Setting the book down, Chris thought of what his first purpose Was for the tome. Well, it would help him understand So understand was a pretty powerful and clear purpose. But could he simply pick up a book and imbue it with the purpose of understanding. He also felt that he needed the purpose of focus, as the word both implied, it could be used as a magical focus, and maybe help him focus as he sought to understand. So, to conquer a dungeon Without adequate magical equipment. According to the book, the more specialised and magical the thing that was imbued was the better its purpose could serve. And he had many, many books filled with magical sheets of paper. It did seem a waste to simply override their aspects, But the truth now was he was a bit desperate.

Depending upon the dungeon he went into. His pseudo tome would take damage and if he made it from highly magical material, it would be incredibly expensive. But maybe He could use the purpose of durability. But then what if someone burned it, maybe stasis. So, what if he used his Transfiguration and Transmutation To take the sheets of paper that was near A4 in size. And enlarged them Not just to A3 In size but to something the size of a blanket. He would have a much larger Piece of magical paper and imbue it with the purpose of Imperviousness.

In the end, Chris ended up with a Blanket sized piece of paper Made from 12 A4 pieces and heavily imbued with the concept of constant. The paper blanket came to roughly the size of 1 1/2 times the size of a standard door in width. And 2/3 the size of standard door in length. The problem with these were that since he had laid them out on a table when he performed the ritual. The paper was Trying to be forever stiff and did not move like normal paper.

So instead of making a blanket or a net for himself as was the plan in the beginning. He now had an incredibly light Shield the size of a door/hatch that was constantly trying to curl out to a flat surface. And yet if he had the bad luck of trying to pick it up by the edges It was 50/50 whether he would cut himself. Chris thought he would do a better job if he imbued every piece of paper with the purpose of constant. The ritual required a rune to be set into the paper. Unfortunately, having made it into a larger paper, the purpose seemed to have stretched over all of them. And it also seemed like the power was not enough, so it was constantly collapsing on itself and stiffening itself. Going to fix this power discrepancy, Chris sought to Imbue every piece of paper individually with the Purpose of constant. Unfortunately using both steel, bone and every implement he could Get his hands on. The runes would not set into the paper for overtime the paper would heal until they it was Spotless.

Spending hours on how he could fix this failure of his. Chris doubled down and used more paper. Taking a full page from a book, He curled it into a cone Before imbuing that with the purpose of constant. Chris did not know if it was the link between the pages that existed before, or if it was the link between the purposes but the runes and the ritual Caught on the paper and the power of the Shield grew to become Stiffer and stiffer. Thus, having created a sort of spear point, Chris Set to Performing the ritual on 12 remaining pieces of paper. Having sacrificed every rabbit and most of the trees in his room to create the shield. Chris formed a piece of the book paper into conical shape and transfigured it as the handle to the back of the shield but imbued it with two purposes. One, of course, was the purpose of Constant as the rest of the shield, but. The other one was the purpose of avail. Since this was meant to be a tome for himself and not a shield Chris felt that maybe this purpose could be useful in the long run. Though a bit of the Nebulous purpose of avail, Sought to Seep into the rest of the shield The purpose of constant seemed to win out in the end.

He still had more pages, but he had nothing left to sacrifice for the ritual so, taking up his new shield, strapping on a water Flask and some field rations. Chris made himself ready for the dungeon. He had bought himself two knives, but strangely enough he felt, the stiff cone of paper he had used to carve the runes was a far superior piercing weapon. Having armed and readied himself, Chris felt ready for the dungeon.

Now the Dungeons of Narsinia is a tricky place, ever since you set foot into the Plaza, you have been in the dungeon. The school, the market, the cafeteria, everything is the dungeon. But people really don't like to think about it that way. So, they set up a very specific area outside the ruins and called that the dungeons. For you see, every so often In Narsinia You will come across the ruins of the school that was before, and if you enter these places, well, they will try to kill you. However, riches, power, all sort of things can be found in these places. This has led many, many groups to come to this place to delve. And an industry was born of delving and teaching others to delve. But Narsinia Is not the only place with a dungeon. For on the main plane, most places That are magic rich have one. Dungeon is a great place to find raw materials, Train your populous and if one is being honest, also to cull your populous. Do a little work for your warriors? Throw them into the dungeon. Too many bandits? Well, to the dungeon they go. Overtime, a massive industry in dungeon management, creation and seeding Has sprung up over the entire main plane.

