[My power drains, anomaly, I will be back.]

Huh? Okay?

Reality peeled away around the thing, god? Giving way to a realm of endless blue cores, floating in rows of unending and incomprehensibly thick strands of soul essence, the thing floated through, then reality snapped back to normal.

Okay? What the heck was all of that about? Me, an agent of the system? What system? I saw no sign or clues that indicated or hinted at the existence of a system here or anywhere else that I am aware of, it simply didn’t make sense!

The only thing that it said that was even remotely true was the fact that I was an anomaly, everything else was absolue bull, even the ban on [#####]. Well, maybe that was true as well, what the heck?!

All of this felt bigger than me, and I wanted nothing to do with it. I had the feeling that nothing good would come to me if I kept saying or thinking about that word intentionally so I left it and focused on other matters, like the incoming adventures.

They were already halfway up the stone road by now, and would step onto the dirt track that led to my dungeon in a few seconds. Man, they sure moved fast!

.

As they drew closer I could pick up on a conversation happening between the large axe wielder and the dwarf that quickly evolved into something else that they all spoke about.

“Bloody Ogar!” gasped the man as he caught sight of my entrance, his inhuman eyes blinked then he slapped himself then gazed at my entrance again. “You lot seeing this, right? I ain’t crazy, right!?” He asked the confused group, who were unfortunately shorter than him so they only saw what he did after they went up the small dirt hill.

“By mana! What is this!?” Gasped the mage, his entire body was shaking with…glee? Why was he that happy? His body shook even more as a crazy laugh tore itself free from him, he spread his hands wide and laughed even more, ignoring the looks of concern the members of his group were throwing his way.

“Sweet mana!” He laughed, unveiling his book that turned out to be a tome and began scribbling down incomprehensible gibberish, at least to me, all while muttering complete nonsense. “Bronze Era? No, at least low silver? Unclear, no mana signiture detected.” He lifted up his free left hand and made a twisting motion, then began muttering again.

“Null manalogical presence, odd. Golden Era then?” He looked up, then down, and then at where my cave ended then laughed “ Likely! Very Likely!”

What a strange fellow, it was clear that he was analyzing something about me, but what exactly? These Eras he was referring to, what exactly did that have to do with my manalogical whatever?

My instincts only detected unhealthy curiosity and a desire to study and learn, no danger as far as I’m aware. One could argue that excess curiosity was dangerous but I wasn’t getting that from this man.

The barbarian walked over to the scribbling mage, stooped down and tapped him on the back, snapping him out of his frenzy.

“Watchu doing lad? What does this mean for us and the dungeon?”

The mage blinked, then blinked again before his eyes regained clarity.

“That” he pointed at my door, “Is no newborn dungeon, though I suppose we all suspected that once we saw what Grunk was fumbling over” The barbarian, who I now knew as Grunk eyed him as he said this but said nothing, allowing the mage to continue. “From the readings and lack of presence in manasphrae I speculate that we're looking at an Elder Dungeon, one step away from being a Great Elder Dungeon” he said grimly, color draining from his face as if he only now realized what he said.

Deathly silence followed, no one spoke. Me? A great elder whatever? I was just a few days old! Ha! If only they knew. Still, this could be bad, if they suspected that I was such a thing wouldn’t they bring in more power and reinforcements?

I cursed, I should’ve just made a simple low-key entrance, too late for that now though. All I could do was hope for the best and prepare for the worst. Still, I was deeply curious about what they would do, as long as that unfathomable mage and that god thing didn’t come and one shot me I would be fine, probably.

Anway, back to the party.

“What!?” Shouted the Dwarf, breaking the silence. “This wasn’t in our quest! We have to go back and update it and readjust accordingly.”

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

“Easy Pal, let's think about this! A brand new Elder Dungeon, untouched by the crown and their pesky nobles, think of the riches!” Shouted the swordsman, greed washing off him in thick waves. “We could become nobles ourselves!”

“The lad has a point, this could be our chance to rise into nobility and return as golds!” agreed the barbarian, the mage chimed in too, giving his thoughts.

“I can’t help but agree, I don’t want fame nor riches, maybe nobility so I can become a court wizard but this dungeon hasn’t been studied yet! I might break through and form my first star if I understand how it works!” He said excitedly, leaving a shocked dwarf staring at all of them.

“Hal! What madness have you infected them with? He asked incredulously, “Have you lot gone mad!? We might die here!”

“We know Pal, we know!” Shouted the swordsman named Hal, “But think brother, think! Do you think I want to be in the trenches of mediocrity for all my life? Look at me, copper grade armor despite being well over the age of 40, do you think I want that? Ma’s sick at home and I can barely afford to treat her despite being an adventurer for 40 years, 40!”

He paused, taking a deep breath before continuing.

