“You’re the one who destroyed the heart of Demon Lord Kayinion?” the lich asked.

Theo saw no reason to clarify that the demon lord had multiple hearts, and the one he’d destroyed was very static and undefended, since Liandra was dealing with a demon minion.

“Very well.” The lich cackled. “This’ll make things interesting. I never told you what sort of mage I was, did I?” bony fingers moved about drawing symbols in the air. Within moments a white circle had formed, bathing everything in a pale light.

“Let me guess. You’re an elementalist,” the avatar finished the sentence as if nothing had happened.

“No, a chrono mage,” the lich laughed. “Let’s see how long you can last, with each minute lasting several hours.”

“That’s cheating!” Theo said out of habit.

When he thought about it a bit more, he found that it wasn’t, really. As far as the outside world was concerned the two of them had engaged in a battle at the speed of molasses. One had to admit, it was a clever trick. What better way to exhaust someone by having them fight three days nonstop. The plan, though, had one major flaw: Theo didn’t need rest either. In effect all that the lich had done was transform a life-and-death battle to a prolonged and very boring chess game.

A staff of ice formed in the lich’s hands. Without wasting time—though only in the time dilated zone—he aimed at the dungeon’s avatar.

“Ice blades!” the lich shouted.

Vast chunks of ice, which could pass for blades, materialized at the top of the staff and darted towards the avatar.

On his part, the avatar cast an indestructible aether bubble. The ice blades hit it, smashing to pieces. The lich didn’t delay with another series of ice bolts, freezing the entire front half of the aether bubble. Unlike Lord Mandrake, he wasn’t the king who spoke during combat. It was only now, suffering the effects of time dilation, that Theo found that he actually missed it. Faced with the certainty that this was going to be a long fight, he could well do with some banter. He wasn’t going to start it, though. Getting labeled a combat chatterbox was a line Theo didn’t want to cross.

A second wave of ice blades hit the avatar’s aether bubble from both sides. Having blocked his sight, the lich was relying that he could catch Theo off guard with a surprise attack. It was useless, of course. Six seconds remained before the effects of the spell would end. Until then, there was nothing that could possibly deal any damage. Theo was considering sharing that when an ice ray hit the side of the sphere.

The liches plan was clearly to take advantage of the avatar shield and imprison it in a wall of ice, in order to cast more potent spells. Either that, or just to keep him still believing the time dilation effects would start kicking in.

Theo decided not to give him the chance, casting swiftness multiple times on himself, then running out of the forming ice cage the moment the aether shield disappeared. Ice spikes emerged from the ground with the explicit goal of impaling him. Zig-zagging, the avatar energized his sword, slicing them in half. Seeing the ease with which he did so, Theo dashed towards the column of ice and struck it as well with the aim of freeing the hero trapped there. A loud cling echoed throughout the vast chamber as if a bell had been rung. However, the column remained very much intact.

“Using the expensive stuff for your collection?” the avatar asked. “What’s the matter? Want to maintain their never-removed-from-the-column status?”

The joke went straight over the lich’s head. To be honest, on further recollection, Theo himself wasn’t terribly pleased with the joke. In future it would be better if he stuck to jokes relating to his present life, if at all.

Reaching out forward with his left hand, he cast a massive torrent of flames, then struck the column again. The faintest of cracks appeared on the wet surface. Whatever magic protected the columns, it was more than he could handle at the moment.

Half a dozen more talismans lit up as purple mist filled the air. By the looks of it, the lich was filling the room in a combination of poison, paralysis, and sleep spells. Rather clever. Even with enchantments, a normal human would be affected within moments. Every second corresponding to minutes of exposure, a single break was enough to wreck a person’s body beyond repair.

“That won’t work on me,” the avatar said. “I’m far too—” half of his glowing talismans cracked and crumbled to pieces.

The whole floor was covered in a sheet of ice from hands emerged and grabbed the avatar by the foot. Ice blasted through the cloth instantly freezing the flesh, then started to move up. From what Theo remembered from his previous life, a person would have died of shock from the massive temperature change. Even he was at risk of losing his avatar.

