I felt out around myself and I was alone, well I was no longer close to anyone, or near any energies that I recognized. Well aside from my symbiote and my katana, Lilith. It seemed even when stuck inside an ancient booby trap, I still would not experience solitude. As I stood in place assessing my situation my eyes adjusted to the low light and I could see cracks of something that looked like sunlight.

  I tested the strength of the barrier and the stone bricks wobbled freely. So I smashed the wall down revealing a strange washed out realm. There were rolling hills of dull almost uncolored grass. The area had a musky smell, drawing my attention toward the complete lack of wind. I peered off into the distance, seeing nothing of interest. Just then Lilith manifested an avatar.

  “This place feels like Sanctuary.” She remarked, quickly adding “Except it feels like it’s dead.”. Again she assumed a very erotic demon form wearing a skimpy leather and chainmail bikini. She held her hand out expectantly. After clearing her throat and waiting a moment she said “My whip?”. So I rummaged through the things I had on me and found the frightening implement, and handed it to her hesitantly. She cracked the whip and let loose an animalistic groaning sound afterwards. Sort of creepy…. Sort of hot.

  We explored the area and found bones of creatures that had long since died. There were areas of grass that showed signs of a structure that had long since been demolished. And sure enough when we attempted to venture more than 20-30 feet from the structure I had first appeared in we were forced back toward the shabby building. So we sluggishly made our way back to the shack to take a better look.

  Upon looking within the aged building we could see that there was in fact a wooden door and a window with the shutters closed. Inside was a small workbench, a loom, spinning wheel, and decayed crates and baskets.

  Lilith, Junior and I spent hours devising an escape plan, and I could only assume my party outside was working to free me, so long as they had not been trapped themselves. The first idea I had was to attempt to open a portal to my own workshop, and then I remembered the guest ring I exchanged with Murgil. It wasn’t very helpful that both rings required a forge in order for me to access the realms, but we tried anyway. We started by building a forge from the stone bricks the building was constructed from, and dismantled part of the shabby wooden roof to use as fuel for a blaze. We took our time, not wanting to waste our small amount of precious fuel. We did detect dense magical energies resting nearby and ended up unearthing what appeared to be the bones of a dragon.

  After a few more hours had passed it seemed that the time of day had not changed. If this pocket dimension was based on the same principles of the other royal dimensions, then the day night should be linked to an actual real world location. Then the horrifying realisation set in that time could be flowing at a different rate inside the dimension. If time was slowed down then it could mean that months have passed outside, and my allies were unable to rescue me. Or if it was accelerated then perhaps only seconds have elapsed in the outside world; Which was more likely due to the steady state of washed out daylight.

  I discussed this possibility with my allies and decided to make haste with our escape plan. Lilith assisted in the assembly of our makeshift forge, and I decided to use the blacksmith hammer conjured from Murgil’s guest ring. For an anvil, the breastplate of my beloved heartguard. Upon striking the “anvil” a portal ripped open the surrounding area. I let Lilith enter the portal first, and followed close behind.

  I was standing in a simple workshop, it seemed we were inside of an extravagant tower with an open spiral ramp in the centre. I could see a familiar library below me and a laboratory above. Lilith approached and scolded me for taking so long. I told her I couldn’t have been more than 2-3 seconds behind her, and she insisted that it had been several minutes! I quickly pulled out my crystal orb and attempted to establish a connection with the real world above.

  I received a long, droned out message from the other side "ssllllooooowwwww ddddoooowwwwwnnnnn....". A few minutes later, text began to appear within the crystal orb. It read: "You were talking too fast, my dimension was running at an extremely accelerated pace." Finally his voice came through clearly and he explained that he had normalized the rate of time in his pocket dimension, but I had only been missing for a few minutes. Murgil and Dash were about to start heading back to the 70th floors lobby to return to his kingdom for some additional supplies. And Lady Darkrose was going to stay on floor 73 with Lucretcia. But a few seconds ago, Lady Darkrose fell into the booby trap herself.

  I hoped she had just been dumped in the same area that I had occupied previously, so I returned through the archway that I had just created and left Lilith behind. Once again I found myself in the stale smell of the empty realm. Only this time Lady Darkrose was there waiting for me. She asked where I had been and complained that she had been alone here for almost an hour. I wondered how fast Murgil’s universe must have been running. It appeared that my fire had gone since gone out. I tried to explain the situation as best as I could to Lady Darkrose. It seemed we had plenty of time to figure things out. Then I realized Lilith was separated from my katana, so I reached out with my detection abilities and felt her spark still resting within my blade. But it seemed she was capable of some form of independence of her own. At least within these types of pocket spaces. I considered accelerating Sanctuary, and figured if I had set my Soul-Home inside the modified pocket dimension I could accelerate time even more. Of Course that would only be helpful if we had a member of our party who didn’t mind spending hundreds or thousands of years separated from Denisea. Maybe our failed project wouldn't have been in vain after all. But none of this mattered right now, we decided to practice our soul communication magic. Lady Darkrose wanted some privacy from my symbiote, so we tried different techniques to block its influence over my mind and body, and especially my dreams. It turned out to be quite difficult to form any kind of a “solid” barrier to its senses. But we did manage to create a sort of safe space where she felt we were truly alone.

