Selvara and Malvorik had just been engrossed in a new sketch for a labyrinth at the chalkboard. Selvara shook her head: "It's too complex and takes up far too much space. I'm sure you can achieve the same effect with a more compact design..." She felt Malvorik's attention swivel away: "What is it?"
The dungeon heart was silent for a moment and then mumbled a little confused:
"What's wrong?"
"You mean in the second highest level of the city sewers. Tunnels that you just took over."
"What? When was that? Why didn't you say anything?"
She only raised one of her tiny eyebrows.
"It should have. If you were still human."
Selvara felt a storm of conflicting emotions from the dual bond of the faerie pact and the bond as a familiar. Unlike humans, however, dungeon hearts had a hard time sustaining emotions for long. At their core, they were logical beings.
Eventually the uproar came to a standstill and ended with a faint resignation:
"As long as you're still asking yourself that, everything is fine. The feelings and instincts of a dungeon heart are different from those of a human. It's your job to challenge intruders who enter your dungeon. And to kill them if they are no match for your monsters and traps."
"Your poetic tendencies won't distract me from the real issue. What's going on up there?"
"Is that an important difference?"
Selvara gestured to him to continue and get to the interesting part.
"Just like that?"
"Could she have been poisoned?"
"Maybe they're testing a poison that takes effect after a day?"
"And what did you thank for earlier?"
"You get no XP for natural deaths... And nothing for diseases, unless you have the Plague Pool special skill."
"What? No. You'll hardly hear about that one either. You can only select it at Dungeon Master level 8 at the earliest. A dungeon with this special skill spreads diseases via its monsters. Surviving adventurers even carry them out of the dungeon. If a dungeon is discovered that does this, it will be destroyed immediately. No matter how useful or profitable it is otherwise."
"I'm glad we agree on that. But then what happened to the prisoners up there? Magic?"
"Wait! Do you still have the automatics on?" Selvara flew up excitedly.
The heart crystal sparkled thoughtfully for a while. Then it became unusually cloudy. Selvara flew to it, but saw nothing unusual. "Malvorik? Are you all right? You're suddenly so quiet."
"Are you worried about the intruders?"
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
"What? Come on. You can tell me anything." She sat down a little way away on the ledge at the entrance to her room.
"That doesn't have to happen. Maybe you'll end up as a training ground for the army or the city guard."
"What plans?"
The light of the crystal became increasingly brighter and life came into the spiritual voice.
"What if they take them to the river? Then they'll walk right into your traps."
Selvara waited nervously as the dungeon heart made its vision appear on the mirrored wall. Silent as ever, four of the intruders marched through the sewers, each with a corpse slung over their shoulder. They followed the canals to a gathering pool. There they stopped for a while and looked around. After a while, they all started moving again at the same time, walking through the knee-high water to one of the overflow shafts. One by one, they disposed of their load through the opening and walked back.
As soon as he had a secret to study, the heart crystal shone brighter again. Selvara waited patiently for a few heartbeats. Then she fluttered up and down excitedly: "So, what is it? Magic? Poison? A disease?"
"Why? Come on. You know human anatomy. So many corpses. You must have a complete pattern by now. If that were allowed, I'm sure you could create humans with ease."
"I have no idea. I've never heard of such a thing."
The dungeon heart wasn't really listening. At last, it had something truly new to investigate.
Complex diagrams and charts appeared on the walls of the heart room. Selvara didn't understand any of it, but she enjoyed the contented aura that Malvorik radiated.
Skill learned: Crystal Theory (Apprentice I)
Skill increased: Crystal Theory (Apprentice II)
Skill increased: Crystal Theory (Apprentice III)
Skill increased: Magic Theory (Apprentice II)
Skill increased: Magic Theory (Apprentice III)
The voice of the world could barely keep up with adapting the official knowledge skills to Malvorik's demonstrated knowledge. He combined his knowledge of various specialist areas, made new connections, dug out old knowledge from his memories and put it in a new order.
The dungeon fairy was unable to follow his conclusions. She stared at the sketches and notes, confused and helpless. Due to the bright sparkle of the dungeon crystal, she didn't notice another golden light appearing behind her. A cough made her move around.
