It took an hour of walking for the avatar to spot something resembling a structure in the distance. Upon arriving closer, he saw that it was more than a simple building in the wilderness. Made of stone and bronze, a four-story structure resembling a miniature castle stood at the very base of a mountain. It was finely crafted, with statues depicting various men and women in heroic poses, and a large metal sign that had nothing more than a picture of a sun on it. It didn’t take many guesses to figure out that to be the heroes’ guild. Considering the might of its members, it was rather simple, almost spartan. There were adventurer guilds in Rosewind more impressive, let alone the large cities of the kingdom.

“Cute, but sweet,” the avatar said.

Just as a precaution, he cast a flight spell and surrounded himself in two aether spheres as he approached.

With everything experienced so far, it wouldn’t be surprising if the entire structure exploded, revealing a giant representation of Gregord. At least, that’s what the dungeon would have done had this been his trial.

A few hundred feet from the entrance of the building, the avatar stopped. Even now, he knew very little about Gregord’s past. Supposedly, he relied on magic even as part of the hero guild. Auggy had mentioned that he also resorted to aether weapons, but that was as vague as could be.

Wrapping a fireball in an aether sphere, the avatar propelled the explosive spell forward, then used a fire scrying spell to get a look at the inside of the structure. The massive metal door moved aside as the fireball approached, yet no sooner had Theo’s spell proceeded further than he saw nothing but a solid stone wall.

Was that an illusion?

Thrusting the fireball forward, an explosion echoed, tossing the metal door fifty feet away from the building. Despite that, not a single crack formed on the stone wall.

“It’s just for decoration,” a male voice said.

Theo instinctively cast an ultra swiftness spell, then cast a Memoria spell onto the source of the voice. A cube of ice appeared, encasing the unfortunate target. Moments later, however, the mental prison burst open. Thousands of miniature ice corridors and stairways hung in the air like pieces of a puzzle that had been undone.

“Interesting take,” a young man said.

He had Gregord’s features, though resembled more the statue that Theo had seen during his previous noble quest than the aether representation in the tower. This version had long hair, neatly kept in a ponytail, basic travelling clothes, and the simplest leather armor covering his upper torso. If anything, the leather boots he was wearing provided greater protection than anything else. No weapons or magic spells were visible, making the dungeon even more suspicious.

“I never considered mixing the spell with ice,” he said, taking a winding staircase from the air. “Would have been perfect against magical entities. I don’t even want to think how many of them must have broken loose.”

“We all make mistakes,” the avatar said. “I take it you’re Gregord the Hero?”

“The hero,” the man laughed. “There was a time when I yearned to be called that. That was until I joined the hero guild.”

“Really? Why?”

“Everyone there’s a hero. That’s why I settled for the Gregord the Archmage. But I doubt you’ve come here to discuss my past.”

A circle of aether daggers appeared around the avatar, just outside the second aether sphere. That much was true. They hadn’t come here to talk, but to fight.

“I take it I must defeat you and then capture you in your own spell?” he asked.

“You just have to defeat me,” Gregord said, amused. “That’s all. It would have been too easy to use a spell that you just got to pass this trial. The reason participants are granted this spell is to know how to defend themselves against it.”

Theo was about to ask what the man meant when it suddenly came to him. Auggy had lied. It wasn’t the participants that had to capture Gregord. They had to be able to counter the memory spells that he cast on them.

“Spok!” he yelled through the spirit guide’s core pendant. “How do you counter a spell?”

All aether daggers flew in the direction of Gregord, but as they did, the outlines of a maze had already started forming around the avatar. In the blink of an eye, the surroundings changed. The daggers continued forward, striking a wall and burying themselves halfway in.

“Damn it!” The avatar cursed. For the third time in his existence, he was trapped in a Memoria’s tomb. “Some hero you are!” he shouted.

Barely had he done so, when a large earth elemental emerged thirty feet away. The creature was meant to be impressive, but after Theo’s unsuccessful ice elemental summoning, it looked laughably small.

