《The Dungeon's Champion》


 It can only get better...

    "It can only get better" I kept reminding myself as my day continued to plunge into the annals of my personal worst days ever. It was the poison-cherry on the cake, which was my worst week ever; and the only comfort I could find in all this, was my conviction that it couldn''t get any worse.


    Boy was I wrong!


    I looked out the front door of my apartment, or rather, what used to be my apartment, (and for that matter, what used to be my front door) only to find that I was looking over the edge of a tower which had erupted out of the ground underneath me.


    Not much was left of the building, and a few blocks of my neighborhood were reduced to piles of wreckage surrounding the tower. While I was of course worried for my neighbors, most of which I didn''t actually know, my primary concern at the moment was for myself, as I was quite high up, and there was no pathway down, and, I think it bears repeating, there was a giant tower under me.Stolen story; please report.


    The tower was square, tiered, with a large block at the base, and each tier on top of the base block became successively smaller, until the last block, on which I was stranded, which was approximately the size of, well, my old apartment.


    The moment I stepped out of my former front door, onto the ledge of the tower, a sudden stiff breeze blew past me, and my one time "home sweet home" was blown off the side of the tower to join with the wreckage below. To be honest, it was no great loss as I was already overdue for an eviction. I imagined my landlord''s face when he would see the state of his apartment building and I couldn''t help hoping that he was under-insured. He wasn''t a very nice man.


    Whether my apartment getting blown away was coincidence or fate I don''t know, but I now could see a wooden trap door which previously had been hidden under my cheap vinyl-covered floorboards only a moment before.


    I now had two options, I could wait for a helicopter rescue to arrive or I could go try going through the tower. As waiting was not really my thing, I decided to open the door and try to find a way out of this tower. And hey, my day couldn¡¯t get any worse now anyway.

 Are you talking to me?

    I climbed down a winding stone staircase. The room at the bottom of the stairs, was dimly lit by a light emanating from the walls. It was as though the walls were glowing but by all appearances, the walls were made of stone. Other than a large ornate chest against the opposite wall and what appeared to be another stairwell leading down to the next level, the room was completely empty.


    Up until now I would say that I was taking all these events pretty well. I mean, let''s be clear, most people would probably be freaking out about now.


    One reason for my calm was most likely that I was a pretty avid fantasy and litRpg fan, and this was all beginning to feel an awful lot like a dungeon adventure novel. If that were the case, the upper floors would typically be the most difficult levels and each floor should have some sort of portal that would take them somewhere outside of the tower.


    Here, the only way out seemed to be down through the tower, as the door through which I had entered had mysteriously disappeared.


    On the bright side, the best items of the whole tower should be in this chest, but on the not so bright side, the chance that I would make it out of the tower alive would be pretty slim if this really was a dungeon.


    I had always dreamed of being an ascender, an adventurer, a dungeon beast hunter; something that up until now had only existed in Manga''s, video games and fantasy novels. I guess it would be any young person¡¯s dream. Swords, magic, dangerous beasts, riches, adventure. The only issue was, that I didn¡¯t have any weapons or magic or much of anything for that matter, and I was on the ¡°professionals only¡± end of the tower. Shrugging, I decided to make the most of it and take each new challenge in stride, and the first step in my journey would be seeing what was hidden in the chest.


    When I undid the latch and opened the chest, the first thing that caught my eye was a sword with a pristine white hand grip that looked to be made of porcelain, with a handguard of some white metal with a gold inlay. The sheath that was also white, with inlaid gold designs running own its full length.


    I reached in to take the sword when suddenly I received a surge of information from it. The Blade of the Celestial Dominion, (wow, it even had a pretty cool title). Banishes demons and undead, protects against the dark arts. Its power was relative to the level of the wielder, the blade was virtually unbreakable and retained a razor edge at all times. When I took it out of the chest, I was surprised by how light it was. It reminded me of how John Carter¡¯s sword would have felt to him, except in his case, the sword only felt light because he was used to a heavier gravity.


    When I unsheathed it, I was almost blinded by the light that it emitted. Its light was reminiscent of, well, the sun, but it wasn''t hot, just incredibly bright.


    The chest was just chock full of goodies and next thing I knew, a full suit of enchanted armor suddenly appeared on me simply by thinking about wearing it. Again, I was flooded with information regarding the item. The armor was self-repairing, very resistant and ultra-light weight. I honestly barely noticed I was wearing armor, and although I didn¡¯t have a mirror, I was pretty sure that it looked great on me. It seemed to be made from the same porcelain-like material as the sword¡¯s handgrip and was also a perfect white. I regretted a bit that armor was no longer in style and I would probably only get to wear it to costume parties and Comic-Con events, or in dungeons of course.


    There was a small box in the chest which I opened to reveal a set of glowing gems, each a different color. The first stone I took out was an ascenders memory stone and contained the memories of great ascenders. I took the stone and touched it to my forehead (it seemed the logical thing to do at the time) and suddenly I was flooded with the memories of various ascenders who had visited this dungeon in the past. As the last memories were absorbed, I gasped for my breath. I felt like I had lived a hundred times in the space of a few seconds and it was very disorienting.


    Once the memories had been retrieved, the stone faded to a dull color and I put it back in the box and took another one. This was a combat technique guide.


    "Holy Sh!"


    "Watch your tongue young man!"


    "Are you talking to me?" I asked after recovering from the flood of information that I had just received.


    "Of course, I am talking to you, do you see anyone else?" The voice replied.


    "Well, no, but I also don''t see you for that matter. I guess that would make you the tower?"  I asked.


    "You got it on your first guess, you may actually have some potential." The tower said in a mocking tone.


    "I guess using the memory stone may have helped a bit,¡± I said, ¡°but I have read about conscious dungeons in the past so I am not too surprised. Of course, you do realize that we don''t have dungeons on this planet, right? We don''t even have magic or mana or anything like that either."


    "Well, this is the first of many towers that will be appearing on your world, at least in this era. There have been towers before, but they have been absent for quite some time now. And you, are the first ascender to enter, although you should know that, most people that enter the dungeon, start from lower levels, so I guess saying that you are the first "descender" would probably be more accurate." The said, laughing at his own joke.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    "You really didn''t leave me much of a choice you know. Your tower destroyed my whole neighborhood and left me stranded on top. So, as this wasn''t really my choice, is there any chance that you will just let me pass through without me getting eaten by any monsters?"


    "Now, now, that does not sound very adventurous to me. And to think I wanted to make you the hero of this tower, the tower champion. Do you think every tower has chests like the one you are so deftly emptying?"


    "Well, I guess that some of the things in the chest did seem too good to be true," I admitted. "So, why are you being so generous with me then, and why do you want to make me your champion? To be honest, it seems a bit suspicious."


    "Dungeons are not really generous; whether you live or die does not really concern me in the slightest, although I admit that some persons I appreciate more than others, and there are some ascenders that I really do not like at all. But in your case, there are a few reasons more or less pragmatic. I need someone to spread the word about the dungeons in your world, someone to start an ascenders association, serve as a sort of ambassador to your world. Also, every decent dungeon needs a champion.


    "Seeing as I destroyed your home, and more or less hard-handed you into entering my dungeon, I also felt that I owed you something in return.


    "My intuition tells me, that you will make a good champion, that is, if you can survive your descent. You are young, seem to have a decent intelligence, you had the courage to enter the dungeon and then there is also your aura, which is probably your greatest asset." The voice of the tower said.


    "My aura, what is so special about my aura?¡±  I actually didn''t even know that I had an aura, I have never seen it in any case.


    "Well, you do have an aura, and although you cannot see it, it is particularly pure.  The aura is the reflection of your soul, and believe me, a pure soul is a good thing. There may be some information on that in one of the memory stones."


    "I think that with what is in that chest, used intelligently, and with some effort on your part, should put you well on your way to becoming a champion. Your greatest challenge will be surviving the next few floors being as you have entered from the wrong door."


    "I thought that each floor would have its own exit. Do I really have to go through every floor?"


    "That is true, there are portals on each level, but as a future champion you will need to know each floor. I may let you exit early if you prove yourself sufficiently.  But I do expect you to become familiar with each floor of the tower in time."


    "Is there a reason that you chose Queens as a starting point? It is already congested and the area you chose is residential. Wouldn''t some cornfield in the mid-West have been a better choice? Having a dungeon here is going to be a logistics nightmare."


    "The dungeon is here because you were here. If you were picking corn in Kentucky, the tower would have been there. But don''t get the idea that you are irreplaceable and start making demands; there are other candidates, but you were the first on my list. That being said, even though the tower is here, portals to enter the tower may be anywhere on the planet where there is a connection to mana.


    "Many dungeons will be appearing across your world over the coming years, they will change the landscape of your world in ways that you cannot imagine. The dungeons will generate enormous quantities of mana and aetheric essence, much of which will enter your world. This will lead to many portals appearing.


    "Also, once a minimum integration has been achieved, people from other worlds will gain access your planet, and your people will also be able to exit into other worlds.


    "I recommend that you take some time now to prepare yourself and start your descent when you are ready. If you can survive, you will have a good chance of making it out of the tower and I will consider you the tower champion. This title will give you certain privileges, but also comes with a number of responsibilities which we will discuss later if you survive."


    "Thanks, I will do my best. By the way, my name is Matt. Would you happen to have a name?"


    "Yes, I have a name, but to know a dungeon''s true name is to hold power over it, so you can call me Will, and no, that is not short for William. I chose that name because just about everything that you see in the dungeon is a product of my will.¡±


    ¡°Well, glad to have met you Will, and thank you for the information.  I certainly hope that I will be able to survive long enough to reach the portal.¡±


    "Don''t assume that I will go easy on you. Your death would be just one of many thousands that I have witnessed within my walls and I can always find another champion. I leave you to your preparation now, good luck with your descent Matt!"


    I turned back to the box of gems and replaced the now dull stones in the box. The next stone was a mana and cultivation guide. That I would also need although I was not even aware if I even had any mana at that point. After consuming the gem, I took out the last gem, this one was a rainbow of colors unlike the others, and it was every fantasy fan¡¯s dream, a stone containing the contents of various books on magic and the memories of mages.


    I was beginning to feel that I had an unfair advantage. Most people would need generations to gather the knowledge that I had gained in just a matter of moments, although I wasn''t sure how long I would be able to retain all the information that I took in. At least for the moment it all seemed quite fresh in my mind.


    In the chest there was a ring that activated a dimensional storage space. This would allow me to store much of the contents of the chest without having to carry around any extra weight.


    There were gold coins and gems that would make me a very wealthy man once I made my way out. There were various vials of potions for health, vitality, mana, poisons, even a resurrection potion, but only for someone who  was very recently deceased.  I would almost certainly need a few of these to get through my descent, I thought to myself; but hopefully not the resurrection potion as I would need someone to apply it. It probably would not be of much use to me for the moment. I wondered if these would all be usable outside of the dungeon. I definitely needed to see if the healing potions could help my brother Sebastian who was in the hospital with bone cancer. Without it, he wouldn¡¯t have much longer to live.


    The last items at the bottom of the chest were beast cores and from high level beasts at that. This dungeon was surprisingly generous, I couldn''t help but think that it had taken a liking to me because these were far from normal rewards from a dungeon, and this I knew for certain, from the ascender¡¯s memories I had absorbed.

 Some small upgrades

    As I was given time to prepare before moving onto the next level, I decided to discover the new me, and the most logical starting point seemed to be inspecting my level of mana and starting cultivation. I was honestly dying to try some magic, but as that relied heavily on mana, I decided to do things in the right order.


    I stored my armor and my sword in my dimension ring and I took the lotus position. Closing my eyes I placed my hands palm-up on my knees. On each hand I added half of the beast cores I had found in the chest. I managed to connect with my mana core without any difficulty. I was surprised by the size of my core, as normally they started quite small and had to be stretched over time to be able to hold larger quantities of mana.


    I started cycling the mana that I was absorbing from the beast cores and the mana rich environment of the tower. The beast cores provided an absolute flood of dense mana, and it coursed through my channels and meridians, expanding both in the process. Although I had never done this before, it all felt as natural as breathing to me.


    How long I had been meditating, I wasn¡¯t sure, but when I finished, all of the beast cores had been completely depleted and I felt a power running through my veins unlike anything I had ever imagined possible. I found I was already breathing in the mana rich air and purifying it within my core subconsciously.


    Somehow, I had evolved since entering the dungeon and I didn''t actually believe it was all my doing. The dungeon certainly had a hand in somehow upgrading me without my knowledge, of that I was pretty sure. Already the fact that I had a fully developed mana core, advanced channel structures and that all my meridians were already opened, was not normal.


    "I don¡¯t know what¡¯s going on, but thanks for the upgrades. You probably didn''t want me to know it was you, but wow, I feel like I could take on an army now."


    "I have no idea what you are talking about,¡± Will replied ¡°but I am glad to hear that you''re getting stronger. Who knows, you may just become a real champion if you continue this way."


    My next challenge was manipulating my newly discovered mana. Mana could be used for physical reinforcement of my skin, bones and muscles but could also be extended outward to materialize the mana or affect the environment depending on your elemental affinity. It could also be used to fuel magical spells.


    Even though I had absorbed an enormous amount of information on mana and magic, I expected that I would be lacking the "muscle memory" necessary for manipulating it effectively, or at least that was the theory from the fantasy novels I had read. In any case, I was not expecting my first attempts at mana manipulation and magic to be very successful.


    I knew that the first mana exercise was typically forming a ball of glowing mana above your hand. As I concentrated on extending my mana outward, I imagined the form that I wanted it to take. When I had the image clearly in mind, I opened my eyes and almost jumped back when I saw a rather large mana sphere floating over my open hand. The next step would be to try to condense the sphere as much as possible. The idea was, the stronger your control, the smaller the sphere would be.


    I exerted my will, closing around the mana sphere like a large fist pressing in from all sides. Like a vice I forced it mercilessly into submission, not giving it any path to escape. When I thought that I had reached the limit I searched deep inside myself, squeezing my mana core and cycling my mana faster to create a pressure similar to the way a hydraulic pump creates force.


    As I watched it went from the size of a basketball to the size of a softball, then a ping-pong ball, then the size of a large marble and finally a small marble.The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    It was becoming obvious to me that I had a very developed control of mana already.


    I decided to try the same test again, but this time I wanted to see how quickly I could form the sphere and reduce it to the size of a small marble. It only took me a couple of seconds to arrive at the same result and with a little practice I would probably be able to do it in less than a second.


    Next, I decided to test my elemental affinities. Most mana users had an affinity with one or two, and exceptionally, three elemental affinities of mana, with typically one dominant attribute and the other elements being weaker. The main attributes would be fire, water, air and earth. There were also quite a few hybrid forms for each element such as lightning for fire, ice for water, wind-blade for wind and metal for earth. But it was pretty rare for someone be able to manipulate the hybrid attributes.


    My first attempt was fire. I knew the theory for creating fire and for that I decided to see if I could convert a marble sized mana sphere into fire. Before changing it, I first pushed my mana further away from me as a precaution.


    The bright white ball of mana turned bright blue as it changed into its fire form. The heat it projected was extreme even though it was now about two yards in front of me. I let the fire slowly expand as it changed from blue to green to red to orange yellow. It was now a raging fire, about the size of a full-grown man and I could feel my mana depleting for the first time, although I still had plenty left in reserve.


    I reduced the flow of my mana and willed the fire to take on the properties of wind and was buffeted by a strong warm wind spiraling from where the fire had just been. From wind I converted it effortlessly into water, from water I decided to try a hybrid of water and formed an ice blade.


    I went on experimenting and found that I could easily produce all of the different elemental forms of mana as well as all of the known hybrid forms, even lightning which was an rare hybrid of fire, was easy to produce.


    Lastly, I wanted to attempt a mana-bomb or explosive mana. In order to produce a mana bomb, you needed a compressed mix of mana and air within a sphere of mana. Then it sufficed to add a touch of fire or lightning and it would cause the condensed air and mana mix to explode. I was not quite sure of the strength of the explosion I could expect, so I kept the proportions small and I did the test from a distance.


    Just to be on the safe side, I created mana based earplugs in case the explosion was too loud.


    My first attempt did not produce any explosion, but I was half expecting that as I only had the theory in my memories and not the experience.


    I decided to try again, and this time I added much more ambient air into the mix. The sphere was now compressed to the size of a marble. I added a touch of fire through the wall of the outer mana barrier and it immediately triggered an explosion, similar to that of a shotgun going off, and there was a bright flash from where the sphere had been. Even with the earplugs, my head was ringing.


    Having found that I could easily manage even difficult aspects of mana manipulation, I realized that the knowledge which I had gained from the memory stones was somehow part of me at a level beyond that of simple knowledge. Somehow, I had gained the experience as well. I had no knowledge of any similar cases in all my memories, nor in any of the novels that I had read. I certainly wasn¡¯t complaining, but I was curious as to how Will had managed this.


    Being alone in a small empty room, limited my ability to gauge my physical abilities, so I decided to test these by going through a series of combat exercises. At first, I took each step slowly to make sure that I had mastered all of the movements, I then gradually increased the cadence, reinforcing my muscles bones tendons and ligaments with mana once I started exceeding speeds of what should be humanly possible and with the abundant mana in the room, I recovered quickly from the exercises. It is obvious that I had received the muscle memory as well, I thought to myself smiling.


    "So, what do you think, am I ready for what is waiting for me below?" I asked the dungeon.


    I didn''t wait for nor expect an answer as I retrieved my armor from my storage ring and headed towards the stairwell.

 You gotta be kidding me!

    Having the memories of past ascenders, I pretty much knew what I should be facing at this level. That said, this dungeon was not acting entirely normal in my case. Up until now it seemed to be extremely generous with me for some unknown reason. Could it be that it has been dormant for too long and was lonely? Maybe it simply took a liking to me? More likely than not, the dungeon had some ulterior motive that it wasn¡¯t sharing.


    This got me thinking, was it a coincidence that it appeared under my apartment? It didn''t seem normal either that there would be a door to the roof without any way down. Was that door placed there specifically for me?


    I still had not encountered any dungeon monsters, so I could find myself pitted against something abnormally strong. I mean, he did make it clear that he didn''t care if I lived or died, but I was honestly feeling pretty unbeatable at the moment.


    I tried to imagine what could be waiting for me below. A dragon, a wyvern, a manticore, ogres, trolls, vampires, werewolves, necromancers with an army of zombies or maybe some demonic force? Probably there would be some dungeon "custom" creations as well.


    As I got to the bottom of the stairs, I arrived at a small landing that ended with a metal banded wooden door. The door handle was in the form of a serpent which was pretty cool looking actually.


    When I opened the door, I found that the environment had changed completely. Instead of a stone floor and glowing stone walls, I was in an immense jungle. My senses were assaulted by the smell of rotting vegetation and the sounds of birds and various other fauna hidden in this tropical forest. I could have sworn that I could hear the plants growing. I realized that part of the reason that my senses were overly sensitive to my surroundings, was certainly the mana had increased sensorial perception. It would certainly take a while to get used to it, but it was bearable.


    Instead of a stone ceiling, there was a blue sky overhead and when I turned around, I saw the door and the walls that should have been there, had mysteriously disappeared. I was now standing in a small open area, but all around me was jungle.


    The level was visibly much larger than it should have been if I were really in the tower, and I had no idea which direction to take, so I decided go straight forward from the direction that the door opened onto this level.


    There was a narrow path through the trees and the undergrowth, the kind of path created by the passage of animals. Occasionally I would see what seemed to be footprints from some very large animal.


    I had advanced about one and a half kilometers, when I caught site of a creature with the body of an oversized gorilla. It was about twice the size of a large adult male gorilla which is already quite large. It was in the classic gorilla half-standing position, supporting itself with its knuckles on the ground at the end of its long muscular arms.


    This wasn¡¯t just a large gorilla though. Its skin looked more like the skin of a crocodile, with a rough rock-like surface. Its mouth, was like the mouth of a crocodile, but much shorter, giving the impression of it having a large toothy smile. And lastly, its teeth looked to be shards of black onyx.


    Up until now, he didn¡¯t seem to have taken notice of me. At that moment, I may have been an overpowered battle-mage, but I felt more like a fly sitting in front of a giant toad. I tried to think of the best approach to dealing with the situation, and decided that retreat was the best option, but that idea was immediately forgotten the moment I accidentally stepped on a dry branch when taking a step back.


    The creature looked up at me when it heard the sound and came at me with a speed I didn¡¯t think was possible for such a large monster.


    I took out my sword and shot forward, hoping to be able to injure it before it could make a move against me. Its long gorilla like hands tried to grab at me when I came within range, but I just barely managed to slip under its arms as they tried to close around me and I swung my sword with all my force, aiming for its midsection. As my sword made contact, I heard a sound like that of metal hitting stone.


    The creature opened its mouth and emitted a sound that gave made my hair stand on end. To say it was terrifying would be an understatement.


    It turned toward me again, and this time, it sprayed a stream of liquid at me that, fortunately for me, only hit my armored chest, but everything else that the liquid touched, leaves branches, small plants; immediately started smoking and were completely consumed. I made a mental note to myself, to avoid another hit, especially to any area not protected by armor, and as a precaution I created dense layer of mana over any exposed area of my skin.


    As the sword did not seem to be of much use against his stonelike skin, I decided to try shooting a stream of fire directly towards its face. It tried to dodge the fire, but I managed to follow its every move. It screamed in rage and ran at me but I jumped out of the way as its mouth clamped down on where my head had been just a moment before.


    Although its face was blackened from the fire, it didn¡¯t seem to have suffered any significant damage. It was then that I realized there was one area that wasn¡¯t covered by his skin armor. I formed an ice spear and as it opened its obscenely large but short crocodilian mouth, I shot the spear through its mouth.


    For a moment, It looked as though it was going to spring on me when suddenly it lunged forward, dead. Luckily, my ice spear had managed to pierce through to its brain.


    I felt that this monster was probably about the strength that I should expect from this level of the tower, but I didn¡¯t think that it was the level¡¯s ¡°boss¡± monster.


    I wanted to retrieve the monster¡¯s beast core, but I didn¡¯t see any way to get through its virtually impenetrable skin.


    I already knew that the fire wouldn¡¯t help and I didn¡¯t expect water to be of any use, so I tried my earth attribute and found there was a strong affinity.


    Using an earth attribute spell, I managed to get past its natural armor and retrieve its core. Knowing that the earth attribute worked against this creature gave me an extra advantage if I ran into any more of these creatures.


    As I continued making my way through the jungle, I ran into a variety of other monsters, but most of those did not pose too much of a threat and I was beginning to become optimistic about my chances of making it through the level, although the level boss could be another story.


    I had already traveled about four kilometers by now and I felt I must be getting close to the end of the level, I mean, how much larger could it be?


    I continued in the same general direction and after a couple of hundred yards I heard a cry of pain. I decided to investigate and headed in the direction of the sound.


    Just a little further, at the edge of a small clearing, I found the source of the sound. A large leopard-like feline with a dark black coat of fur, was caught in a shimmering spider''s web. The strands seemed to be sharp, as the cat was bleeding wherever the web pressed against its coat. A chittering sound was coming from the trees all around and assumed that would be the spiders that produced the web.


    When I looked back to where the leopard was, I found in its place a girl, completely naked, and bleeding badly.


    "Please, help me..."


    I could tell that she was in bad shape and getting weaker rapidly. On top of the blood loss, it looked like she had most likely been poisoned as well, from the bite marks and swelling on her upper arm.


    "I will do what I can to help you, try not to move." I said to reassure her while I thought on the different options that I had. The sword would most likely cut the webbing, but could worsen the wounds if any resisted when being cut. In the worst case, I could rupture an artery and she could bleed to death.


    The threads would probably shatter if I froze them, or melt if I used fire so these would most likely be better options.


    There was also a magic spell in my memories, that would simply make them disappear, but I thought that it would be too risky to try that spell with her in the webbing. I would feel pretty bad if I accidentally made her disappear as well.


    The chittering increased and I heard movement in the trees. I had to act quickly, so I decided to freeze the threads and then shatter them with my sword.


    I created a ring of extremely cold concentrated air from my mana and dropped it into the webbing all around her, being careful to avoid touching her. When I saw that the threads began to lose their metallic shine, I took out my sword and in a rapid circular motion, I snapped all the threads holding her at once and moved in to catch her as she started to fall.


    At the same time the chittering suddenly exploded and it sounded like there was a stampede in the trees.


    I quickly reinforced my legs with mana and leapt away from where I had been kneeling just a moment before. I laid the cat woman on the ground and poured one of my healing potions into her mouth before turning to face the spiders that were now clearly visible, and advancing on our position.


    There were at least fifty of them, maybe many more as some were still hidden. In the trees, on the ground, hanging from threads, they seemed to be everywhere.


    Many were about the size of a small pony, entirely black with a metallic sheen. Each one had a dozen gold flecked eyes which were all focused on us and fangs that were literally dripping with what I can only imagine was a deadly poison.


    "You gotta be kidding me!" I said to Will who I imagined would be watching the scene and I could have sworn that I heard a distant chuckle.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.


    The spiders themselves, although formidable, were not so much the problem. It was the number of them that complicated things considerably, especially as now they had managed to circle us almost entirely.


    I noticed that I now had a snarling black leopard next to me, as the leopard girl had apparently already recovered from her wounds and transformed back into her leopard form to join me against the advancing mutant arachnids. She no longer had the look of a helpless damsel in distress, but rather a dangerous predator who could probably handle a few of the spiders on her own.


    "Just stay put for now while I try to discover their weaknesses." I said, afraid that she would start fighting and would need to be saved again. There were just too many for a manual combat to be effective.


    I decided to see how they reacted to fire. I created a ball of medium density mana and gave it a fire attribute and launched it at the spider closest to us. Although it obviously didn''t like it, it didn''t seem to do any serious damage. At the same time, I got the distinct feeling that I had made them really angry now.


    I decided to try the same but this time with lightning, and there was an immediate reaction as the spider fell to the ground where it appeared to be having a seizure.


    "So, lightning it is!" I said as the horde started to all charge at us at once.


    I quickly created a dome of swirling wind around us and laced tendrils of lightning into the wind. Any spiders that tried to breach the barrier were thrown to the side and lay trembling on the ground.


    I knew they wouldn¡¯t all commit suicide against my wind-lightning dome, although that would have made things much simpler; so, I sent out lightning bolts to get any of the spiders that were smart enough to stay away from our wind shield.


    There were still many spiders which were now hiding in the forest, waiting for my barrier to drop, so as a grand finale, I conjured a localized storm, with lightning striking randomly over a hundred-yard perimeter from where we were. To be honest, I was pretty impressed with my storm, and found that it wasn¡¯t too bad for my first attempt at a magic spell.


