I let the silence breathe for a moment, waiting for the Challengers to leave, before I let myself peer at the notifications from the System.

Quest Completed!

Experience function unlocked…

Maximum Mana restored…

Mana Regeneration restored…

Floor creature Maximum level restored…

Full level 5 features available!

Massive amount of Stored Experience available!

Experience Gained…

Level Up!

Additional Edict slot Gained! (1/3 Edicts Proclaimed)

Additional [Dungeon Perk's] Available for selection!

[1 New Dungeon Perk Available]!

Skill [Swift Descent] available!

Phew. It had been a while since I’d gotten a deluge of messages like that from the System. Then again it had been a while since I’d leveled up due to the Quest locking me out for such a long time. Not to mention leveling up twice in a row like this.

I had all but skipped level 5 and was now several thousand experience points into level 6. Several thousand out of 32 thousand but still, it was a massive jump in experience.

I’d gone from having so much locked away to suddenly having a huge amount of possible paths in front of me. I could start on my new Story. I had a new Perk to pick, and new options to sift through. I got a new edict slot, though that one was less relevant since I’d already had one additional one available. Still with how powerful my first one had been it felt important enough that I should pay attention to it.

First though I wanted to take stock of the Challenge. Since around the midpoint of the first week I’d gotten into the habit of doing that, going through the events of the Challenge and trying to find areas to improve. Normally I’d just take a few minutes to think it through, but this was the first true Challenge of the second Floor, so I wanted to be more thorough.

Let’s see… What had gone right?

The bonus room fight was sufficiently difficult, and succeeded in forcing the usage of several trump cards in order to be overcome. In return though they received an item none of them could use very well, so that was a bit of a downer. Sure it seemed they could sell it or trade it, though I wasn’t sure what the distinction between those two things were, but in an ideal world the bonus room reward would be usable by the ones who earned it within the same Challenge that it was earned. It should be easy enough to make the reward be adaptive; the standard rewards chests try to do that by themselves, but I’d really prefer the items to have some connection to the narrative. I still should be able to make it work though. I’d have to spend some time making a few additional items, but that wasn’t that big of a deal. It wouldn’t cost me anything to make the reward semi-random, apart from the time it took to design the items.

I’d get back to that later though, once I was done with the overview of the Challenge, and the things I’d gotten from my level up, and the making of my next Floor. I’d had an idea for what to make for a while, and it had been agony holding off on creating it even without having access to the level I wanted the Floor to be at.

The Aberrant Vampire Storyline was done, but I still wanted a bit of a connection to it. A parallel Story of sorts, that converged with the Vampire one at the same spot; the Aberrant, for a final dramatic confrontation.

I’d spent some time discussing various ideas with Morrígan. If possible I wanted my new Story to have the same connection to reality as she did, but I had no clue how I’d done that, or even if it was possible to do it on purpose, so in the end we just decided that I would just select what felt interesting to me. That was what I’d done with her Story, though not until I’d gotten to the third, which forced me to hammer in the previous two Floors into the narrative in a way that while functional wasn’t ideal. For this next one I wanted a narrative right away.

And eventually I found one. Another race that had stood beside the vampires in their fight, while at the same time having their own front separate from the vampires’ one.

The Elves of the Faewood.

It also helped that a green lush forest was about as far from a dark underground cave you could get, and I wanted my Stories to be distinct from each other. I even had a good idea for what the first Floor of that Story could be, and how I could implement it…

I shook myself free of that tangent…Where was I? Right, additional reward options… Okay those might take a bit to get to. Not exactly the highest priority right now.

I wished I’d had one of those notebook things the Challengers used to write down important information, mostly about my narrative which I appreciated, so I didn’t have to keep all of this in my head. Where it tended to get lost as I got distracted by everything else interesting happening.