The elemental grunted, slamming its giant fists against one another in a show of force.

The avatar didn’t even delay to create the appearance of being intimidated. A dozen entangle spells were cast on the entity, followed in immediate proximity by ice shards, exploding fireballs, and aether daggers for good measure. Theo was just in the process of considering what else to add to the mix when he was informed that the fight had already finished.

CORE CONSUMPTION

1 earth elemental shard converted to 3000 Avatar Core Points.

The reward wasn’t too bad, for the ease with which the elemental had been destroyed. As anyone familiar with Memoria’s tomb spells, the creatures weren’t meant to kill its prisoners, but rather keep them too weak to destroy the actual guardian. A normal person would slowly run out of mana and stamina, wandering through the endless maze, while the same monsters emerged again and again.

For Theo, though, this couldn’t have come at a better time. Fighting elementals was the perfect means for him to vent a bit of aggression. Casting a new flight spell, he went down a random corridor.

It didn’t take long for the dungeon to find that the layout of the Memoria spell followed the general mold. Apparently, memory spells had to be extremely complicated and creating variants took a lot more effort than one would imagine. That posed an interesting question—were the spells that the avatar had cast compliant to the general principle, or did they have differences? Maybe at some point he’d have to go into his own Memoria’s tomb and find out.

The second group of enemies appeared fifteen minutes later. This time there were three of them, all earth elementals as before. The bunch had learned from the mistakes of the first and instantly made massive shields grown from their left arms. When the avatar inevitably proceeded with his attack, the damage wasn’t even close to destroying them.

Mildly annoyed, Theo cast a light spiral on top of the nearest stone shield, then shoved a series of fireballs inside.

The glowing eyes of the earth elemental flew out along with two flames, while the rest of his body remained perfectly intact, like a statue.

CORE CONSUMPTION

1 earth elemental shard converted to 3000 Avatar Core Points.

Funny, Theo thought as his avatar kicked the statue’s shield. The entire entity fell backwards, shattering to pieces on the floor like a broken vase.

“Sir?” Spok replied through her core pendant, just as the other elemental went on the offensive. “Why would you need to counter a spell?”

The massive shard cut through the avatar’s body, like a skewer. The only thing that resulted from it, other than a slight energy drain back in the dungeon’s main body, was a sense of annoyance.

“Work on your timing.” The avatar cast a multitude of entangling spells, immobilizing his attacker.

The entity tried to use its superior strength to break loose, but after a few seconds, it quickly found that it couldn’t compare to the intensity of the spell cast, slowly turning into a cocoon of rock.

“If I know a spell, how can I counter it?” the dungeon repeated.

“That is a rather long conversation, sir.” The sigh could be heard through her pedant. “There are a number of spells that can help you disenchant, complicate, or fizzle spells. Are you dealing with something rudimentary?”

“How can my avatar counter a spell?” the dungeon clarified. “A spell that I already know.”

“Oh.”

The word contained both alarm and relief. Relief that the issue in question was as far from the city as conceivably possible. That meant that Spok wouldn’t have to deal with any consequences that might arise. At the same time, having to resort to countering magic didn’t bide well.

“Am I to assume you can’t provide any additional details, sir?” she asked.

Theo tried to convey that memory spells were concerned, but no matter his approach, the words refused to come out.

“Nope. I’ve said all I can,” he said after a while.

“Well, I am aware of one method used in the past, but it’s not the most reliable. For one thing, you’ll have to use the same amount of energy, or even more.”

“That’s not an issue right now.” As the dungeon spoke, the avatar cast a giant shard of ice—fifty feet in height—and sent it slamming down on the earth elemental’s head. The noise that followed was similar to two pieces of flint slamming together, only on a much larger scale.

CORE CONSUMPTION

1 earth elemental shard converted to 3000 Avatar Core Points.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

“Could you repeat that, sir?” Spok asked.

