I was sitting on the floor of my childhood bedroom. Watching my mother pick up a figurine of a soldier, and dance it across the floor into a small wooden house my father had built. While my six-year-old self giggled and clapped along with my mother's humming.

I watched her face as her smile lit up her eyes, and her voice gave off a melodic charm as she infused her Sound affinity Mana into her song, layering itself into harmony.

I felt Mel's hand gently rest on my shoulder. Wiping away the tears that sat unshed under my eyelids, I stood, nodding to Mel. "Let's go."

***

Trennel and I entered the teleportation circle, transporting ourselves to the Lodge of the Elder just before dawn. I figured I should be the first one to arrive since it was my team. Trennel walked next to me, eating a sausage roll he had nabbed from one of the dwarven cooks on our way out.

We entered the main study to find Elder Bainer along with Kira and surprisingly, Erabol the Elf, standing next to the Elder wearing his Guild armor. He was speaking quietly with Bainer, while Kira straightened the new set of armor she had picked up.

Her chest piece and pauldrons were made of layered mithril, giving off the appearance of flowing metal. Her greaves and boots were both a deep brown, matching her gauntlets. A teal gemstone sat in a small silver tiara placed neatly in her red locks. She still had her carved staff next to her, leaning against the table.

Trennel nearly choked on his roll when he saw her. Even I had to admit, she looked stunning, and the armor was a slim fit on her, as opposed to the clunky Guild armor she had been outfitted in previously.

"Day, everyone," I said, greeting those already in attendance. "Kira. It looks like you accomplished the upgrade to your gear. It looks great."

She smiled wide, putting down the strap she was tightening. "Yeah, it's fantastic. The only Growth item I found was my tiara, it gives a passive increase to all resources. Everything else I have in a dimensional storage for the transition to Journeyman."

"We should take a break in a week or so, for a day to do a proper shopping trip, once we have the funds to do so. We may even take a trip to the Capitol for some of the auctions they host there." Trennel suggested, placing his unfinished breakfast into his storage.

"That's not a bad idea," I acknowledged, seeing the Elder and Erabol walk up to the three of us, done with their whispered conversation.

"Day, young Lord Cerilius and Young Lord Navir," Bainer said in greeting.

Trennel paled as he heard his family name given by the Elder. I glanced towards Kira to gauge her reaction, but it seemed she had been informed as well, and didn't appear to care.

"This one did not mean to be dishonest, Elder," Trennel said, giving the polite bow from someone of his higher station. "I was unsure of my reception if my grandfather's name was revealed, and thought better of supplying the information preemptively."

"We are citizens of the Duke, you are welcome here, of course, young Lord, never think otherwise," Erabol said, in his warm, inviting tone. "We may be disgruntled but we are no Insurrectionists."

"You did hold me hostage after finding out I was Nobility," I helpfully pointed out.

Without skipping a beat Erabol chuckled and responded, "Solicited a mandatory conversation, is a much more friendly way to describe it."

Trennel's eyebrows were raised and his eyes wide as he listened.

"It wasn't that bad, you're in no danger," I told Trennel, reassuring him in a low voice.

The door opened to the room behind us, making Trennel jump, as Fras and Isamaar walked in, the large human ducking his head under the jamb.

Isamaar wore a heavy gray fur coat that came down to his calves. Over a blue tunic, he had on golden partial plate armor that left ample room for maneuverability, comprised of small hexagons interlinked together.

In the center of his chest was a gemstone the size of a fist that matched the two shortswords with white-blue Mana crystals as the pommels were clipped to his belt.

Weapons with power sources could amplify enchantments placed on the item. Mages could only create Mana with the Affinity of their Core, so syncing with items of other Affinities was only possible with pure Mana, and did little to increase the power of any effects, only increasing their efficiency.

This could be circumvented by using a Mana crystal of the item's affinity to power an enchantment, replacing the resource expenditure to your wallet rather than your own Mana pool.

The armor was ideal for the quick Dwarf, an Agility-based fighter like me, offering great protection for when he got close. The choice of Ice affinity swords baffled me, as he was already proficient in Ice magic. Would he not want items capable of abilities and effects that were out of his reach?

"Maybe he gets some kind of bonus when there is more ice around," Mel answered.

I heard Trennel let out a soft chuckle at the sight of the two together.

Dwarves were not especially small, as the stereotype goes. Isamaar was about a head shorter than me, and I was tall for my age. But looking from his form to the towering pile of metal that stood domineering on his right, he might as well have been a child next to their parent.

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Fras stood, almost seven feet tall, in full-plate armor that had been painted in a red and silver spiraling design that wrapped around each of the limbs. He had a thick longsword that was just as tall as he was. The handle was a bright white and the crossguard was embellished with a set of wings, but I couldn't make out the blade while it was hidden under the tower shield strapped to his back. I wondered, not for the first time, how a man so large had taken to the profession of a thief.

"Nice swords," Kira said to Fras and Isamaar.

"With my life on the line, I spared no expense," Fras replied. "I spoke with an old friend in town and acquired it for a handsome fee."

"Is it stolen from some wealthy noble?" Isamaar asked, noticeably in a brighter mood than the day before.

"I bought it from a reputable dealer in fine wares."

"That wasn't an answer," Kira pointed out.

"It was an answer to a question," he grinned at the Dwarf.

Isamaar snorted at the huge man, before turning to me. "We're all here then? Is it time?"

