Lucifer watched the old man getting more and more tired again, having decided that it was a perfect time he opened a wall just in front of the group revealing a shortcut. Merlin saw the wall opened and gave a sigh of relief, his old body was just about to give out on him and he would require to rest again or use magic to restore his stamina, however, he wanted to keep his mana spare just in case and couldn't waste it on such a pointless use.

They walked through the passage and Ahri gasped when she reached the end of the tunnel, "is that a living dungeon core, it's so beautiful". they walked into a small circular room with a table and several chairs surrounding a gently floating stone that gave off a blue glow, both the mages could feel the massive amount of mana inside the stone and shuddered at the thought of such a thing becoming angry, Merlin thought to himself "this dungeon core is alot older than I thought it was" and became 3 parts more cautious.

Lucifer injected mana into his voice and projected it into the room "Take a seat, then we will discuss this profitable friendship you spoke of", Ahri found this voice highly discomforting to listen to, it sounded like hundreds of voices speaking as one with no change to tonation.

Merlin took a seat and spoke "you don't seem too trusting with that invisible barrier of yours" when he notices a slight refraction of light surrounding the stone.

"your attack earlier does not generate a sense of trust of your people" Lucifer replied, he wanted the mage on the back foot throughout the negotiations, that's why he had the mage become exhausted before starting and why he mentioned the attacks.

Merlin seemed to expect this response and replied "those were not my people I assure you"

"So it was not you who caught my fairy" Lucifer returned.

Merlin suddenly remembered when he entered the first time and wryly answered "that was part of my job as part of this Kingdom to test whether you were a threat to the Kingdoms people", as Merlin finally realized that this dungeon had experience in negotiations and would make this several times more difficult, he felt how tired he was and now understood why they had to walk so damn far to get here when the dungeon could have just made a path directly here.

Lucifer smirked to himself and asked "is it also your job to send scouting forces into my territory to test me, if I had not defeated those men would my core still exist"

Merlin frowned and replied "As I said those were n--"

"I saw 3 of them enter with you before and they took orders from you" Lucifer interrupted, causing Merlin to jump slightly, he found the dungeons voice impossible to read and without a face, he could not see the dungeons expression either putting him on the backfoot from the start.

Lucifer continued "you could have passed the hallway of traps easily without breaking any of them too. If you wanted to speak to me why not do it outside my core path, I assume this is some kind of threat to me by showing me how easily you passed my traps", Lucifer then had the stone release pure mana to allow him to use a spell inside the barrier causing both mages to jump back ready to fight, however, Lucifer only showed an image of the 12 dancing and singing Merlins in the hallway previously.

Ahri's shoulders drooped as she watched the mana screen play, she was completely stunned at the sight of her master acting like a clown and singing some old folk song terribly along with the strange dance.

Merlin coughed several times to try and lessen the embarrassment of his antics, he quietly said "I was only being cautious of your devious traps", his voice got noticeably quieter when he saw the disillusioned face of Ahri staring back at him.

He took a deep breath and said with as much authority as he could "ahem well you are not being truthful yourself, I've seen several dungeon cores before and that is not one of them", he was pointing at the glowing stone in front of him as he continued "dungeon cores do get larger over time but they don't get that big" as he motioned to the false core that was almost a metre in diameter.

Lucifer replied "this is simply to protect myself, have you not done the same with your destructive trip here, also why are you so tired when you could have floated all the way here, it is obvious you are keeping your mana spare to fight me if the need arises, what is the difference between that and this"

Ahri interrupted Merlin before he could speak as she tried to mediate the argument that was about to form "umm I think what master is trying to say is that it's deceitful to greet someone as something else", meanwhile she had managed to somehow have her chair behind Merlin as he voice got smaller and smaller, Lucifer was almost surprised at how small she managed to make herself as he thought "she's a terribly shy one... it's kinda cute"

He replied, "that is an interesting thought coming from someone who is magically hiding their appearance" causing Ahri to jump at being discovered.

Merlin sighed and motioned Ahri to dispel the illusion as he spoke "let's start again shall we, let's talk about what we can do for each other"

Ahri's spell vanished revealing a completely different appearance, she had long red hair jade white skin, luscious full pink lips and curves that could not be hidden by her loose robes, what caught lucifers attention was not her beauty that equaled Selenias it was the small fox ears on top of her head and the multiple tails behind her back.

After a momentary lapse in concentration, Lucifer spotted an irritating smirk on Merlins lips when his little trick worked, Lucifer responded after the momentary silence "Indeed what can we do for each other"

Merlin jokingly said "well you can have the girl for starters haha"

Lucifer jokingly replied back "I guess I'll be taking her off your hands then" causing Ahri to stop her feet, but she could not work up the courage to speak again in front of a stranger.

