at my health total; 156/180 HP. Far from ideal, but survivable. I responded by lunging at him, claws out, creating a vicious tear down his left arm. It felt like hitting clay and in place of blood this strange blackish blue liquid leaked from the wound. Saol showed no reaction to my attack. Did he even feel it? Saol lunged back at me with his wounded arm, and the impact sent me barreling backwards. 30 damage, damn that hurt. Something wasn¡¯t adding up. Saol was an old, fat and lazy man. He shouldn¡¯t be able to do that much damage to me barehanded, let alone when using an injured arm. I sent a mental blast at him, but it was like hitting air, as if he wasn¡¯t there. Archives? <No idea, Boss Lady, whatever Saol has become, it¡¯s outside my realm of knowledge, sorry>. Great, alright, a quick recap of what I knew about Saol was in order. I took flight to get some distance and dodged another bolt sent by Saol by a mere inch. Saol was radiating a massive amount of void energies. His mind was missing, somehow, nullifying psionic abilities and shielding him from mind reading. His body was freakishly strong, and he could deal more damage than should be possible for someone with his build. There were only two possibilities. Either that wasn¡¯t Saol, or Saol wasn¡¯t human anymore. I took a deep breath and refocused on the task at hand, I could consider the implications afterwards. Question was, how to go about fighting Saol in his current state? I could pummel him, but he didn¡¯t react to my last swipe at all, and his mind wasn¡¯t there at all either, so Psionics didn¡¯t help. Just what was up with Saol, anyway? Before I could contemplate further, I had to dodge out of the way of several rapid fire blasts. Hmm, he might not react to me ripping his arm to shreds, then what if I landed on him? I flew upwards to gain some altitude, then dove and slammed into Saol at full speed. Saol went flying into the stone wall behind him with a sickening crunch. No normal human would survive that impact, and the same liquid that had seeped from his sores scattered all over the place. Whatever this thing was, it wasn¡¯t Saol anymore, that was certain. It might have been at one point, but whatever had happened to him after his departure from the Guild had turned him into this monstrosity. It pushed itself off the wall, unfazed by the brutal hit it had just taken. ¡°ThAT HUrt.¡± Soul¡¯s voice was a twisted, inhuman mess, more akin to a half-chocked gurgle than anything else. It lumbered towards me, heedless of the twisted and crushed state of its body. There was a sick smile plastered all over its face. ¡°REvenGE WIll be MIne.¡± It laughed hysterically as it spoke. Then it stretched out its arms to fire another blast of energy at me, but never got that far as something barreled into him from the side. It took a moment before I registered the Strider that was busy mauling the remains of the Guildmaster. However, this Strider had not evolved like the others. There was also this strange sensation of¡­ wait a moment. ¡°Indella? You shouldn¡¯t be here!¡± The Strider jumped back and hissed before it fired a spine into Saol¡¯s neck and backed off. *I can¡¯t just leave you alone* Saol gurgled angrily and clawed at the spine, more annoyed than hurt. ¡°I appreciate the sentiment, Indella, but this is not the time nor the place, we don¡¯t know what Saol is capable of right now!¡± Indella pulled back. <Fine, but you better come back alive, Pearl>. She withdrew back into the Dungeon. While I appreciated Indella¡¯s intentions, I did not know what this Saol might be capable of. And the last thing I needed was for someone else to get hurt in this mess. Saol finally extracted the stinger and renewed his attempt at attacking me, only this time I would not give him the chance. I charged him again, but this time I followed up with my charge, mauling him as he hit the wall for a second time. Saol let out several gurgling screams of pain as I let my claws go to work until he stopped moving some 5 minutes later. <Anomaly dissipating, Boss Lady. Whatever that thing did, it¡¯s no longer in effect now>. I nodded as I looked at the steaming mess that had once been Saol. There was still a lot of energy pulsing from the remains. Saol would not cause problems for anyone ever again, and good riddance. I turned around and started back towards the Dungeon. Ugh, I needed a bath as the blue ichor covered both my paws and better part of my front and it smelled worse than a skunk. As I reached the stairs, I looked down and saw Indella, Rael and Mordred at the bottom. ¡°Didn¡¯t I tell you all to not come up here?¡± Indella just gave me an angry look. *We can take care of ourselves, besides you are our friend and we want to help if we can, right, guys?* The other two didn¡¯t even need to answer, I could see from their expression they agreed. Just as the trio headed up the stairs, there was a strange noise from behind. I turned around and saw Saol¡¯s broken corpse bulge and stretch like an overfilled balloon as it tried to contain the energies trapped within. My first instinct was to simply dissolve and get out of the way. I had two choices, I could dissolve and let them take the full brunt of whatever was happening or I tanked it in their place. The first option was not even a consideration. If I let them tank it, they would not survive it, period. There was no way that amount of bulging wouldn¡¯t result in some kind of giant explosion. I turned back towards the stairs, screaming. ¡°GET BACK DOWN, NOW!¡± Indella¡¯s look of horror and the confused looks from Mordred and Rael told me everything I needed to know. Archives had informed Indella what was happening, and she pulled the other two after herself back down the stairs. There was not enough time, they wouldn¡¯t get out of range in time. Just as I thought that, Saol¡¯s remains burst into a lance of blueish black energy ripped through the ground and shot towards the dungeon with clear intent. No way, you jackass. This is my home, and I¡¯m not letting you destroy it that easily. I intercepted the beam while wrapping myself in a cocoon of my psionic energy to absorb the hit. I stopped the beam dead in its tracks, dissipating the energies into harmless wisps that faded away. The impact felt like hundreds of tiny shards of glass were cutting me all over and without the energy I probably would have been dead on the spot. However, I was not out of the woods yet. My HP was dropping fast and the energy just kept coming. My psionic energy dissipated under the relentless assault. There was a moment of pain as my barrier finally burst violently, then all my consciousness disappeared as the energy enveloped me completely. ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª <You can¡¯t go up there Indella it¡¯s far too dangerous!> But Pearl is dying! I have to do something, I-! Before I could finish the thought, the energy at the entrance flared for a moment. Then a violent burst of psionic energies sent the three of us tumbling down the stairs in a pile. Rael was the first to extract himself, and he helped Mordred and me up. ¡°You two OK?¡± Mordred nodded as he dusted off his robes and picked up his staff. I, however, ignored the question. Something was wrong, something was horribly wrong, where was Pearl? There was an emptiness in my mind where our bond should have been. I turned towards the stairs and sprinted upwards, heedless of Mordred and Rael¡¯s shouts. The sight that met me on top horrified me. The explosion had turned the entire entrance area into a crater, however there was also no sign of neither Saol nor Pearl. Just like my connection to her, I couldn¡¯t sense her presence at all, but¡­ she¡­ no, she wasn¡¯t dead, she couldn¡¯t be dead. I don¡¯t know when my legs gave out under me. <Um Indella, while I don¡¯t want to get your hopes up, I don¡¯t think she¡¯s dead>. What makes you so certain about that Archives? Wait! Archives? <Yeah, the link between the two of us still exists. If Pearl was dead, there is no way this would be the case>. True, still this meant that something else had happened to her, but what? <Your guess is as good as mine, kid. We should inform the others of what has transpired, so they won¡¯t panic when the news spreads.> Right, inducing a panic would help no one, especially if they drew the wrong conclusions, which would be likely, considering the state of the entrance. I rose to my feet, I would have to keep everything together now, Pearl was missing and the only one who could verify she was alive was me. I had to keep everyone cooperating and positive until she returned, or she might not have a Dungeon to return to. ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª Darkness I was floating in the darkness, just me and nothing else. There was no one and nothing else around me as I floated through the nothingness. What had I been doing before this darkness took me? It was difficult to remember¡­ In the distance there was a change, a glimpse of light it was pulling me in, brighter, brighter and brighter, until everything turned white. BEEP, BEEP, BEEP. That sounded familiar. It was almost identical to the vital sign monitors you would hear in the hospital. Wait, that WAS identical, but that would mean! I slammed open my eyes and looked around. The first thing that greeted me was a searing pain as the sudden brightness stung my eyes. As I focused on the world around me, a silent dread settled in. This was a hospital room. I looked down at myself. Thin, decidedly human arms, normal legs, no fur and no wings or tail and a human build. Shit, I was back. No, no, no, no, no, no! This wasn¡¯t happening, I had not lost everything AGAIN. No wait, deep breaths. There had to be a way to explain all of this. Well, for now, I would have to accept reality, I was back home, somehow. Wait, had I even ever left? Mother had claimed my body back home was dead, yet here I was. Had she lied to me back then? No, I don¡¯t think she had, besides I was pretty sure I had a respirator down my throat. That meant they had kept me on life support. Which means my body had likely been completely unresponsive when the paramedics arrived. That being said, life support was expensive, and I had no next of kin alive to foot the bill, so who had paid for it? As I was contemplating this, there was a humming sound, and the door opened. A nurse entered the room with an IV bag on a tray. She began her work without even looking at me, swapping out the nearly empty IV bags on the rack next to my bed with new ones. Honestly, she should have noticed that the monitor was bleeping faster. Oh, earbuds, she was listening to music. Was that even allowed? Well, her choice of using them caused some distress this time as she turned around to check on the needle inserted into my arm. Finally, she noticed I was not only awake, but calmly looking at her go about her job. She stumbled backwards in shock and only the wall behind her stopped her from falling over completely. Then, without a word to me, she just ran from the room yelling for the doctor. Why she didn¡¯t just use the call button, I didn¡¯t know, shock, probably. Two hours later, I was still in the examination room. As far as anyone could tell, I was completely fine, better than fine. The scanners all came up with ¡°Peak Physical Health¡± which was virtually impossible without several expensive augments or extensive gene therapy. The doctors couldn¡¯t wrap their heads around it. I could, to some extent, courtesy of a few discoveries of my own during the examination process. I had thought it all might have been a dream. That lasted until I accidentally responded to an offshoot comment my designated doctor made in fluent Spanish, a language I couldn¡¯t speak. It didn¡¯t help that for me, it was just plain English. It took a lot of willpower to not let my surprise show on my face when she commented on that. The one annoying part about all this was that no one would tell me who was paying for my stay, though. Every time I asked, all I was told was that ¡°It was all taken care of.¡± or ¡°I didn¡¯t need to worry about that.¡± The entire thing was bothering me. I had tried to see if I could read minds still as well, but all it did was giving me a headache. I guess I still had to work out how some skills worked here, if they worked at all. ¡°How many more tests do I have to take?¡± The doctor ignored my question as she was busy looking over the results. The nurse just smiled at me. ¡°Only a few more.¡± She gave the by now, predictable answer. ¡°You said the same thing nearly an hour ago, either you give me a proper answer, or I am leaving.¡± I rose from my seat and took a step toward the door.Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. The doctor looked up from her notes. ¡°Please wait, Ms. Thompson. I just need another few minutes of your time.¡± I looked at the doctor, trying to get a read on her intentions. <¡­ read¡­ re¡­ ¡­natural high neural activity, I have seen nothing like it before>. The searing headache accompanying the words made it clear I had figured out how to read minds, but my brain couldn¡¯t handle the resulting influx from it. Best to not do it unless it was absolutely necessary. I remained unfazed by the pain, though I suspected it was because Pain Resistance had gained a few levels after taking the blast at the stairs. Well, that was all a hypothesis for now, I was not about to attempt opening the menu in public. Considering I did not know if it would even work or how I would look to any onlooker¡¯s while doing so, it was simply too risky. The doc rose and took out another hand scanner. ¡°It¡¯s just that you have an unusually high neural activity, and I am trying to wrap my head around the reason behind it. Still, all other scans and tests came out fine. I can¡¯t do anything but ask you to come back tomorrow for a few more tests and wish you a good day. And take it easy. While the tests say you are fine, you did just wake up from a three-week-long coma. No strenuous activities, got it?¡± She looked at me with a dead serious expression. ¡°I got it, can I go now?¡± With an annoyed huff, she just waved me out of the room. Once I got to the reception I found that indeed, I didn¡¯t have to pay a dime. I did not like the idea of someone I didn¡¯t know paying for my stay. Still, it wasn¡¯t like I could do anything about it. The only stop I had on my way home was a quick stop to order a food delivery. Three weeks meant whatever I had stored would have gone rancid, and I had far too much on my plate to go shopping. The moment I got home, I collapsed onto the couch. What did I do now? The whole thing wasn¡¯t a dream, I knew that. I could read minds, not to mention the sudden ability to understand and speak languages without realizing it wasn¡¯t English. That being said, you would think that I would be excited about being back home. I wasn¡¯t. In fact, I was on the verge of despair. For the second time in my life, someone had ruthlessly taken away the place I thought I belonged. The only difference was that this time I had willingly put myself in harm¡¯s way. I got back on my feet. Despairing wouldn¡¯t change anything. I might as well do something productive with my time. With my mind made up, I got to my feet and headed straight for my NVR gear. A part of me was silently hoping that when I booted it up, it would just transport me back. No such luck as the normal HUD showed up, showing this was the game world. However, that¡¯s when I got a surprise because when I logged in it was not where I had been when I logged out last. Prior to being transferred, I had been on the 178th floor, watching intruders getting torn to pieces by the floor¡¯s insidious traps and monsters. Now, however, I was on the surface, at the entrance of the dungeon itself. That was a curious coincidence, seeing as that was my location before Saol¡¯s explosive death banished me back to Mars. I headed below the surface. Might as well see how my dungeon was doing after three weeks of no activity¡­ Ok¡­ What was going on here? I might have been away for almost three weeks, but I know I didn¡¯t build that portal there. Then again, this looked identical to the foyer of my Dungeon. A chill passed down my spine, and I quick-traveled to the 2nd floor. The Depths, my 2nd floor, were yet another Maze level, but now it was the Depths. Also, the layout was identical to that of my Dungeon, down to every detail. A quick check gave me similar results for the 3rd and 4th floors. With one exception. The 4th floor was missing a Biomeback Leviathan, an interesting omission, if nothing else. I still had a 5th floor and so on, and they were all unaltered. This got me thinking, if changes in my dungeon reflected in the game, could the same be possible as well? There was one way to find out. With that in mind, I hurried to where the Adventurer Camp would be. ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª ¡°Indella, I keep telling you to stop denying the obvious, there is no way Pearl could survive that, you saw the destruction yourself.¡± Mordred was looking at me with a pained expression as he rose from his makeshift stool in the Camp. I just shook my head. *She is alive Mordred, I know it looks bad, but I guarantee you she is alive, somewhere.* Mordred opened his mouth to respond when he froze, his eyes wide in shock. *What¡¯s wrong, Mordred?* He didn¡¯t respond. Instead, he kept staring at something behind me. I turned around. On the wall behind me was a plaque made of stone with a simple message on it. ¡°Indella, this is Pearl, if you can read this, please add to this plaque, I am testing something.¡± Mordred looked at me. ¡°What¡¯s written on it, I have never seen this language before.¡± I looked at Mordred, confused by his words. What did he mean by that? Archives helpfully cleared up my confusion. <It''s Pearl''s passive skill, Babel, it lets you understand that message whereas none of us have the foggiest of what it¡¯s saying>. I nodded and walked over to the plaque. *It¡¯s a message from Pearl, just give me a moment¡­* I closed my eyes and began the slow and difficult process of editing the plaque. ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª Words could not express my elation as words slowly showed up on the plaque of their own accord. *Message received, what are you testing?* Good thing I had placed the plaque inside the adventurer camp. There was almost always someone there, and eventually Indella would have seen it. I had not expected to get a reply within seconds of making it, but I was not about to scoff at my good fortune. ¡°The blast somehow returned me back to my world. However, because of what Mother did, the Dungeon in the game shares a connection to the Dungeon over there. Altering one reflects those changes to the other.¡± My mood was improving by leaps and bounds. If I could communicate with Indella in this fashion, then maybe I could get back home. Huh, funny thought. No, wait, not really. I hadn¡¯t felt at home here for years, not since that night. No, better not think of that. That was far behind me and yet, I couldn¡¯t help but have this foreboding feeling in my gut. The response took me a bit off guard, but I can¡¯t say it was completely unwarranted. *Do you have proof?* Considering what the Void Entities could ask for such a thing didn¡¯t surprise me too much and there was a very simple response I could give. ¡°Elephant¡¯s exists.¡± There was a long-drawn-out silence. *I am convinced, but I need something to win the others over.* Fair enough. ¡°Tell Rael that he should stop beating around the damn bush and just ask Yrsha on a date already. After all, I have already given him ample opportunity to do so.¡± More silence, followed by a hastily scribbled message made from ink, rather than etched into the stone. ¡°This is Rael, I am glad to know you are alive Pearl. Now keep your damned nose out of my love life, thank you.¡± A quick message from Indella followed even as the ink faded away. *He is blushing, so strongly he is literally glowing, but I am pretty certain you convinced him. That leaves Mordred as the only skeptic*. Convincing Mordred I was myself. Hmm, oh right. ¡°Tell Mordred that we both know how much I taught Lienru about cooking. If he demands more than that, tell him I only taught her the basics and that I agree on his sentiment about how ridiculously fast Kobolds can adapt.¡± Good times, good times. ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª Mordred stared dumbfounded at me as I relayed the message. Then his expression slowly changed from confusion to wonder then, finally he nodded. ¡°I remember that conversation, barely. It''s unique enough that I will believe it¡¯s her. Mostly because it was such a random conversation, someone fake would probably go for something easier to remember.¡± He looked over at the words on the wall. ¡°I still can¡¯t believe you can actually read this, never seen a written language like it before in my life.¡± I couldn¡¯t really tell what was off about it because to me, it was the same runes it had always been. If Archives hadn¡¯t insisted that it was indeed a different type of letters, I would have thought they were all playing a joke on me. ¡°Hey Indella, there are more words showing up¡± Rael pointed to the plaque, and I turned my attention back to translating for the others. ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª ¡°Since there is a connection between the game and the Dungeon, there might be a way for me to help you out from over here. And since I do not know if I can even return given the circumstances, I might as well do what I can from my end.¡± There were a few minutes of no response. ¡°I understand. Good luck, Pearl, be careful, OK? Talk to you later.¡± After I sent a brief reply in response, the plaque faded away to nothing. Indella probably removed it to show that the conversation was over. Well, there was nothing more to do for now. I checked the clock, dinner time, and I immediately remembered Lienru wasn¡¯t here. I would have to make food on my own, great. Well, no time like the present. I logged off and exited the game before I hopped out of my pod and went to the kitchen. Where did I put the food after they delivered it? I never thought a cheeseburger would taste bland, but compared to Lienru¡¯s cooking, how could it not? I finished the meal in a dour mood, all the more reason to leave behind this stupid hellhole and get back to my actual home. The question was how? Gah, dwelling on it right now was getting me nowhere. I grabbed the remote and zapped through some channels on the Holo, but there was nothing even remotely interesting there. Looks like nothing interesting had happened in the last couple of- wait, what¡¯s this? I turned back to the channel I had just skipped past. ¡°Ms. Daniels has declined to comment about the reason she is taking some time off. Though it could be in relation to the recent allegations surrounding her signing 8 years ago.¡± 8 years, Daniels? Surely, it couldn¡¯t be her, right? Nah, last I had cared to check she was still everyone¡¯s Ms. Perfect. Well, it wasn¡¯t like it mattered anyhow. I had far more important things to worry about than that bitch finally getting her comeuppance. Just as I finished that thought, the doorbell rang. Weird, I didn¡¯t expect any visitors, mostly because I didn¡¯t have any friends here, but that was beside the point. I walked over to the door and looked out through the peeping hole. Something was blocking it, great. I grabbed the half a dozen security chains mounted on the door frame, attached them to the door and opened it. I immediately tried to slam the door shut again once I recognized who was standing outside, only for a boot to stop it cold. ¡°Pearl, wait, I just want to talk.¡± I stomped the boot and earned a grunt of pain. ¡°And I want you to go die in a pit, but we can¡¯t always get what we want, now can we, Erika?¡± Erika tried to push the door open, a futile effort, but that didn¡¯t stop her. ¡°Let me in, dammit, you owe me that much at least.¡± I gave her boot another stomp. ¡°I owe you nothing.¡± That earned me a laugh. ¡°And who do you think shouldered the hospital bill?¡± I just peered out at her. ¡°Seriously? Sorry, but that¡¯s not gonna earn you any points from me, I could have paid that no problem.¡± My immediate response gave Erika pause. ¡°How in the world could you afford to pay for something like that?¡± She gave me an incredulous stare. ¡°You really paid no attention to when I talked about my past, did you?¡± I stepped away from the door. Time to get something a bit more effective than my foot to remove that boot. Besides, those chains would not come off until the door was closed, so it wasn¡¯t like she could do that herself. ¡°What does your stupid sob story of a past have to do with anything?¡± She finally gave up all pretense of friendly demeanor. I chuckled before I responded. ¡°What¡¯s my name again?¡± I asked. ¡°Pearl? What does that have to do with anything?¡± I finally found the shock baton I had bought in case of a break in. ¡°Full name.¡± I replied coldly. ¡°Pearl Thompson¡­ Thompson¡­ wait¡­ as in Thompson Solar Transport?¡± I chuckled, only took her a decade to realize. ¡°Thanks to a clause in dads Will, I am entitled to royalties from the company every month. If they don¡¯t pay those royalties, for any reason, I immediately claim full ownership of the company and all its assets. A clever way to secure my future in case of an accident or hostile takeover. Sure, I am not rich enough to own a penthouse, but I got enough money to toss around to afford my own NVR rig, my house and anti-grav car.¡± I walked back to the door and turned the baton on, causing an angry buzzing sound. ¡°Now you have 10 seconds to remove that boot or I WILL treat you like a trespasser, final warning.¡± Erika wisely removed her boot, and I slammed the door shut and locked it. I was not in a mood to deal with her now. I walked back to my pod and logged back into the game. Might as well do something productive to get my mind off things. ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª As Pearl slammed the door in my face, I still couldn¡¯t believe I hadn¡¯t put two and two together before now. Maybe I shouldn¡¯t have been so quick to enact my plan back then. I mean, how was I supposed to know she was actually the daughter of THE Jack and Laura Thompson? They were owners of the largest transport company in the entire solar system. There went my shot at getting back in her good graces by being generous and help her out. What a waste of money. Then again, Pearl had never been short on cash, I probably should have paid more attention to her yapping. Dammit, why did this have to happen now? It was all Pearls fault too. Because of a strange power outage the same night Pearl went into her coma, my Profile had wound up corrupted. And the only backup was inaccessible because my pod used Pearl¡¯s homebrew security program. I had long since forgotten the password for the thing, and it was so nasty that even professional ICE breakers wouldn¡¯t go anywhere near it. And without my profile, I couldn¡¯t play. More worrisome was that when Security for my team learned who made the program, they started looking into her past. This was now raising questions about that night 8 years ago as well. What had I done to deserve this bad luck? Well, if Pearl didn¡¯t want to let me in, I would just find a way in myself. I knew someone who could get that door open easily enough, all I needed was time and more money. Chapter 29: Portals & Pods. Back in the game, I felt the need to experiment a bit. Seeing Erika again after all this time had made me lose my appetite, and I needed to get my mind off of things and focus. The faster I found a way back, the faster I could put Erika behind me for good. Well, I would need someone to actually tell me if what I tried to do worked, which would mean I would need to get a hold of Indella again. Hmm, well, I could try a few simple things and see if it worked out. The most obvious thing I wanted to check was the Real Money store for the game. I had never made use of it before, but I knew it contained things that could prove pivotal for my dungeon. Hmm, no better wait until Indella was around for that, wouldn¡¯t want to waste money. What else could I do? Wait¡­ what if¡­ About an hour later, the plaque at the adventurer camp showed up again. ¡°Was those extra resources your doing?¡± Mordred''s handwriting. I replied, ¡°Yes.¡± There was some silence. ¡°Dammit, can¡¯t read this, let me get Indella. Couldn¡¯t read it? Oh, Babel was probably messing with the writing for me, allowing me to read just fine, but who knows what language I was actually writing in. About 5 minutes later, Indella¡¯s editing told me she had taken over reading duty. <There has to be an easier way to do this. Any ideas?> Actually, I had a few ideas of my own. ¡°Just give me a moment.¡± I opened the Real Money store and scrolled through to a particular item. The Magic Mouth, a simple tool whose only effect was to allow the Core to talk to people over long distances. A magical intercom, basically. Indella should be able to use it as well, so we could have a proper conversation. I placed it down, and after a few seconds of fiddling to get it setup correctly, I activated it. ¡°Indella, can you hear me? If so try manipulating this mouth to speak.¡± It was strange hearing my voice coming out of the stone mouth on the wall. Now all I could do was wait. ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª When the mouth appeared on the wall, I became curious. What was this thing supposed to do? ¡°Indella, can you hear me? If so try manipulating this mouth to speak.¡± Mordred, who had been busy eating dinner beside me, nearly choked as the mouth suddenly spoke in Pearl¡¯s voice. I looked at the thing in shock. What kind of insane contraption was this? Well, if Pearl had placed it, I should be able to manipulate it as well. I focused on it, willed my voice to come from it. ¡°Like this?¡± I almost fell over from surprise. My voice, for the first time since my transformation, I could hear my voice. The mouth smiled. ¡°Hey, it works. That should make things easier. So, Indella, I am going to try something here. Considering this Magic Mouth works properly, it might cause some strange effects in the dungeon. Just wanted to give a heads-up to prevent panic.¡± I looked at the others and nodded. Mordred rose from where he was eating. ¡°I¡¯ll pass the message along, you two just keep working on getting this mess sorted out.¡± He began a quick jaunt towards the exit just as Pearl spoke again. ¡°Ok, so my first plan is to try an implement a floor wide effect to the 2nd floor, just give me another moment.¡± An effect to an entire floor? What kind of crazy¡­ <The Blessing of Mental Resilience is now active on the 2nd floor of the Dungeon>. Umm¡­ OK, Archives? <Sorry Indella, I got nothing. Whatever the Boss Lady did, it¡¯s outside area of my knowledge. As far as I can tell, what she just did shouldn¡¯t be possible, period>. Well, possible or not, I wasn¡¯t complaining. But what did that mean, exactly? I mean Mental Resilience was the aura given off by the totems but¡­ Once again Archives chimed in, helpful as ever. <What I can say is that the Boss Lady somehow placed the totem effect from the camp across the entire 2nd floor. Better yet, it seems to be enhanced in areas with totems>. Well, that was pretty damn useful either way, I turned towards the mouth and focused again. ¡°Whatever you just did, it caused a floor wide Mental Resilience effect to occur.¡± The mouth frowned before it spoke with Pearls voice once more. ¡°Only Resilience? So, it¡¯s not a direct transfer, or maybe Resilience is the strongest version of the effect on your end, as I just placed a Mental Immunity effect. Well, close enough either way.¡± ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª Indella and I went back and forth on what the fresh additions to my game dungeon did to my Dungeon, and suddenly several hours had passed by. Turns out the Real Money shop was far more limited in effect than I hoped. I couldn¡¯t place a single Immunity aura, and one Blessing could only affect a floor at a time, If I placed a second Blessing, the first disappeared. Obviously, I placed Mental Immunity Auras on all floors, so that they would benefit from Mental Resilience. I also didn¡¯t get any benefits by placing new creatures on my end. I hadn¡¯t really expected that to work, but I had tried anyway. That was all fine, but there was still the elephant in my room. How would I get back there? Indella and I had been discussing ideas with Mordred, Eliandar, Pavol and even Yrsha, giving their own suggestions. But so far, nothing we had thought of seemed promising. After discussing far into the night, I was mentally and physically exhausted. Once Indella pointed out she had fallen asleep, I ended the discussion there. There was no use in trying to force the issue. But when I went to bed that night, I continued to feel as if I was overlooking something obvious. ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª ¡°Erika, I keep telling you, this is a horribly bad idea. Her apartment has state-of-the-art security. Some of it is almost as nasty as the damn program protecting your profile.