Chapter 10 Meeting a Guild_Alice The Roaming Dungeon (Relaunch in progress.)

Alice sat around for the next three days bored out her mind. Watching her monsters kill each other got old fast. It was fun to watch Xeral and Tamer beat the crap out of everyone on their floors. But after the initial beat down it was rare for the other monsters to challenge them. Having Erethon around turned out to be the best decision she made since she came to the Atia. He already explained a lot about the situation outside the dungeon. Everything from countries politics, guilds, and important people. Not to mention the company somewhat stabilized her mind. She had quickly grown attached to him even if she didn't realize it; their relationship quickly evolved into one older brother looking after a little sister. A murderously insane sister that was prone to nightmares and an occasional mood swing that led to Erethon fighting for his life but it worked out somehow. The Forest Spirits would often help in those situations saving him when Alice's attacks were to life-threatening, and their liking towards him was obvious for everyone to see.

Erethon had told her about how Journeys worked, they were like Mania explained, a way to get powerful skills but he also told her they were a way to learn basic skills as well. She had two Journeys that worked like that, Journey of the Scythe Wielder and Chain User, they were easy to complete and would lead to the skills like Chain Manipulation and Scythe Mastery. She constantly practiced for the past few days and made it to over 60% completion and according to Erethon that meant she was on the level of a genius when it came to her weapons. It didn't make much sense to her; she was only doing was felt natural.

On her second day of practice, she began two new Journeys, the Journey of the Graceful and the Journey of the Dancer. It made sense in a way the more she adjusted herself and made minute changes to her stance and swings it did feel much more graceful. As for the Journey of the Dancer, she could only assume that she got it from the way she viewed her fighting style. It was a dance of death her Scythe was much bigger than her, so the only way to use it effectively was to keep it moving.

She used Erethon as a punching bag and developed the habit of moving with each swing her Scythe was 7 and a half feet long with a 4ft blade, it was after all made to be used from horseback. So it made perfect sense to use its longer reach to keep Erethon at bay, then use her scythe like a whip grabbing the very end and accelerating as fast she could. It left her wide open, so she used it only as a finishing move and used her chains to defend if she had to. Her "dance" was improving quickly with intricate spins and steps that individually were too showy and wasteful to use in a fight. But when put altogether they made an effective fighting style; her offense was at the same time her defense and vice versa.

Erethon was happy to see her improve so quickly and spent his time split between Alice and studying the dungeon in particular Tamer. He also wanted to study Xeral, but it was impossible to find it in the forest, and even when he did spot it, it would disappear a moment later. He helped Alice with his advice making the dungeon more balanced now it was perfect for the lower ranks to complete the first floor. E ranks could make it if they were extremely lucky and careful, but even then a squad of 20 of them would be needed, and more than half would likely die. As for the second floor, it would be a one-sided slaughter for anyone C rank and below that wasn't in a squad of at least 60 but again most would be killed. The floor was just too strong when compared to the first even it made sense for it to defend the core but Alice would always say "Ery you give me advice, but I decide what happens in here, besides I have a plan."

The last thing that happened during the week was the fact Erethon kept pumping mana into Alice's core whenever he recovered. It took about 3 hours for him to fill his mana back up and it netted around 2,500 mana every time he fully injected his mana. It was well worth the effort, but Alice wouldn't tell Erethon what she was doing with it. But on the third day, Alice finally broke and began to explain.

"Ery you know when you're curious about something you're a royal pain in the ass."

"I'll take that as a compliment so what have you been doing with all the mana I've been giving you? We’re you leveling up, creating a new floor or monsters? I haven't seen any change in the monsters on the first two floors, so it has to be one of those."

"You know you don't have to tell me everything you're thinking when I ask you something."

"That's not important now tell me."

"Alice he's beginning to get too comfortable."

"I agree cut off that shit's pointy ears."

"No don't be mean to Ery he's my friend."

"Shut up you three you aren't helping. Ery it will be easier to show you, follow me." Alice opened up a portal and stepped through followed quickly by Erethon.

At the other side of the floor was a winter wonderland the likes of which Erethon hadn't seen since his travels in the northern countries over a century ago. Alice spoke first "Nice, isn't it? This is where all of your mana has been going it's fairly small right now, but I have the climate and plant life done. I'm still creating the monsters, but I already added the frost goblins they are going to be specialized solely in ice magic. All their physical skill has been converted to magical skills. I have been trying to make the floor have blizzards but it's been annoying, so what do you think?"

"My mana was used to create this?"

"Yes."

"My mana?"

"Yes."

"Really?"

"For shit's sake yes I did this with all the mana you gave me. My natural mana regeneration wasn't nearly enough. It's only 34 miles in circumference, but with your mana, I think we can get it to 70 or 80 by the time the king gets here."

"Thank the gods for this day! I have only been able to watch dungeons form, but now an entire floor has been created with my mana. Is this what it feels like to have a child."

Alice was creeped out because of his outburst "You're fucking crazy you know."

"You're the last person who can tell anyone that. But no matter what is the plan for this floor."

"Since I already made my home on the second floor I'm going to make this winter floor a go-between for first and second floors. It will also get you off my back about balance and make my home harder to get to."

