"Whoo!" I exclaim as I drop the twenty feet from the Dungeon's entrance down to the lake.

[Water Walk] learned!

Instead of sinking into the lake, however, I land lightly on its surface, the water giving only slightly to my weight.

"Whoa!" Kyron exclaims for a moment, but he chooses to use [Flight Wind] to keep himself aloft.

"Kyron! Look! Ice skating back!"

[Freeze] learned!

I begin skating over the surface of the water, which turns to ice for up to three feet away from my feet as I slide. My skills aren't good enough to make it perfectly smooth, but things are fine enough for me to slide with ease.

"And I stick the landing!" I exclaim as I reach the shore, years of practice enabling me to immediately shift from skating on ice to walking on the ground. "Whoo!"

Flames swirl around my fists as I pump them into the air, and Kyron just snorts as he lands beside me.

"Hello, Meredith," Kyron greets her. "What happened to the path to the Dungeon?"

Meredith and several others are standing here, including a man only a few years older than us, who's staring in both shock and outrage. The others just look shocked, while Meredith looks amused. Chances are pretty high that someone noticed the change in the runes on the Dungeon's entrance and let others know. I doubt they were all just standing here, waiting for us to arrive – especially since we spent long enough in there that night has fallen.

Several torches have been lit around the camp to provide light, made up of light crystals in glass and metal shells atop wooden staffs, an enchanting network set into them to allow them to be turned on and off as needed. A low fire is also burning in the center of the camp, within the fire pit. On a grill over that are several pots and pans, as well as strips of meat.

"I had a suspicion you boys were at least Moderate-Tier," Meredith tells us. "Either you simply use items of a different element than you are, or you really are Moderate-Tier or higher."

So they do know about higher Tiers, good. I'd hate it if knowledge in that regard somehow regressed over the last thousand years – it would mean the average person is weaker than they were in our age.

"We hit Moderate-Tier before we met," Kyron informs her. "And that was about five years ago."

"As children?" She asks. "That's impressive."

"We were both born Classless, too," Kyron informs her.

"That is even more extraordinary," she says. "If you were able to obtain a Class and then reach Moderate-Tier as children, then I've no doubt you're both Major-Tier, aren't you?"

"We just recently hit another reset," Kyron says. "This Dungeon helped boost us up a bit after it. What happened to the path?"

"Allow me to introduce you to my son, Erik," Meredith gestured to the guy with the scandalized expression. "Upon returning shortly after your departure, he grew quite upset that you were able to enter the Specialized Dungeon and ordered the path destroyed. I protested it, so he went and burned it away. After awhile, he smugly said that you wouldn't be taking a plunge as it was clear you were dead due to how long it was taking you. I take it you decided to grind a little in each of the zones?"

"Yes," Kyron answers.

"Do you happen to know about Specialty Dungeon Cores?" Meredith asks.

"Of course," I say. "I happen to be the first person to have discovered them on all of the five continents."

Kyron smacks me in the back of the head while the others just stare at me in confusion. I said that in our old tongue, not the local one.

"Forgive him, he's just being a smartass," Kyron tells her. "And yes, though I didn't look at it. Caleb did, and he claims to have only changed the order – it's a triple Shifting Dungeon."

"Triple?" Meredith looks shocked. "The only one of those I've heard of is on the continent south of here! It appeared around six hundred years ago, and shifts between Tier XII, Tier VI, and Tier III."

"This one is Tier I, Tier III, and Tier VI," I inform her. "It was the other way around, but I switched it. It's also set to have a three-day period between a successful or failed run and when it opens up again, and that was natural. That means we should have three days before it opens up again."

"Lies and tricks!" Erik finally speaks. "All of this are lies and tricks! I've never heard of you before, which means you're nothing more than nobodies! If you were anybody at all, we'd have heard of you long before you reached here, and-"

"The odds of us being nobodies," I point past them, and the small crowd that has formed actually parts, looking in the direction I'm pointing. "Are about as slim as the odds of the God of Death appearing there in three… two… one."

