Lucifer suddenly felt someone powerful enter his dungeon, he stopped what he was doing and flew over to the entrance to find the arcane university leader along with an average-looking woman following along behind him entering the dungeon, he heard them conversing and confirmed that the old man knew what he was.

As they walked through the dungeon Lucifer thought of several ways to deal with the pair, but he needed more information, did they tell anyone else and if so who knows, how big a threat are these people and other things.

For the moment Lucifer decided to let them sort themselves out if they fell into a hole and died it would be their own fault and Lucifer would not have to deal with it, he would have preferred that no one knew about his uniqueness for another few years when he could properly protect himself however, it seems that fate really does not want to allow him any peace and quiet to accomplish this.

They approached the gate unhindered and after a short chant opened the door, the springs activated and flung the door open showering the two with insects, however, a small barrier revealed itself once the insects made contact with the two preventing any harm.

The old man mumbled about devious traps that Lucifer took as a compliment and watched the man cast a long-winded spell that took nearly 10 minutes to cast, Lucifer wondered how anyone would remember the words to such a long chant as the spell activated, bright lights flashed and the man split into a dozen images of himself, the images then walked straight into the portal.

Lucifer wanted to see what the images would do so he entered the portal himself to observe but, found a dozen images of the old man singing poorly and dancing on top of the pressure plates all the way down the hallway stunning Lucifer, the pressure plates activated from their feet but the traps passed right through their bodies, it seems that only their feet are tangible and they seem to weigh enough to activate the pressure plates.

After several minutes most of the traps had been activated and Lucifer did not know whether to laugh or cry at the ridiculous method his traps were deactivated, Lucifer flew outside to see the mage again and was speechless again when he found the old man standing there looking dignified as if he did not know what his images were doing on the other side of the portal.

When the old man thought it had been a sufficient amount of time he escorted his apprentice through the portal in a dignified manner while he concealed a childish smile under his stoic appearance, they entered through the portal and found the mess from all the traps having activated and it was their turn to be speechless causing Lucifer to grin from ear to ear.

His smirk was short-lived when he watched them float up and over the entire hallway, Lucifer thought they would feel that all the traps would have been sprung already and maybe fall on some spikes that had yet to be activated yet, he cursed their cautious nature as they stepped onto solid ground at the end of the hallway, the wires he created to stop people from flying across the rooms seem to offer no resistance to the mage, he simply waved his hand and the wire was cut, what irritated Lucifer, even more, was that the strings having been cut just floated in the same place as before they were cut, Lucifer looked closer and found little balls of magic holding the strings in their previous place in mid-air, this meant the trip wires would not activate because they were under constant tension even after they let the mages past.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

"Fucking cheaters," Lucifer thought to himself.

Suddenly the duo stopped and the old man loudly yelled with a mana-infused voice "I am Merlin of the Arcane University in the kingdom of Swadia, I would like to welcome this dungeon to this country officially and would like to speak to this dungeon about profitable friendships, if you don't want to talk I guess I'll just have to go back empty-handed and go to a tavern to tell others of my grievances"

Lucifer listened to the man and he did indeed want to talk to the person and probably kill him after however, the not so subtle threat did not pass his ears unnoticed, so he decided to get back at the old man a little before speaking to him.

Merlin stood there for a few minutes waiting for a response when a single ant approached the two, he held his hand up to stop his student from attacking and observed what the ant would do, the ant walked in front of the two of them and then turned around and started walking at a slow pace deeper into the dungeon.

Ahri looked at her master and asked "is it trying to say follow me?", Merlin responded I think so, I've never been escorted by a dungeon creature before this should be interesting" then he proceeded to follow the ant at a leisurely pace.

Lucifer chuckled to himself as he watched the old man start to sweat and pant after 20 minutes of having to climb up stairs and small cliffs then go down other obstacles, his student looked at her master with worry apparent in her expression, she said "maybe we should take a break then was surprised when the ant stopped and seemed to lie down after her words, she asked does that ant understand us?"

Merlin tried to catch his breath as he replied "no it's brain is too simplistic for such thought, however, the dungeon commanding it does haaah",

"how do you know that this dungeon in even sentient, other than the strange ant I can't see any signs that it exhibits consienceness," Ahri asked.

After taking several deep breaths Merlin answered "several reasons, firstly the layout of the dungeon, a dungeon wants adventurers to be as far away from its core as possible so why would the door to the dungeon core be on the first floor instead of the last, Secondly the floors themselves, starting from the first floor the entire dungeon is full of life with a fully functioning eco system, such floors usually only start after the 20th or so floor. Thirdly the floor monsters and loot, dungeons want people to enter and die to get their life force, so why are the monsters on the first 2 floors completely harmless to anyone with a brain, only the third floor has something that would actively hunt you and even still it's just large cats that would only kill people who don't pay attention to their surroundings or idiots who don't belong there. 

The loot is common alchemical plants to treat most of the common diseases and ailments, there are plenty of ore deposits scattered around that are not guarded well and finally, the river that was redirected through the mountain to outside the dungeon entrance, the dungeon seems to be trying to create a thriving city through its actions. One or two of these actions could be contributed to coincidence but not all of them and these actions speak of an intention that is too complex an idea for something that runs purely on instinct." after finishing speaking he closed his eyes and meditated to restore his stamina and let his student maul over the information he had told her.

Lucifer was once again speechless, he thought that he hid his abilities quite well, but apparently, anyone with a brain could see straight through him, Lucifer sighed and thought "If I truly wanted to be incognito I would have already been killed several times over already because any normal dungeon would have been destroyed by now, how the hell do any dungeons still exist when there are so many assholes around?"

After an hour they began their journey with the ant again.