The avatar shifted his left hand down, burning the clothes around his leg to cinders. The heat was enough to make the icy hands let go for just long enough for the avatar could use his telekinetic abilities and levitate out of reach. Ice fell off in small chunks, freeing his leg. However, the lich had no intention of giving up. A barrage of ice beams followed. That was definitely more than a bit overkill. It couldn’t be said that Theo had much of combat experience, but in the last week he had fought a goblin or several hundred. He’d even faced the pesky gnome for a few seconds. The lich's way of fighting couldn’t be different. He didn’t charge forward aimlessly, nor did he rely on brute strength like the demons did. The creature’s thing was to use everything at his disposal to weaken, wound, or trap the avatar while keeping at a safe distance. After a while, the obvious became apparent: the lich was a glass cannon.

You’ve never faced a hero directly, have you? Theo said to himself. It’s always been spells, mists, area spells and enchantments.

If that’s the way it was going to be, it was time that the dungeon flipped the script. Returning the sword into the dimensional ring, he started casting fireballs with both hands, then instantly encapsulating them in small aether spheres. Three quarters were directed towards the lich, which the rest scattered at random in the chamber.

More ice blades emerged, striking the spheres dead center and causing them to explode. A series of ice shields emerged, shielding the lich from the effects of the blasts. Unlike the ice in the chamber, this ice was brittle, shattering instantly as the explosion occurred.

Feeling he had the upper hand, Theo pressed on, his avatar only consuming a fraction of the energy the spells usually required. More blasts followed, as the spheres hit the walls and ceiling, causing pieces of stone to fall from above. Alas, that wasn’t the only thing that came falling. Just as the avatar was decreasing the distance between him and the lich, an ice lizard slammed down on the ground between them.

Not expecting the creature, the avatar stopped. Seconds, the equivalent of minutes, passed before he looked up. Then he saw them: dozens of lizards crawling out of the many tunnels near the ceiling. Too far away to see their enemy, they were merely walking along the stone surface, almost as if they were taking a stroll. The explosions had caught their attention, on occasion even causing them to lose their grip and fall to the floor. Much to Theo’s dismay, that hadn’t caused them a single visible injury.

“You’re strong,” the lich said in its whispery voice. “You’ve fought for over a day. Most would have succumbed by now.”

“I’m not most.”

“A few struggled just like you, even if they knew their defeat was inevitable.”

Coming to its senses, the nearby ice lizard turned towards the avatar. With a screeching sound, it opened its mouth. Theo, though, knew what to expect. Normally, he wouldn’t have the speed to hit the creature with a fireball in the mouth the instant it opened it. Being able to perceive time both as an avatar and as a dungeon outside of the effects of the time dilation spell, it was child’s play. Or—as he previously thought—as a very slow game of chess.

When the lizard attempted to emit an ice ray, its head popped off with a small bang.

CORE CONSUMPTION

1 Ice Lizard core fragment converted into 250 Avatar Core Points

It was time for the avatar to attack again. Instead of casting more fireballs, though, he drew a handful of pebbles towards himself. One by one, each of the stones received a blessing, then were sent flying right at the lich.

As expected, the skeleton cast a massive shield to protect against any attacks. The pebbles hit the piece of ice, piercing through it like hail through a piece of paper. The majority flew by, missing the lich’s body by inches. One, though, managed to hit him right in the shoulder. Rays of white light shone in all directions, forming a bubble of incandescence within which the chrono spell didn’t seem to have any effect. The lich’s entire right arm vaporized subject to the blessing power.

A long, dry scream filled the air, causing the ice columns to vibrate. The time dilation spell itself was shattered, for the dungeon felt the passage of time between it and its avatar suddenly synch.

Finally! the dungeon thought. And not a moment too soon.