A throne made of white stone forms ten feet away from Kyron and me, centered while facing us. It has grey cushioning on the seat and seat's back, the throne itself simple, with very little in the way of decoration. Just enough that it's not simple and block, but not enough to make it fancy. The simplicity of the God of Death's throne is because Death is quite simple.

There is no Throne of the God of Death without the man himself, and he's seated on the throne, feet planted firmly on the air as if on the ground. After all, his throne is floating a full foot above the ground, perfectly still instead of bobbing slightly like [Flight Wind] causes.

As for the man himself, the God of Death takes the form of a slender man who looks to be in his late teens or early twenties (we say nineteen, but Kyron insists twenty). His hair is black as night, his skin fair and flawless, his eyes a mild grey, his nipples pink and soft-looking, and his massive dick quite hard at the moment.

All gods descend in the nude. When I met Ryzavin the first time, I was confused by that and tried giving him pants. It wasn't until later that I learned the gods always do that, because why would they hide their perfect bodies from mortals just because mortals have different morals?

Hm. It's been more than a thousand years since I gave him those pants, which makes me wonder if he still has them.

"When I sensed your souls earlier," the God of Death tells us. "I was quite surprised. Unfortunately, I was in the middle of something quite important, so I couldn't investigate. I had assumed that perhaps a woman or two has just gotten pregnant and your missing souls had found their ways into them. Or more amusingly, into a woman's future twins."

"Our missing souls?" I ask. "How could our souls be missing? You're the God of Death!"

"I am," he nods. "Which is why I am quite astonished that you have your bodies again. When you burned the life forces within your souls to destroy the Great Demon King, your bodies were destroyed as well. Your souls should have come to me… yet they instead vanished. Something odd happened, and for the last thousand years, I have been unable to find your souls."

"But now they're here," Kyron says. "Wait, our bodies were completely destroyed? But these seem like our old bodies, as if put in stasis for the last thousand years. We feel exactly the same as we were before."

The locals are all clearly in shock, confusion, and awe, as they've all bowed to the god but are sneaking glances at both him and us as they try to figure out what's going on.

"That's because," the God of Death says. "Those are, somehow, your original bodies, not newly-created replicas to house your souls. Even Tyzlevir could not perform such a feat, which baffles me even further."

"Which is why you came here," I say. "You wanted to verify with your own two eyes."

"Indeed," he says.

"Okay," I say. "So how much has changed in the thousand years since we died?"

Kyron smacks in the back of the head, but the God of Death laughs in response to my question.

"Even dead for a thousand years, and you don't change," he smiles. "Quite a lot. Society has not progressed much in terms of technology, but they've discovered a few things about Dungeons, such as the Specialty Dungeon Cores. The average power level hasn't changed much. It did go up for awhile, but then events happened and enough of the population was wiped out that it dropped once more. Not by our design, mind you. Some of the statues of you two still exist today, so you'll be recognized if you go to certain places or get seen by people who have been to them."

"Ooh! That's going to be fun!" I grin. "Just imagine how confused they'll be about how thousand-year-old statues look like two guys now!"

"Quite confused, I'm sure," the God of Death chuckles. "And I've no doubt that you will have fun with that, Caleb."

"Since the dork probably hasn't even thought of it," Kyron says. "I want to ask – will there be adverse effects due to our return?"

The universe tries to keep things in check. One such way is "removing" things that are out-of-check. For example, if a person lives to be more than one or two centuries, then they're extremely powerful.

Every person has effects on their environment, and to a degree, it simply counts as natural in the eyes of a universe. Once it exceeds a certain point, it becomes unnatural. Those who live a long time build up more of an effect, to the point that even walking down a street can alter things too much.

The effects such people have on their environment is too great and too unnatural to the flow of things, so the universe does its best to remove them.

