Aaron stared at the dragon, shaken. He knew little of dragons, though a bit more than most people, due to being one of Hidde’s high priests. Well, previously.

While everyone knew that dragons were powerful creatures, that was generally the full extent of people’s knowledge. Something that the gods had made sure to keep as a closely guarded secret was the fact that eldar dragons were beasts that had touched upon the same Concepts as the gods. While this was not explained further, at least not to high priests like Aaron had been, it was easy enough to intuit that Concepts were some sort of higher level power.

More clear than what Concepts were was the fact that the gods did not want to share them with anyone.

The temples had an understanding that there had once been some sort of a war between the gods and the dragons, but that a truce of some sort had been reached. All of the details were extremely vague, but what was known revealed a few indications that an unknown third party had helped to establish the truce.

For these reasons, Aaron was not shocked by the fact that the dragon before him could speak, but that the beast was in the dungeon to begin with. How could a creature that could reach close to the power of the gods themselves be in a dungeon? The implications of the power behind the dungeons was staggering.

The sudden growling of several of the nearby beasts startled Aaron. What had he done to offend them?

Glancing around, he immediately noticed that the dragon was still staring at him.

Right, it had asked him a question. “My apologies, Great One, but I feel I know too little to know what I want.”

That felt like a neutral enough of a response, while also demonstrating that Aaron wanted some more information.

“‘Tis wise to know when one dost not know. Ask thy questions, and I may offer some small bit of guidance.”

The deep, inhuman voice was a bit difficult to understand, but Aaron knew better than to let his attention wander again. “I believe the two most important questions I can ask are what happened to me and who did it. Without knowing either of those answers, I don’t feel that I can understand enough to ask anything else.”

The dragon closed its eyes briefly. It took a moment for Aaron to realize that this was the dragon’s indication of agreement or approval, instead of nodding its head. “Thy soul was damaged, thus mine creator rescued thy soul in the only manner possible. Thy soul and body art separate, yet connected.

“As for mine creator, I wilt not speak.”

Aaron opened his mouth, but then froze. If the master of the dungeons was off limits, how could he learn anything? “Might I ask if there is anything you can tell me about your creator? I know nothing, and mean no disrespect, but I wish to know more about such a powerful being, Great One.”

Again, the dragon blinked in approval. “I know naught of mine creator. As a dragon, I should be blessed with the ancestral memories of my species, yet those memories are empty. I can feel where they should be, so for them to be missing means that I have no ancestors. Knowledge has been granted to me, yet nothing do I know of mine creator.”

Aaron thought on this answer. This dragon had no ancestors? Then how had it come into being? Knowledge was granted, not shared, which indicated a mental communication, possibly similar to how the priests received their spells.

“Are you able to ask things of your creator?”

Aaron’s question triggered growls, hisses, and every other aggressive reaction imaginable from the beasts around him, and the dragon’s teeth and claws briefly appeared before it retracted them.

“Ignorance is thy only redemption! Mine creator is not to be…” The dragon faded off, its eyes becoming unfocused briefly.

“Rejoice, mortal, for mine creator hast seen fit to enlighten thee. Speak thy questions, and thou might be granted a boon.”

Aaron was thrilled that his hours of studying scriptures and ancient records allowed him to understand the dragon, as it spoke with greater formality than even the royal court. As for Aaron’s questions…

“What is desired of me? How might I serve? Should I remain in this dungeon?”

The dragon’s eyes again grew unfocused for a moment. “Thou art now a creature of the dungeons, as art all in this place. Thou art mine creator’s, and must serve as such.

“We creations serveth mine creator as protectors of the dungeons and trainers of humanity. Thy service is to be the same, though the form wilt be different. Thy affinities hath been altered, thus thy magic must change as well. Thou wilt be granted more magic, and thy first task is to learn and study. This done, thou wilt be given charge of a new dungeon, to be its final guardian and caretaker.”

“More magic? How will that ha-”

Before Aaron could finish the question, he was assaulted by more knowledge than he had ever received in his life. Had his soul still been housed in his body, the influx of memories would have destroyed his brain, leaving him dead or disabled. As it was, his soul entered a sort of fugue state, and his body froze in place.

