More system prompts filled my vision as I stepped out of the portal.

Your summoning parameters are as follows:

1. You are being summoned via a pre-negotiated contract.

2. Summoning tier, 1.

3. Summoning rank, 1.

4. Rewards level, good.

5. This summons involves a specialized form of combat. The duration for this summons is greater than normal. Prepare accordingly.

6. Forced compliance is active.

7. Your armory loadout has been activated.

I don’t know what I expected in a dungeon, but a brightly lit, happy looking forest glade wasn’t it. My link to the summoner led to a large pine tree that grew in the center of the glade. In front of the tree was an older stump, which is where my link terminated.

The stump was chopped and burnt, and at its center was a green and brown gem the size of my fist. A voice sang out from the gem, it was both pleasant and powerful, as if the being that was speaking could be either benevolent and helpful or crush me without a second thought.

“You are the summoned being I requested. I’m sorry to say you don’t look all that formidable.”

“Looks can be deceiving, and after all, you contracted for a tier one, rank one being, which is what I am. What is it that you needed from me?” I asked a bit sharply since I felt that the dungeon was being a bit rude with its comment about me not looking up to the task.

“Quick and to the point, I can appreciate that. As you know, I am a dungeon core, and very recently, a party of adventurers tried to destroy me,” the voice said. I could feel my eyes being drawn into the gem, and I noticed for the first time that it was chipped and cracked. A small section even appeared to have been carved completely off.

“That doesn’t look good, I hope it doesn’t hurt too bad,” I said.

“Thank you for your concern, and while unpleasant, I no longer experience pain as a normal being would. It’s more a sense of loss and diminishment. As for what you are needed for, I require additional protection as I heal the damage inflicted by the adventurers,” the gem said.

“The contract mentioned a floor guardian, whatever that is,” I stated.

“Correct. Normally, my influence covers and populates all three levels of this place, but with the damage I sustained, I can no longer support enough defenders for my first level. It is there that you are needed. You will join the few defenders I have already respawned, and act as the final challenge on that level. Fight hard, the longer you can keep the adventurers at bay, the more time I have to heal,” the gem said.

“I’ll do everything I can,” I replied, still not entirely sure what my task would entail.

“Excellent, I was reluctant to hire outside help, but my contacts in Somhagen assured me that the company I contracted with was reputable. What type of skills and abilities do you have?” the gem asked.

“I’m a summoner of sorts, but the total number of summons I can command is limited at my tier and rank. I can also fight in melee, but my skills are nominal, though I am rather good with a wand of magic missiles,” I advised.

“That should be sufficient. My advisor, Hoen, will guide you to where you are needed. As long as you are in reach of my power, we will be able to communicate,” the gem said.

“Sorry to ask, I don’t mean to be rude, but what should I call you. I mean, I can just say ‘hey summoner’ or whatever, but that doesn’t feel quite right,” I asked.

“It’s been long since I’ve spoken my name, my dungeon is called the Forest’s Rebuke…” the gem started to say before a small, fluffy white rabbit hopped in from behind the tree to interrupt the conversation.

“Oh, don’t be all mysterious and aloof Glenda, you can’t expect this kid to keep calling you Forest’s Rebuke,” the rabbit chastised before hopping in front of me. “I’m Hoen, and the gem over there that’s really full of herself is Glenda,” the rabbit said, pointing with his little paw. It would be painfully cute if this situation wasn’t so strange.

The dungeon core, Glenda, has granted her assistant, Hoen complete control over your summoning. You will obey Hoen as if he were your summoner.

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“I’m Rico, by the way, glad to meet you both,” I said.

“Great, kid, follow me, and I’ll help you get set up. Those adventurers will be back at some point. We gave ‘em a good thrashing and picked off more than a few, but we suspect that will just get them more riled up. Adventurers tend to get all murdery on a dungeon core when they lose some of their party members. It’s not like it’s my fault the morons didn’t clear the whole level before heading to the final guardian. What kind of low rank adventurers don’t expect the dungeon to bring everything they bypassed down on them when they threaten the core,” Hoen said a mile a minute as he led me toward the tree line.

The trunk of a large pine tree creaked open, revealing a portal that the rabbit waved me toward. I only understood about half of what he was saying but was glad for the company. Hopefully, the rabbit would be just as chatty when it came to what I was supposed to do as a floor guardian.