    Once all the spiders that I could see, were lying dead on the ground, I removed the shield. I could still hear some chittering, but now it seemed to be coming from much farther away.


    I looked to see how the leopard girl was faring and found her unconscious on the ground next to me. I took out another of my precious healing potions and poured it in her mouth. In a few moments she was again back to normal.


    I couldn''t quite interpret the expression on her face, it looked to be somewhere between awe, fear, admiration and confusion.


    Okay, I know that sounds like I am not very good at reading expressions, but this one was seriously confusing. I wonder if she even understood what she was feeling at that moment.


    "Well, it looks like we handled that as well as could be expected and I believe we are safe, for the moment at least." I was doing my best to sound optimistic.


    She changed back into her human form, and slipped into a silken robe. I realized that she must have a dimensional storage space as well, although I didn¡¯t see any jewelry on her that could double as a dimensional storage.


    "I am truly grateful to you. I am fortunate to have been saved by such a powerful mage. Unfortunately, your aura pressure was too much for me endure from so close, thank you for saving me yet again. I am sorry that you are using all your healing potions on someone as unworthy as myself."


    "No, I am sorry." I said suddenly embarrassed to learn that I was the cause for her latest accident. "I didn''t think to suppress my aura, I am a little new at this, but I should have known better, my sincere apologies."


    "No, please, it is my fault." she said timidly, "I am too weak. I want you to know that I will never forget what you have done for me, and I will be in your debt until I have found a way to repay your kindness."


    "Well," I said, gesturing to the numerous dead spiders surrounding us in the clearing, and into the forest, "it is not really a loss, because I needed more cores and there should be quite a few here."


    Fortunately for me their cores were easy to extract, and with her help, I was quickly able to top up my supply of cores.


    "I guess we didn''t get the chance to be properly introduced" I said extending my hand "my name is Matthew, but my friends call me Matt".


    "Cara" she said taking my hand with both of hers while bowing. "You saved my life, so now my life is yours until I find a way to repay you."


    "That is not, necessary" I said, "I was happy to be able to help you. But now that you mention it, I am trying to make my way out of the tower, so any advice on surviving this level would be appreciated. I suspect those spiders aren''t the biggest threat on this level."


    "No¡±, she replied. ¡°There is a lot worse than these spiders on this evel.  I will accompany you then, Master Matthew, although, for a battle-mage such as yourself I can''t imagine that much could be a threat to you." She continued.


    ¡°You can just call me Matt¡± I said with a smile.


    ¡°Matt¡± she said, returning the smile.


    For a brief moment, my heart skipped a beat but I quickly tamed it using my super-power which I called ¡°really bad break-up¡±. It was a power I had also just recently acquired, less than a day before entering into the tower.


    Cara was easily the most beautiful woman that I had ever seen. She was about five foot nine, with dark brown shoulder length hair and olive skin. She was fit but not overly muscular, and she had a very feminine form. Her face and all of her features were a blueprint for feminine perfection. An artist would be hard-pressed to improve on anything.


    Maybe her most remarkable feature were her eyes, especially when she smiled. They were expressive but more importantly they were sincere.


    So, although I would normally be a stuttering idiot at this point, I was at least partially immunized against her super-power, which I called ¡°breath-taking beauty¡±.


    I also knew it was not the best moment for me to be getting interested in women, or probably it would be more accurate to say that I was terrified of getting hurt again. At the moment I equated women with pain. On top of that, I wasn''t even sure what Cara was. Human, feline, alien or all of the above? All this played in my favor, because for once in my life, I was able to be myself in front of a woman, so I guess I should probably be thankful to my ex for ripping out my heart and dancing the flamenco on it.


    ¡°I have seen quite a few mages, but never have I seen a power such as yours, at least not from a natural mage.¡± she continued.


    "A natural mage? Are there unnatural mages?" I asked. "How do you know that I am natural?"


    "The dark mages use an unnatural power. They are very powerful but their magic feels wrong. Although your magic is very powerful, I can feel that it isn¡¯t dark."


    "Do you live here in the dungeon?


    "My people are not native to the dungeon, but we have been allowed to live in the dungeon as long as we abide by its rules. The reason we had to leave our home is due to the dark mages."


    "Do you ever leave the dungeon?" I asked. "The dungeon has only recently appeared on my planet. We have never had dungeons on our world, at least not in our known history. "


    "I could leave the tower if I wish, but the world from which my tribe originates has become too dangerous for us to return to it, so we are grateful to the tower for letting us live here, even though it can also be quite dangerous at times.


    ¡°And although it may seem that the dungeon is on your world, the tower which appeared on your world is little more than a doorway. The dungeon is not actually on your world. The dungeon is similar to the storage space that you use." she gestured to the storage ring on my finger. ¡°It is somewhere else, but it now can be entered from your world via the tower. It was the same on my world before the door to the tower was closed.¡±


    "If it is more dangerous that this level of the tower, I can understand that it is too dangerous for you to return. What happened to make it so dangerous?"


    "This dungeon is not actually too dangerous for us, the adventurers and most of the really dangerous beasts are not allowed to attack us due to the dungeon rules."


    "None of the very high ranked dungeon native beasts can attack us and we may only hunt within a certain range or ranking. The spiders are ranked at more or less at my level, and normally I would have been fine but I was distracted at the wrong moment and was trapped by them.¡± Cara explained.


    "Our home world was taken over by some truly powerful and evil mages who came through a dungeon portal and quickly took over our world. It was no longer possible for us to live there, and many of us died. We are very fortunate that the dungeon accepted us before the entrance to this dungeon was closed from our world. We would be allowed to return, but if we go back, we would probably not ever be able to return to the dungeon, it would be a one-way trip."


    "I am sorry to hear that," I said. "I imagine that you must miss your home world. If I manage to get out of here alive, you are welcome to visit my world if that is allowed." Now where did that come from, I thought to myself after the words flew out of my mouth.


    "I would like that very much Matt." I noticed she looked down slightly as she said that. I hoped that she didn''t feel somehow obliged to follow me out of the tower.


    "Well, I guess that we should probably get moving before the spiders return" I said as I felt an uncomfortable silence settling in. "Lead the way!"


    "Do you mind if I stop by my village? It is on the way." she asked.


    "Sure, no problem." I was also curious to see where she lived and learn more about her people.


    "One last question, how is it that you speak my language?"


    "That is a gift from this dungeon for all who live in the dungeon or anyone who passes through a portal into a new world from this dungeon, they receive the principle languages of the land they are entering into."


    "That must make this dungeon very popular I imagine. I guess that we are fortunate to have this one as the first on our world."


    "Yes," she said with a slight hesitation, "this dungeon is special in many ways as you will see over time."


    "If you don''t mind" she said as she took my head in her hands and stood on the tip of her toes and approached her face to mine. My heart suddenly started beating so fast that I almost couldn''t think and I found myself closing my eyes. ¡°Oh no¡±, I thought to myself, this is not what I wanted, or was it? I didn''t know any longer. I was more than a little surprised when, instead of feeling her lips on mine, I felt her forehead on mine, and, similar to the memory stones, I felt a rush of information entering my head but I couldn¡¯t identify what I had learned.


    "We will be able to communicate telepathically now, but I imagine that you knew that already."


    "Actually, I didn''t know that but maybe I should have, being a mage and all. Does this mean that we can read each other¡¯s minds now?" It may have sounded like a stupid question to her, but I was more than a little worried that she would hear what I was thinking.


    "No, it is a question of intent, if you want to speak to me, I will hear it but I will now be able to hear your thoughts otherwise. This ability is something inherent to my people, but it can be passed on to others if we trust them."


    I felt touched that she trusted me enough to pass on her gift.


    With that we started off at a relaxed pace through the forest towards Cara''s village. As time passed, I became more and more impressed with the dungeon. It seemed like a world all on its own, and to think that all of this was created through Will¡¯s will. I was also beginning to wonder how long it would take to get through all of the floors as I had already traveled a few miles on this level.


    While travelling, we got to know each other much better and we communicated with a mix of spoken and telepathic communication.  I really started appreciating being able to communicate without words. There seemed to be an improved level of understanding when compared with spoken speech, where there were often misunderstandings. When speaking mind to mind, the meaning and tone were always clear.

 Whats a Starbucks?

    After about an hour, we arrived at Cara''s village. I removed my armor before entering the village as I thought it may be a bit intimidating. I now looked like a normal teenage New Yorker in a t-shirt, jeans and sneakers. I realized that this style of clothing would probably look a bit strange to them. I could just imagine them reading my t-shirt and thinking "What''s a Starbucks?"


    There seemed to be quite a lot of activity outside when we arrived, but the activity stopped almost immediately when the villagers noticed our arrival.


    The village was a mix of people in human form and feline form, probably more a matter of what was most convenient for what they were doing. Some of the tribe was busy with artisanal activities or cooking or cleaning and for these they most needed the use of their hands and chose the human form. The children playing seemed to prefer the feline form and I was happy to see that the persons in their human form were all wearing some form of clothing although only the bear minimum.


    Their village was composed of a large clearing and around the perimeter of the clearing, in the trees, was a network of interconnected tree houses. As I watched, I saw little by little everyone from the village started appearing in doorways of their houses to watch us. Some were curious and others, well, let''s just say, if looks could kill I would no longer be alive.


    I could see Cara looking at what appeared to be a couple of older people and some younger leopards and I could only assume that they were speaking telepathically.


    "Your family I assume." I said also speaking telepathically.


    "Yes, my mother and father and my little brother and sister."


    "I will introduce you to everyone, in the village. They aren¡¯t used to having visitors and many are probably suspicious of you. I am sorry if this makes you uncomfortable, but once they know you it should be fine."


    "I guess that is normal, people are suspicious of strangers where I come from as well."


    When we arrived in the center of the village, I was introduced to her family who all took the human form to meet me.


    "Mother, father, I would like you to meet Matthew, Matthew, I would like you meet my Mother Ilha and my father Kitikat." I almost erupted in laughter when I heard his name. How I managed to retain myself was a miracle, but somehow, I managed.


    "It is a pleasure to meet you both, but you can just call me Matt," I said bowing slightly as Cara had when she met me.


    Cara continued with the introductions, "This is my little brother ''Disaster'' and my little sister ''Trouble maker''.


    "Mom!" her little sister and brother said at the same time."


    "This is Xander.¡± She said, roughing up her brother''s hair. ¡°And this is Angel.  A definite misnomer if you ask me." She said looking at her little sister.


    "Mom!" Angel said again, and then turned back to Cara and asked "What''s a misnomer?" at that, everyone broke out laughing and Cara took her little sister in her arms and gave her a kiss.


    "Matthew is a very powerful battle-mage who saved my life twice today, so I expect everyone to be on his best behavior with him or you will have me to deal with."


    Everyone looked at me almost at once. "You can all call me Matt, and actually, I saved her life only once. The second time was entirely my fault to start with, so it doesn''t count."


    Ilha and Kitikat were now staring at Cara. "What happened? Are you hurt?" They asked once they had gotten over their initial shocked silence.


    "I am fine, Matt gave me some healing potions so I am as good as new. I will tell you everything, but first I would like to introduce him to the rest of the village. Would it be possible to prepare some food as neither of us has eaten and it has been a long day.¡±


    "My excuses" Kitikat said, ¡°you must be tired and hungry. It is time for the evening meal, we will prepare the table and you can tell us what happened, over dinner."


    "He doesn''t look like a battle-mage" Xander said, sizing up Matt with his eyes.


    "Can you do any tricks?" Angel asked looking at Matt with wonder in her eyes?


    "Yes, he''s a battle-mage, and yes, he can do tricks, but when he does, you shouldn¡¯t be anywhere near him, because you could get hurt. Now you both need to get cleaned for dinner." Cara said putting angel back on the ground.


    "Here, let me introduce you to the people of my village." she said taking me by my arm.


    I was introduced to just about everyone in the village and most of them were very friendly, but there were obviously a few who seemed to see me as a threat and I got definite jealousy vibes from more than a few of them.


    To be honest, I could totally understand. Cara was stunning, and lastly, the way Cara looked at me would leave anyone who had feelings for her, understandably jealous.


    I loved it when she looked at me that way, a mix of admiration and pride; no one had ever looked at me that way before. At the same time, I knew that I didn''t deserve any of that. Everything I had, was given to me by the dungeon, none of it was my own. I felt like a cheat, and I realized that if I wanted to feel good about myself, I would need to work for it. I would need to improve on what I was given, but I was given so much that it wouldn''t be easy.This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    After the introductions were finished, we just had time to wash up before the dinner was served. I was seated next to Cara and her parents were seated across from us. The table was large and everyone from the village had a place at the table, but the chairs the children should have been seated in were all empty and they were all pressing in around where Cara and I were seated, earning disapproving looks from their parents.


    "Is it true that you are a mage? Can you make fire? Can you make me disappear?" "No, make me disappear! I asked first!" I found it quite funny actually, but I think some of the others were embarrassed and finally Ilha stood up and one look at the children sufficed and they immediately went silent and returned to the place at the table.


    The food that was served was similar to a stew and the drink that was served was a sweet beer which was actually quite nice. Any fears I had as to what I would be eating were dispelled, but I wasn¡¯t planning on asking what animal the meat came from.


    While eating, we were interrogated over the events of the day. While Cara explained what happened, everyone kept looking from her to me in disbelief.


    "I stopped briefly to rest in the territory of the giant spiders and I must have fallen asleep. I woke to a pain in my shoulder and found a giant spider standing over me, with its fangs in my shoulder. I tried to get away but the spiders had already created a web to keep me from escaping and the venom had already weakened me too much. I found myself suspended in webbing and bleeding where the strands sliced through my skin and there were so many spiders. I have never seen so many in one place, and my head was filled with that infernal clicking noise they make. I knew that I was about to die, I had no doubt of that, and the spiders were all around me, just waiting for me to die to eat me."


    "I heard something approaching and the spiders hid themselves in the trees. It was Matthew. He was wearing a pure white suit of armor and was holding a sword that was so bright it was impossible to look at. I thought I was hallucinating. Never have I seen anything so beautiful." Everyone stared at Matt in a mix of awe and disbelief.


    "I struggled to find the strength just to beg for help. ''Please, help me..''¡± she imitated herself quite well. ¡°Matt cut the webbing as though it was made of silk, and took me to safety before giving me one of his healing potions, and not a standard healing potion, it was a high quality potion. The moment I took it, my whole body was healed and the effects of the poison were completely gone."


    "The spiders came out of the woods, there were at least seventy of them and they were angry. He first attacked a spider with fire but that just made them angrier. He then shot out a bolt of lightning and killed the spider, and that is when all the spiders charged at us at once and things got very dangerous.


    He created a barrier of wind and lightning but the pressure of his aura became unbearable for me and after a little while, I passed out. My last memory was seeing the blue sky was fill with black clouds as hundreds of bolts of lightning shot down all around us. Next thing I knew, Matt had given me another healing potion and when I looked around there were dead spiders all over the clearing and in the forest as well."


    "No one could face of that many of those spiders and survive, battle mage or no battle mage", Fenon asserted, smashing his mug onto the table loudly. "And no aura is strong enough to make a healthy member of our clan fall unconscious, and certainly not Mr. Starbucks here. And now that we are talking about it, what in the world is a Starbucks?"


    And there it was, the question I had been waiting for since I entered the village. It was apparent to me that he had had too much sweet beer, and that this one had some definite issues with me, most likely related to me being Cara¡¯s hero of the day.


    It seemed important to Cara that everyone believe her, and to be honest, I don¡¯t think that Fenon was the only one who was having doubts about the accuracy of the story. I knew that in my t-shirt and jeans I didn¡¯t exactly give the message ¡°powerful of a battle-mage.¡±


    ¡°Matt, show everyone the giant razor-web spider cores you recovered?" Cara said, intent on proving that what she said was true.


    I thought it best to do as she asked. The plates had already been cleared from the table, so I retrieved of all the spider cores from my storage and placed them in the center of the table. There was an audible intake of breath from just about everyone around the table and I heard some of the kids saying "Woe cool!"


    "There must be at least 70 there!" Kitikat said. "This is something that I would not have believed if I hadn''t seen it for myself. We are honored to have such a powerful mage in our village, and our whole village is in your debt for saving our Cara."


    "I don''t know where you got those cores, but I still don''t believe you were capable of that." It was again the young alpha named Fenon who seemed determined to be right, and alcohol typically encouraged that sort of thought pattern.


    I returned the cores to my dimensional space and looked Fenon straight in the eyes. I was starting to have enough of his attitude. "It doesn''t really matter if you believe what I can or can''t do," I said trying to sound as relaxed, "but I find you being disrespectful to Cara and I don''t think that she deserves that, especially after the day that she has had, and I think that you owe her an apology." I spoke casually, but as I spoke, I was focusing my aura on Fenon and only Fenon, gradually increasing the gravitational pressure on him with each word.


    At first, he looked confused, then he started resisting, and finally he was struggling to sit upright at the table until finally his stool collapsed under the pressure and he ended up on the ground lying on his back barely conscious."


    It took a moment for the others to grasp what had happened, but the children caught on quickly and again started saying "Woe did you see that?" "That was so cool! Do it to me!" "Can you do that to me?" "I think you owe her an apology! Mwahahaha" one of them said faking a deep voice, imitating me and making me sound like some evil wizard.


    Fenon managed to get back on his feet apparently much humbled and a little sobered. "Cara, I am sorry, I made of fool of myself as usual. And Matt, I am sorry for doubting you."


    "No harm done" I said, inclining my head again "Even I find today''s events a little unbelievable. And by the way, Starbucks is a place on my world where we go to get a lot different flavors of coffee and a muffin or a cookie. Where I come from, when we like something, we make a t-shirt of it to show others what we like. I know, it is a really strange custom."


    In the ensuing silence we heard another one of the kids saying "I think you owe her an apology! Mwahahaha..." and everyone broke down laughing; the seriousness of the moment before was broken.


    A few of us talked a while longer, most of the children having already been put to bed, and it was time for me to get to bed as well. This had probably been the longest and most eventful day of my life. "I think it is time for me to get some sleep" I said, shifting my stool back and standing up from the table. I saw that Cara was doing the same.


    Ilha stood as well when suddenly we heard a blood curdling scream from the darkness near the edge of the village.

 An Evil in the Dungeon

    Everyone rushed to the spot the sound was coming from, a seemingly endless horrific blood curdling scream.


    We arrived to find a shadowy almost shapeless form hovering over one of the villagers, sucking the life out of her. She was agonizing, unable to move. All she could do was scream.


    "This is bad." Cara said in my mind. "This is one of the creatures created by the mages on our home world. They are the reason that we left."


    Fenon was the first to react, rushing towards the dark creature when suddenly a second dark cloud shot out from the trees and coalesced in front of him. He let out a cry as the creature started feeding hungrily on his life force as well.


    "Get back" I shouted at the remaining villagers, giving them a shove with my aura as I retrieved my armor and my sword. The Blade of Celestial Dominion shone blindingly bright against the darkness and the creature which had attacked the first villager released his hold on her, escaping into a black mist and reappearing in the shadows at the edge of the clearing where yet another shadow creature appeared next to it.


    "We are not here for you, mage." The new one said. "You cannot protect all of them, they belong to us, you should go."


    I lunged at the shadow which was still feeding on Fenon and heard a faint rasp of pain when my sword passed through it, just as it was dissipating. After leaving Fenon, the black cloud headed towards the center of the clearing where the villagers were huddled together.


    "Oh no you don''t!" I said and instinctively formed a thin hollow sphere of pure mana around the smoky cloud that was moving rapidly towards the villagers. Once I saw that it couldn''t pass through my mana barrier, I immediately did the same for the two others which were already beginning to dissipate.


    "Gotcha!" I said, as I now had two mana spheres holding the three shadow creatures who in the meantime had re-solidified, but were still unable to break through the translucent barrier.


    "You cannot protect them from us." one of the shadows shrieked. "No, you cannot." said another.


    "We''ll see about that" I replied compressing the sphere as I had done when first learning to use mana. When the sphere was the size of an apple, I took out my sword and placed it against the sphere with the single shadow figure in it. At this size, it was completely engulfed in the light from the sword there was a shriek from the sphere and when I removed my sword, I saw that there was no longer any trace of black visible in the mana.


    "You will pay for what you have done!" the other creatures screamed. "You have no idea how powerful our creators are. You will regret your error!"


    "What are you exactly? " I asked. "My sword banishes demons, so I assume that you are at least partially demons, but there is more to you than that isn''t there?"


    "We are souls hungry for life and we are powerful demons" they laughed hideously. "Our hunger cannot be satiated, and even if you banish us, there are thousands more that will take our place. Many, more powerful than we are, yes, much more; yet not even close to the power of our masters. You will pay dearly mage, you will become one of us and you will know our hunger and be food for our masters when they come for you."


    They laughed and then finally screamed when I cleansed them with my sword as well.


    "How many in the village have basic mana control?" I asked the villagers. Almost everyone replied by touching a hand to their chest.


    "Can you form mana the way that you just saw me do?" They were more hesitant this time, but most raised their hands to this question as well.


    "If you want to have a chance for the next time they arrive, I suggest that you all practice creating mana containment barriers." and with that I excused myself, and took a walk into the forest to have a long discussion with the dungeon in private.


    "Will" I said, calling out to the dungeon. "I now understand better now why you needed a champion, and, just to be clear, I don''t mind helping you and the villagers, but you are going to have to explain to me what is actually happening here."


    "First of all, why do you need me? Why couldn''t you help these people yourself? And why couldn''t you just keep those creatures out in the first place."


    "I guess you are right, I do owe you an explanation." Will said with a sincere tone. "First and foremost, dungeons must abide by rules. The rules are built into our cores and we simply cannot go against them. That is why dungeons need a champion, that is why I needed you. I can¡¯t keep the demon-wraiths out of the dungeon and I am limited in what I can do for the dungeon¡¯s residents."Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!


    "A champion can do things that a dungeon cannot. A dungeon is free to reward its champion more than most ascenders, including certain physical upgrades. Not only were your mana core, channels and meridians greatly improved when you entered the dungeon, but your muscles, bones and organs were also improved. I did not go against your fundamental makeup though; the improvements were within your abilities to achieve given time. I just sped up the process. Significantly." He added after a brief pause.


    "Why were those creatures after them? I am sure that there are plenty of other life forms here in the dungeon, or outside of the dungeon for that matter. Why them?"


    "I can''t be sure of all of their reasons," Will said, his voice sounding suddenly thoughtful, "but the mages were furious when I gave refuge to the Leopard folk and closed access to the dungeon from their world. I suspect that their primary motivation is pride, spite or revenge. Maybe all three."


    "I am thankful that you dealt with those creatures before they could report back to their masters. As you may know, the dungeon is in a dimensional space, similar to the space you access through your ring, just much larger. I think that the mages do not leave their home base plant very often and also, most of the dungeons on their world have closed their towers for reasons similar to mine. On top of that, they will only travel if they are sure that they will be able to return. Imagine if one left and then a dungeon closed off the possibility to return. This is the reason that they are using the wraiths to enter the remaining dungeons to search out Cara''s people. They can enter most dungeon¡¯s undetected and aside from banishment artifacts, there is little that can be done to stop them."


    "There are many doorways to this dungeon, towers, on many different worlds. Some worlds have many towers, many of which lead to different dungeons in different dimensional spaces. My fear, is that they may find a path to one of the entrances to this tower. These mages are extremely powerful and if they manage to enter into the dungeon, we will all be in danger, myself included. Also, any worlds connected to the dungeon will be in danger for that matter, including your own."


    "How many mages are there?" I asked, to understand better what we were up against.


    "There were 12 mages when we closed the portal to their world. They are quite jealous of their power, so their number should still be about the same even now, I believe. Of course, they have many thousands of those demons, as well as many followers. As you saw, the demons feast on life force. They keep people and other beasts as cattle to feed on. Over time, their prey loses its will to live and they need to find new livestock. They extract the souls from the ones that are no longer useful to them, removing any memories from the soul as well, that is why they are also referred to as lost souls. When a person dies, its soul returns to where it came from originally. But these souls have had these memories erased so they are incapable of returning.


    ¡°Once they have a detached soul, they summon demons and then extract their essence, killing the demon in the process. They found a way to attach that essence to the lost souls, to create the creatures that you saw. These creatures will then feed on the life essence of others. They are constantly famished for life, and are also bound to their masters. When they return to their masters, the mages feed on them, and that is how the mages become stronger."


    "The demon world cannot be happy about the demons being summoned and killed by these mages," I said, thinking out loud. "I don''t exactly like the idea of working with demons, but in this case, they could possibly be powerful allies. I know nothing about demons, mind you, only what I gleaned from the memory stones and fantasy novels."


    "True, that is not a bad idea, aside from the fact that it is insanely, dangerous! I am biased, of course, as I have lived through demon wars in the past, which I wish I could forget. What you suggest may be an option though."


    "Can you do anything for the villagers? If those creatures return, they will be helpless without some way to banish them."


    "No, unfortunately I cannot help them directly, but I can help you to help them, and me for that matter."  Will said.


    "I have an idea ? I said  ¡°and I am hoping that it will at least help the villagers against the shadow creatures. I would need to return to my world though, preferably without having to pass through all of the floors of the tower.  A direct access to this floor. I also would like to enter my world somewhere where I won''t be noticed. By now, the entrance to the tower must be surrounded by the police, the army and news agencies and all sorts of religious fanatics. Lastly, I would need the runes which banish demons; like the ones used on my sword. Is that possible?"


    "I think that is a fair request.¡± Will replied, to my relief.  ¡°I will provide a portal for you, at this very spot, when you are ready to leave. It will take you to a discrete area not far from the tower. You will also be able to return here from there. Be aware, your world does not yet have much mana, especially the further you are from the tower. We will only be able to communicate if there is an uninterrupted mana connection to the tower. You should have more than enough mana for your personal needs with the beast cores you collected. I have also added some items in your storage, including a new memory stone for runology and a red and black demonology stone which I prefer that you only use as a last resort.¡±


    "While you are back in your world, you may want to start working on setting up an Ascenders Association¡± Will added.  ¡°It will be needed to train ascenders, enforce the rules and set up ratings for each level of the dungeon. I think that with the ascenders memory stones that you have already absorbed, you should have enough information to perform these tasks."


    "It sounds like I have my work cut out for me." I said, suddenly realizing the scope of the tasks what I had accepted. This was looking to become a long-term project.


    "If you wish, you may take a villager with you, I am sure that Cara would appreciate it.¡±  After a brief pause, he added ¡°And in case you were wondering, your two species are compatible."