¡± I looked over at Robin. He was good with security systems, but far too skittish for any big jobs. ¡°I don¡¯t care, all you need to do is to give me access to the Biolock for the main entrance. It¡¯s not like you need to break into a vault or something.¡± Robin looked at me with ha skeptical expression. ¡°Erika, do you have any idea how hard it is to add someone¡¯s biometric data to a Biolock without the security system throwing a fit?¡± He shirked away from my stony expression. ¡°Robin, I am not paying you to complain, I am paying you to do it. Get to work or I will find someone who can.¡± He looked at me for a few more seconds, before returning his focus to his screen with a shrug. ¡°I will get it done by tomorrow. Just don¡¯t blame me when you get dragged kicking and screaming out the door by Security.¡± Pfft Robin was always overreacting. What was the worst that could happen? ______________________________________________________ Waking up felt weird. I had become so used to sleeping on a hard stone floor that waking up in a bed was making me feel all kinds of off. Breakfast was miserable. I wasn¡¯t in the mood to do any cooking, and bread with cheese really couldn¡¯t measure up against Lienru¡¯s delicacies. I wanted to go home, badly. Well, complaining about it wouldn¡¯t get me anywhere, now, would it? I hopped back into the pod as soon as I had finished eating, eager to continue to find a way home. I still had a few ideas on how to accomplish it, but it would still take a lot of testing. Several hours later, I was getting frustrated at my lack of progress. It didn¡¯t really matter what I tried to do. I kept just hitting a brick wall with how to get myself back and it was getting on my nerves. The portals had been promising, but no, they worked as intended and transferred whatever I sent through them as you would expect. It was so effective that I actually copied the portals and placed them on all my floors, a job that took the better part of an hour to complete. Just as I finished, a group of players entered the dungeon, ugh I was not in the mood right now. I opened the portal on the 180th floor and sent in a group of Minotaur Gladiators, intending on just stomping them out. The moment they entered the portal I had a severe sense of vertigo. I changed my view to floor one and¡­ where were the Minotaurs? I double-checked the portal. Hang on a moment¡­ I ignored the players, they would get trounced soon enough anyway, besides I had other things on my mind right now. I hoped I was right as I quickly contacted Indella, hoping beyond hope. But I this was also confusing, I had tested the portals before, so why did this happen now? Then it hit me. I had opened the portal just as if it was a portal back in the dungeon, without using the game system! Now, if only¡­ ¡°Pearl, what did you do? There is a group of Minotaurs standing on the first floor being terribly lost and confused.¡± My heart skipped a beat. ¡°How many Minotaurs?¡± The reply was almost instant ¡°5, now, mind explaining what¡¯s going on?¡± I laughed, and I cried as I couldn¡¯t believe it. I had found a way back by falling into old habits. ¡°Indella, I might have found a way home, though I will keep testing for a few more moments, and there is also something else I want to check.¡± A thought had hit me when this happened. ¡°My dungeon, and this game one had a link. This link let me place items here to get them back in my Dungeon, to some extent, and it even served as a gateway back as well. So, what if...? I looked over at the Magic Mouth with a determined expression. ¡°Indella, do me a favor and head to the core room, I want to test something.¡± As I moved myself over to the 5th floor, I noted the Striders had torn apart the players on floor 2, not much of a surprise there. The fifth floor of my game dungeon was without a doubt a nasty one. Not to mention that it had to be unbearably hot in there. Volcanic Caverns, a mutation I had gained several years ago and had replaced the cave floor with. Just entering the floor meant any invaders would face a heat hazard. I looked over at the floor and used the Pay store to buy an Entrance Relocation. Now let¡¯s see how this would work out. I grabbed the entrance to the floor and moved it a few centimeters, if my guess was correct then... The sensation of vertigo returned and I almost blacked out for a few moments. I felt drained beyond words, but I was pretty certain that it worked. Too bad I couldn¡¯t contact Indella in the core room since this side of the dungeon didn¡¯t have Latra. Well, I was pretty certain Indella would contact me if I waited in the Adventurer''s camp, besides I was feeling a little light-headed. ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª As I landed in the core room, I couldn¡¯t help but wonder what sort of crazy idea Pearl had come up with. As I was mulling over different theories on what Pearl might be up to, a sudden bout of extreme vertigo overcame me, forcing me to my knees. Then the area marked as the teleporter that would take you to the next floor lit up. What in Rubolgs name? Well, the answer to the question was simple, Pearl had done something. <Not just something. Look at the dungeon stats!> Huh? What was Archives on about? I opened up the menu showing the overall stats of the dungeon. Nothing seemed out of the or- wait what? As I watched, the numbers for the total floors in the dungeon were changing, radically. 5 floors, 6 floors, 7, 8, the number was climbing and FAST. Just what in Rubolgs name had she just done? As soon as I asked that question, I suddenly felt light-headed and dizzy as I fell to my knees once more. Dammit, Pearl, what did you just do? Before anyone or anything could answer the question, the world went black. ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª I almost lost consciousness as the feeling that had started when I replaced the entrance kept intensifying, but I held on, barely. I couldn¡¯t afford to fall asleep now, not when I was this close to secure my dungeon fully, well, if my suspicion was correct, at any rate. Now I just needed to hear from Indella to confirm if what I had attempted had succeeded or not. But if the vertigo was the sensation of something passing from the game and into my Dungeon¡­ Well, only time would tell. I would, however, want to know the answer to that before I did anything else. All I could do now was wait. And wait I had too, as it took 3 hours before Indella finally manipulated the Magic Mouth at the Adventurer Camp, long enough for me to get worried. ¡°WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?¡± Well, not what I expected as a reply, but I wouldn¡¯t say it surprised me as I moved to answer. ¡°Well, if things happened as I hoped, I just added the missing floors of my game dungeon to the one over there.¡± There was silence for a while. ¡°Archives says that there are a total of 200 floors, but they are all empty, no creatures.¡± Well, that made sense, since creatures didn¡¯t seem to pass through that easily. ¡°I know, and I have a way to fix that, but it will take a while.¡± There was more silence. The next bit didn¡¯t come from the Magic Mouth, but was written in Mordred''s handwriting. He was always quick on the uptake when it involved magic. ¡°You mean to use the portals.¡± Well, that made things easier. ¡°That was the plan, yes. And if I am lucky, I can also use the portals myself to get back. It will have to wait until I have transferred everything else, however. As I do not know if the connection will stay put once I leave.¡± There was more silence, then Indella¡¯s created letters showed up. ¡°More dungeon is good and all, but will it involve more of that damn vertigo?¡± Oh¡­ ¡°It affected you as well?¡± Indella¡¯s reply removed all shadow of a doubt that was the case, oops.Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª Robin looked up from the screen. ¡°There, it¡¯s done. You should be able to get in for the next three hours.¡± I looked at the little nerd. ¡°Three hours?¡± He shrugged. ¡°Best I can do, the system resets at regular intervals, purging all external connections and temporary access accounts like the one I gave you. If I tried anything else, the system would have fried my hardware.¡± I looked at him with a sour grimace. Three hours would suffice, but I had hoped for something more. Now I could at least get Pearl to talk to me. I dropped the credit stick on his table and hurried out. Better hurry if I wanted to get to Pearls apartment before the hour was out. ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª Transporting all my creatures through the portals was slow, really slow. More so because they would arrive at the other side extremely confused. On the upside, the layout of the dungeon on the other side was identical to the layout here, so I had the infrastructure to keep them all going. The main issues were keeping them all from freaking out, considering what was going on. And also the god damn vertigo every time a creature passed through the portal. The more was walking through at once, the worse it got. However, I would transfer everyone. These creatures had saved me from utter despair over the past 8 years, and while they weren¡¯t alive here, they would be on the other side. I would not leave a single one behind. It was the least I could do for them in return, Indella had reluctantly agreed with my reasoning as I explained it to her. The transfer was still an emotional hell, but one that was temporary. To make sure the transfer would go without being disturbed, I had moved Minos to the foyer of the 1st Floor. Any adventurer group unfortunate to set foot inside would wind up at respawn fast. It wasn¡¯t the first time I had done this to keep people out when I was redoing the layout, so players would usually get the message fast. Finally, after nearly three hours of work, the only ones remaining in my entire dungeon was me and Minos. ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª The door opened without a hitch. The moment I touched the handle the lock disengaged, just as Robin had promised. At least the fool wasn¡¯t completely useless. I had hoped to find Pearl on the couch or something, but the apartment seemed empty. Had she gone out? Hmm, nah, Pearl had never been a person who enjoyed being outside, even at the best of times. I should probably look around some more. Maybe she was in another room or something. It didn¡¯t take long to actually locate her, considering she had a really fancy NVR Pod. Top of the line newest model. Bloody hell, Pearl really was rich, wasn¡¯t she? Even I couldn¡¯t afford this sort of expensive BS. The key problem was that the pod was running, which meant Pearl was inside. There was no way for me to actually talk to her until she came back out, unless? I looked around the room. Surely, there was a spare NVR headset for when you just wanted a quick dive, right? After rummaging through the room for a bit, I found one. It was old, really, really old. This one looked like it hadn¡¯t seen use for the better part of a decade. I dusted off it and moved towards the pod. There should be a slot where others could plug in to join the one playing inside the pod. However, just as I slotted it in the entire pod suddenly gave off this massive flash of white light. I slammed on the headset and activated it to escape the insanely bright light. The moment I did, the world went black, and I was falling, falling... falling¡­ into¡­ darkness. ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª I sent Minos through the portal first. That way, if something happened to me or if I failed to pass through, then the others would at least have Minos to help them out. I looked around the game dungeon one last time. Then I remembered something and quickly grabbed an item from the Pay Shop it was one of the most expensive items the shop offered. But it would be necessary if I were to have any hope of dealing with the Lord of the Void, provided it even worked at all. I took the item out of my inventory and lobbed it through the portal to be sure I wouldn¡¯t lose it. Then, just as I set foot in the portal myself, I heard a message, followed by some kind of light inside the portal. ¡°Player 2 Connect-¡± The rest of the message cut off as I stepped through and everything went black. Consciousness returned slowly, and my entire body ached. I sat up and looked around, well, I tried looking around, but something small and human shaped collided with my face and blocked my vision. <Don¡¯t you scare me like that again.> A familiar knot of emotion in the back of my head told me all I needed to know. ¡°Nice to see you too Indella, now, do you mind letting me go? I can¡¯t see and you are also making it difficult to breathe.¡± Indella let go and stepped back a few paces, blushing ever so slightly as I looked at her. I quickly noticed that I was inside the dining room. Odd, I am positive I had taken the portal to the first floor. ¡°How did it go, did everyone make it through?¡± Indella looked over her shoulder and I followed her gaze. There staring daggers at Rael and the rest of the party and single-handedly preventing them from moving past, was Minos. ¡°Let them pass, Minos, things have changed since your last encounter.¡± As I finished speaking, he turned around, and all but led the resulting charge over to me. ¡°Mistress!¡± Minos¡¯ voice was far deeper than I had expected. Then again, I had really no idea how I had imagined his voice to be. In the game, Minos, just like every other monster, had been mute outside of roars, snarls and grunts. ¡°Mistress, how I have longed for this day once more.¡± Was he¡­ crying? He stretched out a massive hand and gingerly touched my paw before he collected himself. He got down on one knee, slammed his left arm into the floor, and put his right hand over his heart. ¡°Mistress, I, Minos apologize for my inability to properly protect you before now. However, I beg you, allow me to guard your Core from now on, despite my earlier failings I will not do so again.¡± Yep, that was more akin to what I had expected. When I created Minos, I had maxed out his sense of honor and as seriousness. This no-nonsense behavior was what I had hoped for and frankly what I needed right now. I looked at him as I sat up myself. Even kneeling, the massive form of Minos was almost as tall as me when I was sitting upright. ¡°You shall Minos, and more than that. You have never failed in your duty, though circumstances forced us apart, now that you have returned you will once again guard my core. However, certain events transpiring means that there are far more than just guarding to do, I trust you are up to the task.¡± Minos grinned, revealing several razor-sharp teeth as he nodded once. Right, Minotaurs were carnivores. How easy that was to forget. ¡°Good, now did anyone see a compact bundle coming through the portal?¡± Indella pointed to the corner of the room. Good, it had made it through. Just as I was about to continue, there was a rumbling sound. Indella and the rest had barely enough time to scatter across the room as a literal tide of Kobolds led by Ssatassha flooded in from the entrance. They fell on me in a scaly tidal wave of hugs, followed by a scent that caused everyone in the room to drool uncontrollably. Lienru entered the room, followed by a dozen other Kobolds each carrying platters of food that smelled beyond divine. ¡°The Great One has returned, I demand a celebration!¡± Ssatassha declared from her perch atop the pile of Kobolds that were still busy hugging me. I tried in vain to move, to speak to do anything, but the Kobolds would have none of it for another few minutes. By then the rest had eagerly joined in on the party as Lienru and her assistants carted more and more food in. Where were they storing, let alone cooking all of this? I decided it didn¡¯t matter, not now. I was home again and this time for good, if I had anything to say about it. The only thing I did before I joined the festivities was to put the package into storage. Better not lose it, or have someone activate it by accident, that would be bad. Hopefully, the tens of thousands of credits I had paid for this damn thing was worth it. Then again, it was a moot point. I didn¡¯t need Credits anymore, and if it didn¡¯t live up to my hopes, it probably wouldn¡¯t matter. As the party wound down a Duergar entered and said something to Indella, then saw me, smiled briefly, bowed and hurried out. What was that about? Indella looked at me and motioned for me to follow her. <As you returned you were not alone, someone else fell through the portal a few moments after you did.> A chill went down my spine at the news. Had another player somehow gotten into the dungeon and through the portal? Then I remembered the message I had received just as I stepped through. Player 2, how in the world had someone connected to my Pod? Well, the best way to find out was to speak with the person in question. <We wanted to put her on the fourth floor in one houses there. But only you can command Hazalaar to stand down. It seemed like too much of a risk for a potential ally. So, we put her under strict guard on the third floor instead.> Indella explained as we moved towards the stairs. Just as I was about to respond, however, there was another who until now had remained quiet, but finally said hello. <BOSS LADY WELCOME BACK!!> To call Archives loud would be an extreme understatement. It was like someone was yelling into my ear, and if Indella¡¯s reaction was anything to go by, Archives had not thought this through at all. <Oops, sorry! I got a bit too eager.> It was nice to have Archives back too. <Aaw, thanks Boss Lady!> The rest of the trip to the Duergar fort went with little in the way of issues. However, as I arrived, I noticed a few changes here and there. There were several smaller tunnels in the large valley in front of the fort. <The tunnels belong to a tribe of Deep Goblins. They migrated here from floor 52.> 52¡­ oh right, the Bottomless Chasm. It made sense. That place was better suited for flying creatures. And since migration wasn¡¯t a thing in the game but was here, many of the creatures from the game would move to floors that suited them better. Hopefully, without causing too much of a fuss. <Don¡¯t worry, Boss Lady. They have all been on their best behavior in the three days you and your human companion have been unconscious.> Three days? And no one felt the need to tell me that sooner? No wonder I had been so damn hungry. Indella gave me an apologetic smile as we entered the Duergar Fort. There was a party going on here as well, with a bunch of greyish-black Goblins dancing around and making merry with the usually more stoic Duergar. Their music was a strange mix of the Duergar¡¯s brass and the Deep Goblins¡¯ bone instruments, but it wasn¡¯t bad to listen to, not at all. Finally, we reached the hut that they had cooped my mysterious passenger up in. I looked inside and froze. There, sleeping soundly on a small cot was the one person I hated the most in the world. Ironic that if it wasn¡¯t for her betrayal, I would never have made this place. I didn¡¯t even think twice about it as I spent the points to unlock the Prison and placed one at the back of the Fort. Indella didn¡¯t look surprised as I ordered her moved there and kept under strict guard. She had felt my sheer hatred for her easily enough. I am not sure what expression I had made, but the look of horror on the guard¡¯s face told me I should probably calm down before I confronted Erika. I doubted she knew what she had gotten herself into. There was no way she would have willingly followed me here. It was just bad luck on her end that any player connecting using the pod of a friend would spawn just in front of them. This would have put Erika inside the portal as she appeared in the game, sending her hurtling through space and time the moment she spawned in. I returned to the party for now, I would decide what to do with her later. Revenge was indeed a dish best served cold. The thought gave me a wicked smile indeed, according to Indella. Chapter 30: Lord of the Arena. After the finding Erika like that, I spent the rest of the day going from floor to floor and making sure everything was going smoothly. Most of my creatures were eager to meet me. Turns out they kept their memories from the game, somehow. I wasn¡¯t sure how to feel about that, as I didn¡¯t think I had been as¡­ affectionate as I could have been. But in the end, I decided it was a good thing. We had spent a lot of time together, after all. And while the memories they had were foggy, as if it was a dream to them, they were still very real. It was surreal to travel through the dungeon and meet them all again. Indella was riding on my back, as I wanted to make sure she too got to know them. Managing a dungeon this big was quite a task when you didn¡¯t have a menu to just send commands from several floors away. I realized I would need help, and Indella had volunteered as soon as I mentioned it. Considering how she was getting along with everyone and everything in the dungeon so far, combined with her connection to me, I¡¯d say she was perfect for the role. There was, however, one issue I was still on the fence on. My core room was still on Latra¡¯s head. On one hand, I could move it to the 200th floor, all but guaranteeing that intruders would never get to it. However, Latra would prevent attacks from outside reality. I had no guarantee that Minos¡¯ Core Guardian would prevent such attacks, and Minos couldn¡¯t say for sure either. In the end, I decided that until the Void crisis was over, my Core room would remain on the 4th floor. Minos could still stand guard over it there. Besides, having to travel 198 floors to reach the dining room every morning for food was out of the question. I could use the portal I had placed on the 200th floor. But I hid it in a corner of the Giant Maze, as far away from the Boss room and entrance as possible, for safety reasons. This was great if intruders somehow got through the portal. But not so great for efficient transit from the Boss room as the Giant Maze was giant in every aspect of the word. The Magical Labyrinth, Deep Labyrinth, and even the above ground Maze would all fit inside the Giant Maze with lots of room to spare. There was of course one thing I really wanted to do, but Erika was still unconscious, so that had to wait. The Duergar had given her a check-up to see if they could figure out why. After hours of testing, their best guess was that the strain of traveling to a new reality was more taxing for a human than a sphinx. The following morning traders from Caelyn arrived again, led by Micha as Yndali promised. As I materialized in front of them, I could see most of the adventurers tense up, and seemed quite on edge. The only one to not bat an eye was Micha, who hopped off her wagon and, as usual, greeted me with a nod. I returned it and then focused on the wagons. Lumber, herbs, and veggies! I knew of a certain Kobold that would be ecstatic to try her hand at cooking with those. There was also some dried meat of a kind I didn¡¯t know. It smelled salty. Hmm, I should leave that meat to Rael and the others. The next thing on offer surprised me. Wine. If this been before my little shunt back home, I probably would not have considered it. However, here I was with my entire dungeon. I was already swimming in more points than I knew what to do with and more creatures than I could count. I could afford to spend extra. If nothing else, then it would help Caelyn when everything went to hell. Hmm, speaking of the extra floors¡­ I looked over at Micha. ¡°This is all great stuff. Did Yndali request any specific payment for any of it?¡± Micha shook her head after a brief pause. Excellent. I paid with starsilver for the logs. They were of exceptional quality and lumber was worth a lot in this world, so there was a point in using starsilver to pay for it. Since it would give the smiths in Caelyn something to make more than just jewelry with. The vegetables and herbs I paid for with healing potions. They were quite potent too, but to me, it was a fair deal, since these vegetables were impossible for me to get from any other source. It was tempting to just fill their carts with stuff, since I was no longer in any actual need of outside materials, barring the veggies. However, that would be strange now, wouldn¡¯t it? Especially after I said I would only do fair trades after the first trade session. The dried meat I gave something that I knew would rise a few eyebrows, as I replaced the meat with three barrels with no markings on them. ¡°Be very careful with those barrels, as I can¡¯t even imagine how bad it would be i they sprung a leak.¡± Micha looked at me with a questioning look. After a few moments so Archives could give the clear signal for just telling them, I shrugged before I answered. ¡°The barrels contain Liquid Death, figured it might help to have some on hand when the Void attack Caelyn.¡± The adventurers that had been inspecting the barrels stepped away with horrified looks on their faces. Not a surprising reaction, considering Liquid Death lived up to its name. Just a drop on your skin could kill. In the game it had been very popular to dip your arrows into since it would turn oil like and sticky when in contact with iron or steel. It was the perfect poison for bladed weapons because of this trait. Funny thing was, Liquid Death wasn¡¯t that expensive. It was pretty easy to make and had inexpensive ingredients, IF you had access to them. Most of which came from several diverse areas not readily available in one location. Areas like the multitude of biomes my deeper floors had. It was just that Caelyn¡¯s location meant they would have to import the stuff. This cranked up the prices due to how dangerous it was to transport. And importing the ingredients was worse, because of the sheer number of them. Three barrels were barely worth more than the cartload of salted meat. The wine barrels, however, was another consideration. The price of wine was something I had no clue about. Luckily Archives came to my rescue, and after some deliberation I replaced the wine with a small box containing gems and a few bars of refined Starsilver. Archives had assured me that the wine was quality stuff well worth the price I paid. After the adventurers had taken their time securing the barrels, Micha and the others left. I got some glances from the adventurers that were a mix of terrified and grateful as they left. It wasn¡¯t before I took to the skies to enjoy some fresh air before my return to the dungeon that I noticed. The outside area had expanded again, and it was about twice the size it had used to be. How in the world had I not noticed that? Archives? <Oh right, that. Well, the outside area grew in response to the insane influx of essence caused by gaining another 196 floors out of nowhere. Your area has continued to expand even after you maxed out the area upgrade, it was just so slow it was unnoticeable. I mean, about a foot every few years would be pretty hard to notice in just a month. But when you added that much more¡­ oomph, to the dungeon, it overloaded the surrounding area. This caused a sudden burst of growth and you see the result.> And it didn¡¯t occur to you that might be why the adventurers seemed on edge? No response, but I got the distinct feeling that Archives was feeling somewhat sheepish. As I was discussing this with Archives, I landed at the entrance and walked down the stairs. I could have just transferred, but I wanted to feel my body again, my actual body. Sure, I had lived most of my life as a human, but after a month as a sphinx I had been feeling awkward in my old form. Then again, I guess that on a mental level I was no longer human. Was that the reason? No comment from Archives, so either I was right, or more likely, Archives didn¡¯t know. Then again, who could tell? How many people had ever woken up from fainting only to find themselves as a different species all together? I mean Indella could shapeshift, but I got the distinct notion that that was not the same as being transformed both in body and soul. There was also the minor part where Indella¡¯s shapeshifting was voluntary. Whereas mine had, in the beginning, been more distressing than anything. A sudden sound in front of me stirred me out of my thoughts. A trio of child sized, misshapen humanoids were bickering over what I recognized as Pavol¡¯s beloved book. They had long pointy ears, even longer gangly limbs, almond brown skin, wide mouths filled with shark-like teeth and long red caps. It was about to come to a head as one of them pulled out a wicked-looking serrated dagger and yelled at the others. I shook my head in annoyance. Even in the game, the Redcaps had been trouble, but it looked like it was even worse now. Just as the trio was about to tear each other apart, I leapt at them and slammed into the ground so hard I sent the trio tumbling. ¡°That book belongs to Pavol, and it better be back in his possession within the next 10 minutes or else.¡± My voice was so cold it surprised me. The three Redcaps shook their heads and laughed for about half a second. However, the moment they realized who they were laughing at, their almond skin went ashen grey. They scampered off with the book all the while blaming each other for the theft, as if I didn¡¯t know they were all in on it. I would have to check in with Pavol later. That and have a serious talk with Nicomphus, the Named Redcap I had put charge of them all back in the game, about their behavior. Stealing from fellow dwellers in the dungeon was unacceptable regardless of their species.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. Hmm, Nicomphus used to hang out on the 143rd floor, but there was no guarantee he and was still living there. <The Redcaps moved into the Caverns on the 16th floor, when the Giant Bats that lived there moved to the cavern area of the Deep Labyrinth.> So Nicomphus had moved back to his old haunt. The trio of redcaps that stole the book must have been exploring the upper floors on Nicomphus¡¯ orders then. <It¡¯s more likely they got bored and wandered off looking for someone or something to prank.> I shook my head. When I created Nicomphus in the game, I had set his personality to be ice cold. I had set his personality during NPC creation so he would be without humor and pity. He was as cold as a blizzard on a winter night and would not like it if his minions wandered off without permission. Since Minos had kept his personality, it would be strange if Nicomphus had changed his. With the information about where I could find him, I dissolved my form and transferred over to the 16th floor. The Cavern was, as the name suggested, a confusing network of tunnels and side passages. In difference from the Depths, this place was mostly large tunnels, rather than small tunnels between giant chambers. There were a few rooms here and there on this floor too, but they were fewer and smaller. After moving about the floor for almost half an hour, finding nothing, I finally entered Nicomphus¡¯ old lair. Nicomphus himself was huge for a Redcap. While most Redcaps were the size of a 4 or 5-year-old human child, Nicomphus was the size of a 10-year-old. He wore dark leather armor and a jet black cloak. In his belt were two of those wicked daggers, I had enchanted them to cause extra bleeding. Further more Nicomphus had a little something extra I had given him after he had fended off a rather annoying party of Rogues. I had given him an Assassin Class upgrade. After that, he had become such a terror that a moderator had told me to specify a deeper floor they could move him and the other Redcaps to. When I asked why I was told they had gotten too many complaints about him TPKing weaker parties just looking to farm the upper floors. I had meant to say hello to him, but I had found no Redcaps when I came through with Indella earlier. As I stepped into the room, he looked up from the stone chair he was sitting nonchalantly in, with his right leg over the armrest. He was using a small knife to clean his long claw-like nails. ¡°Hey Boss, been a while. To what do I owe this sudden visit, surely it¡¯s not to tell us to move back down, is it?¡± His voice was far deeper than his frame would suggest, and with no emotion at all. ¡°Indeed, it has been a while Nicomphus. And no, I won¡¯t kick you back down to the 143rd floor. I was going to ask if you allowed a trio of your underlings to steal from fellow Dungeon dwellers.¡± Nicomphus froze and his yellow eyes slowly darkened to an angry glowing red. ¡°They. Did. What?¡± He asked, and the other Redcaps near him looked at each other with terrified expressions. I walked closer and sat down as I looked at him. ¡°I caught them red-handed. They had stolen an invaluable book from a human that live on the Dungeons 2nd floor and were bickering over who got to keep it. The book is one of a kind, and its value to the dungeon is immeasurable, as it contains a lot of lore that would otherwise be unavailable. They stormed of to return it when they realized I caught them, so no harm done, this time.¡± Nicomphus nodded slowly as I spoke. Then, with a rather unnerving grin, he sat up and replied. ¡°I will see that the culprits receive a fitting punishment, Boss. They won¡¯t try that again, I assure you. The same goes for the rest of this lot.