The beams of light flashed, glowing even brighter. In his mind, Theo had naively imagined spells to be elegant patterns of perfection. What was around him was anything but that. Ellis had made use of her magic circles to make various connections while bypassing others the same way one would make a wooden scaffolding to support a semi-complete metal one. It was ugly, unsafe, and of questionable efficiency.

Standing on a block of ice, the group of mages watched the green circle beneath them turn yellow, sending off flashes of power that made the ice vibrate. Even a non-expert could tell that the tower was reacting negatively to the connection. After a few moments, the light in the beams increased, causing all of the cat’s spells to fizzle out of existence. Once that was done, the circle turned green again.

“That wasn’t it,” Ellis said. “Give me a moment and I’ll start with the next one.”

“Maybe it isn’t a spell.” Celenia cast a spell, causing a series of scrolls to appear around her. For some reason, she was the only one allowed to summon things. Ellis, who knew the same spell, seemed to be unable to cast it.

“Gregord’s tower said it had to be a spell, so it has to be a spell,” the cat countered in a semi-bored voice.

“Gregord also taught his students to check everything, regardless of what was told.”

“Cel, if it isn’t a spell, what could it be?” Ellis looked at her, her tail flicking continuously.

There was no answer. Although seemingly innocent, the trial was the most difficult of all. They had no enemies, no traps to fear, just an endlessness of darkness with multi-colored beams of magic inside, and no clues whatsoever.

“Get some sleep,” the avatar said. “We’ll continue when you’ve restored some mana.”

By normal standards, he himself had used a lot to identify each of the beams. In reality, the amount was negligible when compared to what he had spent on the first day of the jousting tournament.

The avatar was about to add something, when without warning both Ellis and Celenia dropped to the ice block unconscious.

Several thoughts went through Theo’s mind. Most of them had to do with annoyance. Yet, spending so much time among mages had taught him to always be vigilant, especially of people who claimed to be friends.

Shards of ice appeared around him, bursting in all directions. A multitude vanished into the darkness; some flew through the mana beams, weakening them temporarily. All that flew at Auggy, though, bounced off, without hitting the man.

“No surprise you’re awake,” the old mage said, holding Gregord’s battle staff. “Still, I'd hoped the spell might affect you.”

“Can’t you make up your mind?” the avatar snapped. “Are you helping me, or trying to get me killed?!”

“Neither, actually.” A new spell emerged, surrounding the mage with a bubble of aether.

“You never had any spell restrictions.”

There was no way that Theo could have suspected this, but he was still mad at himself for not considering the possibility. Just because the man was almost killed on the previous trial was no reason to think of him as weak. Actually, it was the opposite. The encounter with Gregord the Archmage had caused the old man to receive multiple serious wounds, some of them lethal in ordinary circumstances. Even so, the tower had refused to eject him. That suggested that the old man had the strength to keep on going.

“The tower can always cast spells,” the old man said. “And thanks to the staff, I’m part of the tower. Ironically, the spell we must complete to pass this trial is a sleep spell. I figured it out the moment you told us what you saw within the beams. It’s one of the old magic theories. Mages of that age were obsessed with formulas, believing they could measure anything and everything.”

“Magic is like chemistry?!” Theo asked, both shocked and disappointed. Suddenly, all his desires to become a mage vanished.

“Ho, ho, ho,” the old man laughed. “Saying that is like saying that painting is just drawing a series of lines. Having some knowledge definitely helps, but magic is more art than science. Well, maybe equally art and science. The point is Gegord believed it to be science, thus the trial.”

A yellow beam of light shot out from one of the battle staff’s dungeon cores, hitting one of the surrounding beams of similar nature.

Theo thought of casting a chunk of ice to block it, but after some consideration chose not to do so right away. Without his ultra swiftness, he might only have one chance to react and he didn’t want to reveal his hand so early on.