Hours passed in this manner, and all of the creatures returned to their previous activities, barring the dragon. The creature simply settled down and patiently waited. It was the guardian of the fourth level of the dungeon, and it knew that it would be years, perhaps centuries, before humans gained the strength to reach it. There was no hurry, and nothing to do. It had been given a small hoard to protect, but forbidden to leave the dungeon to grow its hoard, which was one of the few pastimes dragons typically enjoyed.

Finally, Aaron’s eyes started to flutter, as his mind and soul started to calm back down. He had been given all of the core’s earth affinity spells, which amounted to hundreds, as well as the fire affinity spells that were weak enough to be used with Aaron's pitiful affinity.

What had been shocking was that spells that Aaron had never heard of being granted by any of the gods to any member of their clergy had also been given. These were fusion spells, using two affinities to accomplish tasks such as controlling lava and purifying metal.

As Aaron started to try to process and categorize all that he had just been given, he settled himself down on the ground to be more comfortable as he meditated on all of the spells. He would still need to practice them, but even so, it was clear from the guides and the memories that the potential for these spells was terrifying.

Starting with the earth spells that were most similar to those that Aaron had already been familiar with before, he ran through them.

Earthen Tomb…

Stone Spikes…

Rock Blast…

Lava Burst…

Death Bolt-

Wait, what was that?

Aaron took a moment to process the last of the dozens of spells he had reviewed. He was horribly confused for a moment, but after analyzing one of the spells for a moment, he realized that he had been granted death affinitied spells.

Why?

Unbeknown to Aaron, the process of removing his soul from his body had given him a previously impossible affinity for death mana. This mana was antithetical to life, but since Aaron no longer truly possessed his own body, it had opened the way for death affinity, and the strength of that affinity had only grown stronger since it had first appeared.

Unfortunately, having his soul removed from his body and merely animating it remotely meant that Aaron had not only lost his sense of pain, but many other senses as well. He had not even noticed the flesh that had started falling from his feet, or that one of his toes was nothing more than bare bone.

The human’s new death affinity had made the core want to use him as the final guardian of an undead dungeon, as soon as another was created. It had recently gained a great deal of death affinity, and all it needed was a way to continuously gain a bit on an ongoing basis and it would be able to produce another undead dungeon. After all, the core could not continue using an affinity that could not be restored.

Its hidden cemetery where it was trying to cultivate death mana had been growing, but was not yet producing death mana. As soon as that happened, the core was planning to reestablish its undead dungeon, though with much greater protections than before.

As Aaron examined his new death affinity, he felt like he should be trembling, he was so scared.

As soon as he had tried to sense the affinity and its corresponding mana, the first thing he had sensed had not been anything in his surroundings or the dungeon itself, but had instead been inside his own body.

Death mana was what was animating his body.

In some bizarre development, there was no life left in Aaron’s body. He could move and manipulate his body, but as he examined it, he could already see that things were failing.

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Piecing things together, he quickly realized that he had not been feeling pain or hunger, and it was because his body was no longer truly alive. The heart was beating and the lungs were breathing, yet they seemed to be doing so more because it was what Aaron was accustomed to, rather than any real need for such things.

A startling, disturbing thought struck Aaron; did he even need his body anymore? If his soul was in the rock he carried, could he use another physical form?

Aaron dropped that line of thought, too terrified to continue with it. Instead, he returned to examining his new spells, focusing on the ones with combined affinities.

He had never before heard of such a thing, and yet it seemed like such a reasonable progression. Why not use both affinities? It had always been believed that multiple affinities would cripple a person, precluding them from ever using magic, but with what Aaron was seeing, such a condition instead opened a person up to a brand new field of magic.

If lava and metal could have spells, what other combinations might be possible?

As he studied the Lava Burst spell and the mana manipulations needed to use it, Aaron was again amazed by this method of spell casting. Creating a resonance with the ambient mana instead of relying on the gods to establish such a connection provided an entirely different level of control, and while Aaron could see that there was no chant necessary, he started doing so anyways as a means of helping him to focus. He had chanted his prayer-spells for decades, so remaining silent when using magic felt wrong to him.

“Might of the earth, come forth. Spirit of fire, burn and grow. Merge, become one and rise up. Bring forth the bowels of the earth. Lava Burst!”