¡± The glow in his eyes had now taken on the same hue as freshly spilt blood. I almost pitied the Redcaps when Nicomphus got his hands on them, almost. Redcaps were malicious at the best of times, and it was better to make sure they stayed in line before they murdered someone. ¡°Make sure you do. While they are not born of the dungeon, these humans are as much my allies and companions as you and your Redcaps, Nicomphus. This means I view them as much a part of my dungeon as you and yours. Any harm brought on to them by anyone else living here without just cause, will receive a punishment befitting such an act.¡± Nicomphus shuddered as I spoke. Though if it was from anger at the thought of anyone doing such a thing, or bloodlust at the thought of punishing them, I couldn¡¯t tell. Nicomphus and his fellow Redcaps might be a bloodthirsty and murderous lot. But just like any Dungeon creature, they knew that to harm any other dweller of the Dungeon without just cause was beyond taboo. I didn¡¯t even want to consider the amount of torture Nicomphus would enact on anyone he caught doing THAT. Pranks? Fine, as long as they were mostly harmless Nicomphus would begrudgingly allow his kin to do so, provided he didn¡¯t receive any complaints. But outright harm? Most would likely prefer to run into Minos if they did, since he would make their death quick. I seriously doubted Nicomphus would ever let anyone taste the sweet embrace of death if he caught them harming a fellow Dungeon dweller. Besides, the backstory I had made for him stated that only inflicting torture on someone else made Nicomphus actually feel anything. Obviously, he couldn¡¯t do that to a fellow Dungeon creature without a valid reason. So the idea of such a reason coming to pass would most likely seem quite appealing to him. However, while he might be heartless, he wouldn¡¯t commit such an act himself. If nothing else because he knew who would be his executioner if he did. Nicomphus might be one of my more powerful Named monsters form the game, but he would not stand a chance against my favorite and he knew it. Hell, the entire dungeon knew it. Speaking of, where was Minos anyway? I hadn¡¯t seen him all day, and he hadn¡¯t been at the Core room when I woke up. Latra had said he flew off earlier for some unspecified reason when I asked her. Hmm, should I go look for him? Actually, why look when I could just ask? <He¡¯s fighting in the Arena, you don¡¯t wanna know his current kill count.> Who is crazy enough to actually challenge Minos? <He takes on large groups of opponents to ¡°balance it out.¡± However, the fights have been pretty damn short and one-sided so far, so he should run out of challengers soon.> I Guess he felt the need to make sure everyone knew who¡¯s on top of the pecking order? <How should I know? I can¡¯t read him at all. Honestly, I am afraid to even try.> Fair enough. I transferred over to the arena and arrived just in time to hear an absolutely massive roar from the crowd. There in the center of a gigantic conflagration of black flames was Minos. Several Duergar, Fox Spirits, Minotaurs, the four Evil Eyes, and even a few Abyssal Spiders and Spectral Striders were on the ground in front of him, dead as stone. Their remains slowly turning to ash before the dungeon sent them to respawn. ¡°ANYONE ELSE WISH TO CHALLENGE ME?¡± After considering the scene in front of me for less than a second, I seriously doubted anyone would be crazy enough. Considering the utter lack of any other challengers, it would seem the rest of those gathered were of the same mind. I materialized and landed next to Minos. ¡°What about me?¡± Minos turned around, then immediately fell to his knees. ¡°I would never rise my blades against you, Mistress, even for sparring. If you challenge me, then I surrender.¡± I couldn¡¯t help but smile. ¡°I won¡¯t take your title as Champion of the Arena away from you, Minos. Besides, I think the crowd would be pretty disappointed if I did. ISN¡¯T THAT RIGHT EVERYONE?¡± The spectators, which hailed from both my dungeon and Yrsha¡¯s exploded into eager roars and hoots. Which suddenly fell dead quiet as several gasps and even a few screams of fear escaped them. Now what? I looked around and saw the reason. There, at the entrance to the arena were 5 very familiar shapes. ¡°Brothers, what are- ?¡± I never got to finish the question as they entered the arena itself. They didn¡¯t use the entrance, for it was far too small. They just phased through the wall, as if it, and the guests on the stands, were not there. ¡°We WiSh To TeSt OuR MiGhT aGaInSt YoU, bEaSt Of SaLvAtIoN, tO sEe If MoThEr WaS rIgHt AbOuT yOu.¡± Wow, wow, wow, hang on a sec here! ¡°Brothers, the arena isn¡¯t big enough for that. If you fight here, the entire floor could get destroyed!¡± All but the biggest of my brothers flat out ignored me. ¡°A tRiFliNg MaTtEr, SiStEr, BeHoLd.¡± the five of them lifted their arms and uttered a strange series of words even Babel couldn¡¯t translate. There was a strange flash and a series of runes appeared between the crowd and the arena, before they faded from view. Archives chimed in before I could even ask the question. <They blessed the Arena building with Spacetime Shielding. It will allow the Arena to grow larger or smaller than needed and prevent attacks aside from Divine Rank from getting through, regardless of strength. It should last a few hours at most, so you might wanna get out before they begin their fight. Anything caught in between would likely die instantly.> I didn¡¯t hesitate to just transfer out. I had seen my Brothers fight before and I KNEW how destructive Minos could be. This was a fight I didn¡¯t want to be caught up in. I reappeared on a small platform that was reserved for me among the crowd. I didn¡¯t really care much for the arena fights, so I hadn¡¯t used it before now. But this was a fight I wouldn¡¯t miss for anything. Both my brothers and Minos looked at me. Oh, so that was how it was, eh? Fair enough. I sat up and on the top of my lungs roared. ¡°Fighters, BEGIN!¡± Chapter 31: Minos The moment I spoke the words, my Brothers fanned out in a half circle. Moments later, the arena exploded into a high-pitched keening noise as they all fired a strange grey cone-shaped beam at Minos. It was as if the sound of screeching tires and nails on a blackboard were mixed, then sent it through a speaker at max volume. From my vantage point, I could see several of the other spectators holding their ears and wincing in pain. Just looking at the beam made my eyes water and as it dissipated, it left behind a strange blue-green afterimage, as if I had suffered a retina burn. They had bathed the entire center of the arena in the attack. As the resulting smoke faded away, I noticed it had vaporized the floor, leaving a crater about half the size of the arena. My brothers were all grinning with a rather unnerving expression on their strange faces until the smoke cleared enough to reveal Minos. He was floating in mid-air and was busy dusting off his armor, as if he hadn¡¯t even felt the attack itself. He then, with a slow, almost lazy gesture, looked at the five of them. ¡°That¡¯s it, is that all you got?¡± As he asked that, I looked up Minos¡¯ stats. He had taken just over 1000 damage from that. Now that was impressive. <I agree, he weathered that blast as if it was nothing.> No, not that. I knew that wouldn¡¯t do anything to Minos. I mean, you have seen his stats. <Then what did you mean?> I meant the damage it did to him. Minos should have mitigated 99% of the damage that attack dealt. Just do the math. <100000 give or take, yikes.> Bingo, granted that was a group effort, however, that¡¯s still around 20000 from each of them on average. <Huh, I guess there is a reason you could call him a demigod.> That¡¯s an understatement. Even while cursed, the stats shown for Minos were accurate. And I wasn¡¯t kidding when I said I spent more resources on Minos alone than the rest of my entire dungeon combined, all 200 floors of it. It seemed it finally dawned on Archives just how many resources I must have spent to power up Minos. <The number of resources that must have cost is...> Mind boggling, right? I guess you could say it had become an obsession of mine to create an undefeatable monster. The worst part is, he could probably have become even stronger if I had more time. <Can¡¯t you do it now? I mean with your dungeon in full swing here you should have the resources.> No, after a while I had to use the Real Money Shop to improve him and those boosts don¡¯t work the same if used here. At least the auras didn¡¯t. Here¡¯s hoping that thing does, or we¡¯re screwed. <Speaking of, what was that pa-> I never got to hear the rest. Minos had in the meantime charged into the smallest of my brothers with such force that the sound he made when he hit the barrier was like an explosion. Minos jumped away from my brother, and he slumped to the floor in a pile, still alive, but dazed, if not knocked out on the spot. As always, Minos was quick to eliminate the weakest link. The largest of my brothers hissed and chanted in a language I didn¡¯t understand. Meanwhile, the two brothers beside him charged towards Minos with a speed that should be impossible for something that big. Minos calmly jumped above the first of his two assailants. Then, while midair, he hit the 2nd with a roundhouse kick that sent him colliding into the barrier with a sickening *SPLAT* sound that made the spectators shudder. Those unarmed and evasive skills from Beast Warrior, combined with his counter attack abilities from Berserker were almost unfair. As this was going on, 4th Brother had joined 1st Brother in his spell casting. My brothers had Magic Assist? Interesting. Magic Assist would improve the casting speed of the spell and let 4th brother cast it as well. Though with a much shorter cast time than even 1st Brother was getting as the first caster. Just what was he casting, anyway? I had never seen a spell like this before. Before Archives could even respond, I got my answer. There was a bright flash of light, followed by a massive roar as what I could only describe as a small sun appeared in the arena. A second appeared a moment later, increasing the noise tenfold. The light, nose and heat were insane even through the barrier. I couldn¡¯t even imagine how it would be like to be on the inside. With squinting eyes, I watched as Minos¡¯ health ticked down. At the rate the spells were going, it would probably kill him in a few hours. However, there was no way Minos would give it a few hours as his voice roared, barely audible over the noise of having two literal suns so close. ¡°Edict of Nullification Activate!¡± The suns disappeared. There was no sound, no huge spell, explosion or anything. One moment they were there, the next, gone. <What in Rubolgs name? That was an Elder Spell. There is no way he should have been able to counter that!> He didn¡¯t. <I saw him counter it and so did you.> He didn¡¯t counter it, he nullified it. <Nullified?> Countering means to rip the spell apart completely and dissipate the magic. Nullification is like dropping a guided anti-magic effect on something, it doesn¡¯t counter the magic, it causes the spell to end immediately without further effect. Archives went silent, and I looked at the state of the arena. The melted floor was pouring into the crater and formed a pool of lava, and the barrier had turned an angry red, before now cooling off again. My brothers had some severe burns but seemed to regenerate their wounds at a decent clip. What about Minos? He had already recovered thanks to his Hyper-Regeneration. <Not a scratch¡­ He countered two Astral Suns and didn¡¯t receive any damage from it. I didn¡¯t think anyone would get out of that unscathed.> He didn¡¯t. His regeneration kicked in once he reached half health. Combined with the Edict of Nullification doing as its name suggests, he could regenerate back up to full almost instantly since he wasn¡¯t taking damage anymore. <This¡­ isn¡¯t a fair fight.> I chuckled. It was never a fair fight to begin with. All my Brothers are undoubtedly immensely powerful, far more powerful than I, but Minos is beyond that. Remember, Mother originally wanted him, not me because he could fight on an even level to Inlas. My Brothers might be insanely powerful monsters, but I am pretty sure they can¡¯t fight gods. In the Arena 1st, 2nd and 4th brother had gathered, their grins now gone and replaced with an unmistakable expression of shock. ¡°ImPoSsIbLe¡­¡± 4th brother gestured and fired a strange misty bolt at Minos. Who calmly just looked at it ¡°No¡­ I think not.¡± The spell burst into harmless sparks. <This time he countered it.> Yep. ¡°Well, you three, should we continue or do you surrender?¡± He smiled pleasantly, but knowing him, he was giving off such an intense bloodlust that most people would have already fainted. Minos might be polite and no nonsense outside of battle. While in combat, he was always brutal and efficient, always opting for the fastest way of ending the conflict. The fact he would accept their surrender rather than killing them meant my Brothers might be far tougher than I was giving them credit for. Even as he spoke those words, my brothers laughed. 1st Brother slithered forwards and looked down at Minos with the grin back in place. ¡°YoU aRe FaR sTrOnGeR ThAn We ExPeCteD. LeT uS tRy SoMeThInG a BiT mOrE pOwErFuL tHaN mErE cAnTrIpS.¡± 1st Brother responded as he reached his hand and materialized a spear made from the same strange grey energy as the beam from earlier. A moment later there was a clanging of energy against metal as a massive jet-black shield almost as big as Minos himself deflected the attack. ¡°Brave, though foolish, and so many wasted movements as well.¡± Minos looked past his shield up at 1st Brother. A moment later, Minos had to dodge to the side as a massive energy mallet slammed into the place he had been standing. 3rd Brother had missed him by an inch. Then he had to block once more, as 4th Brother attacked with an energy whip. The hit sent him skidding backwards and over the edge of the crater, and it took Minos a moment to levitate to not fall into the lava below. ¡°Got some strength behind that hit, not bad.¡± Minos seemed quite calm about the entire thing. Despite the force of the impact, and that they had knocked him cleanly across the massive crater didn¡¯t seem to phase him at all. He had never been talkative in the game, for obvious reasons. But the pauses in attack patterns could have had banter in them had they been there. Minos scratched the ground with a hoof a few times, a grin on his face. The next moment there was a rushing sound and 3rd Brother got slammed into the barrier once more. Minos had shield-rushed him with such force you could hear bone crack from where I was. Provided 3rd Brother survived that, he would probably be in tremendous pain for a while. 1st and 4th Brother seemed to finally accept that Minos was beyond them, as their grins faded. ¡°Three down, two to go, so then, whose next?¡± Minos swung his shield over his head, and there was a flash of light. As it passed, Minos was now wielding his massive axe instead. Neither of my Brothers moved, but took defensive stances as they readied for the inevitable. ¡°Well then, let¡¯s see how you handle some offense!¡± As he yelled, Minos vanished and both 1st and 4th Brother became a whirl of inky blackness as they tried to fend off Minos¡¯ assault. The entire thing was going so fast I couldn¡¯t see what was going on. It was just a blur of motion. The only reason I could see that my Brothers hadn¡¯t just become a mass of darkness was because Minos had ignited his axe. He was like a shooting star as he moved around the arena. From the sounds of things, however, 1st and 4th Brother was losing, badly. Then there was another thunderous explosion. The entire floor rocked from the violent impact, and the barrier cracked from the strain of containing whatever that attack was. The dust settled, and the result of the battle became obvious. 1st and 4th brother were lying motionless on the floor, their wounds slowly regenerating. Both were out cold. Minos was hovering above them, the axe held aloft in celebration black blood dripping from the burning axe head and hissed angrily as it hit the ground. I rose from my seat and took a deep breath. ¡°WE HAVE A WINNER!¡± The arena exploded in applause and cheers, and the barrier faded away as Minos dispelled it. He then mumbled something, and a viridian light filled the arena. When it faded, my Brothers slowly stirred as the restorative magic got them back on their feet. They all looked at Minos for a few moments, then they all bowed their heads deeply before they departed without a word. It didn¡¯t take a genius to understand that they had just shown Minos some serious respect there, considering they had only bowed to Latra in such a manner before. With the battle over, several Duergar moved onto the floor to clean up the disaster zone that was the arena floor. The last bout had torn the floor to shreds and natural restoration would take hours. Add in the crater and it could be days before the Arena would be useable if left to its own devices. Minos looked up at me, bowed lightly then vanished as he transported himself to the 4th floor using his Maze Teleport. I stretched and flew off as well. I was honestly unsure what to do right now. Preparations for the inevitable void assault were going smoothly, and every floor had someone overseeing the work in minute detail. As I pondered over the situation a Duergar came running towards me, and he looked quite pleased with himself.This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. ______________________________________________________________________________ I awoke to a searing headache, and I felt like I hadn¡¯t had anything to eat or drink in days. Looking around, I found myself in a dimply lit cell of some sort. Just as I was about to stand up, however, there was a violent quake and a tremendous boom. The movement pushed me off the stone slab I had been lying on and I landed with a rather painful smack on the ground. Just how had I gotten myself into this mess? The last I remembered was putting on that NVR visor. But this couldn¡¯t be NVR. Sure some games had pain in them, to a certain degree, but that pain was instant and never lingered. That¡¯s when I noticed movement outside as several stocky, bearded men rushed past the bars that made up the door. None of them even glanced in my direction, though one paused for a moment to talk to someone just out of view of my door. ¡°Dol Narug, iar thr?m b¨¤r nilam?¡± The voice was grating and deep like two stones grinding against one another. An even deeper and gruffer voice responded. ¡°Meilm an?rn ta int¨°l sanakkar Burnar, ifrno tantrash infahg.¡± I did not know what strange language they were speaking, but something about the entire situation gave me a terrible feeling. To make matters worse, however, the one who had stopped now noticed me as I was lying on the floor. ¡°Sillinra vus, Narug, sillinra vus, infa dos Mintra!¡± then he ran off without another word. Meanwhile, two of those small men appeared in my field of view, one from each side of the door. And for the first time, I actually got a good look at them. They were about¡­ one and a half meter tall, their skin granite grey with white beards and bald heads. Their eyes shone with an eerie red light, and the way they looked at me gave me shivers. Their builds were unusual though, they were far wider than their height would suggest, and their arms were bulging with muscles. I was not winning a battle of strength with these two. That much was obvious. ¡°Infran g?ek grumsgr¨¤h.¡± One of them said to me. But his grin faded when my obvious look of confusion made it clear I didn¡¯t understand what he was saying. ¡°Yr¨¤sh Mintra vo dal¨¤lk sillinra.¡± His companion nodded, and they moved back out of sight. About five minutes later there was a whooshing sound, as if a strong wind was blowing, followed by a massive thud as something landed nearby, something big. My two captors appeared again and began unlocking the door. Their expressions were now downright malicious as they grinned at me. Once the door was open, one of them walked into the room and roughly pulled me to my feet. ¡°V¨´ljak!¡± He pushed me towards the door. It didn¡¯t take a genius to understand what he meant as I walked out of the cell. What I saw outside, however made me stop and just stare. There, standing on the other side of a small courtyard, was a massive monster. It took me a moment to realize exactly what I was looking at. A Sphinx? Or was it a Manticore? Bah, I couldn¡¯t keep track of all these stupid fantasy monsters that Pearl had been such a fan of. Before I could continue to ponder my predicament, I received a violent shove from behind. ¡°V¨´ljak!¡± The little man, which I now realized had to be a dwarf, pushed me towards the monster. So, I was to be a sacrifice to the beast, then? Or just mere food? Just as I thought about that, the monster suddenly laughed. ¡°I would be lying if I said that the idea of killing you right here and now isn¡¯t tempting. But even if I did, I wouldn¡¯t eat you. I swore never to eat human flesh, and I intend to keep that oath. And you are certainly not worthy of making me break it.¡± The voice was deeper and more bestial, with an odd purring quality, but still unmistakable. I couldn¡¯t believe it, though. ¡°Pearl?¡± She grinned down at me the way she would always do when she knew she had me cornered during practice. I hated that grin, as it meant I had lost. Now that I looked closer at her, her face was almost identical to her normal human face, aside from the slitted eyes and sharp teeth. There was, however, something different about the grin this time. It lacked something, but I couldn¡¯t put my finger on it. Pearl then cast a glance at my captors. ¡°Intr¨´n ir.¡± To my surprise, they bowed and left without a word. Was Pearl in charge of them? Wait, was this that game she had wanted me to try? If so, this was far beyond standard NVR in terms of realistic look and feel. I mean they had even emulated the chill of being underground and stuff like that took insane processing power to maintain. ¡°It¡¯s not a game, Erika, this is very real.¡± Pearl took a step closer, and claws appeared on her massive paws. It occurred to me that Pearl didn¡¯t really like me very much after my little prank those years ago, but come on. She couldn¡¯t still be angry about that, could she? ¡°Angry? Oh Erika, anger is not the word you should be using. I HATE you so much that I have to fight the urge to take your miserable little head between my paws and pop it like a rotten tomato.¡± How did she? She was reading my mind. She had to be there was no other way to explain how- ¡°I know what you are thinking, you are correct on that one. You know, for someone so quick on the uptake you would think you could understand the consequences of your own actions.¡± As she spoke, the long dagger-like claws on her paws dug small lines in the stone underneath her feet as she moved. Her voice was utterly devoid of its usual playful tone and was instead ice-cold. This new Pearl terrified me. Pearl took a deep breath, and her claws slowly retracted. ¡°I have yet to decide on a punishment fitting enough for you. I will admit I am tempted to just toss you to Hazalaar and have him toy with you until you die. However, considering I wouldn¡¯t even be in this position if not for you, I am feeling merciful. Oh, I fully intend to get back at you for ruining my life back then, make no mistake. But I won¡¯t give you the easy way out by dying. So, for now, enjoy your new lodgings while I decide your fate. Hert? vus dif!¡± The last few words she yelled out loud, and the Dwarves reappeared almost instantly. Before I could even muster up a response, they grabbed me and dragged me back towards the cell I had woken up in. Their grip was like iron, and I didn¡¯t even make their arms budge an inch as I struggled to get loose. They pushed me onto the stone slab and slammed the door shut behind me. A few minutes later, another dwarf appeared carrying a tray with some bread and ham on it as well as a jug of water. After delivering the food to me, he left, and they left me alone in my small cell. Pearl honestly didn¡¯t think she could keep me here forever, did she? After all, eventually someone would notice my absence and start tracking me down, right? Seriously keeping me trapped in this simulation would only be temporary anyhow. She would let me log out to eat and drink, she had to, I would die otherwise. <Considering you nearly drove Pearl to suicide when you ruined her life, I¡¯d say she probably has considered killing you a few times already.> Huh? I had to be losing my mind I could swear I heard a woman¡¯s voice in my head. <And you will keep hearing it, as I can only communicate via telepathy.> I looked around, but there was no one in sight. <We will meet soon enough. I volunteered to handle getting you your food every day. I doubt you would survive too long on the food and water you were just given. The Duergar would not part with more from their own stores.> Are you for real, what did I do? <Didn¡¯t you pay attention to what I was saying earlier, you nearly drove Pearl to suicide when you ruined her career as a pro gamer. Pearl¡¯s hatred for you is so strong it¡¯s actually affecting those near her when she sees you. The Duergar view you in an extremely negative light. If Pearl hadn¡¯t said you were to be left unharmed, you¡¯d be on a torture rack right now, or toiling in one of their mines, not in a cell.> That prank caused all of this? Common, it was just some fun at her expense. <Seriously? A bit of fun? Getting her arrested, banned from competing, ruining her social life, potential career, giving her social anxiety and almost driving her to suicide is your idea of fun? I see now why Pearl hates you so much.> The voice went silent, and I got a distinct feeling the conversation was over. With nothing better to do, I curled up on the stone slab and mulled over what the voice had said. ___________________________________________________________________ Indella arrived for lunch, looking like a storm cloud. ¡°Something wrong?¡± She looked up at me as she started munching on the meatballs that Lienru had made today. I had only given her a broad description of the dish but she had replicated no improved upon it in less than an hour. Indella just grunted in response as she kept eating. Though her stormy expression mellowed in the face of Lienru¡¯s culinary miracles. <I just cannot fathom how a person like Erika can exist. She is so self-centered she actually didn¡¯t even consider how her little ¡°prank¡± might affect you.> A prank, huh? Why was I not surprised? It certainly didn¡¯t improve her position to now learn that she had done it as a prank. What should I even do with her? Just as I was pondering this, a rather out-of-breath Tarad and Delly came rushing into the dining room. ¡°Pearl, Indella, you need ta see this. Get to da surface, now!¡± Tarad yelled as he rushed past. Dally hot on his heels. I looked at Indella. ¡°That can¡¯t be good, he looked all out of sorts.¡± She nodded as she finished her food, and I downed the remainder of mine. A few moments later I was shooting through the 2nd floor with Indella on my back. ¡°It might have only been a few days, but I can¡¯t tell you how much I have missed flying.¡± Indella gave a silent chuckle. As we got closer to the first floor, I could see that Tarad had been telling everyone they had met to get to the surface. Several groups of Duergar, Fox spirits, Striders, Swarmlings, and most of the other adventurers were streaming from the portal. They then headed up the stairs with curious expressions written all over their faces. As I started my ascent up the stairs, I quickly noticed something was off. There were still a few hours to sunset, where was the¡­ sun¡­ light. Ah crap. As I arrived outside, I could see the problem clear as day. To be more precise the lack of day. The sky was jet black, no sun, no moon and no stars. I didn¡¯t hesitate. ¡°Indella get everyone back below ground, and make sure they understand the Dungeon is now on high alert. No one moves alone or stays alone. I want constant patrols on every floor. The outside is to be treated as a high risk hazard zone until further notice.¡± Indella nodded, quickly hopped off my back, and began herding the onlookers back down. Her expression as serious as my own. Erika would have to wait. This was a scene I had seen before on pics back in the game. The ¡°Prelude to destruction¡± as the game devs had called it. Twenty-four hours was all we had left before all hell would break loose. I focused my mind on a single spark of consciousness among the large crowd heading down. <Rael, I need to ask a favor of you. I need a volunteer to warn Caelyn. The sky going black like this means it¡¯s less than 24 hours until everything goes to hell. Meet me in the dining room to discuss it more.> I watched as Indella herded the last curious onlookers back underground. Then, I transported away. Chapter 32: Final Countdown. Rael arrived in the dining room a few seconds after I did, followed by Eliandar and Irontooth. ¡°The three of us will set out as soon as we have secured provisions and weapons for the trip. I figured you would ask me to assemble a team for the journey anyhow.¡± That was fast. Then again, Rael was not a novice to crisis. I looked at the three of them. ¡°Good, be careful you three, there is no telling what you will run int on the way to Caelyn.¡± They nodded and after a quick set of goodbyes they headed for camp to pack provisions and get geared up. ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª It only took us half an hour to prepare for the trip to Caelyn. Eliandar and Irontooth had gone to pack almost immediately, and I went to find Mordred, so we could cut down on travel time. Taking the trip in utter darkness was not appealing, but it was too important to get the news to Caelyn and everyone else as quickly as possible. The good news was, we could get to Caelyn with the Recall spell, since we hadn¡¯t done the ritual to place our recall area anywhere else. The downside was we would have to walk back since riding in these conditions would be suicide or just as slow as walking. Even when we were fleeing in the storm, we had some light to guide us from the near constant lightning. Now there was not a hint of light underneath the sky. A knock on the small wooden wall separating my quarters from the rest of the camp pulled me and Mordred out of our discussion about the quickest way back. I looked over and saw Duplica and a small cloaked individual that reached me to about my chest. There was a grunt from it, as if this entire situation bored it. ¡°Mistress asked me and Nicomphus here to accompany you on the trip and provide support should you need it.¡± I eyed the two of them for a moment. ¡°Fair enough. I don¡¯t mind having some extra backup for this.¡± Mordred nodded in agreement as he pulled a small pack onto his back. ¡°That¡¯s fine, though I hope you don¡¯t mind teleporting, as we intend to Recall to Caelyn and walk back to cut travel time.¡± Nicomphus and Duplica shrugged in response. ¡°Even if we minded, it wouldn¡¯t matter. Mistress asked us to accompany you, so we do that. Our personal comfort is inconsequential to fulfilling her requests.¡± The deep and cold voice came, much to my surprise, from the small cloaked form of Nicomphus. Duplica nodded in agreement. ¡°Besides, neither I nor Nicomphus have ever teleported, so we don¡¯t really know how well we handle it. Though I suppose Nicomphus¡¯ trip through the portal might count as teleportation.¡± Mordred opened his mouth to respond when Eliandar and Irontooth showed up as well, both with their own packs and equipment ready. Irontooth eyed Duplica with curiosity, though a moment later he scowled down at Nicomphus. ¡°You smell like blood.¡± There was a bitter chuckle from Nicomphus in response. ¡°Afraid you gotta deal with it, Wolfie. We¡¯re coming with you, Mistress¡¯ orders.¡± Irontooth looked from him to Duplica. ¡°Hmm, considering the stench of blood, you¡¯re dangerous, so obviously I approve.¡± He grinned down at Nicomphus and stretched out a clawed hand. ¡°Irontooth.¡± He stretched out his own hand and gripped Irontooth¡¯s. ¡°Nicomphus.¡± The two glared at each other for a while, as if they had a conversation only the two of them could understand. We left the camp and headed for the chamber belonging to the Umbral spiders. Since Duplica and Nicomphus were coming with us, we needed to make a magic circle to include them in the spell and there simply was no space in camp. Eliandar looked at Duplica and Nicomphus. ¡°So what skills do you have that made Pearl consider you an asset on this trip, if you don¡¯t mind me asking?¡± Duplica looked at him, then Nicomphus, and then back at him. ¡°As a Doppelganger I can pick up thoughts of nearby creatures, so we won¡¯t walk into an ambush with me around. Aside from that, I have picked up some levels in Scout thanks to the adventurer I mimicked when you were attacking the Dungeon.¡± She then looked at Nicomphus, who grunted rather than respond. ¡°Come on Nicomphus, you can tell, can¡¯t you?¡± Duplica looked at him, and he finally answered. ¡°If you need my skills, it will be obvious what I am. Until then, I prefer to keep quiet about it. Especially if our enemy can read minds.