If the universe wants you dead, you die. When I was fourteen, I met a man – another mage – who had grown too powerful. The effect of his very presence on the world around him caused unnatural disturbances that were simply too much.

When the universe tries to take someone out, it doesn't bother creating natural disasters. That's too subtle and can often be avoided or dealt with. No, the universe does something more drastic – it empowers ordinary monsters to extraordinary degrees. A single wound from one will infect and never heal, their magical power level is absurd compared to what it should be, and their hides are hyper-resilient.

All of that is also normal for ones that aren't mutated as well.

All of them also develop a taste for the target's flesh and an awareness of their scent. They will always hunt that person down until it's dead.

One bad side to this is that the monsters end up affecting other things as well. Entire towns can end up destroyed because of this, but the universe sees it as an acceptable casualty to remove those who are "unnaturally-powerful". When it comes to its hunting beasts, those are powerful enough that they can't sustain themselves off the ambient Mana in the area – which results in them dying within a few days.

Until the target is dead, more and more will spawn.

This is only one possibility for how the universe will deal with someone who it deems need to be removed for being too unnatural – and it's the least extreme of them.

Whether or not we'll have to deal with that is a legitimate concern, so I'm not surprised Kyron asked about it.

"No," the God of Death answers. "Whatever way you two were brought back – and with your original bodies – has not been deemed as unnatural by the universe. So until your ripples are too great from your own actions and power, you won't have to worry about that."

"That's a relief!" I say. "There's a lot of stuff I want to do now that I'm back from the dead, and I don't think I could handle having to deal with the universe trying to kill me! Almost as glad as I was that it didn't come after me for knowing the Truth!"

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

"The what?" Kyron asks.

"Don't press him for details on that," the God of Death tells my husband. "There's a reason he's not mentioned it before – and he's known the Truth since he was six. It's why he's a bit more extreme than most true mages."

"Can I get-"

"No," the God of Death shoots down my request before I can even finish asking it.

"I didn't even say it yet!"

"You want a sample of my blood," the God of Death says. "You always want a sample of my blood. I'm not letting you perform alchemical experiments on my blood. Knowing you, you'd either make a potion or a bomb once you finish, and I don't want to risk you wiping out a region just because you wanted to test the bomb."

"Aw…"

"This region," the God of Death says. "Is known as the Angloresk Region now, but it was known as the Fallen Frost Region before."

"Eek. I hate their winters," I poke Kyron. "Let's go somewhere warmer! Hey! God of Death! Is Nozvinel still around?"

Nozvinel is one of the three dragons that lived in the Fallen Frost Region before we died, and the only one that might still be around. Most dragons only live to be about a thousand years old. A dragon never stops growing, and it eventually becomes so big that food alone isn't enough to sustain it – it actually needs to take in Mana as well. Most make do using ambient Mana, but there are limits to everything.

After around a thousand years or so, dragons need more Mana than they can draw in at once, even if they have an active source of it, like Mana potions.

"You're thirty miles from his mountain," the God of Death answers. "And yes, he is. He's quite old now, but he still has some time before he's grown too great and will no longer be able to sustain himself off of food and Mana. His natural death timeline gives him another hundred and six years."

"After I get some proper rest," I say. "I'm going to go have a chat with him – that would be a much better way to get money to help us out here than just running Dungeons and selling stuff."

"I'm sure that chat will be very interesting," the God of Death chuckles. "I'll make sure to watch the event."

"How many higher-Tiers are wandering about?" Kyron asks.

"Three Mythical-Tiers, including the two of you," the God of Death answers. "Seventeen Master-Tiers, and roughly one hundred Major-Tiers. This is global. After this Dungeon run, you two are among the twenty most powerful people in the world, and I'm basing this on your Attributes, not your Tiers. Level 50 will put the two of you in the top ten. At Level 100, you will be more powerful than anyone except the other Mythical-Tier.