Back in Rosewind, three goblin raids had successfully been withstood. Thanks to the reinforced walls, modified ballistas, and the new lightning ability granted by the goddess Peris, the small town had somehow managed to survive. Sadly, it had also suffered significant damage. While the first raid focused exclusively on buildings that were part of Theo, the subsequent raids were less indiscriminate. The goblins didn’t target people; the future gnome overlord likely was forward thinking enough to know that he’d need a workforce to replace the one he’d lost in the Mandrake Mountains, to construct his new lair. Anything else—stalls, shops, even ponds and gardens—was fair game. At present, the only structures that had suffered no visible damage whatsoever were the dungeon’s. Ironically, that had led to the dungeon spending additional energy to change their appearance to something more damaged, so they didn’t stick out among the rest of the town.

The only good news was that the main force of Lord Mandrake’s fleet was still half a day away, give or take. The not so good news was that even with the time dilation spell gone, it was going to take more than that for the dungeon’s avatar to return home. That had long stopped being the plan. The only solution was to send the Vinewood core back to his main body and consume it. In order to do that, he needed two things: the core itself and a hero scroll, which meant that he needed to get Liandra out of the ice column.

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“You think you’ve won?” the lich asked, his hand on the part of his body where his shoulder had been.

“I have.” More firebombs floated around the avatar, ready to fly in any direction.

The dungeon contemplated having a long speech on the matter. He could see in the flaming eye sockets of the lich that the skeleton was expecting it. Yet, that was something a low-level villain would do. Theo, on the other hand, directed all the spheres of fireballs at the lich. The force of the combined explosion was large enough to cause several ice lizards to fall from the ceiling. Knowing the pattern of their attacks, the avatar waited for the right moment and shoved several fireballs in their mouths, almost on instinct.

CORE CONSUMPTION

4 Ice Lizard core fragments converted into 1000 Avatar Core Points

AVATAR LEVEL INCREASE

Your Avatar has become Level 14

+1 Mind, FLIGHT skill obtained

930 Core Points required for next Avatar Level

Not too bad. Although, something was missing. Apparently, the lich was stronger than the dungeon had thought.

FLIGHT - 1

Grants the power of flight at the cost of 10 mana per minute.

Using the skill will increase its rank, increasing the speed of the flight.

The skill wasn’t entirely useless. Not that Theo couldn’t use telekinesis on his avatar. Still, now he had the proper way of flying, which was a good thing potentially.

The smoke of the blasts quickly dispersed, revealing not only that the lich had remained intact but also that he had been shielded by a large crystalline creature twice his size. Looking like a golem made of shards of sharp ice, it stood in front of the skeleton, its entire left arm transformed into a large tower shield. At any other time, the dungeon would have asked Spok for clarification regarding the creature. However, with her busy dealing with Lady Amelia, it was time to resort to plan B.

“You summoned a new creature,” the avatar said, creating a dozen more firebombs in the air.

“It’s more than a mere creature,” the lich laughed dryly. “It’s an ice elemental and more than a match for you.”

“Ice elemental?”

What Theo wanted to ask was more details regarding the creature itself. He had some preconceived notions about what elementals represented, but they were mostly generic information. However, what the lich understood was completely different.

“Yes. When I said that I had defeated all the elementals protecting the forest core, I never said that I had destroyed them all.”

“Actually, you—”

“The ice elemental serves me now, and it’ll make a special column for you to join my collection.”

That sounded somewhat ominous. Not being one to back off, the avatar instantly threw all the flame bombs at the elemental. A new series of explosions followed. Yet, unlike before, no sooner had the blasts occurred than they froze in the air. The sign would almost have passed as beautiful, if it didn’t indicate that the weapon Theo had relied on had just been rendered useless.

The elemental’s right hand transformed into an ice lance, which was then thrown straight at the avatar.

Similar to before, the avatar surrounded himself with an invulnerable aether sphere. Only this time, the lance didn’t shatter upon impact, but propelled the sphere through the chamber, half burying it in the wall behind.

Oh, crap, Theo thought. This didn’t look good.

Things took a turn for the worst, when the following stream of ice hit the front of the sphere, effectively sealing the avatar in the wall. Obviously, despite the avatar’s recently acquired skills, the opponent wasn’t someone he could take on directly. The Vinewood core was simply boosting the magical entity far too much, making it more indestructible than Theo.