I nodded. "Let's divvy up the supplies you collected from town, then get to the Dungeon."

***

"We're almost there, only a few more minutes," Kira called back to the group as we ran through the Forest of Therinil. As the slowest in the group, she held the pace with Fras at the front. Isamaar was at my side as we ran, with Trennel pulling up the rear, and watching out for any threats we missed as we ran.

We had avoided most of the groups of summons in our path. It wasn't worth the time we would have wasted when we had a little less than thirteen hours to do as many floors as possible before we needed to rest. I downed another Stamina potion, seeing Fras do the same. I thought his heavy armor would slow us down the most during the short travel, but he amazed us by showing off the enchantment in the chest plate. It had turned to inky smoke in a blink and condensed into a formal three-piece tailored red suit that wouldn't have been out of place at a royal ball, save for the giant sword strapped to his back.

Making it through a thick swath of undergrowth, we exited to find a massive clearing, dead trees filled with rotting purple veins of Death Mana. At the very center was a towering spire that stretched past the tallest trees into the dense fog of the early morning

The tower had a single entrance at the base that radiated a wave of Death affinity Mana that washed over the surrounding land.

"That is a pretty fierce aura for only being a Novice Dungeon," Isamaar remarked, stepping forward out of the tree line.

"It being left alone by the ruling family probably had something to do with that," Kira said.

I gave Trennel a quick glance, seeing him wince at the comment.

Isamaar led us to the gateway portal, as we all gazed at the tower itself. It was a single piece of chiseled stone, seemingly carved by the Gods themselves, with not a tool mark to be found, yet an endless number of immaculate relief sculptures depicting the summons we had come across so far, and a few I had never seen before.

"We need to enter together as a group touching one another. If we are not taken together, we will get deposited on separate floors and will have to find each other through scouting inside or exiting once the first floor is complete." Everybody nodded at Isamaar's words, sobering quickly at the thought of arriving alone inside the dungeon.

We approached the base of the tower, holding the person next to us. I had both Isammar and Trennel in contact with me as the group simultaneously took a step forward. My vision warped, as it was dominated by a white void that stretched endlessly, dulling all of my senses and creating a building pressure in my head.

"Mel?" I gasped, my head pounding violently out of nowhere."Do you feel that?"

"Something is accessing the Library. Everything. There is nothing I can do to stop it. I can't get a sense of power off of whatever it is, it appears blank as if nothing was intruding, but the presence of something in the Library is undeniable. I don't think it's a person doing this."

"The Dungeon? You think it scanned me?"

"Scanning," she corrected. "Going off the old man's explanation, how would it know how to tailor gear to individuals without understanding their needs? He said it is responsible for the loot drops off of monsters, but I think it's more than that."

"How so?"

"I have a theory based on what I've read so far." She said, speaking from my head, not joining me in the white void. "I think the System is using the Dungeon as a catalyst to be present here. If it was as all-powerful as the old man has claimed, it should have had no problem getting in and out of your mind without you noticing. I think that the System is not directly interfering here but rather a predetermined set of actions put forth by the System into the Dungeon Core for it to run a set number of functions determined by its scan. It would make what the old man said the System being responsible for loot drops, make sense. It probably needs these natural dungeons as a focusing point to reach this planet."

"You don't think it could just do it by itself?"

"I don't think so. With what we know about how the rest of the Multiverse treats this section of your universe due to its deficits, I would conclude that it would be similar for the source of all magic in existence."

"That does make sense, I have a pretty good start on the list of questions for Osiph when he gets back."

I walked around the empty space trying to find anything that indicated I was moving in any direction at all.

"So if the System was a Mage's Core, able to cast a variety of spells and effects, then the Dungeon Core is more like an Item with a few enchantments, but unable to go above its bounds."

Mel sighed in my mind. "I can see that you have the principles down, but you are terrible at analogies. Yes, I suspect, it's some type of System command that the Dungeon uses to initiate itself and all of its various functions."

"So how do I get it out of my head and move on into the Dungeon?"

Mel sent a mental shrug into my mind, making me roll my eyes. "Just wait, I assume."

I kept walking for a few more minutes until the pressure on my mind disappeared, one of my footfalls landed on compact sand, a small dust cloud billowing out beneath my boot.

I stumbled at rapid change of environment, catching myself, and quickly surveying my surroundings.

I saw the others standing around gaining their bearings near a nearby waist-high wall that was in a state of ruin.

What happened with the intruder?

"I think it finished its scan. I don't know what it was able to find, so I suggest assuming that it saw everything, just to be cautious."

I sighed at not being able to do anything about the System invading my mind, but there was nothing I needed to hide from an entity that was already all-knowing, so I would just push it out of my mind and muddle through.

The entire team seemed to have made it and we stood on a small dune, surrounded by spotty patches of dead grass littered along the hillside. I looked up at the unexpectedly bright blue sky to see the sun hanging high above us at midday.

I checked the watch I had stored in my ring, fearing I had lost half the day.

Only five minutes had passed, so we must have made it through to the first floor of the Dungeon. The sun being in the wrong position was odd, but it likely wasn't even a real sun.

The odds that it was an artificial sun were very low and was far more likely that it was a facade, and some Alteration and Illusion magic to make this floor look like the outside world.

One could never know what they would encounter when put at the mercy of a manifestation of Magic itself.