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Vareth's POV

I sat in my room disappointed at how the meeting went. If only my daughter did not barge into the room, we could have forced him to sign the contract and he would part of our family until his uses run out. Why did my daughter suddenly barge in anyway?

Charlotte has almost never disobeyed me let alone barge into a meeting unexpectedly. I called in one of the servants who was tasked with watching her and questioned him.

According to him Charlotte was happily chugging down water until she suddenly stopped and began shaking. Afterwards, she darted around the room pouring anything she could into the cup, then she ran into this room looking for Clyde.

The cup seems extremely suspicious.

"Who gave her that cup? I don't remember her owning one" I asked the servant who was kneeling down in front of me.

"She said it was a present Mr. Stone gave her, my Lord" He responded.

His gift huh..

"Bring the cup to me" I barked an order.

The servant ran outside and after a while I heard some yelling and whining from outside coming from my daughter. The servant walked in with a solemn look on his face and was visibly sweating. I glanced at his hands and noticed a shiny cup filled with jewels in it.

"Here you are, my liege" He said while handing the cup to me.

I looked around the cup and did not notice anything special than it being a cup created by an absolute idiot. Who in the right mind puts this many jewels into a single cup? Everything about this cup screamed pretentious. 

I know my daughter loves shiny things but this still is not enough to make her disobey me.

"Anything of noteworthy about this cup?" I inquired once more.

"From what I observed anything you pour into the cup makes it taste great which is likely why the young lady was so adamant about drinking from it over and over again" His response got me thinking. I reached out the flask of water near me and poured it into the cup then drank it. Nothing. It tasted normal. 

Going to a last ditch resort I willed my mana through it and noticed something peculiar. It had a formation in it. However, I could not tell what is was or what's in it. Being the Arch Duke I had many resources and information. The amount of knowledge I have attained over the years can rival any royal family yet I could not read a single bit of information from this formation.

"Take this cup to the formation expert. I want him to get as much information he can out of this cup" I told another order. The servant grabbed the cup and dashed out of the room.

I sat back into my chair and began mulling over the new found information. Clyde knows much more than just healing magic..or he has someone very powerful behind him that can lend out such formations that even I could not crack.. ugg.. that only made him much more precious. I suddenly remembered the report that came back about him from the Harth kingdom when we sent over men to investigate his past. They mentioned that they left it on my desk.

I looked around, finally finding it and opening it. Results? Nothing. No past. No family. No one has even heard or seen him. The only note worthy report is that a merchant selling a mask exactly like the one Clyde wore, but he sold it to an individual who looked nothing like Clyde. They tried to find the person who bought the mask but he seems to have vanished from the Kingdom. so no clue there. Who is this Clyde?. mysterious background, mysterious abilities... I might have wrapped myself into something bigger than I expected to..

 Few Hours Later>

I heard a knock on the door and in entered a balding old man who hobbled inside with the aid of his cane. The Rose family's formation expert.

I looked at him quizzically "So?"

He signed and tossed the cup back to me "I managed to  crack a part of the formation" He did? My eyes widened at the revelation but before I could get to ask anything about it he raised his hand and said "Don't get too excited. I said I managed to crack the formation. I still have no idea what it is says. Whoever wrote that formation used a language that is currently unknown. I searched through all the books regarding languages of this world and nothing. Either this language is from some backwater place or is written in code. Without more information about the language I cannot even come close to decoding it" my excitement died down pretty fast after his explanation.  

I groaned in annoyance.."Send me the report of anything else you find" I knew it would not yield much but it may get something.

"It shall be done" He said with a bow then left me in the meeting room.

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Gareth's POV 

Before I headed into an unknown location, I went to get some information. Since the dungeon itself was close to the Rhieg Kingdom their guild will likely have some information in it. Walking into the guild at the dead of the night it was a little empty with a sleepy receptionist trying her best not to fall asleep.

I strode forward and she jolted up as soon as she saw me putting on a smile stating "How may I help you?" 

