Waking up on a cold stone floor is not good on the back.’ The man reflected with a groan as he stared up at the damp ceiling above him. ‘How did I end up here?’ He thought as he tried to remember what could have happened that he would wake up on rough stone in what looked remarkably like a store room.

It didn’t take him long to realize that the last thing he remembered was a sharp sword sweeping towards the crystalline body of his Dungeon crystal. ‘Which makes no sense as if I was a Dungeon crystal why the Hron does it feel like I am in a humanoid body?’ he thought as he flexed his hands in front of his eyes.

Slowly sitting up clutching at the twinge in his back that he couldn’t help but feel he shouldn’t have to deal with and grumbling about cruel gods who cursed poor, innocent crystals with mortal forms. The newly made male looked around himself in puzzlement. He saw… a whole lot of nothing really a solid metal door closing off a small damp rough stone room.

“Ah!” He called out lunging across the room where he could see a cracked crystal lying against the back wall where it would be hard to see from the door. Wrapping his hands around the cracked crystal and froze as a blue-green box popped up in his vision.

Welcome   to the sewers of the City of Valraycen

After an attack by Adventurers in your former Dungeon the Adventurers looted the place to the ground, as such people will do, and stole everything that wasn’t nailed down including you! Jokes on them though Dungeon crystals cracked the way yours was aren’t especially sought after. After your crystal was tossed in the sewer it was found by the mage who maintains it who hid the crystal for later sale. Luckily, he hasn’t returned which has allowed you to make a   PARTIAL recovery. There remains to be seen what the ramifications of a cracked crystal are… other than the obvious of course…. Good luck!

The man blinked in confusion as he stared down at the crystal. Deciding to be proactive the man sat down with his legs crossed as he had seen countless Adventurers do over the years that he had maintained his former Dungeon and closed his eyes reaching for that part of himself that he had used so often.  Reaching his mindscape he couldn’t help but gape at the mess of things laying around it looked like he hadn’t lost any of the resources that he had saved up over the years that it had taken him to build up his former dungeon. Well, it looked like they were all there but that didn’t mean he was going to have an easy time finding them.

The good news was that he could feel his magic well up within him as it always had and he still remembered how to mostly use it so he wouldn’t be completely defenseless as he built himself a new dungeon. Spreading him influence out around him he could feel the sewer outside of the door, it wasn’t very large indicating to him that either the city above him was very small or perhaps this part of the sewer was only connected to a part of the city. 

Either way, he needed to begin with setting up a dungeon for himself. Exerting his influence as far as he could feel he concentrated making everything that he could feel a part of himself. He didn’t know how long it took but after a while he let a smile spread across his face as he could feel the whole small sewer become a part of himself. Not a very big dungeon so far only a few hundred feet across four rooms in total but it was a good place to start and a good place to stop as well. It seems like one of the consequences of the new body was the need to sleep something that he had never had to do as a crystal.

Waking up the next morning the Stefan decided it was time to work on filling his dungeon with mobs before the humans found the entrance and learned what he was doing down here. Normally it was frowned upon to destroy a Dungeon and most kingdoms loved to have one within the considering them cash cows but … well… recent experience would reflect that he couldn’t even begin to rely on that… plus he had never heard of a dungeon being created within the walls of a city before. Usually, cities were built near a dungeon that had been found in the wild this was the first time he was aware that this had happened. 

Opening the door leading out of the room he was in Stefan wandered slowly through the rooms trying to decide what type of mobs he would have on this level. Traditionally in this type of setting it would be rats, but he wasn’t sure if that was all that he would have down here though of course there would be some…. Maybe in the first room… it was traditional after all people would wonder if they couldn’t find any. 

Laughing to himself the newly recovered Dungeon Lord wandered into the first room. It was a rough stone room with a ladder leading up to what was probably a street or alleyway above him with moss covering the wall in patches. Bending down to place his hand on the stone floor before concentrating on spreading his magic in a circle about 20 feet around himself. He conjured up ten rats of novice level evenly spread between the two sexes. Nodding to himself in satisfaction as the rats sniffed at his boots before deciding to ignore him as irrelevant.

