Two minutes earlier.

The Challenge had been an excellent source of information so far. I’d already learned so much about how to improve the Floor, like for instance I that I was an utter and complete fool who somehow hadn’t ever even considered the possibility of manually increasing my creatures’ levels. I also learned the annoying fact that Mages could somehow feel the correct path by sensing how the mana flowed through my Dungeon. And those were just from the first few minutes.

The battle with Stalker was proving to be even more enlightening, not to mention exhilarating. My first Guardian was strong. Much stronger than the Challengers had been prepared for, though with my other creatures lacking in levels the outcome of the battle was still uncertain.

I watched as she dove down towards the Fighter's leg, who seemed to be caught by surprise at my Guardians’ ability to avoid rushing straight at her even while being under the effect of her [Taunt]. Both the Cleric and the Rogue reacted, but not in time to stop Stalker from latching on with her tail and her claws, and activating her most damaging Skills. Both she and the Fighter sang in pain, though Stalker did more damage and had much more Health to work with than her opponent.

Now let me see how you are going to deal with this situation…

I watched, all my attention laser focused on the different characters in the scene.

The Fighter stomped her leg and slammed down with her shield, trying to pry Stalker off, while the Cleric was pumping heal after heal into her to slow down her rapidly draining health, but it wasn’t until the Rogue got back and performed a stab that did an exceptional amount of damage that Stalker was forced to disengage using her [Darkness]. The fighter was still standing for now, though she looked haggard and wobbly. I felt like laughing, exuberant at the Challenge offered by both sides. Two combating narratives, trying to determine which will be written out as truth. The concept resonated within me as nothing had ever done before, as if rewarding me for doing what I was supposed to be doing.

Stalker flew above the party, raining down a series of [Water Jets] against the Mage, but her effort was rebuffed by the Cleric, who stepped forward to shield the man with his own body. Stalker screeched in annoyance, though I felt a swell of pride at the man's willingness to sacrifice himself for the greater good. Truly rising up to the Challenge. They just might be able to meet the requirements.

Stalker disengaged, flying and calling the bats up into the tunnels above. I frowned at the action, before I noticed her activating [Meld] and sneaking along the stones towards the Mage. A true Stalker in action.

“It’s waiting for Alerio to run out of mana”. The Cleric growled. “Then It’ll rejoin the battle with additional fire support.”

I laughed inwardly. A reasonable deduction to make, but oh so wrong.

“What the hell is this thing? It’s way too tough for a Floor 1 Guardian, surely?”

Yes, praise her more. I swelled with pride.

Stalker herself however didn’t pay any attention to the words, focusing on creeping ever closer to her target. She was almost upon him now. Just a few more seconds…

As the Mage staggered slightly from deactivating his Skill she pounced, landing on his back and stabbing forward with her tail. It squelched as it pierced flesh, and the Mage tumbled forward with a whimper, his health falling below 50, and draining quickly from Stalker’s poison.

I focused with all my senses. This was the climax of the fight. I felt like I could see everything play out in slow motion, even before it happened. The Fighter screamed, but couldn’t run on her still wounded leg, so was left to just activate a [Taunt], that unfortunately for them Stalker was able to resist this time.

The Rogue raised her daggers to throw, but I could see that she knew they wouldn’t be much help.

The protagonists of this final sequence however weren’t either of those two. It was the healer, and Stalker. He was the closest, and could not only try to pry Stalker loose, but keep the Mage alive long enough for the others to be able to help. I could see it within my mind; the Mage laying on the ground, downed but alive, as the others desperately tried to shield him from Stalkers attacks while low on mana and with their own Health dwindling. A fight that seemed almost hopeless, yet one from which heroes could rise.

Then the man slipped on the wet stone. My perfect story shattered into a million pieces as he fell onto the ground with a grunt. Time felt like it’d stopped as I struggled to comprehend the sudden twist to the story.

No, that wasn’t supposed to go like that.

This wasn’t the ending I wanted. It wasn’t even satisfying.

I could accept bad luck as a cause for a death in case of ineptitude, overconfidence, or if the person was just incredibly annoying. But this party was none of those things. Sure they might have braved danger where they didn’t have too, but that was what they were supposed to do. That wasn’t overconfidence. That was a fulfillment of purpose.

Here, now, bad luck just felt like a slap in the face. I felt like the fates were laughing at me just as much as the Mage. Even if the Cleric had made it the fight would have been heavily in my favor, and the Mage wasn’t very likely to survive. But he might have. The result was still undetermined. My Story still unresolved.

No. I won’t stand for this. The fates might toy around and decide the endings outside. But not here. Not in my domain. In here, [I decide how the Story ends].

I felt a faint rumbling from the world, coming from everywhere and nowhere all at once, like an ominous thunder that had somehow come before the lightning. Then my mana vanished. It didn’t rush out like it had with the Naming, nor did it flow out as it did when I normally used it. It simply disappeared. Then something else started rushing out. Something more… ethereal. Something that was a part of me on a deeper level.

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It hurt.

I felt like my soul was being peeled alive, flayed from the inside out. The Something twisted itself into thin threads that pulled on the world causing a ripple that spread throughout my Dungeon in an instant. Then it vanished, leaving me feeling tattered and drained, but filled with determination. I ignored the relentless flood of system messages, fighting against the black void of unconsciousness that threatened to overwhelm me if I didn’t focus.

There was still work to be done. I stopped the Mage’s health from reaching zero, diverting the damage elsewhere temporarily. I couldn’t do everything, even with the Edict, but I could do enough. Once I was done I sent a message to Stalker of my intentions, and only then did I let myself see the notifications as the blackness overcame me.

Action restricted due to low Tier… Overruled.

Action restricted due… Overruled!