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  I knew if we spent a long enough time in here then someone would eventually return to sanctuary, and I could establish communication with them. By my math, even if Lucretcia reached Sanctuary in 10 minutes, then we should have days. So Lady Darkrose began to cultivate, we shared our powers and abilities. First we improved our soul communication abilities, exchanging the strengths of our techniques and eliminating the weaknesses we could spot in each other's mental defenses. We found games to play with each other that served to entertain us as well as hone our skills. We practiced attack magics, learning to better recover spent mana after its use. Which involved implementing crystal balls into our repertoire.

  We also cultivated physically, honing our impressive physical prowess to new heights! Pushing each other further than any battle we had encountered within the dungeon so far. Of course some of the games we came up with involved physical exertion as well.

  Not only did we train our combat levels, but we exchanged our knowledge on history and linguistics. The 2nd kingdom of man had spoken a unique language known as derrickize, but fortunately used the common alphabet. I shared some Vampiric, and Demonic. It turned out she was already quite prolific at Dwarven, in addition to her already impressive vocabulary involving common, uncommon, and elven. She was also able to improve our understanding of dragonic, so naturally we translated the newest passages of the prophecy.

  It really seemed too abstract to understand, and living the life I had lived I couldn’t help but apply the criteria to my own life. It seemed it definitely referred to a half elf born of the two kingdoms' royal blood. And that the overruling human class would come to ruin at his hand.

  It must have taken a week before we finally got a ping from the gang. It seemed Murgil was able to open a guest access from an alchemy lab in his kingdom. I sent him a text reply letting him know that I would accelerate time in sanctuary, and told Lady Darkrose to ready the escape plan. So I summoned my ring as a stopwatch and sped up time, while at the same time Lady Darkrose summoned the pickaxe form of her guest ring. I called up Murgil on my crystal ball and told him to expect incoming guests.

  As the portal opened and we prepared to leave I couldn’t help but notice the realm seemed as if it had become brighter, more colourful. The stale smell had dissipated and there seemed to be a slight breeze. Lady Darkrose allowed me to exit the portal she had created first. Comforted by the fact that time would not be different for me, even in the split second it took for her to follow me to Sanctuary.

  We arrived underground, Mine shafts that I’m sure never existed here before. I readjusted the rate of time to normal before reuniting with my party. I immediately got a ping on my crystal ball from Lucretcia who seemed worried about my well being. Followed by a ping from a certain irritated high-elf king demanding I collect my concubine from his royal pocket dimension.

  It took quite a while for the commotion to settle down following that dungeon run. We spent days going through the treasure we had collected, discussing battle tactics, and studying books found in the dungeon. We discussed the booby trap we had encountered and how it could even be used to our benefit. Murgil was quick to send a team in to recover the dragon bones we had found. It seemed the trap would only hold one living being at a time, so I was able to join Lady Darkrose by leaving the trap from within and then re-entering from my escape route. So it took a little fiddling around, but the high-elf king was determined.

  We hoped to restore the broken pocket dimension to functionality somehow. If it was a royal ring, or some sort of prototype, then perhaps there was a way to restore it and allow the 73rd floor of the dungeon to be passed. As time went on many more side projects began to pop up and before I knew it, Guilty Code had arrived to check out the contract I had put in with the adventurer’s guild.

  He left most of his orcs back in his home territory. Now an orderly nation just beginning to bud. His people provided the other kingdoms with affordable labour. Once he heard about our own excursion into the dungeon he began entering for days at a time. He would enter with four of his orc drones and exit alone, returning to recruit more of his damned husks. Murgil showed him how to utilize the escape rope and before we knew it he was clearing floors in the lower 50’s on a regular basis.

  All kinds of people began to enter the broken corrupted pocket dimension as a training area. It seemed the acceleration of time was alluring to all kinds of people but Murgil only allowed the most dedicated pilgrims into the area. We set up a few workshops on the 73rd floor of the dungeon so we could open portals allowing us to inspect the strange artifact at our own leisure.