Wyatt stepped into the circular room and welcomed the images with a hunger for understanding felt only by the most fanatical of scientists.

He saw the aftermath of the war of the gods all around him, but with that came the eventual return of life. Forests regrew; the trees larger and stronger; the animals fiercer and more territorial. Mountains now existed where they hadn’t before, and whole ranges had become plains, inhabited by creatures that were bred through thousands of years of evolution to live in an environment they could no longer reach.

Just like the natural world, so, too, did the sapient creatures of the world return. From the rubble of old kingdoms came new civilizations as ruins were cleared away for new buildings.

Fighting began anew, where before only enlightenment reigned. Brother fought brother, as new power dynamics were created in the wake of total destruction. New kingdoms and empires formed, and armies marched and died upon fields once revered for their beauty.

The result of this turmoil: a world that matched what Wyatt saw in his brief few weeks upon this planet.

Time passed by quickly, and history became legend, and the gods of yore lived only on the lips of those too stubborn to give in to reality. Prayers were left unanswered, and the world grew without guidance, killing the weak and allowing the strong to thrive.

The scene changed quickly to a palace. Standing on a balcony, a lone elf stood, his armor identical to the ornate armor worn by the leader that presented the crown to the gods, now thousands of years past.

There before him, as before, floated a mote of light. The emperor of the elves – for that was how Wyatt now knew him, though he knew not how – was not upon his knees but stood before it as an equal.

Soon, Wyatt saw armies march from the gates of the palace. He could not tell how many there were, but the gleaming stream of metal stretched into the horizon. Within the endless ranks of the soldiers were hundreds of cages of varying sizes, each filled with a monster unseen by human eyes before their integration.

Standing upon the castle wall to witness was the elven emperor, a maniacal smile on his face as he looked towards the horizon, and Wyatt could see before him the tower dungeon, the Dungeon of the Earth Lord.

The scene became one of slaughter, as humans died by the millions to the monsters that had been thrown into the starter dungeons. Unable to level up since entering this world mere hours prior, the humans were nothing compared to the monstrosities bred from a world of death.

Images flashed by Wyatt, threatening to consume him. Body after body filled his vision. He tried closing his eyes, to shut them out, but he could still hear the screams as billions were slain all around him. He fell to his knees on an invisible floor, and clutched his ears in desperation, but still he could sense the death as the smell of burning skin and rotted corpses filled his nose.

Then, there was nothing. Wyatt opened his eyes and lifted his head. There before him was the tower, once again, surrounded by darkness. When Wyatt reached out for the tower, it disappeared, and he was left in the same darkness that had greeted him at the start of this nightmare, now months before.

Then, a light appeared above him, and he looked up. There in front of him, he saw a crown. It looked like the others he had seen before, but silver. The plane band hovered in front of him for an eternal moment, then vanished.

When the visions died away, Wyatt stood staring at the final picture engraved on the wall. It showed the back of a cloaked man, standing at the base of a tower. The meaning to this mural was obvious and confirmed his suspicion that the Elven Empire was to blame for the death of his race.

Wyatt turned his back to the image, his jaw clenched in fury, and walked to the stairs he knew would have appeared when the mural stilled.

When Wyatt arrived on the fourth floor, he was greeted by a massive room. He could see for hundreds of yards, the wall behind him stretching to the distant ends of the room. The ceiling was far above him, and various rocks and pillars dotted the room, forming different paths and crevices. The large room was lit up by one ball of light on the ceiling, making the entire room look as though it was outside.

Wyatt saw a single pedestal in front of him that was at about head height, and he tried to climb atop it to get a better view of his surroundings. Before he could, however, he was greeted with a prompt.

New Quest:

Final Challenge

Conditions:

Prevent the enemy from acquiring the woman

Rewards:

Completion of the quest Dungeon of the Earth Lord

Description:

The woman before you has an immense power. The enemy general wishes to use her power to destroy his enemies and rule the world. You must prevent his forces from retrieving their prize.

Begin Challenge?

Yes or No

Wyatt looked around at the room, but he couldn’t see a woman, or a general. The room was empty.