“Just tell me the method!” The dungeon grumbled.

“If you insist. All you need to do is cast an identical spell with the same target and the same location,” the spirit guide explained. “In short, two spells can’t exist at the same spot at the same time. When that happens, both of them are driven out of existence and the mana used on both sides is wasted.”

“That actually works?”

“It was discovered by accident during a period known as the dungeon wars. Back then, dungeons viewed themselves as apex predators and chose to destroy each other quickly so they could conquer and expand at their leisure.”

“Let me guess how that worked out.”

It must have taken a special type of arrogance to think that the only thing that could stop a dungeon is another dungeon. It was a good thing that dungeons tended to reincarnate often, or they would have gone extinct pretty fast.

To make matters worse, the advice was only partially helpful. If Gregord were to cast another memory spell on Theo’s avatar, there was no guarantee that the dungeon would be able to cast one of his own in the same spot.

“What happens if the spells only partially overlap?” Theo asked.

“Depends,” Spok replied. “If you’re talking about low-level spells, I expect there might be a slight explosion. Should they be of the more powerful variety, there might be more severe consequences. Hopefully, you don’t intend on doing anything of the sort before or during my ceremony, sir?”

“Don’t you have shopping to go to?” The dungeon snapped.

Not only had the spirit guide been late to respond, but she constantly assumed that he’d do something to jeopardize the wedding. If he hadn’t invested so much time and effort, Theo had half a mind to just that. Possibly just convert the majority of himself into energy and teleport somewhere. That would definitely bring a new case of having Rosewind’s bride run off on the day of the ceremony. Not only would Spok me gone, but the entire city along with her.

A loud thump in the upper floor of the dungeon’s main body snapped him out of his train of thought. Maximilian, the fat rabbit, had fallen off something again. Normally, Cmyk was supposed to oversee the creature, but the skeleton was too busy taking on the role of local celebrity to bother with even the most rudimentary tasks assigned to him.

“Alright, alright,” Theo levitated the rabbit up, then gently floated it to the room that was designated to be his. “I won’t be ruining the wedding. Just try to stay in one spot, okay?”

A large pot of glowing carrots emerged from the floor.

“Have some snacks,” the dungeon said. “Just don’t overdo it, okay?”

The rabbit moved its nose and whiskers, potentially in agreement. Right now, that was good enough for Theo, who continued to fly through Memoria’s tomb with his avatar. As he did, the enemies along the way increased. It wasn’t long before he reached level thirty-five. The skill given was eagle eye—a mediocre skill, but far better than the last three received. Sleep sense, weather tolerance, and sleep transfer might have been useful skills for people, but for a dungeon, they were worse than useless.

Soon, hesitation crept into the dungeon’s mind. While the mind prison was an utter waste of time, it was also an endless source of core points for his avatar. With the energy reserves in his main body, Theo could well grind his way up to level forty, where he’d hopefully get a good specialization. It was unlikely there’d be another opportunity such as this again. On the other hand, there was no telling how much time that would cost him. Since time continued to pass as normal in the real world, that suggested that the remaining three candidates had already engaged with their respective opponents.

What was better? The dungeon pondered on the question.

In order to leave the tomb, he had to defeat a guardian—likely an easier variant of the one that he, Liandra, and the adventurer trio had faced in the cursed estate. And that was just the beginning. The real fight would take place outside, on the sixth floor.

After a few minutes of intense thought, Theo decided to focus on leveling after all. Furthermore, he made sure to only use magic spells to up his mind trait.

The closer he came to the guardian’s chamber, the larger the earth elementals became. Fights that used to take seconds now stretched into the minutes, with some of the monsters actually managing to land a few hits in the process.

Thankfully, the core points awarded for their destruction also grew, even if by lesser amounts. Upon obtaining level thirty-six, the avatar was given the ability stone skin. It, too, required energy, yet after a quick calculation, Theo noticed that it would reduce his energy consumption by roughly a third, at least in casual combat.

