《The Twin Souled Dungeon》 Prologue - When a stubborn soul gives in Prologue ¡°Connie! Why do you have to be so goddamned stubborn all the time!¡± Mum cried, smacking the marble worktop in front of me in frustration. She sighed and slumped down onto a wooden stool across from me, running her hands through her brown locks in an effort to calm herself down. I just looked back at her calmly. I had decided that I didn¡¯t want to go and no amount of shouting and pleading was going to make me change my mind. It had never changed my mind before and wasn''t going to change it now. My mum looked up at me from massaging her head. Her blue eyes glistening with tears ¡°Can''t you do this for me? Just this once? I''ve tried so hard to do the best for you. I try to let you do what you want.¡± She swiped at the tears and scrubbed her face roughly. My heart cracked a little. I knew how much she loved me and how hard she had worked to bring me up when dad disappeared. ¡°I love that you know what you want, and fight for it so hard, but I''m just trying to do what''s best for you. Just give it a go, and if you don''t like it, you can quit.¡± She looked at me with a hopeful smile. ¡°Please?¡± I sighed in defeat. ¡°Just this once, mum¡± I got off my stool and walked around to her side giving her a hug. ¡°Only because you used the Tears of Make Connie Do What I Want.¡± I smiled down at her and swiped away her tears. She beamed back at me, standing up and smothering me in a hug. ¡°Great! I''m telling you, Connie. This guy is supposed to be really good. Much better than Doctor Pallson¡± I gave another sigh and withstood the hug for a moment longer before I turned and stomped off to my room making sure to slam the door shut. I still had to show her I wasn''t happy doing this after all. My head vibrated gently against the bus window. The soft sound of the music flowing out of the earphones of the young woman sitting in front of me intertwined with the soft drumming of the rain, lulling me into a peaceful trance. It was rare when I was so completely relaxed. Usually, with my brain firing sparks planning mischievous endeavours and my body thrumming with pent up energy I rarely, if ever sat still. As I watched the scenery go by behind the racing raindrops I thought I should try something peaceful more often. Maybe even get into meditation. I smirked. The only thing guaranteed to make me sit still was a good book, and even then, I could never finish the whole thing without shifting position a few dozen times. I noticed with a little detachment that I¡¯d missed my stop, but ignored it in favour of experiencing this rare feeling for a while longer. Punctuality is overrated anyway. I let the moment go on a while longer before the memory of my mum telling me to try and make this work came to mind. I jammed the bell to stop the bus and got off at the next stop. Thankfully, in the city centre the bus stops were every couple of hundred metres so missing my original stop hadn''t really made me late. I walked up to the building that I was supposed to go to, the steel and glass monstrosity was not the normal type that mum normally took me to. Those seemed to be more spiritual, shamany types that liked to work out of little out of the way places where they could act all mysterious. Maybe this would actually be different and work this time around. The ¡®Mind guru¡¯ as the guy titled himself as had an office on the thirteenth floor, which made me a little less certain as to if this would actually help. Not the fact that it was the thirteenth floor, but the fact that he called himself the ¡®Mind guru¡¯. I mean, really¡­ I took the stairs up from the surprisingly small and bare lobby area up to the thirteenth floor. I¡¯m not claustrophobic or anything, I just need to be active. I normally would have cycled here rather than take the bus, but my mum had told me to not show up looking like a half-drowned rat, and since I had capitulated to the appointment, I thought I might as well keep on with the trend and keep giving in. The surprised look on her face when I agreed was almost worth it. The door to the office was, for some reason, mirrored. A small, plain, white plaque to the side read ¡®Dr Ir Gat ¨C Mind guru¡¯, and engraved onto the door were the words, ¡®To know onself, one has to see oneself¡¯ typical shrink gibberish really. I looked at my green eyes in the mirror wondering if I really wanted to get into this. Strands of my brown hair had escaped from it¡¯s ponytail and were framing my face quite prettily. Much better than I could have done had I tried to style it anyway. I figured since I had come all this way I might as well see it to the end. And if it doesn''t go well then I can just not come again and tell mum I told you so. I pushed the door open and walked into a reception area. The receptionist was a bland looking man with a perfect military style crew cut. He glanced at me briefly from behind a steel and glass desk that came up to my chest. ¡°Take a seat¡± he pointed towards a row of blue cushioned chairs. Wow. Weren''t receptionists supposed to be all welcoming and stuff? I ignored his rudeness and took a seat. They were surprisingly comfy. Before I''d managed to wriggle my butt into the perfect spot the door next to the desk opened and a pretty Asian woman walked out. She had perfectly arranged black hair and a smart looking white business suit with red accents. Her glasses were an odd tear drop shape with the pointy ends towards her ears. She smiled brightly at me walking towards me with her hand outstretched. I stood up and shook her proffered hand in greeting. ¡°Hello, there! I''m Doctor Gat, but please call me me Ir. And you must be Connie?¡± She shook my hand with a little too much enthusiasm than I was comfortable with but I smiled politely at her and followed her towards the door she had come in from. The office seemed to be a very simple, and surprisingly small, version of the typical shrink offices. Normally they had some knickknacks scattered around to make the place seem cosier. The room was a plain square with bland beige walls with a single painting on each and large clear windows on the fourth which made the room feel more open than it actually was. In the middle was a simple wooden stool and a reclined leather seat with a little desk shoved against one of the walls.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. I nearly stumbled as my trainers sunk into the thick, embroidered carpet. It was a deep, dark blue with a golden circle that neatly circled the entire space, just barely touching the walls. ¡°Please, sit down and make yourself comfortable. Your mother told me that you''d prefer that this be over as quickly as possible, so we¡¯ll start straight away.¡± The doctor said, politely waving me to the reclined seat. I walked to the centre of the circle and lay down in the surprisingly comfortable reclining chair and tried to get comfortable in a position that seemed to be designed to make me feel slightly insecure. The Doctor shifted her stool so she was behind me and next to her desk. This left me with the window to my left and facing a weird looking painting. It was done in a mix of greys and blacks with a winding red thread which made it look like a red ribbon fluttering in a dark foggy night. ¡°Now, then, Connie¡± she said from behind my head, which made feel a bit awkward since I couldn¡¯t see her. ¡°Please look at the painting in front of you while I simulate the nerves in your head to help you relax. I have helped a lot of people suffering from situations similar to yours where they had too much energy for their bodies to handle.¡± She started to slowly rub at the side of my forehead in a slow circular motion, humming with a soft repeating rhythm. Now, my ¡®condition¡¯ may seem to be like ADHD or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, but it¡¯s not quite the same. I do have trouble concentrating, impulsiveness and hyperactivity, but it goes beyond that. It literally is like I have too much energy, there are times that I can barely sit still for fear of exploding and I can go a week without a single wink of sleep without any of the normal ill effects. The drugs barely help; sometimes even making things worse, which is how I have ended up here ¨C with a person who has supposedly seen these symptoms before. As Doctor Ir continues humming the painting in front of me starts blurring. Huh, is this supposed to be one of those inkblot tests where you¡¯re supposed to find a picture in the mess of colours? As Doctor Ir¡¯s humming went deeper and deeper, the ink in the painting seemed to run and turn into a symbol. I blinked rapidly trying to figure out what was happening as the fingers on my forehead started to feel cold. They dug into my head with a ferocity that left me unable to move my head. The humming had somewhere along the line turned into an intelligible chant, the deep, bass sound thrumming along the fingers on my head and rippling across my skin. I watch as the carpet starts glowing in time with the chant, the circle eating the light coming from the window and regurgitating it into a dark purple glow. I struggle helplessly, not a sound emerging from my mouth as my skin starts fading before my eyes, rippling outwards from the claws now dg into my skull, and expanding to what I can see of my skin. A deep pleasure filled moan erupts from behind me, the sound rumbling through the back of the leather chair from what used to be Doctor Ir. A face appears above me, the features of the Doctor apparent, yet somehow wrong. As if she was being reflected as an almost perfect copy of herself. ¡°Mmmm, so sweet, tasty¡­¡± a long, forked tongue flickers out, licking her lips as her eyes fluttered shut in rapture. Her fingers dug in deeper as a wave of pain shot through me, a gasp of pain escaping my lips. Her eyes widen as she hears me, ¡°You¡¯re still aware? My, my, you are a stubborn soul, aren¡¯t you?