"That would make sense, but I would suggest you make a safe zone after this floor."

"Don't you think it too early I was planning on doing it after the 5th floor?"

"That would be standard for a normal dungeon but your floors are massive so do it every two floors."

"Fine I'll think about it, but I will worry about that after I finish this floor."

"Well, it doesn't matter right now anything special about this floor?"

"Not really, the plants are normal except for Snow Moss and Frost Trees that are just cold versions of Heat Trees and Rain Moss. And like said before the Frost Goblins are specialized in ice magic and have low physical abilities. They are white and can hide in snow easily, but I didn't give the Stealth skill. They also make villages under snow by hardening the snow around them with ice; it was pretty interesting to watch the way they used my Light Moss instead of fires to light the tunnels to avoid melting their homes."

"I know that you have something else planned Alice just by comparing it to your other floors this one would be boring if you didn't add a twist."

Alice smiled evilly "Fine you got me their tunnels gave an idea for this floor. But first look at the ground what do you see?"

"Snow."

"Correct how thick to do you think the snow is?"

"Don't tell me..."

"Yup we're on top of at least 20ft of snow right now. Well technically it mostly ice now, but you get the point this floor is a 2 in 1 floor. You have the top part which is an icy wasteland, and underneath a labyrinth of tunnels infested with goblins and whatever else, I come up with. The adventures will have to brave the blizzard on top and search the tunnels below for the exit to next floor. The best part is each goblin clan's village will have its own tunnel system so..."

"The tunnels aren't all connected."

"Correct would you like a cookie or a medal?"

"Neither, now continue."

"Someone's become all serious all of a sudden. Well yes, they need to find which tunnel system that has the exit, and I'm going to set it to change daily and have some portals lead to other tunnels systems. Also since the tunnels are carved into the ice, the tunnels are always changing, so it's impossible to map. That's it so what do you think?"

"It's genius with that you have effectively doubled this floors defensive capabilities. But what is stopping people from melting the ice?"

"Way ahead of you remember the Spore Mother's, well I put them in the ice. Whenever there exposed to the air there, spores will immediately spread and kill anyone close by. Naturally, my goblins are immune so if people try to use to their advantage there just screwing themselves."

"Well, you have improved planning skills."

"Thank y-" Alice went stiff and smiled.

"Is there something wrong?"

"Someone entered my dungeon," Alice said happily.

"It's too soon for the king to get here, so it's probably one of the adventure guilds."

"One of the guilds?"

"Oh, I haven't explained the guilds yet have I?"

"No only the association as a whole."

"Well, guilds are formed under the association they allow them to get specific requests from people and stuff like that. Adventures join guilds because, although not officially, they fight for territory. If for example an adventure not affiliated with the guild that "owns" the territory where the quest is located they may have to pay for protection. But other guilds hired by the association itself destroy such guilds, but it still happens from time to time. The main reason why guilds exist is they become the base defense from dungeons such as yourself. The association will hire powerful guilds to watch over a dungeon and defend the town, and by doing so, the guild will get some of the tax revenue made from dungeon items. My money is on someone mentioned your dungeon produces monster cores so they raced over here to claim you."

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Alice's voice became cold "There trying to claim me? They think they can own me?"

Erethon paled "Alice calm down its only in name no one can truly own a dung-"

"Ery shut the flying fuck up right now, or I'll feed you your limbs k?" And with that Alice stepped through a portal and got ready to slaughter the intruders.

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Eric was a new member of the Ice Drake guild; he joined the guild because it was a relatively powerful guild in the region and controlled a decent size territory. He was a low B rank and was extremely excited when he heard a new dungeon had formed in the territory his guild ruled. The guild master had decided to wait until after the royal expedition had left and then perform their own investigation of the dungeon. It was their territory, so it was only right they receive the benefits from the dungeon. The expedition was made up of 30 B ranks led by 1 A rank, it was overkill in his opinion, but they were volunteers and the more people you had, the safer you were.

They were all taken back from what they saw when they first entered it was a desert the went on as far as the eye could see. All the B ranks were surprised but the A rank, a dwarf named Thonult, spoke up "Looks like we have a big one here. This place doesn't sit well with me, so we're all sticking together and fighting as a unit. I want everyone to document anything you see and fully dissect all the corpses; we need to know how much this place is worth."

Everyone agreed with him and formed up, things were tense for a bit, but all the monsters proved easy to kill. We also found that this place was a gold mine, it produced monsters cores from every monster we killed. A friend of mine, a half-elf named Tathaln, called out to me "Eric can you believe this place we could live like kings for the rest of our lives if the guild ends owning this place."

"I know what you mean I managed to get 13 cores by myself already and Thonult looks like he is staring at a mountain of solid gold. Just grinding small fry is enough to live comfortably for a while I can't wait for the lower floors."

"I wouldn't get my hopes up this a new dungeon, so this might be it for now."

"I can hope can- What the fuck is that?"

At that moment everyone froze as they saw an impossibly pale girl with rainbow eyes ridings an almost transparent horse holding a terrifying scythe. What was even worse was that she had ten giant treemen following close behind her and a goblin riding scorpion close to her side.