He spent some time laying his hands on the wall so he could conjure up some copper veins for prospective miners… again copper was traditional for the first floor and he wasn’t going to spread the stuff closer in where it would be easier for him to feel the itch when those hammer happy fools poked at his walls looking for treasure instead of just living with the loot as he would prefer.

Walking back into the corridor towards room number two he reflected that on the first floor at least the loot was never something spectacular anyway. 

For the second room, he decided to go with something else that would fit tradition though this one might scare some people. It was a bigger room so he had some room to spread the mobs out and did so quickly conjuring four groups of three undead, a skeleton and archer skeleton and a mage or healer skeleton alternating between groups. 

Again, they were novice level mobs like most of the mobs on this floor would be but they would give groups more of a challenge than the rats in the first room would, though he could see those damn things swarming people if they were given enough time to build up their population. Wasn’t his problem though.

In the corridor heading towards the third room he quickly through together a couple of simple pitfall traps to get their blood rushing in anticipation for the next room. The third room wasn’t really all that different from the third adding a rogue type to the groups for some extra challenge. Some of the groups he had hide in alcoves throughout the room knowing that if the groups didn’t find them all before moving on to the next room they would quickly regret making such a foolish decision.

In the corridor to the next room, he tossed up some simple traps sky falls this time with three swarms of five bats each that would attack from holes in the ceiling if someone in the group walked underneath them.

This room he mixed in random attacks from above in with the same groups of a fighter, mage/healer, archer and rogue. The idea was to get them used to keep an eye open for attacks from above with some easy to kill bats. 

The corridor to the next room was left alone to allow the groups to heal before hitting the boss in the fourth room. 

In the boss room, he conjured an apprentice level Lich, that looked like the upper half of a skeleton glowing with a creepy purple color covered with a tattered red robe. He was supported by two archers posted at the back of the room so groups would see the boss first. Some would miss seeing them at all until it was too late to regret not using a scout.

Once he finished with that he quickly made his way into the crystal room and sealed the door behind him with the last of his magic before he once more laid down on the hard stone floor to sleep and recover his magic… this whole sleeping mortal thing was a pain in his crystal soul.

Halan POV

The mage known as Halan rushed himself back to the entrance to the sewers excitedly. Two days before he had found a large crystal down there that he had hidden and it had taken him this long to convince his brother Kalan to follow him down into the sewers. As close as the two had been as children they were as far apart now, though the mage would never admit that the reason for this was he was jealous of the strength of his Adventurer brothers magic.

Pulling the hatch back without a word he quickly made his way down the ladder letting his brother follow him down before he lit a Light spell in his hand and turned to start towards where he had hidden the crystal before he froze staring at the sight that met him.

“Well, what do we have here?” Kalan asked with contempt not expecting his brother to answer him. “Is it not your job to ensure that this doesn’t happen?”

“They weren’t here when I left!” Halan whined without taking his eyes off the rats that seemed to be in the middle of building a nest.

“They are now.” Kalan pointed out calmly as a Fireball popped almost instantly into life in his palm showing how familiar he was with the spell. He quickly killed all the rats and froze himself when he saw a small pile of coins lying where the corpses of the vermin had just faded away. Normal rodents did not drop loot nor did their corpses fade away only those in a dungeon did that and even then only those that had been personally conjured by the dungeon itself if they had been bred they wouldn’t have done that.

Walking further into the room he noticed the obligatory copper veins of a first-level dungeon still shocked at what he was finding. As far as he was aware this had never happened before. Of course, if it was going to happen in any city he happened to be in at the time somehow someway his screw up little brother was going to be involved in it.

“We need to go.” He said calmly noting the look on his brother’s face.

“But—”

“No, we go now this must be reported,” Kalan said force-fully grabbing the other man’s arm and dragging him back towards the ladder. He watched the other man go first before following him, as soon as his feet hit the ground outside he quickly turned and slammed the door down a Lock Ward flashing from his fingertips.