    If a dungeon could wink, I am sure that it would have.

 A mage in New York

    I slept like the dead and when I woke, I found Cara and her siblings waiting for me in my room. Actually, it would be more accurate to say that Angel and Xander were chasing each other around Cara who was waiting for me to wake up. As soon as they noticed I was awake, I had Angel and Xander jumping up and down on the bed.


    "If you want to get refreshed and come down, we are about to break fast. I think everyone would like to see you." Cara said handing me my clothes which had already been cleaned. "Angel, Xander, let Matt get ready, he will be down soon."


    When they left my room, I washed my face and finished getting dressed, but before climbing down to the clearing, I decided to quickly take inventory of the extra rewards what Will had placed in my storage. The first items that caught my attention, were 2 masks, both with the name "The Mask of Anonymity". It allowed the wearer not to be recognized and even hid that a mask was being used. "Will really thought of everything" I thought to myself. This was exactly what I would need to represent the dungeon without revealing my identity and I assumed that the second mask was for Cara.


    Other items which he added would certainly come in handy, like extra healing potions, and gold, and some other magical items that I wasn''t quite sure how I would use; but the masks were a godsend.


    I went down to the clearing where everyone was already at the table and there was an empty stool at the same place next to Cara, as the previous evening. There was a variety of fruit and juices, milk and bread and cheeses, as well as slices of different meats on the table.


    "Sorry to have kept you waiting", I said as I took my seat. "I am impressed with the table you have prepared. Do you eat this well every day?"


    "Today is special" Ilha said "it was the least we could do to thank for saving us all last night. We are in your debt. Please consider our village as your home when you are in the dungeon."


    "In the end, I didn''t really do much, I was just fortunate that my sword banishes demons, and that they couldn''t pass through the mana barrier. If either of those things hadn¡¯t worked I would have been in a predicament as well."


    "Some of us can create mana barriers," Kitikat said, after swallowing a piece of bread with meat. "but we have no way of destroying those creatures. So, if they return, we will only be able to delay them at best."


    "I am working on a solution to that" I replied "but I will need to return to my world first. I had mentioned to Cara that she is welcome to join me during my trip, if she is still interested." I looked toward Cara, who was smiling like she had just won a lottery. She looked to her parents who nodded their approval."


    "Don''t worry, I will make sure that she is safe, you have my word. My world can be dangerous, but it is much less dangerous than the dungeon. Also, I don''t expect to be gone for very long. The dungeon has arranged for a portal for us to leave and return to this level, not far from here."


    "How are you feeling today?" I asked Fenon and Lyna who had been victims of the shadow creatures.


    "I feel like a lost part of my life force, I feel like part of me is gone." Lyna said, apparently still affected by the what happened to her. "I would not wish this on my worst enemy, but I am happy that you could stop them before they could take any more."


    "Same for me" Fenon agreed. "I feel empty. That is something that I never want to relive. I am not someone who runs from danger, but I can''t see myself facing one of those creatures again."


    "I have been thinking about that.¡± I replied ¡°After breakfast I would like to try something, if the two of you are OK with an experiment." They both nodded in agreement.


    "When are you planning on leaving?" Ilha asked, "I would like to prepare some things for you to take with you on your trip."


    "I will be ready when I have finished with Fenon and Lyna. We won''t need much though. In my world I will be able to buy anything we need once I sell some of the rewards I received from the Dungeon, so she should only need a change of clothes and just a little food for about half a day.


    After we finished eating, I invited Fenon and Lyna into the tree house I was staying in.


    "This is totally experimental" I warned them, "but I don''t think that it can do any harm to try." I withdrew the remnants of the creatures, now cleansed of their demon essence, from my dimension ring.


    "I think that there is a chance that what the they took from you, may still recognize you. I am hoping that your life force may return to you if given the chance. I would like to free what is inside and see if it returns to you." They both nervously agreed.


    I brought the mana enclosed essence between them and removed the mana barrier. At first, two clouds of a translucent milky essence hung in the air between them, but after a few seconds, part of the cloud started to drift toward Lyna, and another part separated from the mass and drifted towards Fenon. As soon as they touched the skin of each, they were quickly absorbed into them."


    They both fell to the floor, their heads in their hands, weeping. "Is everything alright?" I asked, concerned that I had made a big mistake trying to return their life force to them.


    Lyna looked up, her teary-eyed face covered with a big smile. "I feel whole again! I can never thank you enough. You are truly a blessing to me and to the whole village."


    Fenon stood up and gave me an enormous hug. "Thank you" he sobbed, thank you so much." Lyna stood and hugged us both, crying and still smiling.


    They left my room, and I went down just a few minutes later. I found most of the villagers performing different tasks and Ilha was wrapping up some supplies for us to take on our trip.


    I noticed Fenon and Lyna were talking with a group of their friends, apparently explaining what happened. As their story came to an end, there were more tears and hugs and more than a few looks in my direction.


    Turning my attention back to the preparations for our trip, I was surprised to see how much was already neatly packed on the table. "Do you think you have enough there?" I asked Cara, looking at about a couple of days of food. I wasn''t sure if light sarcasm worked when speaking telepathically.


    "Humor her" she replied with a smile, "It''s the first time I am leaving the village, anyway, food doesn''t go bad in dimension storage."


    "Promise me you will be careful" Ilha said as she finished the last package.


    "Don''t worry, we will be back before you know it, and we will try to keep you posted via the Dungeon. I assume that you can speak with the Dungeon?"


    "Yes, we sometimes speak with the Dungeon." Kitikat replied.


    "I don''t know if he gave you his name, but he told me I could call him Will."


    "Will." he repeated. "Very interesting, I never thought to ask his name."


    I put the supplies in my storage and I assumed that Cara had her clothing in her own storage space although she wasn''t wearing any jewelry, so it was still a mystery to me how she accessed her storage.


    We gave our farewell to a few of the villagers and had to struggle to get the children to let us go. Angel and Xander were crying, they wanted absolutely to come with us.


    Once we managed to extricate ourselves from them, we headed off to the place in the woods, that Will said we would find the portal. While we walked, I prepared Cara for what she would find once we arrived and briefly sketched what we would need to do before having a place to stay for the night.


    I realized that one of the first things we would need to do, was to go shopping for clothes for Cara and for myself. All of my clothing, aside from what I was wearing, was lost when the tower appeared. Cara was stunning no matter what she was wearing, but she stood out a bit too much in her current attire, which was a simple, dark blue, knee length dress and leather sandals.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    Before we could do anything, though, the first priority, was to trade some of the gold from the tower for cash, as I was stone broke when I entered the tower, and I no longer had any place to call home.


    A couple of minutes later we arrived at the portal location, the portal was there as promised. A step through the portal and we were back in my home neighborhood, or what was left of it. The place we arrived at was behind a wall where no one could see us arrive, and as we stepped out into the open, we could see the tower just a few hundred yards from us.


    The whole area was swarming with the police, just about every news agency was there as well with their trucks with satellite dishes on the roofs. There was also a group of people holding up signs with messages such as "Welcome to the Big Apple", "We come in peace", "ET Phone home", "Take me with you". Just about any alien related text was there.


    Another group was from some doomsday religious cult with their signs ¡°Repent for the end is nigh¡±, ¡°May your Kingdom come on earth, and look, it hath arrived!¡±.


    Besides these groups, there were also a lot of people curious to see the tower. As we got closer, I recognized a few of my neighbors as well as some persons I knew from my short time in university. I say short time in university because I couldn''t afford to continue the university courses, due to my brother Seb''s hospital bills.


    Thinking of this brought back a lot of unpleasant memories. My brother came down with a very acute and rare form of bone cancer and was still now at the Mount Sinai Hospital for treatments, but even with insurance, the costs were high, and my parents had to mortgage their house and sell everything of value and still they couldn''t make the payments. I gave everything I had saved for tuition and had to drop out of university. I couldn''t find a job that paid enough for my rent, so I was going to lose my apartment as well.


    "Matt" I heard someone call my name and I recognized the voice. "We thought you were killed by the tower, there are a bunch of people looking for you."


    "Wow, Danny, it''s been a while. Nice to see you again. This is my friend Cara, Cara this is Danny, a childhood friend."


    They greeted each other although a it was a little awkward as Cara''s greeting was different from our classic western greetings.


    "Danny, I don''t have much time now, but could you tell whoever is looking for me, that I am fine?" Danny was only half listening as he couldn''t seem to take his eyes off of Cara.


    "My apartment was destroyed by the tower and I absolutely need to find a place to stay for the night. I will give my family a call as soon as I get a new phone."


    "Yeah, sure, no problem. I''ll give them a call and tell them that you are fine. Happy to see you''re ok."


    "Hey," he said as we started to move away from him "When you find a place, give me a ring and we can meet for lunch and catch up. And Cara, you can come as well."


    "That would be great great, and thanks for letting everyone know that I am OK.


    We continued on our way to find a gold shop or a pawn shop. I was living in one of the poorer neighborhoods just outside of New York, and there should be quite a few of that type of shop in the area. As we didn''t have money for a taxi, we were forced to search for a shop on foot. I don''t think Cara minded though as she was taking in all the new sights and sounds with a like fascination.


    ¡°This is nothing, just wait till we get over there. ¡± I gave a gesture towards the skyscrapers in the distance .


    "This place is unlike anything I could have imagined." She said, her eyes taking in everything "Please explain to me how these things move on their own?" she said pointing at a car. And those things flying around the tower, how do they stay in the air?"


    "I wish I had a memory stone for the history of our world to share with you, but I will try to explain it to you as well as I can. Basically, they create energy from burning or rather making a fuel explode. They use thousands of those explosions to turn wheels of the vehicle which we call a car, or in the case of the helicopter flying around the tower, it turns wings so fast that it can lift the helicopter into the air. When the fuel or liquid has been all spent, they need to put more in a reservoir in the vehicle. It is more complicated than that, but that is the basic idea."


    "I am actually pretty sure that the same could be done with mana if someone took the time to build it." I added, at the same time imagining in my head how I would go about it.


    As we walked, I explained other things about our world that were unfamiliar to Cara, such as how the roads were built, the power cables and telephone lines, satellite dishes and mobile towers. The music coming out of the cars was particularly fascinating to her and I decided I would buy her a smartphone and a subscription to Spotify as soon as I had some money.


    She found the way people dressed particularly interesting. So much variety in clothing and hairstyles and jewelry. "As soon as we are settled in, we can go shopping for some clothing." I told her casually, and she was maybe more excited than when I said that she could come with me on through the portal.


    We arrived at a gold exchange and it was critical to the plan that we remain anonymous, so I donned the mask of anonymity turned to Cara and asked her if she recognized me. It was obvious from her expression that she had no idea who I was so I removed the mask. "Peek a boo" I said smiling, as comprehension dawned in her eyes. I handed her the other mask and when she put it on, the effect was instantaneous. I could no longer recognize anything about her. Neither her clothing, nor her face. What was strange was that she wasn''t blurred nor was there anything about her changed, it was just that she wasn''t recognizable as Cara.


    Once we were confident that we couldn''t be recognized, we entered the gold exchange shop.


    "I would like to convert some gold for cash" I said placing a stack of gold coins on the counter.


    "I need a driver¡¯s license or some form of identity" the person behind the counter said, acting uninterested, although it was obvious from his initial expression that he was very interested in the coins I had placed on the counter.


    "I do not have any identity card on me. All my possessions were destroyed when the tower destroyed my neighborhood." I replied.


    "No identity, no cash." he said, probably expecting to leverage for a better deal for him. I was expecting this.


    "I think that you will be interested in buying some of these off me." I said, "Do you know where these coins are from? I imagine that you have never seen coins quite like these before." I let him take a good look at one of the coins. He turned the coin to look at both sides and rubbed it on his gold tester stone, and read the inscriptions with a magnifying loop.


    "I never have seen coins like these but that still doesn''t mean that they are worth more than any other coin." He replied.


    "What if I told you that these coins came from inside the tower that appeared a couple of days ago?" That definitely got his attention. "And that you are the first person to see these coins aside from myself and my friend here. How much do you think these would be worth on e-bay? The first gold coins from treasure chests of the world''s first dungeon tower?"


    "Do you have any proof of what you are saying?" a glimmer of greed was now burning in his eyes and his smile.


    "I could give you proof, but of course it won''t be in the form of a certificate as the tower is obviously not recognized as a certificate authority. But what if the stone was accompanied by something that was not of this world? Of course, the price would have to go up accordingly and I don''t know if you can afford that."


    "Let me see what you have to offer." he said, his air of indifference fading..


    I took out one of my spider beast-cores, visibly glowing with mana. "This is what is known as a beast-core. This is the mana core of a very large spider-like creature from one of the top floors of the tower. This is the first beast core in this world, and is probably worth a small fortune, but once people start entering the tower, they will become more common place. For the moment though, this is the first, and the only one on earth."


    "I don''t have time to haggle, there are plenty of other shops in the area that will certainly be interested in what I have to offer but I would prefer concluding quickly. I would like to know your best price for the beast-core and for the gold coins. Or as many as you can afford now, in cash. I don''t want my identity revealed for the moment, so it is cash only and known that I have plenty more coins and cores so it is in your interest to make a fair offer if you want to see me here again." His interest was now palpable, and I needed to play on my advantage.


    "I will need more proof first.¡± He said. ¡°I have never seen or even heard of a beast-core before, so how do I know that this is one?  Prove to me that what you''re telling me is for real."


    "Fair enough." I said, as I held out my hand and formed a ball of milky white mana. His first reaction was to take a step back before he moved in to look at it more closely, through the thick multi-layered protective glass that separated us. He looked to be trying to figure out how I was doing that. But this was nothing compared to his expression when the mana became lightning and then fire water and finally a ball of ice. It sounds clich¨¦ to say that his mouth dropped open, but that is exactly what happened. It looked like he was struggling for what to say as his lips moved with no sound escaping his lips.


    "What thee hell are you?" He said when he finally found his speech again.


    "I am the Dungeon''s Champion, I am a Battle Mage, and I am also a New Yorker who still has a lot to do today."


    After that, there was very little negotiation. He gave me what I considered a fair price but he could only afford 2 coins and the beast core. I was surprised that such a small shop had so much cash on hand. He was disappointed that he couldn¡¯t get more coins and more beast-cores, so I promised I would come back when I found the time later in the week. In any case, I now had more than enough for me to start on the first phase of my plan.


    I knew that it wouldn''t be long before the whole world would be talking about the new tower champion and the battle-mage in New York. There was certainly a video installed in the store, so the images would be all over the net, but as I was disguised, they wouldn''t be able to identify me, or at least I hoped that they wouldn''t.


    This would also help me to facilitate the next part of my plan, which was to ride the wave of fame, to get the dungeon opened and to start the ascenders association.

 Off to a healthy start

    After leaving the gold shop, we walked a little further down the road to a phone shop. I thought that we would have a much better chance of getting sim cards without an id. in this neighborhood than in the center.


    With a story of how we lost everything to the tower and a little something under the table, we managed to get two smartphones with sim cards, and I picked up a couple of OTG USB sticks as well.


    From there, we hailed a taxi for Manhattan, and more specifically, the Mount Sinai Hospital. During the ride I configured the phone and explained a couple of basic features to Cara like how to make a call and how to take pictures and videos. She was fascinated photos and videos and took loads of selfies.


    I was impatient to see my brother. His condition was critical and he likely only had days or at most, weeks to live.


    Cara and I were still wearing our masks when we entered the clinic. We immediately made our way to the oncology department where Sebastian, or Seb as I called him, was in a room with three other patients with advanced stages of cancer.


    It was heartbreaking to see how the cancer had ravaged his body. He had no hair on his head and his eyebrows were bare as well due to the chemotherapy treatments. Seb¡¯s face was white as a sheet and he had lost a lot of weight. I remembered him before when he was the school jock and I used to be a little envious of his muscular physique, but now the person I saw looked like someone else entirely.


    I approached Seb and I removed my mask so only he would recognize me. ¡°Hi Seb, it¡¯s me, Matt.¡± I said, my voice choking up slightly seeing him struggling to understand what was happening. ¡°No one can know I was here Seb. You can¡¯t tell anyone, do you understand?¡± Seb nodded that he understood, although he still looked confused.


    ¡°I have something here that I went to a lot of trouble to get, and it will make you feel much better, but I don¡¯t want anyone to know where you got it from because you know how doctors can be about that kind of thing. So, if anyone asks questions, you say that you didn¡¯t recognize the person, OK buddy?¡± Again, he nodded although but still trying to understand what was happening. More than anything Seb trusted me as we had always been very close.


    I put the mask back on and asked Cara to start filming. I took a healing potion out of my storage space and gave it to Seb to drink, in clear view of the camera.


    At first there seemed to be no reaction, but then Seb suddenly started looking panicked. It was a moment before I realized that it was simply due to the sensations that were flooding his senses as his body started healing itself. The pain and the pain killers were leaving his body and he was beginning to feel things like a healthy person again.


    Color started returning to his cheeks and his hair started growing back on his head and eyebrows as well. He was still thin for the rest he was starting to look like the Seb I knew before he got sick. I wasn¡¯t actually expecting his hair to grow back but I was really happy to see that it had that effect.This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    The other patients in the room were all struggling to see what was happening. Some of them started crying at seeing the miraculous change in Seb.


    He grabbed my arm, his grip much stronger than it had been in a long time. ¡°Please, help them, please. No one will say anything, I promise. Just help them like you did for me.¡±


    I had received extra healing potions from Will before I left the tower, plus I still had some left from the original chest, so I had enough to treat them all, but the healing potions could be a question of life or death later, so I didn¡¯t want to use them all at once. That said, I still had quite a few, so I decided to heal the others in the room as well.


    With Cara still filming, I went from bed to bed and healed them. The persons in the other beds had no idea who I was, and I knew that Seb wouldn¡¯t say anything.


    Once I finished with the other patients, Cara stopped the filming. I saw that she had been crying and it was then that I realized that I had tears running down my face as well.


    ¡°Can you give me your phone for a moment¡± I asked her.


    After she gave it to me, I copied the video to the OTG USB storage and handed the phone back to her.


    ¡°Have any of you heard about the tower that popped up recently? I asked everyone in the room.


    ¡°Who hasn¡¯t?¡± one of the patients replied. ¡°It¡¯s all that anyone is talking about when they come in here and it¡¯s all over the news.¡±


    ¡°Well, when anyone asked you how you were healed,¡± I explained. ¡°you should say that it was someone who came from the tower. The drink I gave you is a healing potion from the tower. I would just like you to wait until we are gone before telling anyone. I don¡¯t want to be stopped by the hospital security.¡±


    ¡°They will probably want you to go through a battery of tests before they let you go home,¡± I added. ¡°but they can¡¯t hold you here against your will.¡±


    With that I returned to Seb¡¯s bed where he was now sitting up. ¡°Do not give this video to the doctors or nurses.¡± I added handing him the USB stick. ¡°If you sell rights to the video to the press, you can probably make a small fortune. I have written down the number of one of the news agencies covering the tower story. Call them as soon as I leave, if they know it is related to the tower and miracle healings, I bet they will be here within the hour.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know what to say¡± Seb said in a hushed voice. ¡°Thank you just doesn¡¯t seem sufficient. I love you, bro. I will never forget this.¡±


    ¡°I love you too buddy. We will be going to visit the family a little later and it would be great if you could come by. I will explain everything to you then. Maybe best to wait before calling the family until we are there with them, you know how mom gets.¡±


    We left the clinic as quickly as possible before the hospital personnel could figure out what happened.


    Once the clinic was out of site, we hailed a cab. I made a quick call to my sister Ellie, to let her know we were coming and when I got off the phone, I asked Cara ¡°How would you like to meet the rest of my family?¡±

 The Homecoming

    The taxi arrived at destination, a small brownstone house in a quiet Brooklyn neighborhood. After paying the driver, we walked up the brick stairway to the front door of the family home. For the first time in my life, I was nervous about ringing the doorbell of the house I grew up in.


    I rang the bell and my mother, Jenny, opened the door a moment after.


    Before I had the chance to say anything, she grabbed me, hugging me like we hadn''t seen each other in years. "Do you have any idea how worried we have been since your apartment was destroyed and no one has heard from you for the in over thirty hours? Why didn¡¯t you call? If we didn''t have enough to worry about with Seb! We thought we lost you, do you have any idea what we have been going through here?" She hugged me again but even harder, this time sobbing.


    In the meantime, my dad and Ellie were at the door behind my mother encouraging her to let go of me.


    "Mom, dad, Ellie," I said as soon as my mother released me, "I would like you to meet my friend Cara, she has been with me pretty much since the tower popped up and destroyed my apartment."


    "I am very happy to meet you all." Cara said, bowing slightly. My family was a bit surprised by the bowing, but New York is very international so it wasn''t too surprising to see a different form of greeting.


    "We are very happy to meet you Cara, please come in, make yourself at home." My mother said. Everyone took a seat in the living room and my mom brought out a pitcher of lemonade and glasses on a large tray that she placed on the coffee table.


    "So, what have you been doing for the last day and a half, and how did the two of you meet?" My father asked once we were installed around the dining room table.


    "As to why I haven''t been able to get in touch with you, that was because I was stuck on top of the tower, and I lost everything, even my phone. I was literally on top of the tower with only my shirt on my back.¡±


    ¡°Oh dear!¡± Jenny exclaimed, her hand going over her mouth.


    ¡°How did you get down? We didn¡¯t hear anything on the news about anyone stuck on the tower. Everyone has been searching for you?¡± My father Hank asked, always the pragmatist.


    ¡°Well, I thought about waiting there until help would arrive, but then I saw there was a doorway, so I decided to enter the tower instead.¡±


    ¡°What?¡± they also said almost in perfect harmony


    ¡°You mean to say that you have been in the tower, the one no one has been allowed to enter.¡± Ellie began ¡°And you came out as well? No one has been seen coming in or out of the tower since it appeared. The place is surrounded by the police and the military.¡±


    ¡°I know that it sounds incredible, but I think if I explain how I did it, you will find the story even more incredible. You probably won¡¯t even believe me, at least at first. I guess that I should probably start from the beginning.¡±


    ¡°But before I start telling the story, I need you all to swear absolute secrecy; if the story gets out, our lives will become hell. Everything I say and the things that you will learn need to remain between us. Do you all promise?¡±


    ¡°Yes, we promise,¡± my mom replied for everyone, the others just nodded. ¡°But you know that it will be hard keeping this secret. And the story could be worth a lot of money, money that we sorely need.¡±


    ¡°The money I¡¯ve got covered, for everyone. I have done everything anonymously, and it needs to stay that way. Believe me, you will severely regret it if the truth gets out.¡±


    ¡°Now, where was I? Yes, the door. When I entered the tower through the trap door, I found a chest. The chest was full of gold and jewels but it also contained a number of magical items.¡± I began.


    ¡°I think you have read too many fantasy novels, why don¡¯t you try telling us what really happened.¡± my sister Ellie interrupted.


    ¡°Matt, we all know you like to be dramatic at times, but even from you this seems a bit much.¡± My mom added.


    ¡°And do you think that a tower coming out of nowhere, destroying a whole neighborhood is something normal?¡± I asked. ¡°After something like that I would expect you all to be more open to the possibility of magic. But it doesn¡¯t really matter, because I can backup what I am saying, easily enough.¡±


    ¡°This is a dimensional storage ring,¡± I held up my ring finger for them to see. ¡°what that means is that I can store things in this space without having to worry about the weight. This is where I store the items from the chest. I will take some items out of the storage, but try not to be too shocked.¡±


    "You certainly won''t be able to fit much in that ring." My mom interjected.


    "It is not in the ring," I explained. "the ring activates a storage in another dimension, and it is quite large."Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.


    With that I thought about the gold and jewels in my storage, and had them land in a pile on the rug of the living room where they all could see it.¡±


    ¡°There was a synchronized intake of breath as they all were shocked to see a pile of gold and jewels suddenly appear out of thin air. Even Cara gave a gasp of shock, but I think in her case it was shock at the quantity of gold and jewels I had in my storage.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s worth an absolute fortune!¡± my father stammered. ¡°You say that you got that from a chest in the tower? Wow!"


    ¡°Do you see the size of that diamond?¡± my mom said in shock. ¡°Can that be real? I didn¡¯t know diamonds could be that large.¡±


    ¡°Yep, it is all real, and it is all ours. Although selling it may not be so easy, but I am working on that as well.¡± I explained. ¡°I managed to sell some of the gold coins and I got a really good price, much higher than the value of the gold because I told them that it was gold from the tower.  I am actually expecting the story to appear on the news soon, so maybe we can turn on the news in the background while I finish my story.¡± With that, I returned the treasure to my dimension storage.


    ¡°So, I am going through the chest and examining the items, when I hear this voice talking to me. I look around and there is no one to be seen. In the end, it turns out that the voice was coming from the tower itself. I talked for a while with the tower, his name is Will by the way, and he seemed almost too nice to be true. Will basically told me, that if I could survive through the levels of the tower, that I could become the tower champion.¡±


    "Survive?" my mom asked "Is the tower dangerous?"


    "Yes, the tower can be very dangerous. It is full of monsters and beasts. I was starting the my entry into the tower from the most advanced level so, yes, it was very dangerous. I will get more into that later."


    The whole family was now listening in rapt attention, hanging on my every word.


    ¡°There were some very helpful items in the chest, things that would definitely help me to survive. Armor, a sword, knowledge stones, beast cores and the dimensional storage ring and some other magical bits and bobs.¡± I explained, brushing over the contents of the chest.


    ¡°After emptying the chest, I spent some time learning to use everything I had received. During this time, unbeknownst to me, Will modified my body making me much stronger and more resistant and improved me internally so I could use magic."


    ¡°You are a magician now?¡± Ellie asked, shock showing on her face.


    ¡°I am actually what you would call a battle-mage, and apparently a pretty decent one at that.¡± I replied.


    ¡°He is a very powerful battle-mage¡± Cara interjected. ¡°I have never seen anyone even remotely as powerful as he is. He saved me and he saved all my people on his first day in the tower.¡±


    ¡°None of the credit goes to me actually, it is all Will¡¯s doing. I just used what he gave me.¡±


    ¡°Let me get this straight,¡± Hank said. ¡°You enter the tower, with nothing more than the clothes on your back, you receive a chest full of gifts and then you are made into a powerful battle-mage and then you go on to save a village in the tower? This is really a lot to take in. I think I am going to need something stronger than lemonade.¡±


    ¡°Breaking news! Two stories have just come to our attention related to the tower which appeared in the New York suburbs a couple of days ago.¡±


    ¡°Turn up the volume¡± I told my dad.