His voice rose as he continued, and the ground between Aaron and the dragon started to glow a cherry-red. By the time he finished his impromptu chant and the corresponding mana manipulations, the earth was glowing brightly, and at the last word, a column of lava spiked up from the ground, rising a majestic two hands into the air.

…

Was that all?

There was an odd snort, and when Aaron looked over, he saw smoke curling from the dragon’s nostrils as it continued with its odd snorts that came in little bursts. Was the beast laughing at Aaron?

The creature noticed Aaron’s stare, if not his displeasure, and addressed him, “Is that all? Is that the limits of human spellcasting? Thou wilt never be a guardian of anything.”

“Oh? So you can do better?” Aaron retorted before he could stop himself. However, the dragon took no offense at all.

“Naturally. Observe.” The beast simply looked slightly to the side of where the pitiful, crumbling and cooling rubble of Aaron’s lava spell sat. There was no word, no gesture, nothing at all to indicate that the beast was preparing a spell, and yet an eruption of lava shot twenty paces into the air. The burst was at least three paces wide, and even the heat of the lava was incomparable to what Aaron had done.

“Wha-? How? Did you use more mana?”

The dragon finally took offense to Aaron’s words, and its growl prevented the man from speaking another word.

“Do not insult me! I used exactly the same as thee. However, where thou wasteth the energy thou useth, I wasted almost nothing.”

“Wasted energy? I don’t understand.”

The dragon stared at Aaron for a long, long time, and its eyes grew unfocused for a bit as well. Finally, the dragon spoke again, “Human, canst thou sense mana?”

Aaron nodded, but when the beast did not react, he hesitantly blinked his eyes in the same manner the dragon had done before.

“Dost the flow of thy mana… leak from the forms of thy spells?”

This question took Aaron a bit to process. Mana was used, nothing more. A spell was powered by mana, triggered and controlled by a resonance with a mage’s own internal mana reserves. A spell just happened. Mana was not consciously manipulated, as that would be…

The connection formed, and Aaron let out a gasp.

He understood.

What the gods had granted humans was not true magic, but a crude imitation of it. What the dragon was speaking of was true magic.

This was how the dungeons accomplished so many things that were considered impossible. The creator was not merely using spells, but manipulating mana and producing the effects directly, instead of clumsily trying to wield a nearly broken tool.

Too many things had shocked Aaron during his conversation with the dragon, but at this moment, he saw a path to personal power without needing to rely on anyone else. This would be true mastery of his own power, not relying on a greater power, like the gods. In fact, the master of the dungeon was not even having Aaron borrow power, but teaching him how to gain his own.

His unnecessary breathing growing ragged, Aaron leaned forward. “Can you teach me?”

***

The core felt confused. It scoured all of the memories it had gleaned from the various mana users who called themselves priests. Even so, it could not find a single memory of anything related to simply controlling mana. Every single instance of mana that it could find across multiple lives was related to either affinities, or spells. Not once had anyone considered simply controlling mana itself.

How had this been missed? That was rather simple, as humans and the core were simply too different from each other for impressions and understandings to overlap too often. The core viewed the world itself through mana, while many humans never even heard of mana, let alone learned how to detect it or use it. In essence, the concept of mana was as foreign to humans as physical sensations had been to the core before it had obtained the memories of the first mole it had controlled.

As the dragon struggled to explain an innate ability to manipulate mana to Aaron, the core started considering the option of granting humans memories and knowledge related to mana manipulation. Would that allow the humans to improve further than their abysmal control of magic?

However, mana was manipulated through the experience of sensing mana, and the core already understood that its own way of sensing mana was fundamentally different from that of humans.

A further problem was that while Aaron belonged to the core, he was no longer strictly human, and was instead an unknown form of sapient undead that the core had not yet understood. The core had already accessed Aaron’s senses, and they were no longer those of a human. It would not work to use the man’s senses to develop the knowledge it needed to grant humans a mana manipulation technique.

The core would need to obtain other humans to proceed on that front effectively.

Still, there were certain truths to mana manipulation that the core had observed to be valid across all species, and so it started working on a rough outline to start teaching the former human who would lead its forthcoming undead dungeon.