I was dumped into another forest glade, this one much smaller than the one I had left. It was in the middle of the night here and instead of a stump with a cracked gem, the center of the glade held a rickety cabin. A fence, about half collapsed, ran around the place, and a few sickly-looking crops grew in patches. A large graveyard stretched out from the back of the place, and two freshly dug graves caught my attention.

“Here you are, your new home away from home. Sorry it’s not much, but I don’t suspect you’ll be here for all that long. Take some time, check the place out. The dungeon is empty of any adventurers for now, but I suspect it’s not going to stay that way for long,” Hoen said.

“What exactly am I supposed to do?” I asked.

“Yeah, Glenda wasn’t all that big on details, was she. Here’s the scoop. You’ll stay here and wait for adventurers to show up. When they arrive, you do everything in your power to take them out or at least force them away. Our minions are a little sparse here on the first floor, but Glenda will eventually get around to repopulating the place as she heals up. For now, I’ll give you control over the floor, so you can coordinate the defense with any defenders that might still be running around,” Hoen said.

The being known as Hoen has granted you control of this floor of the dungeon.

New information appeared, but the rabbit stopped me before I could dig too deep into it. “Hold up there Rico, before you spend far too much time going over dungeon stuff, we need to set a few things straight. You see, there’s a whole theme thing going on with this place, and Glenda is really into keeping up appearances. You said you were some kind of summoner, so what kind of critters do you summon?”

“I can summon a ghoul, a dwarf commoner, and a dog,” I replied, feeling a bit inadequate given the size of the place I was supposed to defend.

“Wow, that’s not exactly a cohesive aesthetic you go going on there bud. Hey Glenda,” Hoen shouted.

“Yes Hoen?” Glenda replied, reminding me that she could see and control everything inside the dungeon.

“Rico’s summons are all over the place, a ghoul, a dwarf, and a dog. I just wanted to let you know in case you’d like to change things up for him. Yeah, I get we’re in dire straits and all, but we have to keep up our image, you know,” Hoen said.

“I agree, and I’ll have his summons enhanced with a themed skin while they’re here,” Glenda said.

“What’s going on?” I asked, rather confused over the whole situation.

“No big deal, Glenda’s just going to make your summoned creatures look like something else while they’re in the dungeon. We got a whole nature thing going on here. This first level is supposed to show the slow corruption of the forest, the second level is desolation, and the final level, where Glenda hangs out, is the forest’s inevitable rebirth. Don’t worry, the changes she’s making are only visual to keep things up to standard,” Hoen said as I felt a strange spell come over me.

You have been granted a temporary visual update to your minions. This update will be removed when your summoning is complete.

“Okay, the system just confirmed it. So, what do you want me to do first?” I asked.

“Get your summons out and ready to fight. The defenders that Glenda spawns on this level must stay where they’re summoned, but you guys have free run of the place. Choose a good spot to make your stand and teach these murderous adventurers not to mess with this dungeon,” Hoen said.

“Murderous? What’s the deal there?” I asked, not quite sure I wanted to take part of killing adventurers.

“Normal adventurers are okay, they explore, fight the creatures inside, and then leave with their loot. The guys that we just ran off were different, they wanted Glenda’s core. If they can destroy her core, the shards sell for big money. Adventurers that follow the rules are fine, we give them a challenge, but we don’t actively try to kill them. Some die, but that’s just due to their own stupidity and whatnot. Anyone looking to come here to kill Glenda, well buddy, we go all out on those jerks,” Hoen advised.

“Got it, regular adventurers, just let them do their thing. I assume you’ll tell me when the bad guys show up. Can you share how the dungeon works? I’m not sure how this even exists, or why Glenda would want adventurers here in the first place,” I asked.

“Trust me, we don’t have time to go into dungeon ecology. Let’s keep it simple. Normal adventurers get to explore, and you’ll give them a good fight, but not go out of your way to kill them. The other guys, we tear apart,” Hoen replied.

“I won’t say that I understand all this, but I get that you hired me to do a job, not learn about the ins and outs of running a dungeon,” I said. Dungeons sounded fascinating, and I hoped that Hoen might continue to be talkative if we had some down time.

It looked like there wouldn’t be much downtime as an ominous gong sounded on the floor, and Hoen quickly let me know that it was to warn us that adventurers were approaching the dungeon entrance.