    ¡°Earlier today, two people, supposedly coming from the tower, entered a gold exchange shop not far from the tower, to sell gold coins and a ¡®beast-core¡¯ which came from inside tower. In fantasy terminology, a beast-core is an object coming from a magical creature, and is their reservoir of mana, or the energy used for magic.


    ¡°According to the shopkeeper, at least one of the persons that entered his shop could perform magic and the shop keeper managed to capture images of the tower magician performing magic on his security camera.¡±


    ¡°The shop keeper said that he sold the gold and the beast-core for an undisclosed sum to a person who wishes to remain anonymous, but we have been able to procure a copy of the security camera footage.¡±


    The video images were in black and white with a decent image quality. Fortunately, the mask also worked on video images because neither Cara nor I were recognizable in the video.


    ¡°That doesn¡¯t look like either of you¡± my mom said looking from the video and back to me and Cara.


    ¡°We were wearing magical disguises¡±, I explained and she seemed to accept it. She was already adapting well to magic apparently.


    My whole family watched in awe as I performed my mana manipulation for the shopkeeper.


    ¡°A second breaking story comes from the Mount-Sinai hospital in New York.¡±


    ¡°Brace yourselves,¡± I warned everyone. ¡°this story is about Seb. I was going to planning telling you about it soon.¡±


    ¡°Around 2:30 p.m., the same two persons who entered the gold exchange, entered the oncology department of the Mount Sinai hospital, visiting a room of four terminally ill cancer patients. The two people filmed the whole event and gave a copy of the video to one of the patients before leaving. What you are about to watch is hard to believe to say the least.¡±


    The video played, and the whole time everyone in the family had their mouths open, and their hands over their mouths. There wasn¡¯t a dry eye in the room as we all watched Seb and the other persons in the room, miraculously healed.


    My mom and dad hugged each other crying. ¡°Seb is cured! He is going to be alright! Our boy is going to be alright! Ellie ran over to me and gave me a big hug and a kiss on the cheek and then she grabbed Cara and all of us were hugging and crying.


    ¡°You maybe could have begun your story with Seb.¡± My mom sobbed with a little reproach in her voice.


    ¡°Would you have believed me?" I replied. ¡°I was going to get to Seb very soon."


    ¡°¡­ police are looking to identify who these people are, so please call your local police department if you have any information regarding these two persons claiming to come from the tower.¡±


    ¡°We will probably be getting a lot of calls from the press.¡± I said once the initial shock had subsided. ¡°Whatever you do, you must not mention anything I told you about the tower. I think that you should now understand why.¡±


    ¡°Seb should be arriving home soon,¡± I informed them. ¡°what do you say we wait for him before continuing the story?"

 Joeys ambitions

    Joey Rosetti had a flair for opportunity, so it wasn¡¯t surprising that his gold exchange was doing better than most other businesses in the area. Certain types of businesses did better in periods of financial crisis, when people were forced to sell their gold and jewelry to pay their bills and since opening his shop in the neighborhood Joey had been raking in the profit. This year had been particularly tough for most families in the area which worked out rather well for him.


    The appearance of the tower nearby had temporarily slowed business as most people in the area were distracted by it. For the moment, all anybody was interested in or talked about, was the tower, but eventually the hype would die down and business would be back to normal.


    Although things had been looking up for him, Joey was nothing if not ambitious. What he had achieved here was just a stepping stone to his true ambitions.


    He was thinking of how he could get some leverage to move up in the world, when he was rudely awakened from his thoughts by the sound of the shop door buzzer, and found two persons had entered his shop.


    One of the persons laid a stack of gold coins on the counter.  They were unlike any coins that he had ever seen before, but that in itself was not so special. It sufficed to create a new mold to make a new coin, but his gut told him that there was more to these coins, and as it turned out, his gut was correct.


    He already knew a number of people who would be interested in them. Gold coins and a magical beast-core from the tower. Hell, even the story would be worth money to the press, which was avid for anything related to the tower which would be hot news for a while still.


    Joey realized he had most likely found his trump card for moving up in the world. The person had said that he had a lot more coins and cores, but Joey suspected there would be other valuables as well, and he intended to profit from this exceptional opportunity.  He just needed to play his cards right.


    When getting the money from his safe to buy the gold and the core, Joey made a call.


    ¡°Mike, listen, I have two people in my shop, can you and Nico tail them? I need to know who they are and where they live. Try to keep it on the low down and don¡¯t be seen. Get back to me as soon as you know something.¡±


    ¡°Sure boss, we¡¯ll be there in a couple of minutes.¡±


    ¡°Thanks, and keep this just between us.¡± Joey added as an afterthought. ¡°No one else needs to know for now.¡±


    Returning to the customers in his shop with a bag with just about everything he had in his safe, he made the trade, but he also made sure that they knew that they could return later if they had anything else to sell. If he couldn¡¯t figure out who they were, there was still a good chance that they would come back later.


    -----<O>-----


    ¡°I wonder what Joey is up to now.¡± Mike ''Buttons'' Zanifari said as he sat in the driver¡¯s seat of his 1997 Lincoln Town Car.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know, but Joey¡¯s always had a nose for these things.¡± Nico said, testing the edge of his knife''s blade with his thumb.


    They slouched down in their seats as Cara and Matt left the phone shop and hailed a taxi. Once the taxi left the curb, they followed them from a distance to the Mount Sinai hospital.


    ¡°Nico, follow them but keep out of sight. I want to know what they are doing in there.¡±  Mike said in hushed tone.


    Nico slipped out of the car and entered the hospital just after they entered.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    After waiting about 30 minutes across the street from the hospital''s main entrance, Mike noticed a couple leave the hospital who looked a lot like the people they were following. There was something strange about them though. Mike couldn¡¯t manage to describe either of them. For some reason, whenever he tried to focus on their features, they just seemed to be blurry in his mind, but this also allowed him to recognize them when they were leaving the hospital.


    A couple of seconds later, Nico came out as well, crossed the street and climbed into the car. ¡°Don¡¯t lose them Mike. You will not believe what I just saw. Hell, I don¡¯t even believe what I just saw. This is really big.¡±


    ¡°What happened in there.¡± Mike asked. He had never seen Nico like this before. Nico could be a lot of things, vicious, bloodthirsty, morose and unnervingly quiet at times, but he had never seen him like he was now.


    ¡°You wouldn¡¯t believe me if I told you.¡± Nico replied.


    ¡°Try me.¡±


    ¡°He healed four cancer patients. Their hair grew back and everything. The other one filmed the whole thing¡±


    ¡°He did what?¡± Mike said nearly hitting the car in front of him.


    ¡°I told you that you wouldn¡¯t believe me. I barely believe it and I saw the whole thing. One second they were in really bad shape and completely bald, he gave them something to drink, and the next second their hair was growing and their color was coming back and they were sitting up in their beds.¡±


    ¡°I am pretty sure that he knew one of them though.¡± Nico added as an afterthought. ¡°At least it looked that way.¡±


    ¡°It looks like Joey was on to something after all.¡± Mike said, making sure to keep their car in his sites.


    They followed the taxi to a quiet corner of Brooklyn where it stopped in front of a house. The first thing that Mike noticed was that their appearance had changed completely. Their features were now clearly visible and even their clothing was different. He quickly pulled out his camera and took some photos. After they taxi pulled away, they walked to the front door and rang the doorbell. When they saw the greeting they received at the door, it was obvious that this was their family. With that, they had the information they came for and decided to report back to Joey.


    -----<O>-----


    ¡°Do you plan on telling us what is going on Joey?¡± Mike asked, leaning against the doorway to Joey¡¯s office in his three-piece suit. He didn¡¯t particularly enjoy watching Joey eating, but as he was often eating, he came to accept it as one of the inconveniences of his job.


    ¡°So, Mikey,¡± he said between mouthfuls ¡°What happened?  Did you manage to figure out who they are?¡±


    ¡°We followed them to the Mont Sinai Hospital, where they healed four terminally ill cancer patients and filmed the whole thing.¡±


    ¡°They did what?¡± Joey said spitting out a spoonful of the spaghetti bolognaise he was eating.


    ¡°One of them gave the patients something to drink and they were all immediately cured, the other one filmed the whole thing and gave the video to one of the patients before leaving. I saw the whole thing.¡± Nico replied.


    ¡°What exactly do you know about these two? Why did you have us follow them? What exactly are you planning on doing with them?¡± Mike asked.


    ¡°They came in here with some gold coins like I aint never seen before and something they called a ¡°beast-core¡±, somethin¡¯ magical from some beast. It looked like somethin¡¯ from another planet. Then the guy does some magic right before my eyes, and it wasn¡¯t no magic trick, it was the real thing. He said that he was from the tower and that the coins and the beast-core came from the tower. And he has a lot more than a few coins.  From what you just told me, he has stuff much more valuable than gold. Do you have any idea what one of those healing drinks would be worth? Hell, we could probably all retire with just one of them things.¡±


    ¡°I hope you at least got something on them.¡± Joey replied wiping up the sauce at the bottom of his spaghetti bowl with a piece of bread and shoving it in his mouth.


    ¡°We followed them to their home in Brooklyn. Here¡¯s the address.¡± Joey wiped his hands on the towel he had hanging from the top button of his shirt before taking the paper with an address scribbled on it from Mike.


    ¡°Oh, by the way. I think that they were disguised when they came here, because they looked very different when they arrived home. I got some pictures of what they really look like.¡±


    Joey gave big smile. ¡°You guys did good. This is a real game changer... No, this isn''t a game changer, this is a life changer. This address is our ace card, this stays with us. They obviously are trying to remain anonymous, but if they won¡¯t make a deal with us, at least now we have some leverage.¡±

 Madam the Mayor

    ¡°Sophie, David, get in here now. I need a status update before this evening¡¯s press conference.¡±


    Mayor Barbara Levine sat behind her desk and dropped an effervescent headache medicine in a half a glass of water while she massaged her temples in an effort to calm the migraine which she knew was just around the corner.


    Ever since the tower had appeared, she barely had any time to eat or sleep, and now her head felt like it was about to explode. Between calls from election contributors, pharmacy companies, family, the press, the military and political leaders from the U.S. and other countries; she didn¡¯t know how she would survive the week. And now there is someone from the tower flashing gold, magic and miracle cures.


    A few seconds later a two people entered her office. From the rings under their eyes, it looked like they hadn¡¯t gotten much sleep recently either.


    ¡°Sophie, David, what do you have for me.¡± She said, trying to focus on what they would report.


    Sophie opened her notebook and put on her reading glasses before reading her report. David stood next to her with a small notepad in his hand.


    ¡°No one has entered nor left the tower, since it appeared.¡± Sophie began ¡°So we don¡¯t see how those two people could have come from the tower, unless it was right after it appeared, which we don¡¯t think is very likely with all the debris around the tower and the onlookers. The police also arrived almost immediately on the scene and confirmed as much.¡±


    ¡°We spoke with the hospital personnel, but no one noticed anyone arrive. By the time we arrived at the hospital, they had already released the patients.¡± She continued.


    ¡°It appears that one of them contacted a journalist so the hospital personnel had their hands tied; but we will be visiting the patients at their homes to get their story.¡± David added.


    Sophie turned the page of her notebook. ¡°From what the doctors told us. They performed an echography on one of the patients before he left the hospital and they were shocked to see that the large malignant tumor which had been there as recently as last week, had simply vanished. The doctor said he has never seen anything like it. The patients agreed to return for a full check-up later but pushed the hospital to release them.¡±


    ¡°Since the video was shown on the news, calls are flooding in. We had to set up a call center but they still can¡¯t keep up with all the calls. People want to enter the tower, and they aren¡¯t taking no for an answer.¡± Sophie added.


    ¡°The shop keeper from the gold exchange was not very helpful,¡± she continued ¡°but the police will be taking him in for further questioning shortly. It seems that most of what went on in his shop was filmed so we won¡¯t know how much more we can get from him.¡±You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    ¡°Also, some good news.  The person who went missing when the tower appeared, a certain Matthew Cairns, is no longer missing. He spoke with a friend at the tower site and asked him to call off the search.¡±


    ¡°Did you say Matthew Cairns?¡± David said flipping through his notebook.


    ¡°Yes, why is that important?¡± Sophie asked, verifying her notes.


    ¡°Yes, why is that important?¡± the mayor asked ¡°I have a news briefing in a few minutes, so if you have something, speak up.¡±


    ¡°I am sure that I have heard that name today, but not Matthew.¡± He stopped flipping through his notebook stabbed his finger on the open page. ¡°Found it! Not Matthew, but Sebastian Cairns! One of the cancer patients from the hospital, the one who received the video.¡± He looked up at the mayor. ¡°This can¡¯t be a coincidence! I bet if we find this Matthew, we will find the person from the tower.¡±


    ¡°Nice job you two. Follow up on that and keep me updated.¡±


    Mayor Levine quickly downed the pain killer which now had finished dissolving in the water and headed out for the press conference.


    -----<O>-----


    ¡°Madam the Mayor, do you have any information regarding the two persons who supposedly came from the tower?¡±


    ¡°We have a lead on the identity of one of the persons, but that lead still needs to be confirmed.¡±


    ¡°What do you know concerning the miraculous healing at the Mount Sinai hospital? Do we have any confirmation that the patients were actually cured?¡±


    ¡°According to the information that I have received, the patients were released from the hospital, but will be returning soon for full examinations; but I want to emphasize that, what this person did goes against all medical standards, procedures and policies. We do not want to encourage this sort of rogue medical practice. The long-term effects of what was given to these patients is still unknown.¡±


    ¡°Madam the Mayor! From the video taken at the gold exchange, the person apparently performed some form of magic. Have you been able to confirm if this was real or some sort of hoax?¡±


    ¡°Aside from what was shown on the video, we have no information that allows us to make a statement on the existence of magic, I personally remain very skeptical. We admit that the recent events are inexplicable, but that does not mean that magic is real.¡±


    ¡°Mayor Levine, right now, the tower is surrounded by the police and military personnel. Are there any plans to enter the tower or to allow people to enter the tower in the near future?¡±


    ¡°For the moment, no one has been allowed to enter the tower. We will consider sending a team to investigate it, but there are currently no plans to allow any civilians to enter.


    ¡°Mayor Levine, if you do discover the identity of the persons from the hospital, what are your plans for them. Will they be heroes, or will charges be brought against them for illegal practice of medicine?¡±


    ¡°For the moment, we are looking to get information about the tower and the healings. We are not currently not planning on bringing any charges against either of them, although, as we receive more information the situation may change.¡±


    ¡°This is all we have for the moment, but we will keep you informed if anything changes. We would like to ask everyone to remain calm and give us time to figure out the truth behind the recent events.¡±

 If you can’t sleep, rune

    After Seb arrived home, and the initial excitement died down, Cara and I managed to bring Sebastian and the rest of the family up to speed on what happened in the tower and the story of the shadow creatures and the mages who had created them. Cara told the story of her people and how they ended up living in the tower and then everyone was asking questions of me and Cara for the rest of the evening. They still didn¡¯t know that Cara was a leopard woman, but I didn¡¯t think that they needed to know that just yet. I had also asked Cara to try to hide that as much as possible while she was visiting New York, purely as a safety measure.


    Although I wanted to bring my family into my inner circle, I knew that that would also introduce a risk. I wanted to keep that risk to a minimum so I was planning on keeping them out of most of my tower related projects, at least as much as possible.


    It was late when we finally went to bed. I ended up in my old bedroom, and my mom prepared the guest room for Cara.


    I climbed into my old bed but had a hard time finding sleep. So much had happened over the last couple of days and it was all really hard to believe. I couldn¡¯t shrug the feeling that I was in a dream and that I would soon wake up and realize that none of it was real. I also hadn¡¯t had much time to reflect on what had happened, and what my future would be, and all the changes that would be happening in the world.


    Up until now I had taken pretty much everything in stride but I realized that I would need a plan as well as some game rules to play by. I was an over powered battle-mage, but in New York I was little better than a circus clown. I could do some tricks to amaze and impress the crowds in Washington Square Park but anything more and I would probably end up in trouble.


    In a way, I was like a guy with a Lamborghini living in a town with a 70 km/h speed limit. The laws in most civilized countries were so strict that if I used my powers, I could very well end up a wanted man; or even worse, I could end up drugged and captured and dissected in some lab.


    If I wanted to achieve my goals, I would primarily need to rely on my intelligence rather than on my magic, at least for the moment. It was incredibly frustrating to feel all this power surging through my body and not to be able to use it, but for the time being I had to accept this limitation.


    I already had an idea of the things I would need to accomplish before returning to the tower. The most important I had already achieved, healing my brother. The rest, was going to be much more difficult. I still needed to start an ascender¡¯s association and a school or training facility for ascenders.  This would be difficult as the tower was not even opened for the ascenders. And I needed to do this before towers starting popping up all over the planet.


    The first part of my plan was easy: build a buzz around the tower, show people what they could find inside the tower and let that snowball. That part was moving along nicely. The next step was going to be much more difficult, namely, convincing the authorities to let me start the association and training center and opening the tower officially.


    As I was having a hard time sleeping anyway, I decided to absorb the new memory stones that the dungeon had left for me in the box. The first one, was one that I was really impatient to learn. Runes. This would allow me to create magically empowered items and would be key to providing a solution for the villagers in the dungeon in case the shades visited them again.


    I sat up on the edge of my bed and took out the box with the memory stones. Most of them were still dull, but there were still two stones which were still shimmering with power.


    I took the silver stone and placed it to my head.


    There was a steady flow of symbols rushing into my brain along with the meanings behind each symbol. There was also a massive flow of information logic behind the runes, the rules and guidelines. How to combine runes, which runes should never be combined, the theory behind the creation of runes, how to improve the strength of runes. The importance of the materials used and how to empower them.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    When the flow stopped, I was blown away by the enormity of the power and potential that could be achieved using runes and I couldn¡¯t wait to test out my new knowledge. To begin with, I chose one of the most basic symbols, light. And as my mastery of mana was one of my strongest assets, I decided to create a rune simply made from condensed mana.


    I created a small rectangle of thinly condensed mana, about the thickness of cardboard, yet with the hardness of a hardwood. I then parted the mana, letting the symbol for light appear, completely transpiercing the milky white mana board. As the last part of the symbol formed, a bright light was emitted from the rune. The light wasn¡¯t nearly as bright as the light which was emitted by my sword, but it was considerably brighter than the light given by a 600-lumen led lightbulb.


    I let the mana dissipate and the light disappeared with it. I knew from the theory, that the harder the substance was, the more powerful the effect would be, so I took a quarter from my pocket and tried to use my earth-metal affinity to form the light symbol onto the quarter.


    I was immediately faced with two problems. The metal was harder to manipulate than other earth substances, and the surface wasn¡¯t very flat to start with. The solution though was rather simple. I used my fire mana aspect to heat the coin, and then I used my earth-metal affinity to flatten George¡¯s face and create an even surface to work with. I then etched the symbol of light onto the flattened surface. Next, I fed a small stream of pure mana into the rune and it started to shine much more brightly than my first attempt when I was just using just mana.


    The thing that bothered me though, was that I needed to feed it a steady flow of mana, unlike my sword which shown brightly all on its own. Of course, if I fed more of my mana into the sword, its brightness increased, it was still very bright all on its own.


    I knew that gems had a very large capacity for storing mana, and that there were also runes which could gather mana from the surrounding area. As I had received quite a few gems of all sizes, I decided to perform a test using a small amethyst. As it was too small, and the surface too uneven to etch runes into it, I decided to just use it as a mana battery.


    I first imbued it with as much mana as I could before embedding the stone into the quarter, with the leading end of the light symbol touching the stone. The effect was instantaneous. The quarter started shining as brightly as before, but I no longer needed to feed mana into it.


    As an afterthought, I decided to create mana absorption symbols on the eagle side of the quarter, but allowing the end of the symbols to touch the part of the gem which was exposed on the underside. If we were near to the tower, where the air was now rich with mana, I was pretty sure the light would be able to maintain itself, but the mana from the tower had not yet arrived in sufficient quantity in Brooklyn, so I instead created a loose cloud of mana just a short distance from the quarter, and triggered the rune by imbuing just a spark mana to activate it.


    I felt like jumping for joy when I saw that the rune started absorbing my cloud of mana and transferring it into the amethyst. My mind was going into hyperdrive just imagining all that I would be able to do using runes.


    I was pretty confident that I would be able to create a solution for the villagers to deal with the shade monsters. Of course, the symbols used to dispel demons were not simply light symbols, but that was simply a question of increased complexity. With the knowledge which I had gained from the memory stone, and the simple tests I had just performed, I would be able to create a solution; at least for the shades, but maybe I would also be able to come up with a solution for their masters as well. I still knew very little about their abilities.


    With that thought in mind, I put my quarter, which was still shining brightly, and the memory stone box back in my dimensional storage and went to sleep. I didn¡¯t feel I was ready to absorb the demonology stone yet, so I left that for another day.


    Even though my brain was going a mile a minute thinking of applications for runes, my most urgent problem was still the next steps of my plan. As I crawled back into bed, I let my brain hash through the next day¡¯s challenges in background processing mode as I gradually fell asleep.


    -----<O>-----


    When I woke in the morning, I still didn¡¯t have a plan, but I had decided on the first steps that I needed to do.


    On the late-night news the day before, we learned that Mayor Levine was interested in finding me, so I decided I would pay her a visit in the morning. I preferred finding her on my terms, rather than her finding me on hers.


    I asked Ellie if she would do me a favor and take Cara clothing shopping and to show her around town. I planned on meeting up with them later. I borrowed some clothes from my brother as I had been wearing the same clothes for days and headed over to the town hall.

 An Identity Crisis

    Mayor Levine had just arrived in her office and was drinking a cup of coffee that she sorely needed in order to deal with another day that promised to be long, when the internal phone line rang in her office.


    ¡°Madam the Mayor, there is a man here that says that he absolutely needs to speak with you. He claims to have information concerning the tower.¡±


    ¡°Have him speak with David or Sophie. They will brief me if its important.¡± The mayor replied hanging up the phone. The receptionist should know better than to call her for these things. She didn¡¯t have time to deal with every crackpot who claimed to have information on the tower. If this happens again, she may need to see about getting a new receptionist she thought to herself as she went back to her coffee and the day¡¯s agenda.


    The internal phone line rang again ¡°What is it now?¡± The mayor snapped.


    ¡°Mayor Levine, I think that you may want to meet this person. David and I think this may actually be the person from the tower.¡± The mayor recognized Sophie¡¯s voice on the phone.


    ¡°Show him in, but get a couple of people from our security team to come up as well in case of any trouble.¡± The mayor closed her agenda knowing that today would most likely not be going as planned.


    A few minutes later there was a knock on the door before it opened, and Sophie, David and a non-descript third person entered the room.


    ¡°Everyone, grab a chair, and let¡¯s get to it.¡± The mayor said, not in the mood for formalities.


    ¡°I heard on the news last night, that you were looking for me, so I thought that I would save you some time and come to you. You can call me Xander, but as you can probably guess, that is not my real name.¡±


    ¡°Well, Xander, I must say I wasn¡¯t expecting to see you this soon. Actually, I rather thought that you would be hiding from us, so this is really quite the surprise.¡± Mayor Levine paused as she took a long look at Matthew, as though she was trying to see figure out what kind of person she had sitting in front of her.


    ¡°You have stirred up quite a media storm the last couple of days and cost me quite a bit of sleep so I am hoping that we can find a way to clarify some things. What can you tell me about the tower?¡±


    ¡°You may not like what I am going to say, but I will tell you as much as I can safely tell you at this time.¡± Matt realized that there would be certain aspects of the tower that would be too much for her at this time.


    ¡°This tower is only the first tower of many that will be appearing all over the world. The world as we know it will be changing dramatically due to these towers. Even outside of the tower, there will be new inexplicable phenomenon which will start occurring because this tower, and the many other towers which will be arriving after it, will be loading the air with mana, which is the fuel used in magic. Some people will start developing abilities, and will be able to do things that are currently not possible.¡±


    ¡°I certainly hope that you didn¡¯t just come here to tell me that I am going to have more problems. What can be done about this tower and the future towers?¡±


    ¡°I don''t believe that you will be able to prevent it, and you won¡¯t be able to shut it down, but you can prepare for it. I would say that you could embrace it, but I suspect that it may yet be too early for that. The fact is, this tower is an unprecedented opportunity, and if you can create a framework for it, you could become an example for the whole world in how to manage the apparition of towers. That is why I am here, to assist you in setting up an infrastructure.¡±


    The mayor steepled her fingers, her thumbs under her chin. Meanwhile Sophie and David were feverishly noting down everything that was said.


    ¡°This is really a lot to take in.¡± Mayor Levine said, leaning back in her chair. ¡°What exactly would this infrastructure look like, and what are the advantages and disadvantages that can be expected?¡±


    ¡°To begin with, let me tell you a bit about the tower. The tower, is what is commonly referred to as a dungeon in fantasy novels. Inside the tower, there are dangers. Poisonous plants, dangerous beasts as well as other threats. At the end of surviving the challenges on each level of the dungeon, you receive rewards which you typically will find in a chest at the end of the level.¡± Matt watched Mayor Levine for a reaction to what he was telling her, but was surprised to see that she didn¡¯t show any reaction.


    ¡°Each level of the tower, will get progressively more and more dangerous, but the prizes will be of greater and greater value. For example, the healing potions that I used in the hospital, were a very high-quality potions from the highest level of the tower. These potions can restore a person from the brink of death, to perfect health.¡± I pulled out one of my remaining healing potions, which everyone regarded with great interest. ¡°I also have a resurrection potion which will bring someone who has recently died, back to life.¡± I returned the healing potion to my storage and removed the resurrection potion. With that Matt got a startled reaction from everyone in the room and Sophie nearly fell out of her chair.


    ¡°There are also gold and jewels¡± Matt had a number of jewels and gold coins appear in his hand ¡°as well as magical items.¡± With that he retrieved the box of memory stones, most of which were dull and infused them with mana, making them come alive with color before their eyes.


    ¡°The tower has a lot to offer, but it is very dangerous and some who go into the dungeon, will, unfortunately, not be coming back out. For this reason, I would like to set up a school for Ascenders or adventurers, to train people in mana manipulation and survival skills. People need to be trained and assessed or licensed to enter the tower. Professional ascenders will need to assess each level of the towers and ascenders will be informed as to which levels they are ready for, which match their skillset. Of course, there is no way to prevent them from going further, but at that point it will be their own fault.¡±


    ¡°The logistics in New York could prove to be a challenge, as the tower will attract people from all over, but this will lessen as towers start appearing in other locations. I assume that you have procedures for this sort of logistics. In the future, people will be able to enter the tower from far away which should reduce the congestion locally.¡±Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.