¡± Duplica just shook her head slowly, her disapproval clear. Nicomphus snorted. ¡°Better safe than sorry, kiddo.¡± He said coldly. With that, he hopped onto a small rock and watched as Mordred and Eliandar prepared the magic circle. It took about 15 minutes for the two of them to finish. Nicomphus had in the meantime pulled out a wicked-looking serrated dagger and was sharpening the thing using a whetstone. Duplica and Irontooth were discussing the ins and outs of certain forms of unarmed combat, and I had gone through the route in my head for the 50th time. Mordred rose and motioned for us all to gather in the circle. ¡°OK, we¡¯re ready. Let¡¯s get the show on the road, the faster we get this over with, the better.¡± We bunched up and Mordred started his cast. There was a flash of light, a sensation beneath my navel, of being yanked backwards. Then I landed on the floor of the guild, only to be knocked over as Duplica appeared in front of me and stumbled. Mordred and Irontooth fared better, though Eliandar almost fell over too, as Nicomphus hit him pretty hard in the stomach as he appeared. Our sudden arrival caused quite a ruckus, and guild members, all too curious as to our sudden and unexpected arrival, quickly swarmed us. We certainly didn¡¯t have time for this. ¡°All of you move. We need to talk to the Guildmaster, now.¡± The receptionist snapped out of his gawking and quickly flipped through a notebook on the table. ¡°The guildmaster isn¡¯t in right now. They called her and every other noble and merchant in the city to discuss this strange phenomenon with the city Lord.¡± He responded after a few seconds. I nodded. ¡°Even better, need to talk to him too. Where is this meeting?¡± The receptionist hesitated. ¡°Only Nobles¡­¡± he began. Eliandar cut him short. ¡°There is no need for you to tell us. I know where it is, follow me everyone.¡± The receptionist blinked in surprise as Eliandar led the way out of the guild and onto the street. Mordred hurried up to Eliandar. ¡°Are you certain about this, your father¡­¡± Eliandar shook his head. ¡°I will cross that bridge later, as this is too important. Besides, I am just a bastard child and not his successor. Even if he tried to stop me, my life is my own, and I said as much to Father when I left the first time.¡± He sounded tense as he spoke, but continued on with a determined expression. After about 5 minutes of hurried walking, we arrived at the Council hall. The guards outside immediately moved to bar our entry. Eliandar raised his hand and displayed the signet ring sitting upon it. ¡°Move aside, we have important news.¡± The guards, after casting just a glance at the ring, stepped aside and bowed their heads in respect. Eliandar didn¡¯t slow down as he walked past, and the rest of us hurried along to keep up. Soon after, we arrived at a large double door with another set of guards in front of it. Though they too moved aside when Eliandar showed the signet. As the doors opened, we could hear arguing inside. ¡°I say we should mobilize the troops immediately, this is surely a sign of-¡± ¡°And what good would it do to mobilize all the reserves for nothing? It¡¯s just a waste of time and money, I say, a waste, we should wait and see.¡± a second voice interrupted. It sounded smug and quite calm, as if nothing was wrong. The first voice, which I recognized as that of Yndali, spoke again, but fell silent when she noticed us. ¡°Rael, Eliandar, what are you doing here?¡± she asked instead, genuinely surprised. The room fell quiet, and now everyone was eyeing our little group with interest. Eliandar spoke up, his voice clear and unafraid. ¡°We are here per the request of Pearl, as she recognized what this fell darkness means.¡± The room erupted in hushed whispers, and the City Lord had to slam his gavel a few times to silence the crowd. He looked down at Eliandar, ¡°Continue, boy.¡± Eliandar glared at him for a moment, before he did as requested. ¡°According to Pearl, this darkness is the Prelude to Destruction and signals the imminent arrival of the Lord of the Void. From the moment the darkness fell, we had twenty-four hours before the Lord¡¯s arrival.¡± The room erupted in screams and questions, and this time they drowned out the gavel. It took a magical explosion to silence the crowd this time. Then the calm, smug voice that had spoken up against Yndali took the word again. ¡°A convenient story, boy, but do you honestly think the word of a beast and a commoner holds any weight? Speaking of, how did you even get into this room, where are the Guards?¡± His voice was dripping with contempt and self-importance. Before anyone could respond to his words, there was a loud slam and the sound of splintered wood. The City Lord had risen from his seat with such force he had flung the table in front of him cleanly across the room and shattered it to splinters. His eyes were literally glowing as he glared at the fat Noble that had said the words. The noble himself, upon realizing this, suddenly became far less smug and comfortable. ¡°Count Nerivim, that Beast, as you call her, is a valued ally of this city, whose contributions have saved countless lives already. Not only that, but it¡¯s my son you are calling a commoner, as if it was a derogatory term.¡± He paused and took a deep breath. ¡°I feel this council will be better off without you in the future, Nerivim. Leave, before I decide on further sanction.¡± The City Lord¡¯s voice was calm and low, but his expression showed that the former Count had made a catastrophic mistake. Nerivim himself turned as pale as Duplica, and he hurried out of the room as fast as his stubby legs could carry him. The City Lord turned his attention back to Eliandar. ¡°Now, what was this about the Lord of the Void?¡± About an hour later, we had explained the situation, leaving no detail behind. We had also emphasized the danger that the Void entities posed to one¡¯s sanity and one¡¯s perception of friend and foe. The rest of the nobles and merchants had listened with far more interest and far more seriously after what had happened to Nerivim. So, our explanation had been with no interruptions. The City Lord nodded slowly. ¡°So we have less than 24 hours before their arrival. Hmm, it¡¯s unfortunate that it would be this soon, but not entirely unexpected, I suppose. Thank you for informing us, you may go.¡± Eliandar nodded and motioned for us to follow him, but paused as the City Lord spoke again. ¡°And Eliandar, you have become a fine adventurer, keep up the excellent work.¡± Eliandar froze for a few moments, several emotions displaying on his face in rapid succession. ¡°Thank you, Father.¡± he said finally, before he left the room in a hurry. Duplica hurried up to Eliandar¡¯s side. ¡°For what it¡¯s worth, when he spoke just now, he was emanating an intense sense of pride, he meant every word and more.¡± Eliandar looked at her for a few moments, then nodded. ¡°I know. Looks like I won¡¯t have to worry about him wanting me to come back.¡± Eliandar replied. His voice was low, barely more than a whisper. The trip back out of the city was uneventful. I took a quick stop to check on Erem¡¯s sister. I had promised him to check in on her while we were packing. Much to my relief, she was doing far better because of the healing potions Pearl had given to Yndali. Erem would be happy to hear that. As we left the city, a chilly wind blew in from the east, bringing with it a hint of frost. Nicomphus pulled his cloak tighter around himself. ¡°Unless we wish to sleep outside in the cold and pitch darkness, we should get moving.¡± As he said so, he sped up, forcing the rest of us to hurry to catch up with him before he became indistinguishable from the darkness itself.Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. It didn¡¯t take long before we lost track of both time and direction. The ground was a featureless brownish grey flat in every direction with no landmarks. The city walls blocked any light from Caelyn, and the sky was just darkness. And yet, both Duplica and Nicomphus continued to lead us through the darkness unerringly and without worry. I could only surmise that they had some kind of sense of where ¡°home¡± was. Then, after what felt like endless hours, Nicomphus stopped. ¡°Get your weapons ready. There is something out there, something bloodthirsty.¡± The two pinpricks of red light that were his eyes darted back and forth. Duplica pulled out a bow and pulled back a bit, giving me space to take the lead. Nicomphus pulled to the side as well and pulled his knife. ¡°Hey, Mage Man, when I give the signal, use the strongest light creating spell you know.¡± He looked at Mordred, who nodded in response. Eliandar knelt down on the ground and mumbled to himself. As he did, I could sense a slight tremor underneath my feet. ¡°They are to our right about 40 ft away, three of them. They have the outline of wolves, but their shapes are wrong, twisted somehow.¡± Mordred opened his eyes. ¡°Probably possessed by creatures from the Void. Treat them as sentient and clever opponents, just in case.¡± Irontooth looked around, then took a deep breath through his nose. ¡°I smell something, can¡¯t describe it, but it isn¡¯t pleasant, whatever it is.¡± Eliandar flinched and a yelp of pain came from our right. ¡°They are coming!¡± Eliandar yelled a few moments later. A second later, Duplica let loose with her bow, and she had to have scored a hit as there was a pained snarl from the darkness. Then we heard footsteps nearing quickly. ¡°Mage Man!¡± The entire area suddenly burst into view as magical daylight exploded from Mordred¡¯s staff. ¡°Get them quickly, I can¡¯t cast anything else while maintaining this!¡± He warned, as the sudden light stung our eyes. If we had taken the sudden light poorly, the monstrosities that had once been wolves took it even worse. They had far more eyes than we did, and they had been looking at Mordred when he fired the spell. Duplica took advantage of the situation by burying an arrow in the chest of the nearest wolf. It gave an angry growl, but seemed otherwise fine, not a good sign. A moment later we learned all too well what Nicomphus was. He suddenly appeared on top of the same wolf and buried his dagger in the back of the beast¡¯s skull. Shadewalk was a technique unique to Assassins and required shadows to be used. ¡°So that¡¯s why he wanted light.¡± I mumbled as I charged the 2nd wolf and struck it with my sword, scoring a wound that would have felled a regular wolf. Meanwhile, Nicomphus was clinging to his dagger for dare life as the impaled wolf was jumping around and tried to shake him off. ¡°These things aren¡¯t behaving like normal creatures, this one should be dead!¡± He commented dryly as he twisted his dagger free and flew away from the wolf, did a somersault, and landed on the ground. Just in time, too, as a stone spear burst from the ground and impaled the injured wolf. ¡°We probably need to annihilate them completely to kill them.¡± Eliandar commented dryly. The Third wolf had tried to get near the two spell casters. But Duplica had pulled a rapier was keeping it at bay using an evasive fighting style I had never seen before. Irontooth was helping her, scoring several nasty hits with his clawed gauntlets. He dodged out of the way from the beast when it turned its focus on him. The two worked well together, even as Duplica cleanly punctured one of its many overgrown eyes. ¡°Total annihilation isn¡¯t my forte, so I must leave it to our mages. You have some way of creating large-scale destruction, right?¡± Just like Nicomphus, her voice was as calm as if she were talking about the weather. Mordred grumbled. ¡°I have a few, but I will have to drop the light to cast them.¡± Eliandar forced the wolf Duplica was dealing with a few steps back by sending stone shards at it. ¡°The only way for me to do that would be to open a giant fissure right here, which would likely take us with it as well. This is all on you, Mordred. I can get us some light, however. Though nowhere near daylight levels.¡± Mordred nodded once, and Eliandar reached down to the ground again. A few moments later, 4 huge glowing crystals shot up around him. ¡°All yours, Mordred.¡± The daylight spell collapsed and dimmer light from the crystals took over, casting long, strange shadows into the darkness. The sudden shift in light seemed to embolden the wolf I was fighting as it lashed out with sudden ferocity that caught me off guard. Its attack never reached me. Nicomphus Shadewalked onto the wolf¡¯s head as I cast my shadow over it and rammed his dagger through the snout, forcing its jaw shut. We had to end this, fast. ¡°Mordred, I will pull their aggro to me. You blast them with the strongest spell you got.¡± Mordred nodded. ¡°Ready your best self-buffing and self-healing skills, this one will hurt.¡± I nodded grimly. ¡°COME AND GET ME!¡± I roared, and as I did so, a red energy burst from my body. The three wolves immediately tunnel-visioned on me, the Taunt forcing the idea that they HAD to harm me and only me into their heads. The impaled wolf ripped itself loose from the spike, while the one that ad been fighting Duplica took several nasty hits as it turned around to attack me. There was a ripping sound as the wolf that Nicomphus had impaled ripped its mouth open, leaving a nasty wound that would have incapacitated a normal beast. As this was happening, I was busy popping every defensive skill I had. I knew what was coming, and Mordred¡¯s words had been an understatement. Mordred¡¯s chanting grew to a fever pitch and, just in case, I dropped my strongest skill, ¡°Indomitable Guardian.¡± For the next three seconds, I wouldn''t take damage. Just in time, too. ¡°Xirekhs Cataclysm¡± burst from Mordred¡¯s staff, engulfing me and the wolves in random elemental energy that lit up the area far brighter than the Daylight spell. It continued past me, engulfing whatever it hit in elemental death. I slowly crawled towards the edge of the spell, but the going was slow. 3 seconds left. The wolves were not chasing me, but I could hear their anguished howls. 2 seconds, my hand reached the outside of the spell. 1 second, I would not make it, there was too much pressure from the magic. A small, brown hand grabbed mine and yanked with inhuman strength, and in the next moment I was on the ground next to Mordred. I looked up at the one who had dragged me out, Nicomphus. ¡°Thanks.¡± He nodded once as he rose to his feet from where he had been lying next to me. ¡°If that doesn¡¯t kill em we have no choice but to run. I doubt anything we have can deal more damage than that. How long does it last anyhow, Mage Man?¡± He looked from the ongoing spell and over to Mordred, who shrugged. ¡°For another minute or something like that. Let¡¯s get as far away from it as possible, just in case.¡± The entire group, as one, hurried along, Nicomphus in the lead and Duplica and Irontooth in the back. As we walked, I silently thanked Pearl for having the foresight to send Nicomphus and Duplica with us. Without them, this would probably have ended far worse. ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª As Medino entered my domain, I rose from my seat. He smiled weakly, but it was a smile, could it mean? Before I could say anything, another shift happened, and I rushed over. I threw my arms around Inlas and gave her a crushing hug. After a few moments of hesitation, she returned it. ¡°I am glad to see you awake, Sister. How are you, any lingering ails?¡± She gave a chuckle in response. ¡°As if our dear Medino would let any patient of his leave the healing pools before they had fully recovered.¡± she too smiled weakly. Clearly, the entire experience had been quite draining. Inlas took a few breaths to steady herself. ¡°How are things going?¡± she finally asked. It took little to figure out what she meant. ¡°Both good and bad. The void has blotted out the sky and they have already attacked several Avatars. It won¡¯t be long before they break the barrier completely.¡± Inlas shuddered. ¡°And¡­ her?¡± I paused for a moment before I answered. ¡°She had a run in with Saol, or what remained of him, it ended in his destruction and her banishment.¡± Inlas grew visibly pale, though I continued before she could say anything. ¡°She suddenly returned on her own a few days later, and she didn¡¯t come alone.¡± I paused again and Inlas expression changed from horrified shock to intrigue, silently urging me to continue. ¡°She returned with her entire dungeon, and then immediately fell unconscious, citing a massive experience and essence overload from having her dungeon increase in size 50 times over, literally. She regained consciousness yesterday and has been quite busy since.¡± Inlas looked dumbfounded. Not a completely invalid reaction, considering my own when she returned on her own. Inlas¡¯ expression changed from shocked to worried. ¡°Wait, how can that be? There is no way she should have been able to do something like that on her own.¡± I led Medino and Inlas back to the table as I replied. ¡°I have to agree with you there, I am not 100% certain. However, it might be a side effect from when we transmigrated her soul to our reality.¡± Inlas looked at me with a blank expression, trying to comprehend what I meant. ¡°I thought there might be side effects from doing so. Souls are delicate, and transmigration through realities might have unforeseen effects on them.¡± Inlas created a cup of tea for herself and sipped it. ¡°And you are thinking she might have gained some unforeseen side effect or something from our fighting over her soul during transmission?¡± I nodded. ¡°I am not sure what she gained, if anything, but after she returned the entire feel of her dungeon changed.¡± Inlas and Medino now looked even more confused. ¡°Feel?¡± Medino asked. I looked at him. ¡°She is still mortal, but her dungeon now has the feel of a Domain, her Domain.¡± Medino dropped the wooden cup he had been sipping from. ¡°That¡¯s impossible. Mortals should not be able to have Domains.¡± I looked at him calmly. ¡°Is she mortal anymore, though? After all, I reincarnated her soul while she was still alive.¡± Medino¡¯s expression became thoughtful. ¡°She decidedly isn¡¯t a normal mortal, that¡¯s certain, but she is no divine entity, either. After all, she is still a -.¡± Another disturbance and one of Father¡¯s messengers arrived. ¡°Everyone, get to the Hall of divinities now. They are coming.¡± I looked at the other two. ¡°Well, here we go.¡± I commented idly as we all shifted to the Hall. ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª We arrived back in the dungeon, completely exhausted. After the wolves, we had encountered several more bands of void twisted creatures. The last encounter had been a swarm of bats with strange tentacles and eyes growing everywhere, and that would just split into two smaller bats when we cut them. If Irontooth hadn¡¯t figured out that crushing them did the trick, we would have been in serious trouble, since by then Mordred was out of mana. As we staggered down the stairs, we saw Pearl waiting at the bottom. ¡°Glad to see you all back in relatively one piece. I should probably have sent someone who could heal with you.¡± I shook my head. ¡°It was good that you didn¡¯t. We ran into this strange Void creature that had possessed a bear. It could invert the effect of spells. Our damaging spells healed everything they touched. I dare say healing would probably have inflicted an insane amount of damage considering go-to combat healing is powerful or ongoing.¡± Pearl looked at us with an unreadable expression. ¡°I see. Either way, take the portal to the Adventurer Camp. I asked Lienru to prepare some food for you when I noticed you entered the labyrinth. She should finish up right about now. Duplica, Nicomphus, you have meals waiting for you in the dining room, if you are interested.¡± The two smiled and bowed before they rushed off. Pearl turned back to the rest of us. ¡°Rael, how did things go in Caelyn?¡± I gave a tired grunt. ¡°As well as one could hope, given the circumstances. The road back was a nightmare, though. Pearl. The void has possessed creatures out there, turning them into all kinds of monstrosities, more resembling horrors than anything else. You¡¯re right, whatever is going to happen will happen soon.¡± I sighed, the exhaustion from the trip suddenly feeling so much stronger now that the adrenaline was running out. ¡°I would love to keep this conversation going, but I really need some rest.¡± Pearl gave a nod. ¡°Take a rest, all of you. I have a feeling we will need it before the day is over.¡± She vanished, probably to check on something else, elsewhere. I turned to Mordred and Irontooth. ¡°Come on, let¡¯s get going, can¡¯t let Lienru¡¯s food get cold.¡± Despite the exhaustion we were all feeling, we couldn¡¯t help but have a spring in our step at the thought of the coming meal. Chapter 33: The Battle Begins They arrived just before midnight. One moment the dungeon was on high alert. Then out of nowhere, undescribable things appeared all across the dungeon and began a vicious assault. It only took me a few moments to praise my foresight about putting auras on every floor of my dungeon before leaving. I noticed several of the Duergar on the third floor grab their temples for a few moments as they first laid eyes on them. But once they recovered, threw themselves at the abominations and tore them to pieces in an enraged frenzy. For now, this floor would hold firm. As I tore a bloated mass apart, I began receiving reports from the different floors. We held the first floor in a stalemate. The Shadows and Cubes didn¡¯t do that well against the void entities, but in return, they couldn¡¯t do much back either. The shadows were immune to mental assault, and the cubes¡¯ minds were too simple to drive insane. The second floor was holding up just fine, as Talka¡¯s Brood was eagerly hunting down every Void entity they could find. The Void entities¡¯ abilities didn¡¯t phase her brood at all. The 4th floor was a massacre on the void¡¯s side as the ghosts were out and about. It didn¡¯t make matters better for them that my brothers got involved as well. Latra was doing fine. Her aura immediately subjected the Void entities that entered within range to a plethora of issues as it cut off their link to the void. This stripped most of the power of those it didn¡¯t outright banish. We held easily the deeper floors against these lesser entities. I had developed them to counter high level adventurers, not weak void entities that relied on their madness inducing effects to do most of their dirty work. The entities were feeling the brunt of that. Of course, things would not remain as simple. This was just the beginning. ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª The door to the meeting hall burst open, and several guards hurried inside. I noticed the City Lord looked annoyed for a second before he noticed the horrified expressions on the guards¡¯ faces. ¡°My Lords and Ladies, we are under attack!¡± One guard began, only to suddenly lurch forward as one of the other guards stabbed him in the back. The others immediately jumped the maddened guard and subdued him. Several of the assembled clerics rose and hurried over to aid the injured guard and to cure the maddened one of his frenzy. Another guard looked at the City Lord and continued the report. ¡°It¡¯s full chaos outside. The people who didn¡¯t get to the evacuation area have gone insane and attacking everyone and everything they come across. The wards we began placing are helping to lower the frequency. But it¡¯s only a matter of time before they overrun us, since we couldn¡¯t finish in time.¡± He stopped talking as the frenzied guard began fighting fiercely, and he had to put his full attention to keeping him down. The Lord looked at me. ¡°Guildmaster, can I count on the aid of the Adventurer¡¯s Guild to resolve this?¡± His voice was calm and firm, as always. I rose and bowed lightly. ¡°Of course, my Lord. I will rally them at once.¡± I hurried out of the room, with Micha and Mandol close behind. They drew their weapons the moment we left the hall and kept scanning everyone we passed for threats. The trip back to the Guild was harrowing. The streets were a war zone with running conflict against the undescribable horrors that seemed to appear and disappear as they felt like. They did not exempt the three of us from the madness effect, either. By the time we returned to the guild, we all had searing migraines from the protective gear and magical oaths preventing the madness from taking hold. As soon as I set foot inside, I rushed over to an insignia in the main hall and touched my amulet of office against it. Every available Guild member in the city would know about the emergency now. If the sound from the chaos outside somehow hadn¡¯t alerted them already. ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª I arrived in the Main Hall shortly after Penumbra and just ahead of Medino. The others had already assembled. Father looked at the three of us and nodded. ¡°Good, we are all here. I shouldn¡¯t need to tell you about the severity of the danger we face, so I will be brief. Our avatars are all under assault from our ancient foe. Since we cannot use them, I am lifting the ban on physical manifestation until the crisis is over. Get suited up, we leave for battle within the hour, dismissed.¡± Father vanished immediately, and I turned to Penumbra. ¡°Father didn¡¯t lift the ban on manifestation during the last war until the very last moment, so what is different this time?¡± Penumbra squeezed my hand reassuringly. ¡°I don¡¯t know, but I am sure he has his reasons.¡± It felt good to finally be on good terms with my sister again. Just as I was about to reply, the world went white for a second, and a confusing mess of images and sensations assaulted me. As I came to, I noticed I was lying on the floor. ¡°You alright, Inlas?¡± Medino was kneeling beside me with a worried expression. I nodded weakly. ¡°I am, but we need to hurry, or else that Sphinx will be in serious trouble. The Lord will manifest above her dungeon.¡± I got back to my feet and after a few moments stood without aid. Penumbra nodded and moved back to her own domain to arm herself. Medino hurried to his Domain to grab implements of healing, and after a few moments I moved to mine to get ready as well. I needed to protect that Sphinx and make amends for my earlier actions. ___________________________ The battle had been ongoing for hours now. It had woken me up rather suddenly and had only intensified as time went on. The screams of the dying monstrosities and injured combatants were ever present. And locked up as I was, I couldn¡¯t get away, either. Then there was that blasted migraine. I didn¡¯t have the faintest clue what was causing it, but it seemed to affect everyone. As I was sitting there pondering, something just faded into view in front of me, something so grotesque my mind refused to accept something like that could actually exist. It reached for me slowly. Then there was shouting behind it, and with a sickening sound of torn flesh something ripped it backwards and out of the cell, through the bars of the door. The sight was enough to make me throw up. The mess of innards and black, tar-like blood that remained after its trip through the bars smelled absolutely horrid. After a few more seconds, a woman about my age appeared in front of the door. <You alright in there?> I nodded slowly. <Good.> She looked at the remains of the thing and my puke, then with a look of disgust waved her arms. The ground of my cell cracked, rumbled and shifted around, and a few seconds later the floor was once more pristine. <Your breakfast is in an hour, provided the fighting doesn¡¯t flare up again.> I nodded silently, and she left without another word. ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª The fighting had been going since midnight, and now we faced a dawn as black as pitch, with no sun in sight. The only real upside was that it turned out Latra¡¯s barrier seriously messed up the Void spawn that entered within its range. Even those who survived the initial entry crumbled away to nothing on their own rather quickly. I had made the right choice in keeping my Core there. This had been an incredible boon, as it freed up Minos to do pretty much whatever he pleased elsewhere. Any floor they pushed us back on Minos would turn the tides back in our favor. He was currently on the 187th floor, a Ruined Temple biome. As I watched him lead a small army of Will-o¡¯-Wisps into battle against a rather corpulent Void spawn, it happened. I finally got the message I had been expecting and dreading for the last 7 hours. <The Lord of the Void has Entered the sky in your domain and its influence rends the dimensional barriers, allowing the Void to seep into reality. The Voids influence promotes All Void Entities to Elite rank or higher.> Not good. As I watched, the Void spawn twisted and grew into a vaguely humanoid shape, the size of a troll. It¡¯s multiple appendages growing long horrible looking claws that tore through the Will-o¡¯-Wisps to shreds. <The Lord of the Void has summoned his generals, all Void Entities of Elite rank or lower gain more strength and better teamwork.> Figures, bad news never comes alone. Please tell me there was something good about all of this. <Multiple gods have manifested within your domain and are doing battle with the Lord of the Void¡¯s generals.> I¡¯ll take that as good news. I materialized and got Minos¡¯ attention as he finished tearing the Void creature to shreds. ¡°Minos, your primary target has arrived. Get topside, now.¡± Minos nodded once, then teleported away. As the dust settled after the fight, the Will-o¡¯-Wisps slowly reformed and floated towards the nearest battle. ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª I silently thanked Pearl for letting me stay by Yrsha¡¯s side, as her dungeon was in bad shape. In the beginning, it hadn¡¯t been that bad. But then this strange shift in the air occurred, and the Void creatures we were fighting had suddenly gotten way stronger. Even with the help of Rinnojj, we were being pushed back now, as our enemies were too many for Rinnojj alone. They were popping out of the trees from all directions, and we would likely get overrun soon. ¡°Yrsha, we can¡¯t hold this. We gotta retreat through the portal!¡± Next to me, Granite sliced an abomination in half. ¡°I gotta agree, Lady Yrsha. Stayin¡¯ here is suicide. They have too much space ta appear in that we can¡¯t guard.¡± Yrsha cursed silently under her breath. ¡°Fine, everyone, through the portal. We cannot afford to stay here any longer. Rael?¡± I patted the box in my hand. ¡°It¡¯s safe. Not sure what you want with this stuff, as Ritual Magic isn¡¯t something I have training in, but I got it.¡± Yrsha nodded. ¡°I would explain it but.-¡± Before she could continue, a beam of bluish-black energy missed Yunika by an inch. ¡°Less talking, more retreating!¡± She yelped as Granite grabbed her and yanked her out of the way of a spiked that had tried to hit her while she was off balance. We did a fighting retreat, with more spirits and beasts pouring through the portal and into Pearl¡¯s dungeon. The Spirits and beasts kept going, until it was only me, Rinnojj, and Yrsha left. Rinnojj was using himself as a barrier between us and them, and I hurried to push Yrsha through the portal. I looked up at the Leviathan, ¡°Can you fit through that?¡± He looked down at me. Then, with a voice that hurt my ears, he answered in a language I could not make a single word out of, but somehow I still understood. Penumbra would summon him once the evacuation of Yrsha¡¯s dungeon was over. I didn¡¯t hesitate any longer and ran through the portal. On the other side, things were going better. The underground nature of the dungeon meant there was no dead space to appear in. The Duergar, now backed up by Yrsha¡¯s Fox Spirits and forest monsters, was reaping a bloody toll on the invaders. No sooner had I taken a stock of the situation, before I had to dodge a strange liquid spat by another Void creature. This one had 5 legs and a giant maw among all the writhing and near-indescribable mass that made up its wax-like flesh. I got back on my feet and hurried to hand the box over to Yrsha. ¡°Stay behind me, I got this.¡± I pulled my sword and charged the wretched thing. ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª The city was not faring well at all. When the assault started we were already on the back foot, but after that strange air-quake the blasted things had gotten stronger, faster and were appearing quicker. The guild and guards were still fighting admirably. We were currently holding the Cathedral, the only building in the entire city that had so far not seen any of these things appear within its walls. The Cathedral was the evacuation point for the citizens. To add even more pressure on us, the Cathedral was also where we were healing the wounded. I would die before I let these abominations through the gates and turn the civilians into lunatics or abominations. So far, Micha and Mandol were doing an outstanding job holding the front lines while I directed the archers from behind. They both deserved a raise, provided we survived this. Heck, they all did. My musings came to an abrupt end as the ground rocked with such force it sent us tumbling. Then a few moments later it happened again. Then it came into view at the plaza, a giant writhing mass of flesh, bone and limbs, about the size of a giant. I didn¡¯t hesitate. We could not let it reach the Cathedral. ¡°FIRE AT WILL, BRING THAT THING DOWN, NOW!