"Do you have any information about the [Ancient Dungeon]? Maps? Reports? Rumors?" I asked her

"Um..yes we do..just a second" she responded whilst trying to locate some items around her desk. In the end she pulled out a map and a small stack of papers.

"The [Ancient Dungeon] has not been fully explored as anyone who has made it to the 3rd floor has never made it back. So we only know the layout of the first two floors"

"Never made it back from the third floor? Any rumors about it?" A disappearance in the 3rd floor is likely linked to the calamity.. or is guarding it.

"According to some eyewitnesses, they state that there is a door right before the third floor and if you open it it's pitch black inside and is said to be empty. However, anyone who goes down the stairs have never came back. There have been many theories as to why but they were never confirmed. There was recently a dispatch of royal knights to check but we have not heard from them" she responded with a solelm look on her face. Guess a lot of adventurers have been lost there.

"Intresting...how much for the map?" I asked.

"You are not planning to go in are you!?" She stood up glaring at me with a look of worry in her eyes.

"Don't worry, I just need to get something off the 2nd floor" I stated lying to her. No use in having someone panic.

"Alright then..just don't go to the third floor..I have seen many strong and brave adventurers never return after heading down there. It will be 30 gold" She hesitated as she passed the map on to me unsure if I would actually go in or not. I paid the price and left.

In the end, I purchased the map and assured the receptionist that I would not go to the 3rd floor. 

I made my way to to the [Ancient Dungeon] as I followed the map. It was right outside the kingdom and would require little time to get there. The 3rd floor disappearances seemed really odd. Where there monsters too strong for the adventurers to handle? If there was then there should have been noises that would be heard or at least one person should be able to make it outside. Perhaps it leads to a pit? Even then there should be some screaming noise that should come out of there but according to the reports there were no such noises. People go in and not a trace of them come out. It seems like I am heading somewhere I should not be.

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Making it way to the entrance of the dungeon which was simply a giant cave with a opening. It was pitch black inside so I used [Mid Light] to light up the surroundings. I heard patter of feet slowly trying to surround me. Goblins. Large in numbers and extremely stupid. I sighed and simply used [Mid Fire] and burned the goblins into ashes. 

I walked downstairs to reach to the second floor. I heard large amounts of creaking and chattering of metal and bones as I made my across the second floor and came across an interesting opponent. A knight. Not any knight; a skeletal one. It was fully dressed in knight's armor but through it's helmet I could see it was missing eyes. It was empty. It hobbled and creaked and raised it's sword against me. As it did so I heard more and more clattering around me. Soon I was surrounded by various skeletons some with knight armor some with simply leather ones. They all raised their weapons against me. My solution? [Mid Gravity] all around me. The bones of the skeletons were far too weak to sustain the increasing weight of the armor and they all collapsed. However, they still were trying to move but could not under all the pressure. I slowly increased my mana flow to the surroundings until the magic reached violet stage and the armor crushed the bones. I walked up the nearest one and removed the armor on top. I could still see some parts twitching as if trying to move. I reached out to the skeletal hand that was still on its weapons and tried to lift it. The arm tried to move around and grasp my throat but I held it back before it could do anything.

This was an interesting find but the most interesting part is that the reports stated nothing of skeletons on the second floor meaning these were new. They were freshly put here or were freshly created. There were no formations on the skeletons itself but it was covered in mana and life force. Large quantities of it. I used [Mid Life] and sucked the life force out of the trashing skeletal hand. It stopped moving. It seems like it is forcefully using remaments of life force and mana to move itself. If that were the case then the graveyards should be flooded with rising monsters along with dungeons but there is no mention of that as far as I was aware. Someone or something is creating them..I pulled out my notebook and wrote:

[Necromancy: Using life force and mana on undead to force them to move. 

Strengths: Ability to produce in mass numbers, cheap, untraceable to the user. Weakness: Control (Pending), fairly weak, too many unknowns]

With the information I have I could cast [Low Necromancy] but it was only enough to make an undead body twitch around. Useful for scaring someone or a prank but useless in combat.. the second wave of the calamity might be related to this..

Putting the hand back where it was, I walked downstairs to the 3rd floor. I was met with a door. A seemingly normal iron door. However what's past it is unknown. I opened it and I could make out a faint trace of stairs that lead down. I casted [Mid Light] through it guiding my mana through the floor. It was empty. I casted [Mid Sound] around the room to amplify any sound made and chucked a small rock in there. The rock's noises resounded throughout the room but that was it. Nothing moved, nothing aside from the rock made a sound. I clicked my tongue and went into the room slowly. I glanced around with the room checking every inch with my sword pulled out ready to strike anything that may jump out. Gulping, I descended down the stairs reaching to the most bottom step. As soon as I stepped off the stair case a bright blinding white light spread across the entire room. I shut my eyes in reflex and the light died down. 

As I opened my eyes, I was met with something else entirely. A forest. A large luscious forest filled with copious amount of trees and vegetation. The hard cold ground, I steppe on a few seconds ago were now tall green grass. Why is there a forest underground in a dungeon no less?. A forest.. underground. I turned around to where the stair case and door should but they were gone. Instead it was replaced by the same scenery as around me. Teleportation magic perhaps? Does stepping into this place teleport you to an unknown location? I thought that all previous adventurers landed here but there is no sign of it. No footprint, no markings on the trees..Did it send you to a random place every time? 

Groaning, I walked forward trying to see if I was anywhere near civilization. After a bit of walking around, I seemed to have ended up in the same spot I was. I walked up to the nearest tree and casted [Low Tree] on the nearest tree and nothing. My mana refused to go through the tree itself. Did I perhaps need a higher level spell to work on this tree? I tried many other trees but the same result. I pulled out my sword and carved my initials into the tree itself and then walked forward. I ended up the same spot as before but the markings on the tree were not there. I tried to go to different paths, but as I walked I always ended up in the starting position. I could hear a small stream of water nearby and I went over to it to clear my head and try to think this through. As I placed my hand in the water, I noticed something peculiar. My hand did not get wet. I could pick the water up in the palm of my hand. I even splashed some in my face but simply bounced off no leaving any traces of wetness behind.. this was getting weirder and weirder..

No traces of anyone, repeating scenery, can't cast [Low Tree] and the water behaves in an odd manner. This place is either an illusion or some other universe The former made more sense. Illusions... I could see and feel the objects around me so perhaps it was messing with the various cortexes of my brain at once? or was it simply a large amount of hallucinogens.. if it were the latter, I should be seeing much more than just a forest..

I willed my mana around me and released a large amount of mana from the body resulting it in creating a large violet torrent of mana around me. As the mana revolve around me I could see the surroundings slowly distorting and I willed more mana into the floors and walls trying to find any trace of formations. It seems like I knew more information than he formations resulting it in slowly cracking.. until it shattered. The room's scenery starting cracking until it collapsed leading me to be in a plain dungeon room. 

This room had a total of five formations. Each of which that targeted your main senses.. clever.. no wonder people never made it out...I looked around and saw various corpses here all of which looked heavily malnutrition.. likely due to the lack of food or water..

I carefully checked around the room to see if I could find more formations but could not find any more. Was this it? A room full of illusions. It was certainly strong but not enough to be labeled a calamity. It was likely something that was guarding the calamity walked around the room and found something interesting behind the staircase. Another staircase. Shocker, I know right. So this was likely what the illusions were guarding..I carefully stepped into it descending downwards to the 4th floor.

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Back in action, expect a chapter regularly unless I get writers block or something happens to me. 

Since the Harth Royalty  has muscle control magic and mana control magic. Brownie points to whoever that can find out what the Rhieg Royal family's magic is and what it does. 

(There are hints in this chapter and the previous ones)