    ¡°Then there is the wealth that will be coming out of the towers, and will need to be sold or exchanged, but also taxed.¡±


    The slight change in her body language told me that I had hit a positive chord with the mention of taxes.¡±


    ¡°I think it is critical that we do this correctly here. This will make us the experts and give us a lot of advantages when others towers start appearing in other places.¡±


    ¡°Of course, there is the other option¡±, I continued. ¡°You could try to destroy the tower, prevent entry, but I promise you it will be a losing battle. Entrances to the tower can be created far from the tower in an instant. Creatures from the tower will probably be allowed to escape, and believe me, you don¡¯t want the creatures which are in the tower running through populated areas. Many of these creatures will even be impossible to deal with for someone with no magical skills.¡±


    ¡°I can form some trainers and assist with the setup, but first I will need your approval and assistance. I don¡¯t expect an answer now, but I also don¡¯t know how long we have before other towers appear or the dungeon loses patience.¡±


    "Another thing we need to prepare for is visitors from other worlds. Once we have a certain level of integration, travel between worlds will become possible via the Tower portals."


    The tower, or dungeon is actually sentient, but I am not sure if it is empathetic. Up until now it has been generous with me, but it also let me fight my way through numerous deadly monsters without stepping in to help, so I wouldn¡¯t count on it to wait too long for an action on your part.¡±


    David looked up from his notes and from his look it was apparent that he was hesitant to speak, ¡°What is your relation to the dungeon then? Are you its slave or its ambassador? Are you from the dungeon, or are you one of us? Whose side are you on?¡±


    ¡°Thank you, David, I am also curious to get an answer to that question.¡± The mayor said, leaning forward on her desk.


    ¡°I am one of you, but I am also an ambassador for the dungeon. The dungeon has been correct with me, and everything that I have told you today is the truth as far as I know it.¡±


    ¡°You wouldn¡¯t happen to be Matthew Cairns by any chance, would you?¡± David said, from the smug look on his face he looked to be saying ¡®Check and mate¡¯.


    When I heard my name come from his mouth I instinctively started to panic. I felt my heart start to beat faster, the sound of my heartbeat drumming in my ears to the point of distraction. My brain refused to think clearly but went into panic mode. On the outside, I tried not to let any of this show, I just stared into David¡¯s eyes in total silence as I tried to calm my inner demons. After a few moments I regained control.


    ¡°I came in here today on my own free will.¡± I said, looking at each person in the room. ¡°The only thing I said in the beginning, was that I was using the pseudonym of Xander.¡± I paused and looked back at David. Everyone in the room had probably guessed that I was Matthew Cairns at this point and that was a large risk for myself, but more importantly for my family. I let my aura, or maybe it would be more accurate to say, my killing intent, flow into the room, but mostly focused on David.


    His face drained of color and his hands started to tremble. ¡°If I came in here using a pseudonym, do you know why that was, David? Take a wild guess.¡±


    David tried to speak, but started stuttering instead. ¡°Yyyou wwant tto be anonna annonnna annonymous.¡±


    ¡°Very good David, you got it on your first try. I don¡¯t want anyone knowing my real name, but do you know why that that is David?¡±


    David looked like he wanted to cry, his skin had become almost white and he was trembling so badly, the pages of his notebook were flapping and making a lot of paper noise.


    ¡°Nnoo¡± he cried as he broke down in sobs. I was feeling really bad that I had to go this far with him, but my family¡¯s life could be at stake here, I needed to make the point.


    ¡°I will tell you why. I am not afraid for myself, as there is very little that can hurt me. It is for those that I love, who will be targeted if my identity is known. And if anything happens to anyone who I love, due to any of you¡± I looked again from David to Sophie and to the Mayor, ¡°revealing my identity, you will learn what it means to face the anger of a dungeon-champion battle-mage, and believe me, it will not be pretty.¡±


    ¡°Unfortunately, due to David¡¯s curiosity, I will need to perform a blood pact with all three of you. Don¡¯t even think of calling security, that would be a big mistake.¡±


    With that I formed a needle from mana and pricked my own finger, then I pricked the fingers of each person in the room. I gathered the blood drops from each in miniature mana bowl which now hovered in front of me, now everyone in the room was terrified.


    From the knowledge which I had gained from the memory stone on magic, I created a blood binding spell which would only inform me if they revealed my secret, but I didn¡¯t want them to know that that was all it did.


    When I finished my incantation, the bowl disappeared and I released my killing intent.


    ¡°I am sorry that I had to do that, that was not at all my intention when coming here, and I hope that this will not affect our future relationship.¡± I said, knowing there was a good chance that I had just blown any chance of the mayor agreeing to my requests.


    ¡°What did you do to us?¡± the mayor asked, still visibly shaken.


    ¡°I made a blood binding with all of you. If any of you ever reveal my identity without my permission or make a move against my family, well, let¡¯s just say, you don¡¯t want to do that. But as long as you keep my secret, there will be no negative effects. If you have told anyone else, you had best let me know now, so I can make a pact with them as well. It will be for your good as well.¡±


    ¡±No, no one else knows.¡± Sophie said hurriedly.


    Although they seemed to have relaxed a little, they still looked at me with fear in their eyes, and I wondered if I had gone too far. I didn¡¯t want to leave with them fearing me like that, and the guilt was really starting to eat at me.


    ¡°Listen," I said, trying to sound as sincere as possible "I know that that was probably the scariest thing that has ever happened to any of you and I apologize for having to do that; but I want you to ask yourselves, to what lengths would you go, if your family was in danger or being threatened?


    I have healing potions, resurrection potions, gold and jewels enough to buy a small country. If my identity were known, how long before my family would be kidnapped and held for ransom, or worse?¡± I could see that I was starting to get through to them. The fear that was there a second ago had lessened significantly, which was a big relief for me. I was beginning to think that maybe not all was lost after all.


    I stood up to go, handing a note the mayor ¡°You can reach me at this number. Please, never show up at my house. When you call, ask for Xander.¡±


    As I was about to go, the mayor''s phone rang.


    ¡°Excuse me, just one second¡± she said, picking up the phone.


    As I watched her, her skin became ashen and tears started welling in her eyes. She collapsed to the chair, the phone dangling from her hand.


    ¡°A group of teenagers managed to get past the barrier and entered into the dungeon¡±, she said ¡°and one of them is my son.¡±

 Back to the tower

    The police escort got us to the neighborhood of the tower in record time, but on arriving, even from blocks away, I was blown away by how much it had changed over the past 24 hours.


    Whereas there were thousands of people people surrounding the tower when I was here the day before, there were now tens of thousands of people and the police and the national guards were struggling to keep the crowd under control.


    "Wow, what the hell happened here?" I said out loud without thinking.


    "I''ll tell you what happened, YOU happened!" The mayor snapped, not holding back her anger. "What did you think would happen when you started flashing gold and magical potions? This is all your doing, and if anything happens to my son and his friends, you better believe that you are going to be held responsible, blood pact or no blood pact."


    The mayor was right, I needed to enter the dungeon ASAP in order to retrieve the mayor''s son, if it wasn''t already too late. If anything happened to him I was certain that it would be the start of an outright war between the Mayor''s office and the tower and my family Cara and I would be the first targets.


    As we were already in the mana rich zone, I decided to contact Will to see if he could help me out.


    "Will, can you hear me? I need your help."


    "Hello Matt, what is is it that you need?"


    "Some teenagers entered the tower but they are completely unprepared for the dangers. One of them is the Mayor''s son, with whom I am negotiating for opening the academy allowing people to enter the Dungeon."


    "I need to make sure that they get out safely or we will have no chance of being accepted. I was hoping to go in and help them get out but there are too many people in front of the tower entrance, could you create a portal to bring me directly to their location?"


    "A portal takes time to create," Will replied "and with your skill set, getting through a crowd shouldn''t be an issue. The group of 4 is still alive but some are wounded. They are getting close to the first level boss as we speak, so if I were you, I would hurry. When you enter the tower go straight ahead until you cross a bridge, then turn left and you should find them."


    "OK Will, but if you can do anything to slow them down and keep them alive until I get there it would be really appreciated."


    "Madame the mayor, I know where they are and I am going in, but I need you to call ahead and tell the police and the guard to let me through."


    "Don''t worry about that, I am coming with you." the mayor replied with a look of unmovable determination on her face.


    "You will just slow me down. If you want me to save your son, I will get there much faster on my own."


    "I don''t think you heard me correctly, I am coming with you, and I won''t slow you down, I was on the university track team and I run 5 miles 3 times a week, so quit arguing and let''s get moving!"


    The first challenge was going to be the tens of thousands of people blocking access to the tower. I couldn''t exactly blast them out of the way, so I figured an ice breaker formation might do the trick.


    "Stick close to me" , I told the mayor as I formed mana barrier around us but with a wedge shape extending in front of us.


    As we moved forward, the crowd split like the red sea as we advanced but many started pushing back a clinging to the mana barrier when they figured out that I was person from the tower and recognized Mayor Levine next to me.


    They started pressing against the mana shield pleading for money or health potions or to come with us into the tower and they started slowing our progress.


    I called on my water attribute to create a thin sheen of ice over the surface of the mana wedge which I hoped would reduce the resistance. After this we managed to slide through the crowd without too much difficulty.


    When we arrived at the first police barrier, the mayor instructed them to let us pass, and once on the other side, I could finally release the mana barrier.


    We quickly arrived at the second barricade which was maintained by the national guard.


    "Mayor Levine," the officer guarding the gate said, saluting the Mayor. "I am the captain Frank Demill, I am in charge here."


    "I am sorry, " he continued "but I can''t allow you to enter the tower, it could be extremely dangerous in there. And to be honest, we also haven''t figured out how to get in. It''s a mystery to us how your son and his friends managed to get in."


    "It''s actually quite simple," I replied. "You haven''t been able to enter because of your weapons." I replied, pointing at his sidearm. "Remove your grenades and firearms any of your modern weapons and you will be able to enter. Swords, knives, hatches, axes, bows will be fine." I said.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    "And the mayor is coming with us, her son is in there and she will be fine with me, I will see to it that nothing happens to her."


    "Ahh, I recognize you now, you''re the bigshot who came from the tower, aren''t you. If it were up to me you would be locked up or worse. All these people are here because of you, those kids entered because of your propaganda. If it weren''t for the fact that we need you to get those kids out, I''d have you locked up on the spot. Just know that if you get out alive you''re going to have to answer for your actions."


    He turned to some of the the men standing behind him "Louis, Hench, Mitch, Ben, you heard the man. Lose your firearms and grab some knives and axes, shields, whatever you can find, you''re going in there with them, you have exactly 1 minute, so get going."


    The minute seemed like an eternity, but as soon as they returned we headed into the tower. We now had 6 persons in our group and I prayed that we hadn''t lost too much time.


    "My name is Xander", I said "and if we are to survive, you will need to listen to me."


    "We need to go fast, the kids are going to be arriving at this level''s boss at any moment. Be ready for anything, some of these things could be poisoness or spit acid or have really virtually impenetrable skin. I have never done this level so I don''t know exactly what we will be facing but I have a general idea. What I do know is that we need to head straight ahead and turn left at the bridge which is where other group went. "


    "Now, let''s move!"


    When we entered the first level, we came into what looked like a medieval village but it looked uninhabited. The buildings were made of stone blocks and they were largely covered in vines.


    The tavern sign was hanging on by one chain, making a creaking sound as it rotated in the light breeze. The tavern door had been broken in and there was no sign of life inside. Most of the other shops weren''t in much better shape.


    Crows were feasting on the remains of what appeared to have been a dog. The main street was packed dirt and in disrepair with holes appearing randomly as far as we could see.


    "Man, this place sure is creepy" Louis said, a hatchet in one hand and a knife in the other.


    "Looks like some kind of movie set from a horror movie, to me." Mitch said, his axe slung over his shoulder.


    "I don''t know," Ben replied "A little bit of paint and some elbow grease and I could see myself living here. It kind of reminds me of the village I grew up in."


    "Well I have been seeing some things moving around in there," Hench said pointing up at a window on the second floor. "You could always go in and see if there''s a room for rent."


    It was true, there was some movement in front of the windows, but it was hard to tell if it was human or something else.


    "Stay away from the holes and keep an eye on the doorways" I said as we moved at rapid pace down the main avenue.


    Occasionally we would see movement in the windows as we passed and ahead of us, and crows started gathering on the rooves of the buildings.


    From behind us I heard a sound and noticed that large rat-like rodents were following us. Also up ahead I saw that the same type of creatures started climbing out of the holes in the street, each one the size of medium sized dog. Their incisor teeth were reminiscent of a saber-tooth tiger''s teeth, extending well beneath their jaw line, and they had scales instead of fur. Their claws were also long and sharp and they had wicked looking long barbed tails.


    I was impressed that the mayor''s son and his friends had gotten past this challenge. These things were no joke.


    "I think I could take five or six of them but there must be 100 at least, and there are still more climbing out of those holes."


    "I don''t think that will be necessary" I said. "I have created a barrier in front of us and laced it with lightning. The only ones we need to worry about are the ones coming from behind us, but I will leave those to you."


    "Also keep an eye out for any that might pop out of any nearby holes."


    Almost as soon as I said that, one managed to enter behind our barrier by jumping out of a hole just as we were passing over it, it made a loud screech and was about to take a chunk out of the Mayor''s leg, but Ben made quick work of it with his axe.


    Most of the saber-tooth rats in front of us had mostly been killed by the electrified barrier and I saw that the national guard crew had eliminated most of the rats that had been coming up from behind. Even Mayor Levine had managed to kill a couple with a machete she got from Louis.


    Once all the saber-tooth rats were dealt with, I was surprised to see that people started stepping out of the buildings as they began fixing up their houses and businesses. It didn''t make much sense to me as the town would likely be reset once we finished the level and I was pretty sure they were NPCs but still, the realism was mind blowing.


    At the end of the street we saw a river running roughly perpendicular to the street and a bridge crossing over it, I breathed a sigh of relief realizing that we were nearing the area where the children should be.


    As we got closer to the bridge, another saber-rat creature crawled out of the river, but this one was easily the size of an adult grizzly bear. A mass of pure muscles and claws that would even give Freddy Kruger nightmares. Like the other rats, Its tail was long and pointy with sharp barbs sticking out of it like rows of giant arrow heads and it skin was scaled like snake skin.


    I was pretty sure that I could it on my own but it couldn''t hurt to let the 4 guardsman get in on the action as well.


    "Is this the boss?" Hench asked holding a hatchet in each hand.


    "This is certainly the boss of the rats I replied, "I guess that you could say that this is the saber-tooth-rat King, but this is definitely not the boss for this level."


    "Louis, Mitch, take the right side," I said "Ben Hench cover his left side."


    Mayor Levine was trembling and was gripping my arm with an impressive strength.


    "Mayor Levine, I want you to stay here. I will set a protective barrier around you so you will be safe, but you first must let go of me."


    The mayor suddenly became aware that she was clinging to my arm and let go, with a look of embarrassment.


    I created a thick dome of semi translucent mana around the mayor and prepared for our first real fight since entering the Dungeon.

 The rat King

    <<<<<o>>>>>


    Ben


    Once Xander had secured the mayor, he seemed to transform and was covered from head to toe in armor. A sword appeared in his hand and it gave off this light that was to bright to look at directly.


    I couldn''t help but wonder where he was getting all this from, who or what was this guy? He seemed like he came straight out of some Marvel comic book, but other times he seemed like just a regular person. It was a bit disconcerting.


    I also couldn''t get over what we were all experiencing. It was as if we were in another world fighting monsters, side by side with some sort of mage. It was like something out a story book.


    There was something invigorating about going against monsters obviously much stronger than you, that really got the adrenaline pumping. I had done parachute jumps, paragliding, a little mountain climbing but this was totally different, and even felt a bit addictive.  Of course, it was reassuring knowing that I was fighting alongside someone who could intervene if things turned south, but the risk was real and ever present.


    I couldn''t help but wonder, what Xander was capable of? He could probably handle anything on this level on his own. Did he even need us? It was hard to tell.


    "I will attempt to cripple the rat, but you need to inflict as much damage as possible if you find an opening." He looked at each of us with a stone like glare and his words seemed to have a physical weight to them.


    "Keep a safe distance, don''t take any unnecessary risks. Try to flank it but watch out for his claws, teeth and especially his tail, if those barbs get into you, you will be ripped to shreds."


    "Now let''s go" he said, and at once he flew towards the rat monster with an inhuman speed. The saber-tooth rat also moved with a blurring speed, and when the two of them clashed it was almost impossible to follow their movements. The rat was slashing with its claws, biting with its mouth and spearing with its tail almost simultaneously. But Xander always seemed to be a microsecond ahead of it, blocking the blows and managing to inflict some damage of his own in between.


    We flanked the rat from a distance, and fortunately I had managed to get hold of a fireman''s axe before we entered the tower, which gave me a bit extra reach.


    They were moving so fast it was hard to find any opening.


    Suddenly the rat found an opening and slashed his claws at Xander''s head with blinding speed, but at the last moment he managed to drop under the rat''s arm and his sword suddenly blazed brighter as it cut off the rat''s arm at the elbow. Immediately the rat''s tail followed seeking to impale him where he was laying on the ground. Xander managed to grab the tail with his free hand, and plunged it into the rat''s own rib cage. The rat screamed in rage and pain and attempted to bite at Xander''s head but when he opened his mouth, Xander blasted a large fireball directly into its mouth.


    Seeing my chance, I ran in and jumped while swinging my axe overhand and drove the pike side of my fireman''s axe into the back of the rat''s head where it met the spine. I must have been lucky because the point entered between the vertebres, severing the spinal nerve and the rat collapsed. I could see Hench, Louis and Mitch were also hacking at the rat but with less success."


    The rat was immobilized but it still wasn''t dead, so I took out my knife and managed to slit its throat by slipping my knife under its scales.


    Once the rat was dead, Xander sliced open the monster, reached in and removed a round object with something glowing on the inside and handed it to me.


    "I think this one belongs to you Ben, nice job! Be careful with it, that beast core is worth a small fortune."


    <<<<<o>>>>>


    Xander


    As a last-minute idea, I decided to take the monster''s forearm, head and tail and added it to my dimensional storage.  While it was in there it wouldn¡¯t rot and it could come in handy to show people what they would be facing if they entered the tower.


    As I turned back to the group, I realized we were all a pretty gruesome sight, most everyone was covered in blood.


    I released the barrier from around the mayor, and as we were next to the river, we quickly washed off the viscera and blood. My armor had remained remarkably clean, so I only had to scrub the areas not protected by the armor.


    "Man," Mitch said as we started off again. "I can''t get over what you just did, you''re some kind of super human. I have never seen anyone move half that fast. If you got those powers from the tower, I definitely want in on that Mojo."If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    "You may get your chance. I am hoping to open a school, but I think that it will all depend on whether or not we get to the mayor''s son in time. Given time you should all be able to do similar things. Also, you may get a good head start depending on the rewards you get after we defeat the boss. "


    We continued on our way, turning left at the bridge as Will had instructed and the path led us out of the village onto a road that followed the river on side, and a forest on the other.


    In the distance some movement caught my eye and I heard some weak cries as well. My hearing and sight being heightened by mana, I suspected I was the only one who had noticed.


    "I think I have spotted them and I think they''re in trouble. They are a little over a kilometer from here. I am going to run on ahead, try to catch up as soon as possible."


    I redirected mana to my legs and shot ahead. When I arrived at the scene, I saw the children being dragged into the woods by thick vines, and I suspected the vines may contain some sort of poison as the children were no longer resisting and were barely conscious.


    As I approached, more vines shot out of the woods and started wrapping around my legs and ankles.


    All the vines seemed to be coming from the same place. With my sword I easily cut through the vines that were entangling my legs and I generated an intensely strong flame that completely disintegrated the vines at their source.


    I used my sword to cut through the vines where they had started wrapping around the children but I would have to disentangle them manually.


    It was at this time that the rest of our group arrived. Mayor Levine ran to her son who looked like he wasn''t far from losing consciousness. Louis and Ben started hacking at the vines with the knives and axes as they were still wrapped around the children.


    "Aaron, dear, can you hear me, are you OK. look at you, you''re all covered in blood. Aaron, speak to me."


    "Mom? I''m sorry mom, I''ll be ok, just give me a minute. I am so tired."


    "This guy here looks pretty bad, Hench said, kneeling next to another one of the boys. "His pulse is really weak and he''s lost a lot of blood."


    I knelt next to the child Hench was holding and poured one of the healing potions into his mouth. Within seconds his wounds were healing and he was looking healthy again. I imbued mana into my arms and hands and unwound the now dead vine from the child.


    "How are the others?" I asked Louis and Ben.


    "They look like they''ve been through hell but they should pull through."


    "How about Aaron?" Mitch had been checking him over for injuries.


    "He is very weak, I suspect that he may have been poisoned." Mitch said, at which point mayor Levine broke down, tears streaking down her cheeks, and hugged her son to her chest.


    "Please help him" she begged me. I will do whatever you want, but just save him."


    I poured another vial of healing potion into Aaron''s mouth and he also recovered completely within moments. After all these healing I only had 2 vials of healing potion left, and one of them was only a low-grade potion.


    After this I liberated the other children from the dead vines which were still wrapped around them.


    "Now that the worst is over," I said "maybe we should take a break so you all can recuperate before we face the level boss."


    At the mention of the boss, all color drained from the children''s faces.


    "I only have a little healing potion left, so you all need to be super careful from here on."


    "I don''t know what you guys were thinking going into the tower alone, but I hope that you have learned your lesson." I turned to look at the teenagers, who immediately turned their eyes down.


    In reality, I felt a bit hypocritical seeing as I had done the exact same thing as they did, just a couple of days ago, but my disguise and the armor made me look a bit older and my hypocrisy was for a good cause.


    "One thing I don''t get, is how on earth did you guys got past the saber-tooth rats and the rat King?"


    "Oh, that was easy", Simon, one of Aaron''s friends said. "Someone called us inside one of the buildings, and showed us a tunnel that lead to the forest. He also gave us some clubs and warned us to watch out for the ants. We avoided the rats entirely, but a few of us were injured by the ants, those things were massively strong and fast."


    I recognized Will''s intervention in Simon''s story, but I had yet to understand what made Will tick. If I were a dungeon psychologist, I would probably diagnose him with some form of multiple personality disorder.


    I pulled out the clawed forearm of the rat King. At the sight of it they nearly fell off the log they were sitting on.


    "Well, luckily for you, this is what you missed, plus over 100 of his buddies who were just a bit smaller." Their mouths were hanging open, just imagining the beast that arm belonged to.


    "But don''t worry, we still have the level boss to deal with, and from my information, it shouldn''t be very far from here."


    If anyone is hungry, I have some food. Most everyone was hungry so I took out some of the supplies Cara''s mother had prepared. I was happy to put the food to good use as it was way too much for me to finish.


    "If everyone is ready, I suggest we move on. This is only the first level so the boss shouldn''t be much more difficult than the rat king, but as a general rule, level bosses are pretty tough so be prepared."


    We had advanced about another kilometer when the river turned to the right and we arrived at a large field full of a variety of wild flowers. Reds, blues, yellows, and purples. It was almost like a scene out of a Monet painting.


    " I could definitely see myself living here" Ben said. "A little house by the edge of the forest, this would be my front yard, and I could go fishing in the river. Close to the center of the town, paradise."


    I couldn''t help but think that this world Will had created was truly amazing, if it weren''t so dangerous.


    At that moment we were shaken from our reverie by the sound of a deafening roar coming from the forest on the far side of the field.

 A surprise from another level

    From the sound of it, it was surely the level boss, but it sounded nothing like a first level boss. Every fiber of my body vibrated to the sound and my heart started beating loudly and uncontrollably.


    Just as I thought this, I heard Will''s voice. "You never did defeat the champion on the top floor, but better late than never. Good luck! "


    "You gotta be kidding me Will, don''t tell me you brought the top-level boss to this level, not to mention that I now have 9 people to protect. Has anyone ever told you that you can be a real bastard at times?"


    "I have full confidence in you, and if all else fails, I can always find another champion, but I like you, so don''t let me down. And yes, I have often been called that and even much worse and I am sure there is a certain amount of truth to that statement."


    "Who are you talking to", and what''s this about a top-level boss?" Mayor Levine asked, more than a little concerned.


    "I was speaking with the Dungeon and it seems that he decided to bring the top-level boss down to this level. I left the top level before I had the chance to face the boss so he brought it here for me to fight it."


    "He can sometimes have a really warped sense of humor. One second, he''s your best friend and the next he''s trying to kill you. But don''t worry, I will find a way to deal with it. I don''t really have much choice anymore. I promised I would keep you safe and I intend to keep that promise."


    "Everyone, this one is going to be entirely for me. This is going to be the toughest beast in the whole tower so I suggest that you all find a place hide if possible."


    A few moments later, a gigantic Tyrannosaurus Rex like monster, with 4 legs and 2 long muscular arms emerged from the woods. Its skin looked like some sort of shiny scaled armor, completely black like dragon skin. The trees fell like dried grass as he passed through the forest on the other end of the clearing.


    I had absolutely no idea how I would deal with this monstrosity. I racked my brain for a solution. With all the advantages I had been given, there must be something I could use to defeat thing. Suddenly I remembered an idea I had been toying with in my mind for a while, and now seemed like as good a time as any to try it out. The down side though was double; I wasn''t sure if I would have enough time to pull it off as it was a bit complicated to create and I wasn''t even sure if would work.


    "Ben, quick, I am going to need your axe."


    He threw it to me and I immediately started super heating the head and using my earth attribute to form it into a hollow-tipped large bullet shape. I inscribed a large rune of penetration and a rune of rotation into the metal bullet but it was all taking too long and the monster was approaching quickly.


    I rapidly formed a large tube with thick densely formed mana, with one end sealed off. I created a large mana bomb, hoping I got the proportions right and dropped it to the bottom of the tube, I then placed the runed metal bullet in the tube, basically creating a mana cannon.


    Maintaining all of these objects at once was a challenge, but not as difficult as I expected. I knew that what I was attempting was very dangerous, but I had no time to test it.


    The mutant T-rex was almost on us, and with each step he took, the ground shook.


    I created a support in the dirt using my earth attribute, to resist the kickback and braced the back of the cannon into the depression. I pointed the cannon at the monster¡¯s chest and charged the runes on the bullet with mana and just in time because he was now standing over us.


    As I ignited the mana bomb, I prayed that I had made the tube sufficiently thick or I would be turned to mincemeat.


    There was a deafening explosion and the bullet shot out at supersonic speed right into the chest of the T-Rex. I was thrown back a couple of meters and felt like I had been hit by a bus.