Practically running down the street Kalan dodged early morning traffic as he quickly made his way to the Guild. Storming through the lobby he didn’t stop as he forced his way into the Guild Master’s office ignoring the secretary outside the door who was screaming at him to stop before the sound cut off when he slammed the door.

“You had better have a damn good reason for storming in here like that or I swear master mage or not I will skewer you with my sword.” The man behind the desk said patting the sword at his side threateningly.

Kalan laughed somewhat hysterically as he took one of the two hardbacked wooden chairs. (“If they ain’t comfortable they won’t stay as long!”) 

“I think that my reason is good but if you think otherwise you are welcome to try.” He said though he knew the Guild Master to be one of the few that could knock him around without really trying. He was one of the most powerful mages in the city not the leader of the Mage’s Guild but fairly high up in the hierarchy. The Guild Master of the Adventurers Guild was on a whole other level though and easily the most powerful Adventurer in the town.

Quickly telling the impatient man the story his brother had been telling him over the last couple of days he finished with what the two had found when he finally decided that the only way he was going to get the younger man to stop bothering him was to follow him to see this crystal.

He was incredulous when the only thing the man did was grunt quietly as he stared at the wall behind him.

“Jolene!” The man suddenly yelled nearly causing a heart attack in the younger male.

“Sir?” The blonde secretary from before called as she opened the door to the office. “Did you decide to have me throw the mage through the door now?” 

Kalan stared at the woman incredulously as the Guild Master answered in the negative. He didn’t understand how a mere secretary could think to challenge a mage of his rank until his Sight kicked in… probably to save his life as the woman had Adept level magic though she wasn’t a mage, at least.

“Send a message to the Lord Rayvon and the Guard Captain, inform them that I have an important matter to discuss with them at their earliest convenience.”

“Yes, Sir!” The woman said saluting before slamming the door in her hurry to comply with her orders.

Opening his mouth to ask a question he settled back down as the man in front of him waved a hand to silence him.

It was nearly a mark before the first of the two men, the Guard Captain, walked into the room and at least another twenty of uncomfortable silence for the mage as the two men seemingly ignored each other after a perfunctory greeting. 

“What the hell is this about?!” The Lord of the City asked with annoyance as he stormed into the room.

“Tell them what you told me, boy.” The Guild Master gestured at him as he rose out of the chair and stepped to the side of the office in the vain hope the three most powerful men in the city wouldn’t notice him. This could either be good for his career or the end of it.

Bowing to the three the mage gave his story again as clear and concise as he could so as to not waste their time.

“Have you checked this out?” The Guard Captain, Captain Josef, asked of the Guild Master.

“This is one of the more knowledgeable and reliable Mages in the Adventurers Guild not to mention one of the higher-ranked Mages for the Mage Guild. If he says there is a dungeon in the town, for the moment I am willing to take it at face value. Besides, I got a report from one of the Merchants in the town of a group attempting to sell a dungeon crystal that had a 3-inch crack in the top hemisphere.”

“What happened to this group?” The Lord asked with a dangerous tone.

“They fled before the group I had assigned to… request… their presence in my office could catch up with them. As I understand it that group is furious to have failed the quest and after hiring a Ranger, they have since gone on a… hunting trip.” Was the reply accompanied by a wolfish grin.

“The nearest dungeon is a good two-cycle ride west and that one is very well defended. Where in Brigit’s name did they find a dungeon that they could kill and no one has noticed?” Captain Josef asked incredulously.

“As for that one, I’m afraid we have no answer as of yet… unless you want to go down and ask the crystal?” The Guild Master, Oscar, replied with sarcasm. 

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

While it was commonly known that most dungeons with more than one or two floors had a form a sentience few of them ever consented to talk to the Adventurers that wandered through their halls. There usually wasn’t any animosity in it dungeons and adventurers had something of a symbiotic relationship after all but they only talked to those that they decided to and it was impossible to force them to do so.