"But that is not what you are concerned about," the God of Death says. "No, you are worried how likely it is that someone will come after the two of you if you create too big of ripples."

With great power comes the desire of others to manipulate you into doing stuff for them. It was something we had to deal with all the time before, and we simply are cruel enough or dark enough to just wipe out those who try. Dealing with those who did exhausted us while we were already trying to do our own thing, especially when they would perform strong-arm maneuvers to try and force us into it.

"We're not fond of political manipulations," Kyron says. "And we'd rather enjoy our second chance at life than deal with that."

"How likely those situations are," the God of Death says. "Varies from place to place. Many will want you to work for them. Let Caleb turn them down."

"The last time Caleb 'turned them down', he dumped a lake on their town."

"That was an accident, and nobody died."

The God of Death chuckles in response to that. Meanwhile, the locals are still quite confused, and they're definitely not sure what to make of the god chuckling every now and then during this conversation they cannot understand.

"He's right," the God of Death says. "Nobody died from that incident. Caleb has also changed since then. If I am right, he would be a much more effective 'no' than you."

"I'm the one people take seriously," Kyron says. "It comes from not being a true mage."

"Which is part of why you lead discussions with others," the God of Death says. "And that is also precisely why your attempts at turning them down are not firm enough to them. Much as you have learned how to deal with Caleb in an effective manner, a true mage such as Caleb knows how to deal with that in an effective manner."

"How could he-"

"Kyron," the God of Death interrupts. "Trust me on this – Caleb knows the way to deal with that stuff more effectively. Allow him to handle it, and the two of you can enjoy your new chance at life as you please."

"I'll try," Kyron says. "But the moment Caleb goes nuts again, I'm stepping in."

"If you think he's starting to in response," the God of Death tells him. "Count to ten before interrupting. I assure you, you'll be surprised by how things turn out."

Kyron nods.

"Now," the God of Death inclines his head to us. "It was nice seeing you two again. Tyzlevir has been asking me about the two of you almost since the start of this, so I am going to go talk with him and let him know what I have discovered."

"It was nice seeing you again," Kyron dips his head to the God of Death.

"Bye!" I wave.

The God of Death vanishes, and I look at Kyron.

"If the two of us weren't together, I'd have totally asked him if he wouldn't mind going somewhere private for a bit."

Kyron snorts, then pulls me in for a quick kiss. Most of the locals take longer than that to recover, but Meredith is already back on her feet. I like her – she's not the usual breed of person we come across.

"Though I couldn't understand the language," Meredith tells us. "Your tone and body language – as well as those of the God of Death – suggests this isn't the first time you've met him."

"It is not," Kyron confirms. "I first met him when I was fifteen, though Caleb claims to have met him when he was twelve."

"Ky," I poke him in the ribs. "You said that in our language."

"Sorry," Kyron apologizes in their language, then repeats what he said. "We're still adjusting to speaking your language, so I ask that you give us some patience with that."

"It is fine," Meredith smiles a little. "I understand that it can be difficult to transition to speaking another language – though I sense your husband speaks it intentionally when his tone and expression suggests he is being smart."

"Yeah, Caleb's a bit of a smartass," Kyron chuckles. "And he's using the fact that you don't know our language to make sure you don't know how much of one he's being."

"Who are you?" Erik demands. "Why would a god visit you? And the God of Death, of all gods! What bad omen have you brought on us? And how did you know he was going to appear?"

"Erik-" Meredith begins.

"Valid questions," Kyron says. "Even if I dislike your tone, Erik. As for who we are, I am Kyron, and this is my husband, Caleb. We recently went through a reset, and are travelers from afar on a journey of enjoying ourselves while building our power back up a little. We thank you for hosting us for the night."

"The pleasure is ours," Meredith responds before Erik can say something.

"The God of Death came to visit," Kyron says. "Because he wanted to follow up on a discussion we had before. A reminder to Caleb not to accidentally wipe out towns and send thousands of souls to the afterlife with his magical pursuits."