    I got up as quickly as I could, and I saw that my cannon had thrown the creature back about 5 meters and there was now a gaping hole in its chest, but surprisingly it wasn''t dead and was struggling to rise.


    Through the hole I could see the monster''s beast core glowing. It was undamaged but barely hanging on, I also could see the edge of its heart which was still beating. The creature must have had some incredible healing powers because I noticed that the edges of the hole were already starting to heal.


    Every inch of my body ached but I knew that I didn''t have much time and that I was taking a big risk, but I forced all the mana I could into my legs and rushed the beast before it could stand and dove head first into the hole that was closing as I watched.Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!


    I managed to get my hand around its beast core, and ripped it free with all my might while plunging my sword through its heart and ripping it open.


    A moment later the beast collapsed, and I pulled myself out of its chest, the large beast core clutched in my hand and my whole body covered in blood.


    Just to play it safe, I created another mana bomb directly in its chest and let it blow, spraying gore on everyone in the group. It was messy as sin, but it felt good and I think it gave me a little closure.


    Mitch turned to me "Man you must have a massive pair to do what you just did. I don''t care what anyone says, you''re the man. You are by far the most bad-ass mage I have ever met. And I definitely, definitely, have to get me one of those things you used to blow that hole through him."


    "I am taking a wild guess here, but I suspect that I am the only mage you have ever met." I said clapping him on the shoulder. But thanks, I get your point."


    "Also, once you have a decent level of mana control, I can teach you to make one of those things. But in all honesty, it was largely luck. I had no idea if the Canon would even work. That was definitely much too close for comfort."


    A familiar voice boomed out of nowhere "Congratulations, that was truly impressive. That is the first time I have ever seen someone kill a boss that way. To be honest there aren''t that many who have succeeded against that one, I put your chances at about 30%, but not only did you defeat it, but you did it in record time. I guess that I will just have to make them tougher in the future".


    "Thanks, Will, but no thanks. That thing was plenty tough, I was just fortunate. I could easily have died there. I really don''t get you, sometimes you seem to want to help me, and then other times I would swear that you are trying to get me killed."


    "True, True, but In any case, well done. By the way, I don''t know if you are aware of this, but you can loot the corpses. Some of its parts are quite valuable. Just walk up to it and think ''loot'' and it will be added to your storage space, even the cores. I got a good laugh watching you butcher your kills for the cores; but you are really making quite a mess of them."


    I was becoming more and more convinced that I was dealing with a truly psychotic dungeon I thought as I looted the T-Rex with just a thought.


    "When you are done here, you will find the exit portal just a little further and each of you has earned a chest."


    I was really curious to see what everyone would be receiving as it was only the first level but this psychotic dungeon was full of surprises.


    About 200 meters further, we arrived at the portal, and right next to the portal there were 10 chests.


    There were no names on the chests, but each chest would only open for the person for whom it was intended.


    Mayor Levine opened her chest, which contained 3 gold coins, a golden bracelet with a rectangular cut ruby which served as a temporary shield and doubled as a dimensional storage, a rejuvenation potion and a pair of shoes which allow her to run faster, a mana core potion and a single use mana stone.


    Aaron''s chest contained a silver chain bracelet which created a 30 second barrier which could only be reactivated after a 20 min recycle period but also doubled as a dimensional storage, 5 gold coins, a dagger that temporarily froze any object stabbed by it and a potion that created a basic mana core.


    Ben received an enchanted axe that inflicted fire damage, a dimensional storage ring, 10 gold coins and, a mana core potion and a mana memory gem, single usage, and a black suit of armor.


    Mitch received a mana gem single usage, a basic mana core potion, 3 gold coins and a dimension storage ring and a high-quality steel hammer, with no enchantments.


    Louis received a physical re-enforcement potion which he consumed immediately, his clothes virtually bursting from the extra muscle mass and seemed to even get a bit taller. A dimensional storage ring, 3 gold coins, an enchanted fire sword and a combat memory stone, single use, and a mana core potion which he also consumed immediately.


    Aaron''s friends also received gifts similar to Aaron with small differences in the enchantments on the weapons.


    Everyone seemed elated with the gifts they had received, I had yet to open my chest.


    I realized this was only the first level, but on the other hand, I had defeated a top-level boss, so I didn''t really know what to expect.


    Everyone seemed to be anxious to see what I would receive.


    The first object seemed to be a pile of metallic bars, about 25 kilos in all. When I reached in to take one out, as always, information about the item appeared to me as soon as I touched it.


    "Enchanters metal, this metal is ideal for runes and enchantments. Used by an experienced enchanter or runologist, this metal can be used to create powerful weapons or other magical items."


    I also received more middle and high-grade healing potions and another resurrection potion. That was a big relief as I had been going through my potions far too quickly.


    There were also 4 bracelets entitled "Protect the ones you love". No extra information was given, but as there were 4 of them, so I assumed that they were for my family. That would leave Cara unprotected, but as she could turn into a leopard, she probably didn''t need much more protection.


    Lastly there was another memory stone, single usage, with the title "mana for healers". This would be a life saver if I could learn how to heal using mana instead of relying on potions.


    Once everyone was ready, we entered the portal to leave the tower. I was a little concerned where we would be coming out as I didn''t exactly relish the idea of wading through thousands of people."

 Back to the Mayors office

    As soon as we stepped out, we appeared at the same point from which we had entered.


    The second we appeared, the crowd went crazy cheering and screaming and we were bombarded by camera flashes and questions. Most of us were still covered in blood but it was obvious that we were all fine.


    Frank was there wafting for us as well, and looked relieved to see we made it out, but especially to see the mayor was still in one piece.


    He did a double take when he saw Louis who had changed physically since he entered the dungeon, "Louis, what the hell! Did your uniform shrink while you were in there?"


    Louis smiled and flexed his new muscles and buttons popped and his uniform ripped pretty much all over. "Naw, just got a good workout in there, but I think I''ll be needing some new uniforms, Captain."


    Hench, Mitch and Ben, rolled their eyes and shook their heads and laughed."


    There was a news crew which had been allowed to enter the perimeter of the second barricade and was filming everything, so I decided to take the opportunity to make up for some of my past mistakes.


    I signaled the reporter and the camera man.


    "I feel as though I have to apologize to all of you. Many of you are here because of my actions, and ''ll be honest with you, I really wanted to promote the tower. But due to my actions, 4 children entered the dungeon and very nearly died. I have given many of you, unrealistic expectations.


    "The tower, or dungeon as it is often called, is extremely deadly. I can say with certainty that none of our group would have survived today, if I hadn''t intervened, and at the end, even for me it was a close call. If I had died, probably none of us would have made it out.


    I have been given a number of advantages as the Dungeon champion, but for all of you it will take a lot of training to survive. Even the first level of the Dungeon. And even with training there is a chance that not everyone will survive. Going in alone is certain death, dungeons are a team effort and everyone in the team needs to be trained."


    "No firearms are allowed in the tower, so it is primitive weapons only and if you succeed, you may earn some magical weapons, but without training you will almost certainly die in there. This is not a safari."


    "If you are curious as to what sort of creatures you will be facing on the easiest level, I present to you the Saber-tooth Rat King."


    I held up the rat King''s forearm, with its 30 cm claws as well as the head with its saber-tooth fangs and the barbed tail. There was an audible intake of breath and gasps from the crowd and more than a few persons fainted.


    This creature measured about 4 meters tall, and this wasn''t even the level boss.


    "I am in discussions with the mayor for setting up a training center, and establishing rules, so I would like to ask you to all go home until we are ready. It will probably take a couple of months, so between now and then, there will we nothing to see here.


    ''Now that I have set the record straight, I will no longer be running to the rescue of anyone else who enters the tower, and don''t think that you can enter and then leave it it gets too dangerous. Once you enter you cannot leave until you complete the level."


    The reporter and the cameraman turned to the mayor "Madame the Mayor, is it true that you plan on creating a training program for people who wish to enter the Dungeon?"


    "The idea was introduced this morning and we have not yet made any decisions on this matter. As soon as we have weighed our options, we will let you know. The tower is a very complex topic with many advantages but as mentioned just a moment ago, it is extremely dangerous, and from what I have seen this morning, I am pretty sure that I will be having nightmares for many weeks to come. That said, the rewards for surviving are equally impressive."


    "Did you receive anything from the tower Madame the Mayor?"


    "I received a few items, but one that particularly interested me was a rejuvenation potion. I don''t think that there is a woman present who wouldn''t dream of getting one of those." The crowd laughed briefly before she continued. "Of course, I suspect the cosmetics industry will be a little less enthusiastic, so I expect to be getting a lot of calls from them when I get back to my office." Again, the crowd laughed in response.


    It was no surprise that she became the mayor, I thought to myself, as she had a real gift for playing the crowds.


    "I know that this will come as a surprise to many of you, but I actually intend to take the potion here and now, on live TV; partly because I need people to still recognize me if the changes are too important but also because I am impatient to see the results."


    According to the description she received, she knew she should expect to reverse about 20 years, and as she had just recently turned 50, she should look around 30 if it worked.


    The mayor downed the vial, and even though there were thousands present, for a brief moment there was total silence as everyone was focused on the mayor.


    Whereas her natural hair color was dark brown, she had been dying her hair blond for years to hide the grey which had started appearing.


    At first the crowd responded with a few oohs and ahs, but these quickly gave way fanatical screams and cheers.


    The mayor hadn''t seen her transformation yet, so she took out her phone and put the camera in selfie mode to see what had changed.


    Tears streamed from her eyes as she saw that she now had a full head of silky dark brown hair, her skin was full and taut without a wrinkle, her eyelids and chin which had been sagging were now firm and the crow¡¯s feet had completely disappeared from the corner of her eyes.


    She also suddenly realized that she no longer needed her glasses, she had her 20/20 vision back. Although she wasn''t overweight, she felt her waistline retract and even her buttocks felt firmer her skin felt tighter all over.


    The joy and the emotion were too much for her and she fell into her son¡¯s arms crying for joy.


    Many persons in the crowd were also crying but many also started pushing against the barriers as seeing the effects live renewed their desire to enter the tower even after the warnings.


    Frank rushed over and told us that they had a helicopter waiting to take us back to the mayor''s office, and encouraged us to hurry before the crowd broke through. With that we all headed into the Chopper.


    In the chopper I had the chance to speak with Louis, Hench, Mitch and Ben. I had the distinct feeling that Will had selected them as trainers based on the rewards they received.


    "If we end up creating a school for ascenders, would any of you be interested in a training position by any chance? You''d get to go into the tower often and get more rewards. I also have some memory stones which should be enough to get you started.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    "Also, now that you have all received a mana core potion and a mana gem, you will be able to develop your cores and do things that weren''t possible before and you should be able to teach others as well."


    "I definitely want to go back" Aaron said, but seeing the look on his mother''s face, added "but of course, only after I have fully trained."


    "I second Aaron" Simon said. "We can train as a team and maybe get some better weapons."


    The 2 other teenagers seemed a bit hesitant, but finally agreed as well.


    The four guardsmen looked at each other and said "count us in".


    To everyone''s surprise even Mayor Levine joined in "As mayor I have a lot of responsibilities, and I shouldn''t be risking my life unnecessarily, but I wouldn''t mind following the training, and who knows, I may decide to do another dungeon run."


    "Most of us have received gold coins" I said "I know a place that will buy them at a good price. Also, Ben, your beast core is worth quite a lot. You can either sell it, or you can use it to strengthen your mana core when meditating. I would recommend the latter as you can always pick up more cores later.


    "Also, Mitch, you got a good hammer but without any enchantments, if you want, I could enchant it for you."


    "Wow, thanks, that would be fantastic, just let me know when you have some time."


    "I don''t mind adding runes for free this time, but runes are powered by mana, and you won''t have much mana yet. I could add a gem or two that would act as a mana battery so you wouldn''t need to use your own mana, or at least not much, but you would need to pay me back for the gem. You can pay over time if you want, I would feel bad taking your hard-won gold.


    "You will also have to choose what effect you want for your hammer. Fire, frost, lightning, demon banishment, weightlessness, and maybe even auto-return effect. I may be able to apply a few of these properties but I won''t know how many until I try."


    "Holy cow, any of those would be too cool. I don''t mind if you take my gold, and if I owe you more let me know and I will pay you for it later.


    "I kind of like the lighting, weightlessness and the auto-return feature, with the gem of course. If you can only manage 2 than I can do without the auto-return, but that would definitely be a plus. I would basically be like a real-life Thor."


    "If you give me your hammer, I will fix it up for you when we get to the mayor''s office, it shouldn''t take more than an hour. When you get it back, you will need to bond with it with a few drops of blood. After bonding you won''t be able to sell it anymore, it will be yours for life."


    He handed me the hammer and all the gold he received from his chest. It wasn''t enough to cover the value of the gem I would be using, but I figured that getting a powerful ascender/trainer and I was sure he would be able to get me some replacement gems later.


    "Mayor Levine, if you help us with setting up a training center, we should also set up a trade shop near the tower as well. People are going to trade in weapons and sell their gold and jewels. We will also need some tradesman for fixing broken swords and whatnot.


    "You will also need to define the taxation as well, and not to sound greedy, but I would like royalties for all sales but we can discuss those details later. I also think the trainers should get a percentage for accompanying trainees or others on runs."


    "That sounds fair to me," the mayor said "maybe you can check with your contact if he would be willing to relocate closer to the tower. I will ask Sophie and David to try to find some real estate."


    "I''ll speak with him and asked him to get in touch with your assistants and if I find any artisans, I will let you know as well."


    Once we arrived at the mayor''s office, I asked for a room where I wouldn''t be disturbed so I could work on the runes on the hammer.


    I already had a few ideas about how I could connect the different runes to achieve the desired effect.


    The hammer needed to be virtually weightless when being wielded buy its owner, but have increased mass as well as trigger a lightning effect on impact. It needed to store mana in the gem as well as using the gem as a power source.


    The hammer was made entirely of metal and was very heavy, and the handle was easily 40 centimeters.


    I embedded a large amethyst in the hand grip and created the same energy patterns as I had done with my quarter, I then connected a bonding rune so that it would only work for the person with whom it was bonded.


    From there I created a return attraction rune from the bonding, as well as a the rune of lightness as these were all attributes related to the owner of the hammer.


    On the head of the hammer, I created multiple impact runes all connected to a rune of increased mass and a rune of lightning and from there I just needed to create a connection back to the output of the amethyst that served as a battery.


    I decided to create an intermediary gem power source closer to the head as all the functions of the hammer would create a significant power drain.


    I charged the secondary gem with mana as I didn''t think Mitch would have enough on his own as there wasn''t much ambient mana here and his core only had limited capacity.


    It must have taken me close to an hour to finish, but it felt like only a few minutes. I was pretty confident that it would work and I almost felt bad parting with it as it was my first real weapon creation.


    When I returned to the mayor¡¯s office, I found everyone had washed up and were taking coffee with the mayor.


    "Mitch, I think this should do the trick" I said as I handed him his hammer. "I haven''t tested it yet but if you can spare a couple of drops of your blood we can see if it works."


    I pricked Mitch''s finger with a pin formed from mana and let a few drops fill the bonding rune.


    "Have you taken your mana potion yet?" I asked him. To which he nodded in the affirmative.


    "Try to direct some mana through to the hammer to activate it."


    It looked like he was struggling a bit, but after a moment the runes started coming to life and where it was obvious that the hammer was heavy a moment before, it now seemed almost weightless in his hand."


    "Holy mother of Thor, this is amazing!"


    I didn''t want him to destroy the mayor''s office, so I created a thick mana barrier around us and a secondary barrier in front of me and asked him to strike at me with the hammer.


    He gave decent swing of the hammer against the shield and there was an explosion of lightning the impact knocked me back a few feet."


    "I must say that works even better than I had expected." I said, genuinely impressed by the effect of the mass runes that I added.


    Mitch was ecstatic and coddling the hammer like a prized treasure.


    "Get a room" Ben said, and everyone got a laugh, even Mitch.


    "Now, hand me the hammer, gently, as there are impact runes on the head and I don''t particularly feel like getting blasted by lightning today.", he handed me the hammer which although light for him, remained heavy for me.


    "Now re-call the hammer back to you using your mana. It should return to you handle first."


    He reached out his hand and the hammer came flying back to him and he easily caught it by the handle.


    Everyone in the room was impressed, including me. I definitely needed to create something similar for myself. A sword is great for cutting and slicing, but sometimes you need pure mass for smashing things.


    "Be very careful with the hammer. You should only take it out if you are in the dungeon or are using a mana shield. The hammer reacts on impact so I would try to avoid dropping it or hammering nails."


    "For the rest of you, I highly recommend you take your mana potions and touch the mana gems to your foreheads. By doing this this you will learn all you need to know to develop your mana cores and mana manipulation techniques. You can increase your capacity through absorbing ambient mana, beast cores and meditation, but the closer you are to the tower, the faster you will progress. There isn''t much mana here so your progress will be slow."


    "Xander, " the mayor said before I left." I was thinking, we sometimes could use someone with your abilities. Would you mind if we called on you from time to time?"


    "I don''t mind, but I don''t want to end up in trouble because someone gets hurt and they blame me, or I didn''t read someone their rights. I am not a policeman and I don''t know the law. You can call me if you need me, and if I can help I will. If possible, maybe I could get a special status to protect myself.


    "I will see what I can do. There are some people who owe me some favors, and it is clear that the world is changing in ways no one expected so we may be able to make some exceptions."


    "Also, you know my anonymity is important, and with the rewards we get from the dungeon, that puts me in a delicate situation for taxes. Do you think you can come up with a solution? I don''t mind paying taxes, but it can''t be under my true identity?"

 Cara and Ellie, Joey and Freddy

    As soon as I had distanced myself from the mayor''s office, I found a discreet corner and removed my disguise.


    It was already 2 p.m., so I had already missed meeting up with Ellie and Cara for lunch but I figured we could maybe still grab a coffee and they could maybe help me choose some clothing, as I was still dressed in my brother''s clothes.


    I decided to give them a call.


    "Hey Ellie, it''s Matt, are you still in town, can we meet up somewhere?"


    "Matt, yeah, we''re at the mall, give me a call when you get here and we''ll meet at the coffee shop where I used to work."


    About 20 minutes later we were together at the coffee shop and ordered our coffees, but from the look on Ellie''s face she was waiting for an explanation.


    "I''m sorry Ellie, I had a few things to do this morning and then something unexpected came up. Sorry I am late."


    "Would that ''something unexpected'' happen to be what has been on the news all day?"


    "So, you heard?" was all I could think of to say.


    "I think that everyone from here to the Australian outback has heard about it. I am just happy that you are alive but you are taking way too many risks. That rat thing looked really dangerous."


    "if you think that was dangerous, you should have seen the boss, the Dungeon decided to bring the level 10 boss to level 1."


    Cara spit the coffee she had been sipping. "Don''t tell me you fought the giant boss from my floor?"


    "That depends, is it about 8 meters tall with thick black scales, four legs, 2 giant arms with claws, a giant head full of sharp teeth and heals almost instantly when wounded? If so, then yes, that''s the one we got."


    "No one can kill that boss, it takes a full team of high-level mages, and even then most of them end up injured or killed. That was why I asked the Dungeon to let you leave before finishing the level." Cara said, honestly concerned.


    Now it was my turn to choke on my coffee. "You asked the Dungeon to let me out early so I wouldn''t have to face that thing?


    "Don''t get me wrong, I know some guys would be offended, but I think that you most likely saved my life. I never would have been able to beat that thing on my first day. Thank you, honestly. Even today it was a really close call, that thing was death incarnate.


    By the way, before I forget, something I have been meaning to ask you; does the tower have a name? There are a lot of towers so I would assume they must have names."


    "Yes, your tower is named Eternua, it is one of the oldest in existence."


    "You told me the dungeon was special, but is there something wrong with the Dungeon? I mean sometimes he seems almost fatherly, and the next second it seems like he is trying to get me killed. It often acts like it has a personality disorder."


    "I think someone discovered Will''s real name. Names have power and when someone gets the name of a tower core, or consciousness, they have a certain power over it. They can make it do things.


    "I am pretty sure It is the tower champion who goes by the name Antonius, he was a powerful ascender, but his heart is evil. I don''t think that he wants you to be the champion for this tower for some reason."


    "Where is this Antonius?"


    "He travels between planets through the towers, but his home planet is Evola, no one can stand up to him. He is extremely powerful." She hesitated a moment before continuing. "Maybe, just maybe, you could defeat him, but most likely you would die. I think that you may be more powerful than he is, but he has much more experience and he''s ruthless. Maybe in a few years you may be able to face him."


    Ellie just sat there listening to us, in a stunned silence looking back and forth between the two of us.


    I decided to change the subject.


    "So, Cara, did you find any clothing that you like?"


    "Oh, everything here is so beautiful, I bought loads of shoes, blouses, dresses and handbags and other accessories." She held up at least 6 shopping bags. "Thank you for taking such good care of me! Honestly, I have never met anyone like you, I don''t understand how you are still single." She put her hand on mine and I felt my face getting hot and I started to feel my heart beating rapidly.


    "If you two don''t mind, I really could use some clothes, and I have zero fashion sense so would you mind helping me to choose a new wardrobe? I would really appreciate it. I don''t have much time though, so we would have to go fast."


    Cara looked excited at the idea, and Ellie loved shopping and often helped me pick my clothes, so the next hour we spent picking out my new wardrobe. Actually, I just stayed in the dressing room and they kept throwing clothes over the door.


    When I felt I had enough, I paid for the clothes and asked Ellie and Cara to bring them back home for me as I still had a couple of other stops I needed to make before returning.


    Once I left the shopping center, I re-donned my disguise and took a taxi back to the gold dealer I had dealt with my first day back.


    "Good afternoon Mr. Rossetti"


    "Good afternoon..."


    "Xander, you can call me Xander."


    "Good afternoon Xander, I am glad to see you returned."


    "I told you I would be back. I still have quite a few coins, gems and beast cores, if you are still interested." and I could clearly see he was.


    "I think I can still find some buyers, and I could get you some really big money for one of those healing potions. I don''t know if you would be willing to part with one of them." Joey said, hoping to tempt me with the promise of money.


    "As you can probably tell, I lead an extremely dangerous life and those healing potions are often the difference between life and death. But if I can get a few extra, I would be happy to sell them for a fair price. And I know for some rich person on his death bed, one of those would be absolutely priceless"


    "My thought exactly," he said, "and I even happen to know a few."


    "I will keep that in mind." I said.


    "I have come here for 2 reasons today:


    "The first is to see if you would be interested in setting up shop closer to the tower. I spoke with the mayor, and she is interested in setting up an official shop for buying and selling items gathered in the Dungeon. It would supply you a very profitable business, but it would need to be on the up and up. Correct ledgers, taxation, fair prices.Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    "Any decent unenchanted items I could enchant, adding runes to some of the items would increase the value significantly, for a cut of the profits of course.


    "What do you think? We won''t see people entering the Dungeon much for the next couple of months, so that gives you some time to setup."


    "As far as opening a shop close to the tower, just tell me where to sign."


    "Great! Just contact the mayor''s office, ask for Sophie or David and say Xander sent you. They are looking for a location for the academy and they can help you find a location for your shop close by. You may need to hire some extra security once mages start appearing."


    The second reason I came, is to see if you are able to buy more coins and cores and maybe some gems. That is, if you have the funds, which I suspect you do.


    "I have enough cash to buy some more stuff if you show me what you got. And I think I will have no trouble finding buyers."


    "Now let''s see what you can buy from me today."


    I laid out an assortment of gold coins, beast cores and various gems.


    "Oh, Is this all you got?" He said joking.


    "No, there''s a lot more where that came from" I said, and I dumped my full load of gold and jewels and cores onto the floor next to me.


    I thought he was going to have a heart attack when he saw the pile lying on the floor.


    "For crying out loud, your richer than the Count of Monte Cristo!" Joey said, his eyes big like saucers.


    I returned everything back into my dimensional storage with just a thought.


    "As I said, I have plenty to sell If you have the money and the buyers."


    In reality I was hoping to be able to sell most of my treasures before the dungeon opened as I suspected the price could drop once there were more ascenders.


    We agreed on a price for a 4 carat Ruby, a 3 Carat emerald, 5 gold coins an, 4 spider beast cores. Joey surprised me again with how much money he had on hand. Much more than the first time I dealt with him.


    I now had much more money than I got for our first transaction, and I suspected that he was reselling with a very decent profit margin.


    As we were now entering a business relationship, I gave him my number and told him to ask for Xander if he was in a position to buy more.


    "Would you know if there is a metal shop nearby, where I could get some decent quality steel?"


    "Sure, 2 blocks down that way. Freddy''s metal shop. Tell him Joey Rossetti sent you and you''ll get a good deal."


    "Thanks, I said as I headed out of the store. I will be seeing you again. Good luck with your new venture!"


    A couple of blocks further I found Freddy''s shop. I wanted to make my own weapons but I lacked the raw materials and I didn''t know very much about metallurgy. My earth attribute allowed me to manipulate metal, especially when I heated it first, but I wasn''t sure if the quality would be comparable to metal which was worked with a forge and a Hammer.


    When I entered the shop, I found Freddy hammering a piece of heated metal on his anvil. and I only managed to get his attention with a bit of difficulty as he was wearing earplugs.


    "Hi, Freddy. My name is Xander, Joey Rossetti said that you could help me."


    "Any friend oh Joey''s is a friend of mine, how can I help you?"


    The man looked to be around 40 and was built like an ox and when he looked up, his face was friendly and sincere.


    "I am working on a project, and I need a hammer, but I lack the raw materials and I don''t know what type of metal would be best."


    "What kind of hammer are you looking to make?"


    "A metal mallet, a bit like the hammer Thor would use."


    "Haha, Thor''s hammer, that would be like a large steel workers hammer, I think that I have one of those lying around here somewhere, there not used much anymore, too heavy. Now everything is done by machines, but I still mostly work the old way. I love the feeling of a hammer, pounding metal.


    "Here, I think this would be what you need, but it a bit worn."


    "That''s not a problem, do you have any scraps of the same type of metal that I could get?"


    "Sure, there''s a bunch of scraps over there in the corner, take what you need."


    I took most of the metal as I was planning on creating a number of weapons over the next few days.


    "How much do I owe you for all this?"


    "As your Joey''s friend I''ll sell it to you at cost. That would be 200$ as most of that metal is stainless.


    "I handed 500$."


    "I don''t have change for 500$.