She casted a spell and her appearance changed back to the ordinary girl from before and Merlin frowned at his student's actions, she sighed and mumbled "that's better", Lucifer heard and responded "I don't know why you are ashamed of your true appearance but I think it's a waste to hide something so beautiful" causing Ahri to blush slightly and dejectedly mumble "the first person to compliment me is a dungeon"

Merlin asked "I've complimented your beauty before too you know"

"but your like my grandpa it doesn't count" she replied

Merlin exasperatedly asked, "and a dungeon does count?" as he wondered about how this girls head was put together.

Lucifer audibly chuckled surprising the 2 that were in their own world, now that the tension seemed to have been broken Merlin wanted to get straight to business now that he knew that he would not get any advantages from Lucifer with words of politics, he said "should we get to business now that we all well acquainted now, so I'll state what I want directly and I hope you will do the same, I'm sure you would appreciate a direct discussion as would I"

Lucifer nodded in agreement and noticed that he didn't have a body so he replied "I agree, round about talks are tiring so what is it that such a powerful mage like yourself wants and what can you give me"

Merlin nodded in satisfaction at Lucifer reply, he did not want to talk politicly because with all the things that his people had done previously he would get seriously poor conditions from the negotiations if he did, instead, he wanted a simple and direct exchange without the past interfering with negotiants, Merlin stated "My University is in constant need for materials, something a dungeon can easily create, naturally I would compensate you generously, If you want women I can give you that, if you want land I can talk to the king, if you want gold... well you could make your own, however, I could have more people enter the dungeon if that's what you want too and I can offer my University's protection"

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Lucifer replied "so much for a straight forward conversation, no one can stop me from taking land that I want, people will continue to enter my dungeon for its riches and naturally more will come with time, before you think of using the amount of people entering to manipulate me even if no one came I would not be fine with that and could develop just as easily without them. As for the protection that would be to your benefit, not mine, if your business partner is destroyed naturally business will be bad for you too, I can protect myself just fine, you simply want to prevent me from making deals with others"

Merlin was starting to understand how intelligent this dungeon was from the conversation so far, he responded "my intentions are not as evil as you make them out to be, I just want to make a profitable relationship with you, I'm sure there is something I can offer you to facilitate a good relationship"

Lucifer found it amusing that the man simply stopped trying to figure out what he wanted and finally asked, if he wanted to know instead of trying to cold read Lucifer he should have just asked from the beginning, Lucifer paused for a moment seemingly trying to figure out what he wanted and replied "I want knowledge", it was short and did not give much away and allowed him to further negotiate how much he would give for it, he also did not want to ask for things that granted direct power because he wanted them to think he was alot more powerful than he really was.

Merlin looked confused and asked, "knowledge what kind?"

"any and all subjects, but most importantly magic, I want to see what the mages of this world think of it and how they use it" Lucifer answered.

Merlin was startled by the unexpected answer and thought of how dangerous it would be to give a dungeon thousands of years of mages accumulated knowledge before he could think further Lucifer interrupted his thoughts "if you are thinking that it would be too dangerous to give me such knowledge I would like to remind you that I would be fully capable of wiping this continent clean of any and all life if I choose to do so", memories of ancient scrolls in the forbidden seciton of the University flashed past his eyes as he recalled the texts that described the damage a sentient dungeon could cause, most Kingdoms simply ceased to exist leaving large gaps in history, meanwhile, Lucifer was thinking about his ant queen's nuclear option of sending out swarms of queens to take root inside the kingdom and devour anything and everything edible in the kingdom, if the ants did not kill everyone they would still cause mass famine from all the farm destruction.

Merlin took a deep breath and replied "I can give you books from our library in trade for sufficiently valuable materials"

"And what would those materials be" Lucifer asked.

Merlin thought about how difficult it should be for a dungeon to create certain things, after thinking about what would give the maximum benefits to the university he said "rare plants would be the easiest thing for you to cultivate considering your experience in creating such complex ecosystems, so I would like for you to have rarer plants in the lower floors that would eventually end up in our hands from the adventurer guild, naturally I could give you the seeds if you need them"

"what would I receive for disrupting my ecosystem," asked Lucifer, as he tried to make it sound as difficult as possible.

Merlin thought for a moment "depending on the rarity of the plants and the quantity I could give you access the the first section of the library"

"how many sections are there," asked Lucifer causing Merlin to frown at such a critical question that revealed the true worth of the information.