¡± The archers reacted to my order immediately and began turning the Void Giant into a pincushion. The Mages under the command of Tilwar, the Guild¡¯s Archmage, also opened fire on the thing. It did nothing to it. The abomination continued forwards with a sickening sound that might have been a laugh. ¡°KEEP FIRING, KEEP FIRE!-¡± There was a whooshing noise and a colossal explosion of dust and stone that sent us all tumbling from the resulting quake. It took a while for the smoke and dust to settle and reveal what had occurred. In the middle of the plaza was a huge fissure with the two halves of the Giant on either side of it, sliced in twain straight down the middle. Divine intervention, there could be no other explanation. <Fear not, Mortals, for we will not abandon you in your hour of need.> I made a silent prayer to whichever god had come to our aid, for we would surely need it to survive this. The Cathedral suddenly shook as ancient hidden runes across its surface in a pearlescent golden to glow. Then a pulse of divine light shot out from it. As it washed over us, our wounds mended, and it restored our stamina. The approaching monstrosities were not so lucky. When the pulse hit them, most turned to dust on the spot. A lucky few staggered forwards, before falling over and slowly transforming into a person or animal. The divine power restoring their bodies and minds. The pulse continued to the end of the plaza, creating a shimmering bubble of divine light. I quickly ordered some front liners to retrieve the restored people. They had already suffered enough at the hands of these monsters, and I would not let them reclaim these poor souls. As the group of adventurers carried the cleaned survivors back, more of the abominations entered the bubble and were immediately beset by its power. I watched as they disintegrated and faded away. After a deep breath, I allowed myself to hope that we might survive this. ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª Mistress had not been wrong. As soon as I arrived above the Dungeon, I could sense something horribly powerful approaching rapidly. It was not alone, either. Several giant grotesque forms flitted about, fighting with what looked like vaguely humanoid motes of energy in various colors. So, I was not fighting alone. Well then, better help then, shouldn¡¯t I? I reached out to one of the few skills I had never used before, but would probably be very useful now. Blood Moon, a skill that Mistress had granted me almost four years ago. I did not know where she got the scroll with the skill, but she seemed pretty pleased with herself as she gave it to me. I shook my head. Now was not the time to reminisce about the past. I focused and activated the skill. A crimson beam of energy shot up from me and towards the sky. There it coalesced into a giant orb before exploding into a massive red light. As the blinding glare of the explosion slowly passed, it replaced the darkness with a blood-red glow. There in the night sky was a blood-red full moon, banishing the darkness of the Void and allowing people to see once more. That, however, was not the only boon of this skill. As I watched, sores and wounds appeared all over the large monstrosities. Those with hostile intent towards me or my allies would suffer from bleeding while exposed to the light of the blood moon. Meanwhile, any wounds my allies might suffer would benefit from a rapid regeneration. That should even the odds. Then I turned my focus towards the main threat. The Lord of the Void. As with most of the void creatures, my brain refused to actually accept what I was looking at. The only thing I could get from looking at the Lord was a sphere of absolute darkness, like a Black Hole. The Lord was hovering above the battlefield, not even bothering to engage with anyone. Mistress said she had a plan to deal with the Lord¡¯s invulnerability. I only needed to keep it busy until she could enact it. ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª As I transferred to the surface, I saw Minos enact Blood Moon. A brilliant move, all things considered. I had forgotten about that Skill. How long ago was that contest to design a skill for the game and the winner would get a skill scroll with it? Well, it didn¡¯t matter, this would benefit the fight on the surface, while also aiding Caelyn, considering the range of the skill was ¡°Regional.¡± The downside to the skill was that it didn¡¯t work inside a dungeon, so Minos had never gotten to use it. Hopefully, it was as useful in practice as on paper.Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. I scanned the red sky for Minos and found him easily enough, as he was blasting a massive black sphere with attack after attack. The thing didn¡¯t even bother to fight back as it slowly descended. Well, time to try out my secret weapon. I pulled out the package and opened it. There it was, my hope and fears in one small trapezohedron shaped gem. I lifted it and looked at the giant sphere through it. It started glowing with an amber light. As I kept looking, a list of skills slowly coalesced into sight. It was small, but then, The Lord of the Voids skills was insane enough as it was. Hmm, let¡¯s see. Touch of Annihilation (Divine Unique), Heart of the Void (Divine Unique) and Protection of the Void (Divine Unique). Well, crap, that was not what I wanted to see. Well, it wasn¡¯t unexpected. Now I had to figure out how, wait... I looked up once more, this time focusing on the different humanoid shapes fighting the massive Void Entities around the Lord. Archives, which of these are Mother? <The Dark Purple one, why?> Time to get creative. I focused my mind on the Purple being. <Mother, I need a Divine rank skill. It doesn¡¯t really matter what it does, it could even be negative, but it HAS to be Divine rank.> The purple being slammed the entity it was fighting, a vaguely dragon-like thing, and sent it reeling backwards. Then a reply came. <I guess I could, but why now of all times?> Mother¡¯s curiosity was clear as day. I briefly explained the gem, what I hoped it would do, and what the predicted outcome was. <Give me a moment, I need to talk with Father about this.> I looked up where Minos was hitting the Lord of the Void with all he had. The thing hadn¡¯t even bothered to fight back yet. <Rubolg has heard your plea, he has granted you the Skill, Curse of the Pantheon (Divine Unique Curse).> I quickly looked up what it did, or tried to. OK, so Rubolg had given me a REALLY nasty one. Hopefully, I could still use this thing. I grabbed the crystal again and once more focused on the Lord. The skills showed up once more. <Exchange Curse of the Pantheon (Divine Unique Curse) with Protection of the Void (Divine Unique)?> Yes. The effect was immediate. Pain, pain beyond even getting ripped out of my Dungeon, burned through me, only this time I couldn¡¯t pass out. I felt like a part of my very soul was being ripped out of me and transferred into the gem. There was also a ripple going through the Lord of the Void. Cracks appeared all over the gem. Just a little more now, hang in there. The gem was like a spider web, and the pain blotted out everything else. The gem shattered. <Exchange successful. Warning, Skill Requirements not met, Power Overload imminent. Rerouting excess power to all available dump areas.> The pain, which had already been searing through me, increased tenfold. Power Overload? Damn, must be a side effect of not being in the game, where that wasn¡¯t an issue. <D***n**y ma**d. A*c**s**n p*s*i**e, As***d?> I couldn¡¯t even understand the message. The pain blotted out the words. Before I could ponder what to answer to the apparent question, blessed unconsciousness released me from the pain. ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª Whatever Mistress did, it finally got a reaction out of this damn ball. One moment it was ignoring me, the next it visibly rippled, then as my next attack connected a gush of ichor black blood. Finally, I could hurt the damn thing. A lance of darkness shot out from it and scored a direct hit on my shoulder. I had lost 5% of my HP from that, through damage mitigation. Exciting, nothing had done so much damage to me with a simple attack since my early days as an Elite Minotaur. Well, if I could now hurt it, let''s see if spells worked as well. Before I could do so, however, a grey lance shot from below, piercing the Lord. I looked down. A lizard-like Leviathan was looking back up at us, with bolts of grayish lightning crackling around its smoking, crocodilian maw. I didn¡¯t know who that leviathan was, but it was obvious it was on my side. I gave it a nod of acknowledgement and went into casting. It only took a few moments because of the amulet I was wearing. ¡°Death Wind!¡± The spell hit the Lord full force, dealing % damage to it every few seconds. Mistress had said it had an absurdly high HP pool, so this was the only practical way to go about it. This time we got a violent response. A pulse of energy shot out from it and towards all of us. Because of my proximity, I didn¡¯t have enough time to get out of the way and I took it head on. The pulse sheared away over half my health in one go, activating my regeneration. Bloody hell, if this thing got into the dungeon¡­ No, I couldn¡¯t let that happen. I immediately began casting again, determined to finish this damnable thing off before Mistress or any of my new friends got hurt. ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª I fired off another spell at the strange blob on the floor. I would not let it anywhere near the precious books. The acid arrow dealt serious damage to it, but I had to face the facts. I was in trouble; I was low on mana. My repertoire of spells had nothing strong enough to kill in one shot, while still leaving me with enough mana to keep up the fight for long. I fired off an Ice Bolt at another wretched blob, then had to grab a nearby shelf to steady myself. Damn, mana exhaustion was making me woozy. I rose to fire yet another spell when a searing pain erupted in my shoulder. Behind me, floating in the air, was some kind of creature that might have been a bat once upon a time. It had bitten me, and from the pain and lightheadedness it was obvious it was draining my blood. I had no choice, as I lifted a trembling hand and in desperation spent the last of my mana to fire a small Spark spell at it. The spell worked, and the bat fell back with its face aflame. I staggered forward a step, then fell. With my mind drifting in and out of consciousness, I could feel a pair of hands grabbing me and hoisting me from the floor. ¡°You¡¯re not done yet, young sage.¡± A voice I didn¡¯t recognize whispered in my ear. Then there was a thunderous bang as the bookshelves themselves suddenly slammed together, crushing a blob. Then I knew no more. ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª They had overrun the village. Thankfully, Great One had realized this was likely to happen and ordered me to take the tribe to a more defendable spot long before the damnable things even arrived. The tribe was now standing shoulder to shoulder with our human friends, guarding the camp against all that might come. We had brought with us a Totem of Healing and Totem of Protection as we evacuated, and they were helping big time now. Likewise, alchemical concoctions and fiery flasks were aiding our friends in conserving Mana. Good thing we had stocked up. However, I was not with my tribe; I knew they would need help, as there were just too many of them, so I had set out with a goal in mind. I had heard all the legends, of course, but there was only one way to find out if there was any substance to them. To do so, I needed to visit the Hive. Thankfully, I had the small tunnels to take me around the throng that was laying siege to the camp. As I arrived in the chamber belonging to the Umbral spiders, I learned firsthand how terrifying my neighbors could be. They had filled practically the entire room with their webs, and only by squeezing flat to the ground could I get underneath them. I could hear the arriving Void things get trapped in the webs and struggle against their inevitable doom. They would open the chamber again once everything was over, right? I didn¡¯t have time to think about that; I had to get to the Hive. After finally getting out of the spider chamber, things became harder. There was fighting absolutely everywhere. I silently crept past a trio of things that were busy tearing each other to shreds. Since the Evil Eyes were floating nearby, it was easy to guess the cause. The bridge proved a much greater issue. There were striders absolutely everywhere, all of whom were quite busy with an equal, and ever increasing, number of Things appearing out of nowhere. Despite being swamped, the Striders clearly had the upper hand, as their strange energy seemed to be anathema to these things. With no other choice, I reluctantly did the only thing I could. I entered the water and began crossing by grabbing onto the bridge and pulling me forwards. Bad memories from my trip down the river crossed my mind, almost overwhelming me. But I fought through the fear and pressed on. I had to get to the Hive, no matter what. Finally, after what felt like forever, I reached the other side and pulled myself ashore. I was shivering from my stay in the water. I staggered into the Hive proper. To my surprise, the Hive was devoid of Void things. As I entered, a Strider walked over to me and gave a curious expression. ¡°N-n-need¡­ C-c-crystal.¡± I stammered as I pointed at the Crystal of Creation embedded in the roof. The Strider seemed to think for a while before it gently grabbed me in its talons and started up the wall. I gave a grateful smile to it, as it was kind enough to hold me as I touched the crystal itself. Nothing happened. Was the Legend a lie? Then I felt a tingle in my mind as part of the crystal broke off. I barely secured my grip on it before it fell to the ground. I stared at it with wonder. It was rather pretty, but, what now? Would Queen Talka be mad that I broke her Crystal? As I pondered, I noticed that the Strider had moved back down and put me on the floor. I shook my head sadly. There really was no truth to the legends then? As the thought crossed my mind, I suddenly had an almost undeniable urge to eat the crystal. I looked down at it again. Where had that come from? As I scratched my head, the urge came back. But this time it felt more like a suggestion? It was confusing, but as crazy as it seemed, I could only conclude that the crystal itself was guiding me on how to properly use it. However, as I opened my mouth, I also got another sensation. I could not understand why, but somehow I knew swallowing the crystal would end the pact and bind me and my tribe to the dungeon. It would make us part of it as a cost for using the crystal¡¯s power. Bound as a dungeon creature to Great One¡¯s dungeon? I looked down at the crystal again, now with a sense of being right. That wasn¡¯t a cost, that was a reward. I eagerly put the crystal in my mouth and swallowed. The effect was immediate. Power surged through me as it enveloped my entire body in a silver glow. I could feel myself change. I was growing taller, stronger. My back itched as something pushed itself out of it. Even as this was going on, I began levitating. Even though I was still mid-evolution, I shot out of the hive like an arrow. I had no control over my movement as I rushed through the floor towards the Adventurer Camp. As I entered the Spider Cavern, I feared I would get snagged by the webs, but no, I passed through as if they weren¡¯t there. I entered the corridor, which was now filled to the brim with Void things. The energy fueling my evolution incinerated any Void thing that got too close as I flew towards the camp. The landing in the camp was unpleasant and a shock for my friends and tribe. No sooner had I landed before the energy leapt from me and onto every one of my tribe members, causing them to evolve, too. Then, and only then, did my Evolution complete. I looked down at myself, then over at Erem, which was now only slightly taller than I was. He was staring at me with a confused expression, as if unsure what to do. Then the evolution of everyone else finished as well. Our appearance hadn¡¯t changed too much. We were still lizard like, but now we were taller, with long necks, horns, wings, spiked tails, and far more strength than a human. Yet, we still had deceptively lean frames, giving us a graceful movement akin to elves. Our scales now had a sheen to them. Silver, for me, but other metallic or gem colors for my tribesmen. Erem blinked a few times¡­ ¡°Ssatassha?¡± he finally asked. I smiled at him. ¡°Indeed.¡± My voice was deeper now, no longer a small squeal. He opened his mouth to speak again. But by now the energies from my tribe¡¯s evolution had played themselves out and the Void things were attacking once again. ¡°I¡¯ll explain later, friend Erem, for now, let¡¯s cast these things out of our home.¡± He smiled, bent down, and picked up a spear that one of the wounded adventurers had dropped. Then he tossed it to me. ¡°Sounds like a plan.¡± He responded as he eagerly returned to the fight, now with renewed vigor. I took my place in the front lines. No longer would my tribe be a liability. Few would dare to call a Dragonewt a liability. ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª Things were not going so great anymore. With the influx from Yrsha¡¯s dungeon, we had smashed through the Void entities with more ease to begin with. But then they had changed in both size and strength, and the sheer number popping in was overwhelming us. ¡°Yrsha get down!¡± I called just in time to allow her to get out of the way of the blue-black flame fired by a Void entity resembling a giant pig. The only good news in this mess was that the temple of Penumbra had created a dome to keep the damnable things away from the wounded. It also covered the prison cell, though that brat seriously didn¡¯t deserve such luck. I dodged out of the way of the flame breathing abomination and gave it a slash across the side as it charged past. It crumpled to the floor before disintegrating into nothing. I got back to my feet and looked over at Yrsha and froze; I rushed forward. There was no time to call out, as Yrsha herself was busy fending off no less than three smaller entities. She could not get out of the way in time. I crashed into Yrsha, grabbed her and spun around, putting myself in between her and the incoming barbed spines from the flying, hawk-like entity flying above. Pain erupted from my back, my sword dropped to the floor, and I could hear Yrsha scream from so far away. I felt someone dragging me. Yrsha was talking the entire time, but I couldn¡¯t make out her words. Through a blurry vision, I noticed I was in the alley between the prison cell and the Temple. What was she doing? I heard her chanting, and the pain faded somewhat. ¡°I am sorry, Rael, there¡­ there¡¯s only one way to save you from the poison.¡± She was crying. After a few moments, she took a deep breath and grabbed the box she had brought along. ¡°I¡­ I need your consent, Rael, please, I can¡¯t lose you.¡± I weakly nodded as the pain flared up again. ¡°S-sure, love, do what¡­ What you need to do.¡± I mumbled weakly. The pain was coming back, an instant burn spreading from my back. My vision blurred once more, as Yrsha¡¯s magic made me fall asleep. ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª These greater Void creatures were tough to deal with, even for me. ¡°Common Inlas, you can do this.¡± I mumbled to myself, as I sliced at a hand that reached for me and scored a nasty hit on my arm. The blood moon that the Beast of Salvation had summoned was a great boon indeed. I idly noted, as the power from it closed the wound on my shoulder and purged the venom and energies inside. Never in my life had I thought such a thing was possible. I looked over at my adversary, a shapeless blob of flesh and random limbs circling a gigantic maw. It was losing, even as I watch another wound opened and only slowly healed again. The abominations¡¯ regeneration was slowing down. With the Regeneration taxed beyond its limit, a normal beast would have died long ago. But not this one. These creatures refused to die easily, even as their blood evaporated in the open air, vanishing into the nothingness of the Void. I readied my Rapier and lunged at it, scoring another brutal hit. This time, the wound didn¡¯t heal at all. Finally, some progress. I went on the offensive, slicing at its limbs and stabbing at the giant tongue dangling from its mouth. I took several brutal hits in return, but the light of the moon healed me faster than the beast could inflict damage. This fight was basically over. With a final slash, the beast started to writhe and spasm before it faded back into the nothingness that spawned it. One down, more to go. I looked around. Justina was busy bludgeoning an obese Void beast into a pulp with her morning star, and Penumbra was cutting large chunks off her adversary with her Whip Sword. The last time she fought with it, she had been far less proficient with it. She must have trained far more than I thought. Above us, The Beast of Salvation was still fighting the Void Lord. That ball of inky blackness had stopped its descent, and black ichor was falling from it like a river. Now and then an Eradicator Beam blasted through the Lord¡¯s entire mass, fired from a Leviathan on the ground. And yet, the damnable thing didn¡¯t seem to take much in the way of damage. According to my Sister, the thing had an absolutely insane health total, even by the divine standard. Then I saw her, lying on the ground at the entrance, unmoving. I felt a cold chill run down my spine. Without hesitation, I rushed over to Penumbra and helped her finish her beast. While I wanted to head down there myself, there was no way around Father¡¯s decree. I physically couldn¡¯t help her, even if I wanted. My sister was quick to let me take care of the beast in her place. I could only hope the Sphinx, or rather, my niece, was alright. The thought made me feel weird, in a good way. With renewed determination, I finished what remained of my sister¡¯s fight and headed off to aid Justina with hers. ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª The Lord of the void sent another pulse my way, but I was ready and blinked past it. Just how tough was this thing? I had hit it with enough % damage to kill him 30 times over. Not only that, but I was pretty damn certain those beams shot by the Leviathan below were doing damage to, so what was going on? Dammit, if only I had an ability that let me see my opponent¡¯s status. I had never had a need for such a Skill before, since my fights used to be pretty damn short. A valuable lesson for the future. Well, there was nothing to it. All I could do was keep fighting. Health-wise I was fine, my regeneration was keeping up with the damage I was taking, heavy as it was. The main issue was my mana. It was getting dangerously low now. Mistress had said this thing¡¯s health pool was ridiculous, but this was far beyond my expectations. The Lord rippled again, the sign of an impending attack. I made ready to dodge, but this time it was not aiming at me, but at the Leviathan below. The large beast moved with surprising speed as it dodged the beam, the shot itself leaving a gouge in the ground as it chased after the leviathan. Just before the beam caught up with the fleeing beast, the Lord convulsed violently as several lightning bolts hammered it from above. More backup, it would seem. Normally, this would have annoyed me, but frankly this thing was too tough to take out all alone. With allies, however, I could lend them some aid as well. Time to pull out all the stops. I had so many choices, but the best one would decidedly be that one. Edict of Unity. It would be a hefty cost for Mistress, but considering the dungeon was running at full capacity, she should be able to weather the absolutely stupid high cost. As soon as I activated it, a brilliant white light shot out from me and towards every ally present. The best part about this Edict was how it worked. It would give everyone a buff that would set their stats to be equal to the highest stats among all those affected. So if someone here had higher strength than me, my strength would go up. While, if I had higher defense than someone else, they would receive my defense, and so on for every stat. Of course, such a boost in power did not come without a massive cost. Well, I could worry about that once we won. This thing needed every ounce of power I could muster, and if that meant boosting my allies to beat the crap out of it, so be it. Another set of lightning bolts hit the Lord, these far greater, and I could finally see who was throwing those. Another one of those energy beings, teal in color and crackling with energy. There was no doubt he was an ally, as the Edict of Unity extended to him as well. He had a muscular build and despite his laid-back posture there was no doubt he was taking this fight seriously. If the Lord tried to attack him, it would be difficult for it to find any openings. I gave him a quick nod and resumed my attacks on the Lord. Better to prepare for the long haul and let my mana recharge for now. ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª I landed and rushed over to the girl and began my examination. However, I couldn¡¯t determine the cause of her sudden collapse. I looked at the fragments in front of her. I could sense strange energies from them. She had said she intended to rob the Lord of his protections, and she needed a divine skill to do so. I scanned her status, and the answer stared me in the face. Power Overload. She had somehow exchanged the skill Father granted her with the Lord¡¯s Protection skill and it was causing an overflow because of its sheer power. I didn¡¯t even want to think about how powerful that skill had to be to cause such a thing. Well, there was nothing to it. She needed to cope with the excess power somehow. <Mother, the destroyed crystal started channeling the excess power into her Experience, but she reached the current level cap, however since she isn¡¯t conscious, she can¡¯t evolve. I think you need to do it for her like you did last time.> So my little son had realized that was what happened. Quite perceptive of him. Well, there was nothing to it. If that could allow her to bleed off the excess energies, so be it. Besides, an evolution would most likely help her servant above as well. A sudden attack from the Lord, aimed at Rinnojj, shook me from my thoughts and back to reality. I didn¡¯t have time to ponder what to do; it was a miracle some lesser Void spawn hadn¡¯t shown up to attack her already. Without further hesitation, I activated the evolution process. Hopefully, it would consume enough power. Final Chapter: Ascension Floating in the dark again. Well, this was familiar by now. I guess I lost consciousness from the pain, yet had somehow kept my awareness. <You seem less panicked about it this time, Boss Lady.> Well, considering the skill I now possessed, could anything even harm me? <You make an excellent point, which is one thing I have always admired about you. You don¡¯t lose your head over things you can¡¯t change, and you won¡¯t stop until you have changed things in your favor, if it¡¯s possible. That being said, until a few seconds ago, that Skill was killing you.> Archives seemed somewhat bemused when he answered. Hang on, kill me? What did I miss? As far as I could tell, the skill transferred perfectly. <Oh, it transferred perfectly alright, including pulling vast quantities of energy straight from the Void itself to protect you. Your body was nowhere even close to prepared to endure something like that. If it wasn¡¯t for Lady Penumbra, you¡¯d be dissolving into a mutating, fleshy goop right about now.> Mom saved me huh, remind me to thank her later, would you? <I can do that, Boss Lady, sure.> Oh, Speaking of which, how did she save me, anyway? <Well, with all that energy burning through your body, the Skill tried to compensate by pushing that energy into anything it could. This included Experience, Synchronization and everything else it would spend the excess energy on. And then the overload happened because there was nothing else to transform the energy into once you hit your caps.> That would explain the feeling of burning up, I suppose. <Yeah, once Lady Penumbra discovered you were unconscious and literally on the verge of overloading, she started the Evolution process for you. This would 0 out EXP, Synchronization and also increase the capacity.> Nice, so I was an Empress Sphinx now. <Err, well¡­ No.> Umm, what? What do you mean, no? Silence. Archives, common now, it¡¯s nothing bad, right? <What? No, no, no, nothing bad. It¡¯s just that, that... The energy was far too much, so you went into rapid fire evolutions. You skipped right past Empress Sphinx and wound up as a new, unnamed Sphinx species some three more spots down the line.> Archives paused, finally answered. Wait, wait, wait. Hang on for a moment there, Empress Sphinx was the end of the evolution table. That should be it, no evolutions after that. <Huh? Wait¡­ you thought? Oh, um¡­ Oops, I guess it never occurred to me.> What occurred to you? It¡¯s real, obviously. <Exactly, and would the real world have such obvious limitations to growth?> Now that he mentioned it, it seemed rather silly to think that way. <Lady Penumbra thought the same thing when Lord Rubolg tried to put in a hard limit.> Why would Rubolg want to stunt the growth of monsters? <I can name one chief suspect, his Balance Portfolio, which forces Lord Rubolg to act for the betterment of Balance in all things.> Balance in all things, huh? I could not help but feel that giving such a restricting Portfolio to the Overdeity of a reality might be a¡­ terrible idea. <You¡¯re not the only one to voice your concerns over that one. And Lord Rubolg himself has more than once expressed regret at taking that Portfolio.> Then why doesn¡¯t he just remove it? <He can¡¯t, the only way would be if a new deity ascended from among mortals and accepted the Portfolio from him. Even if he created a new Deity, he couldn¡¯t hand it off, it has to be via ascension.> Then why not just ignore it? <Could you stop breathing simply because you wanted to avoid wasting the energy doing so?> Obviously not, so Portfolios were like breathing for Gods? <Or eating, or anything else required to live. A God can no more break their Portfolio than you can hold your breath until you die, it¡¯s an overriding instinct so strong one cannot ignore it. Oh sure, it starts subtle, an insignificant urge here, an errant idea there that you don¡¯t notice. Stuff like that, but keep ignoring it and it becomes impossible to ignore.> I couldn¡¯t help but feel that there was something I was missing here. Before I could ponder the case any further, the darkness lit up. Finally, I was regaining consciousness. The world slowly swam back into focus around me. The first thing I noticed was Mother standing before me. It was a pretty easy guess, considering she was the splitting image of the statue standing outside her temple on the third floor. The next thing I noticed was how different I felt. I felt light, really, really light. <Not surprised, your evolutions has made you several times stronger in a very short amount of time, so you are not used to your new form and power.> I finally moved and got to my feet, which caused Penumbra to jump at the sound of movement. ¡°So, you are awake.¡± Her real voice was rather melodious and had a strange, echoing tone to it. ¡°Good as new, thanks for the help.¡± Mother smiled weakly. ¡°For all the good it has done, the Void Creatures seemed content to ignore you. Speaking of, you weren¡¯t kidding about the Lord being a tough nut to crack.¡± She nodded upwards toward the Lord of the Void. I followed her gaze and froze. ¡°Err¡­ Mother, do you see what I am seeing?¡± She looked at me with a curious expression. ¡°You mean what seems to be a sphere of darkness, then yes, I do. Why?¡± I shook my head. ¡°Never mind, it¡¯s nothing important, probably a side effect of the sudden, multiple evolutions I just went through.¡± Mother nodded absentmindedly. She looked at the other combatants for a few moments. ¡°Can you manage on your own?¡± She looked at me, and I nodded. Then after a supportive smile, she flew off to help another god, who had gotten himself into a spot of trouble. I couldn¡¯t really focus on that. I was far more preoccupied with what I had just seen. Multiple things were racing through my mind at that moment. First, I could now understand why the Lord was still alive, despite Minos, and two other gods were attacking it non-stop. I suspected that one of my evolutions had given me the ability to see through the facade and see the Lord for what it truly was. I took to the skies and flew towards Minos and his two allies. ¡°Hey, you three, I need you to do me a favor. Focus your attacks on one spot for me.