The next two levels once again brought disappointment, granting him appraisal and haggling. The first was already covered by a similar ability Theo had as a dungeon. The only difference was that he was able to put an actual monetary value to items and materials—something that Spok took care of, at present. The second, the dungeon initially viewed as pointless. After a few moments’ consideration, however, he thought he might make use of it during his next conversation with the feline tower.

Yet, it was the following skill that rendered the dungeon speechless.

AVATAR LEVEL INCREASED

Your Avatar has become Level 39.

+1 Mind, HEROIC STRIKE skill obtained.

10900 Core Points required for next Avatar Level.

HEROIC STRIKE - 1

Allows you to perform a strike blessed by the deities. The raw power of the attack is enough to harm through any corrupted being, demon, dungeon, and abomination.

Can only be performed once per day.

Using the skill will increase its rank, causing it to deal further devastation to its target.

“You have to be joking,” the avatar whispered. Theo wasn’t certain whether to laugh or cry.

He had just obtained a skill that would instantly welcome him into the ranks of heroes, earning him a spot in the hero guild. Yet that very same skill had the ability to harm him just as much as the thing it was used against. There was a very good chance that his avatar might get completely destroyed in the process, ironically losing all skills, including the heroic strike. Yet, there was this voice in the back of the dungeon’s mind, urging him to give it a go and see what happens.

“You really want to get rid of me, don’t you?” the dungeon asked the universe. “Well, I’ll make you work for it.”

Resisting the temptation, he continued towards the center of the maze. Once he reached it, Theo made the conscious decision to roam a bit more, searching for earth elementals to kill. It was annoying that the entities that had emerged at great frequency once he was in a hurry now were nowhere to be found.

For a quarter of an hour, the avatar roamed about, picking corridors at random, until finally, he had amassed the required amount of core points to reach his next specialization.

AVATAR LEVEL INCREASE

Your Avatar has become Level 50

+1 MIND, EARTH MAGIC obtained

12600 Core Points required for next Avatar Level

EARTH MAGIC - 1

Allows creation of earth, clay, and rock objects.

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

HEROIC SPECIALIZATION

(Level 40 requirements met)

Based on the life you have led so far, the deities have granted you the opportunity to select a secondary specialization complementing your heroic trait. Further specializations are also possible based on your future development.

The choices provided to you are as follows: GRAND BARD.

Never before had Theo felt such joy and disappointment in rapid succession. Gaining a new type of magic was, as he had seen, always good. Being offered a single choice, which upon reflection was the worst of all, was anything but pleasant.

GRAND BARD

(Offered due to your multifaceted development and experience)

Combines the strengths of magic, heroic, and battle bard into one.

Not once had Theo wondered what types of bards roamed the world. Becoming a magic bard in his previous specialization was bad enough. Now, it seemed he had gone beyond terrible into the realms of unmentionable. What could a battle bard even do? Slam enemies’ heads with a mandolin? And heroic bard sounded like a minstrel that tagged along for no particular reason.

“At least give me something to choose from!” the avatar shouted.

The choices provided to you are as follow: GRAND BARD, GRAND BARD, GRAND BARD.

The message changed in mockery.

With a grumble, the avatar picked the middle one. On the surface, nothing happened. Neither the dungeon nor the avatar seemed different in any way, nor had any of their skills changed. Even so, there was no hiding the shame. If Spok didn’t know by now, she soon would, and the same could be said for every adventurer, if Theo ever was forced to update his adventurer status at a guild.

With a sour expression, the avatar went through the entrance to the maze guardian chamber. If nothing else, he had boosted his mind to a hundred, ensuring that all summoned ice elementals would no longer rebel. That was definitely going to make the fight against the geometry guardian a lot more manageable, although last time a heroic strike had been required to ensure victory.

