Aila stepped through a portal and observed the destruction around her. Deep in the forest, deeper than most Experts would dare explore. Yet, there were no trees. They had all been felled. Some lay their sides. Some were more splinter than tree. And some were ablaze.

The corpses of hundreds of Monsters, each one capable of killing Experts, littered the ground in various states of death.

In the center of the clearing, upon a hill of corpses, sat a man, dressed in the pristine casual clothing of a Noble. Black hair covered the man’s eyes, but Aila knew that they were half closed. Bored. The man had massacred a Horde of Monsters that would make entire cities shiver in fear, and he was struggling to keep his eyes open.

“What do you want Aila?” He said in a deep voice, reminiscent of a landslide. He yawned after speaking, not bothering to cover hide it.

The petite elven woman floated over the carnage, stopping before the pile of death.

“I have a pupal. Well, it wouldn’t be right to call him such. I taught him a few things. The key basics. I want you to teach him.”

He rested his elbow on his knee and his cheek in the raised hand, “Now why should I do that? Why can’t you teach him? Apparently, you have already started.”

“I taught him everything he needs to know to progress on his own. But he is a Minion Type. He can summon a large number of the Undead. I don’t have experience with that sort of thing. You do.” She took a deep calming breath, “Richter taught him Combat. I taught him Magic. But now he needs to learn War.”

The man raised a single eyebrow, “Richter? Now why would he care what happens to this boy?”

Aila gulped, “The Demigods asked us to.”

“Not even those bastards could force Richter to truly teach someone, at least not without the brute killing him. No, Richter wanted to teach him. Why?”

“I don’t,”

“Yes, you do.” The man interrupted, still as bored as before.

Aila breathed heavily, “The boy is special. His talent is mediocre, maybe a little better than most. But his resolve is impressive. And his Class and Bonuses, I’m not ashamed to say they frighten me.”

“Then why should I teach him and not just dump his body somewhere for a Monster to eat?”

Aila looked the man in the eyes for the first time, “Because he is just like you.”

The man raised his head off his hand slightly, “Is he now? That just gives me more reason to make him vanish.”

“He is trying to save his last remaining family, and unlike you, he still has the chance.”

The mound of corpses exploded as the man appeared in front of the frail woman, but there was no anger, just cold violence behind his eyes.

“Careful little girl, you might just bite off more than you can chew.”

Aila tried to suppress the shiver of fear, and failed, but she didn’t back down, “He is going to save his sister, or he will die trying. Either way, a lot of people are going to die.”

“Then why do you need me? You could just as easily locate and extract the girl.”

“Because the Demigods are preventing anyone of our power from interfering with the sister or her rescue. Else Richter would have already.”

An ornate chair appeared behind the man, and he sat on it, resting his head on his hand once more, “So, some bandits kidnaped his sister. What does that have to do with me, or teaching him about War?”

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“Because it wasn’t some bandits. They were the personal agents of Duke Redmond of Lissura.”

“So, the Duke, cousin to the King of Lissura, has the girl,” The man chuckled, “Tell the lad to give up. He isn’t saving her.”

“Right now, he has the power to at least distract an entire army, if he played his cards correctly. But if you teach him, I’m sure he could save his sister.”

“Perhaps, but I don’t see why I should care.”

“Your city is cut off from the rest of the world, constantly under siege from Monsters. Surely you could use another Summoner, a powerful one at that.”

“Perhaps,” He said with another yawn, “But that would depend on him. What Class does he have anyway?”

Aila had to stop herself from smiling, she at least had his attention now.

“His Novice Class was Death Mage. Then it evolved into Death Knight.”

The man sat straight, Aila knew that it would catch his attention, but not as much as it did, there was something there that even she was unaware of.

“A pure Necrotic Magic user? What level is he?”

“He was forty-three before he entered the Dolis Dungeon?”

“Dolis? An A Rank Dungeon, that caused the collapse of an entire City? You must truly believe in his ability if you sent him there.”

“I wasn’t exaggerating. This boy is special. He had caught the Demigods’ attention right after he became an Adept. And if he caught the attention of multiple, its likely that he also caught the attention of at least one God.”

The man leaned back in his chair, thinking deeply before he responded.

“I’ll do it, if he can complete three tests.”

Aila would have smiled for succeeding if she didn’t know this man so well, “What tests?”

“That is for him to learn if he survives that death trap you sent him into.”

“Death Trap? I admit it will be a challenge for him. But only because he wasn’t an Expert yet.”

The man chuckled, but it was not a happy sound, it was dark and made Aila shiver.

“Dolis fell because the Dungeon changed. It is no longer under the control of the world.”

Aila’s face drained of color, “Who controls it?”

“No idea,” The man said as he stood, the chair disappearing, “But whoever does control it, will not take kindly to some Adept boy invading its territory. That will be the first test. Forget completing the Dungeon. He will pass the first test if he merely survives.”

The man turned away and prepared to leave, “I don’t have high hopes.”

And with that, the man flew through the sky, quickly disappearing into the dark clouds, leaving Aila alone surrounded by corpses.

Once again, she had damned an incredible person to death. Memories of the last time burned through her mind. Memories she had fought hard to forget. Memories of meeting the girl. Of teaching her.

She remembered the joy on the girl’s face when she finally succeeded in casting Magic for the first time. It was only a small flame at the end of her finger, yet to the little girl, it had been everything. Months of memories passed in the blink of an eye, before stopping at the one she had so desperately begged to forget.

Aila did not want the girl to grow reliant on her, and so had sent the girl into the forest alone to hunt a boar for that night’s dinner. She had instructed the girl to avoid the deeper parts of the forest and to hide if she needed to. Only an hour had passed before Aila was struck by a wretched feeling. Like her stomach had been turned inside out.

She immediately knew something was terribly wrong. She flew through the forest, looking for any sign of her student. But by the time she found the girl, it was too late.

Very rarely did Monsters ever travel into the more shallow parts of the forest. So rarely, that Aila had not even considered it. Yet this time, one had.

A Drake, the smaller and weaker distant cousins of Dragons. Despite that, it still required a full team of prepared and experienced Adepts to hunt one, and even then, there were expected to be losses.

The Drake, angry at being disturbed while eating, attacked the floating elf. Aila didn’t even register the Drake. A simple backhand enough to snap its neck and cast its corpse away.

Only an hour had passed since the girl entered the forest, and from the trail of destruction through the forest, it was clear she had been running away from the Drake for most of that time. She must have been terrified the entire time. Wondering where her master was. Begging for master to come and save her.

And yet, her master never came. The master who had sworn to protect her, was instead at home, sipping tea, and reading a book.

Aila had knelt next to the girl, cradling the girl in her arms, uncaring for the blood staining her, and screamed. Pulses of raw Mana radiated from the Elven women, shredding the forest for hundreds of meters, but she did not even notice or care.

In the end, there had barely been anything left to bury. The Drake had made sure of that. More than a hundred years had passed since then, but the memory was still as clear crystal glass.

Tears poured down Aila’s face, falling to the bloodied ground. She wiped the tears away. She had failed the girl, and she had quite possibly failed the boy. There was nothing she could do to assist him now that he was in the Dungeon, but she was not going to give up. Not yet.

Turning around, she summoned a portal. She had sworn to him to bring him knowledge about Necromancy when he exited the Dungeon, and she was certainly not about to break that promise.