“If I die today then so be it, Radam knows how long I’ve been waiting, praying for such an opportunity to present itself and you’re telling me to let it go, are you mad!?”

Pal went silent after that, everybody did. Poor guy, life must’ve been hard on him, especially with a sick mother. Now I wanted to see the party survive, not that I didn’t plan on doing that before but I would be tweaking things a bit now, so it wouldn’t be as hard originally. I even spawned in some more Ratling Daggers, bringing the total up to 4.

Hopefully each would have one and make things easy.

The silence continued even as they moved in, only the surprise yelp of the mage broke it when my door automatically opened for them and he saw the seemingly endless darkness that lay within.

They all looked at each other, then nodded, steeling their relove as they slowly walked in, not even flinching as the double doors closed behind them. The mage waves his hand, spoke some words that were too silent for me to hear, somehow and a flame bloomed above them in the form of an old lantern, shining brightly, way too brightly.

Some trickery was going on here, likely due to the usage of this elusive mana. My darkness weave was still in effect, but it was being worked around, somehow although not fully as the illumination only ended a few meters ahead of them.

I wasn’t expecting that, but I was expecting something to happen, so interesting!

I released my hold on the Ratlings and they dashed forward, hissing in pure joy as they swarmed the party.

The dwarf knew though, somehow. He whispered a few words and and the stone below him burst open as a stone shield modeled after his own manifested, blocking the incoming tide before falling on them, crushing a good twenty in the process.

What!?

What kind of bs was this? 90% of them were wiped, just like that? The mage laughed, then wove his hand around, in a circular motion, there was a flash of blue soul essence from his left finger and a twisted wooden staff with a large ruby on the top manifested into being.

Fireballs rained, shifting around the party members like slippery eels, my poor Ratlings were reduced to charred meat, paste, and bones within seconds of their arrival.

It was rather anticlimactic, I expected more, anything but a total massacre.

Even they looked surprised, it was clear that they were expecting a hard time.

“Perhaps I misjudged the danger of this dungeon, these creatures, while unique and superbly built are no match for our combined might” Spoke the mage, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “Though something is’t right, my senses aren’t functioning properly, even my illumination spell is being blocked by something, odd”

“Haha!” Laughed the barbarian while cleaning his axe, “Who cares, harvest up the valuables and check for any mana stones, monsters this well made must have a perfect mana core within, we’re rich!”

Poor guy, if only you knew.

The mage looked at him, then shook his head.

“I’m afraid not, that’s what has been bothering me ever since I slew the first one. I detected no release of mana, something was released, but it wasn’t mana.”

“Not mana, are you sure Brown?” Asked Pal, confusion written all over the dwarf’s bearded face.

Interesting, so monsters were supposed to release mana upon death? Was that how normal dungeons worked? But if so why? It was clearly valuable from the way they were talking about it, maybe it helped them somehow?

The more I learned about mana the more fascinated I grew. I wanted to figure out a way to sense and wield it so badly now. They didn’t believe the mage though, and began checking the Ratling corpses themselves, growing pale when they didn’t find anything.

“Blasts! This was for nothing!” Raged Hal, reducing a Ratling corpse to tiny ribbons of flesh in anger.

Geez, calm down! The best part is yet to come!

I triggered the boss room door and the entire cave shook as it slowly slid open, revealing a long emberwood hallway that led to a well-lit luxurious room, decorated with emberwood floor planks, each embedded with a small ice crystal that glowed softly, and a thick and faintly glowing table in the middle surrounded by four wooden chairs.

Surprise!

They all just looked, utterly slack-jawed as the seemingly impossible sight unfolded before them as the door opened wider.

Hehehe, this was the type of reaction I craved! Question your reality, be in awe of my creations!

I had upgraded Kölgə’s in secret while they were busy bickering among themselves. It was something I wanted to do ever since I saw them coming but that pesky god thing had interrupted me and I had to quickly rush it while they fought.

It had to be a proper game room, not just a square of dull gray and black stone, no sir! That simply won’t do! Now it looked decent enough to pass for one, I wanted my players to be comfortable, after all, including Kölgə.

I wanted to be the first to play a game of marbles with him but life had other plans, it would seem. I didn’t mind too much though, as it would be very interesting either way. Instead of having him learn it via experience I just used his brain to download the rules and knowledge I made up for the game, still should be interesting though.

To make things fair I also have him some thin wooden planks containing all the rules of the game with an experimental enchantment that should allow anyone to read it, theoretically. Wasn’t sure if it's going to work though, as it copied the principle used by my soul to understand them, which I didn’t understand.

Anyway!

A large shadow shifted within the room, suddenly unveiling itself to the party's senses. A voice followed it shortly after, echoing through the room as it rode the invisible winds, sharp as glass yet somehow as smooth as the finest silk.

“Welcome to my hallowed realm, humans, would you care to join me in a game of marbles?”