My view of reality shifted and twisted as I emerged from my core. I had been using this ability extensively over the last few weeks, but it never failed to disorient me when I emerged.

It took a few moments, but I quickly focused again and looked around my core room. Everything looked to be in its proper place, and I checked the rest of the Dungeon. Nothing was amiss, and it appeared to be sometime in the early morning as I could just make out figures moving at the edge of my ability to see.

I suspected I would soon begin to have company, so I took this time to review what had been done in the last few weeks. I was quite proud of how much work I managed to get in and my progress.

I had altered the core alcove I was hiding in. Goldwind had come through and supplied me with two mana stones. I now had access to fire and air mana. This meant I had to change the setup around the core of the mana stones. The ceiling and three of the walls around me are now covered in them. To fit all the stones in, I had to make a few changes. Each surface now had seven by seven grids of stones. This meant I now had a grand total of 196 mana stones surrounding my core. My core itself had two new specs of light inside of it as I had also placed a manner in bubbles within myself. I set out to create several new bubbles and improve the core by refining and attempting to improve the flow of corruption through the crystalline layer to the centre.

"Let's see what we've got. Open status screen. Bhaldor."

Name

Bhaldor

Essence

36%

Race

Dungeon Core

CP

0(925) 9.6 phr

Level

7

Corruption

0%

Floors

7

Health

100%

Skills:

Mana Manipulation: 6 - 22%

Core Refining – 25%

Mana Sight: 12 – 52%

Aura Manipulation: 8 - 45%

Herb Lore: 2 – 0%

Spell Casting: 1 – 0%

Alchemy: 10 – 0%

Enchanting: 5 – 63%

Perks/Restrictions:

Godless

Affintyless (++ ERROR! ++)

Companionless

Limitless Monsters/Traps

Core Refinement max – 90%

Spell Casting (++ ERROR! ++)

Mana Stored

Illusion – 71(80) / 0.01 phr.

Shadow – 80(80) / 1.1 phr.

Light – 70(80)/ 0.1 phr.

Earth – 72(80)/ 0.5 phr.

Ice – 76(80)/ 0.012phr

Fire – 12(80)/ 0.1phr

Air – 34(80)/ 0.35phr

"Progress, at least."

My mana levels were regenerating from creating the stones around me and charging them with their element. I had expanded my alcove as far as I was willing, meaning that any further expansion would involve me changing my cold room or how I set out the stones.

Looking over the list of mana types I now possessed, I had most of the basic ones; I believed only water was missing. This gave me options for experimentation and development of the following floors. To be honest, I had been thinking about 8-9 and 10. I wanted to start ramping things up and was contemplating some changes to what I have been doing on the last floors.

The 8th floor was going to be boars and rats, which had been decided. I had made great strides in creating new versions of both boars and rats. I was confident in what I was going to create on that floor now and was planning some interesting changes to the layout.

I had yet to decide on the guardian, though. I had considered using the lion, but that monster will be on the 9th. I just didn't want to create another version of a bigger bore; I wanted to try something different. Unfortunately, inspiration was not kind and provided me with no answer.

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The thing I was happiest with was the amount I had refined my core. During this time, I focused on the channels through which corruption flows and, as far as I could tell, smoothed and streamlined them out extensively. If my understanding of these channels was right, I should see a dramatic improvement in my ability to process corruption, dramatically reducing the time I had to deal with it.

That was the hope.

There was still much to do, but at least I had options now.

The doors to the Dungeon opened, and the first adventures of the day arrived. My CP was exhausted, and there was not much else I could do, so I settled in for a quiet day as I waited for it to regenerate.

I went into Krag's hall and looked around. I could not help but see the dozen bodies littering the room. Some were covered in Moss now, but others were still exposed and starting to rot. There were several new ones that were not here last time I checked, and I went through what few possessions had survived the encounter with the ogre in the room. He and his mace were not very conducive to looting, trashing everything they counted with sheer brutal force.

Krag himself was sitting on his throne and dozing. Even dozing, he snored like there was a rip in reality, sucking all the air out of the room. Mentally, I just shook my head and got on with it. As expected, nothing was worth taking and adding to my list as I already had it, or it was so severely damaged that whatever I was looking at was worthless.

The adventurer group that had entered was on the 3rd floor fighting the boars. This was becoming a normal event for the Dungeon. I had now been seeing an increase of groups pushing lower to the 5th and 6th floors. Many of these were new teams that were much better equipped, and I could tell when I looked him over with my Mana Sight that they were a higher grade as their gear was far better.

Only the truly confident or cocky were risking the seventh. Overheard from conversations amongst them that the adventurers were treating Krag with a lot of respect. He had been rated for silver-grade adventurers only, and there were only still a few of them within the city, but that seemed to be changing.

I also saw a lot more nonhumans, which was a welcome break from the usual fare. The different races acted differently but also approached problems differently, which gave me insights into possible new ideas for future floors. So that was another bonus I was happy with.

Looking at the hall floor, I wished I had a bit of CP left so I could get the Moss growing over the remaining bodies, but I would have to wait until tonight. As I thought about possible expansion plans, I felt something trying to connect with me.

"Bloody hell, not him again…"

Goldwind had been trying to connect speaking crystal to me so we could communicate, but I had been blocking him. It seemed he was trying again, as I now had nothing to do….

"I'm busy. What do you want?"

"Errr… thank you for finally answering." It sounded like he expected not to connect with me, but my answer surprised him.

"So?"