Lord Rayvon snorted quietly, “I doubt that a dungeon that has been cracked and then stolen and almost sold would want to talk to anybody. There is no telling what the effects of the crack in the crystal body of the dungeon will be.”

“Regardless of the effects, we have all agreed it is not likely to let anyone close enough to the crystal to attempt to talk.”

“Can it bar people from the Crystal Room?” Kalan asked somewhat timid in the presence of so much power.

“Forcefully.” The Guild Master answered shortly. “Even a low-level weak starter dungeon would be able to keep someone of my power out of the Crystal Room… if there was a way to bar it. If the dungeon had never bothered to build a way to block off the room there would be no way to build one when there were adventurers in the dungeon… human auras interfere with their creation magics.”

“So he would have no way to defend himself unless he did it before someone came into the dungeon?”

“Exactly,” Lord Rayvon said. “You said that you only clear the first room, but did you happen to take a look any further in?”

“No, my Lord, when I saw the rat’s bodies disperse as they do in dungeons I didn’t even stop to pick up the loot before I dragged my brother out of there and came here to report to the Guild Master.”

“Did you notice how much the loot was?” Captain Josef asked in his normal stern tone.

“About 5 coppers per rat with 10 rats in the room, I think, sir, I wasn’t really focused on it but there was a small pile when I left.”

“I see… What are the chances that someone can get in there before we can set something up outside the entrance?”

“I set my most powerful Lock Ward on it, Guild Master, only those with more power than me would be able to break it and even then, they would have to use the equivalent of my manna pool which should weaken most people around my level enough that they shouldn’t go any further by themselves.”

“Captain, I want you to put a full team of Guards on the entrance have them come here and meet Mage Kalan in the lobby he can take them to the entrance and pass control of the Lock Ward to the team Wizard.” Lord Rayvon said with determination before he stood up and nodded the end of the meeting before he left to meet back up with his guard escort.

“Well boys let’s get this show on the road, Kalan wait for the Guards out in the lobby and send Jolene into me on your way out.” The Guild Master dismissed the mage with a wave of his hand before he turned back to the Guard Captain.

“Sir!” The mage said with a salute before he wandered out of the room.

Stefan’s POV

Stefan woke from his slumber with another groan. ‘Gah, how do the humans manage to walk around like normal after sleeping like this, the wakeup has got to be the most painful thing ever and that’s coming from someone who was cracked by a sharp steel object.’ 

As soon as he opened his eyes he saw a blue screen floating in front of them and almost let out another groan at its contents.

An attack in the Night

While you were lazing around on the ground a group of adventurers discovered your Dungeon and killed your poor rats.

Respawn

Yes?

No?

Quickly hitting the yes button Stefan frowned at the window long after it was gone. That was not normal, normally they would respawn automatically after a set amount of time if he was going to have to do that himself every time they were killed this was going to get a lot more complicated. Something that the crack had damaged or did he just forget to set a timer for it?

Adopting the boring Adventurers staring at walls pose again the Dungeon Lord quickly slipped into his mindscape trying not to grimace at the mess that was still laying around…. He had thought about cleaning it, honestly! He just… uh… hadn’t had the time, yeah that’s it he hadn’t had the time to start on the cleanup in here yet. That was his story and he was sticking to it, dang it!

Getting back on track he looked around for the control room wondering in which part of the mess it had gotten lost. Several hours later… just kidding it didn’t take that long. He finally found it behind a big pile of what looked like dirt blocks that he could use to build things like walls where there hadn’t been one before.

Wandering into his control room he grimaced as he noticed that half the things in here seemed to be broken… including the clock! No wonder the rats didn’t automatically respawn when they were supposed to the system had no idea how much time had passed. Luckily he had no idea how to fix any of the damage in here and it wasn’t like there was someone he could call or a convenient guide or a dungeon fairy or something to come in here with sage-like knowledge of dungeon lore… this was real life and things like that didn’t just happen in real life.