¡± I yelled as I got close, and the trio paused their assault and looked at me. The God and Goddess seemed like they wanted to argue with my request. ¡°Look, I discovered something important, and I need you to trust me on this one.¡± The goddess and god looked at one another. ¡°I¡¯m up for it if you are, Justina, its not like anything we have thrown at this blob had done much of anything anyhow.¡± The god sounded¡­ bored. The goddess nodded and channeled an energy blast in her hands. ¡°On my mark.¡± She nodded towards a certain point on the inky black surface of the Lord. The god and Minos charged up attacks of their own, building up an incredible amount of energy. ¡°NOW!¡± The trio fired, and the darkness where they hit seemed to recede for a moment. I surged forwarded and dove into the inky blackness before it could settle. As it enveloped me, I could hear the startled cries from the god and goddess and the surprised roar of Minos. Hopefully, they would keep attacking, and keep the Lord from doing anything but defend itself. They had done a pretty good job of it so far. ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª As I fired the attack together with the Minotaur and Tyrros, I had not expected the Sphinx to just charge into the Lord. The Minotaur insisted she was alright, after the shock had settled. And considering the Sphinx had created him, I had no choice but to trust his judgment. ¡°I take it we should keep attacking?¡± As I spoke, the sphere slowly began its descent again. ¡°I think so. As long as we were attacking it, it seems like it couldn¡¯t move.¡± The Minotaur commented as he blasted the sphere with a bolt of green energy. It stopped and fired a blast of black flames at the Minotaur, which dodged effortlessly. ¡°I have a feeling letting this thing touch the ground would be a bad idea.¡± Tyrros commented flippantly, as he blasted the Lord with ever more lightning. ¡°So let¡¯s keep going and buy the Sphinx the time she needs inside.¡± He continued as he dodged a bolt of dark energy. Huh, Tyrros was usually far more lazy than this. What had gotten into him? ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª I am certain that if I didn¡¯t have my stolen Skill, entering this thing would have destroyed me in an instant. The moment the Lord settled back into its regular shape I lost connection with Archives and my bond with Indella seemed suppressed again. Moving forwards was like moving through tar and yet, despite the utter lack of light, I could see the way forwards as clear as day. I was tempting to open my stats to figure out exactly what skill allowed me to see in this darkness, but I thought better of it. I had far more important things to do right now. To be more exact, I had someone to meet as I pressed forward towards the core of the Lord. The trip was slow, all things considered, and the utter lack of any input at all was unnerving. I could feel the violent energies from the Lord assail me from all sides, but because of my stolen Skill it all just bounced off with no effect. And while it slowed me further, it could not stop me from reaching my goal. I stepped out of the murky energy and into a small chamber of rune covered stones. The energies that had attacked me swirled outside, but apparently could not enter this place. There, standing with his axe raised in a futile attempt at destroying the Lord, was a seemingly old man. I could see the frustration on his face, the tears and anger. ¡°I take it this isn¡¯t the first time you have been here, seeing as you appeared inside the Lord, rather than help your children outside.¡± As I delivered my remark, Rubolg lowered his axe, then turned and looked at me. ¡°Indeed, I have been here before, countless times before over the millennia. However, I can¡¯t finish the swing. I have the power to destroy the Lord, but I can¡¯t bring myself to do it, even though I know the destruction it will cause. What¡¯s worse, this thing is my creation, my first creation, even. The Great Balancer. I created it, and the Void it commands, as a fail-safe to bring balance back into my creation in case something went wrong.¡± He sat down and buried his face in his hands. ¡°I had yet to realize the mistake of taking Balance as my primary Portfolio back then. I created the Lord and linked it to my Portfolio of Balance. This way, if the Void sensed my creation was out of Balance, it would activate and move to rectify it, protect the balance of my creation.¡± Rubolg seemed tired at that point, but he took a deep breath and steadied himself enough to continue. ¡°It activated on its own shortly after I created the world and began destroying it.¡± He seemed utterly devastated as he kept talking, a mix of despair and frustration clear on his face. ¡°Horrified at what my supposed guardians were doing, I tried destroying them. However, my Portfolio wouldn¡¯t let me. The only thing I could do was to cast the Balancer and the Void out of my creation and seal it away.¡± His voice was bitter, full of self-loathing. ¡°As you can see, it was a stopgap measure. It was hardly a millennium before my Portfolio was hard at work on securing its release. I held out as long as I could, but, I cannot fight it anymore.¡± He sounded so tired as he spoke. I looked at the sphere that Rubolg had been trying to destroy. ¡°So the Lord is a Dungeon Core.¡± I noted, but Rubolg shook his head. ¡°The Lord is a construct used to control all the Void and its Entities, give them form, substance and a goal. You could say that sphere is the Void itself. However, the Lord has no sentience or will, it simply follows instructions.¡± Rubolg suddenly exploded into a surge of motion as he grabbed his axe and swung at the orb, only to stop inches from it, unable to finish the attack. He let out a howl of despair as he threw his axe with full force into the wall, where it embedded itself with a screeching sound. ¡°I could not even tell my children about this, the damn Portfolio wouldn¡¯t let me. It¡¯s like its developed a mind of its own, and I can¡¯t even remember when I could last act without its approval. The sole exception is you. Since you and your dungeon are not part of my creation, my Portfolio can¡¯t force me to act against you or yours. Not that it stopped the Portfolio from trying on its own.¡± I could see where this was going. I looked at the core. Its stats were far out of my league. Hyper Regeneration alone would not allow me to damage it fast enough. Luckily, I didn¡¯t need to. ¡°Cheer up, old man, for I can solve your troubles, both of them, I think.¡± I replied calmly as I gave him a reassuring pat on the back. I had finally read the message that had been blinking at the peripheral of my vision since I woke up. Considering this new information, I had a difficult choice to make. ¡°One thing at a time, though.¡± I mumbled while ignoring Rubolgs¡¯ incredulous expression. I refocused on the core. ¡°Minos, I command you, teleport to me.¡± I spoke the order calmly. It was a good thing that the Lord was within my domain. Even if Minos couldn¡¯t hear my order, he would have no choice but to obey my summons. The air rippled and twisted, but held firm. Then I felt momentarily dizzy as Minos burned through half my Essence in one go to use Edict of Passage. This finally allowed him to pass through the dimensional barrier that would normally prevent teleportation into the room. Minos looked around before his eyes settled on me. ¡°You summoned me, Milady and so here I am, what are your commands?¡± He knelt down in front of me, like a proper knight, as he spoke. Honestly, it was embarrassing. ¡°Minos, that core is the Lord. What you have been firing at outside is nothing more than a mass of destructive Void energy meant to protect it. Do me a favor and destroy it.¡± Minos grabbed the core from its resting spot in both hands and squeezed, his insane strength straining to break it. The core was losing health at about the same speed as a tortoise was running. As he squeezed, Rubolg grabbed his head and screamed. His eyes bulged, and he seemed to heave for breath. Then he grabbed his axe from the wall and swung at Minos, his eyes wild. I intercepted the blow, and it bounced off. The stolen Skill, rebuffing Rubolgs¡¯ mighty axe as easily as it did the energies outside the chamber. Rubolg had a look of utter shock on his face as he regained his balance. He hastened to attack again, only to be met with the same result. ¡°Milady!¡± Minos looked at Rubolg with surprise and ever-increasing hostility.¡± I turned my attention to him as well. ¡°I¡¯m fine, he can¡¯t hurt me, so focus on the damn sphere.¡± Rubolg¡¯s next swing hit me over the head with such force the sound was deafening, yet I didn¡¯t feel a thing. ¡°The sphere is what¡¯s forcing him to attack me, so once it breaks he should snap out of it.¡± I continued as I kept intercepting attacks for Minos. Minos¡¯ attention immediately turned back to the sphere, and now bolts of purple energy shot from his hands into it. The speed at which it was loosing health was speeding up. Rubolg was now frothing like a wild beast, and his face was beet red. He charged me, unable to control himself. I met the charge with one of my own and slammed him into the wall, where I pinned him. It was a good thing Minos was still channeling Edict of Unity, for I doubt I could have held Rubolg without it. Even with my potential put to its utmost limit, I could barely keep him pinned against the wall of the chamber. He thrashed like a wild beast, while screaming incoherent words that not even Babel could translate. I had little doubt that if Rubolg could think calmly rather than acting on the compulsion of his Portfolio, he probably would have just teleported. I could hear a cracking sound behind me, and Rubolg screamed in pain once more, so I took the risk to look to behind me. Several cracks were showing up on the black-and-green glowing sphere, each one shining with a pure white light. Rubolg dropped his axe and grabbed his head once more. He didn¡¯t look good at all. ¡°Minos, Rubolg won¡¯t survive much longer if you don¡¯t break it, hold nothing back.¡± In response to my order, Minos let out a monstrous roar. My Essence went to 1 as he activated one of his many offensive Edicts and there was the sound of shattering glass. Alongside this sound, a blinding white light erupted from the destroyed sphere. When it passed, the three of us were on the ground inside a small area of my Maze. Rubolg was barely standing, and he was pale as a ghost, but he was no longer behaving like a cornered rat. ¡°Thank you.¡± He said weakly as he finally relaxed and dropped to the ground. Above us, the sun was now shining brilliantly from a clear blue midday sky. It was over. All around us, the Void entities seemed to lose focus. They were still attacking, but with far less aggression and skill. Several of the lesser ones were also vanishing now that the power that sustained them had disappeared. ¡°It¡¯s over for now. But we still have one issue remaining.¡± I looked at Rubolg, who now wore a grim expression. ¡°I take it you mean my Portfolio.¡± He got back to his feet and steadied himself against one of my Maze walls as he spoke. ¡°I do. It¡¯s obvious to me, it¡¯s out of control and is far too dangerous to allow it to exist.¡± Rubolg pushed off the wall. ¡°Tell me something I don¡¯t know. I no longer care too much about the balance of my world. Not more than what my Portfolio forces me to care, at any rate.¡± I looked at the message that was still blinking in my peripheral again. ¡°Out of curiosity, if another deity had the Portfolio, could you destroy it?¡± Rubolg looked at me for a few moments, and I had this naked sensation once again. ¡°How did you¡­ Actually, never mind, I can guess how, considering how you casually walked into that chamber.¡± He took a deep breath while slowly shaking his head. ¡°I should be able too, never done so before, as I have never had a reason too, but if it¡¯s not my Portfolio, it should be an easy task. But¡­ are you sure about this?¡± I couldn¡¯t help but scoff. ¡°Sure? Hardly. I never cared for the idea, honestly. But what choice do I have? I can¡¯t let that Portfolio of yours lead you to destroy everything. Besides, we both know that it will try to make you do so again, it¡¯s just a question of time.¡± Rubolg said nothing for a while, clearly mulling over my suggestion. He finally looked up at me. ¡°Fine, I accept your suggestion, however I warn you, you might need to be restrained once you receive it. Keep that in mind.¡± I shrugged. ¡°Then it would be better if we gather enough people that can do so.¡± I turned towards Minos. ¡°Minos, I am sorry, but you cannot disobey my orders, so it would be best if you went into the dungeon for a while. I do not want the Portfolio to force me to turn you against our friends and allies. Do not seek me out until I come to you, understood, regardless of other orders, this order supersedes all others.¡± Minos bowed deeply. ¡°I understand, Milady, and I agree with your assessment. Well then, I will take my leave.¡± He vanished from my sight, most likely going to the 200th floor. I would have to remember to give Minos his proper rewards for ending the Lord later. For now, it was more important to gather enough people to restrain me in a worst-case scenario. It didn¡¯t take long to find that many, as my Mother, Inlas, after Rubolg lifted her ban, the Storm god Tyrros, Medino, Jusina and Rinnojj were all here. After I explained what I intended to do and the reason behind my choice, the air grew tense, but they all agreed to pitch in. Rubolg got some understandably angry looks from Inlas and Penumbra, but that was something they had to solve on their own. With everything ready, I turned my full attention to the message. <Divinity maxed. Ascension possible. Ascend?> I really, REALLY didn¡¯t care for this idea, but again, what other choice was there, wait for someone else to ascend? That would take too long. And creating a new god wouldn¡¯t do it. This was the only option, unless the world would withstand Rubolg turning on it more directly now that the Void was no more. I hadn¡¯t even had time to look at my new form properly, and I was already getting rid of it. Then again, from what little I had seen it was a pretty unnerving one, so it probably wasn¡¯t a huge loss. I took a deep breath, activated the Ascension option, closed my eyes for a moment and chose ¡°Yes.¡± ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª We were finishing the stragglers on the third floor now. The battle itself had become pretty damn bad when suddenly the Void creatures seemed to lose focus and several of them just vanished all together. I could sense satisfaction, but also determination, through my bond with Pearl. The Lord must have fallen, we had succeeded. But then, why was she feeling determined, and also a slight sensation of¡­ dread and anger? Then out of nowhere I felt a surge going through the bond, a surge of sheer power. I had felt something slightly like it a bit like this about an hour ago, but this was on an entirely different level. I was clearly not the only one to sense what was happening. Everyone in the dungeon turned their gaze toward the entrance to the 2nd floor. <Because of your bond with an ascending entity, you will ascend to a Celestial being.> Huh, Ascension just wha-? Before I could finish the thought, a surge of power went through me and my entire body glowed a bright white. When it passed, I felt different, stronger. All blemishes on my skin had disappeared. My hair had become a pearlescent white and grown long enough to reach me to my knees. Great white wings grew from my back, strong enough to get me airborne wit ha small flex. Just what in the world was going on outside? Before I could think of an answer, I suddenly felt incredibly weary. I leaned towards the wall of the temple and promptly fell asleep. When I woke up, someone had carried me inside the temple itself and put a blanket over me. Outside, there was some kind of commotion. ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª The feeling of what happened next was almost impossible to put into words. It was as if I was overflowing with power, but there was no pain like when I overloaded. Instead, it felt like my entire being overflowing with sunlight, like you were lying in the sun on that perfect summer day. The sensation became stronger and stronger until I felt it burst into a literal rising star. It propelled me upwards, and it bathed my entire field of view in golden light. From below, I must seem like a rising star ascending to the heavens. Idle thoughts aside, I could feel my features changing again in subtle but profound ways. The shine slowly faded, and I floated back down to the ground. The moment my feet touched down, flowers sprang up all around me and then slowly faded away. Hopefully, that would not become a common thing when I was walking around. <Choose your three Portfolios.> This was a new voice. It wasn¡¯t my dungeon, nor Archives or Indella. Probably a divine version of the voice of my dungeon, meant to notify Deities? Well, whatever. I knew I needed to take that blasted Balance Portfolio from Rubolg, but I honestly did not know what else to choose. Better to take those before Balance, just in case it would influence my other choices. <From what I understood from Lady Penumbra, Inlas did what she did because of her Prophesy Portfolio, she never really wanted it either. If you feel generous, why not free her from that one?> Archives? <Who else?> I thought you couldn¡¯t talk about stuff like that. <Not with any mortal I can¡¯t, but you don¡¯t qualify as that anymore, now do you?> Good point. Nice to have you back, by the way. <Nice to be back as well.> I contemplated it for a while, as Archives told me everything about what had transpired between Inlas and the others. Time seemed to have stopped around me anyway, so it wasn¡¯t like I was in a hurry. I thought back to everything that had happened, all I had experienced. The decision was suddenly far simpler. ¡°I choose Dungeons, Prophesy and Balance.¡± This dungeon was my home, I would not leave it behind, so Dungeons seemed like an obvious choice to me. I would have to apologize to Mother later. As for Prophesy, for all the trouble aunt Inlas had caused me, her intentions had been to save this world from destruction. It was a misguided notion spurred on by the power of the Void. But I could understand her viewpoint, if not agree with her actions. Besides, she was family, and I would have to see her from time to time. I might as well bury that hatchet, especially since Inlas had been under the influence of the Void and its twisted ¡°Balance¡± since the last war with them. Because of this, she hadn¡¯t acted fully of her own will, or so Archives had said. And then Balance. Ugh, this would probably suck. Much to my surprise, however, the selection came and went, and nothing seemed to happen. Everyone around me seemed to look at me with uncertainty. Seeing as no one said anything, I figured it was best to break the ice myself. ¡°How do I look?¡± In response, Rubolg chuckled and out of nowhere had a giant mirror appear in front of me, letting me see myself clearly. I once more had a more lion-like appearance, compared to the black panther I had of my last form, if my front legs had been anything to go by. But the colors were more vibrant. My ears had become those of a lion, but were where human ears would be. Golden/honey colored feathers covered my wings, though they grew darker, and slightly silvery towards the top. My hair cascaded back in a brilliant mane, so long it was almost a second tail. It was mostly the same golden/honey color, with two long flowing locks growing down the on either side of my head. In the now-returned sunlight, it shone brilliantly in several iridescent colors when I moved. And in the shadows it had patches of red, blue, and brown here and there. Green, slitted eyes looked back at me from the mirror. And it was a relief to see my face remained mostly human still. My teeth were unaltered and just as sharp as ever, and my size remained unchanged, which was a blessing too. I don¡¯t think I would have liked to grow much taller. Mother stepped closer to me and put a hand on my back. ¡°You look beautiful, my dear. Now, how about we remove that Portfolio before it acts up?¡± Remove Balance? Why would I, when it was such a perfect thing to have? Hang on, that didn¡¯t seem right. The entire reason to take it was to have it removed. But it wasn¡¯t doing any harm, was it? Why not let it be? No, no, no, it had to go! No, it didn¡¯t. In fact, that was a bad idea. It should stay, no, it HAD to stay. Dammit, the Balance Portfolio was already acting up. Nah, everything was fine and dandy. I should just leave Balance alone. Ok, something was decidedly wrong here. ¡°Rubolg, if you would do what you need to, before I decide to do something stupid. I am getting second thoughts, and I am uncertain if that is of my volition.¡± The next second, it was as if my entire world shattered, and I fell over on the ground. It took me about a minute to recover, but when I did, it was as if a massive burden I didn¡¯t even notice had disappeared from my shoulders. <Rubolg has granted you your old dungeon and everything that live in it as your domain. Consider it as business as usual.> The dungeon¡¯s ¡°voice.¡± Good to know my home was still mine. That being said, there would need to be a few changes around here. Though I could discuss that with Rubolg, Inlas and Mother later. For now, I had some damage control to do. I turned towards the dungeon. ¡°While I would love to talk about all of this, I need to do some cleanup, and I am certain you are all busy too, so let¡¯s get going.¡± I turned towards the dungeon and willed myself to the first floor. The first floor was an absolute mess. The smaller void entities had long since vanished, but there were still plenty of stronger ones still around. And while the Cubes and Shadows were putting up as much of a resistance as they could, they really didn¡¯t stand a chance against the bigger ones. However, when I attacked, it was as one could expect when a literal deity faces off against a very mortal, very disoriented and weakened enemy.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. I didn¡¯t as much attack them as will them to disappear, and they withered in front of me until they disappeared. With the maze area cleared out, I rushed towards the 2nd floor to see how things were going there. The others followed close behind as they wished to see me test my new powers in action. Just before I entered, however, I paused for a moment. There was someone else who I wanted to share this with. When I stepped down on the 2nd floor, I did so with Minos at my side. He deserved that much, and more. The area was mostly clean of Void entities. Striders were patrolling here and there, so they had likely cleared the place out after the Lord¡¯s destruction. The bridge across the lake was in shambles, though it was slowly repairing itself. As I arrived at the Adventurer camp, I stopped dead in my tracks as several thrilled Dragonewts swarmed me. It only took me a moment to figure out who they were. Though it took some time to extract the entire story behind it, since they kept interrupting one another to embellish certain details. In the end, the entire story became clear and I couldn¡¯t help but smile down at the newest, yet one of the older members of my dungeon. ¡°I am happy to know you would consider it such, all of you, and I am more than happy to accept you all here, obviously.¡± I patted Ssatassha on her head, which had her make a happy hissing noise that caused some fire puffs from her mouth. The camp had been lucky, thanks to the cramped area it had limited the amount and size of the intruding void entities that could get to it. Those too big had tried to appear outside, where my Umbral Spiders had caught them in their net, or found nothing at all in the Mushroom Forest. At the library, we found Pavol lying on the floor, somehow alive, despite the massive pool of blood around him. Erem rushed over to his pale and barely breathing form and began casting healing spells. However, It wasn¡¯t working. No matter how much Erem cast, Pavol¡¯s condition wasn¡¯t improving. He was beyond mortal healing. Medino put his hand on Erem¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Please, allow me.¡± He reached out and moved his hand over Pavol¡¯s prone form, and color finally returned to his skin as all his wounds melted away. ¡°He will be fine young mortal, and thank you miss Spirit, for protecting him and keeping him alive.¡± Medino looked at the transparent form floating next to Pavol with a serene smile on her face. I, too, looked at her. This was the first time I had actually seen her. ¡°Thank you indeed.¡± She gave a slight nod to both of us and floated down and kissed Pavol¡¯s cheek tenderly. Then she faded from view as her transparent form took on a slightly pink hue. She seemed to giggle, though she didn¡¯t make a sound. Looks like Pavol¡¯s love for books had captured the heart of the library¡¯s spectral guardian. Lucky for him, in more ways than one. I didn¡¯t know what sort of power she had used to keep him alive, but I was grateful. Pavol was a good man, and he deserved better than to die at the hands of these things. On the third floor, things took a more serious turn. The open space between the fort and the cavern still teemed with greater Void entities, but without their Lord empowering them, they stood little chance against multiple deities. By this point, Medino split off from the rest of us. With the entities mostly dealt with, there were now so many preying for his aid to save their loved ones, he could not stay. Tyrros followed suit because he didn¡¯t like the underground. I moved into the Fort itself, with the rest of them, only to see a rather confusing scene play out in front of me. In the center of the fort, encircled by the Duergar, were Yrsha and her spirits. The strange thing was, the Duergar had their weapons drawn and pointing at them. The only Duergar not standing with them all was Granite, who was standing in front of Yunika with a grim expression on his face. ¡°What in the world is going on here?¡± Flint turned to me. ¡°Blasphemy of the most heinous sort, Melady.¡± He spit on the ground. Blasphemy? ¡°Let us through.¡± The Duergar parted was and the four of us moved towards the encircled spirits. There, in the center of the encircled Spirits, was Yrsha, cradling a sleeping Rael. Though a Rael, that had changed from how he looked the last time I saw him. Yrsha looked up at Penumbra. ¡°I couldn¡¯t let him die and there was no cure for the poison, outside of this.¡± She was crying freely, clearly not expecting any leniency here. Honestly, I couldn¡¯t really see the big deal. But the reactions of Penumbra and Inlas told another story. They rushed forward, intending to strike Yrsha down. Only to be stopped dead in their tracks by Justina. ¡°Out of the way, Sister.¡± Inlas was openly sneering at Justina. But Justina didn¡¯t move. ¡°There is no justice in just killing her without a fair trial.¡± She turned towards Yrsha and the unconscious Rael. ¡°Explain what happened, spare no detail.¡± Justina¡¯s voice was stern and calm. Yrsha explained how she had seen how Rael would die by saving her from a void spawn, and that she couldn¡¯t let him. She loved him too much. Penumbra and Inlas looked equally flabbergasted at this admission. ¡°I don¡¯t know any healing spells that could counter the poison in those barbs. None of my Spirits nor any of the Duergar would either, and Lord Medino would not make it in time. I knew that, so I gathered the items needed for a Ritual of Reincarnation in advance.¡± She continued, and Inlas and Penumbra scowled again. I could no longer contain my curiosity. ¡°Could someone explain exactly what the big deal is?¡± Penumbra looked at me with a cold expression. ¡°Reincarnating a soul into another species is taboo, it twists the soul to fit the new body, regardless of the subjects'' willingness.¡± Seriously? I looked at Penumbra with an annoyed expression. ¡°So, basically, the same thing that you did to me when you brought me here?¡± Penumbra paused for a moment, clearly taken aback by my comment, then turned beet red as she realized how hypocritical she was being. Looks like I hit the nail on the head there. ¡°That still doesn¡¯t excuse her actions, she defiled his soul against his will.¡± Inlas argued. That statement caused me, the Duergar and several of the spirits to burst out laughing, despite the seriousness of the situation. ¡°I seriously doubt it was against his will. It¡¯s become a running joke here in the Dungeon that those two lovebirds are far too serious to act on their blatantly obvious feelings for one another.¡± Inlas blinked a few times, then turned to Yrsha. ¡°Is this true?¡± Now it was Yrsha¡¯s turn to blush as she slowly nodded. Justina looked at the two of them, her own serious expression slowly softening. ¡°There is no injustice here, only two lovers who can finally be together. Leave them be, sisters, Father, please.¡± Justina looked at both Penumbra and Inlas, and then at Rubolg. Rubolg looked back at Justina. ¡°Why are you asking me? Dungeons are her Portfolio, not mine, not to mention this Dungeon is her godly domain now, so her laws count.¡± he nodded at me. It was a surprising move on Rubolgs side, but hey, I would take a freebie if I got one. ¡°And I say as long as Rael was willing, this was no crime, end of discussion. Besides, if I were to mete out a punishment for this, it would be that they would stop beating around the bush and just marry already. Watching them pretend not to want to be together all the time has lost its charm.¡± Yrsha somehow turned even redder, but the way her tails wagged showed she was far from opposed to the idea of marrying Rael in the slightest. Justine smiled. ¡°I sensed no lies from Yrsha. Rael did indeed consent. Whether he knew what he was consenting to I cannot tell, but he gave his consent.¡± I looked at Penumbra and Inlas, who looked at me, then Yrsha, then finally at each other, and nodded. Then simultaneously they spoke. ¡°Yrsha, forgive us. We acted rashly without considering the circumstances.¡± Yrsha shook her head. ¡°It¡¯s fine, I can understand. The ritual has a history of such heinous use before, after all.¡± She smiled weakly as she looked down at Rael, the Fox Spirit. Well, I was certain that even if Rael didn¡¯t know what he was consenting to, he would not mind this at all. ¡°I bet he will complain about the tail when he wakes up.¡± I commented dryly. Yrsha chuckled, tears streaming freely from her eyes, then nodded. I turned to the rest of them. ¡°Ok everyone shows over, disperse, I am certain you have better things to do than stand here and gawk.¡± I looked towards the jail cell that Erika was sitting in. The guards outside hadn¡¯t moved, despite the incident. Now what should I do with her? As soon as I thought about it, a prophetic vision hit me like a rock. Luckily, I remained standing, thanks to having 4 legs. Once it was over, I looked at the cell again, now with a far less vindictive expression. ¡°So, that¡¯s how it is, funny. Mother, Inlas and Rubolg, a word with you if you please.¡± ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª The commotion outside had settled some time ago, and I could hear Pearl discuss something with someone outside in that strange language again. It seemed like a rather heated debate, one that Pearl seemed to win, as I could see the four approach the cell I was in. The strange energy beings next to her made me feel small, insignificant even, as they looked in my direction. How could Pearl dare to speak up against such beings? As I pondered this, I saw movement, and from around the corner of the large building next to me came the girl who had been feeding me. I had seen her strange transformation from my cell. She had this strange, soothing sense to her now as she joined Pearl and the others. <It would seem Pearl has decided what to do with you.> Her voice sounded in my head once more. So, it was finally time for Pearl¡¯s judgment of me. Well, this was it then. I would probably die now, or worse. It was a strange sensation. Despite the sheer terror the idea invoked in me, I couldn¡¯t seem to care. It was just too unreal. The door to my cell opened, and the two guards entered and dragged me outside and onto the ground in front of Pearl and the others. The sensation of utter power I got from them all was almost overwhelming. It physically made my skin tingle, and not in a good way. Pearl looked at me with the same expression as last time. Barely restrained hate and anger. Though there was something else in there as well, something I couldn¡¯t identify. She took a deep breath, as if to steady herself and get her emotions under control. ¡°Erika, I cannot begin to even describe my sheer hatred for you, yet despite that, I owe you a debt, and this world, ironically a bigger one. If you hadn¡¯t betrayed me back then, this world would likely have met its end today.¡± I opened my mouth to respond, but no sound came out. Pearl continued to speak as if nothing had happened. ¡°Considering this debt, I will give you a chance to mend your ways, in my own way. If you accept, your chance will begin immediately, if you refuse... Well, that should be obvious.