¡± A wicked smile appeared on her lips as the pain increased dramatically, my fingers twitched as it felt like something inside me got yanked. ¡°There¡¯s no point resisting, my dear Connie.¡± The demon lectured, well at least I thought she was a demon, through what little I understood through the pain. ¡°I¡¯ve already consumed a part of your soul. There¡¯s no way you¡¯re going to live¡± I struggled wildly, feeling a part of what made me, ME being slowly drained away. There was a part of me that utterly REFUSED to back down, a core of my being that the rest of the ME that was left was built on. Suddenly, something tore, ripping me from the part of me that she had her claws in, and I fled. Somewhere. Somehow. I was confused. What just happened? I felt lost, broken. Like I had lost something dear to me. But what could I have lost? I was always here, wasn¡¯t I? I looked around me. Black. Void. Round? Well, I could see everywhere and I couldn¡¯t see what I felt like I had lost. I examined myself. I looked tattered. My perfect green sphere cloudy instead of the normal vibrant green. I was made up of little interlocking pieces of Me. The deep green, solid in the middle was there as always. Stubborn rarely moved after all¡­ The rest was missing¡­ Or at least damaged. Like something had clawed me¡­ I looked nervously around me, looking for what could have damaged me. There was still nothing there. Just an endless void. Suddenly my world flashed. The endless black suddenly being filled with white. I gasped in fear. Was this white the thing that had damaged me? I tried to flee. But where could I go? The white was suddenly all around me. ¡°DO NOT FEAR, CHILD.¡± The white presence soothed me, surrounding me in a familiar warmth. It LOOKED at me seeing deep within at things even I did not know about myself. ¡°AH, A SOUL DAMAGED BY A DEMON?¡± It boomed. ¡°CURIOUS. IT IS RARE THAT ANYTHING ESCAPES FROM ONE OF THEM¡± ¡°AND EVEN RARER IN SUCH A GOOD CONDITION¡± ¡°UNFORTUNATELY, IT IS NOT SUCH A GOOD CONDITION THAT I CAN JUDGE YOU ACCURATELY¡± It seized me in a grip that paralysed me completely and suddenly I was somewhere else. ¡°THERE ARE MANY PATHS HERE TO CHOOSE FROM. THE ONE YOU CHOOSE WILL DICTATE YOUR NEXT LIFE.¡± The presence disappeared in a shower of golden light leaving me in what appeared to be a forest with a multitude of paths. I bobbed up and down gently. My green orb was much prettier than all the other shades of green in this forest. The dirt path that I was currently floating over was a light brown, hard packed dirt. It was clear of any of the normal detritus one would normally find in a forest. There were six paths that I could currently choose from, three on either side of me. Though each one seemed to split further along. Some paths were bricked, which was weird in a forest. Some barely appeared to be paths at all. Just a bit of forest that had slightly thinner undergrowth than the rest of it. Though something inside me told me it was a viable path that I could choose from. The one that appealed to me the most was one that had a shiny, glossy black surface which reflected my gorgeous green orb quite nicely. I floated towards that one watching my reflection rather than looking where I was going. The path split in two. One turning grey and one turning a bright blue, both still made of the same surface as the one I was currently on. I looked towards each of them, wondering which one I should choose. Nah. I turned right instead, going into the forest. I never was one for paths of doing as others would have me do. That was me, I felt. A bold adventurer. Hehehe. Prologue (II) Erastria ¨C Baroness Elmidia The Baroness sat in the grand library of the Barony capital. The room was a full three stories high, with thick, dark, polished wood bookshelves, all meticulously kept by the small handpicked staff of librarians. She sat in a massive, gaudy armchair next to the window, the chair looking like it could have been a throne at one point before it was smothered in cushions to make it more comfortable which rather spoiled the image. This library was the centre of her little kingdom, after all, knowledge was power and power was her drug of choice. A stern middle-aged woman, she still had the looks that had attracted the previous Baron to marry her, though age had added a few fine lines to her face and a few pounds to her waist. Long blonde hair fell in gentle curls around a face that could be considered angelic. Beautiful grey-blue eyes were framed by thick lashes and a perfectly pink rosebud of a mouth completed the image of beauty, marred only by a long thin scar stretching from just above her left eye and bisecting her lip that rather ruined the innocent image. It was a shame, really, there were so many uses a beautiful face could have, after all. She had taken on control of the Aster Barony when the Baron, her late, and rather short-lived, husband had an accident on the night of their wedding. It was an arranged marriage that she had protested against vehemently, although that hadn''t stopped her parents from literally trussing her up and delivering her to the Duke. An obstinate young woman of eighteen years, her parents had grown tired of her mulish tendencies and had told her that a man would curb her unladylike habits and straighten out her life. Of course, this had more to do with the old duke seeing a pretty young thing that he had felt the need to have and putting pressure on a Noble family that was already suffering from crushing debt. Now approaching middle age, she had yet to re-marry, her efforts having gone into securing her position. In the first few years of her rule she had faced many attempts at taking control of her new found power, but none of the overt nor covert methods that had been tried had managed to wrest away the power she had managed to acquire. She had never been one to lust after power in her younger years, though after seeing her father being slowly manoeuvred into a place where he pretty much sold his daughter to someone who held greater power over him had gnawed at something inside her, urging her to take control rather than be the one to be controlled. The first few years had been an onslaught of information and people trying to control her from within. But a few random accidents had managed to get them all in line. Three years into her new role and she had managed to annoy some of her neighbours enough that they had started a campaign against her. It was in that time that she become known as the Bloody Baroness when her rather pitiful army, comparatively speaking, had managed to wipe out a force more than three times its size. She had then gone on to wipe the offending Barons family out to the last woman. After all, being a woman herself it wasn''t wrong to challenge another woman, was it? The children she had collared and put to work in the mines with the goblins, waiting until they had come of age before putting them to the sword as well. She wasn¡¯t a complete monster, after all. Killing children was considered to be bad taste. The cities and towns she captured had every tenth man whipped in the nearest public square and every hundredth swinging from the walls. The next ten years saw two revolts being brutally put down and a fearsome reputation built. These days her Barony practically ran by itself. Her ministers knew their jobs and she had beaten into them the consequences of what would happen should they come to her for anything other than what was absolutely necessary. Of course, the occasional beating had to be served just to keep up appearances but now there was very little for her to do apart from lounge around and make sure no one thought she had gotten too soft. And now, she was bored. Bored enough that she had started looking for ways that she could get her hands on some more power. She flicked through a book that she had acquired recently from a rather suspicious source. The book had appeared mysteriously on her desk the night before, and she had no idea how someone had manged to get in to place it there through all the security measures she had in place. A quick search found nothing else amiss, and a light whipping of all the guards on duty made sure that they would all be extra vigilant for the next few months. The book was a guide to summoning and controlling a demon, all the steps surprisingly easy to follow. In fact, she was reasonably certain that she could easily carry out the summoning tonight if she wanted to. There was just one problem. Someone was trying to manipulate her, and that was one thing that she just could not tolerate. It wouldn¡¯t be too hard for someone to find out that she craved power, after all, in the past decade she had taken her Barony from the smallest in the area to assimilating the five surrounding baronies in a record breaking time. She was now the strongest force on the continent apart from the Crown that she had sworn fealty to, though they were surely looking at her with distrust. Her spies had found an increasing number of spies in all the most important areas of her Barony. She had, of course let them in, wisely giving them just enough power to be able to feed carefully controlled information back to their masters, but not enough that they were essential to the running of her Barony. Of course, such things were moot at the moment as she was in no position to challenge the Crown with the resources she currently controlled. The Crown controlled the best trained army on the continent, having control of the mithril mines as well as the best [Strategist] being the Crown Prince was just the icing on the proverbial cake.The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. No, having such grand aspirations were still out of her reach, perhaps completely out of her reach. Unless¡­she looked at the book in her hands. Now, this could definitely give her an advantage, summoning one of the better demon assassins could easily give her the edge she needed, especially if she could play the situation just right, pretending