The stranger part about this challenge was the prompt. So far, Wyatt had completed more challenges than he could count in this dungeon, some of which could even be considered actual challenges that should have had similar prompts.

Taking a breath, Wyatt selected Yes. The prompt disappeared as soon as he did, and smoke began to fill the room behind him. Across the open field, Wyatt could make out a similar smoke forming on the opposite end of the room. Wyatt withdrew a staff from his cloak and readied himself for combat.

Soon, the smoke formed into humanoid shapes, then eventually coalesced into actual humans, standing in formations like an army. There were about 50 of them arrayed behind him, most of which were clad in heavy armor with shields and swords. About 15 of them had lighter armor and were equipped with bows.

Looking back to the pedestal, Wyatt saw a woman was on top of it, held inside of a steel cage. Wyatt assumed her age to be in her teens. When she looked at him, he could see the fear in her eyes, and for a moment Wyatt believed he was seeing a real human.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Across the room, Wyatt could see more figures appearing out of smoke. Behind them stood a man in golden armor, sitting atop a high throne. The man moved his hand, and as one the soldiers began marching towards Wyatt and his own forces.

The enemy soldiers clearly outnumbered his own, and Wyatt scrambled to get his units in formation. He began issuing orders, hoping the conjured humans would follow his command.

“Archers form up on the cage,” he shouted, his voice cracking from disuse, “fighters form up in front of them.”

The humans follow his commands to the letter, taking up a defensive position in front of the pedestal.

“Archers, ready bows.” The archers each drew arrows from their backs and nocked them. “Aim.” 15 bows aimed into the air, towards the advancing armies. “Fire!” With his shout, the archers released, quickly nocking arrows for a follow up shot.

Wyatt watched the arrows soar. They struck the front line of the enemy advance, most of which bounced off of shields already raised above their heads. Only three struck home, two fatally, as their targets fell to the ground.

“Aim,” Wyatt shouted again, and again the archers raised their bows. They were only able to fire one more volley before the enemy soldiers began their charge. None of them fell this time, and he gave the orders for the soldiers to raise their shields, preparing for melee.

The enemy soldiers struck as one, shields ramming shields in an attempt to push each other back. The archers began firing arrows individually, targeting enemies in the back lines when they could.

The sound of combat was deafening to Wyatt, unaccustomed to such large battlefields. His head darted back and forth, looking up and down the line of his soldiers for some way he could help.

Remembering his magic, Wyatt began to cast Rock Spike to join the archers in their long-range attacks. The yelling at the front line began to intensify as he took his first casualty.

More followed quickly, as they were enveloped by the larger force. He watched as his soldiers were cut down, and he began to cast Wind Cutter to attack multiple enemies at once, trying in vain to help his dying forces.

It wasn’t long before his soldiers died, and the enemy advanced on him. Back pressed against the pedestal behind him, Wyatt’s heart beat loudly in his ears. He held his staff in front of him, waiting for the enemy to attack.

The soldiers faded to smoke.

A prompt appeared in Wyatt’s vision.

Challenge Failed:

The enemy soldiers obtained their prize.

Challenge attempt 1/1 failed

No more attempts remaining

Error:

No more challengers available from integrated world

Challenge attempts resetting

Final challenge:

Prove you are worthy

Begin Challenge?

Yes or No

Wyatt read the prompts several times before he understood what was happening. He could only attempt the final challenge of the dungeon once, but since this dungeon was designed for inhabitants of his world, of which only he remained, the dungeon reset the counter.

It was a strange feeling; one Wyatt couldn’t quite appreciate fully with his adrenaline still pumping so soon after the battle.

Wyatt stepped away from the pedestal, selecting No on the prompt before him. He took a moment to catch his breath, walking back and forth for a few moments, until he felt like his nerves had finally settled. He looked back at the battlefield, which looked as fresh as it had when he first entered the room.

He thought back on how he had performed during the battle. During his months in this world, he had become accustomed to fighting and killing, and had faced death on many occasions.

This, however, was something else entirely. The sounds were never-ending, threatening to take away his sanity at any moment. He had been overwhelmed almost instantly, his sharp mind turned dull and useless.