"I only ever did that once."

Kyron gives me an astonished look.

"Not in the entire time I've known you," he says.

"I was three."

Kyron rolls his eyes before looking at Meredith again.

"If that's what he does while speaking the language we can understand," she says. "I'd love to know what he says when speaking one we can't."

Kyron snorts.

"Trust me, you don't," he tells her. "The only 'bad omen' we have brought you is that the Specialty Dungeon is going to be more difficult because we're more versatile. But since it's a Shifting Specialty Dungeon, it shouldn't take more than a few years before you have a party that can consistently run it, especially since Caleb forgot to shift it up to fifteen who can enter from the five it was at."

The normal limit for the number of people who can be in the same Dungeon at once is fifteen. For a Specialty Dungeon, the limit is dependent on the various party sizes that attempted it. Since only Caleb and I ever went in there, and we completed it in our single run, the maximum will be set to five members. We could vary that by up to ten, as long as it didn't go below five. Should the limit have been set to fifteen, we'd still be able to vary it by up to ten – meaning that we could set it up to twenty-five, the absolute maximum for a Dungeon.

"Whoops."

"It's okay, Cay," Kyron gives me a quick kiss. "You're forgiven."

"That will make the Dungeon a bit more challenging for those who enter it," Meredith says. "But we will accept that in exchange for the variety of resources we can bring out from there, as I'm sure we'll have."

"You will," Kyron says. "Caleb and I are quite versatile, so that set the tone. It will probably take more than just a few years before they can run it regularly and safely, the resources required to do so safely will take time to replenish."

"We will handle that," Meredith says.

"As for the last question," Kyron actually looks at Erik for this one. "It is doubtful anyone but a true mage would develop that ability."

"Wh-what do true mages have to do with that?" Erik asks. "What are true mages?"

"Incredible bundles of amazing magical awesomeness!"

"Thank you, Caleb," Kyron says. "That was very helpful."

"You're welcome!"

"A true mage," Meredith says. "Is someone who performs deep research into magic – they seek to not just develop their magical abilities, but uncover new ones, truly experiment with magic, and seek to understand magic on a level ordinary mages don't even know exist."

"If you ever meet a mage," Kyron says. "And their personality is similar to – though a bit more toned down than – Caleb's, then there's a fairly decent chance they're a true mage. At some point in their research, experiments, and growth, their bodies and mind are altered in an… interesting way. Caleb's on the more extreme end of them, though."

"How long ago did he reach this point?" Meredith asks. "If you don't mind my asking?"

"I honestly couldn't tell you," Kyron answers. "Caleb and I met about five years ago, and he was already like this. It has gotten worse, but that's no doubt because he continues to peer into magic in an attempt to unlock its secrets."

"So if you've been here for months," I say. "How come there aren't any buildings? It's all tents still."

"None of your business!" Erik snaps.

"I was asking the person in charge, not her son."

"I only arrived today," Meredith says. "To oversee some of the progress here. The reason for the tents is that we haven't been able to spare proper builders to set things up, as it is a fairly decent expense to set up a permanent Dungeon settlement and we only have researchers here at the moment as the Dungeon is currently inaccessible."

"Oh," I say as she starts to add to that. "So there aren't any permanent buildings as an attempt at bullying the scholars into cracking it faster with the incentive being getting to have warm buildings to stay in during the winter instead of tents that can suffer from the wind and cold."

"That is one way of putting it," Meredith responds as her son looks angry. "Though I was trying to be more tactful."

I wouldn't be surprised if the real reason she came here was to take over from Erik, as he's clearly not the best person for the job.

"That's not his strong suit," Kyron tells her.

"I could really use both a meal and a bath," I tell her. "But you don't have a bath set up. Is there a spot I can put one? We've recovered enough Mana to do something basic. I'll need a spot where it's fine to drain excess water."

Meredith leads us to a section of the camp near the palisade, and indicates the direction to allow excess water to flow.