“You’re thinking of stopping me, aren’t you?” the mage asked. “It’s not like I can change your mind, but I’d ask that you didn’t. It would be better for everyone if I see this through.”

“And why’s that?” In truth, it wasn’t a block of ice that Theo intended to summon. In this limited space, an ice elemental was going to be a lot more powerful than even a capable mage could handle.

“As I said, there’s just something I need to do. An old debt, you might say. Thanks to you bringing me here, I can repay it.”

“Let me guess,” the avatar scoffed. “You’re going to return the staff to Gregord.”

“It wasn’t difficult to guess.”

Really? Theo thought. All this time, he thought that the man had planned to go to the ninth floor to return the staff. If not, why hadn’t he returned it much earlier?

“The staff is part of the tower. By using it, I can fill the blanks in the spell.” Another ray of magic emerged from the staff, linking to its corresponding beam. “The only thing I needed was to figure out which spell it was.”

“And what happens then?” the avatar asked, considering the best time to cast his ice elemental. Three beams seemed too soon. Anything above five was dangerously close, though.

“That’s one of the things about this place—you never know,” the old man laughed. “I assume with the trial completed, all participants will be moved to the next floor to possibly start the final trial. Given the choice of spell, I strongly suspect that everyone would be forced to experience a brief nap in-between.”

A third ray shot out from the staff. Already the first two beams had unraveled, becoming closer to double helixes than anything to do with light. Theo would be lying if he wasn’t just a fraction curious. Even all the grumpiness and cynicism couldn’t keep all of his inquisitiveness buried. He had no intention of allowing the spell to be completed, of course, but there was nothing wrong in admiring it a bit longer.

“As for myself,” a fourth ray emerged.

Before the old mage could continue, the avatar cast his ice spell, aiming it at Auggy.

The old man easily avoided it, rising up in the air thanks to a flight spell only he could use. That was just part of Theo’s plan, though. The chunk of ice filled the spot where Auggy had been, quickly expanding upwards. Massive arms emerged along with a head with icy cold eyes.

“Freeze him!” Theo ordered, casting another ice spell at the mage. “Freeze all the beams of light, too!”

Freezing beams shot out of the elemental’s eyes as it continued to grow. One of the giant hands reached to grab the old mage. As the grip closed, the fingers were suddenly transformed into cubes of ice that dispersed in all directions.

“Wind magic?” the avatar asked. “That’s Windchild’s magic.”

“I’m a quick learner.” The old mage pointed the head of the battle staff towards the avatar and cast a spell. It was sheer luck that Theo was fast enough to move his avatar.

The semi-transparent outlines of a Memoria’s tomb emerged inches away. As much as that was fortunate, it confirmed that the old man had used the spell before and likely more than once. No one was as calm when using the spell. Theo remembered the mental pressure he had been under during his first and second time. Furthermore, this was an exact copy of Gregord’s spell—the real deal, possibly up to the guardian. Of course, the dungeon had no intention of finding out.

Increasing the number of ice blocks, the avatar kept on targeting a single beam. Like an old neon light, it flickered several times before disappearing altogether. The beam that had connected it to Gregord’s battle staff also disappeared as well.

“This whole fight is pointless, you know.” Auggy cast another spell, sending a flutter of wind butterflies right at the still-growing ice elemental. Far less aggressive than Elaine’s had been, they pierced through the frozen mass as if it were nothing.

Icicles quickly formed, attempting to fill in the holes, but for every one that was filled up, ten more emerged. Anyone could tell it was a losing battle, even if the elemental kept on attacking, remaining just as stubborn as its creator.

“I might be stronger than you think,” the avatar hissed, casting a light spiral at Auggy.

It was done purely out of desperation, yet it drilled through the old mage’s aether shield, missing his shoulder by an inch. Now, it was Auggy’s turn to feel lucky. Had the spell succeeded, there was no telling what might have happened.