“Spok,” the dungeon whispered from the attack.

The plea remained unanswered as the spirit guide continued to show the outside of Rosewing to the duke’s daughter, using the scrying crystal ball. All in all, that was a good thing—it had kept the noblewoman relatively quiet and kept her from venturing out in a misguided desire to do something heroic. Unfortunately, it also kept Spok from providing valuable advice at a critical moment of the avatar’s battle.

“Spok,” Theo said again, somewhat louder.

“Did you hear something?” Lady Amelia glanced at the door. “I could have sworn that someone…” her words trailed off.

“It’s Baron’ d’Argent,” the spirit guide replied, taking advantage of the fact that the lady wasn’t looking, to change the scene in the crystal ball, as if she were switching a television channel. “How may I be of assistance, sir?” she asked.

The scene wasn’t anything to write home about. Rather, there was no scene, just a great blackness filling the ball.

“What’s the best way to deal with an elemental?” Theo asked. “An ice elemental.”

“That should be quite easy considering your abilities, sir,” Spok began. “Just shatter the core of the elemental and—”

“The thieves have ice elementals?” Lady Amelia asked, leaning towards the crystal ball in an attempt to see what was going on.

“Baron, this is Lady Amalia Goton, daughter of Duke Goton,” Spok said. “She has graciously accepted your invitation and is awaiting your return.”

“About that, I’ve been slightly sidetracked. Nothing too serious. I just stumbled on an ice elemental that is fire resistant.”

“That cannot be, sir. Ice elementals are extremely susceptible to fire. A fireball or two should be enough to deal with them.”

The description was not at all comparable with the entity that the avatar was facing.

“This one is different. Fireballs freeze upon touching it.”

“A fire-freezing ice elemental?” Lady Amelia’s eyes widened.

“That is most peculiar, sir,” Spok said.

It’s most annoying is what it is! Theo wanted to shout. However, he knew that wouldn’t solve anything and was just likely to cause more problems later on.

“Elementals of such a level are rather uncommon. The spell maintaining them must be extremely powerful. If you’re dealing with a summon, I’d suggest focusing on the wizard or ritual behind the elemental.”

“Can I summon it away with a portal?”

“That would be quite difficult and not advisable. For one thing, it would send the creature here. For another, it would require vast amounts of energy—energy I’m not sure you could afford to waste in the current circumstances.”

The dungeon grumbled mentally. Spok was right, of course. Moving the ice elemental would be expensive, leaving Theo’s own core rather defenseless. Another solution had to be found. Somehow, once again, he found himself in a tight situation. And just as before, there was only one thing he could do.

Waiting until the indestructible effect of his aether sphere was over, the avatar created a room behind him. It was a small room, just enough for him to take a few steps back and to the side in case the ice elemental followed up with an attack. To little surprise, his enemy did. The wall of ice thrust forward like a metal press, slamming into the wall of the newly created room.

Quickly, Theo created a new room composed of a winding stairwell and ran up. As he expected, the wall of ice followed, though far slower than before, creeping into every new space created. Constantly casting swiftness on itself, the avatar kept a solid lead, making its way up the walls of the chamber. More roots appeared the further up he went, up to a point that it was getting difficult to squeeze through. It seemed that all the roots of the entire forest converged there, making their way to the massive Vinewood core.

Faced with creeping ice on one end and impenetrable roots on the other, Theo did the only option available to him, which was to continue sideways by building a hanging corridor just beneath the ceiling. This was a risky notion, and one followed by ice lances breaking through the floor as the avatar sprinted forward. Each time a new segment was created, it was almost instantly destroyed by the raging ice elemental.

“You stupid lich!” the avatar shouted while creating new corridor segments along the roof. Then it hit him. There was no need for him to keep building rooms, he had the ability to fly, which he did, entering the chamber. Sending dozens of flame bombs at both the lich and the ice elemental, he crisscrossed towards the core. If there was one thing the invading goblins in Rosewind had taught him, it was that people found it extremely difficult to focus their attention on more than one thing.