…Actually now that I was thinking about it, what use was a notebook to me anyway? I didn’t even have any limbs. Maybe there was some way to use the System to…

Focus. I forced my thoughts to return to the Challenge. The first fight. That also went according to plan. As with Stalker’s Floor, the room right after the entrance is a fight that serves as a sort of introduction to the creatures of the Floor. They’re of lower level and the group is slightly smaller so the Challengers have some time to get used to what this new Floor has to offer. In this instance the fight had been extremely one-sided, so maybe I’d made it a bit too lenient, but it did inform them about my Skeletons tactics, as well as how they might use traps and ambushes, so despite the fight taking barely any time or effort at all if I’d still say it served its purpose.

I couldn’t say the same for the rest of the ‘normal’ encounters though. They might have taken longer to complete compared to the first, but I’d be hard pressed to say they presented a more difficult Challenge. With more Skeletons at higher level the Challengers just had to chew through more Health before they were done, that was all. The fights were just too easy. Especially considering how difficult the Guardian fight and the bonus room turned out to be. Krazad especially had proven to be lethal, even with the lowest number of minions he could possibly have. There wasn’t anything wrong with that, except that the rest of the Floor did very little to prepare the Challengers for that sort of difficulty spike. It almost seemed like a bait and switch. Like I was doing it on purpose to make the Challengers think the Floor wasn’t as deadly as it really was. That was something I had an issue with.

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I could be overthinking it, but just the fact that the thought entered my head is proof enough for me that something has to be done.

I’d think on it in more detail later, but for now I just turned the three encounters within the Floor to two, splitting the Skeletons of the third between the other two . Now the bonus room had sixteen creatures, the first fight had eight, and the other two had twelve each. Fewer fights, but each fight was more difficult. And more importantly more in line with the difficulty of the final one. There was probably a more elegant and refined solution, but that could wait until I had less important things to do.

The other thing that didn’t really go well was the impact of the narrative. Sure the Challengers found all the connections, but despite that they didn’t really seem to care that much. Without having been through the first there wasn’t any investment there, and more to the point there wasn’t anything telling them why what they found was important. Or what it was important for. A common reaction whenever one of my narrative connections had been found up to this point had been that it was relevant to the clearing of the Floor somehow, like a clue to a puzzle or a hint towards a secret. But while it was true that I did tie them together that way, I didn’t want the narrative to be reduced to just that. I wanted the Challengers to be invested in the Story for its own sake, not just where it mattered to the Challenge.

One thing this Challenge in particular had made clear though, was that for the narrative to hold any importance at all, the Challengers had to be made aware of all of it. They had to start the Story from the beginning, experience it Floor by Floor, and then maybe they’d think it was important.

I just had no idea how to make that happen.

Perhaps I was being too impatient.

What was it Morrígan had said? ‘Investment into things took time to grow’? She’d said that I couldn’t expect outsiders to realize the implications of everything right away, but once they did then they would be interested in the Story, and not just the Challenge.

She was probably right; she definitely knew more about life as a humanoid than I did, but that didn’t mean I had to like it. And being patient was definitely not something I was good at. Still if it was the only option… I could do it.

That still left me with the same problem of how to make the Challengers aware of the Story and what the purpose of the Story was. Even if investment into the Story increased with time spent around it, I still needed to find a way to make them experience that Story in the first place. Otherwise they would have nothing to get invested in.

Just putting a puzzle at the beginning of each Floor requiring knowledge from the previous one felt wrong. Like a cheap block that would just make the Challengers annoyed, rather than invested.

No, what I needed was a way to make everyone Challenge each Floor in sequence. And not just in name, but having it be an actual Challenge. If everyone that entered was Tier 1 at first, and had to complete each Floor before having their Tier increased…

Then everyone would have the same chances of learning about the Story. Everyone had the choice of how much they wanted to care. Instead of the Story being met with confusion it would be met with knowledge.

That's what I had to do. It suddenly felt so clear to me. Like a flash of insight, lighting up the previously darkened path ahead. It was so simple, and yet changed everything about how the Challengers would interface with my Dungeon. And as a consequence, my Story.

All I had to do was make it so [Everyone Starts at the Beginning].