MANA LEVEL INSUFFICIENT! Risk of consciousness degradation is high!

Alternate method reached… Draining Core Experience!

You Proclaimed an Edict!

Substantial Experience Gained!

Core Status Critical…

Entering Repair Mode…

***

“It did what!?” The Hallmaster of the Aspenfield Adventurer’s Guild yelled, rising so quickly from her chair that she sent it flying backwards. It hit the wall of her office with a crash, shattering into several pieces. Katherine Verantz took a deep breath to recenter herself, then turned her sharp gaze straight towards Noracin. He flinched back in his chair at her outburst, and stared up at her with startled eyes.

“Apologies,” she said after a moment. “Would you please repeat what you just said.”

“Ah,” Noracin started, then swallowed. “I said that there was this ripple, then the Guardian told us to heal Alerio. Said he wasn’t supposed to ‘die due to mere misfortune’.”

Katherine shut her eyes and breathed, slowly in and out, as she seemingly tried to process this information. He could see part of her didn’t believe it, Three Hells part of him didn't believe it, and he’d been there. It would without question be the largest thing to happen to the Aspenfield Hall since she’d taken over, if not ever in the history of the whole Hall.

“You’re dismissed.” Katherine said a moment later. “Go see your friend. I suddenly have a lot of work to do.” Noracin nodded and stood to leave.

“Wait!” The Hallmaster called out as he approached the door. Noracin turned to face her.

“Don’t tell anybody else about this. Don’t even talk about it with your party except outside the city walls. You understand?”

“Yes, Hallmaster.” Noracin said. Katherine nodded, and waved for him to exit.

Once outside Noracin took a deep breath and leaned against the wall for a moment. That had been heavy. Even though he’d been an active Adventurer in Aspenfield and Coltmoon for over five years now, he hadn’t ever really interacted much with the high Tiers. After leaving the Order he’d had enough of people telling him what to do, and decided he could do it all on his own.

And look where that got me. He let his head fall back against the wall and sighed. Five years later and still Tier 1. Not only that but now you almost got a friend killed.

He shook himself. Alerio wasn’t dead. He’d still screwed up, but the worst result hadn’t happened. Noracin pushed off the wall, heading to the infirmary.

The Guild Hall had its own healing area, as Adventurers would often come in with toxins or semi-permanent debuffs that simpler healing spells couldn’t treat, and it was just more efficient to keep it all in the same place. It had its own entrance from the outside of course, so as not to make the main building too busy, but Noracin could also access it from inside by walking through the basement.

As he walked up the stairs to the infirmary’s reception area he noticed Emmalia sitting outside one of the doors, waiting. She looked up as he approached.

“How’d it go?” Emmalia said.

“Honestly I don’t know.” Noracin said. “She basically kicked me out as soon as I got done speaking. But going by how she reacted I’d say something big is going to happen.”

“That’s underselling it, I think.” she said.

“Maybe.” Noracin turned towards the door.

“How is he?”

“Fine, mostly.” Emmalia said. “The healer’s in there right now doing some ‘sealed knowledge’ mumbo-jumbo, but I was in there earlier, and he seemed fine. Says he lost some Vitality but that there wouldn’t be any other permanent issues. He’s mostly upset about not knowing what happened while he was unconscious.”

“He almost died, and he’s just… fine now?” He said.

“Why wouldn’t he be?” Emmalia said, cocking her head.

Noracin blinked, then just stared at her. He couldn’t find what to say to that, as he hadn’t expected the question. Why would someone just be fine after they almost died?

“Sometimes I forget just how different a life you’ve had.” Emmalia said, seeing the look on Noracin’s face. He frowned at her, and she shrugged.

“It’s true.” She said. “You grew up in the safe and stable environment of the Order. Then once you left you still leveled slowly by only doing safe Quests where you could plan and prepare well in advance. To you, and to some extent maybe Ceria as well, death is scary and foreign. To me and Alerio, it’s just… something that happens to people. Sometimes to people you know, sometimes to strangers. Eventually it’ll get you as well, so no use going around worrying about it.” She paused and frowned.

“Though that is no reason to take life for granted or rush into danger. If you ask me I think Alerio can be a bit too easy going on that front, but it works for him. The point I’m making is that death shouldn’t scare you into stagnating by being too safe. Once you stop trying to improve, you might as well be dead anyway.”

“You really believe that?” Noracin said after a moment. Emmalia shrugged.

“Sort of? Maybe partially? I like life, and I’m not one of those danger-seeking hooligans you sometimes see in the guild. But what I’m not is afraid of dying. And neither is Alerio.”

She turned to look up at him, seemingly studying his expression as she tried to decide what to say next.

“You’re a pretty good leader, Noracin. People like Alerio need people like you to keep them reined in. Though you might want to ease up on the guilt, and maybe be more aware of the fact that the dangers you’re always warning us about are not things to run away from. They’re things to be overcome.” She stood and stretched.

“Anyway, now that you’re here I can go stretch my legs, maybe see if I can pry Ceria loose from her overbearing instructors. I’ll be back in a few.”

Noracin stared after her as she left, unsure what to say. She was at least partially right, maybe, though there were several aspects of what she’d said that didn’t sit right with him. First and foremost was the fact that he hadn’t had any idea that this was how she and Alerio felt in the first place. They had been members of the same party for over a year now and done several missions together, though none had been especially dangerous. Maybe that was the reason? Or had they tried to tell him, and he’d just been too set in his ways, too sure that as the older one he knew better, that he hadn’t ever actually heard what they’d been saying?

Had he been hamstringing himself, along with the rest of his party, by being too cautious? And had that made them all unprepared when danger had actually come?

He realized he actually might have.

Maybe it’s high time I took a hard look at myself. He thought. Started acting more like an Adventurer, and less like a protector from the Order.