James froze in place and activated his Shadow Meld. He was startled to realize that Shadow Meld did not work. He tried activating Astral Portal, but that failed to work as well. He checked his Status Screen and noticed that all of his active Powers were greyed out.

"Senior Chief James Gleason. Thank you for coming," the woman said. "Please have a seat." She waved her arm before her as she spoke, and a stone table and two chairs rose from the floor. When her chair was fully formed, she sat down and waited. Her posture appeared to be stiff and formal.

James moved up the chair and offered to him, "You have me at a disadvantage."

The woman nodded, "Yes, I am sorry." Standing up again, she bowed slightly from the waist, "My name is Glezda." After giving her name, she sat back down again.

James sat down with her and looked around. The room was an underground cavern. Behind her was a pedestal with a giant green orb resting on it. The room itself was unadorned, and there were no exits that James could see. During James' examination of the room, Glezda merely watched him, unmoving.

"Why am I here?" James asked.

At this, Glezda smiled. But the smile was wrong. It showed too many teeth and was fake. Not fake in the sense of someone trying to pretend to smile, but artificial in that the person didn't know how to smile. "I am glad you asked. I was hoping you may be able to help me with a small problem. One, I will certainly reimburse you for your efforts."

"What help are you looking for?" James asked cautiously.

"I heard you talking about the Dungeon and how it was currently laid out. You said that there were things you would have done differently if you had set it up." Glezda stated.

James nodded, "Yes. How were you able to listen in to that conversation?"

"Because I am the Dungeon," Glezda stated.

"You are the Dungeon?" James asked, leaning forward slightly to get a better look at her.

"More accurately, I am the avatar for the Dungeon. Something she created so that we could facilitate communication," Glezda stated, her smile disappearing in a flash.

James realized what was wrong with the woman's eyes. She was not blinking. Her expressions were stilted and fixed. It was almost like she was a robot or android.

Glezda cocked her head at him, having expected him to respond by now.

"Sorry, I was thinking of something else. So, you would like some help redesigning your Dungeon?" he asked.

"Yes."

"And in return?" he inquired.

"I am limited in what I can give you. You will already be rewarded Dungeon First, which will give you some bonus Advantage points. I can reward you with another title, which will aid you later. The title will give you a ten percent bonus to all rewards earned from completing Dungeons." she offered.

James thought about it, "There is something I would like, but I am not sure what the cost would be to you."

"I won't know until you ask," Glezda said.

"I am thinking of a space like this. A single room, where I can access through my Astral Portal, but no one else can access." James asked.

Glezda nodded and leaned back in her chair. "That is an exciting request. It is possible, yes. But there would be some limitations."

"Such as?" James asked.

"I would not allow it to be attached to this Dungeon. It would be part of the Dungeon but excluded." She stated.

James nodded, "I agree. I would not want goblins or champions walking into my room."

"I can make the room accessible to you via your Astral Portal, but it would mean that it would then be detectable from outside as well," she informed him.

"How do you mean?" James asked.

"Dungeons are a closed space. No one can view what happens in a dungeon. You can not teleport in or out. You can not scry in or out. You can not communicate in or out. It is cut off from everything." she explained.

"What about a priestess? James inquired. Doris went up a level in your Dungeon, and she was granted a Spell. Same as Connie, although she got hers from her Class and not from a deity."

"Exactly," Glezda stated.

James pondered that. So, that would mean that Narisa did not give Doris her Spell when she levelled but queued them? Or it was already available to her and just waiting for Doris to level.

"I am not keen on the gods or anyone spying on me when I am in my room. And I want a place where I can be secure and safe from being located," James explained.

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"I can not block the tracking feature of an Amulet if that is what you were hoping for," she explained.

"I was hoping for that but wasn't expecting it. Would you be able to create another entrance which would access my space only?" he asked.

Glezda shook her head, "No. A dungeon can only have one entrance and one exit."

"Can I have a secret door in your dungeon that would lead to a private space for me, as you have here?" James proposed.

"No. While you are in the Dungeon, no one else would be able to access the Dungeon. That would defeat my purpose and damage me considerably in the long run."

James pondered other options when Glezda offered something else, "I can do something for you, but it would cost you more than just providing me with tactical advice. My offer to you would be a special dungeon that only you and those you specify would be able to enter. It would be small, perhaps a few rooms, but built to your specifications. This would allow you to have the privacy and protection you seek. No one else would be able to access the Dungeon, and it would grant you the option to expand, but the expansion would not be cheap."

"Would it be able to create Enchanted items as you do for rewards?" he asked.

"No. It would cost me too greatly to create Enchanted items for you."

"How do dungeons work?" James asked.

Glenda paused for a long moment and stared at the table. James thought something was wrong when five minutes passed, and she hadn't said anything or moved, but then suddenly, she continued speaking.