to figure out that demons were involved and pinning the blame on her most vocal rivals¡­or one of her less vocal rivals would be better, yes, smaller chance of any suspicion coming her way. But someone was definitely playing her, or at least trying¡­ And she was not one to be played with, oh no. 0-0-0 The Baroness strode towards one of the few places in her lands that she had little control over, The Citadel of the Priestesses of Khamiz¡¯arq, the hunters of the Taint. They had one of the biggest fighting forces in the entire world, though they had just enough political sway to suit their purposes. They were fanatics, pure and simple, hunting anything that may have the Taint of chaos on it. She had a reasonably good relationship with them, having helped them weed out some Demon worshipers a few years ago. It was a nice coincidence that it just happened to be the Rulers of the neighbouring Barony. She had helped the Priestesses clean the Taint from the rest of the Barony. Although the Priestesses had ways of testing for Taint that weren¡¯t so gruesome, the resources needed for the ritual were not available in enough quantities to check the entirety of the Nobles in that Barony. Torture worked surprisingly well with a few well-placed spells and prayers to ferret out the truth. She was led into the office of the Head Priestess of the local order, through the simple stone corridors of the Citadel. The Citadel was a massive structure that could be easily mistaken for a Fortress, though the Priestesses called them Bastions against the Taint. She was led into a large office where the Head Priestess was waiting. A tall, muscled woman, the Baroness had never seen her face, hidden as it was behind a mask of plain, beaten gold. She had still not worked out how the woman managed to see, as she could sense nothing from the mask or the woman that could indicate a magical method of seeing. The Head Priestess got straight to the point, without waiting for the Baroness to say anything. ¡°You have found a Book of the Taint. You will be Tested.¡± Without another word, she led the Baroness through a small door and into a chamber that was extravagantly lush when compared to the rest of the Citadel. The carpet was thick enough that the Baroness¡¯s boots sunk into the lush fabric, the deep blue of it complementing the golden circle inscribed on it. There was a plain wooden chair placed in the middle of the room, thick and sturdy with steel rings embedded into the frame, the Baroness wondered if she¡¯d made the right choice going to the Priestesses, after all, just because she was friendly with them didn¡¯t mean she was protected from their fanatic tendencies. Running now would only make things worse for her. Her only choice now was to go along with it and hope that this wasn¡¯t one of those tests that no one could pass. A trio of Priestesses entered from another door, their wispy golden veils hiding their expressions as they silently led her to the chair and tied her into it. Being placed in such a position of vulnerability made her extremely discomforted, but she told herself that this was a necessary action in order to punish whomever had dared to control her in such a manner. The Priestesses left as silently as they had entered, quietly shutting the door behind them after efficiently securing her firmly to the chair with basic spells, and some chains that were stained a disturbing red. The Head Priestess subtly shifted her posture, suddenly becoming a much larger presence. She sighed. ¡°We had hoped that you would take the gift we had left you to expand your little empire. A shame.¡± It took her barely a moment to process what the Head Priestess had just said. ¡°What?! You¡¯re in league with the Demons?¡± she replied, shocked. This was unprecedented¡­ there was absolutely no way she could have ever have predicted this scenario to have happened out of all the ones she had prepared herself for. ¡°But, of course, where better to hide than in the dragons den, so to speak¡± the smug smile could be felt from underneath the featureless mask, as the Priestess leisurely strolled around the struggling Baroness. ¡°We offered you a chance to come to our side, but you refused! We never thought that you¡¯d be one to run to the Priestesses as soon as you found the Taint, though with the vigour that you helped us put down that Barony the other year, I guess we should have expected it.¡± The Baroness stopped her futile struggle against the chains that bound her to the chair, even after activating the illegal strengthening runes tattooed on her chest, the chains barely creaked, listening to the corrupted Priestess instead. She opened her mouth to protest against her assumptions as to why she had turned the book in, but closed it again, realising that whatever she did from now on would irrevocably have the rest of her life spent under the orders of a Demon. And she refused to do so. She would rather die than be controlled by someone else. Especially a Demon whose countless years of experience would inevitably crush any resistance she could try. ¡°You can still join us if you wish. Though at a lower level than was originally thought of for you.¡± The priestess looked her over, obviously displeased that she had stopped struggling. ¡°Never!¡± she spat, ¡°I refuse to be subjected to the whims of your so called lord and masters¡± ¡°Oh, well,¡± the Priestess replied merrily, ¡°I need another soul to add to my collection anyway¡± She stepped out of the circle on the carpet and clapped her hands loudly before the Baroness could reply, the room dimming at the sound. Slowly, a noise began to build in correspondence to the fear building in the Baroness at the thought that this corrupted Priestess could actually harm her very soul. The circle woven into the carpet began to throb to the beat of the sound that was now humming through the Baronesses bones. Vibrating through the wooden chair and rattling the chains before rolling languidly through her body in a shivering wave. As the noise built in tempo, the room started to dim, the torches that were previously illuminating the room slowly burning lower. As the baroness looked closer she noticed that rather than burning lower as if they were going out they were getting dimmer as if something was sucking the light from the flames, causing the appearance of dimming flames. The door quietly closed behind the Priestess as she fled from the ritual taking place. It was a spell not meant for mortal souls to comprehend as it built higher and higher, faster and faster, louder and louder until the all-consuming rhythm was all the Baroness could think of. It took all of her remaining willpower to activate the crystal she had inserted into her scalp, a flash of information streaked through the aether and to her most trusted servant. Then the rhythm consumed her being in a fiery beat taking all that she was and all she could be, compressing what made her, her until the beat finished. The room lay silent and dead after such an event. Empty of all living beings. There was a single blue sphere that had been hidden, suspended by a thin, glowing thread directly over the chair that had once been occupied by a Baroness. It twirled around on the string, in the currents released from the excess magical energy released from the ritual, it pulsed once with a bright, grey blue glow before dimming once more. And all was silent. Prologue the third Erastria - 10 years later The broken husk of the once mighty Bastion of Khamiz¡¯arq loomed over the ashen Rastern plains, the lands surrounding it still broken and dead after the forces of the Priestesses and the corrupted Taint had met and drenched the land in blood. Allaith moved across the blasted plains carefully, sticking to the smaller piles of rubble and furrowed earth that dotted the landscape and yet were still large enough to hide her, her [sneak] and [quiet steps] skills synergising to make her as unobtrusive as a soft breeze. The smaller piles didn''t have enough cover for her to move as unseen as she wanted and the bigger piles tended to hide predators that had a tendency to have big teeth and bigger bellies. The plains were blasted flat from spells, with only a few stunted trees here and there, somehow surviving in the lifeless dust. The danger came from all the craters and trenches that littered the whole area, creating hidey holes for any number of abominations. She slipped silently into a ditch, deactivating both [sneak] and [quiet steps] with a small sigh of relief, the piled earth on one side of the trench showed that it was probably used to create a defensive wall and the charred and chewed bones piled in the corner indicated that it didn''t serve its intended purpose very well. She gingerly shifted a human skull out of the way as she settled in to watch the structure in front of her through a gap in the earthen wall, waiting for her [Guardian] to return. The mighty walls still loomed over the landscape even in their broken and battered state, the setting sun throwing deep shadows across the plains. She took the small break to look over her skills, just to keep in mind the tools she had available to use. ¡°¡± she muttered, activating the one spell every sentient being had access to. A screen ¡®popped¡¯ up in her head, not really visible but still somehow easily observable.
Name Race: Class(es): Skills: Titles:
Allaith ¨C (15 yrs.) Elf Thief(Lv. 11), Scout(Lv.6), Rogue(Lv.1) [Guardian Link ¨C lvl.3], [Sneak ¨C lvl5], [Quiet steps ¨C lvl 5], [Quick fingers ¨C lvl.7], [Dash ¨C lvl 4], [Cat¡¯s lives (9/9) ¨C lvl.MAX] N/A
Skill name Type Description
[Guardian Link] Rare/Racial Creates link between a master and familiar allowing for communication between any two species and boosting some abilities.
[Sneak] Common Makes one unnoticeable and quieter.
[Quiet steps] Uncommon Makes less noise from walking on any surface
[Quick fingers] Common Fingers are more dextrous and can be manipulated faster and more efficiently.