I felt a rumbling from the world. From within me and everything beyond. It quickly gained strength, becoming even louder than what I’d felt the first time. Everything shook. Or perhaps it was just me. The difference was academic, and I was beyond any ability to care. All my focus was on the struggle.

I strained to contain it, to keep it from exploding out and splintering me in a thousand pieces. I thought I could hear the cracks forming, but whether they were in my mind or on my Core I didn’t know.

Then my Mana vanished, and the storm rushed out, spreading in a spherical shockwave all through my Dungeon, traveling from the fifth Floor up through the rest. And beyond, into the outside world. There was a fainter cracking, like the aftershock of thunder, from somewhere near my Core. Then it went silent.

This time there was no pain. Only a certainty that something fundamental had been accomplished.

***

Noracin shuddered as a sudden wave of intent rushed through him. He turned towards the Dungeon, and saw that those around him had done the same. He stood and walked towards the Hallmaster’s quarters. Something significant had happened.

**

Nicomedes sat up straight, his eyes going wide as he felt the intent of the [Edict] rush through him. It was different than it should be. Though he couldn’t put his finger on what, he didn’t need to know that to know the importance of the event. Beyond the [Edict], which would have usually been an accomplishment in itself, the Dungeon had done something else. Something beyond what a Dungeon should be capable of. Again.

This time he was here however, and he could deal with it.

**

Katherine turned to the Dungeon, shut her eyes, and sighed. Her door opened and she spoke before her assistant could open her mouth.

“Yes, I’m on it.” she said.

There was always something new that needed to be dealt with.

***

What did you…? No… How did you…? How is this possible!?

The voice came from within my head, yet did not belong to me. I blinked in confusion for a few seconds before I recognized it.

Greetings, Voice. I sent. Then my mind caught up to the content of what it had actually said, and I added.

I proclaimed an [Edict], making my Floors have to be Challenged in order. That way the Challengers can properly experience my Story. I paused.

Should I not have done that?

It isn’t a matter of ‘should’! What you’ve done ‘should’ have been impossible! You ‘shouldn’t’ have access! There should be hindrances in place!

I frowned mentally. I didn’t feel any. In fact this was easier than my first one.

There was a pause. Your first… Right. The one you proclaimed while being at the level that the cost should kill you. At least some things make sense. That one ‘should’ have felt difficult...

Did I do something wrong?

No… I got a distinct impression of something shaking its head and sighing. Hang on, I need to make a call.

There was another pause before the Voice spoke again, though this time the words weren’t coming to me as clearly as they had been. As if the Voice was focusing somewhere else, and only partially kept me in mind.

Lady Nerian? It’s Etar, I’ve got a situation… There’s a Dungeon… Impossible… South western coast… Tier manipulation… No! Nothing like that! Increased access…

The Voice scoffed. Said it ‘was easy’.

…Its name? Veos. It’s new, so it wouldn’t be strange that you haven’t…

…Veos.... Yes, I'm sure.

...what does your brother have to do…?

The Voice fell silent, then returned its attention to me, the words coming in much clearer once again.

I will leave you to your work. What you have done does not count as an infraction. Someone will be in touch at a later date to converse further.

Then, as suddenly as it had appeared, it was gone.

I was left with a huge number of questions, and no answers. Clearly what I’d done was significant, especially in that it seemed most Dungeons wouldn’t be able to do it. Which I couldn’t understand. Even as I thought back nothing stood out as special or different from the things I would normally do. I could manage the levels of my own creatures easily, and I could even affect things as fundamental as Health using my other edict. So why was affecting the level of my Challengers such a big deal?

I didn’t know, and it seemed the Voice wasn’t going to clear anything up either. Then again it did say that it hadn’t been wrong, so maybe the reason didn’t matter that much? I’d ask Morrígan about it later, and maybe even my Challengers once they returned. But for now I’d held off on my expansion for far too long.

With a surge of glee I activated [Swift Descent]. It was time to start building a forest, and hopefully find out what interesting history the elves were hiding beneath the canopies.

And if I didn’t find anything like Morrígan, I could always just make something up. I was a Storyteller after all, not a historian.