"The information I am willing to share with you will have a cost. But I think we can help each other. If you better understand how dungeons work, you will have a better idea of how your Dungeon would work." she explained.

"When a Dungeon Core is created, it is imbued with divine energy. That means only gods can create a Dungeon Core. Dungeon Cores have two Power Sources. One is Mana and the second is Experience."

"Mana is used to create the dungeon space, weapons, armour, and traps. The Dungeon Core is limited by the size of its Mana pool and its Mana Regeneration rate. It can take a couple of days for their Mana to be replenished. Rooms and traps place a hold on their Mana reserves, thereby limiting the size of the Dungeons. The Dungeon can reabsorb items but at a loss."

"What about items that leave the Dungeon?" James asked.

"Yes, I am familiar with Doris' desire to loot the Dungeon, but to allow her to do so would deplete my Mana pool greatly. It would recover, but it would take months."

"I think that when I left the last Dungeon, I left with an iron dagger. Was that a weapon that the Dungeon allowed me to keep, then?"

"Probably. An iron dagger is not much of a drain. Eighteen crossbows, on the other hand, along with assorted iron swords and armour, would be more than I am willing to bear."

James nodded his understanding, "You mentioned experience as the other resource pool?"

Glezda nodded once and continued, "When the Dungeon was created, it was given a finite amount of starting experience. This base replenishes daily. It is not very much, but enough to get a young Dungeon started and prevent an older Dungeon from starving. The experience is used to create the creatures that populate the Dungeon, the Enchanted items found along the way and the rewards are given out at the end when you leave."

"How do you replenish your supply of experience?" James asked, leaning forward.

"Three ways. The first is the daily allotment given to each Dungeon Core by its Patron. The second is when an adventurer or Champion dies in the Dungeon. They are a trove of experience points, and one adventurer can supply me with enough experience to populate the Dungeon half a dozen times. The third way is by having Enchanted items sacrificed by leaving them behind when you leave the Dungeon. The more experience I have, the bigger the Dungeon I can create."

James thought of the last Dungeon he was in. When the Champion died, the Dungeon must have gained a ton of experience.

"You know there are only 8 months left in the Challenge, right?" James asked.

"Yes, but then I go dormant, and I will be reawakened when the next Challenge occurs. I will still have the power I attained at the prior Challenge's end. It is in this way that we grow."

"How many Challenges have you participated in?" James inquired.

"Five. And I have gained little since my inception," she said sadly.

"How do you grow?"

"I can divert excess experience to purchase power increases. I can increase my Mana Pool, increase the level of monster I can create, increase the level of items I can create, increase the sophistication of my traps and many more things."

"So, what was the extra you wanted from me?

"I want you to advertise my location. If I can encourage more people to explore my depths, I can gain more experience and grow. Win or lose, I still grow. Winning means I grow faster."

James had to shake his head, "I am not keen on encouraging people to come to this Dungeon, only to die."

Glenda and James stared at each other, "I can restrict access to the Dungeon to Champions and their Party members only. But you would have to spread a rumour that there is an Amulet located here."

James thought about that. Champions could quickly destroy the town before coming here. That could be dangerous for the people in the next town.

"I am not keen on bringing many Champions here and having them destroy the area around your Dungeon looking for an Amulet that isn't here. Also, I am one of the weakest Champions active right now. That means that the Champions you will draw here will be too powerful for you to stop."

"You are not 'keen' on many things," she observed. But James just shrugged.

Glenda signed and finally blinked, "I had not realized that so many Champions had surpassed their need for me already. I had hoped I would still have a chance to grow in power."

"I am sorry," James said sincerely. "What will happen to you now?"

Glenda shrugged, "I will wait out the rest of the Challenge. Then, in ten years, I will be placed somewhere near a group of starting Champions and hopefully gain some power before the end of the Challenge."

"What happened to this Challenge. You said I would get the first to complete. That means no one has come into you ... I mean the Dungeon?"

"The goblins outside the Dungeon are not part of my domain. They are placed by a rival god who has been determined to keep my power low."

"Why?"

"Who knows the mind of a god. I can tell you that he has an issue with the goddess who sponsored me. As such, the god has sabotaged my development since I came into existence. The fact that I have gained 5 levels in five Challenges is a miracle considering its efforts to restrict my growth."

"How are the goblins recreated every day?"

"They are only recreated if they are destroyed. Otherwise, it costs the god nothing to camp them outside my door."

"Can they enter your Dungeon?

"No, only regular people or Champions can enter a dungeon. Not spawned creatures."

James looked down at the table and frowned, "Can you create ale or beer?"

Glenda smiled, and two frothing pints of ale appeared between them, "I hope it tastes alright. It has been a few years since I have created some."

"I may have a counter proposal for you," James said before sipping his ale.