Unwilling to take the risk, the man suddenly split into eight identical copies, each flying off in a different direction.

“That’s not what I had in mind,” all eight of them said in perfect unison. “You’re fighting against your own interests. Even if you can complete the trial on your own, it would require a lot of effort both from you and the little ones. Let me complete it. You’ll move on for free.”

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“I’m supposed to trust the person who told me not to trust anyone?” The avatar cast a light spiral at one of the Auggies. The mage vanished, leaving seven of him behind.

“Good point,” the remaining said. “In this case, though, I would urge you to trust me. I helped you pass the last two trials, after all. That must count for something.”

Another spell and another Auggy vanished.

“You see that I can defeat you, right?” A note of alarm crept into the old mage’s otherwise calm voice. “A single memory prison and you’d be trapped longer than it would take me to solve the trial. I can use that method if you want, but I prefer not to.”

The comment made the dungeon think. Even a simple Memoria’s tomb would take hours to escape from. Even doubling his efforts, he wouldn’t be able to get out in less than ten minutes.

“Why did you put them to sleep, then?” the avatar asked. “If everyone falls asleep either way, it wouldn’t matter, right?”

There was a long silence.

“Ho, ho, ho,” the Auggies laughed. “I suppose even at my age, vanity remains. I didn’t want the little ones to see what I was about to do. Even someone such as me doesn’t want to see the shame in their eyes when I confirm that I stole not only Gregord’s Battle Staff, but part of the tower itself. It’s far better if they sleep through this.” A pause of silence followed. “Also, they might have made me reconsider.”

Four beams of light shot out from the battle staff simultaneously. One of them hit the blocks of ice that had made the beam vanish.

In a matter of seconds, all of them had changed form, creating the outlines of a spell.

“When I said that all the participants will be sent to the next floor, I lied a little.” More beams emerged, linking with their counterparts. “The truth is, the three of you will be going there without me.”

Webs of light emerged as the beams broke up further into individual strands.

“When I return the piece of magic that belonged to the tower, I’ll be cast out.” All of Auggy’s copies had vanished, leaving only one. “The price of stealing. The irony was that for decades, I’ve tried to give it away. I hoped I could do so on the sixth floor, but the Gregord I faced refused to accept it.”

“Won’t it hurt?” the avatar asked the first question that came to mind.

“I doubt it. Most likely I’ll just be ejected. Hopefully, without any of my memories inside. That way, I could enjoy the rest of my life in peace.”

“Wait! If you remember everything, won’t you—”

Suddenly, the dungeon lost touch with his avatar. Fear swept through the entire city. Thankfully, casting a few status spells quickly revealed that the link hadn’t been severed. For all intents and purposes, one might just say that the avatar had fallen asleep, which was weird since the rest of the dungeon hadn’t.

“Auggy, you maniac!” Theo shouted in his main building.

“Auggy, sir?” Spok asked from the guest room.

“Nothing,” the dungeon grumbled. Maybe it was better for him to have his attention focused on events in the city for a while. Of course, that would only half be true since even now he was constantly asking himself when his avatar would wake up.

On the surface, the day had gone rather well. Some would be tempted to call it a magnificent success. Sadly, all it took was for Agonia to look beneath the surface—literally—to find a large number of dead bodies. Their state was far worse than that of the missing cook. Everything but their clothes and bones was absent, making it impossible to tell who they were when alive.

“What killed them wasn’t fire,” Switches said, examining the skull he was holding through his large set of goggles. “Maybe there’s a runaway slime? They were found close to the adventurer section.”

That did make a bit of sense. Ever since the slimes had been cleaned out, the Rosewind council and the local guild masters had come to an agreement to have an active slime put in a section of the city. Officially, that was supposed to be the “old” sewers—which Theo was also forced to create—where young adventurers would go to test their skills and gain a sense of accomplishment. Duke Rosewind saw it as good fun, and Theo didn’t have the desire to argue.