Sighing in exasperation Stefan quickly stepped out of his mindscape looking around a little hopeful that maybe a dungeon fairy would suddenly pop into the room like the tales. No such luck…

Sighing again he walked to the door and stepped out into the dungeon turning to the door to make sure his most powerful barriers were covering it. Once done he quickly made his way through the rest of the dungeon adding some finishing touches to make a dive in here more desirable for the adventurers. An herb here a chest there, behind a battery of simple traps of course including a trip wire (it’s funny when they fall…) and a wire attached to the chest that would shoot normal arrows at whoever was standing in front of the chest.

Moving back to the boss room he inscribed a rune on the side wall that would allow the adventurers to teleport back to the entrance if they wanted to leave from there before making his way to the exact center of the floor and sitting down on a bolder that just happened to be the right size for him to use it as a chair and be in the right spot for the purpose… it was there before alright! Don’t question his greatness!

Reaching out with his magic he quickly had himself grounded to the earth below him and centered before he started to weave his magic in the intricate designs of a spell he knew thousands of humans would kill to get their grubby little hands on. Once done this spell was what anchored several realities around the dungeons allowing there to be more than one group killing his poor, innocent little… skeletons.

He had to thank the Great Smith that no one had wandered down the ladder into the dungeon once he had started for their sakes anyways it would have ended badly for them but only mildly annoyed him as long as he was doing the spell right. Well, that’s how it normally worked maybe he should have been more concerned with the damage to his core. Well, nothing happened and all’s well that ends well, right? At least that’s what the adventurers were always saying.

Retreating to his room he spent the next several hours trying to make sense of the mess in his mind while he had the time since no one else had entered yet. He didn’t get a whole lot done to be honest though he did manage to rearrange several piles mostly by grabbing something from a pile that looked interesting and having the rest of the pile fall over on top of him. He stopped that after the first several times and had by now learned to never do that again and always take from the top of the pile first. That and that rocks are really hard and heavy and one should never lay underneath them.

It was now time for the hard part! Digging out the next floor… he groaned as he wandered out into the boss room again and went to stand in front of a free section of wall. Some of the humans assumed this part was easy like we twinkle our crystals and bam! Entire new floors and rooms jut pop into existence… ‘If only it were that easy’ he thought with another groan. Casting an Invisibility Field around himself like an aura the Dungeon Lord got to work.

Slowly he passed his hands over the dirt in the wall in front of himself watching in satisfaction as a section about two feet around his hand vanished as he transported it into his material storage making sure that he stacked it neatly amongst all the other mess so he could find it later if he needs it for one thing or the other.

‘This is going to take a while’

Kalan POV

Loitering in the Guild Hall of a city like Valraycen isn’t really as easy as they make it look like in the movies. It seems like every couple of minutes yet another flunky in the Guild colors would come up and ask him what he needed help with. No matter how many times he told them that he was waiting in the lobby on the orders of the Guild Master and that he really didn’t want their help at all. Finally, the last one he had sent on an errand to the accounting department where the accountants were likely to make the man wish he had never come to work today for disturbing them with such a trivial request.

Finally, he saw a team of five Guards in the royal blue uniform of the Lord’s Family with the crest of a rearing dragon on a green field.

“Mage Kalan?” The Warrior asked as the other four trailed behind him.

“Yes, that’s me,” Kalan replied ducking his head at the man. Lord Seamus of Falcon’s Aerie was a high-ranking noble of the kingdom until he had joined the Guard and given up all of his titles in favor of military service. It was said, quietly and when neither man was around, that his father had been so angry with his first born that if Guard tradition hadn’t already made the man give up his titles his father might have disowned him. Something that hadn’t happened in this kingdom in four hundred years.

“Good, we were told that you would be showing us the way to where we are going and turning a ward over to Jenifer?” Seamus said professionally with a gesture towards the red head in question where she was standing behind him.

“Yes, Lieutenant, we are heading to the hatchway leading into the sewers. We aren’t supposed to go in just the entrance for now anyway.” He added seeing the looks of disgust on the faces of the two women of the group, the wizard and cleric.