¡± As if to hammer the point home, she pulled a clawed finger across her neck. If I refused, she would kill me, I realized. That didn¡¯t really give me much of a choice. ¡°Fine, I will take your chance.¡± I answered. This time my voice did work, though it was far higher pitched than I would like. Pearl nodded. ¡°Then let it be so, your redemption will begin now and end when next we meet.¡± She turned to the other three and exchanged words. The other three seemed to instruct her as she began radiating a strange golden glow. The glow shot from her and hit me squarely in the face. There was a flash, a sensation of moving impossibly fast, and everything went dark. Color slowly returned, but it was distant, unfocused. I could see movement. Someone or something was standing above me, looking down at me. I tried to keep focus, but I was just so¡­ sleepy. Everything was so fuzzy and far away. Everything was slipping away like sand between my fingers, including my memories. Distant voices were talking. A few moments later, something or someone picked me up in hands almost as large as my torso. As the unfocused form carried me away as my consciousness drifted away once more. ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª As Erika disappeared, I took another deep breath. The urge to just kill her was still there, but now it was too late. I had set her fate in motion, and I could not change it now. We would meet again, of course, but not for a long time. Long enough, perhaps, that my anger would have cooled down. Besides, if my vision had been correct, this way would be better for everyone involved. Indella walked up to me and gave me a hug on the leg. <You did the right thing. I know you hate her, but killing her would have just left you feeling bitter.> I looked down at her. ¡°You are right, of course. As much as I wanted to kill her, that was simply not the answer here. Besides, if things go as I foresaw, this will actually make her a better person in the end.¡± I looked at the Jail cell one last time, before I, with a thought, erased it from existence. This was far simpler than when I was a core, no need to go through menus. If I wanted it made, I just needed to focus on willing it to be. ¡°Come on, we still have work to do here before we can celebrate.¡± Indella nodded and hopped on my back. I turned towards Mother and the others. ¡°I have some things I need to speak with you about as well, though it¡¯s not so pressing as to be immediate.¡± The trio nodded, and Rubolg smiled wryly. ¡°I know what it is you want to speak about, and I agree on most of it. However, It would be better if the others heared from you directly about this. We can take care of it tomorrow afternoon. For now, we have a lot of cleaning up to do, all of us.¡± I nodded. ¡°See you later, Mother, Aunt, Grandpa.¡± The trio smiled and disappeared. It was a strange feeling to suddenly have close relatives again. Strange, but also welcome. The fourth floor seemed to do well. There was no sign of any Void creatures here. Then again, with five Leviathans and ghosts guarding the place, I doubted the things had fared well at all for the Entities that entered. We found Nicomphus on the seventeenth floor together with his Redcaps, and to my surprise, Irontooth. They were busy exchanging stories about the whole ordeal and seemed to get along well. A very pleasant surprise indeed, as I never thought Nicomphus would get along with anyone. As we went deeper, it became obvious the cleanup was a formality, and it wasn¡¯t long until Minos insisted on doing the rest himself. I allowed him to do so, as I had some other things I wanted to check up on. Once I returned to the third floor, I noticed Yrsha and Rael sitting on the steps of the temple, their hands and tails intertwined. My first thought was to go over and talk with them. But then, to my surprise, Rael leaned in and kissed Yrsha lovingly. Then he stepped back, went down on one knee, and presented a golden necklace to Yrsha. Yrsha looked at Rael and smiled. Tears were streaming down her cheeks as she nodded and eagerly embraced him, culminating in another long kiss. ¡°About damn time, you damn slowpokes.¡± I whispered to Indella, who nodded in agreement. We took a wide turn to not disturb the two and ruin the mood. As we returned to the 2nd floor, I noticed that the Library was back to being pristine once more. Sitting on a chair, eagerly writing in his book, was Pavol. Next to him, floating silently, and I suspected invisibly, was the Librarian. The love-struck expression on her face was unmistakable. To my surprise, however, Pavol looked up from his book and said something to her, which she replied to with an eager smile. <Since when did Pavol get a new friend?> Indella seemed as surprised as I was. Though she smiled as I explained what had happened earlier. <Maybe this will help Pavol get a bit more social.> Only time would tell. As we entered the Kobold Village, I immediately noticed an issue. The newly evolved Dragonewts were far too big for their old houses. I could see several of them already hard at work renovating. Though as I landed the entire tribe dropped their tools and eagerly ran to meet us. Ssatassha and Lienru were in the front of them all as they eagerly awaited whatever I was about to say. ¡°First, I wish to once again thank you all for everything you have done for me since your arrival in my Dungeon.¡± There was a happy rumble of voices as every single Dragonewt tried to make it clear they did not need any thanks. I held up a paw to silence the small crowd. ¡°Considering your new Evolution, it is clear you need new and improved homes. Since that¡¯s the case¡­¡± I focused on the village and willed it to change as I envisioned. The area changed drastically. The ground changed from loamy soil into cobblestone, while the small ramshackle houses that the Kobolds had built disappeared. In their place were large mushroom houses fit for well-off merchants. The houses were large enough for a normal human to live in comfortably. I decorated them with ornate patterns of Dragonewts and Kobolds. The cobblestone streets received streetlamps made from glowing mushrooms that lit the place in a glow akin to moonlight. Well made signs proclaimed the locations of the Alchemist lab, the Inn and so on. As the changes finished, I looked down at the tribe of my dear Dragonewts. ¡°This is the least I can do. Enjoy your new and improved homes, your belongings are inside as you left them. Though I enlarged them so they would still be useful to you.¡± The tribe looked at the place, their home, and then as one knelt in front of me and folded their arms in silent prayer. As they prayed, there was this weird sensation, as if I had just had a delicious meal. <Devotion, Boss Lady, you will get familiar with that sensation because that¡¯s your main form of sustenance from now on.> Wait, I can¡¯t eat normally anymore? <You can, but you won¡¯t derive any nourishment from it, unless it¡¯s an offering. Which, given Lienru¡¯s actions whenever she delivered the food, might have always been the case.> Hmm, speaking of Lienru. I turned towards the bronze colored Dragonewt she had become. ¡°Lienru, would you mind preparing a proper feast to celebrate our victory?¡± She looked up at me for about half a second. ¡°Nothing would make me happier, Great One!¡± Her happy smile was so pure it was almost blinding. Before I could say anything more, Lienru and a dozen other Dragonewts disappeared into her eatery to begin preparations. This would likely be a feast to remember for years to come. I was not mistaken. The feast itself was one of the biggest yet, since the entire dungeon was celebrating. Lienru¡¯s cooking had, somehow, improved even further after her evolution. Her food was literally divine and while I didn¡¯t need to eat anymore, how could I say now to such delicious food? A sentiment that my relatives would share in the days to come as they got talked into tasting it. It would not surprise me if Lienru would one day ascend as a goddess of fine dining and cooking. That night, as I was lying in my bedroom on the 4th floor. I couldn¡¯t help but to think back to all that had happened in these past few months. How stressful and difficult the days had been. The painful memories and the good memories. Indella woke up around midnight. <It must be strange to not need sleep anymore.> she sounded sleepy. ¡°Not really, it¡¯s just like being wide awake all the time. I could probably sleep if I wanted to, but right now, reminiscing about what had happened so far was more appealing. Indella yawned. <By the way, did you check your stats after your ascension?> I had tried to after the party started. ¡°I tried, turns out you can¡¯t see the stats of deities.¡± Indella didn¡¯t seem surprised. <Makes sense, Rubolg made the system to work for mortals, after all.> That he did indeed. Hmm. I looked at Indella¡¯s new angelic form. ¡°Say Indella, could you do me a favor?¡± Indella tilted her head. ¡°Say my name.¡± Now she looked confused. she asked, clearly confused. ¡°With your mouth, silly.¡± As I spoke, I was focusing on her throat with something specific in mind. Indella looked at me again, now with an expression that was a mix of fear, hope, and desperation. ¡°¡­pearl?¡± It was a weak voice, barely more than a whisper, and it cracked from lack of use. ¡°Pearl,¡± she said again, stronger this time. And as she looked up at me, tears fell from her eyes, a smile on her face. Soon the tears fell freely from her eyes as the elation of being able to speak normally again overwhelmed her. At that moment, I didn¡¯t regret my choice anymore. How could I when Indella, the closest friend I had ever had, was this happy? The next morning, one of Rubolg¡¯s messengers interrupted our breakfast. ¡°Here ye, Here ye! The great Lord Rubolg¡¯s proclamation! Yesterday, the Ascension of a new Goddess saved the world from utter ruin! All hail Lady Labyrinthia, the newest member of the Pantheon! While the Goddess have Ascended, there are still some details about her Portfolios to work out, we will announce them at a later date.¡± Before I could properly react to what had just happened, the messenger disappeared. Indella looked up at me. ¡°Labyrinthia, so that was your true name.¡± I nodded slowly. ¡°Yeah, according to Archives, names have power, so I wasn¡¯t completely comfortable just giving it out.¡± Indella became thoughtful for a few moments. ¡°A wise choice. Some spells become far more powerful against or specifically target someone you know the true name of.¡± She went back to her breakfast with renewed energy. As I finished up my own, I couldn¡¯t help but wonder, how did Caelyn fare in all of this? <You could head over there and check. Since your domain is in the mortal realm, it¡¯s not like Rubolg can be angry at you for doing so.> True, I was technically in the mortal realm still. Actually, sure why not, I wanted to know how Yndali and the old Priest were doing anyhow. Besides, any moment now¡­ As I expected, Eliandar entered the dining room a few moments later. ¡°I am sorry to disturb you while you are eating, Lady Labyrinthia. But the city-¡± I rose and walked next to him and he stopped talking as he looked at me wit ha nervous expression. ¡°I was planning to check on the Guild and the High Priest, anyway, so you could get a ride, if you want to check on someone.¡± Eliandar visibly relaxed. ¡°Thank you¡­¡± The voice was but a whisper. ¡°Hey, that¡¯s what friends are for, right?¡± He looked up at me with a surprised expression before a smile spread over his face. ¡°Right.¡± Indella looked up from her meal. ¡°You two go on ahead. I¡¯ll meet you topside once I¡¯m done eating.¡± Eliandar jumped in surprise as he heard Indella talk. Though to his credit, he quickly recovered again. I gave her a nod, and I calmly teleported myself and Eliandar to the surface. I probably could have transferred all of us directly to Caelyn, but that seemed risky since I didn¡¯t know the exact location of Caelyn compared to my dungeon. Not to mention Indella would get furious if I left her behind. We didn¡¯t have to wait long, as Indella arrived about five minutes later, accompanied by Erem. ¡°Hope you don¡¯t mind. My Sister is the only family I have left, and¡­¡± his voice trailed off as he looked at me. ¡°I don¡¯t mind at all, though the trip might get slightly strange.¡± Erem and Eliandar gave me a curious look. I just smiled and lifted them both into the air with telekinesis. ¡°Well then, ready to go?¡± The two suddenly looked far less certain about their choice. Before they could change their minds, both Indella and I took to the skies. ¡°How does it feel to fly on your own accord?¡± I looked over at Indella as she flapped her own great wings with ease. ¡°It feels natural. I thought it would be difficult or tiring, but it¡¯s as easy as walking.¡± She dove and did a loop before shooting upward a bit more, then circled back down to the three of us. ¡°No vertigo or anything else?¡± She shook her head. Walking to Caelyn was about a six-hour trip, however the flight lasted about thirty minutes. As I touched down in front of the gates, I could see the guards tense up. One of them took a step forward and with a shaky voice proclaimed. ¡°H-halt, state your n-name and errand.¡± I had to admit, his bravery was admirable. Few people would have the guts to demand such of a four-meter tall Sphinx accompanied by a literal Angel. Well, I guess I should reward his bravery appropriately. ¡°I am Labyrinthia. I am here to speak with the High Priest and the Guildmaster. My companions are Indella, Erem and Eliandar of the Adventurer¡¯s Guild.¡± If the man had been pale before, he now turned as white as snow. He looked up towards the heavens, as if expecting a bolt from the clear sky. I couldn¡¯t help but chuckle. ¡°Erem, why don¡¯t you show him your ID before he faints dead away.¡± The old Cleric hastily walked forwards and showed the tag on his necklace, and a few moments later we were let through the gate. Erem looked up at me as we walked through. ¡°You could have just flown over the wall.¡± I looked down at him. ¡°And would have caused more panic in a city that has already weathered an unprecedented attack.¡± I looked around at the damaged and destroyed buildings. ¡°I only hope that the death toll didn¡¯t get excessive.¡± Beside me, Eliandar closed his fists repeatedly until Indella put a hand on his shoulder. ¡°It¡¯s fine, I am certain he¡¯s fine.¡± Her voice seemed to soothe Eliandar as he looked up at her and nodded silently. Despite the strange sight the four of us must have made as we made our way through the city, almost no one offered us more than a curious glance. There were far too many destroyed buildings to repair or rubble to clear. It seemed, however, that the number of deaths was relatively low. As we entered the plaza in front of the Temple of Rubolg, I noticed the giant fissure currently being filled in. ¡°I can guess the cause of that one.¡± I mumbled silently, as it was very similar to the gash left by Rubolgs axe in the room housing the core of the Lord, only far bigger. We walked past it, careful to not impede the people who were busy filling the massive rend with dirt. As we got to the stairs of the temple, the doors opened and the High Priest, now using a cane, walked out. ¡°Ah, I have been expecting you, Milady.¡± He bowed his head respectfully. Honestly, this was getting embarrassing. Behind him, I could see Yndali and Arana discussing something. As they noticed us, they joined us on the stairs. ¡°Ah, Lady Pearl, or is it Labyrinthia now? I am glad to see you are well. I also hope your dungeon didn¡¯t suffer too many losses in the fighting.¡± Arana looked quite pleased with the entire situation. Yndali looked at her, then bowed her head similarly to the High Priest. ¡°Indeed, losing your dungeon would have been a major loss for everyone.¡± I chuckled. ¡°Glad to see you are alright as well. The city took a beating, it seems.¡± I noticed the Temple was mostly unscathed. Arana¡¯s smile faded somewhat. ¡°It¡¯s almost all structural damage. Thanks to your warning, we evacuated most of the citizens into warded areas before the Void arrived. I dare not think about the complete disaster that would occur if we hadn¡¯t received word. On behalf of the city¡¯s Nobles and the City Lord, I thank you.¡± She bowed deeply, only to be stopped by Eliandar. ¡°Father, is he?¡± His voice was calm, but I could feel his worry emanating from him like a cold wind. Eliandar¡¯s last trip had somewhat mended the rift between him and his family, it seemed. Arana smiled and put a hand on Eliandar¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Fear not, young man. Your Father is fine, bruised, but fine. He led his personal guard to safeguard people who hadn¡¯t evacuated yet. He got a few minor wounds, but he has received treatment and is as good as new, well, as good as you can get at his age.¡± Eliandar sagged as relief flooded through him. ¡°Thank you, Lord Rubolg, for safeguarding him.¡± Now, however, it was Yndali that interrupted. ¡°Afraid I have to say, it wasn¡¯t Lord Rubolg that helped him. Selba led the host that protected Caelyn, and among the Celestials were Demons as well. Gave us a rather nasty shock in the beginning, considering Celestials and Demons don¡¯t get along, yet now were fighting side-by-side.¡± She seemed rather calm about all that had happened. Then again, Yndali had never seemed like someone who let a bit of pain, or minor setbacks like the end of the world, impede her job. I looked the trio over. ¡°So Caelyn is fine, then?¡± Arana nodded. ¡°As fine as it could get, all things considered. Your warning helped save countless lives here and other places as well. We messaged broadcast your warning to every major city across the entire kingdom and they sent in onwards. You prevented a complete disaster and likely saved thousands in with your warning. Sure, we suffered losses, and so did several other cities. But nowhere near as much as we would have without your warning.¡± Arana gave a wide grin before she continued. ¡°There were talks about giving you a medal, but it seems you got a greater reward than any medal of honor we mortals could provide. Didn¡¯t you, your holiness?¡± Her attempted levity faded somewhat when I didn¡¯t return her grin. ¡°I take it you are referring to my ascension, Arana. If so, I assure you it was unrelated to any reward and something I did from necessity. Not because I desired divinity or power.¡± She suddenly seemed less sure of herself. ¡°That being said, I don¡¯t regret my choice. It had to be done, and it allowed me to resolve some personal regrets of mine that I would not have been able to as a Mortal.¡± I was about to continue when the High Priest cleared his throat. The others looked shocked that he would interrupt a goddess, but I could clearly see the divine spark within. ¡°I am sorry to interrupt the conversation, but didn¡¯t you have a meeting in a scant few hours? You should probably head back and prepare.¡± I gave him a slightly stiff nod. ¡°You are right, of course. I will be heading back now. The rest of you can stay behind and head back on your own if you like. I am certain you have some catching up to do with friends and relatives.¡± Erem and Eliandar agreed quickly. ¡°I will probably be staying a few days at least, maybe longer.¡± Erem noted as he headed into the temple, towards one of the closer pews. A middle-aged woman who bore a striking resemblance to Erem himself was sitting on it, and when she noticed him, she sprang up and embraced the old man. It didn¡¯t take a genius to realize it was Erem¡¯s sister. Eliandar also waved goodbye and headed off towards the Noble District with Arana, no doubt to see his father. As I looked back at the old man, I noticed he was eyeing Indella with a curious expression. ¡°Remarkable, I didn¡¯t expect the Ascension to also affect you. Must be a side effect of Penumbra messing with the Taming ritual, truly fascinating.¡± Indella seemed somewhat nervous as Rubolg studied her. So much so that Yndali, who did not know who she was really talking to, intersected. ¡°Honestly, your Holiness, can¡¯t you see that the young girl is uncomfortable with your staring? Besides, what would lord Rubolg say if he knew his High Priest was ogling a young woman like that.¡± Rubolg and Indella just stared at her with expressions that were swapping back and forth between so many emotions I couldn¡¯t really sort them out. Then the old man gave a hearty laugh. ¡°Ah, forgive me, Miss Yndali, it¡¯s just so rare to see a human ascend to a Celestial while still alive, let alone one so young. The sight enraptured me completely, please forgive me young miss, I meant no harm, truly.¡± Indella smiled nervously and gave a respectful bow of her own. ¡°No harm done... your Holiness.¡± She knew it was Rubolg who was speaking to her. I could feel it through our bond. Yndali looked at the two with a slightly confused expression, before she just sighed at the entire thing. ¡°Well, I would love to continue this conversation. However, I have to oversee the rebuilding of the Guild Hall. Most of it got torn apart during the fighting and it¡¯s going to take weeks, if not months, to repair it all. Take care, all of you.¡± She waved and began moving down the stairs. As she set foot on the plaza, both Micha and Mandol were right behind her, under the effect of invisibility. It was rather interesting to note they were holding hands. I looked back at the High Priest. ¡°Well then, we better get going, too, see you at the meeting, Grandpa.¡± This earned me a hearty laugh from him as he waved me and Indella off. As we returned to the plaza, I turned to Indella. ¡°Say, how about we test how fast we can fly back? After all, we kept it rather slow since we had Erem and Eliandar with us.¡± Indella looked at me, stretched her wings, and nodded. A few seconds later, both Indella and I were in the air. Her wings and my mane giving off an iridescent, rainbow-colored spectacle in the sunlight as we circled over the plaza to gain altitude. Below us, I could see people point and upwards, and I could hear indistinct yelling. No doubt it was quite a sight to behold from below. Indella flattened out her ascent with a grin. ¡°Ready when you are.¡± I turned back towards the Dungeon. ¡°Lets go!¡± A few seconds later, Indella and I had put Caelyn far behind us as the world turned into a blur around us. To call the trip back short was an understatement. We arrived so fast we actually overshot it and had to turn around. When we landed, both of us were laughing hysterically at the entire thing. It felt good to not have to worry about anything for a change. As we landed, I noticed that Yrsha and Rael were sitting on a stone slab outside the entrance. Once they noticed us, they smiled and waved. Rael scratched his ears and grinned widely as we approached. ¡°Welcome back, you two. How was the trip? No difficulties, I hope.¡± His tail was wagging so fast it was difficult to see it clearly as he talked. Indella returned the grin herself as she flapped her wings and created a small breeze. ¡°Oh, can¡¯t complain. The trip was just a blur on the way back, though. We actually overshot the Dungeon and had to turn back around.¡± Rael looked at Indella with a surprised expression before he resumed his grin. ¡°Glad to hear it, and congratulations on recovering your voice.¡± He and Yndali looked at each other and then at me. ¡°By the way, Pearl, err Labyrinthia. As you undoubtedly noticed yesterday, I finally proposed to Yrsha. And in that regard, when the day comes, would you mind being the one who officiates the wedding?¡± I looked at the two of them with an equally wide smile. ¡°Nothing would make me happier. Just let me know the date beforehand.¡± The two smiled widely then, with a wave at us, both hurried back down, hand in hand. ¡°Nothing like a near-death experience to break down that last wall between loved ones.¡± I commented calmly. Indella looked up at me, then back at the entrance. That it took a near-death experience baffles me, I mean, everyone knew they were head over heels in love with one another.¡± She shook her head slowly. ¡°Well, what matters is that they are finally together, right Labyrinthia?¡± I nodded slowly. ¡°Indeed, here¡¯s hoping they will get a long and happy life together.¡± Indella tilted her head. ¡°Can¡¯t you just foresee the future and know?¡± I chuckled. ¡°Once I get enough training with the Portfolio, perhaps, right now, I get glimpses or sometimes I get hit by sudden visions.¡± I explained calmly. Indella nodded slowly. ¡°Well, I suggest you keep practicing. You have an important job now, after all. I nodded slowly in agreement. ¡°Well, right now, the most important thing I can do is to have a nice lunch before the meeting, so let¡¯s go.¡± As we entered the Dungeon once more, I felt content, truly content for the first time in a very long time. <Welcome home, Boss Lady.> It¡¯s good to be home, Archives. It¡¯s good to be home. Epilogue: The future, ever after Hard to believe it¡¯s already been half a year since Labyrinthia ascended. <Have to agree with you there, Indella. It has been a busy six months at that.> I was sitting on top of a portal on the edge of Labyrinthia¡¯s domain, next to the entrance of the Labyrinth. The sun was shining, and a delightful breeze meant the temperature was just perfect. <You think there will be any new challengers today?> Hard to say. There are several more dungeons they have to go through to challenge this one, so chances are we will only get petitioners who wish to receive a Prophecy instead. <True, those have been pretty common of late. Labyrinthia should put some kind of restriction on it if it gets any worse.> Nah, she enjoys watching them try to puzzle out her cryptic descriptions of her visions. I am pretty certain she is being extra vague on purpose. <I have to agree about, oh, look lively, guests.> Down below was a party of five, heavily armed and armored. They seemed uncertain about what to do. Alright, time to get into the role. ¡°Greetings Mortals, are you here for the Challenge, or the Petition?¡± My magically enhanced voice boomed like a mighty roar, despite the softness of the words I spoke. The quintet flinched and looked up at me. After an awkward silence, the leader of the group stepped forward, his reluctance clear. ¡°We are here to challenge the dungeon.¡± As he spoke, he seemed to regain his nerve. I spread my wings and with a single flap flew up into the air. ¡°Then proceed into the maze, brave Challengers, and may fortune favor you this day.¡± I made a large number out of dispelling the impressive looking magical force field blocking the entrance. It wasn¡¯t really necessary to have it there, since no one in their right mind would attack the domain of a goddess. But it seemed more appropriate that you couldn¡¯t just waltz in. As they disappeared into the maze, I re-enabled the force field with a simple snap. I knew Labyrinthia had received a notification about the quintet by now. Hey Archives, ten gold coins say they won¡¯t last five minutes. <Ten gold says they will.> You¡¯re on. I landed on top of the portal again. Four minutes later, the pedestal on the opposite side of the entrance flared to life. As the light faded, the quintet from before was lying on top of it in a pile. ¡°Alas, Challengers, it seems you have failed. Better luck next time.¡± The quintet groaned as they slowly extracted themselves and got to their feet. After a bit of grumbling, they bowed deeply in my direction and turned back towards Caelyn. Graceful in defeat, not bad. The batch before them had taken their loss so badly, they tried to force their way back in. A mistake no one did twice. <Hey Indella, it¡¯s almost time for your training session with Minos.> Already? Well, guess that meant Mordred would arrive any second. As if on cue, the portal flared to life, and he stepped through. ¡°Hey Mr. Immortal, how are you doing today.¡± Mordred looked up at me and grimaced. ¡°How long are you going to keep calling me that?¡± He didn¡¯t seem too enthused about my new nickname for him. I landed next to him with a grin. ¡°A few more months, maybe more. Besides, I agree with Labyrinthia. Immortality probably isn¡¯t what it¡¯s cracked up to be. Choosing that as your Divine reward for your involvement in that mess half a year ago probably wasn¡¯t a good idea.¡± Mordred grumbled some more, but didn¡¯t comment on it. He and Labyrinthia had a pretty long discussion about it when he picked that. I only hoped Mordred wouldn¡¯t regret it down the line, though I had a sneaking suspicion he would. ¡°Well, see you later, Mr. Immortal. Got some more sparring with Minos.¡± Mordred just waved me off without a word. ________________________________ ¡°So, all I gotta do is go in there and kill da monster, and I can keep any loot in there.¡± Tarad was looking at the door in front of him. I nodded with a barely suppressed smile. ¡°Indeed, I was thinking of adding this new monster to the Challenge, but I want your thoughts on it first.¡± Tarad eyed me warily. ¡°This isn¡¯t like when ya had me walk into a room full o Black Sludge, is it?¡± I continued to smile calmly. ¡°I swear to you, there are no Slimes or Jellies in the room, all that¡¯s in there is the monster you need to kill.¡± Tarad gave me a look full of doubt, but carefully opened the door and closed it behind him. A few seconds later, he opened it again. ¡°Say, if I defeat da monster, can I loot da chest, too?¡± I just smiled, knowingly. ¡°Anything you find within the room is yours to loot, provided you kill the monster first.¡± Dally, who was sitting beside me, noticed what Tarad apparently did not. ¡°Ye never mentioned there being a chest in there.¡± I looked down at her, still smiling. ¡°There isn¡¯t a chest in the room, only the monster is in there with him.¡± Dally went quiet for a few moments before she giggled maniacally. A few moments later, there was a huge commotion from inside the room. Then the Sigil of Resurrection next to the room itself flared up and Tarad appeared on it. He slowly sat up and looked at me as if I betrayed him. ¡°Dat was a dirty trick, ya durned sandstone cat!¡± Both Dally and I burst out laughing. ¡°Well then, Tarad, I guess you failed to kill the Mimic, or even identify it was one.¡± Tarad huffed even more. ¡°How was I supposed ta know it was a monster and not a chest?¡± I barely suppressed yet more laughter as I pointed out. ¡°I told you the only thing in there was the Monster, it¡¯s not my fault you didn¡¯t pay attention.¡± Tarad went quiet, even as Dally went over to comfort him, with a badly disguised grin. I was about to say some words of encouragement when Pavol rounded the corner. ¡°Labyrinthia, they are ready to go. If you want to say goodbye, you should probably head over.¡± Right, that was today. ¡°Thanks for helping me out Tarad, I think double payment should be reimbursement enough for the surprise?¡± Tarad gave me a thumbs up as he was in the middle of a hug. I gave Pavol a nod in thanks and transported myself to the entrance. There was Granite, Yunika and about fifty other Duergar. Granite had a falling out with Flint over the incident with Yrsha six months ago, and Granite¡¯s friends had sided with him. This had gotten worse and worse over the following months. In the end, it had gotten so bad, Granite had asked for permission to leave the Dungeon and settle elsewhere to avoid outright civil war. It was not unexpected, as I had seen Granite and Yunika in a vision, and I had given him leave. But also made it clear Yunika needed Yrsha¡¯s permission to join him, since I had no say in that regard. It had taken Granite some convincing. It was not until after Granite outright proposed to Yunika in front of Yrsha that she finally relented. I walked over to Granite and Yunika, who were talking with Rael and Yrsha. As I arrived, I could hear the last part of Yrsha promising torment beyond description on Granite if she ever caught wind of Yunika being unhappy because of him. I did not doubt that in the slightest, considering her grave expression. I walked over to the quartet. ¡°Now, now, sis, calm down. Didn¡¯t Granite swear to you, he would never make Yunika unhappy? Besides, getting upset like that can¡¯t good for the baby.¡± I eyed the obvious baby bump on her belly. Rael, Granite, and Yunika shot me grateful glances as Yrsha took deep breaths to calm down. She opened her eyes and looked in my direction. ¡°You¡¯re right, I should calm down, if nothing else than for Yunika and the baby¡¯s sake.¡± She idly stroked her belly and looked over at Yunika, who smiled back. I steered the conversation over to something more relevant. ¡°You remember the directions I gave you?¡± Granite and Yunika nodded. Yunika pulled out a parchment. ¡°Head northeast across the plains, cross the river Fandim and then through the Ondul forest. After that, you pass through another plain until you reach the Salnak Mountain Range.¡± She looked up at me, her expression hopeful. ¡°Good, everything is correct.¡± Yunika grinned as she packed the parchment away. Granite hoisted his large pack onto his back. ¡°Well then, farewell, everyone.