"Yes…. Right… I have a question to ask you, Dungeon." As he spoke, I heard the sounds of others in the room in the background. A few weeks ago, Comus of the Alchemists Guild entered your Dungeon, and something happened to him. Can you tell us what it was?"

"Why?"

"Why? He suffered some strange injuries, and we're trying to understand how they happened." Goldwind was trying to keep the conversation focused, but I was feeling obstinate. To be honest, I hadn't actually been doing much apart from refining my core, so I felt like I needed to cause a little chaos.

"His body had void corruption in it. I dealt with it. End of story."

"Void… corruption?" He seemed slightly confused by this.

"Yes, void corruption, you know, the stuff that's creating those monsters you call the twisted."

"We were aware of the corruption but not that it had a name. Do you know what is causing it or where it is coming from?" As Goldwind spoke, I could share more whispers and movement of people in the background. Whatever I had said that caused quite a stir.

"It came from the void, hence the name. It was that Adrill guy, and when he went a bit insane, it caused all."

"Adrill? As in Crown Prince Adrill and his folly over 300 years ago?" Goldwind asked, both fearful and a bit confused.

"Yep, him."

Things got muffled suddenly, and I heard much more conversation on the other end. I could not make out what they were saying because of the muffling, but I could discern that the conversation was intense. Suddenly, Goldwind started talking again.

"What else can you tell us?" I could hear the hunger in his voice for information. The old me was still here, the one who was a bastard to the online gaming forums and community.

"Ask shit stain of a God. It should be him telling you all this, not me."

"Dungeon…. I ask you politely if you could not blaspheme." Which was entertaining as I had heard him come up with even worse.

"What, you want me to be polite about the spawn of a diseased goat and a worn-out copper whore called Oda."

"Yes…" The sound of sharp intakes of breath tickled me.

"…. Or the most useless head of any pantheon ever to exist who couldn't organise a drinking competition in a brewery. Or the most incompetent divine being that couldn't even find his dick with a magnifying crystal. Or….”

"Please! That's enough!" Goldwind snapped. I thought I heard a thump of something hitting the floor, but I wasn't sure.

"Well, it's been fun. I've got work to do, so…. Toodles."

With that, I cut the connection.

## ## ## ## ##

The crystal went silent and dark as the magical connection was severed. The silence in the room was impressive, considering who was in it.

Ranus, Elian, Albrot, Doltum, Seela and Arbiter Nextom were all in attendance for an early meeting. Doltum and Seela had arrived a few days prior, as they had been delayed by a large monster that needed to be eradicated. This meeting had brought them up to speed on what had happened since he had gone. Elian had asked that they check to see if the Dungeon was ready to communicate, which Doltum supported. Ranus was unsure if they should but relented as he hoped that the crystal would remain dark, but much to his chagrin, it lit up, and the conversation began.

In the span of a very short conversation, so much was revealed, whether intentionally or not, and it changed so much. They all had questions, and now it seemed the Dungeon might have answers. The Dungeon knew of the corruption, which it called "void corruption," and had all but confirmed that he had removed it from Comus. High Healer Selmum would need to be informed, and she would have questions they knew.

When the Dungeon went on its rant against the head of the pantheon, Arbiter Nextom had fallen off his chair in complete shock at the words and tone used. Ranus suspected he had never heard such descriptive terms of any God, let alone the head of the pantheon. Ranus had warned him about the Dungeon's attitude towards the divine, but it was a very different thing to hear it. Doltum was helping him back to his feet as Seela did her best to contain her laughter.

"Well, that was a very…. informative and unusual conversation." Albrot started when they were all sitting again.

"Blasphemy! Complete and utter blasphemy!" Ranus had never seen Nextom so enraged.

"I did warn you, Arbiter." Ranus reminded him. Before the priest could continue, Doltum interjected.

"You were right, Lord Goldwind. The Dungeon does seem to know far more about what is happening than we have been informed or have discovered."

“Indeed, High Magus Doltum. In our earlier conversations, I told him about the gathering of the twisted at Folly's End. He indicated that they would be making their way here if they crossed the river and that he was not unsurprised by this fact."

"Well, now we know more. You are right. The Dungeon is drawing the twisted here. It seems that this Dungeon if he had to deal with the twisted and this "void corruption" that is plaguing us." Doltum thought out loud as he stroked his beard.

"So, what do we do now, then?" Elian asked.

"For now, there is little we can do. Lord Goldwind needs our full support, and we must continue to allow adventurers into the Dungeon for their development and the cities." Doltum pointed out the fact to them that they had little control over much of what was happening.

"I have several plans in motion, but even with the windfall of the platinum coins from the dungeon, my resources and options are limited," Ranus confessed to the group.

"Unfortunately, there is little we can do to help you on that front. This city has attracted far too much attention with what has happened already. Any preferential treatment or special dispensation will only attract more. And I fear it will become far more aggressive attention that we cannot allow to distract us for now." Albrot is frank in his assessment. Nextom was silent, but his features were that of barely contained rage.

"Then things continue as they are. However, I believe we should work together to track any twisted heading in this direction. We know that there's still some in the mountains, and if what we have learned about the Dungeon is true, they will make their way here eventually." Elian offered.

"All sound ideas, young lady. Seela and I shall remain here in the city for the foreseeable future. If anyone asks, we are planning to explore the mountain range as this is one part of the continent we have never been to." Doltum said, looking around the table, which received nods of understanding from most.

"We must prepare ourselves for the day that the End has the horde gathering crossed the river, for it was surely head towards us as fast as it can." Ranus, I knew that day would be a black day for everyone.