[Dash] Uncommon Activates to allow a quick movement on all surfaces. (cannot be slowed when active)
[Cat¡¯s lives (9/9) ¨C lvl.MAX] Epic Heals one fully when on the verge of death. Activates automatically upon final breath and transports user to 7 metres above current location. (only open air is calculated, matter is not calculated as part of distance)
She loved the Epic skill she had received when she had merged her classes a few weeks ago. An Epic skill that had unlocked at max level! It was unbelievable, and more than made up for having two similar skills, [sneak] and [quiet steps] ¨C though those two did synergise quite well. The church preached that the skills you received were based on how beloved you were by the Gods, but she personally thought it was just a random lottery, somewhat based on your actions and needs. A shimmer in the air appeared over the wall of the bastion shooting upwards in an arc aiming for the elven woman. She drew her dagger out of her sheath slightly, her other hand holding her necklace, watching as her friend flew towards her¡­well it could be her friend. The problem was these lands had so much taint on it that it could easily be a figment of her imagination or something a lot more vicious that she didn''t really want to think about. As he grew closer she signalled at him using a dim orb on her necklace to which he flashed back a bright purple proving his identity. The coloured ball of gas landed in front of her, compacting until it looked like a slightly hazy figure of an old man. ¡°What''s the inside look like, then?¡± Asked Allaith, keeping her voice low and aimed towards the side of the wall she was hiding behind so the noise wouldn''t carry across the silent plain. ¡°It looks clear enough in the first few rooms though I dared not go any further in. There''s not much cover and the Taint is much too thick for me to keep my gaseous form without having it disperse me.¡± The familiar replied. The elf looked again at the structure, wondering if it was worth the risk to go inside a structure that probably still had demons in it just for the sake of her reputation. But the potential gold, of course, was the thing that cinched the deal. Most other treasure hunters feared the Taint too much to risk going inside the Cursed Bastion. She got up and activated both [sneak] and [quiet steps] as she used [dash] to dart across the short gap that separated her from the walls, keeping low as to not attract attention. It was all well and good relying on [skills] but she made sure to keep good habits for whenever she ran out of the spiritual energy required to keep those [skills] active. She slowly moved to a gap that had been melted through the walls and cautiously snuck in. The courtyard was a mess of broken armour, gnawed bones and deep gouges filled with rubble. A seemingly empty suit of armour stood on top of a massive chunk of rock that the siege trebuchets had fired in. It had no helmet and an entire leg was missing, yet it stood in a heroic pose overlooking the long abandoned battlefield, holding a mighty zweihander up in defiance of the heavens. A sudden blue spark erupted from it, sizzling sluggishly through the air causing the elven thief to scurry back behind the wall, peeking around it to check if it had moved. She let out a sigh of relief when it hadn¡¯t made any moves after a full minute. ¡°Aeron, what the burning bush is that?!¡± she hissed at the familiar.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. ¡°No idea, Mistress.¡± He muttered back fearfully, peeking around from behind her head where he had hidden when the armour had moved. He activated [Truesight] to take a better look at it ¡°I think it might just be some lingering enchantment¡± She nodded in response, taking a closer look at it. It looked to be in good condition, if you looked past the missing pieces and obvious enchantment malfunction. She probably wouldn¡¯t be able to sell the armour as it was but enchantable material was still valuable. She took another look around the courtyard, but there were no other pieces that looked to be as salvageable as that one. The rest seemed to be run of the mill armour, if a little higher quality than the norm. It was a shame that she had a limited weight that she could take with her. She¡¯d have to come back for it on a second trip. The armour she wanted was in a pretty awkward place to get to seeing as the chunk of rock was easily as tall as her and smack dab in the middle of the courtyard. She made a note to grab it on the way out. Aeron, meanwhile, was keeping an eye on the surroundings. He tapped her on the shoulder, getting her attention away from her looting scheming. ¡°We should get moving, things are starting to notice us¡± he said, pointing at the crows that had started circling above them, disturbingly silent. She nodded in agreement and crept in. The convenient chunks of trebuchet ammunition lying around the ruined fortress did a good job of providing cover as she made her way to the nearest building. The squat structure that she headed towards looked like it had performed the role of a kitchen in its previous life, if the number of chimneys and convenient access to the well was any indication. Aeron directed her towards the roof, flying in front of her, she only had [sneak] active now to conserve her energy, she easily scaled the wall of the building and headed to the hole in the roof. A quick glance inside showed it was empty and Aeron phased into a wispy gaseous form and scouted around before waving her in. A quick look around showed that the kitchen was trashed and empty of anything even vaguely valuable. Dim light shone through the crack in the walls and roof, though it looked to get darker deeper in. This first foray into the Bastion was in the hopes of getting the juiciest loot first. Mostly due to the fact that she needed the money quick, and second because it was inevitable that others would learn of her new looting site soon enough, gain courage since she had gotten out alive, and steal her loot. She headed inwards towards the centre of the structure where the Head Priestesses rooms were. This was where the best loot should be considering that both forces were wiped out and the land left to fester when external issues started cropping up. The main hallways were narrow and made to be defensible, just wide enough to let two people walk comfortably, or wide enough to let four people stand and defend side by side. The hallways also sloped upwards creating another advantage to the defenders. The lighting came from enchanted mirrors on the ceiling that reflected the light from the Sun no matter the time of day or night, originally a symbol of purity for the Bastion. Now, the mirrors were cracked, barely lighting up the hallways, though still somehow working despite that fact. Allaith would have tried to loot them as well, but they were worthless without the enchanted rock the Bastion was made of. All the rooms to the sides only had the one entrance, with steps leading down to the ones below the level of the ascending corridor. Zero consideration was given to comfort or even utility, the entire design was for defence. The hallways spiralled gently upwards rather than have any stairs allowing for massive stone balls to be rolled down crushing all entering from below. She walked past one such gruesome example as she made her way ever inwards, more cautiously than ever. The bones littering the hallway had deep tooth marks on them. They entered through a door that she hoped was the head priestesses room. It was slightly larger than the other ones that she had already passed, though this was not really any indication of status with the Priestesses who were notoriously single minded in their pursuit of cleansing the world of taint, though she figured a head priestess had a need to have more space for hosting visitors. The room was disappointingly bare and not at all what she had been hoping for when she took such a risky and dangerous gamble. There was a simple looking door on the far wall, hidden behind a small curtain that Aeron found to have some faint enchantments on it. The room beyond was much more to her tastes, the luxury was far beyond anything else she had seen thus far. The thick lush carpet swallowed her boots, and the everlasting flames in the sconces softly lit a warm, wood panelled room. The far side had some cabinets that she made her way towards. ¡°Score!¡± she crowed happily as she uncovered several pouches stuffed full of platinum coins, the highest currency in circulation. Her greed activated she looked around for more. ¡°Now, Aeron, what type of rich person just leaves so much coin lying around?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know, one who doesn¡¯t find them valuable?¡± ¡°Exactly, my dear familiar!¡± she said excitedly, ¡°now where would someone hide their true valuables in this room? And more importantly; how valuable would these valuables be?¡± She looked around more carefully, finally noticing a small patch of carpet that looked to be ever so slightly fainter than the gleaming lustre of the carpet surrounding it. She made her way to that patch of carpet and started looking around, Aeron flying higher than her and looking at the walls while she searched the floor for any evidence of hidden trapdoors. It was Aeron who found something first. He knocked on a single panel of wood which made a solid think sound and then knocked the one next to it which sounded hollow. ¡°You found it! good work Aeron!¡± she praised making her way to the second panel he had knocked on. But before she could touch it he stopped her. ¡°I think it¡¯s a trap. I can sense an enchantment on it. Allow me to concentrate¡± he phased his hand into the wood, his little face scrunched in concentration, as he activated [Truesight]. ¡°Yes, a neat little enchantment, but I saw straight though it¡± he preened. ¡°It seems that the noise is transferred so that the solid sound comes from the hollow space and vice versa.