Merlin secretly sighed and replied "there are 20 normal levels to the library" with a slight amount of pride in his voice as he answered that question with the reflex answer he told all new mage acolytes, then immediately cursed his stupidity when Lucifer said "normal levels"

He thought of lying but thought better of it because this information could easily be confirmed by any mage the dungeon may capture, the dungeon may already know the answer and just be testing him, Merlin replied "there are forbidden sections that only the University leader has access to--" 

Lucifer interrupted "aren't you the University leader"

Merlin...

Ahri...

Lucifer...

Lucifer watched sweat bead on the man's forehead then said "so the first floor is full of very poor information that I'm sure even new recruits can view and I'm giving you high-quality ingredients for your alchemists in return, sounds fair", somehow the monotone voice managed to sound sarcastic, then he continued "give me access to the first 15 floors and I will forget about the forbidden sections, you get to keep your last 5 sections that most likely have your master ranked magics and I get information I want"

"It will take time to get 15 floors of books to you--"

"It will take time to grow the ingredients" interrupted Lucifer.

Lucifer looked at the man trying to make a difficult decision and gave him an olive branch "How about this, you add regular gifts of rare beasts that I don't have to the deal and I will create a separate room to grow the plants for your University's exclusive use, this means you won't have to buy them from the adventurers guild and also you will be supplying the seeds of any plants you want grown"

Merlins eyes flashed and he agreed instantly, he thought it was a wonderful deal for his university he only added the condition that the university's room would be safe from monsters, he planned to use the mana rich environment of a dungeon to rapidly increase the power of the practicing mages of the University.

They talked for several more hours to decide the small details and finally agreed on a final version of the deal, somehow Ahri became the ambassador between the university and the dungeon despite her protest against it and the deal was done.

Although Merlin felt like he went to sell his cart and winded up selling his horse too without realizing it, he still felt like the deal was worth it, those old books and scrolls were not worth that much because almost any major power would have similar books from the first 15 levels or so.

Just before the two got up to leave Lucifer said: "also remember not to tell anyone about me not even your king, just tell your people that you managed to find a hidden room in the dungeon that you have secured to explain the growing room, also as insurance against your betrail I will be putting the girl into a contract with me"

before Merlin could protest the wall leading out of the room collapsed along with the pathway leading to the true core, Lucifer said "this is non-negotiable, I guess you could say I have trust issues so I will be keeping an iron grip onto something important to you"

Once the entrance was blocked the mana in the dungeon started to become erratic because of the spirits agitation, Lucifer felt extremely claustrophobic as the path to his core was cut off however he endured the feeling. Merlin yelled "you are going to die if you don't restore your connection to the surface you fool"

Lucifer laughed and replied "AND SO WILL YOU", the spirits were going mad from being cut off from the world and the dungeon started to violently shake, stones the size of cars started falling from the roof onto the dungeon floor below.

Merlin screamed "are you mad you're going to kill us both" as he tried to use magic to clear the rubble as fast as he could.

Lucifer calmly replied sending shivers down Merlins spinet "either you give me something important to you as insurance against your betrail or we both die"

Merlin could feel the dungeon becoming more unstable by the second, suddenly Ahri yelled out "ok I will be your servant just stop before we are all killed, Master won't betray you anyway" as tears filled her eyes.

Merlin watched as magic coalesced and he ground his teeth as he watches his beloved student who he raised since she was a child be branded into servitude, he did not even have the confidence to undo a dungeons spell because he knew that even if he was capable the dungeon would know that he betrayed it and it would go nuts like now, what was worse is the dungeon did not even seem to care if it destroyed itself or not and that would mean putting the entire Kingdom at risk.

Once Ahri was branded Lucifer cleared the rubble blocking the core from the outside world and the dungeon stabilized after a few moments, he sighed in relief.

Merlin grudgingly asked, "why didn't you want to bind me instead."

"Because if I wanted to bind you to servitude you would assume I was going to kill you for knowing my secret and the girl would die too, however, if I bind her, you can't betray me and you won't fight to the death for no reason. The only way a secret stays that way is if only 1 person knows it, isn't that why the forbidden section is only accessible by the university leader" replied Lucifer

"we already had a deal it was beneficial for both of us to not betray each other, why is there a need to be so extreme" Merlin lamented.

Lucifer coldly replied "that's exactly why, there is only benefits binding us to stay loyal to the deal, so by its very nature the deal can be broken by simply offering more than the deal provides, I know humans too well to be so foolish enough to believe that you are so honorable, you will take your benefits now with a friendly smile and sharpen your dagger for when something better comes along or worse you will slowly gather information and strangle the other party until they are in the palm of your hands at the opportune moment, it's only human to do so, now you have a real reason to keep up your end of the deal"

Merlin angrily retorted "Yes I have a reason but do you!"

"did you believe for a moment that this negotiation was on fair terms since the beginning" before he flew away leaving them to their own devices.