¡± Despite his best attempts, he couldn¡¯t keep a sob out of his voice as he turned around and marched towards the exit. Nor could he hide the trail of tears he left on the floor as he walked off. Yunika gave Rael and Yrsha a loving hug before she grabbed her own pack and sprinted after Granite. The other Duergar followed in stoic silence, though several could not keep their tears back. I watched them leave with a bittersweet feeling. I would meet them all again, but not for almost two centuries. Funny how two centuries once seemed so long in my mind, but now would be but the blink of an eye in my eternal existence. <Boss Lady, unless you have something else on the agenda, it would probably be smart to head to the Meeting Hall. It¡¯s almost time for the meeting to begin.> Right, the damned meeting. I had expected there to be a few, given the major shifts my choice of Portfolios would cause. However, I had not expected to be mired up in it half a year down the line. The only upside was that this was the final meeting. <You are getting pretty good at the whole foretelling thing.> Practice makes perfect, and I want to be good at it, so I don¡¯t wind up in a similar situation to Aunt Inlas. <Understandable, oh apparently Lady Inlas and Lady Penumbra will choose new Portfolios today too.> Makes sense, since they too are missing some after I took one from each. I arrived in the meeting hall as easily as I moved to any part of my dungeon. It had been awkward when I arrived here for the first time, as I had appeared in midair and almost crushed Tyrros underneath me when gravity caught on. Tyrros had been understanding of my little mishap, but it was still a rather embarrassing episode. As I finished materializing, Gindos, God of the Sea, Sailing and Navigation, greeted me with a smile and a hug. He was an old chap, with a wizened look and a long grey beard that would make most dwarves envious. He was pleasant and calm, hard to anger and quick with a joke or witty remark. Overall, he was quite likeable. ¡°Ah, young Labyrinthia, just in time as always, marvelous.¡± He sent me a pleasant smile and patted me on my left front leg lovingly. ¡°Hello to you too, uncle. How are you doing?¡± He gave a happy little chuckle. ¡°Oh, not bad, not bad at all. Only wish little Tyrros would finally get his ass in gear and start the monsoon season down south. He is taking his time this year.¡± I gave an understanding nod. ¡°I see that¡¯s not fun, obviously. Though being fair, Tyrros has been busy with that large hurricane out west these past few weeks.¡± I responded, hoping to defuse the situation before the two would spend half the meeting arguing over the point. Gindos was pleasant to be with while he was calm, but once he got annoyed or angry, he was as unstoppable as the tide. He harrumphed a few more times, but calmed down as he gave me another few pats on the leg and walked over to his seat. Around the room, other deities appeared one after another for the meeting, and finally, after many more pleasantries and small conversations, Rubolg himself appeared and called for order. He took his own seat, took a deep breath and opened the meeting itself. ¡°Now, as you all know, we have finally finished cleaning up most of the aftermath of the entire Void incident.¡± The atmosphere in the room became somewhat unpleasant. By this point, it was common knowledge, by Rubolgs own admittance, that it was his Balance Portfolio that had caused everything. Everyone was understanding about the situation, but it was still a sore point. The entire world had been under attack, with a massive amount of destruction wrought on natural environments. Cities had fallen under attack and countless people driven mad, killed, or worse, and they had laid Dungeons to utter waste. Everyone was trying to be nice about it, but the anger was there, just under the surface. Even half a year later, we were still working to heal the world from the destruction of the invasion. Despite the oppressive atmosphere, Rubolg soldiered on. ¡°The only thing that remains are the remaining Void entities that were banished back into their prison. They need to be dealt with, suggestions?¡± It didn¡¯t surprise me at all, as there was a major outcry for their destruction. I lifted a paw to signal I wanted to speak. Rubolg looked at me with a curious expression. Probably because I didn¡¯t have the same angry scowl as everyone else. ¡°Labyrinthia has the floor.¡± I rose from my spot and walked into the center of the room. ¡°Everyone, I know you are all frustrated, angry even about this incident. So was I, until last night, when I saw a vision about the remaining Void entities. In this vision, they had changed drastically, and received a new purpose. In this new purpose, they were a constructive and helpful addition to the world and were giving back what they once took away in spades.¡± I paused for dramatic effect, as even gods needed a bit of theatrics now and then. The room erupted in questions, so I calmly waited for things to calm back down. ¡°The vision had seen them transformed. No more were their entities focused solely on balance, but embodiments of emotions whose existence was to aid mortals keep a balance in their emotional spectrum.¡± I conjured up an image of a void entity. ¡°In their current state, these constructs can basically only cause madness, as they either inject or remove all but one emotion. I say make each one unique, each one linked to one emotion, and the knowledge on how to give a healthy dose of that emotion to secure emotional balance.¡± The room was quiet as I finished talking. Then Inlas spoke up. ¡°So basically, we will repurpose their power and appearance to ensure the sanity of mortals, where they once took it away.¡± I nodded. Inlas smiled. ¡°I vote in favor of this motion.¡± Penumbra joined in shortly after, and a tidal wave of agreement soon followed. Rubolg Rose and took the word once again. ¡°The suggestion has passed and the work on turning the remaining Void constructs into Embodiments will begin after the meeting is over. For the next agenda¡­¡± The meeting dragged on with a hundred issues that needed to be resolved. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the agenda everyone had been waiting for arrived. ¡°Finally on the agenda, we need to get new Portfolios for myself, Inlas, Penumbra, and Labyrinthia. Any suggestions?¡± As expected, the entire room exploded into a racket, as every god had their own suggestions. This was one of the main reasons this agenda had taken so long to rectify. Again I lifted my arm and again Rubolg called for silence, so I could speak. ¡°I have actually discussed this with Mother and Aunt, and after a bit of talking about it, Inlas agreed with me on some much-needed changes to her Portfolios.¡± I looked at Inlas, who nodded. She rose and took the word. ¡°As you all know, my Portfolios were Humanity, Schemes and Prophesy. My new niece took Prophesy for herself when she ascended, leaving me with Schemes and Humanity. I¡­ do not wish to have the Portfolio of Schemes, it makes everyone and everything distrust me. So with a bit of brainstorming, we came up with a set of Portfolios that suit me better. Those are, Light, Humanity, Diplomacy and Day. As I am pretty sure Father gave me Schemes in order to Balance, me out, without even realizing it.¡± The room was quiet. Normally, it would have exploded into yelling as others would argue against or for it. But not this time. I knew it wouldn¡¯t. Rubolg looked at Inlas, the pain clear on his face. ¡°I¡­ have put you through a lot of suffering, daughter. Anyone against the suggested Portfolios?¡± You could have heard a pin drop. ¡°Then let it be so.¡± Good thing none of the other gods had those Portfolios. Besides, after I got to know aunt Inlas better, it was obvious those Portfolios suited her perfectly. She hated violence, and only the influence of the Void Energies that ¡°Balanced¡± her mind had her even consider violence as an option before. Penumbra rose next. ¡°As with Inlas, I too have a Portfolio that stands out among my three. Until half a year ago, I had the Portfolios of Monsters, Dungeons and Destruction. After talking it over with the other two, I find Destruction doesn¡¯t suit me, but Protection does. I have never liked the idea of destroying things, but the Portfolio has to be satisfied.¡± She closed her eyes for a moment before she continued. ¡°Likewise, I was always incredibly protective of my Monsters and Dungeons. Besides, this way Humans have a reason to offer me more worship too, since I could protect them from monster attacks. My new Portfolios would be Darkness, Monsters, Protection and Night.¡± There was an awkward silence. Everyone in the room knew Protection was one of Justina¡¯s Portfolios. However, the three of us had already talked about the obvious issue with Justina. Before any new racket could break out, she rose from her seat. ¡°As you know, Father could not transfer a Portfolio from one God or Goddess to another. Labyrinthia has speculated that the cause of his inability to do so was the Balance Portfolio. Considering Father could destroy a Portfolio once he lost Balance, he should now also be able to transfer them.¡± She gauged the reaction from the room before she continued. ¡°And even if he doesn¡¯t, he should be able to destroy my Protection Portfolio and replace it with Truth. Either way, this will free up Protection as a Portfolio for Penumbra.¡± Every Deity in the room turned towards Rubolg, who slowly nodded. ¡°I will try it, since you are clearly willing to give up your Portfolio, for your sister, Justina.¡± Inlas leaned over. ¡°Now your claim of being the Goddess of Truth and Justice, as you said as I was struggling with the Void energies, actually becomes true.¡± Justina looked at her with a slight smile. ¡°I have always considered myself the Goddess of Truth, I just lacked the Portfolio for it.¡± She looked at me with glittering eyes and a grateful expression. ¡°Giving up Protection is a small price to gain Truth, and I am grateful to my Niece for her suggestion to do so.¡± I smiled back and nodded. Rubolg called for silence again, then turned towards me. ¡°And what about you? Young Labyrinthia, what Portfolios do you have planned for yourself?¡± ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª Another day in the guild office, another day of reading through complaints from the adventurers who missed the old days. Ever since Labyrinthia took the dungeon Portfolio, things have changed drastically for the guild. The first thing she did was to put down a decree that outright banned taming and freed every Core that wished for freedom. The only stipulation was that the freed Cores had to aid in the reconstruction of the cities and healing of the citizens in the towns they were in before returning home. When I considered Labyrinthia¡¯s past, I could understand her view of Taming. Personally, I have never been a fan. It made things too easy for Adventurers and stunted the growth of the Dungeons.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. This had put several of the smaller cities in a pickle until the next few decrees came in. The first decree was that trading with dungeons for resources was now legal and encouraged. The second was the introduction of the Dungeon Challenge. This was a safe way for Adventurers to challenge dungeons. Intruders were a necessity for dungeons to grow, and this way dungeons gained the Essence they needed safely. Adventurers could still seek dungeons to fight through for fame and fortune, without the worry of death. The older generation appreciated this new system, as they had lost friends and family to dungeon delves gone wrong. The younger adventurers were more against this change, but this usually only lasted until their first wipe in a Challenge. Whether through foresight or sheer luck, these two decrees had seen a massive spike in the living standards of smaller cities and the growth rate of Dungeons. Since trade now also awarded essence to the Dungeon as an incentive, they were far more likely to accept. And these new resources helped the Dungeon develop a better challenge for Adventurers. Labyrinthia had worked with Penumbra to develop a new type of monster and magical items to make the Challenge more appealing. This new monster could transfer what it saw to special spheres. The spheres could then create a large-scale image of what the Eye was seeing. Labyrinthia called this broadcasting. These broadcasts were becoming quite popular among the city dwellers. Since they rarely knew what a Dungeon was like on the inside. Successful Adventurers were celebrities already, but being able to see their heroes in action like this spurred this even further. I had to hand it to Labyrinthia. Her idea of broadcasting the Challenge to the masses like this was genius. Even the strongest opposition couldn¡¯t deny the allure of showing off their skills in front of a large audience. And the threat of making a fool out of themselves pushed the Challengers to always do their best. Aside from that, Adventurers still had to deal with roaming Monsters, so it wasn¡¯t like they had nothing important to do anymore. As I was considering it all, there was a commotion outside. The door opened, and Mandol popped his head in. ¡°Mistress, a divine messenger is waiting outside. It seems they have finally sorted out the Portfolios.¡± I rose from my seat and followed Mandol to the courtyard, where a giant raven was standing. The moment I arrived, it spoke in a loud, clear voice. ¡°Here ye, hear ye, I bring tidings of a great importance! As of today, the following changes have happened in the divine Sphere!¡± The raven paused for a moment, eyeing everyone there with its glittering black eyes. It then flapped twice and hopped up and down in excitement. ¡°The Portfolios of the Divine has seen a restructuring, following the Ascension of Lady Labyrinthia half a year ago the changes are as follows.¡± The raven cawed twice before it calmed itself enough to speak again. ¡°Her Divine Grace, the Goddess Inlas, is from this day forth the Goddess of Light, Humanity, Diplomacy and the Day. Her Divine Grace, the Goddess Penumbra, is from this day forth the Goddess of Darkness, Monsters, Protection and the Night.¡± The Raven cawed eagerly a few times before it paused. Just as we were getting impatient, it finally continued. ¡°Her Divine Grace, the Goddess Selba, is from this day forth the Goddess of Fire, Demons, Secrets, Schemes and Corruption. Her Divine Grace, the Goddess Justina, is from this day forth the Goddess of Truth, Justice, Law and Judgement.¡± The Messenger was now jumping up and down with excitement. ¡°His Divine Lordship, the God Rubolg, is from this day forth the God of Knowledge, Power, Omens and Creation.¡± The Messenger seemed to enjoy keeping the question of Labyrinthia¡¯s Portfolios a secret for as long as possible, as it paused once more. ¡°Her Divine Grace, the Goddess Labyrinthia, will from this day forth be the Goddess of Dungeons, Innovation, Prophesy, Dreams and Dimensions. On request of Lady Labyrinthia herself, her domain will be accessible from the Mortal Plane from the same location her old Dungeon once stood. All Glory to the Divine Lords and Ladies!¡± The messenger spread its wings and burst into the air. I could see other messengers fly off across the city. So, it was now official, took them long enough. Then again, the destruction after the invasion was massive. And I would have been more surprised if they finished the Portfolios before taking care of the aftermath. Messengers from every Deity and several Avatars had been busy aiding the reconstruction or mopping up mutated aberrations left by the Void. It was reassuring to see them flit here and there, lending their aid to the people. As I pondered that, a Dragonewt flapped past the window of my office, carrying a load of bricks. The destruction wrought by the invasion was all too clear. Sure, the battles had been over in about a day, but Slyvanport was still rebuilding the city, as the Void reduced it to rubble. The City Lord of Slyvanport had not seen fit to heed the warning we sent, and his city had paid dearly for it. Likewise, the forest of Frior to the east had apparently become a horrid mess that was now only home to mutating monstrosities. And this was just the regional news. Who knew how the rest of the world fared. As I thought about it, the Challenge Sphere in the courtyard flared to life. Looks like someone was attempting to Challenge Yrsha¡¯s dungeon. I pitied them. Yrsha had renovated much of her dungeon since the invasion, and Rael was ever so quick to come up with interesting strategies to confound intruders. The door to the hall opened, and Sybl and her team entered. She had taken over after Rael, Mordred, Pavol, and Erem retired. Erem was getting old, so that was understandable. Rael had become a Fox Spirit and felt it was irresponsible to be an Adventurer when his new wife was expecting a child. Mordred had left to further his study of the magical arts, and Pavol didn¡¯t feel like continuing without Rael and Mordred. Their team was smaller, but at least they were still around. Indella¡¯s old team and most of the Nature Howlers had all moved into Labyrinthia¡¯s domain full time. The only exception was Eliandar, who was being groomed to become the next City Lord. His elder brother had apparently shown a severe lack of valor and courage during the invasion. Lord Barron did not tolerate cowardice in anyone, let alone his own kin. He had all but disowned the eldest after he spent the invasion hiding in the mansion safe and sound, rather than protecting the people. Lord Barron might be fearsome and have a reputation of being tyrannical, but no one would dispute that he always put the City, and its population, before everything else. Glad to see he would not hand the reins over to someone less dedicated than himself once he became too old. Then again, knowing how stubborn Lord Barron could be, he would probably rule until the day he died. ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª ¡°Chieftess Ssatassha, the preparations are underway to celebrate Lady Labyrinthia¡¯s announced portfolios.¡± I looked up from the stack of papers on my table. ¡°Thanks Ssanil, I will be joining you shortly, I just need to finish here.¡± I put the quill into its holder and stretched. Ever since we began working as Lady Labyrinthia¡¯s Messengers, our tribe has become far more busy than before. It was the reward our Lady, when we asked for more important work as our reward, gave us. Sure, many of us were still doing our old jobs, like Alchemist and working in the Sawmill. But the rest of the tribe was happy taking the job of Messenger. It had been exciting to fly to Caelyn and explain the Challenge Sphere to the people living there. Over the last few months, the tribe has become quite skilled at the whole messaging thing. That left me with the job of organizing everything. I could have petitioned Lady Labyrinthia for aid for this, but I didn¡¯t want to. I liked the paperwork, just the act of writing was a marvel I couldn¡¯t do before. I looked out of the window of my office. Such a marvelous town, Lady Labyrinthia had given us. The adventurers had moved in as well, after our Lady made it so that spores wouldn¡¯t constantly fall over the city like snow. The quartz houses shining a pale white in the magical glow of the streetlamps. Outside, the tribe was walking up and down the lane, and here and there was a petitioner or visitor looking around in awe. It truly had changed since it was a creaky little hamlet built from Essence. The most significant change, however, had to be our mental fortitude. We had been clever before, sure, but it had been more instinctual, simplistic. After our evolution, we had slowly gained more mental awareness, become more articulate and well-spoken. As I watched, I saw a few newly hatched Dragonewts run by down on the street. It reminded me of how we ran around and celebrated after arriving in this place. Falling into the river that day, though it had been scary, was the luckiest thing that had ever happened to me. No, the tribe itself. Lady Labyrinthia was the best thing to ever happen to us, period. I rose from my chair and exited the office. I could already smell the mouth-watering scents coming from Lienru¡¯s restaurant, where she was prepping the celebratory feast. ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª ¡°Build a road ta Caelyn? I can¡¯t do dat. Between workin da mines, securin da fort and the whole Challenge thing, we¡¯re stretched this as it is. Besides, after dat sandstone Granite ran off with fifty o me best lads and lasses, I don¡¯t have enough warriors to guard da workers as dey lie down da road.¡± Flint looked up at me with an angry expression, but I just chuckled at his impotent rage. ¡°You don¡¯t need to worry your breaded little head about that. My boys will handle security, our Lady¡¯s orders.¡± Flint visibly deflated. ¡°Very well, ye big ox. I will trust you and yer lads on this. By da way, where¡¯s da bird?¡± I pointed towards the temple. ¡°Taking a rest, she¡¯s getting stronger, but still tires too easily. One of these days she might actually fight me for real, however. Keep that in mind if you plan to continue to use that nickname.¡± Flint visibly hesitated. ¡°Bah, da Angel wouldn¡¯t mind¡­ would she?¡± I shrugged, and Flint began to visibly sweat. He was already in trouble for driving Granite out of the dungeon, and the Fox Spirits had been giving the Duergar a cold shoulder since. He really couldn¡¯t afford to cause any more ruckus now, or Milady might just decide to have him replaced. Or so he thought, Milady¡¯s new Portfolio meant she had a reason for letting the entire thing escalate as it did. I didn¡¯t know what, but there was a definite reason. Maybe Granite and his gang would be happier there? Maybe Flint would turn over a new leaf and become a better person? Who could tell, aside from Milady and Rubolg. I gave Flint a nod, then vanished back to the final floor of the dungeon, the 201st floor, which was created almost 3 months ago now. As I arrived, one of my adjutants immediately approached. ¡°Your highness, the Messengers have sent over some more paperwork you need to fulfill. I sighed. More paperwork. Milady had given me an entire floor to rule. A grand city that was home to countless Minotaurs, Kal-Minos. The city itself was a gargantuan labyrinth, with the houses being built into the massive walls. The size of the place made the Great Labyrinth on the floor above seem like a small pond compared to a lake. My palace was a giant spire that towered over the labyrinth itself, that could probably house the entirety of Caelyn¡¯s population 4 times over. It wasn¡¯t just Minotaurs from the Dungeon that were living here, either. Every day I received dozens of immigration requests and about as many challenges for rulership of the City. I wondered how many upstarts I would have to annihilate before the newcomers got the picture. It has become a routine now. Eat breakfast, accept all the immigration requests, crack half a dozen skulls, eat lunch, spar with Indella, crack another dozen skulls, more paperwork, dinner and bed. The constant bursts of violence meant I wasn¡¯t getting bored, so that was an upside. ¡°Any challengers today?¡± The adjutant grinned. ¡°I take it you wish to take out some frustration on the would-be rulers before you have to sign more papers?¡± I grinned back. ¡°Indeed, Lady Indella is a great help in relieving some stress, but sometimes you just need to spill some blood.¡± I grabbed my Axe and headed towards the Arena underneath the Palace, time to add another skull to the pile decorating the Arena walls. ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª I looked down at the gaming board with a dumbfounded expression. How had this happened? ¡°Core Capture, Master Rael. Thank you for the game.¡± Xi was looking at me from the other side of the table with barely contained excitement. I slowly nodded. ¡°Indeed, it was. You have come a long way, you little rascal.¡± Xi¡® tails wagged happily. I just shook my head. Xi¡¯s growth over the past few months had been shocking. The little spirit happily cleaned up the pieces, and I rose from where I was sitting. ¡°It¡¯s surprising to see you lose like that, Rael. Something on your mind?¡± I turned towards the door, where Yrsha was standing, holding a basket in one hand. ¡°No, Xi beat me fair and square. The little spirit has become far better since we began playing.¡± Yrsha smiled her beautiful, gentle smile as I walked up to her. ¡°Well then, let''s head out, shall we?¡± I put a hand around her waist and gently relieved her of the basket. She nodded silently as we headed into the forest and away from the clearing. It would take about 5 minutes to reach the grove we would use for the picnic. ¡°This brings back memories.¡± I looked over at Yrsha. ¡°How so?¡± She chuckled. ¡°Remember when you came with a picnic basket to my chamber to cheer me up?¡± I blushed gently. ¡°Right, I did that, didn¡¯t I?¡± Yrsha leaned in and put her head on my shoulder as we walked. ¡°It was a surprising and loving gesture, I might not have shown it back then, but I appreciated it.¡± Yrsha suddenly stopped and put a hand to her stomach with a surprised smile. I looked at her with an uncertain expression. Was there something wrong with the baby? Yrsha looked at me with glittering eyes. ¡°It kicked.¡± I put the basket down and gently laid a hand on her stomach as I looked at her and smiled. We stood there for a while, lost in our own little world, and I couldn¡¯t be happier. ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª Another quiet day in the library, perfect. I sat down and opened my large book. I had so many new entries to add. Watching Minos building that city over the last 6 months was a marvel. It was truly fascinating how well the usually so territorial Minotaurs got along under the leadership of a powerful leader. Minos had told them to not bother me, and with his word alone I had practically free rein to go as I pleased. Sure, there were areas I didn¡¯t have access to. But with so many things to see, it wasn¡¯t like it mattered. As I wrote, I could feel the arms of Anira wrap around me from behind. I couldn¡¯t see them, but the sensation was there. ¡°Another successful day of observation?¡± Her voice sang in my ears as I slowly nodded. ¡°Turns out that Minotaurs are more omnivorous than carnivorous, despite their teeth suggesting otherwise. The main diet in the city is actually fungal bread, with meat as an additive, rather than the main diet.¡± I could feel a pair of lips on my cheek. ¡°That¡¯s nice. What about the smithing techniques you wanted to observe?¡± I nodded. ¡°Truly fascinating that. There is so much strength behind the blows of their hammers that even the Duergar are no match unless they use magic to enhance their strength.¡± Anira chuckled behind me, and the embrace loosened. ¡°Well, I will let you get back to writing. Mind if I read it later?¡± I shook my head. ¡°I always appreciate your feedback. So by all means, read as much as you like.¡± I could swear I saw Anira smile for a few seconds, but that had to be my imagination. Still, I knew that one day I would get to see what she looked like. That day I would join her as a Librarian in this marvelous place, as I had requested as my reward from Labyrinthia. ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª I sat upon the hill in the middle of the above-ground maze and watched the setting sun. A pleasant breeze ran through my fur and rustled my wings. Indella was sitting beside me, relaxing after a hard day¡¯s work as well. ¡°Three months and the world has changed drastically.¡± I mumbled to myself. Indella looked up at me from the lone tree she was leaning against. ¡°Well, you caused most of those changes, so I hope you¡¯re not regretting any of them.¡± I laid down and flipped my tail back and forth lazily. ¡°Not regretting a thing. This is my home and everyone here is my family. I just did what, I thought, was best for it.¡± A small songbird flitted by and landed in Indella¡¯s raised hand, where it sang happily before flying off again. ¡°You seem to get the hang of communing with birds now.¡± Indella nodded slowly. ¡°Too bad they seldom have anything relevant to say.¡± She responded lazily. I could see she was getting drowsy. Minos had driven her to the brink of exhaustion again, no doubt. I should probably talk to the two of them about it. Their sparring sessions were popular to watch. And while Indella could recover completely with just a good night¡¯s sleep, I honestly didn¡¯t want either of them to overexert themselves. As I was about to point this out, another bird flew past and sang excitedly to Indella. I had considered translating the bird song myself, but I let Indella have that one. She enjoyed being able to do something special, let¡¯s not deprive Indella something she obviously enjoys doing. Indella sat up, now fully awake and alert. ¡°We should probably get to the maze entrance. A friend is coming to visit. Indella eagerly took off, and after a moment of hesitation, I joined her. The evening was too nice to waste on teleporting. As we approached, I could see a small caravan with some very distinct and familiar soldiers guarding it. The two of us landed and as the procession got near, it stopped. The door to the lead carriage opened up, and Arana stepped out. I hadn¡¯t seen her since that day three months ago, as they had called her back to the Capital to report on how Caelyn fared. From the reports I had received, the Capital was one of the few cities with no damage from the invasion. Thanks to ancient wards created in the city¡¯s walls, teleportation and other forms of travel in and out of the Capital was nigh impossible without certain sigil-stones on your person. This had also meant the void entities couldn¡¯t pop in without the wards ripping them apart immediately. A relic from the first Void War, no doubt. Arana approached and bowed her head respectfully. ¡°Divine Lady Labyrinthia, Lady Indella.¡± both of us shuddered. Neither of us could get used to our new titles. I walked a step forward. ¡°Bah, stop it with the formalities Arana, we both know the moment you are inside you will drop them, anyway.¡± Arana looked up, and a giant grin spread across her face. Ever since the crisis, Arana had changed. She was still strict as hell in public or when working, but in private she had become far more casual. There was a reason for that, but it wasn¡¯t official yet. It had been a rather huge shock when Eliandar had requested Arana¡¯s hand in marriage after the City Lord made him Heir to Caelyn. Only those in my dungeon knew about it so far, as Eliandar had told Rael, who had spread the news around with their permission. It was after this that Arana¡¯s demeanor changed. Then again, I had seen hints of such behavior during the feast in our dungeon. She didn¡¯t own table manners once she got going. This behavior also made me suspect that Eliandar and Arana might have had an eye for each other for some time, maybe since their duel on the bridge. I knew they respected each other from that little altercation, if nothing else, and respect could easily blossom into love, if nourished correctly. Either way, if they were both happy, that was all that mattered to me. Besides, Arana wasn¡¯t completely human. I could plainly see that now. Her magic might hide her true appearance from mortal eyes, but there was no hiding that she had at least some demon blood in her, not from my divine sight. In this world, Half-Demons had about the same life span as Half-Elves, and from what I understood, the two were about the same age. I was legitimately happy for them. Having to spend centuries after your loved one passed away would have to be painful. I opened the portal without hesitation. ¡°Come in, Lady Arana, and the rest of you as well. Whatever you seek, we can arrange it, no doubt.¡± Arana¡¯s smile widened. ¡°Would that include some of that marvelous food?¡± Figures, Arana has a one track mind, doesn¡¯t she? I gave her a friendly smile. ¡°We can certainly arrange that, and maybe trade for the contents of those barrels as well?¡± Arana looked back and nodded as she signaled for the caravan to unload the barrels and bring them through the portal and to the trade station in Sporecap, the name the Dragonewts had given their new town. ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª The next morning, I guided Arana back outside, since I had the first shift at the portal again. Arana was in a somewhat more dour mood today, since she didn¡¯t have Lienru¡¯s cooking to look forward to. But she had gotten a pretty good deal for the wine barrels she had traded. Honestly, I had little doubt the only reason she took it upon herself to do the trade in person was to have some of Lienru¡¯s food. As soon as she had finished her business, she had rushed to Lienru¡¯s eatery and ordered up a huge meal for herself. After waving goodbye, I took my usual spot on top of the portal. Maybe I could ask Labyrinthia for a chair? Hmm, better not, might put a dent in the place¡¯s image if the guard was reclining in a chair. The day stretched on, the summer sun slowly climbed, and the breeze played through my hair and wings. Finally, a dust cloud on the horizon. A young man and woman each riding a horse, by the looks of things. As they approached, I took to the sky and slowly descended in front of them. ¡°Welcome, strangers, to Labyrinthia¡¯s Maze.¡±