The annoying Trald died quickly once his will to fight gave out and he started to flee, as was appropriate. Victar lasted a bit longer, but it was clear that while his level was the same as Krazad’s skeletons he wasn’t actually that practiced in fighting, especially against multiple enemies at the same time. Once my Guardian had dealt with Trald, Victar didn’t last long, and fell without defeating even one of Krazad’s skeletons. I let out an annoyed huff, but withheld my personal feelings when I sent an acknowledgement of effort to Krazad. That hadn’t been a very satisfying Challenge either, but that didn’t mean Krazad hadn’t been doing his work properly. Again it was the Challengers that upended the Story, though this time it might be worse. This time it was done intentionally, an attempt to try and mess with the natural order of things. And to make matters worse, even defeating them didn’t feel satisfying in the least. Sure it was the ending that would have happened anyway if their Challenge had been fair, but that was just because the trio had attempted to cheat and go further than they should. If they had Challenged properly from the beginning, they would have realized their own inadequacies and given up well before they’d reached Krazad’s chamber. The only reason they died was because someone was trying to carry the weight for them, making them unable to hold themselves afloat once the aid was removed. Still that ending should be proper, no? Try to cheat, get knocked down by your own hubris. So why didn’t it feel satisfying…?

Because they weren’t the main offenders, I realized. The man made of light had been the main one responsible. The trio had just been doing as they had been told. And the man had gotten away freely due to him never actually being here in the first place. That’s why even though these Challenger’s stories had appropriate endings the tale as a whole didn’t feel complete. The would-be main players had been turned into only minor participants in the Story of their own demise. I would have to rectify that, eventually. Bring this Story to a proper conclusion.

For now though there was the minor issue of the floating sphere of impossibility in my second Guardians chamber that I had to tackle. I’d first sensed the small bead sized sphere within the woman Lenore during her initial charge against my Skeletons, but it had taken until Krazad’s Skills had been nullified for me to fully put together that it had been the one responsible for the strange things that had happened.

Exactly how and what it had done I still didn’t know, since I for some reason couldn’t see any information about it through the System at all. In fact the only reason I could tell it existed in the first place, and that I was calling it a sphere, was due to the fact that other things would occasionally stop behaving normally in a spherical area centered around it. Sometimes mana and my senses would pass through the space as if nothing was there, sometimes it would feel like they hit something more solid than rock. And when I tried to peer deeper into the thing using the System I only got the occasional result, and even when I got one it didn’t tell me anything useful;

Ą̷͚̳̜̮̮̥̣̠̥̈́̂̅̄b̷̲͐͐͑̑͑̈́͝e̸̟̺͉̰̲͛͜ṙ̶͔̫̩̠̫͎̎̇̈́͝r̷̛̗̺̜̬̗̰̹̅̈́̐́̉͒͑̈̍̓͜͜͜ă̷̛͚͕̮͌̇̎̇̏͐́͘͠n̴̨̢̖̹͈͙̺̳̪̹͍̆͊̐̿̓̐͑͠͝t̴̩̮̼̹̰̼̊͋͆͘͝͝ ̸̨̧͚̞̭̮̟̫͈̙͉̂͗̀̏̎̋̽͛̕S̸̬̀͗̅͠h̶̬̲͇̭̿̆͗͊͑͆͝a̴̜̼̎͌͆̽r̶̢͇̫̣̩̲̫̩͖̩̃̽͑d̵̳̾

???

I couldn’t make myself look at that message for very long. Just having it be in my system window gave me such a strong feeling of wrongness beyond what I had ever felt before, even when I made my Edict. It felt wrong in a way that wasn’t so much wrong from just my own perspective, but from a more profound or possibly objective one. It felt like it came from something that couldn’t, and more importantly shouldn’t, exist in the world. Yet there it was, noticeable if mostly due to how it removed ordinary interactions between things that normally would have an effect on each other. Like the light from Trald’s orb had, before it had dissipated as he died, sometimes simply skipped over an area of space around the sphere. Though that hadn’t made that area dark, and neither had Krazad’s [Darkness]. It had simply stayed as dark as if no Skill or mana had been used in the first place.

I dismissed the message and pulled my attention away from the sphere. I would have to investigate this in more detail, but for now I just wanted it away from my second Floor and my immediate attention. Despite its glitchy nature I found I could move the thing easily enough, though doing so felt extremely strange. Like I was moving something heavy that at the same time didn’t exist, which meant I wasn’t actually moving anything. I pushed past the strangeness and moved the sphere down to the fourth Floor, where I still had the ability to carve through rock and claim more space. I didn’t want it to be a part of my actual Dungeon, but I also didn’t think it was proper to just try and destroy the thing without knowing what it was and how it worked. I couldn't carve out a completely separate area as everything had to be reachable from my Core, but that didn’t mean I had to make it accessible. I carved out a small tunnel in the ceiling of the upper castle, even smaller than the ones’ my Bats used, and then once I had tunneled a bit away from the main path I carved out a small chamber to place the sphere in. To make everything fit within the Floorspace limits I had to make the room itself slightly smaller, but it was the best idea I could come up with on short notice. Once the Floor was finalized I’d probably move it again, though I wanted to do some tests on it first, maybe delve deeper into my System-powered instincts, before I made any permanent decisions.