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

Highly specialised magus, magi and wizards Have taken up the job of dungeon summoning. In essence what they do is rip a small part of a sub plane That has gone dormant, Infuse it with mana. And then add the required concepts that the client Who commissioned the dungeon Wishes were there. But you can't just wish for a goldmine, along with resource nodes, there comes Blank aspect purposes. You wish for iron or copper, well, something sentient that also wants those things Will manifest as Guardians or stewards of those nodes. The more specific and the more mythical the rarities found within the dungeons Wishes are the harder it is to pull from the ether. Almost no one makes a dungeon from scratch, what is instead done is seeding, taking a small part of what will become a larger dungeon, and letting it grow organically. Halfway between the Plaza and the school Cafeteria, Is the entrance of the Dungeon ruin. To enter without a fully-fledged team is stupid. However, this being a school, there are many Classes on dungeon seeding, Management, Summoning and research. So next to the Openings too the ruins of the dungeon, one can find Dungeons of all rarities and difficulties.

Everyday third year classes are being taught on dungeon seeding, And as the finishing touches on the course of dungeon summoning. You are to summon a Dungeon Seed of Elementary Quality. This exam requires enormous preparation for the student but for everyone else, it happens about every 5 minutes. It happens so often that people take bets on how fast you can run it. And if you are in the first semester, if you run an elementary dungeon with simply a few creatures. You will be rewarded with an achievement that gives you N-points. But even in this about half die, and so many bets are placed. because they are dungeons and made of mana. It's very hard for people outside the ranks 4th Circle To look inside a dungeon but Thankfully dungeon summoning has come so far as to leave a little light on when the Delver, who tries an elementary dungeon dies.

It was outside, just such a summoning Course that Chris found himself This morning. The place was in a vast field with buildings the sizes of skyscrapers Surrounding it. With 10s of thousands of people and the noise, the noise was overwhelming. Standing at a Rise platform next to the Central Rode into the place Chris could see for miles and miles. And what he saw was an accumulation of mages and casters of every stripe and colour. The sheer outpouring of mana from this place Threaten to strip his own mana node. In fact, as he walked up, another newbie lost control and started screaming as her hand Took the backlash of Mana going through it too fast. Chris watched the small fires manifested along lines on her arm, and then all of a sudden there was no arm there but ash. Stepping quickly to the side Chris sought out another vantage point.

Looking out and locating a small section where the ground continually seemed to shiver and weave In and out of existence. Chris said it as his destination and started walking. The fact that he was a student held many upsides for Him in this school, but there were many subsections Written into byelaws where he could get some advantages as a first year. Walking through the menagerie of the poorer dungeon sections, Chris saw many Kinds of delvers.

There were the hard faces of every kind of soldier you I could think of. Men and women who found they were only good at one thing, and now needed to delve Mostly for the money's sake. The ones with mercenary persuasion were in the majority, but dotted Among them you could find much rarer company. A druidic circle who had succumbed to vengeance with their battle animals and Treants. A holy order of a shattered God limping along on its last leg, their Paladins tabards tattered and stained as acolytes too old by far Hopelessly muttered out prayers and benedictions. Tribes from the wilderness of everywhere, come seeking glory, Prestige, Riches and Absolution all in equal measure.

Chris undoubtably made quite a sight as he Walked up to the line Of the Training Dungeons. A 5-foot five man of nondescript appearance save the fact that Every hair on his body was white, oh, and let's not forget that he carried a small door on his back. The door was all white with flickering runes Upon its surface When the wind blew, it would seem like it would take the Flimsy door with it, but then it would bend and snap into place. waiting until he could be seen Chris asked at the booth Whether anyone of the First semester Quarters had been used up for the day. The man behind the booth frowned and said. “son. I'm not sure you want to be doing that. The quotas only, get you into the newer dungeon seeds from the newest students. they mostly cast for spawn kin and the monsters you get Will mostly Be vermin of some kind. Just a Plain old tutorial dungeon will only cost you like 0.5 Contribution points. That isn't so bad for you, Student, is it? It's like 1/3 of a high human coin.”

Nodding, Chris said. “Yeah, I think I'll take the quota if I could. Could you show me the place? And do I pay with My number or my chit?”