    "Keep the change, but I have a bit of a crazy question for you. Would you be able to create high quality swords, daggers, and hammers? I don''t know if you are aware of it, but the Dungeon will probably be opening in a few months and a Smith capable of forging weapons could have quite a business. And from what you just told me, it sounds like you would be perfect for the job."


    "If you are interested, give me a call, here is my number. You could set up a shop by the academy once they choose a location. It should be close to the tower. Joey will be setting up shop there as well.


    "Well, business has been slow, and I have the know how so I am definitely interested, thanks!"


    " If you need a loan to get setup, I may be able to help you out. If you want you can pay me back with a percentage of the profits, and I suspect that you may be needing a couple of employees, there should be a lot of work coming your way."


    "Well, I have my son who knows his way around metal, so I think he will be interested. He hasn''t stopped talking about the tower for days now."


    "I will contact the mayor''s office and have them get in touch with you. Good luck!"


    As soon as I left the shop, I called the mayor''s office and got Sophie on the line. I let her know about Joey and Freddy and gave her the coordinates. I also spoke with the mayor. I knew I was pushing my luck, but I realized that with all the money I was making, I could probably afford to pay for a large part of the real estate for the shops and the academy. I let her know that if she could find a way to legalize it, I was willing to invest in the land and the buildings. She seemed to like the idea as financing was often one of the biggest hurdles in politics.


    Now that I had most of the business out of the way, I found a quiet corner of a park, and I took out the mana healing gem I had received in the Dungeon. This was something that really interested me a lot, not only for healing, but also for using mana to transform and manipulate the functions of the body.


    I had no idea what would be possible, but I was sure that I could use this information to do things that went past simple healing.


    When I saw no one was watching, I placed the stone against my forehead and concentrated on every detail that flashed in front of me as it flooded my brain. Not only did I learn healing techniques using mana, but I also learned the composition of every organ, tissue, bone and micro structure of the body. I saw how everything in the body worked together to form a thinking functioning living being and how mana could be used to regenerate and transform these elements.


    I also learned the limitations. There was a natural mana barrier, which protected against mana entering the body uninvited. This prevented someone from reaching into a person¡¯s body with mana and stopping his heart for example.


    In the case of healing, the one being healed had to allow the healer''s mana to pass through and the mana needed to be compatible. For this reason, mana was primarily used for self-healing as there was a high risk of incompatibility.


    There was an exception to this in the case of pure mana. Someone who possessed pure mana could pass the barrier even without permission and globally compatible. This was similar to the mana from beast cores, which was generally compatible but needed to be accepted by the host.


    I spent the next few minutes in meditation, letting my mana expand outside of the channels and spread through every sell of my body. I learned to see my body through my mana almost as though I was seeing it with my eyes. I watched the cells dying, splitting, interacting. I watched the energy flowing through my muscles and the hormones reacting to signals they received. The complexity was mind staggering.


    This knowledge opened a whole new world to me and I wanted to test my new ability.


    I created a thin blade of mana and made a 10 cm incision on my arm. I then looked at the cut with my mana sense and used the healing mana to reform the skin, melding it together, encouraging the skin to close the wound and re-join the skin cells, molecule by molecule, until the wound was closed without any scarring visible.


    It was a minor test on a minor wound but it still felt incredible.


    I remembered Will saying that my aura was pure but I wondered if my mana was pure as well. I could manipulate all of the elements with ease, so I thought that there was a good chance that I could use my mana for healing others, and I assumed that was probably why he gave me the healing memory stone. I found that most things that Will did had a reason behind them no matter how crazy he often acted, there was almost always a logic to his actions.


    As it was already getting late in the day, I decided to head back home to the family.

 The mana core

    By the time I arrived home, everyone was already seated at the dinner table and as I entered, I immediately remarked that I was now the center of attention.


    My mother was the first to speak, "Matthew, get washed up and sit with us at the table. I think there are a few things we need to clear up."


    As soon as I heard her call me Matthew, I knew the direction that the discussion was going to take.


    I washed my hands and my face and sat between to Cara and Seb at the table.


    "You were all over the news today and we saw that creature you had to fight, and then Ellie and Cara told us that that was nothing compared another monster you had to fight. Some high-level boss from a higher level or something.


    "We have given you a lot of freedom, and we know that you have reasons for what you do, but we didn''t raise you all these years just to see you get killed for some tower. I know that you are too old for us to tell you what you can or can''t do, but I am begging you to stop now, before you get yourself killed."


    "I was able to save 4 people today, or 9 depending on how you look at it, so I think that I did the right thing. And I don''t believe that the armor-plated T-Rex I had to fight was the Dungeon''s fault. from what Cara tells me, that was most likely another tower champion named Antonius. I think he is the one I need to deal with and the dungeon should return to normal. Dangerous, but a more normal dangerous."


    My mother''s fork fell from her fingers and clanged as it hit her plate.


    "An armor-plated T-Rex? Are you serious? Have you lost your mind? Who in their right mind fights against an armor-plated T-Rex? Can''t you see where this is headed? One of the next fights you may not come back, you can''t put us through that! Haven''t we been through enough? Why do you have to solve all the problems?"


    At that point she put her head in her hands and started sobbing.


    "Mom, listen, I have made great progress the last couple of days. I have gotten much stronger, and I am building a team. Already 4 of the national guard are training to help me, and the mayor''s office is assisting us as well."


    "I admit, the T-Rex was a handful, but the real problem is Antonius, and I have a plan. I promise to be careful, and tomorrow I plan on spending all day working on weapons that will protect me even better."


    "I have purposely kept you all out of my plans, to keep you safe, so don''t go and get involved. If I need to worry about all of you, then I am sure to fail. I have set aside all day to work on making weapons that will greatly improve my chances for survival. Speaking of which, Dad, can I use the basement tomorrow? I have quite a bit of metal work to do."


    "Sure, as long as you clean up when you''re done, and promise not to blow anything up."


    "I will be careful." I replied.


    For the moment, calm returned to the table and we ate our dinner with no more discussions about the day¡¯s events.


    I looked over at Cara and I couldn''t help but notice that Cara was wearing one of her new outfits, and she looked absolutely amazing. She had reminded me a lot of some actress, but it was only now that I realized who she looked like and it was crazy how much she resembled Ana de Armas.


    She seemed to get along great with the family and I could tell that Ellie and she were quickly becoming close friends.


    I was sure that Seb would be attracted to her and I hoped that wouldn''t be a problem. The fact he left the seat next to her free, told me that he was leaving me the first chance with her, but we had always had fallen for the same girls most of our life so I had no doubt that he was interested in her.


    Thinking about Seb reminded me of a question I had been meaning to ask him. "Hey Seb, any word from the hospital? Have they called you back for testing?" I asked.


    "I went in for a scan and a blood test today. The scan was clean, but I don''t have the blood results yet."


    "I suspect that they probably took a bit extra to figure out what was in the potion. I don''t expect that they will be letting you off easy."


    "I don''t mind Seb replied. Honestly, I am just happy to be alive, they can do any tests they want."


    "Speaking of that, I learned healing today. I can heal without using a potion. Of course, it takes a bit longer than a potion, and I only tried it on myself so far, but it will be a major advantage."


    "Well, if you can do something about my sciatic nerve that would be wonderful." my father said "That thing has been aching for years."


    I didn''t want you to waste one of your potions on it, but if you are looking for a lab rat, feel free to try. The doctor''s say there is nothing more they can do."


    "Sure, I have been dying to try it out anyway."


    When we finished dinner, I asked my father to lay on his back and I placed my hands on his stomach. I let tendrils of mana seep through his skin and closed my eyes as I looked using my mana vision until I located his spinal column. I let my mana flow over the bones and the disks, flowing into the nerves. I could sense the electrical currents flowing through the nerve fibers.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.


    I could see that the cartilage between his disks was compressed so I sent healing mana to regenerate the cartilage and return it to its original form. I also could see that arthritis had deformed the bones of his spinal column. This I was able to reverse and transformed the vertebrae to a heathy bone structure. I felt the current was flowing much more smoothly through his nerves, but I could sense that the nerve was damaged where it had been compressed for so long.


    I encouraged the nerve to regenerate where it had been damaged and as finally, I strengthened the dorsal and abdominal muscles which supported his vertebrae.


    I removed my hands from him and asked him to see if there was any improvement.


    He stood up and moved a stretched in every direction and smiled. "It''s gone! There''s no pain at all, I feel better than I have in years.


    "When you are in pain for so long you forget what it feels like to not have pain anymore. Thank you, this is by the best gift you could have given me." He said, hugging me tightly.


    "I am happy that I could help. And thanks for being my guinea pig." I said joking.


    "If you don''t mind, I am going to go to the basement, I would like to setup the workshop in the to prepare for tomorrow. I have a lot to get done. "


    "Do you mind if I come along?" Seb asked as he followed me down the stairs to the basement.


    The basement wasn''t very large and was cluttered. There was a workbench, but it was covered in a bunch of half-finished projects and pieces of scrap wood and metal.


    We grabbed a couple of empty crates and filled them with the junk from the workbench.


    "I know that I already thanked you for what you did for me." Seb said, suddenly taking on a serious tone. "I would likely be dead now if it weren''t for you. I guess I just want you to know that I will never forget what you did.


    "And I also want to admit that I am a bit jealous of everything you can do now. I mean you''re damn amazing, and it''s obvious Cara is crazy about you, but I don''t want anything to ever come between us so I had to get that off my chest."


    "I know how you feel, I was super jealous of you most of my life but you know, life can change in a blink of an eye and when you were in the hospital, I regretted my jealousy. I felt that somehow my being jealous was the reason you ended up sick, I felt responsible."


    "I guess jealousy is human nature, a bit stupid but it is what it is. I just want to say that I am proud of you and won''t forget what you did, no matter how amazing your life is right now."


    Seb Hesitated as he seemed to be struggling with something else he wanted to say, so I may it easier for him.


    "Just spit it out Seb, you can ask me anything, what is it?"


    "You said that you don''t want the family involved in your plans, and I get that, but if there was a way that I could get powers too, that would be amazing. I mean, in a little while a lot of people will be getting powers and will be entering the tower so it wouldn''t be that strange if I got some too."


    "Seb, I would be happy if you got powers, I just don''t want to make you or any of the family a target. I will have enemies and if they figure out that you are my brother, you''ll be a target and the whole family will be at risk.


    "But, if you promise to keep it to yourself, I will teach you about mana, but you will have to work on developing it yourself. The closer you are to the tower, the easier it will be. If I get a mana core potion, I will give it to you and you will progress much faster, but you can''t let anyone see until more people start getting powers."


    "I get it, and don''t worry, it will stay in the family. I owe you so much already I don''t know how to thank you enough."


    I took out my mana gem and infused it with mana until it started glowing. "This is a memory-stone, it will teach you all you need to know about mana.


    I then touched it to Seb¡¯s forehead and watched his shocked expression as all the knowledge on mana manipulation flowed into his brain.


    While I watched him absorbing, the information, a thought occurred to me. I wondered if I could re-create a mana core in Seb, using mine as a template. A mana core should react similarly to any other healing process, at least in theory.


    I asked Seb to sit down, and I put one hand to my chest, and the other one to Seb''s.


    I enveloped my core with healing mana, studying every connection, every molecule of its makeup and I poured more healing mana into Seb''s chest, reproducing my core in his chest, I then focused on creating the channels and meridians. It was a long and strenuous exercise but I managed to create a duplicate of my mana network in Seb. I then filled his Mana core with mana.


    Now the rest was largely up to Seb. He needed to feel his core and activate his mana flow. I could assist him once the flow started, but he needed to make the first steps.


    I explained to him what he needed to and he also had the knowledge from the mana gem.


    For the first few minutes nothing happened, there was no mana circulation and his core sat there dormant. I then took out one of my spider cores and put it in his hand and asked him to try to absorb the mana from the beast core into the channel in his hand.


    After about a minute, I noticed that he was absorbing the mana. I encouraged the mana to flow through his channels into his core and got the mana turning and cycling through his core. Finally, the mana left his core through the other channels to create a full circuit at which point I let him continue cycling it.


    "For the moment you will need to concentrate on maintaining the cycle, but soon you should no longer even need to think about it, it should become second nature. You need to keep this flow going 24 hours a day, like breathing.


    I left Seb meditating while I finished cleaning up the workspace and the rest of the basement.


    When I had finished, I saw Seb hold out his hand and a moment later, a glowing white orb appeared above his palm.


    The look of satisfaction on his face was priceless.


    "That was pretty amazing Seb, nice job for your first day. Once they open the academy you should enroll, there is a lot more mana there and you can train for a dungeon run. But they must never know that you are my family and I want to be there when you go on your first ascent."


    I am going to bed now, but if you want, we can do some exercises tomorrow after I have finished my projects. Of course, you can join me if you want."


    "Sure, I will try not to get in your way" . he said before following me up the stairs."

 Metallurgy

    The next morning, I got up early and headed into the basement. I dumped most of the metal I had picked up from Freddy''s metal shop onto the floor under the workbench. I also put the bars of mitrium on the work bench.


    The mitrium was supposed to be useful for runes and enchanting but I didn''t know why and I didn''t know any of its properties. if it was tough, soft, brittle, flexible could it blend well with metals like steel and could it retain a charge like a battery or did it lose its charge immediately like it did with steel.


    All those questions were important if I were to use this metal to make weapons for the Dungeon.


    I heated one end of one of the bars and removed a slice of the metal which I flattened out to approximate a small dagger like shape, or more like a letter opener.


    Before applying any runes, I ran a series of tests on the metal. I tried bending it to see if it was soft or where was the breakpoint was, but even with mana infused in my arms and hands, I couldn''t bend nor break it.


    I then took a piece of steel from my scrap pile and tried merging the metals using my earth element. I coerced the metals together and they now formed one solid piece of metal, with one side mitrium and the other steel.


    I placed the newly fused piece of metal on the anvil and took my hammer and beat on each side of the metal.


    The mitrium side was undamaged but the steel side showed dents from where the hammer had struck it.


    I decided to charge the mitrium with mana to see how long it retained the charge. I added a simple light rune on the metal and after charging the rune with mana, it remained glowing much longer than it would have with steeI alone.


    I now understood what was so special about this metal and even though I still had quite a bit, I wanted to get more.


    It was about this time when Seb came down into the basement.


    "What? You started without me bro?"


    "I am just getting familiar with a new metal I received from my last dungeon run. I know that it is a good metal to use for runes and enchantments, but I had no other information about it so I had to run some tests. It''s really a pretty amazing metal. Harder than steel and holds a mana charge much longer and can be fused with steel, so I won''t waste too much making heavy weapons."


    "I am impressed, you really are becoming a pro at all of this magic and weapon making. I hope that you''ll teach me when I improve a bit."


    "One of the first things that you have to figure out is which elemental affinities you have; you need to figure out what elements you can manipulate.


    "I recommend you start with a ball of mana like you did yesterday and then try to convert it to water, fire air, earth and see if you can do any of the hybrid forms like lightning or ice or metal, lava. You should have received information on these forms with the mana gem."


    "Yeah, I know the drill but I have been a little afraid to try it. I guess I am afraid to find out that I don''t have any affinities."


    "Listen Seb, I understand how you feel, but it isn''t a competition. I know how it felt for me always comparing myself to you. Just be the best you can be for yourself, believe me when I say that comparing yourself with others will only ruin the joy of all the advantages magic can give you."


    "I know, it''s just you know, I have always been a competitor, I have always had to be the best or I had the feeling that I failed. It isn''t about you, it''s me."


    "I am able to use all of the attributes, I said "but most people can only handle a couple at most, so don''t feel bad if you only have one or two. But seeing as your mana core is an exact copy of mine, I am curious to see what your affinities will be. Who knows, you may be pleasantly surprised."


    "I am sorry Matt; I feel like I am being a greedy whiner. I will practice and become the best I can be without comparing; but in the meantime, why don''t you tell me what you are working on now?"


    "I created a Thor''s hammer yesterday for Mitch, one of the national guardsmen that fought with us in the Dungeon. The thing was pretty amazing so I thought I would make one for myself today, but hopefully I can improve on it and I also want to use some of the mitrium I received."


    "The first thing I need to do is fix up this old steel workers hammer, then I want to create an outer layer of mitrium add some gems which will act like mana batteries, and finally add some runes."


    "Wow, sounds pretty cool, I''ll just here and watch if you don''t mind."


    "No, that''s fine with me, and nothing prevents you from practicing on your elements as well."


    I grabbed the old metal smithy''s hammer and applied heat to the head until it was malleable enough to manipulate the metal with my earth attribute. I evened out the surface and removed any irregularities.


    I then heated one of the mitrium bars and created a one-centimeter layer of mitrium over the complete surface of the hammer head and the full length of the handle.


    The next step was to merge the metals together over the complete hammer leaving an outer layer of mitrium but the bulk of the hammer remained steel.


    The process took me about 45 minutes, but it was the most time-consuming part.


    I looked over at Seb and saw that he was playing with a ball of fire in the palm of his hand. With a smile on his face. As I watched he switched from fire, to wind, water and then ice.


    "Wow Seb, you are already more advanced than 90% of mana users. I think you will be able to do most things that I am able to do.


    Grad a piece of metal and see if you can bend it to your will, but you will need to heat it first, otherwise it is painfully slow to transform. If you can work metal, I can teach you runology and you can help me with enchanting the weapons.Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    He grabbed a piece of sheet metal from the pile and started heating it and I returned to my hammer.


    I liked the design I had created for Mitches hammer yesterday, but I was trying to think if there was a way to improve on it. Lightning and increased mass was a powerful effect, but I wondered if it was possible to add some sort of explosive effect as well.


    In my mind, I ran through the list of runes that were available but there was no rune for explosion. There was a rune for shock which could do the trick, but what I really wanted was an explosive effect like the mana bomb produced.


    A mana bomb was a compressed mix of mana and air and it was triggered by a spark. But how could I create this combination on impact, make it repeatable and without damaging the hammer.


    If I could generate a mana shield all around the hammer head or on each face of the hammer, and create a compressed mix of mana and air underneath the shield, the impact lightning effect could be used to trigger it and it should create the desired explosive effect. The problem would be getting the proportion of air to mana just right, and compressing it without breaking the shielding. And to do this without any intervention, it should recharge the structure purely using the runes and the auto re-charging gem batteries.


    I decided to test it on a piece of scrap metal.


    I created a rune for creating a shield over the metal, I then created a mana generating rune underneath the shield together with an air rune. I finally added an impact activated lightning rune as well. I added a decent sized gem to serve as the power source.


    As the shield needed to be stronger than the compressed mana and air, I created three connectors from the gem to the shield rune. I then created single connections between the gem and the air and mana runes and finally a double connection to the impact rune which also had a double connection to the lightning rune.


    I created a mana shield around the whole thing to not blow up the house, and created a barrier around myself as well and finally fed mana into the gem which activated all of the runes except the lightning rune.


    I looked over at Seb who seemed very interested in what I was doing. I noticed that he had created a half decent dagger from the sheet metal, so it looked like he could pretty much do everything that I could do.


    "What is that thing you created?"


    "It''s a test for an explosive effect for my new and improved Hammer. It should explode on impact but I am not sure if it will work. You might want to cover your ears."


    I had taken all the precautions that I could and grabbed a steel bar from the scrap pile and struck the mana shield with enough force to activate the impact rune and trigger the lightning effect.


    There was an explosion that cracked the shield I had setup to protect the basement, and I was propelled against the shelving on the opposite side of the room. Seb had fallen off his chair and was now sitting on the floor but he was otherwise undamaged.


    Fortunately, the house wasn''t damaged, but a few seconds later everyone was down in the basement, apparently expecting to find it destroyed and us splattered on the walls.


    "Holy cow," Seb said "that was awesome! You have to teach me how to make one of those!"


    "You first have to be able to do magic Seb", Ellie said looking down at her brother who was still sitting on the floor.


    "Don''t worry, I am a quick learner sis." Seb said while rotating 3 fireballs in the palm of his hand.


    "What the freak? When did you learn that?" Ellie asked.


    "Matt taught me last night and this morning. He still promised to teach me runes as well."


    "Matt, don''t think for a second that you can teach Seb without teaching me and Cara. Remember who spent the afternoon picking your clothes for you!"


    "I can teach you and Cara as well Ellie, don''t worry, but I have some weapons to finish today so I promise I will spend time with you and Cara tomorrow, or maybe this evening if I finish early.


    "Now, please everyone, go back upstairs because I really need to concentrate if you don''t want me blowing up the house."


    "Seb, since you can work metal, I will give you rune knowledge as well." with that I re-charged the rune memory stone and let Seb absorb the information.


    "Now, if you''re interested, you can help me create a few weapons today."


    "Sounds like fun," Seb replied eagerly, "and now that I can do magic, I should probably make a weapon for myself as well."


    "By the way, do you have any other memory stones?"


    "Yeah, I have a few others. I guess I could let you use them as well, all but one. One of them is too dangerous. I am saving that one as a last resort only option."


    I pulled out the box and recharged the combat stone, the magic stone and the ascenders stone and let him absorb them.


    "Wow, this is amazing! These things can get Addictive.


    "What''s that last one? Is that the "last resort" stone?"


    "Yeah, that is a demonology stone, and from what I gathered from the Dungeon, you don''t want to make any deals with demons, it rarely ends well. They have even lead to demon wars in the past, so forget you ever saw it.


    "The only reason I have it, is because there are some dark mages using demons to basically enslave people and suck out their souls to become more powerful. I met some of their henchmen in the tower in Carla''s village and it wasn''t a pleasant experience.


    "If we one day have to face them, knowledge of demonology may be the only solution. But enough about that, ready to work on the hammer?"


    We re-created the hammer I had created for Mitch the day before, but we added the runes for explosion on impact to all sides of the hammer head, and I increased the impact threshold to avoid the chance of an explosion from just dropping it by accident. This was truly a deadly weapon."


    My next project was to create a solution for Cara''s village if the black-mist creatures returned.


    My idea was to create self-powered boxes containing the same runes as those on my sword on the inside of the boxes. If the villagers could entrap the mist creatures in Mana barriers, they would just need to lock them in the boxes and they would be banished, cleansing the life force in the box.


    The boxes were easy to make, and in a little over an hour we had created 4 of them.


    I had other items to make but I asked Seb if there was any weapon that he was interested in.


    Without any hesitation, he said, he wanted an axe and with similar properties to the hammer I created. We had to adjust a few things as the axe had a different form and we added an auto sharpening and auto repair runes to the blade, but most of the rest remained the same.


    All in all, it seemed like a great choice for a weapon and Seb was dying to try it out.


    One of the last items on my list was creating medallions that would drain mana from anyone who wasn''t bonded to them, and transfer the mana back to the bonded owner. I also wanted to build in a return function to not lose the medallion as I would need gems to store the mana.


    I made 3 which were more or less the same, but I knew that I would need to make variants or the trick would quickly become known. I created these largely in preparation for my confrontation with Antonius and eventually in case I ran into the black mages.


    Finally, the last item was a chain, entirely made from mitrium. It was bonded and strengthened and was made to sap health from whatever it wrapped around, transferring the health back to the bonded owner. I was also able to add a lightning and a shock effect.


    After we had finished with the weapons, we went upstairs to spend some time with the family.

 Return to the 10th floor

    The next morning, at breakfast, I gave the "Protect the ones you love" bracelets, from chest on the first level, to my mother father and sister. I told them that I didn''t know how they worked but that they were somehow meant to protect them.


    That left me with 1 bracelet and I hesitated on giving the last bracelet to Cara or Seb. Seb now had a top-notch weapon, and had most of the same abilities as I had but with less actual experience.


    Cara could transform into a leopard, but her magic was limited and a leopard wouldn''t be much of a match against a mage or a higher-level boss, so I decided to give the last bracelet to Cara. I explained my reasoning to Seb, and he agreed it was the right choice I didn''t mention that Cara could transform into a leopard as no one in the family knew that yet. .


    I had promised to teach Ellie and Cara magic, so I spent much of the morning creating a core for Ellie along with forming all the channels and meridians. It took less time than it took when I did it for Seb because my technique and assurance was improving with practice.


    I gave her a spider-core to absorb and shortly thereafter Ellie was cycling her mana all on her own.


    We spent the next hour going over the exercises and attribute tests and just like Seb and myself, she mastered all of the attributes without much difficulty.


    I let her use all the same memory stones as well, even though I knew that she wouldn''t be able to fully use all of the knowledge contained in them yet.


    Ellie seemed to take to magic like a fish to water. Even though I was a big magic fan, I had used very little magic, largely relying on pure mana manipulation and runes. I think that I was secretly afraid of magic because there was less control and if you made a mistake, things could go very wrong. I was very curious to see how Ellie would evolve over the coming days and weeks, but I made sure that she was aware of the dangers.


    I was relatively sure at this point, that their multi-attribute abilities were due to their getting copies of my core. I hoped that this would be permanent but I wondered if their cores might revert to some native state over time. That wouldn''t be a problem per-se, but it would certainly be disappointing for them if that happened.


    With Cara it was a little different as she already had a core. I was tempted to reform her core to match mine, but I wasn''t sure of the effect it could have on her. I discussed it with her and we decided it would be best to ask Will once we were back in the Dungeon.


    I let Cara use the memory stones, and even though I didn''t replace her core, I increased her core''s capacity, opened her meridians and improved her channels.


    She was overjoyed when she found that her mana and earth attributes were greatly improved.


    When we finished with the modifications, we joined the others for lunch.


    I let Cara know that I was ready to return to her village to install the protection against the black mist creatures and I made sure she knew, she could return back here with me afterward.


    I was actually getting used to having her around and although I was trying to not get emotionally involved, I realized that I was becoming more and more attached to her.


    The idea that she might return to her village and decide to stay left me with an uncomfortable feeling.


    Before leaving for the tower, I got a call from Joey asking if I could stop by. Apparently, he had already sold everything I had given him and wanted me to buy some more off of me, so Cara and I made a quick stop at Joey''s on our way to the tower.


    We got off a couple of blocks early and put on our disguises before walking the shop.


    "Hi Joey, it looks like business has been good for you."


    "You don''t know the half of it. Those things from the tower are in really high demand.


    "I could take at least 20 gold coins, 20 beast-cores and a few more of those gems. I was given a line of credit by one of my buyers so I can buy much more now."


    I gave Joey the items he requested but as I was getting better at healing, I was also willing to part with one or two of my healing potions, which I knew he wanted. I asked him how much he could get me for a high or medium grade potion.


    His eyes lit up and he immediately and made a call. When the call ended, he told me that if I could wait 30 minutes, he could get me 2 million dollars cash for a high grade or one million for a middle grade potion. 3.2 million if I was willing to sell both.