In the middle of the room stood the moderator who had visited them once before. Selvara immediately dropped to her knees and bowed deeply: "Praise be to Steve!"
"Praise be to Steve." The answer sounded completely casual coming from the moderator. A formality that distracted him from his actual topic. The radiant light of his aura flickered; she had the impression that he was shaking his head.
"You two again. When I got a warning about an impossibly rapid skill increase, I immediately realized it was you again."
The sketches on the mirrored wall froze when Malvorik also noticed the presence of the moderator:
The moderator sighed emphatically and made a few gestures in the air. Selvara quickly bowed her head. He was surely studying scriptures full of divine wisdom that were invisible to mortals. This was not meant for her.
"Your knowledge doesn't match your character skills at all. That completely confuses the increment system. I have to do something here. A partial memory wipe?"
Selvara held her breath and the heart crystal began to flicker in panic. The moderator weighed his head thoughtfully for a while, then continued: "No, too risky. That would probably destroy your mind. Would be kind of a shame."
He continued to think. His gaze was now darting back and forth between two places in his field of vision, as if he were comparing two scrolls.
"Ok. Here's what we'll do: I'll bring your knowledge skills up to where they were before you died. As soon as you're discovered, you'll only have a very short life expectancy anyway. According to the rules, your personality will then be permanently erased."
The moderator barely listened to his objection and concentrated on the world visible only to him: "So that works. Let's take the opportunity to see what synergy there is between the classes for mages and dungeon masters... Ok... Fits... Powerful, but acceptable... No. That's not possible."
Selvara had looked up curiously, and now threw herself to the ground again.
"You can use a touch spell on anyone inside your dungeon? With 400 MP you'll kill everything that moves in here. Not acceptable. I'll set it so that touch spells are only possible on enemies that touch one of your monsters or your core." The golden-glowing figure hesitated and then corrected himself: "No... That would almost amount to the same thing... Okay, we'll do it this way..." His hands made a typing gesture and then moved invisible things around until he was satisfied with the result, "That fits. So Dungeon Master Malvorik, as a Chimera Dungeon, you can now grant each new Chimera the ability to use a specific spell you know. In return, it will receive its own mana supply, which you must replenish from yours. However, you can only do this once a day. The size of the mana supply and the complexity of the spell determine the difficulty of the chimera construction and its summoning costs. You can also use all your spells when you possess one of your monsters with possession. But only using the monster’s own mana supply."
He hesitated. "That's potentially quite powerful. But I think you're going to need it. I suppose I don't need to tell you not to let the whole town sink into the ground, or something similar. I'd have to intervene. A few buildings would be acceptable, but the city and especially the fortress wall are necessary for the overall plot. This is where the defensive battle against the Krigesti will take place. To make things a little fairer..." His fingers danced through the air. After a few minutes, he nodded in satisfaction, "If you take possession of a monster, you can use all your mage abilities within the dungeon. But the damage it takes is transferred to your dungeon heart in the same proportion. If it dies before you can end the possession, you die too."
Skills changed by intervention of a moderator:
Magic Theory (Master IV), History (Master IV), Spell Control (Master II), Alchemy (Master II), Artifact Enchantment (Journeyman V), Herb Lore (Journeyman IV), Rock Lore (Layman III), Weapon Lore (Layman III), Armor Lore (Layman II)
"You'd better not thank me yet. That won't make it any better. You only have more to lose now. The next world event starts soon. Mulnirsheim has about 50,000 inhabitants. The same number of heroes will appear there again soon. They will open stores, search the surrounding area for materials for their respective crafts and for brewing elixirs. They will trade, hunt and steal. Do you know what they will be looking for the most?"
The moderator hesitated briefly: "Well, that too, of course. But I meant dungeons. If there's even a rumor that you exist..."
"This is not a challenge you can pass. We will therefore not pass it off as a quest. Nemesis will not scatter clues to your location. Bardic knowledge will not provide rumors about you. There will be no visions for psychics. But that doesn't mean your activities won't have consequences. You certainly don't want to hide down here forever. You will interact with the outside world at some point. You'll leave traces. Then they'll get you."
The crystal dimmed for a moment, then lit up all the brighter: