Ysandra had been called down to the secret caverns beneath the forest. Mar had not communicated their will with words but the call through the Fragments had been unmistakable, the Sovereign Swarm desired that Ysandra went below. So, she had gone down through the earth while carefully working to erase her trail as she dove through it like a fish in water.

After all, the whole purpose of the caverns was that they remain secret, leaving a trail even if it would be hard to trace would be quite frankly rather embarrassing. She emerged into the cavern where a group of Workers stood guard around an object lying on the ground and Ysandra gasped.

Had she been blind, she would still have seen the tome on the ground. It radiated potent magic beyond what Ysandra had encountered in centuries, the leaves on her tree tensed and it was far removed from the Spelltome. The worst thing was that she recognized the signature on the pulsating book.

It was a magical signature she had hoped never to see again, but there it was as clear as the light of dawn itself.

"The Archmage of Transgression."

Ysandra barged past the Workers and knelt down to examine the artifact. Her hands outstretched she dared not touch the book quite yet, but she worked her magical senses to carefully prod the Spelltome. It was not shy to show her what she wanted as the book opened itself and started flitting through itself as she looked down.

The dryad averted her physical gaze immediately with an oath, but she kept up her magical examination and grumbled as she learned.

"He made one then, a Living Spelltome. An artifact like that has not been around in-"

Ysandra stopped herself from speculating and casually made the earth close the book. The purpose of the artifact was twofold and obvious. Teaching magic and more notably informing ways which one could transgress with said magic. Ysandra had known Alaric once and it was how he operated.

I can teach you how to make everyone fear violating your forest ever again.

She shook her head to banish the recollections from those days and focused instead on the myriad of presences watching her. The Logistics-Collective spoke to her through the murmuring of Fragments.

"Can we use this book?"

"Can you? Yes, the question of if you should is the more pertinent one in this instance. That tome will teach more magic than most would ever dream about, but it would also try to twist the magic that you use to push against the very boundaries of morality and reality itself."

"That is acceptable."

Ysandra reeled from the response from the Collective as she had at least expected some hesitation from the Swarm, but before she could formulate a response she felt the Collective whispering to the Sovereign and they added their assent.

"Could you use this book to help instruct Subjects in the use of magic?"

Mar themselves asked as Ysandra felt them strain to focus down on a mere individual Subject. Individuals were hard for them these days as the Swarm had exploded in population and continued to grow beyond that, but Ysandra was the most powerful being in the Swarm aside from the Swarm Avatars themselves. Which seemed to afford her some consideration and she felt pure joy at the splendor of the entire Swarm focusing down on her.

"Why...why yes I could, it would be more difficult to teach humans and such but with this book and the magic they can learn from you. There would be few obstacles in the way to teaching whoever you desire me to."

"Good. Begin."

Ysandra sighed as Mar moved their attention elsewhere, but she did not get time to dwell on the matter as she heard movement coming from the entrance to the cavern. Walking Scarecrows and strange chitinous beings stepped into the room and began to slowly fill it. Soon, the Sovereign Swarm would have mages of its own. The dryad gazed at the strange Subjects filling the cavern and she understood at last that the sacrifices made above were going to be worth it. A forest would die, but a new one would grow and she would be the one stewarding that process.

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"Students let us begin"

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Mariam grabbed a crossbow bolt being shot at her from a hidden trap right before it could strike her in the temple. Her hand vibrated with the force of the arrested momentum, but thankfully she had been able to catch the damned thing before it struck her.

"That'll show me for relaxing in a Dungeon."

And like clockwork suddenly a horde of chickens burst out of one of the bushes in the room to swarm around Mariam and her party. Screeching and rushing around them with their pulsating eyes and puffed-out feathers, it was a slog for the group to try and fight through them. Especially, because in spite of their beaks and talons not doing much damage. They did cut through metal and armor like a hot knife through butter.

Mariam had to go into overdrive to try and knock chickens away from the more vulnerable party members, which gave the remainder of the flock time to congregate around the Soldiers to try and collectively bring them down. It took them effort but the chickens managed to take down yet another Soldier before the party could finish slaughtering them.

Lysander spat out a mouthful of feathers and Bor helpfully wiped the blood away from the face of the Child before the scribe said.

"I think we should retreat."

"Come on! We have only managed to get into the second chamber!"

"And it has taken us almost 5 hours to do that because of the myriad of traps we have had to avoid, disarm, or endure. Our natural regeneration can only compensate so much, and I think I can safely speak on behalf of the entire group when I say this. We are tired as all hell."

Mariam responded with a furious stomp and an annoyed grumble rather than arguing the point. Fighting through this Dungeon was dangerous, but not more so than what one would expect from a magical location like it. No, what was the real kicker was that delving through it was frustrating.

This was the fourth delve that Mariam had led the party through and it along with the others had been a nightmare. Not only was the party beset by annoying and at times ludicrous monsters, that was hard enough. But almost every step of the way was filled with trap after trap after trap. Exploding treasure chests, flowers with concealed spikes, hidden crossbow traps, combustible tar coated hay, pit traps, and the constant neverending tripwires that didn't even lead to anything.

Bor had raised the hypothesis that the Dungeon was actively fucking with the group, and Mariam had initially argued against that premise. Her misgivings were cut short when the group had discovered that the Dungeon had displaced and replaced all the traps they had so painstakingly noted down over the course of their two first expeditions. That had made the third delve particularly painful, and then on this fourth try some of the original traps and placements were used along with the newer ones.

It was a miracle that none of the Subjects had died over the course of the mission. Exploring the Dungeon was teaching all of them, even Mariam, to become more of what they had been as they had initially entered the trap-filled hell. Lysander was the first one to notice the effects that the Dungeon had on them, as his pens were now battle-hardened and he had an instinct for how to use them in combat.

The others did not have such a dramatic change yet, but Mariam had noticed how they had all grown significantly more combat effective over such a short time.

While Mariam was busy thinking, the rest of the group took her reminiscing and angry display as a sign of assent and began to scoop up the loot from the downed chickens, and then they started to wander back to the exit. Yet another session with the Dungeon had shown that its tutelage was a merciless if effective one.