There was one small issue with the gnome’s hypothesis, though.

“We would have known if that had happened,” Spok said. “There haven’t been any core point increases lately. Agonia,” the spirit guide turned to the gardener. “You didn’t have anything to do with that, I hope?”

“No, Madam,” the abomination said. “They were like this when I found them. Clothes included.”

Two things concerned the dungeon; three if one counted Ulf’s reckless decision to get Cmyk involved in searching for the mysterious culprit. For starters, that number of bodies might cause any of the heroes and adventurers in the city to suspect the presence of a dungeon. Even a rudimentary check would quickly reveal that the majority of the buildings weren’t buildings, but the aboveground part of a dungeon. It was the absurdity of the fact that kept people from realizing it.

Second, and just as important, such a discovery was likely to ruin the wedding, which would be a catastrophe. The dungeon hadn’t put in so much work just to have it ruined days before the actual ceremony. Even a spirit guide would be devastated, not to mention Theo wouldn’t be able to tolerate Duke Avisian’s smugness if that were to happen.

“It has to be that measly duke!” Every bit of furniture within the building shook. “Avisian, I mean,” he quickly added, seeing Spok’s questioning look. “He wanted to destroy this place ever since he got here. This is his chance!”

“That would be unlikely, sir.” Spok shook her head. “Cecil has been keeping a constant eye on him, not to mention that I have as well. Other than complaining and kissing the prince, all he’s done is complain.”

The furniture rumbled.

“I’ll build more walking armors,” Switches suggested. “Now that the airships are on pause, I’ve plenty of time. Might be a bit low on resources. That tournament wasn’t in the original budget.”

“Cannibalize one of the airships,” Theo grumbled. “Say that you’re retiring it or something.”

“The first one is only a few months old, boss…”

“No one remembers that! If anyone asks, say that you’re using some new technology or something. I want the city full of guards! But also make them not look like guards…” the dungeon thought for a moment. “Forget that. Just make them look shiny. When something is shiny, it’s not threatening.”

“Got you, boss!” The gnome gave the wall a thumbs up.

“Meanwhile, Agonia will keep an eye out for more corpses, since we can’t for some reason.”

“I still don’t have any explanation, sir,” Spok said. “Maybe you could ask the Feline Tower.”

“Yeah, yeah.” That would be easy, at least.

If nothing else, some of them were expected to come to the event any time in the next few days. When he had invited them, the dungeon had assumed that they’d pop up within the hour. However, it seemed that cats could be even more fussy about appearance than human nobility. They had required a “brief period” to get prepared before leaving their tower. There was every chance that they might appear only for the ceremony itself.

“Alright. We keep appearances,” the dungeon announced. “Agonia and Switches, do what you do and keep out of sight. I’ll continue to distract the prince and the heroes with the tournament, and hopefully, there won’t be any further surprises for the next few days.”

As it happened, the first surprise came an hour later in the form of a rather large portal opening over the city. The size was reminiscent of the portals Switches used to transport his airships back in his Lord Mandrake days. Instead of an airship, however, a structure emerged. More specifically, a miniature tower floated out. The magic lights and external motifs left no doubt as to who the owners of the tower might be. Even more surprising, however, an unexpected visitor emerged in front of Baron d’Argent’s door.

No one paid particular attention to the visitor. It was well into the night, after all. Also, the visitor was a rather old cat.

Stepping forward, the cat politely clawed at the base of the door. Sensing the magic within the creature’s paw, the dungeon was quick to open the door and invite him inside.

“Archmage?” Theo asked, quickly closing the door behind him. “I didn’t know you were a fan of weddings.”

“After the first hundred one tends to get tired,” the cat floated up in the air as it walked, making its way straight to the comfiest chair in the building’s guest room. “That’s not what I’m here for, though.”

Internally, Theo swallowed.

“Auggy Velinor of the Circle tower was cast out of the tower,” the white cat said. “That means you and my granddaughter are still in there.”