Thonult began to shout "Everyone form up right fucking now I don't want any fucki-" Everyone froze when they saw a message appear in front of them

Warning- You have entered the dungeon of the Pale Rider. You have arrogantly assumed that you can own this dungeon, that you could own the Pale Rider. The Rider has been angered, and your fates sealed, prepare for the Riders judgment may souls be spared.

One thought filled my head "We're all going to die."

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Alice was furious with the situation but couldn't understand why. She knew it was the fact the people in front her thought they could own her but why was she was so angry in the first place? She couldn't wrap her head around it was it her instincts because she was now part dungeon or because it reminded her of how the UMRD owned her. But no matter the reason she knew those people were going to die because they somehow managed to piss her off, to hell with the reasons why. She sent her message to them and spoke to Tamer one last time "Are you sure your tribesmen heard them say they wanted to own me?"

"Yes, master it is as you say my tribesmen have heard them say they wish to own you."

"Then they die today everyone follow me and don't move an inch unless I say so."

With her words, Tamer and her Oak Guards followed her until they were within striking distance of the adventures. Alice had already activated Presence of Inevitability and Deaths Eyes. Also with her Scythe of The End in hand, she was ready to take all of her heads, but first she had to know something. So she asked, "Who is your leader and who do you represent?"

Her words were cold and emotionless but when no one answered her anger grew onto fury and an aura of death magic formed around her spilling out everywhere. She activated True Suffering and brought the group to their knees. "Who is your leader and who do you represent? I will not ask again."

Finally, a tiny man spoke up "I... I am the leader; we are members of the Ice Drake guild. We meant no disrespect, Lord Rider."

Alice deactivated True Suffering and spoke "You meant no disrespect yet you say you wish to own me. Not only do you insult me now you lie to my face, you must truly wish to die."

Alice's aura of death magic spread slowly towards toward the group. She had already decided they would die here and now she only wanted to rub in their faces the fact that they brought this on themselves. That moment she decided the short man would die first, but she wanted to test a few things him. Soul Grasp, Soul Manipulation , Soul Essence and Spirits of the Dead were the skills she got when she leveled up it was the perfect time to have some fun and experiment. Soul Manipulation was straightforward, it allowed her to manipulate souls. As for Soul Grasp it was where thing got fun it allowed her to literally grasp someone's soul and Soul Essence complemented it perfectly because it allowed her to rip the soul's essence from the body and the soul itself. The person died in the process, but she would gain the true power of that person's soul to do with what she willed.

The most of these terrifying skill she received was Spirits of the Dead it let her control the souls she had taken. She could create armies of soldiers and the more powerful the soul, the more powerful the soldier. And with Soul Manipulation she could manipulate the soul into any form she wanted creating beasts and weapons it didn't matter. Souls had become her plaything to do with what she willed, a eternal punishment for crossing her.

Alice continued to look down at the pale little man in front her and spoke: "I will not sit here and be lied to explain yourself or die."

"But I have not lied we talked about owning this dungeon but never about owning you."

"I am this dungeon you fool."

"I don't understand you are not this dungeon."

"A liar and a fool dare to tell me what I am. I will make this clear for you group of fools I am this dungeon core. Everything in this dungeon is a part of me and is my home when you dared to speak of owning this dungeon you were speaking of owning me."

''Wait, Lord Rider, we did not know plea-" Alice didn't let him finish she used Soul Grasp on him and then used Soul Essence to tear out part of his soul. The process took over 5 minutes to complete and could be done much more efficiently after he died, but Alice wanted to make a point to the people in front of her. The entire time the small man screamed in agony until he died. Alice lastly used Spirits of the Dead and made his soul take the same form he had in life.

At the sight, all the adventures paled as far as they knew she had killed Thonult then stole his soul turning it into her puppet. Most began to cry in despair while others prepared to make a break for it, but everyone froze when they heard Alice's words "I will now pass my judgment on you. I have decided to grant mercy because the fool who led you here has paid the price."

They looked at each other with hope in their eyes, but Alice's next words crushed that hope in an instant "But only one of you may leave, and it is up to you to decide who will be that person. Fight to death the last one standing will be granted mercy."

Everyone froze they couldn't imagine killing each other they were guildmates and were closer to each other than most of their families. But now they were given a choice kill each other or die. One of the adventures burst from where he sat rushed Alice screaming "Like hell you fucking bitch!"

The next second a giant wooden hand crushed the man into the ground it was an Oak Guard fulfilling his duty in protecting Alice. But with that punch all there hope of attacking Alice disappeared and as they were surrounded by the other Oak Guard so to was the hope of escape. They sat for almost an hour not moving an inch but then one of the newer members ran up and stabbed another in the chest. And soon after they all fought and killed each other. Some tried to help each other only to stabbed in the back by what they thought were friends. Others grouped up and attacked the Oak Guard but were crushed instantly but the majority killed each other without mercy. It took less than 20 minutes for a victor to be decided. Alice looked down at the man his eyes showed his will was dead and spoke "You have earned your life leave and tell your master what happened here. My dungeon has no owner but myself."