***

Ever since the gods had obtained their help, dragonkind had held to the truce that had been forced upon the planet. The fact that the dragons had been on the planet longer than any of the gods but Yur had been irrelevant. What mattered to them was the fact that the gods were of the planet, while dragons were not. As immigrants, the dragons were not allowed to supercede the gods’ power, and that meant that no further eldar dragons would be allowed on the planet. In order for any of their progeny to reach that level, they would need to leave and go elsewhere.

It was infuriating, but there was no choice for the dragons.

This was also why Azkthak was so surprised to sense the arrival of Anba. The fire dragon had been one of the fiercest foes of the various pantheons in the past, and the death of their broodmate, Grthak, in recent years had done nothing to improve their opinion of the gods.

Azkthak had even visited Grthak’s nest after learning of the dragon’s death, and the sight of the cold, lonely egg had stoked the fires of hatred in the dragon’s chest to new heights.

Grthak had been slain by human magic, which meant the gods. While technically, the fact that the humans had used the gods magic to create a protective shield around their city which had killed Grthak, Azkthak still saw the gods as the culprits. They might not have violated the terms of the truce, but they had clearly violated the spirit of it.

Who but dragons was such a shield supposed to target?

Fortunately, the human city had burned recently, and Azkthak had relished in those delightful flames.

The god of the sun—such an arrogant idea!—wielded the Concepts of life, order, and stability, which directly opposed Azkthak’s Concepts of destruction and chaos. The two had always hated each other, and Anba had been the one to take Azkthak’s left eye.

Why was such an old enemy approaching?

Anba sneered as he entered the cave. For such formidable creatures, dragons certainly seemed to enjoy living in squalor. Sure, they loved their treasures, but what did such baubles matter when the beasts lived in a hole in the ground?

“You are not wanted here, bright one.” The beast’s primitive tongue was an affront to the ears of Anba’s physical avatar. Not only that, did the creature really need to be so crass? They might as well have been speaking to a human or some other pet, rather than a god, who stood equal to the eldar dragons. They wielded the same power, even if they obtained it by different means. Why crudely insult a worthy opponent?

“A mutual enemy has recently appeared. I am here because our truce dictates that you be informed of such things.”

“A mutual enemy? None have arrived at this planet from the beyond. We would know of this. You are mistaken.”

Anba shook his head. This was the problem with dragons, they were so convinced of their own superiority that refused to even consider certain possibilities. “This is not an outside enemy, but a hidden one from here. Something new has risen up, and already it is seizing two different Concepts, perhaps more.”

Azkthak stared in surprise, as it was extremely rare for life to rise up from a primitive existence, such as those that lived on this planet, and touch upon the power of Concepts. Dragons were one of the rare exceptions, but like most exceptions who learned how to touch upon Concepts, dragons were aided by their ancestral memories.

Still, such things did not truly matter. “Unlike you ‘gods,’ we do not oppose the rise of others who touch upon Concepts. If they have the strength to fight us for control, then so be it. It merely means they are a worthy foe, unlike those who require aid to retain what they cannot keep for themselves…”

Anba suppressed his flaring temper at Azkthak’s deliberate provocation. Despite the fact that dragons also had outside help, there was nothing to be gained from arguing with a mere beast. “I’m aware of your position on that matter, but this foe has done something that violates your species’ precepts. They have enslaved a dragon.”

“Impossible! None on this planet have such power, and all of our kind are accounted for.”

“Then check again. Our priests found a dragon in the depths of the newest ‘dungeon’ that has appeared just south of the desert. That beast killed Yur’s Saintess, so be thankful she is not holding your kind accountable for the death.”

Azkthak stared, telling Anba just how shocked they were. Dragon reactions were difficult to read for other beings, but Anba had enough experience to see just how taken aback Azkthak was.

“We will look into this. If it is as you say, this foe will be eliminated, even if we must bring in our entire cohort to do so.”

With that, the dragon disappeared in a burst of flames, leaving Anba pale in fright. The entire cohort? That would mean dozens of eldar dragons, all led by a kaiser dragon. Not even Yur and the united pantheon could face a creature who wielded all of a planet's Concepts in full.

Anba may have instigated a far greater threat than the one they already faced.

Hopefully, the fact that the dungeon merely had that one false dragon would lead to its destruction and nothing more serious.