As much as Theo wanted to respond, the unseen force of Gregord’s tower prevented him from saying anything specific. He wasn’t even able to confirm the statement, let alone assure the old cat that everything was fine.

“That means you must be close to the top,” the archmage continued before going on one of his coughing sprees.

After a few seconds, Theo created a bowl of water near the cat.

The archmage waved a paw in a sign that he was getting better. After another few seconds, the coughing stopped.

“So, it’s time to tell you the real reason I sent you to the trial.”

“You mean you haven’t?” I knew it! The dungeon shouted internally. The whole ‘only humans can participate’ rule, while true, seemed a bit weak. There were other humans in the Feline Tower—Theo had seen them. And even if that wasn’t the case, they could have gotten Gregord’s second key at any point.

Suddenly, Theo mentally froze. It just hit him—the Feline Tower had gotten the key. Getting such a valuable item as a reward was ludicrous to begin with. Being a dungeon, neither Theo nor his spirit guide had seen the true value of the key, merely viewing it as a magical artifact.

“When you get to the ninth floor of Gregord’s tower, you’ll be given a choice,” the cat said. “Choose one gift that Gregord has to offer. Some say that, depending on a participant’s performance, one can choose more. That’s a lie. Gregord believed that a person has many chances, but only one goal.”

“I see,” the dungeon lied. “So, if I make the wrong choice, I’ll be cast out.”

“There’s no wrong choice. Not in the way you’re thinking. You always get to choose one thing. If you ask for something that’s impossible to be granted, you’ll just be asked to make a new one. The point is that you get what you ask for. Ask for a bag of gold and that’s what you get, along with the knowledge you could have gotten so much more.”

“So, I get to keep my memories?”

“That’s also a choice. Of course, it’ll mean you’ll get nothing else.”

Now things really were complicated. No wonder that was reserved for the final trial. Theo could ask for Gregord’s battle staff and later consume all the dungeon cores within it. Yet, he’d forget everything that had taken place since stepping into the tower. On the other hand, if he asked to retain his memories, he’d remember everything he could have had.

“You’re to choose Gregord’s diary,” the cat said in a firm tone.

“That’s a thing?”

“It’s more than a thing. It contains all of his thoughts—knowledge that he refused to share with anyone else. Everything else that Gregord has achieved will be replicated sooner or later, if it already hasn’t. The diary is unique.”

That made sense. The tower that got their hands, or paws, on that would vastly increase its power and influence. He could assume that Celenia would do the same.

“Sounds easy enough.” Theo displayed a bit of fake bravado. “Go up there, get the diary. Got it.”

“Let’s hope so. It would be unfortunate if I have to tell everyone what your true nature is.” The cat let out its fangs.

“What? We had an agreement! I went along with this because—”

“You got part of your reward early,” the cat hissed. “That was your choice. I went along with it, and now am changing our agreement in turn. I haven’t waited all this time for this chance to slip through my claws. I don’t know what floor you are on, and I know you can’t tell me. But I know you are close. No one has gone further than Auggy. For him to have returned alone means you have surpassed him. For that exact reason, I came here to give you a bit of further incentive. Don’t you dare take it easy because your greatest opponent has been cast out.”

Take it easy?! That was the last thing Theo had been doing. His avatar had been through a lot—more than he’d experienced in the past year put together. Once the baron part of him woke up, he’d see the final floor trial before reaching Gregord. He had no doubt that it would be the toughest one yet. The blasted cat didn’t have to add to the pressure by imposing another condition.

“So much for the nice old cat,” the dungeon muttered.

“Nice old cats don’t live to be hundreds of years old,” the archmage curled up on the chair. “Oh, and just in case you decide to have ideas, I’ll be spending the rest of the trial here.” He closed his eyes, making himself comfortable for a nap. “In the words of the Great Gregord, good luck.”