Kalan turned and headed out the door with the Guard Lieutenant following close on his heels. “Any idea why the Guard Captain would assign his highest-ranked team to guard the entrance to the city sewers? I haven’t heard any recent threats to the city let alone the sewers in quite a while.”

Kalan shook his head at the man as he continued walking. “If your Captain didn’t tell you I’m not sure that I should. They didn’t say anything about it being a state secret or even not to tell anyone really but I would be more comfortable if you ask your captain.”

Seamus nodded as if he expected the answer.

The rest of the trip to the hatch was silent as Kalan stared off into space most of the time trying to think if there was anything he had ever read or heard of that could explain what was happening. 

Reaching the hatch, the group stopped looking around at the alley it was in before Seamus began ordering his team into the formation that suited him for this mission except for the Wizard who he directed over to where Kalan was standing.

Kalan noted with relief that his brother was nowhere to be seen. Hopefully, the fool hadn’t gone back down the ladder or to tell anyone what was going on here. “Right, Jenifer, stand there on the opposite side of the hatch from me and brace yourself.”

Giving her to the count of three the Mage gave a forceful gesture with both hands towards the woman and gave a sharp command as the hatch started to glow with searing red light and the Wizard staggered.

Noticing the lieutenant giving him a sidelong look the Mage quickly put his hands up in a gesture or peace. “She’ll be fine.” He said quickly. “The spell she just took over is quite powerful and it will take her a minute or two to adjust.”

Seeing the man nod the mage gave his regrets and quickly retreated from the scene not wanting to anger the man. While he was confident that he could win any confrontation he also knew the Lord and Guild Master would not be happy and there would be significant damage to the area if the both of them got serious in the fight.

Seamus POV

“What do you guys know of him?” the Lieutenant asked his team as he watched the brown-haired man wander off into the crowd that was forming to see what an elite guard team was doing all the way out here.

“Not much,” Jenifer answered. “He’s a fairly powerful Master Mage and a member of the Mage’s Guild. Thought I wasn’t going to be able to take his spell for a second there, it was almost too powerful for me and it’s just a Locking Ward. I won’t be good for much else than carrying this spell.”

“Could you dispel it and put another one that would be easier for you?” Jon, a Ranger and one of the other damage classes for this group though he was mostly their tracker and puller.

“I could dispel it not that he has handed the controls of it over to me, but nothing I have would keep it as well defended and that is our mission at this point.” She replied.

Seamus nodded. “Just hold that one then as long as you feel that you can.” Getting a nod back from the Wizard he continued. “Anyone else has anything?”

“He’s one of the most powerful members of the Mage Guild in this town easily top ten and from what we’ve just seen I would say that he is also very skilled to go along with his power. I have never seen a Mage transfer any type of lock spell to anyone else and to be able to do it that quickly.” The Healer shook her head. “I didn’t even know that was possible.”

“I saw that plenty before I joined the guard but you are right I have never seen a Mage do it like that. It normally takes one of the long rituals that they like to drag people into and at least a half mark.” The Lieutenant said shaking his head in respect.

Back with the Dungeon Lord

It had taken forever but finally, he had… A stairwell, but not just any stairwell the best stairwell ever and it only cost him a few hours of his time to do it too.

At the bottom of the stair well the Dungeon Lord conjured a plaque out of rock and fused it with the wall. With magic, he engraved a congratulatory message for those who got passed the first boss and two runes one that the adventurers would use to mark that they had passed the boss and the other would allow them to skip the first floor if they didn’t want to bother. It matched with the plaque he was planning on setting next to the ladder at the beginning of the first floor.

Nodding to himself he turned back to the mind-numbing work of digging out the first part of the second floor which he was planning to make into a maze of some sort to mess with the adventurers especially once he finished stocking it with the undead and some select spirits that he was planning to use, muahaha. 

Making his way back to his room several hours later he couldn’t help but be satisfied with his work this day as he had managed to get pretty far into the second floor before his mortal body began to insist on sleep. It was actually going faster than it had when he had been a crystal without the steps that had to be made with magic to dig with his magic from a distance it took a lot less magic and time to do it this way.