Knowing he would have to do better; he began to formulate a strategy. The enemy forces greatly outnumbered his, so he had to come up with a way to increase their ability to inflict casualties to match their sheer numbers.

Wyatt ran through the battle in his mind. He replayed every action, from start to finish, and realized something. The enemy was comprised of only one unit type, fighters. There were no arrows on the ground around him, or in the bodies of his dead soldiers when the battle ended, nor had there been any kind of magic besides the magic he used.

Maybe the variation in my unit type is the key.

Strategy formed, Wyatt reached for the pedestal again, and began the challenge.

As soon as his forces appeared, he assembled them as he had before. This time, however, he told the archers to hold their fire until he created an opening in the enemy’s line.

As the enemy advanced, Wyatt prepared his Rampage ability, moving through the five seconds of hand movements, before choosing a target. The soldier, positioned directly at the center of the enemy’s front line, immediately began to attack the soldiers beside him.

The enemy line began to break, as the soldiers nearest the rampaging unit died, turning more soldiers’ attention away from the archers.

“Fire!” shouted Wyatt, as he began a second casting of Rampage. The arrows struck the enemy line, downing six soldiers; three times what they had killed before. Just as the enemy killed the offending soldier and resumed moving towards Wyatt and his own units, the mage finished his spell, and another enemy soldier lost his mind to it.

Another five enemy soldiers fell to arrows, along with three more that died trying to bring their comrade down. Already, the fight was in Wyatt’s favor, and he gave the order to fire at will as the enemy soldiers began their charge.

Wyatt sent rock spikes toward the enemy, breaking shields as they struck, giving the archers easy targets. When the soldiers struck his own, the ensuing battle had much less impact on Wyatt’s senses, and he was able to support his own soldiers, casting Daze at opportune times to allow his soldiers an easy kill.

Wyatt began to think he could win, but he was too focused on the center of the battle and did not see his line begin to crumble at the sides. Too late did he see his archers had been engaged in melee combat but were not strong enough to stand up to the fighters, falling quickly to their swords.

Wyatt withdrew his staff in time to block an attack, then he joined the battle on his back line, sending strike after strike of his staff into the enemy.

Suddenly, his enemy was smoke, and his staff sailed effortlessly through it. His confusion was met with a prompt, signaling another failed attempt at the challenge.

Wyatt cursed as the familiar series of prompts appeared in his mind, resetting the attempt count and asking if he wanted to start the challenge over. Looking at his resource bars, Wyatt saw that his mana and stamina were less than half of their maximum. Selecting No, Wyatt sat down to think.

His resource pools would be full before he got to the tower, so traveling back would be a waste of time. Instead, Wyatt withdrew his pen and some paper and spent the next hour strategizing how to beat an overwhelming force with the numbers at his disposal.

Wyatt was leaning on his staff, breathing heavily as the soldier in front of him disappeared into smoke. Already, he had attempted this challenge six times, and each time he felt like he was getting closer and closer to the answer, but each time his soldiers fell at a critical moment, and his position was overrun.

The mage had tried preparing the battlefield before hand, creating spikes in the ground with his earth magic to better fortify his position, but that only resulted in him starting the battle with less magic, as the ground was reset as soon as the soldiers appeared.

This last attempt was the closest he had gotten so far. He used his archers much the same way as before, creating openings to pepper the enemy soldiers before they reached his line. This time, however, after he had used Rampage twice, the mage had used earth magic to launch himself into the enemy force, then used Stone Grasp to hold a large portion of the enemy troops in place. With the enemy stuck and in a state of mass confusion, he went on the offensive, sending his fighters forward to attack the enemy troops. The result was devastating to the larger force, even pushing them back as his soldiers were able to hold a shield wall.

The advance was short lived, however, as the momentum once again shifted towards the enemy. His units began to retreat one step at a time, until they began to fall to enemy blades. Wyatt had used all of his mana in one attack on the enemy, understanding for the first time the one weakness in his Stone Grasp ability: the drain on mana. Each unit hit by his attack drained more of his MP, and with so many units in such a small space, it took everything out of him to use it.

Frustrated, and low on health after leading the attack this time, Wyatt decided it was time to take a longer break. He turned back to the exit and began the long journey to the tower.