Once the sphere was safely tucked away I moved my attention back to the three corpses on my second Floor. I stared at them for a moment, at first unsure exactly what I should be doing with them, until my instincts showed up and provided some actual answers.

“Just claim them and absorb them.” they said.

…I wished they hadn’t sounded so obvious about it, like they were speaking to an idiot.

Once I did so I got several notifications and bonuses from the System, rewarding me for my first defeated Challengers. I would dispute that claim, but alright. Guess only dead things counted as ‘defeated’.

Everything that had been on their persons was also added to my Rewards Inventory, which went from being completely empty to suddenly being filled with random crap. I also learned I could exchange the stuff I didn’t want for additional Experience, so I quickly sorted through the mess of random knick-knacks, from clothes to coins to swords, in search of something useful.

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And to my surprise, there actually was something I wanted to keep. Lenore had a pouch of four filled Mana Crystals, as well as one cracked and drained one. I quickly separated that from the rest of the junk, which then got turned into experience. Once I was done I looked at my Status again, checking to see how much Experience defeating an actual Challenge could give me.

Name:

Veos

Race

Dungeon Core

Floors

3

Level:

4

Experience:

3867/8000

Mana:

80/80

Mana Regeneration:

40 / Minute

Edicts:

[I Decide How The Story Ends]

Skills

Swift Descent

Perks

Spatial Expansion, Vampiric Blessing

Rewards Inventory

Mana Crystal x4, Empty Mana Crystal x1

…I guess they gave a lot.

I hadn’t checked since I began carving out the fourth but I knew from experience that carving out the Floor didn’t give nearly as much as finalizing it did. That combined with the 189 Experience I’d had before starting said I’d gotten over 3000 Experience from this Challenge. That seemed like a lot compared to the previous ones. Was the reward really that much higher if the Challengers died? Or maybe it had something to do with the man made of light, or the strange sphere?

So many questions, so few answers.

But at least this was exciting, even it it was something unknown. If the previous trend held I would be getting 4000 points for finalizing the fourth Floor, which would put me just under the requirements for reaching level 5. I would probably not need to have the fifth be at the same level range as the fourth after all, considering I hadn’t even selected, and more importantly Named, the fourth Guardian yet.

Speaking of, now that the interrupting Challenge was over with, and the necessary post Challenge cleanup as well, it was high time for me to get that done. I opened the Guardian Selection window again and selected the [Pureblood Vampire] before anything else could interrupt me.

Mana flowed out of me in a rush, before coalescing into a humanoid shape and taking physical form. The Vampire’s skin was a pale gray, contrasted with flowing jet black hair and glowing red eyes. She wore a dark blood red suit overtop a black shirt, and her cufflinks were ornamented coffins in gold. At her waist was a sword with a hilt that ended in a crescent moon made from a dark ruby that glowed in the darkness of the Warden’s Office. As she manifested she seemed momentarily confused, before her head snapped in the direction of my Core and understanding bloomed in her eyes. She performed an exquisite bow in my direction, then twirled around where she was standing to survey the room. Her eyes landed on one of the gashes in the wall, ostensibly performed by her in a moment of triumph over her enemies.

“Well now…” she said. “This definitely seems interesting.” She ran a finger across the gash in the wall.

“I remember making this cut.” She said. “Yet at the same time I know the memory to be a false one.” She turned her attention to me. “I also know what you would have me do. Act as the Warden, serve as a player in your Story.” She trailed off, turning to look at the sealed door that ostensibly would lead to the fifth. “I know there is nothing down there yet. But I still feel an intense need to shield the world from the evil that lay within. An evil I don’t even know what it is yet.”

I didn’t know what to say to that. This entire conversation had shocked me to my Core, if I was being honest. I hadn’t expected the Guardian to be so… self aware. Or aware in general. And I certainly hadn’t expected her to come with memories of a life I’d just made up less than a week ago. I didn't know how to feel about that.

The vampire shook her head and gave my core a small smile. “Do not feel guilty. I don’t feel particularly bad about it. It’s just a strange feeling, is all.”

I shook myself out of my contemplation, forcing myself back to the present. My work still wasn’t done. Though I felt I should tackle this next thing a bit differently than I had my previous Guardians.

I will be granting you a Name. I sent her. Do you have any wishes or thoughts on what you’d like it to be?

The vampire looked away from her inspection of the door and furrowed her brows in thought.

“A Name you say?” she said. “I suppose I ought to have one. I feel I ought to have had one before even, yet one I’ve forgotten. As for what to call me now… Something regal, I think, yet also menacing. I am a Guardian, after all.”

Something regal, yet menacing… I thought hard about it, considering and discarding names as they came to me. I wanted to get this one right.

Your Name will be Morrígan. I sent. Countess of the Purebloods. Warden and Ruler of the Castle Above the Prison. Enemy of the Aberrant.

I added that last sentence on instinct without having thought about it, or even fully understanding what I meant when I said it. But it felt right all the same.

Mana flowed out of me as the power of the Naming began to take effect.