The avatar’s enemies acted as expected. The ice elemental rushed to shield its master, pausing all attacks. This was the moment Theo was waiting for. Casting flight as many times as possible, the avatar darted to the giant core.

“No!” the lich shouted, realizing what was about to happen, but it was already too late.

The instant the avatar reached the enormous shining sphere, he summoned something from his dimensional ring. However, it wasn’t his sword.

“Let’s see you powered down,” the avatar said and pressed the wooden ring given to him by the prince against the core’s surface.

The golden light in the chamber vanished along with the core itself. The only thing that remained was the faint blue glow of the ice and a dozen flame bombs that the avatar had at the ready floating in the air in their aether shield bubbles. The effects of the Vinewood core didn’t end there, though. No longer sustained by its power, the magic in the chamber began to fade. All six ice columns cracked up, the shattered falling to the ground like buckets of ice.

“Did I ever tell you you’re crazy?” Liandra asked. Now that the enchantment keeping her imprisoned was gone, she and four more heroes were free to move about. It was difficult not to be impressed. Although she had let herself be caught in almost childish fashion—largely due to the fact that like most people, she needed air—the heroine didn’t seem at all harmed by the ice she had been wrapped in.

“Only a few dozen times,” the avatar smirked. “You can deal with the ice elemental, but the lich is mine.”

None of the heroes said anything, but Theo saw agreement in their eyes. That was perfect. In their eyes, he probably looked like a badass, wanting to deal with nothing else but the great monster itself. The fact was that the dungeon was a lot more confident that he could deal with the lich than the ice elemental. The lich had been severely wounded thanks to the avatar’s blessing attack. Now that he couldn’t get any energy from the core, he was probably a single hit away from destruction.

“Kill them!” the lich shouted, pointing at the heroes with his single hand.

It was a pathetic sight that Theo didn’t want to prolong, so he directed all his flame bombs at the skeleton.

Having received a direct order, the ice elemental didn’t intervene, taking a few steps towards the center of the chamber, as its master was engulfed in a ball of flames.

CONGRATULATIONS!

You have killed lich-mage Ollen Alkazar.

A chrono mage prodigy, the hero failed to complete the task given to him by the Silvarian elves and fell to the guardians of the Vinewood, turning into a lich upon death.

500 Avatar Core Points obtained.

ICE MAGIC obtained.

News of your achievement shall be known throughout the entire continent.

Five hundred points? Theo wanted to scream. He quickly turned his avatar to attack the ice elemental, but it was already too late. The heroes had already sliced it to pieces. All that the dungeon got to do was watch the fragments fall to the ground.

“Damn it!” he hissed. He should have focused on the ice elemental! At least then he’d have earned more than five hundred points. Getting a new skill was better than nothing, but he would have gotten one anyway once his avatar gained a new level.

ICE MAGIC - 1

Allows the casting of ice rays capable of freezing any target.

As the skill’s rank increases, additional ice abilities will become available.

That sounded a bit better than his fireball spell. It seemed that heroes had an advantage in that area. While dungeons could learn hundreds, if not thousands, of spells, each of them was an individual action. Heroes, apparently, had the ability to learn whole categories containing multiple spell groups. Maybe this wasn’t a total loss, after all?

“Liandra!” The avatar rushed towards her. Despite the local victory, the threat in Rosewind remained. “I need another of your magic scrolls! We have to send the core to Rosewind. Lord Mandrake is already there. This is the only way to save—”

“Theo.” The woman didn’t let him finish. “We can’t.”

“Say what?” The avatar blinked.

“I’m sure you have the best intentions at heart, and Rosewind could use the power of the core, but we can’t send it. We made a promise to the prince to return it to him, and we must keep that promise. If we don’t, we’ll lose our heroic nature and will end up like that lich.”

The avatar looked at the remaining bones of the lich, then at each of the heroes in turn. Even if Liandra were to be convinced to send the core away, there was no way they would.

“Fine,” he said with the utmost restraint. “Let’s go back to the prince…”