"I am curious though," she says. "How will you set up the camp?"

"What elements do you have?" I ask.

"Only earth," she answers. "I am but a Minor-Tier."

"Mind creating as much stone as you can?" I ask. "Ky, I need some crystals and cores."

Kyron hands me the crystals and cores of the appropriate types for this, and I let them float in the air using simple manipulation of the air. My husband then begins conjuring as much stone as he can at a time, and Meredith follows suit, her curiosity piqued. Once they're both out of Mana, I extend my hands forward and get to work.

The stone they created and set down begins to shift and merge, transmuting slightly to become the type of stone I want it to be. Others begin watching as I work, some of them creating additional stone when Kyron asks. I also create some, though focus most of my Mana on the actual construction.

When I'm finished, the building that's formed is circular, and roughly twenty-five feet in diameter. It's actually a slight spiral, with a hall that's ten feet long and four feet wide. The roof is a slight cone with two "layers" to it, steam vents in the lower one to allow the steam to exit, eventually flowing out from under the upper layer.

Inside, the ground is completely stone with a slight rough texture, to help deal with the risk of slipping. In the very center is a two-foot-high bath that actually dips a foot into the ground as well, a bench at the one-foot-high mark. The bath is ten feet in diameter, giving it plenty of room for multiple people to soak in it.

A stone bench runs along the inner line of the spiral, starting at the very end of it, and is twenty feet in length. On the other side of the bath from that is a waterfall cascading down the wall, flowing out of a one-inch-thick section where the wall meets the ceiling, down into a three-inch-deep pit in the ground that's ten feet in width – just like the waterfall – and stretches from the wall to the bath. Water flows out of the bath at the very base in small streams, though not enough to create standing water.

The waterfall itself isn't straight, instead having a few 'layers' to it thanks to me adding tall, thin steps to the wall there specifically for that effect. They're about three feet in height and only an inch thick, for a total of three steps and four levels to the waterfall (the walls are twelve feet in height).

All of the water in here is hot enough to produce a slight steam, even the water cascading down from the waterfall.

"If I wasn't in a hurry for scrubbing clean and taking a bath," I say after showing off the inside to the dozen-ish people who were watching this. "I'd have taken a day or two to work on this, fancy it up a bit."

"Cay," Kyron says softly. "I think you broke the audience."

I look at the locals, who are all staring in shock, awe, and confusion.

"Where is all of the water coming from?" One of the men asks. "How is it hot? Where is it going?"

"It's flowing out of small drains under the waterfall," I say. "Just scoop what you need off the falls, scrub and rinse, and let it all flow away. And… this is a pretty basic bath setup? They're everywhere."

"I've only seen ones this fancy in the homes of well-off nobles," Meredith says. "This is common where you're from?"

Society has regressed a little in some respects. What happened to cause that shift? It's definitely something relating to whatever happened to cause all those deaths the God of Death mentioned.

"This isn't even that hard to set up," I say. "Just takes knowing the right setup of magic crystals and monster cores."

"Most people actually need to put in proper enchantment network setups," Kyron says. "But Caleb takes shortcuts when he's in a hurry. The bath should still last awhile, and if you don't mind hosting us a few days to let us rest – we've had a long journey – we'll tear this down and put in a more permanent one. All it will take after that is just replacing the magic crystals and monster cores as needed."

"I want to go talk with Nozvinel," I tell Kyron.

"We can be there and back in a couple of hours," he says. "I really would like to rest after the last few weeks, though."

"Alright," I say. "We can rest for a few days."

"That won't be an issue," Meredith assures us. "I'll handle my son."

"Thanks!" I say. "Now, I created a third of the stone on my own and did all of the work to make this. As such, I'm asking that my husband and I can have a private bath as reward for that, starting immediately!"

"That's more than fair," Meredith says. "You heard the young men, let's give the husbands some privacy as they bathe!"