I was exhausted. I don’t know how Savas does it. He manages to just keep going nearly without rest. When I suggested entering this dungeon, I planned to spend 2 or 3 days here. Camping in safe zones we set up or barricading ourselves into nooks, crannies, and caves. With Savas here, that's just wishful thinking. He seems to have endless reserves of stamina. Not surprising learning that he’s a god and all but still. I hurt everywhere.

We finally managed to clear the second floor after fighting nonstop for almost 6 hours. My fingers were bleeding just a moment ago. I have regeneration, my bow strings shouldn’t be able to injure me so much. At one point I ran out of arrows and ended up needing to use my daggers. With how long he made the blades they were more like super light short swords.

I ended up hacking my way through swaths of foul-smelling walking mushrooms in order to recover my arrows. Which wasn’t a pleasant experience by any means. Though I did manage to recover more than half of them. Giving me an opportunity to fight from the rear with support fire as Savas slashed through them with his scythe. Like a farmer harvesting wheat in the fall. After every swing he dispatched several of the monsters. Bisecting them like they were made of water. Tops flying through the air. Well, this is what I get for asking to serve a god whose goal is revenge on the gods that killed him in the first place.

The master said that if we do a good job and work hard. He would turn us into one of his new creations called Oni. Oh, I couldn’t be more excited. Looking at my clan mates I could see the same excitement in their eyes. Getting to work we finished lord Whisper’s clothes without much trouble. It didn’t look amazing, but I would protect him from the elements to some minor degree.

Next, I separated my clan into two groups. One for the construction of the arena and the second for gathering of edibles and creating a space for food and another for the master’s alchemy endeavors. I separated my time between the two. At first the arena was small and fit only for goblins. After I made the comment, It was fixed in no time at all.

After hours of long and hard labor I wiped the sweat from my brow. Looking at the majestic training grounds. High walls around a deep pit. The arena was glorious. But something felt off. Thinking for a moment, I decided to head outside of the dungeon and collect some water. Time and time again I splashed water into the dirty covered pit. Until it was a beautiful muddy mess.

“Perfect.” I thought to myself.

“What the hell is this?” came from a strange feminine voice behind me.

We shook off the tiredness and walked down a beautifully laid stone pathway that led to what appeared to be a clearing not far off. Alarm bells were going off rapid fire in my mine. I slowed to a crawl. Indicating that Whisper should do the same. As we observed a voice sounded out from all around us.

“Come challengers. I know you’re here. If I so desired, I could attack you where you stand.”

With stealth clearly not an option Whisper and I walked the rest of the way to the clearing. Wow This guy had an eye for aesthetics. I thought to myself as we stepped into a beautiful garden. Two ponds sat on either side of a wooden throne. Complete with decorative fish swimming about its waters. Protruding from them were bird baths that had a strange green glowing liquid inside that Illuminated the entire area with a warm soft radiance. Bubbles made for the substance poured out from them waterfalling all around bursting with a gentle pop. Releasing shimmering lights as it did so.

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“What is this place?” I said before I could stop myself.

“I see it’s to your liking, challenger. I’m pleased that the first to make their way to me in a few decades is one of artistic taste. It’s unfortunate that we’ll have to do battle momentarily. But until then why don’t we chat for a while. Rest. Recover your strength. I do not like fighting weak challengers, nor do I like fighting strong challengers who’ve been weakened to the point where fighting them is pointless. I want to fight strong opponents. That is why I test them before they make their way to me. So, rest, tell me a tail, eat. Only after will we fight to the death.” said a man with the lower half of a goat. The upper body of a human with two gnarled horns atop his head.

“A Satyr!” I exclaimed in shock.

He too looked shocked that I knew what he was. That seemed to please him even more than my love of his design of his dungeon. I sensed no hostility in him, nor did it look like he was deceiving me. Against Whispers protesting, I took the offer of rest and food.

It turned out that the dungeon master was a really cool guy. Enjoying our tales with mirth and excitement. Sharing some of his own. At one point he got off of his throne and joined us on the soft feather like grass. Sitting down between us and toasting us while enjoying the rather large meal he had his servants prepare for us. Full of berry wines and Hearty fruits. Did you know that Satyrs ate meat? Well now you do. At some point in the night, we ended up drunk singing and dancing. Though I had “ZERO” rhythm. Both Pan and Whisper laughed at my poor attempts to dance along with them. It was all in good fun. The last thing I remember is all three of us slamming wooden chalices into each other and downing our drinks. Throwing them to the ground and my vision went black.

When I woke up in the morning my head felt like someone just tried to split a tree in half. Missed and hit me instead. A bright sunny sky pierced my eyes like the caress of a dagger slipping between my ribs. I whorled in pain, which was only intensified by Pan’s laughter. Walking over he handed me a cup of water that was infused with some kind of magic. Instantly clearing the war drums pounding in my head.

“It seems you’re a bit of a lightweight my lord creator.” he said to me.

I looked at him, eyes widening in shock and surprise.

“Whisper told me everything. Though not without the encouragement of plenty of wine.” he said with another of his iconic laughs.

Regaining a little seriousness in his voice he continued, “While you slept, I did some thinking. Yes, we still have to fight to the death. Sorry but rules are rules. Even if I made the rules, I won't break them. But… if you manage to kill me, I have a request.”

Judging by his jovial nature I had a feeling where this was going.

“Will you put my soul inside one of your Oni things and let me travel alongside you guys. I’ve been trapped here for so long. I mean sure I could just leave, but then I’d be breaking one of my own vows. But if I were to lose, I would be free from them giving me the opportunity to see the big wide world once again. Normally defeat would mean my death. Given as you can take someone's soul and place it in a jar for later use. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity I don’t want to pass up. So, what do you say? Please.” he said, making doughy eyes at me.

Looking at the massive 8-foot-tall wall of muscle and fur. Looking down at me saying please as if he were an 8-year-old child only made me chuckle.

“I’d love to have you join us. But what would that mean for your dungeon?” I asked.

“You didn’t know? Aren’t you a dungeon master yourself? When we dungeon masters die our soul doesn’t disappear like normal creatures do. Our soul collects back at the heart of our dungeon. Using bits of its energy to reform our bodies. This does come at the cost of a bit of loss in strength but that can be regained in several different ways. So as long as my soul isn’t destroyed, or I don’t decide to collapse the dungeon. It will keep going on like nothing ever happened. Jezz, Whisper said you had some memory loss but damn. It’s really bad. You don’t remember creating any of this do you?” he said, a bit of concern in his eyes.

Nodding my head, I with an embarrassed look I confirmed what he said. I asked him again if he still wanted to join me if we won with more than a bit of apprehension.

With a huge grin on his face, he shouted at the top of his lungs, “Fuck Yeah!”