¡± ¡°Good catch¡± They popped open the hidden cache surprisingly easily. A small inconspicuous little black box lay there innocently. She looked disappointedly at it and turned away looking to see if there was anything else there was that she could loot. Aeron stared uncomprehendingly at his mistress as she didn¡¯t even peek at the hidden box. ¡°So¡­are you going to open it then?¡± ¡°Huh? Why would I open it? It¡¯s obviously worthless¡± she waved him away. ¡°Let¡¯s see if there¡¯s anything else we can loot. You go that way.¡± ¡°But it was hidden! Shouldn¡¯t you at least try to open it?¡± he exclaimed flying after her. ¡°It¡¯s probably just charmed to look inconspicuous, you should at least open it.¡± She scrunched her forehead in confusion as the words made their way to mind. She shook her head to clear it and turned around going back to the box. She stared at it for a while, not really wanting to open it, in fact she just wanted to close the hidden cache back up and leave it. Aeron prodded her cheek, wondering why she had stopped, just staring. ¡°Uh, Mistress¡­ are you okay?¡± She snapped out of her funk and threw the lid of the box open without thinking of anything. the quick action opened the box with no resistance, the lock seemed to have not been locked. It had three small orbs inside it, two were dull grey, while the third was a bright gleaming grey-blue colour. She picked up the shiny one and held it closer to her face, wondering what it was. ¡±What do you think this is, Aeron?¡± she asked. He took it off her and inspected it closely, the orb was the size of her fist and looked comically large in his hands, but he seemed to have no problems holding it as he pressed his face into it, looking into it. ¡°It looks to be some sort of modified mana stone, maybe some sort of soul trapper?¡± he said, thinking out loud, ¡°we probably could sell it to the temples¡± he said, anticipating her next question. ¡°They would pay a lot to know what the Taint is up to, and this could be a clue. They might even have a way to read the soul inside.¡± She stuffed the hopefully precious orbs into her little bag, making sure to put it on top of the gold she had found so the fragile seeming orbs wouldn¡¯t get crushed. They had to leave the box behind as it was hard to resist the temptation to just dump it as useless, hopefully she would be able to get some enchantment cancelling bags to hold it so she could loot it next time. She was sure it wouldn¡¯t go for much money, being so ordinary. ¡°I think we are done here, now. Let¡¯s get out, grab the armour from outside and leave. Hopefully we can keep this quiet so others don¡¯t come and loot it. Maybe from this haul we get enough so next time we can rent some golems to do the heavy lifting and grab all the armour lying around.¡± They moved out of the fancy room moving into the big office. It was especially jarring going from the softly lit extravagance of the carpeted room into the dark ruins of the old building. As she moved towards the entrance, the shadows seemed somehow darker, deeper, and more menacing. ¡°Ooh, mistress, look, I found something!¡± Aeron, whispered excitedly from where he had been scouting ahead. He was looking at a chunk of metal that had somehow managed to imbed itself into the wall. She moved closer to see what it was, the darkening corridors making the shadows deeper as the sun set outside, the enchanted mirror system losing the power producing the light. It looked to be a gauntlet of some sort, nothing special to her eyes, though by the excitement evident on Aeron¡¯s face it was much more special to his eyes that could see magic. ¡°What is it, then?¡± She asked expectantly, hoping it was going to be something good. So far the loot had been good, but nothing so spectacular as to make up for the risk she had taken, depending on how much those weird orbs would go for and the armour outside was just as risky depending on the faulty enchantments in it. Aeron started to remove the gauntlet from the wall, reaching in with his hand slowly turning misty, the now gaseous hand easily flowing around the small gaps around the gauntlet and he pulled it out with a small grunt. He looked a little more transparent than before, but he held the gauntlet out proudly. Allaith grabbed it and looked it over, by the way the light shone off the shiny surface after almost a decade it could be little else apart from Mithril. One of the most sought after materials in the world. She held the gauntlet that Aeron handed to her, trying to shift to into better light, so she could look at it properly. It was a finely crafted piece of work, as most mithril objects were, due to the fact only high levelled crafters could work with it. It was a simple looking gauntlet, all things considered, smooth and without any other decoration than the simple elegance of the craftsmanship. Every joint was smooth and without any gaps. This simple piece was more than worth the risk of coming all the way here. She opened her bag to put the piece inside, carefully lifting the orbs out so that the weight of the gauntlet wouldn¡¯t crush them by mistake. She should really try and find another box to put these orbs in, surely there was one lying around here somewhere¡­ BANG The world spun as she suddenly flew through the air, arms swinging around wildly as her body automatically tried to stop her flight in vain. She crashed suddenly into the wall, having been thrown three metres across the corridor into the wall. Her vision had blurred from the impact, her leather hood having done little to blunt the knock to the head. She saw what looked to be a squid advancing on her, it¡¯s luminescent tentacles somehow causing it to blur in the darkness, rather than illuminate it. She vaguely wondered how she could have missed the damned thing as it was glowing bright enough to put the moons to shame. As her vision cleared, she saw it stalking forward towards her more cautiously than before, obviously wondering how the scrawny looking meat sack had survived its initial attack. Aeron weakly popped into existence next to Allaith, his form nearly transparent from the energy expenditure of activating [Gaseous Barrier] protecting Allaith from the creatures attack and subsequent collision with the wall. ¡°RUN!¡± he screamed frantically at Allaith as he tried to pull her uncomprehending body up from the floor, ¡°It¡¯s a Demon! We need to leave, now!¡± The glowing squid slowly advanced, slowly becoming brighter as it gauged the threat level. Aeron¡¯s frantic pleas finally made their way through to Allaith, and she reacted by instinctively throwing the stone that was in her hand at the monster, before scrabbling to her feet and running. The blue orb that had been thrown at the monster sailed lazily through the air, time mattering little for such a thing, the unique sensation woke up the soul that had been trapped inside of it, which luxuriated in the new experience that had come to it after so long of sitting in a box. Then it hit the monster, the sudden deceleration and resulting force cracked open the soul storage device. The ensuing explosion ripped apart the flesh of the monster, sending chunks of its body flying through the air and allowed the soul to escape. Another plologue!?! (IV) ¡°Ah hah! Perfect!¡± The angelic being looked around happily at the cavern around him, his radiant form throwing deep shadows behind the stalactites and stalagmites that littered the damp space. His face was sculpted perfection; sharp cheekbones, paired with a long aristocratic nose and sharp, intelligent green eyes gave a him a look of indomitable superiority. His grand, white wings fanned out slightly behind him, framing his body with its majestic splendour, the glowing purple runes etched onto each one of the feathers making it difficult for any regular mortals to look at him directly without their brains overloading. It didn¡¯t look much different to the previous three locations that he had been to, physically at least, but the way the Origin Qi pooled here told him this was the spot, the thick ozone smell almost sparking on his metaphysical senses. The room was just about tall enough to allow him to stand easily, and wide enough for him to fully extend his wings if he felt the need to. Kaz¡¯miel took a moment to sense the area around him, activating his [Spatial Awareness Map] skill, which threw out his soul force, easily mapping out the system of caverns that he had teleported to, confirming that there was a path to the outside. Even the [Divine] had to follow the rules that governed the creation of [Dungeon]s, and they required the [Dungeon] have a way to be accessed easily by the sentient beings of the world. He had hoped that levelling up into a [Divine Lord] would mean rising above the need to follow any rules. However, he had found that in the Divine Realm, he was just a little Serpent in a sea full of Leviathans and balancing the desires of all the Celestial and Divine Beings called for a slew of rules and regulations. He made his way to the centre of the cavern, waving away the annoyance he felt at the rules that had been imposed on him. Hopefully, this little facet of his numerous plans would help him reach his ultimate goal. He stopped at the spot where he could sense the Origin Qi was thickest, the Qi almost visible to the naked eye, growing a grand altar of marble with a wave of his hand, and an unconscious use of [Divine instinct], before placing a small pyramid on top of it. He looked at it and stepped back, smiling slightly. ¡°Perfect!¡± He exclaimed, admiring how it looked, it was still tiny at the moment, a small dull grey, crystal pyramid, barely bigger than the tip of his finger, but he could imagine just how grand it would look once it had grown a little in a few years. He suddenly picked it up again, ¡°No, no, no¡± he muttered, ¡°I¡¯m not thinking properly!¡± he removed the altar he had just created with another wave of his hand, before looking around for a better spot. ¡°I shouldn¡¯t place it in a way that makes it so easy to find. Who knows what luck some random stranger might have and leaving it in the open would be foolish.¡± He moved to a spot on the wall of the cavern, stopping before he got to it. A short stubby stalagmite looked perfect for his needs. He bent down and created a small hole in the stalagmite, making sure to make it as natural looking as possible, placing the pyramid in the hidden nook. He grew some glowing green moss on top of the hole making the moss droop down and cover it. He also threw some of the glowing green moss around the rest of the little cavern so it didn¡¯t look quite so out of place. He took a step back then, and went over his plan for this [Dungeon] again in his mind, making sure to go over all the details necessary so that he could activate the [Dungeon] in precisely the way he needed to. He had allied himself with a small group of Lesser Divines who thought similarly to him in regards to the amount of rules and bureaucracy that had built up over the aeons that the Hegemony of [Divine King]s had ruled for, and hoped to topple them from their seat of power. Of course, he hadn¡¯t told them all of his true plans, for though their plans seemed to be ambitious, they still fell short of his own lofty goals. Creating [Dungeon]s was one of the many plans he had in mind to achieve these lofty goals of his. Though the Hegemony had a plethora of rules and regulations for creating [Dungeon]s it was much harder for the Hegemony to make sure these rules were followed for [Dungeon] creation due to the fact that the base rules that came into being when the [Dungeon] core interacted with the [System] were actually created by [The Divine Origin] - the being that had come before the Hegemony of Divine Kings and had come into the universe, made everything and left. Because of this, the [Divine Lord] could tweak some of the Hegemony¡¯s rules without them noticing. He had created a few [Dungeon]s in specific areas of the world where his chosen race resided. At the moment the Greenskin tribes of [Orc]s and [Goblin]s had been overlooked by nearly all the other Celestial beings due to them being more interested in the more ¡®civilised¡¯ races of the world, or more accurately the ones that were more likely to pray to the stuck up, arrogant bastards. These [Dungeon]s would help give his chosen race a little leg up during the wars he had planned for the future, though this specific one had been placed in a location that could be located by nearly all the races. That was because he had a special experiment planned for this [Dungeon] that may or may not work. If it worked he planned on giving the local Greenskin tribes a little help in conquering it, and if it didn¡¯t it would tie in nicely with one of his tertiary plans. Speaking of which, it was nearly time for this secondary goal of his to tie up with his primary. He pinged Gnoriell to come to his location as soon as possible and got started with creating the [Dungeon]. The first step was to make sure that the [Dungeon] core was working, he injected some of his Divine Qi into the crystal pyramid to jumpstart the Qi creation engine. It was a beautiful piece of work that even the eldest of the [Divine Kings] couldn¡¯t understand. The Divine Qi he had inserted wound its way through the crystalline lattice, slowly shifting each piece until they all lined up to create an ever shifting masterpiece of a four dimensional rune. Even with his [Divine Instincts] in active mode, the rune still made his brain hurt and his teeth ache as he looked at it, the rune rotating slightly around its non-existent axis changing forms and dimensions between blinks and yet still taking up a mere fraction of the space within the crystal. The rune started to generate its own Divine Qi that slowly permeated the rest of the crystal, slowly powering up lines upon lines of slowly shifting runes. These lines of runes were the rules that were imprinting themselves on the very structure of the crystal. Or, at least, that was the best guess that the [Celestial Scholars] had come up with.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. Kaz¡¯miel waited patiently for the Divine Qi to work its way through the rest of the crystalline pyramid, making sure that there was no energy leakages and the energy looked to be flowing properly. He didn¡¯t particularly like not knowing how certain things worked, but unfortunately, there wasn¡¯t much that he could do about it this particular time except make sure everything looked right. After making sure that everything looked the same as the other [Dungeon] cores he had activated and double checking that the Divine Qi was flowing easily, he got started on the next step ¨C collecting the soul needed to drive the intelligence behind the [Dungeon]. This was also the part where he could put a little extra into the instructions of the [Dungeon], through [Soul Domination]. Normally, it was a tightly regulated skill that the Hegemony only allowed in very specific conditions, however, dominating souls that weren¡¯t actually in a body yet was not controlled at all. After all, why would anyone want to [Dominate] a soul that didn¡¯t even have a body yet ¨C well, actually he could think of a number of reasons, but the point was that this had been overlooked. Kaz¡¯miel stretched his wings, the individual runes etched on his feathers aided him in focusing his [Divine Might] skill, which allowed him to alter the base building blocks of life itself. He stretched out his senses, feeling for the veil that separated Life and Death. The veil appeared to his senses as shimmering green strands of energy, separate from reality, yet the strands permeated everything he could see. It was a sensation that mere mortals could not conceive, and even a [Divine] being like himself had trouble ¡®seeing¡¯ the world clearly this way. He hunted around for a soul to insert into his [Dungeon] core, looking past the threads and into the Ether beyond. The Ether was something that even [Divine] beings could not see properly, instead the Ether translated itself into a format that was understandable by the viewer, a mechanism that had been implanted into it by [The Divine Origin] itself to protect the beings lesser than it. To Kaz¡¯miel, the Ether looked like a plain that he looked down upon from a peak of unimaginable height. Upon that plain were millions upon millions of paths, half hidden in a thick fog that swirled around in mesmerising patterns, upon which countless numbers of beings tread. He looked down upon the plain in satisfaction, basking in the feeling this view brought him, but only for a moment. He concentrated on what he was here to do, he wanted a soul that would have the imagination required to build a unique dungeon, and yet had the ruthlessness required to run one efficiently and without remorse. He switched [Divine Instinct] into its active state, which, when mixed with the active [Divine Might] skill, allowed him to sense what he was looking for a little more clearly. Even with these two skills active, the plains were still clouded by the fog. The skills, however, let him instinctively find the type of soul that he was looking for. He reached out with his metaphysical hand, and plucked one his instincts told him was the right match for what he was looking for from the paths below. He deactivated the active skills with a snap of his closing wings, the soul held safely within his palm. The soul appeared to be a unique mix of green blue, that swirled irately on his palm, as if annoyed that it had been so rudely plucked from where it had been. The [Divine Lord] activated his [Soul Domination] skill, intoning his orders precisely in the [Divine] tongue ¡°You, the soul before me, shall henceforth follow my orders alone and no others¡± it was a little awkward addressing the soul in this manner, as the skill required the user to have a name that the target referred to themselves as, and found meaning in. His past instances in using the skill on souls he had put into dungeons, however, showed that these souls did not have this requirement, or understood that he referred to them when he referred to the soul in front of him. ¡°You will build the [Dungeon] in secrecy, and try your very best to make sure no one discovers it before I tell you to. If you are discovered, make sure to appear to be as weak as possible unless you are in danger of being killed. And, of course¡± he said with a smirk, ¡°You will think me as your God and worship me unconditionally.¡± He thought that these orders may be a little overkill, but it never hurt to cover all possible avenues, even if he planned to monitor all his [Dungeon]s remotely. He gently inserted the soul into its slot in the core, taking care to make sure it sat in its place properly. The domain of the [Dungeon] snapped into being around him, as the core was completed, but before he could double check that everything was in its place a pop of displaced air sounded behind him signalling the arrival of the first step of his primary plan. He spun around with a grin on his face, the [Celestial King] in front of him flinching slightly from the sudden movement. ¡°Perfect timing, my dear Gnoriell!¡± he cried, upon seeing the [Celestial], his arms open wide in greeting. Though the [Celestial] was the highest possible rank that a born [Celestial] could achieve, he was still many levels below Kaz¡¯miel. The [Celestial] barely came up to chest height, and his pure white wings looked drab in front of the luminesce of the [Divine Lord]. The [Celestial] bowed low in front of Kaz¡¯miel, his back straight and posture perfect. Even though the [Celestial King] was much lower in levels and standing compared to Kaz¡¯miel, he still had enough experience with the [Divine]s to keep his poise. ¡°This lowly one greets [Divine Lord] Kaz¡¯miel¡± he said in polite greeting, his eyes darting around the cavern with a hint of confusion that was quickly wiped away and replaced by his normal meek mask. The [Celestial King] was a slim, unassuming man of above average height for mortals, though rather short when it came to [Divines]s and [Celestial]s. His brown hair was slicked back in a professional manner and his Purple robe of office was clean and simple. This being was part of his little group of allies, but Kaz¡¯miel had found out recently that he was actually an insider for one of the [Divine Prince]s. Thankfully for Kaz¡¯miel, the [Divine Prince] merely thought that his group of allies were just another little group that wanted to take over from the Hegemony, and even in the [Divine Realm] politics were the same. Unfortunately for the [Divine Prince] and especially for the [Celestial King], Gnoriell was a little too nosy for his own good and had poked his nose a little too far into Kaz¡¯miel¡¯s business. And the [Celestial King] had come to the [Divine Lord]s attention at just the moment when he needed a high levelled test subject. Kaz¡¯miel wrapped an arm around the shorter being, drawing him closer to his body, ¡°Now, you must be wondering why I brought you here¡± he said, guiding Gnoriell until he was standing just in front of the hidden [Dungeon] Core. ¡°Yes, sir, you said that you were going to show me the progress of one of your plans?¡± he asked disconcertedly, knowing that the [Divine Lord] was extremely secretive and knowing that he himself was not on anywhere near good enough standing to be brought into his plans. He had tried to contact one of his higher ups in the [Divine Prince]s employ, but had found his usual avenues of contact blocked, and turning up late when this particular [Divine Lord] asked him to find him would cause even more problems. ¡°Yes, my dear Gnoriell, you are going to be witness to my greatest achievement¡± he whispered into the shorter beings ear, activating the rune that he had subtly placed onto the [Celestial King]s neck. Gnoriell froze, the rune freezing his nerves, and effectively sealing his magic. Kaz¡¯miel stopped in front of the immobilised being and pulled out his special dagger, the one that he had spent the past few decades of his life working on. It looked to be nothing special, the blade was fashioned from iron, the most common of materials, a thin line of runes lined the middle of the blade, each one etched with exquisite care and detail, and filled in with Divine Mithril ¨C the rarest and most magical material available. The [Divine Lord] bent his knees so that his eyes were level with the panicking [Celestial King] ¡°Thank you for being my first¡± he said with a genuine smile as he slid the blade with ease through the layers of protection embedded onto his robe and straight into Gnoriell¡¯s heart. A moan of pleasure escaped Kaz¡¯miel as the rush of Celestial and Divine Qi escaped the [Celestial King]s body and made its way through the dagger and into his body. The escaping Qi filled Kaz¡¯miel up to the brink and beyond, the excess Qi flowing straight into his Dantian and flowing into the pattern that he had already set up for it. As the storm of Qi within him grew, the vitality of the [Celestial being] before him faded as he withered away into nothingness. The excess Qi from the process eased its way into the [Dungeon] core and gave it a nice little starting boost from having such a high levelled living being die within its [Domain]. Kaz¡¯miel sighed in satisfaction as he grew a whole three levels from absorbing all this Qi. He held up his dagger to the soft glow emanating from the glowing green moss, not realising that the glow that normally emanated from his wings had faded until it started coming back. With a quick order for the [Dungeon] to absorb the remains of the [Celestial King]s robes, he teleported out of the [Dungeon] his brows furrowed in consternation at this hitch in his bodies function. As the displaced air settled from his abrupt departure, a lone pure white feather drifted down, gently settling into a little nook, the rune etched onto it glowing feebly in the darkness. Chapter the First (of many?) Connie Location : God only knows (Is that a song? o.0) I was lost. I cursed my adventurous spirit that had told me to stray off the paths that the great booming voice had told me to follow. I had been floating gently through the forest, my lovely green orb wonderfully lighting up the surroundings. Well, I say wonderfully, but though my green glow made the forest so much prettier, it didn¡¯t really do much for actual vision. Though, to be honest, I didn¡¯t have eyes, so how did I actually see the forest¡­ and my wonderful green light as well? Back to the lost part¡­ I had been floating around for what seemed like aeons. The forest seemed endless. I suddenly broke free of the forest and onto another path. This one was a nice shimmery blue, like the blue that you could see when walking underneath a great, big tank in an aquarium. I paused for a while looking into it to see if I could see any fishies. After an endless amount of time, I snapped back to the present. This damage to my soul was getting concerning. I kept getting distracted so easily¡­ Ooh, lookie, a boulder. I floated closer to it, looking at it from all angles. It was the first time I had seen any rocks in the whole forest. It was a weird looking rock, shaped vaguely like an eye. As I looked closer, it seemed to shift, the iris turning towards me. I poked it. *crack* The boulder suddenly cracked in twain, revealing a hole. Or at least, it looked like a hole. ¡­and suddenly I was somewhere else. (A/N: Remember that the ¡®Ether¡¯ is just a structure of the mind, so that¡¯s why it¡¯s different to Kaz¡¯miel¡¯s) 0-0-0 I had a body. That was the first thing I realised when I ¡®woke¡¯ up. I hadn¡¯t realised when I had been floating around as a soul, but being without a body whilst my soul was still damaged was¡­ well, not good. I didn¡¯t really know how to describe it. It was just a feeling of utter certainty, and yet I hadn¡¯t noticed until now. Had I been reincarnated? Why do I still have memories of being a soul? Is that normal for this new body? In fact, what is this new body. I tried to wake up, or open my eyes, but nothing happened. I tried not to panic, maybe I¡¯m a baby or something? I tried to feel my body instead, and suddenly something just clicked into place and I was¡­aware. That was the closest word I could use to describe it. I wasn¡¯t seeing what was around me, I wasn¡¯t even sensing it. There weren¡¯t any sensations that translated into any of the [Human] senses, it was just being aware. Omniscient. Maybe that was the word. I instantly knew of everything in a few metres round me, from every crack and crevice to the last bit of moisture dripping into the folds of the moss scattered around the cave. The only blurry thing was the winged creature standing nearby. My mind strained under the awareness of all these things at once. I shattered.
*IITIALIZING*
*TUTORIAL MODE ACTIVATED*
*SENTIENT BEINGS DETECTED WITHIN CORE CHAMBER ¨C TIME DILATION ACTIVATED*
*ERROR*
*MULTIPLE SOULS DETECTED*
*...*
I panicked as my new found awareness disappeared, a short burst of¡­well, static is the best I could describe it, and suddenly I was in a white room. I was back in my orb ¡®body¡¯, my sight somehow seeing it from a third person perspective, almost like I was in a game, seeing my player character from above and behind. Thankfully, this time it seemed my mind was not slowly degrading, though I felt I was still a little duller than I used to be. The white room looked like it was in extra sharp high definition, with the corners of the room almost appearing black. I had appeared in one corner, while what looked to be a ghost had appeared in the corner to my right. The ghost was a gorgeous woman with a scar stretching from the top of her eye to just under her mouth. She was dressed like a Victorian noble woman, a flowing deep red gown, slightly washed out by her incorporeal state, that covered her from neck, with a wide collar, to her feet, where the dress trailed just above the ground. The wall opposite us was taken up by a blue screen, currently blank. The woman looked around calmly, slowly taking in the sights around her, methodically sweeping the room until her gaze came to rest upon me. I shivered slightly, bobbing up and down, as that cold gaze settled upon me. It was a stare that didn¡¯t match her cute, almost childlike face. Her eyes matched with that look turned what should have been an innocent looking face into that of a predator.If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. She started to glide towards me before abruptly stopping, something in the motion obviously making her notice her ghostly state, holding out her arm to inspect it. ¡°Sooo¡­any idea what¡¯s happening, ghost lady?¡± I asked. She jerked in surprise at my voice, honestly, I was surprised that I could speak as well, though I guess I shouldn¡¯t be surprised at anything anymore. I mean, I was seeing my ¡®body¡¯ in third person. I wonder if I can make my voice surround sound¡­ Before I could try it out, the ghost lady replied ¡°No, I am afraid not. I assume from your question that you do not either?¡± At my affirmative nod bob, she carried on, ¡°I think I am dead¡­¡± her face was still, not a hint of emotion to be seen, ¡°I remember someone performing a devilish ritual on me, tearing out my soul.¡± She shuddered at this, the first show of overt emotion she had displayed so far. ¡°Hmm, me too¡± I said, not in surround sound, unfortunately, though I had tried. Probably best not to spook the woman, anyway. ¡°Got my soul ripped out and half eaten by some demon chick.¡± She nodded thoughtfully, seemingly seeing the connection between us. She also didn¡¯t react to me calling the demon ¡®chick¡¯, so either she knows modern English vernacular, ignored it, or there is some kind of awesome translator happening automatically. Or there are some fluffy, yellow, demon chicks out there somewhere that can eat souls¡­ The screen suddenly *popped* and text started scrolling across it.