Darkness surrounded the avatar. When it dispersed, he found that he was no longer in the maze. Instead, nature was all around him, along with everything that encompassed: fresh air, sunlight, mountains, and the sound of nearby clapping.

“You really are exceptional,” the heroic version of Gregord said. “Nearly all give up at this stage.”

The man’s right hand moved forward, but before it could fully extend, Theo had cast an ultra swiftness spell, leaping away from the spot, while also summoning an ice elemental.

The outlines of a cube emerged where the avatar had been. For several seconds, they remained there in a semi-existent state—just long enough for Theo to cast an arcane identify on them.

“Another Memoria’s tomb?!” the avatar winced.

“It’s my spell,” the other replied. “Who’s to say I can only use it once?”

The avatar’s eyes narrowed. This was very different from what he expected. The trial wasn’t meant to test one’s skill or strength, but the level of their determination. Other than mana, nothing prevented a candidate from breaking free from the maze. Technically, not even mana was needed as long as one didn’t engage with the elementals spawning within. Rather, it was the experience of getting entombed time after time in a memory prison that shattered one’s confidence.

“How many made it past this floor?” the avatar asked, ready to use his swiftness spell again, should Gregord try anything funny.

“Asking the right questions.” Gregord smiled. “Just one. The rest didn’t even make it this far.”

Another attempt was made to trap the baron in a Memoria’s tomb, and once again he reacted faster than the spell could take hold.

“And how many are out there using your memory spells?”

Gregord paused for a moment.

“That’s an interesting question. Before today I’d have thought none. Although it’s always possible that someone has managed to duplicate my spell. You managed, after all.”

That wasn’t entirely the case, but the dungeon didn’t want to argue. For the moment, he was more focused on how to defeat his opponent.

Casting a multitude of swiftness spells on himself, the avatar attempted to entangle the hero. Sadly, that would have been too easy. As the threads formed around the young man, an aether blade emerged in his left hand, slicing through them in one strike.

“Left handed?” the avatar asked. He didn’t remember any of the mages he was with mention it until now, yet it wasn’t like he was paying particular attention.

“Not exactly,” another blade emerged in his right. “In your case, I’ll use both.”

Just my luck, the dungeon thought. Of course, it would turn out that one of the magic prodigies of the world would end up being ambidextrous. Still, he had one ace up his sleeve.

“Elemental!” he shouted to the chunk of ice that had gained form a few hundred feet away. “You know what to do.”

Up to this point, the ice giant had remained perfectly still, calmly observing the exchange between the two without taking any action. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to, but rather he hadn’t been given any instructions. Since the mind trait of his creator covered the minimal requirement for full obedience, the entity was nothing more than a vessel for his will.

Receiving the instruction, the giant head looked down, paused for a few seconds, then the elemental shrugged.

“You must be joking,” the avatar said beneath his breath.

“First time ordering an elemental?” Gregord asked with a sympathetic smile. “You must be very specific about it. Most of them aren’t good at interpretations. Just tell it to attack me. That should do the trick.”

That was rather sporting of the man, which was precisely why Theo didn’t trust him.

“Ice elemental,” he began, “Attack my opponent.”

This time, the ice colossus sprung into action, shooting a pair of freeze rays straight at the Gregord.

Waiting till the very last moment, the man leaped into the air, where he broke out in a flight. Both his swords split the air, flying straight at the ice elemental’s head.

The entity was intelligent enough to grasp the attack, so it quickly raised its hand to block their path. Unfortunately, that only caused the weapons to swerve to the side, flying on both sides of the palm of ice, then target the elemental’s eyes once more.

“Targeting charm,” Gregord explained from the air, as the ice elemental’s head exploded in a cloud of ice. “Picked it up from the hero guild. Rather useful, when combined with arrows, but even more when used with spells. Took me a while to make enough modifications so that the blades don’t hit anything on the way, but it was worth it.”

“I see.” The avatar cast a flight spell on himself. “I’ll have to copy that one day.”