*GREETING SOUL, WELCOME TO THE TUTORIAL*
There was a louder pop than before, the room itself shuddering, causing me to hide behind the ghost lady who stood there as if this was perfectly normal.
*SENTIENT SOUL DETECTED; ADVANCED TUTORIAL LOADING¡­*
A loading bar appeared on the screen, with an hourglass above it that was slowly draining. ¡°I¡¯ll be honest with you ghost lady, I didn¡¯t imagine that death and reincarnation would be like this. And I¡¯d like to think that I have a pretty good imagination.¡± ¡°Please stop calling me ¡®ghost lady¡¯. The name is Elmidia.¡± She said, looking vaguely annoyed. ¡°Okay, Elmidia...can I call you Ellie? I''m going to call you Ellie. You can call me Connie, I guess. Though in a new life, maybe I should change my name. New life, new person.¡± ¡°For some reason it only appears to be thinking that we are only one being, or ¡®soul¡¯ I guess. Maybe our damaged souls have confused this entity, somehow.¡± She mused. ¡°Yeah, I noticed, though didn¡¯t it say ¡®multiple souls detected earlier¡¯. It would be trippy as ¡®owt if we had to share a body, huh?¡± I replied, throwing in some more slang to see if she would notice, or the translation thing would glitch. ¡°It would indeed be concerning¡­ perhaps this tutorial is the normal introduction to things, and as such cannot tell there are two of us. Speaking of which, what exactly ARE you? I was not aware that there were any sentient¡­orb like beings.¡± ¡°I¡¯m human. Or was, I guess. Then my soul turned into this weird orb thing.¡± hmm, maybe I can turn into a ghost as well. I focused on my orb, thinking variations of ''turn into my body'' thoughts at it, hoping it would be as easy as that. It wasn¡¯t. Not giving up that easily, I decided to try and change it a little bit at first. I ''pulled'' with my mind, stretching it softly upwards. It worked! Ellie looked concerned, "Are you okay, Connie?" "Just Peachy" I grunted in reply, concentrating on pulling my body into a vaguely stick figure like shape, I managed to make a blobby head and body with long twiggy arms and legs before pausing, exhausted at the effort I had just expended. I had no idea what to do next. I wasn¡¯t particularly gifted artistically, and was pretty sure that I wouldn¡¯t be able to mould it into what I looked like before. Or anything close, really. So, instead, I decided that this was more than enough, and moved myself into the body I had just made. Suddenly, there was a snap, and I was in a body again. Specifically, my body. Though it was a little ghostly. Yes! Finally back in my own body. It was surprisingly welcoming and comfortable. Like coming home after a long day and climbing into your own bed. Aaah. I stretched, and though the feeling was a little muted, it was the exact same as my old body. I looked at Ellie who looked a little bemused at the changes. I leaned forwards and hugged her, snuggling into her body. I love hugging. It is so very comforting to have someone so close to you. *ahem* ¡°What are you doing, Connie?¡± ¡°Hugging you¡­¡± duh. ¡°Could you let go now, please. This is getting to be rather uncomfortable seeing as we just met¡± ¡°Meh, fine.¡± I stepped away from her. ¡°But, seeing as we may be sharing a body, shouldn¡¯t we get to know each other a little bit better?¡± Before I could get started in quizzing her, the blue screen popped again.
*CONGRATULATIONS!* *YOU HAVE REINCARNATED INTO A DUNGEON*
¡°A dungeon? How the hell do you reincarnate as a medieval prison?¡± I thought aloud, confused. ¡°You do not have dungeons where you are from?¡± asked Ellie, ¡°They are fairly common in Erastria, though I did not know they were living things with souls." The blue screen continued on, it''s previous words scrolling upwards, while new words appeared underneath.
*THE PURPOSE OF A DUNGEON IS TO GATHER THE WORLDS ORIGIN QI AND REFINE IT* *THIS PURPOSE REQUIRES A SOUL TO GATHER THE ENERGY EFFECTIVELY AS WELL AS MAINTAIN EFFECTIVENESS* *TO PREVENT THE SOUL FROM STAGNATION, AND ALLOWING FOR A GREATER DISTRIBUTION AND GATHERING OF QI, THE SECONDARY PURPOSE OF A DUNGEON IS TO CREATE AN AREA FOR THE SENTIENT BEINGS OF THE WORLD TO TRAIN AND GATHER RESOURCES*
¡°Hmm, well, that is new information. I was not aware of the real purpose of dungeons. Though, I suppose it makes sense when I think about how well known Dungeons are for the purity of the Qi inside them.¡± ¡°I¡¯m still kinda stuck on how we are going to be a Dungeon. Or what a Dungeon actually is¡± ¡°Well, from general knowledge, dungeons are quite rare. They normally seem to be found in Qi rich areas, though, from what we have just learned, it appears those areas are Qi rich because of the dungeons, and not the other way around.¡± She started to pace around while lecturing me. As she paced, I noticed that the blue screen had also paused, so maybe it was aware to a certain extent. ¡°Dungeons are usually used as a place to gather resources and treasures as well as being guarded by monsters.¡± She paused to see if I was paying attention. I merely looked at her with interest which prompted her to carry on. ¡°Now, from what this screen has told us, the reason for this seems to be a mixture of two things. One is that most sentient souls would get bored just refining Qi all the time. Secondly, using treasures to attract people and then have them fight is a good way to collect and refine the Qi faster. If people actively use Qi and their abilities, the surrounding Qi will also get denser, and after the dungeon delvers finish and move on, they will spread the Qi a little bit faster.¡± ¡°Interesting¡­though, I suppose the next question is how exactly does a Dungeon body work?¡± ¡°Now, that, I have no answer for.¡± She turned towards the blue screen, ¡°Perhaps this tutorial will provide the answers¡­¡± As if taking those words as a prompt, the blue screen continued.
*TO CARRY OUT THESE FUNCTIONS, YOU HAVE BEEN AWARDED THE SKILL: [DUNGEON CREATION], AND [DIVINE INSTINCT] *
Skill name Type Description
[Dungeon Creation] Divine Grants access to the dungeon system. Allows owner of skill to create a Dungeon
[Divine Instinct] Divine Allows the user to have an instinctive mastery of most creation abilities, depending on race and class
*THIS ROOM IS KNOWN AS THE SYSTEM CHAMBER AND IS WHERE YOU MAY CONTROL YOUR DUNGEON FROM. YOU MAY ALSO USE THE INSTINCT PACKAGE TO ENTER YOUR DUNGEON IN SPIRIT FORM AND CREATE/MODIFY THE DUNGEON IN THAT WAY*
And with a pop, the screen disappeared. ¡°Well, that could have been a little bit more informative..¡± I sighed, looking at where the screen used to be. I turned to Ellie, to see what she thought of this, only to find her staring into the air, with an entirely ¡®un-Ellie¡¯ look on her face. ¡°What is it, Ellie? Are you okay?¡± ¡°Yes, yes, I am fine¡­It is just, I cannot believe that I now have two Divine type skills.¡± ¡°What are you on about?¡± I asked, looking on as she stared at something only she could see. She turned to me, looking curious, ¡°Wait, do you not have the spell where you come from either?¡± ¡°Err, nope!¡± I replied cheerily, ¡°Wait. Did you say spell? Can you teach me?¡± ¡°Certainly, every being on Erastria is able to cast this spell. You merely have to focus on yourself, and say ¡®show full menu¡¯¡± I immediately tried it, concentrating on myself and clearly speaking the spell, I had to restrain myself from squealing at the word, I was going to cast a spell! Ahem. I refocused, and said the words ¡°¡±, and a blue screen appeared¡­
Name Race: Class(es): Skills: Titles:
Connie Scrimshaw Dungeon Dungeon (Lv.1), [Dungeon Creation ¨C Lvl. 1], [Divine Instinct ¨C Lvl. 1] Reincarnated, Twin Souled
Well, that was a shitty spell. And I still think it¡¯s kinda weird to have dungeon as a race.