    As I was going back to the tower and was planning on doing another level, I expected I would have more potions soon. I agreed to sell both of them, and 30 minutes later, a limousine arrived in front of the building, and 2 men in black suits gave Joey a large duffel bag. Joey discretely removed some of the contents from behind the counter, and handed the duffel bag to me and I handed the 2 potions to the men in the black suits.


    When they left the shop, Joey paid me for the other items he ordered and then Cara and I left the shop.


    When we arrived in the parking, we saw that the limousine was still there and a man in his mid-forties stepped out followed by his wife, his son and his daughter.


    He walked up to us and gave me a hug and said "I just wanted to thank you personally. Without you, my son and my daughter had no hope, and without them, my wife and I had no hope, and I think you know that hope is priceless, just like family is priceless."


    He was well spoken, but he still had a pronounced New York Italian accent. I recognized the truth and the sincerity of his words. He took Carla''s hand by her fingers and kissed it without actually touching his lips to her fingers. By all appearances he was a real gentleman.


    His wife came to me and gave me a big hug and I felt her tears on my cheek when her face touched mine. She then hugged Cara but she didn''t say a word. I suspected she was too choked up to speak.


    "We saw what you did in the hospital." the man said, "and I found it hard to believe that anyone would do what you did for free, so I assumed it was some trick or publicity stunt.


    "Then Joey told me that it was for real but that you didn''t want to sell because you needed them for yourself.


    "I know we paid you for the vials, but as I said, hope is priceless, if you ever need anything, and if I can help, just give me a call, anytime."


    He handed me his business card, all that was written on it was Gianni Pagnetti, and a telephone number.


    I noticed when he handed me his card that his thumb and index fingers were missing on his left hand. I took his card and added it in my storage but I held onto his hand.


    "Please Mr. Pagnetti" I said " give me your other hand.


    He put his right hand in my left hand and I let my healing mana flow through both of his hands as I made a mirrored copy of his right-hand thumb and index finger to his left hand, adding all the tendons and ligaments, nerves, bones and cartilage. I then regenerated the muscles that had long since atrophied and when I was satisfied that I hadn''t missed anything, I let go of his hands.The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.


    He held is hands side by side and put his new thumb and index through a full range of movements.


    When I looked at his face there were tears of joy streaming down his cheeks.


    "You know," he said, sounding nostalgic as he stared at his hands. "I used to play the piano, and I was actually pretty good. I was never going to make a career of it mind you, but I loved playing the piano. We all have a thing you know, something we love doing, and the piano was my thing.


    "When I lost my fingers, I felt like I had lost more than a couple of fingers, it was as though I had lost part of my soul. I never touched the piano again. since then."


    He paused, flexing his fingers once again. "I think that I will be getting a piano again soon, and I would love for you two to come over some time and I will play something special just for you."


    "I am in your debt," he said as he looked me in my eyes "whatever you need, just let me know."


    "Thank you" I said, "it was a pleasure meeting you and your family and I am glad that I could help."


    "There is only one thing that I am looking for at the moment, but I expect I can find it on my own, so don''t feel obligated.


    "I am looking to buy a large plot of land close to the tower. If you have any connections or information on large plots available in the area I am interested."


    "I suspect that you don''t know who I am Mr. Xander"


    "Just Xander is fine, it''s a pseudonym. I need my anonymity.


    "I understand entirely, when you are rich or famous, anonymity is priceless."


    "Xander. you know me as Gianni Pagnetti, but I am better known as the King of Queens, and much of the area around the tower belongs to me. I would be more than happy to sell or rent you whatever land that you need."


    "I don''t have a business card, but Joey has my number. if you need to reach me feel free to call. Also, it would be our pleasure to visit you and I hope to be doing business with you soon."


    With that Cara and I hailed a cab to the tower and went to the location where Will had created a portal to the level of the tower where Cara''s village was located. We arrived at the portal in the jungle not far from the village.


    Before entering the village, I wanted to clear up a number of questions that I had for Will and I didn''t mind if Cara listened in.


    "Good afternoon Will, I was wondering if you could take a few minutes to answer some questions for me?"


    "Hello Matt, and no, I don''t mind, I will answer what I can."


    "Will, when we talk is there anyone else listening in?"


    "No only anyone in the immediate area."


    "Does Antonius know your true name?"


    "Interesting question, and unexpected, it seems that you have been busy. But yes, he knows my name."


    "Is he using you to get to me? Is he the reason we got this floor''s boss on the first level?"


    "Very clever deduction, but I suppose Cara helped you figure that out. Yes, he was responsible for that and you will likely be happy to learn that he was really not happy to learn that you disposed of that monster in record time and that no one was injured."


    "I guess that is a small consolation." I said.


    "Does he have pure mana like mine? Is his mana compatible with all other types of mana?"


    "No, he masters most elements, but his Mana is not pure like yours."


    "I used my healing knowledge and mana to create cores for my brother and sister and they are compatible with all elements like I am. Will this be permanent or will their cores revert over time."


    "I must say Matt, you have exceeded my expectations on just about all fronts. To think that you have already managed to create functioning cores is very impressive.


    "I believe that if they can manipulate all elements, there''s a good chance that it will remain that way, but they should continue using all elements. Also, just because they can manipulate all elements, does not mean their mana is pure. They should be careful before attempting any healing."


    "Cara already has a core, so I just improved what was there, but I was wondering if it would be safe for me to replace her core with a copy of mine so she could use all the elements as well."


    "I don''t think anyone has tried that before, but I don''t see why it wouldn''t work. If you want I could do it for you now, it would only take me a moment."


    I looked at Cara and she nodded, and a moment later Will let us know he had finished.


    I used my mana sense and saw that Cara''s core had changed and it now looked identical to mine.


    "Will, would you mind if I dealt with Antonius, permanently? I suspect as long as he''s around, my life and others will be in danger."


    "He isn''t to be trifled with, but if you can remove him, I will be in your debt, and having a dungeon in your debt is no small thing."


    "One last question, those bracelets you left for me "Protect the ones you love", what do they actually do?"


    "Oh, I think you will really like those. If someone wearing them is in trouble, you will be able to take over for that person while retaining all your abilities and have access to your dimensional storage.


    " Of course, it would be best if you weren''t in the middle of a life and death battle when that happens, but the risk of that is negligible. "


    "I think that covers all my questions, but just so you know, if you have any more mitrium, high level healing potions and gems, they could really help me to achieve our common goals. But I am not complaining, everything you have given me has been very useful, almost as though you knew what I needed before I needed it."


    "I do my best. But when it comes to Antonius, my hands are tied to a large degree. I think he is afraid of you which makes him dangerous."


    "I will try to be careful, but if he is in contact with you, I would appreciate some sign so I can leave the Dungeon before he gets me killed."


    "I will create an escape portal for you on each floor. If Antonius arrives, I will I will send a crow to you, follow it to the portal. That is the best I can do."


    Cara and I returned to the village and everyone was overjoyed to see us even though it had only been a few days since we left the village.


    For me it felt like ages, as so much had happened since we left but we had barely been away for a week.


    Everyone in the village wanted to hear about everything that happened. I was surprised to find that Cara had taken all the clothing with that she had bought with my sister. She tried on all the combinations for her mother and all the girls from the village. It looked like a miniature fashion show. Apparently, her clothing made her the envy of every girl in the village and quite a few men seemed more than casually interested.


    She also had taken loads of photos and videos on her smartphone and was showing all her friends every photo and video, she had taken.


    While she was busy with her friends, I spoke with Kitikat and a few other people who would be responsible for protecting the village.


    I showed them the boxes that I had created for them, and showed they could use them to banish the black mist demons. They were very happy with the solution and the ease of use.


    Their main concern, was that they weren''t sure if they would be able to capture the mist creatures with their mana barriers.


    I asked them to gather their strongest mana users and I asked them if they would allow me to strengthen their mana channels, to which they all agreed without hesitation.


    One by one, I improved their channels, cores and meridians. It didn''t take more than 30 minutes, but the difference was remarkable. Afterward everyone could easily create a mana trap and hold it for a long time.


    We spent the rest of the day in the village and we were treated like celebrities, which made me a little uncomfortable.


    I spent much of my time with Carla''s younger siblings as it was nice to have a break from the serious issues I had been dealing with lately.


    Over dinner we got to re-tell everyone the stories and answered hundreds of questions when everyone finally went to bed, I was happy to find peace and quiet and have the chance think about what I needed to do next.


    I decided I wanted to visit Evola before returning, partly because I wanted to learn more about Antonius, but also it would also be an opportunity to travel to another planet and maybe even do another dungeon while I was there.


    Before going to sleep, I thought it best to inform Will in case he needed to create a new portal, but it turned out that we could use the existing portal to go to Evola as well.

 Greetings from Evola

    When we stepped through the portal to Evola, it was early in evening, and although we couldn''t see much of the area from the portal landing zone, my first impression was that of a dreary, dark, depressing, neighborhood.


    Before we had the chance to leave portal platform, we were met by a group of 3 Evolans who placed themselves square in our path, in such a way that it was impossible for us to pass. They had the typical "city-thugs" look to them but they were slightly more intimidating due to their size.


    The Evolans were known to be a large race, and it was clear that these were Evolans as they were at least a head taller and broader of shoulder than the average human. Aside from their physical size, their eyes were a bit further apart and their foreheads were slightly larger and slanted back. Otherwise, they were very human like.


    The way they held themselves and the look on their faces, made it clear that this was not the local tourist greeting committee. I was pretty sure If it came to a fight, we would win, but I preferred by far finding a peaceful solution if possible.


    "Excuse me," I said "we have just come to visit your city after a dungeon run and we would like to find some place to get a meal and lodging. Would you be able to suggest some place for us?"


    "There are plenty of good places to get a meal and a bed in Evola", the one who seemed to be the leader said, "but no one enters Evola without paying the entrance fee."


    "I am sorry, I was told that there was never a portal fee when coming from a dungeon portal. So, am I correct in assuming that this a shakedown?"


    "Well, I guess you aren''t as stupid as you look." he said "I see that you are wearing a dimension storage ring, and I think that I like it. You give me the ring and we may just let you pass, but the girl comes with us."


    The leader seemed quite confident in his advantage, but then again, so did I. I could almost forgive them for trying to rob us, but threatening to take Cara was a big mistake and I already felt my blood beginning to boil.


    "Don''t you at least try to figure who you''re dealing with before you rob them?" I asked. "Shaking down everyone who enters through this portal seems pretty dangerous to me, you never know who you are dealing with."


    "I can tell a pigeon when I see one, don''t try to trick your way out of this, or I promise you that it won''t end very well for either of you."


    "How about I give you each a mitrium medallion with a large Ruby. That should be more than enough to cover the entrance fee."


    I retrieved 3 of the medallions I had created and tossed one to each of them. Their greed showed clearly in their eyes as they examined the gem stones, but were totally unaware that their mana was being drained from them each second, they held the medallion.


    "Nice medallion," the leader replied "but I don''t think that you heard us, we''ll be taking your dimension ring and the girl." He placed his hand threateningly on the handle of a dagger which was inserted in his belt.


    "Well, if it''s going to be like that, then I guess I will have to take back my medallions." I reached out and the medallions flew back into my hands, to the surprise of the Evolans. As soon as the medallions came into contact with my skin, the bonding runes activated, and I was flooded with the energy the rubies had absorbed from them. I felt power throbbing through every pore of my skin and it produced a high even stronger than when I absorbed mana from a beast core.


    "If you don''t mind a bit of advice," I said, struggling to contain the power and the rage which were like a herd of wild horses, stampeding through my veins. "In the future I would first try to find out more about who you are dealing with before trying to rob them."


    "You asked for it" he said, but before he could make a move, I reached out with my mana as a giant hand grabbing all three of them at once in its grip, and they were pressed together, unable to move. I lifted all three of them off the ground using the pure fury of my will, I closed my mana fist harder and they were squeezed together, their lungs were compressed and they were having a hard time breathing. Their eyes were bloodshot and pleading, but my rage felt no mercy and it was far from being satiated.


    They wanted my Cara, whom I had sworn to protect when I took her from her village, the one I loved, and although I didn''t dare to admit it, I knew how I felt.


    They dared to threaten her, I saw red, as coals, which had been simmering deep in my soul were fanned to life, forming a raging fire that was hungry to devour the object of my anger. I released the full force of my killing intent, but not as a suffocating pressure, as I had done in the past. This time I released it as a pure form of terror, worse than their worst nightmares and I let it sink into every fiber of their being. Liquid was streamed from their legs to the ground, forming a puddle of urine where they had been standing just a moment before.


    Through the haze of my fury, I vaguely felt something pulling at me and I looked over to see Cara, crying. Why would she be crying? I thought to myself. How dare someone make her cry! I heard her saying something to me, but the words didn''t make sense and I struggled to understand them and little by little my head cleared enough to hear her "Stop, Xander, please stop" she said "you''re killing them."


    The fog in my mind slowly cleared and I saw the three thugs, still suspended in front of me, barely alive. They looked like they had been through hell, and I realized that they had; a hell of my creation. I released my hold on them and restrained my aura.


    Their faces were gaunt, their eyes bloodshot and their fear was clearly visible. They were terrified of me, and rightfully so.


    I waited until the thugs had recovered enough to speak, because even though I had put them through hell, I wasn''t finished with them.


    "In case you were wondering, I have taken your mana, it will come back, but it will take a while. You wanted our dimension storage, so your storages are now mine, hand them over."Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.


    They handed over their dimension storage rings without hesitation.


    "Normally, I am not violent," I said. "but I really didn''t like how you treated my girlfriend here, but I am leaving the choice to her if you leave here as men or as eunuchs, or whether this will be your final resting place."


    "Cara, what do you think they deserve?"


    "Don''t be too lenient on them, think of what they were planning on doing to you and what they have probably done to countless other women." I told her telepathically.


    Cara crossed her arms and put a finger to her chin and looked like she was deciding their fate. "You gave us your storages, which is only fair as you were planning on taking ours, but the fact that you wanted to take me as well, for that I think that you all deserve death. But," she passed before continuing her thought. "as this is a new world for us, it wouldn''t do to kill 3 locals publicly on arriving, so I think that we should find some other punishment. Maybe one that can to give you a chance to redeem yourselves. Something that we can take, but give back if you show that you are sorry for what you did."


    "Xander," she said, having decided on a punishment. "I would like you to take something from them that they can live without, yet they will surely miss. Enough to guarantee their loyalty to us, because if they prove themselves loyal, you will give it back."


    The Evolans expressions passed from terrified, to mortified.


    "We may be here for a while, " Cara continued, looking each one in the eye, "and while we are here, you will serve us. If we see that you have changed your ways before we leave, we may give you back what we took. If you betray us, or treat anyone else like you treated us, do not expect any mercy, your life will end on the spot."


    I reached into their bodies with my mana and transformed them, taking something that I knew they would miss, but could live without.


    For them, the transformation was barely discernible, but the emotional effect would be enormous when they discovered the change.


    It was not a very pleasant task for me, but I agreed with Cara that they deserved it and it was a good way to assure their loyalty during our stay.


    The three of them seemed completely cowed.


    "There a few things that I will need to know." I said. "What are your names? Are you part of a gang? Who is your gang leader?"


    "My name is Hennisen, or Henni, the person here on my left is called Linx and the one on my right is Saduk. I am one of 2 who are second in command under our leader, Jensu" he replied "The other second is called named Arvel. We are quite well respected in this town."


    "Respected or feared?" I asked "You do know the difference, I hope. If you help the poor, or help the community, or set a good example as model citizens, then respected may be the right term, but that is not the impression you''ve given me."


    "Feared, we are feared, not respected"


    "How many are you in all?"


    "There are 12 of us."


    "How tough is your leader?"


    "He is pretty tough, he used to be an ascender. He once completed the fifth level of Eternua, if you are familiar with it. That should give you an idea."


    "Are there any other dungeons in the area? And how do they compare to Eternua?" I asked.


    There are a couple of Dungeon''s in this town, but they are newer and only have 3 or 4 levels. The rewards are pretty decent though. Each level is much more difficult than the previous one but a group of ascenders should be able to complete all the levels. "


    "As long as we are here, you are working for us. I don''t believe that people can change their nature, but I am giving you the benefit of the doubt. I want you all to reflect on your life and ask yourselves if you would like to be treated the way you treat others.


    "If you run into your leader, tell him that I want to meet with him. If he''s reasonable there''s no reason for this to get ugly. Remember you need us if you ever want us to restore your manhood, no potions will undo what I have done.


    "Now, maybe you can start by recommending a nice place to eat and a nice lodging, and preferably not in this neighborhood."


    They directed us to what seemed to be a nice restaurant in a much nicer area just a few blocks away from the portal and showed us a hotel that was just around the corner from the restaurant.


    I let them go but asked to see them in front of the hotel in the morning.


    While waiting for the meal, Cara and I checked out the contents of their storage and found quite a bit of gold a few medium and high-grade healing potions. I emptied all the contents into my storage and decided I would give their dimensional storages to Ellie and Seb when we got back.


    There were a few of weapons that seemed to be of decent quality. A couple of daggers and throwing knives, a mace and a sword. Once I enchanted them, they could be worth a decent amount.


    "Did you mean it when you called me your girlfriend?" Cara asked hesitantly, totally changing the context of my thoughts and throwing me off balance.


    "I will be honest with you Cara, but please hear me out. I have liked you since the first moment I laid eyes on you, so yes, I would love to have you as my girlfriend. But I don''t feel worthy of you. Everything I am, everything I can do, it isn''t me, it was given to me by Will and I would like you to like me for me; for who I am, without being the Dungeon champion, and without all the magic.


    "Just before I met you, I had lost my job, I was about to be evicted from my apartment, I had to quit university and I was completely broke. I would like to think that if you found me like that, that you would still like me and stand by me. I had a girlfriend, but when things got tough, she left me, and I was crushed, destroyed, and I am terrified of that happening again, especially now, because my feelings for you are stronger than my feelings for her ever were, and if I lose you I don''t know if I could survive that."


    "Matt," she said, putting her hand on mine. "I didn''t know you then, so I can''t say what would have happened then, but I know you now, and what I have seen is someone who is kind, considerate, generous, caring, brave, creative and virtuous and who looks great in a suit of armor." she added smiling mischievously.


    "Anybody would look great in that armor," I replied, smiling.


    "You say that everything was given to you by Will, but I see a diamond that Will was fortunate to find and allowed you to shine. You are unlike anyone I have ever met, so stop doubting my feelings, there''s nothing on this earth that would change how I feel for you now. I have seen the real you and that is the person I have fallen in love with."


    "So, you love me?" I asked her, emotions that I didn''t want to admit I had, suddenly welling up inside of me, breaking the wall of an emotional dam I had been holding onto for such a long time.


    She took my hand, and tears started streaming uncontrollably down my cheeks.


    The romantic scene was attracting some attention from others in the restaurant, as I suspected that the Evolans were emotionally repressed, but I didn''t care.


    Cara was not Emilia, and I felt that I didn''t need to maintain a wall around my heart with her.


    After a nice long dinner, we got a comfortable room at the hotel and spent the evening getting to know each other in a way that was very different from how we knew each other previously, you could almost say it was Biblical.

 Mr. Jensu

    After waking a bit later than usual, we washed up and dressed and went out to meet our new recruits and enjoy our breakfast on the restaurant terrace.


    In front of the hotel, we were surprised to find, not 3, but 12 persons waiting for us, the full crew was there, so it looked like we managed to get their attention.


    When we arrived, Henni, Saduk and Linx left the group of 12 and stood with me and Cara, which was a clear gesture of loyalty, that I appreciated. It was equally obvious that their former boss would not forgive them for this, which made it even more impressive.


    At least it evened out the odds a bit, with 9 in Jensu''s group and 5 in ours.


    "Good morning," I said "We were just about to take breakfast, maybe you would like to join us?"


    To our surprise, they accepted, but I kept a mana barrier active around myself and Cara as a precaution.


    There was an Evolan who was a larger and broader than most of the others in the group but due to his features, could have almost passed for a large human.


    By the way he was dressed and the way he carried himself, it was obvious that he was the boss, Jensu.


    Once our breakfast was served, we started eating and I thought that it would be best for me to introduce ourselves.


    "My name is Xander," I said "and this is my partner and girlfriend, Cara. I assume that you must be Jensu, this group''s leader, is that correct?"


    "That is correct," he replied, "and I hear that you met some of my men last night, and not only stole all their belongings, which in fact, belonged to me, but you also managed to recruit them, even though they weren''t actually free to be recruited."


    "If you don''t mind, could you pass the toast?" I said, refusing to be intimidated.


    I buttered my toast before continuing, and I could see Jensu was starting to get irritated by my attitude.


    "I have learned in life, as I am sure that you have as well, that there are often two sides to every story; and it is usually best to hear both sides before making any judgments. Don''t you agree Mr. Jensu?"


    "I agree, at least in part," Jensu said "but please, continue; I would love to hear your version of what happened."


    "Well," I continued in a relaxed tone, taking a bite of my toast before continuing. "last night my girlfriend and I had some business in the Eternua dungeon, and when we finished, we decided to take the portal to Evola. I had heard about it in the past and thought that it would be nice to get away for a few days and visit a new world. I also had some non-urgent business here."


    "So, we arrived at the portal, and to our surprise, on arriving in Evola, we were confronted by 3 of your men, who attempted to rob us of all our belongings, and they also made it clear that they wanted to take my girlfriend as well, although I still have no idea what they were actually planning on doing with her, maybe you can explain that part to us later. But I digress.


    "Now, being as they wanted to take all of our possessions, it seemed only fair to me that they forfeit all their belongings to us, when their plan failed. Also, from what I understood from them, is that they were working for you at the time.


    "Now you say that their possessions were actually yours, but you sent them to take ours, so I believe that our actions were very fair, given the circumstances. You tried to steal from us, you lost and we took your things from you. I have no doubt but that you would do the same if the roles were inversed.


    "Then, of course, there is the issue of them wanting to take my girlfriend, for God knows what reason. For that, by my rulebook, and for that matter, by just about anyone''s rulebook, they deserved to die. Fortunately for them, Cara decided to be lenient and decided to let them work for us instead, to pay off their debt so to speak.


    "My question for you, Mr. Jensu, is, were they working for you last night? The fact that you came here today leads me to believe that they were, but I would like to hear you confirm it."


    "Your story and reasoning have merit Mr. Xander, and maybe in some places they would hold some weight. I don''t know where you are from, but in Evola we need to be creative to survive, and creative does not always equate with doing things legally or being fair. Here strength decides right and wrong and in Evola, at least in this region, I have the strength."


    "Don''t you think that there are moral limits that shouldn''t be crossed?" I asked "Most societies need certain moral limits to survive, and I think we can agree that your men went well over those limits last night.


    "That they wanted to steal from me, I can live with, but that they wanted to take Cara, that I could not allow, so they work for us now, at least until we decide to release them. The question is, are you going to have a problem with this arrangement?"


    "From what they tell me, you are not someone to be taken lightly," Jensu said biting off the end of a sausage. "But I am not to be taken lightly either." He said once he had finished chewing and wiped his mouth with his napkin. "As I said, strength is everything here on Evola. There is no right or wrong, there are no any moral limits, as you put it.


    "I was considering forgetting this whole incident if you returned what you took from my men, seeing as you aren''t from around here. But everyone has now seen the way that you have disrespected me, and I have a reputation to uphold in this town, so I have no choice but to make an example of you."If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    "If you really insist on taking that path," I said casually "you are more than willing to try, but there will be plenty of time for that after breakfast, so I suggest we let everyone finish up before you make an example of me. I recently came into some money, so breakfast is on me, you should really take advantage of the opportunity."


    He was obviously not used to being spoken to, the way I was speaking to him, and his face became red from his blood pressure rising. I also could already feel his killing intent focusing on me and it was growing stronger by the second.


    It was immediately obvious that his level was no match for mine, but I decided to allow him to believe that I was being crushed under the pressure of his aura for a few moments before pleading for him to stop.


    "I''m sorry, I''ll give back what I took from your men," I said, "just stop, please, no more."


    I must have done a pretty convincing job of acting as Cara looked concerned, and I feared she was ready to take them all on, and she actually may have, if I hadn''t sent her a telepathic message letting her know that I was just pretending.


    As I expected, once he thought he had subdued me, he relaxed his aura with a smug look of victory on his face.


    I reached out carefully with my mana and found that there was no barrier protecting him, obviously confident of his superior strength. Very subtly, I connected with his mana core and siphoned almost all of it into my core before reducing the capacity if his core to a fraction of what it was originally. I then began with the second part of my plan.


    <<<<<o>>>>>


    Cara


    I couldn''t believe what I was seeing, I didn''t believe anyone could be a match for Xander in pure power, yet as I watched I saw him crumbling under the pressure of Jensu''s aura. I felt an anger boiling inside me and my feline killer instincts were on the verge of taking over, when Xander sent me a telepathic message letting me know that he was only pretending.


    I knew that the situation was explosive, as a fight could break out at any moment; but I relaxed a bit knowing that Xander was fine and apparently had a plan.


    As Xander lifted his head, I saw a familiar look on his face under his facade of being in a weakened state, it was the look of concentration he had when he was manipulating healing mana and I was curious to see what he had in plan.


    I looked over at Jensu and I was just dying to wipe that smug look from his face, when I noticed that his chin was growing. He didn''t seem to notice anything, and most people there, were concentrated on Xander who was pretending to slowly recuperate from Jensu''s aura attack, but Jensu''s chin was changing and there was a tail-like appendage growing under his chin.


    I discretely took out my smartphone and started taking a video because I was sure that Ellie would love to see this when we got back.


    Xander''s masterpiece was quickly completed and it looked like a tail with a bit of a curl like a pig¡¯s tail.


    I tried to retain myself, as somehow no one had noticed it yet, but the irony of this smug overconfident crime boss, sitting there thinking he was going to make an example of Xander, while he hadn¡¯t noticed that the joke was on him. It was just too much for me, and I burst out laughing, and it got to the point where I was gasping for air, barely able to breathe. I had difficulty keeping the video steady as my whole body was convulsing laughter. I think that I had never laughed so hard in my whole life.


    When everyone turned their attention to me, I was unable to speak, but I managed to point at Jensu''s chin, at which point everyone looked at him. Jensu still had no idea why everyone was looking at him. He looked to the left and to the right at his men, trying to understand what was so funny, but with each movement of his head, the addition was flopping around, and in no time, everyone at the restaurant was laughing so hard they were crying.


    <<<<<o>>>>>


    Xander


    When he finally figured out what had been done to him, Jensu was livid.


    "No one makes fun of Jensu and lives." he said, standing up from his seat.


    When they heard his name and recognized him, the people seated on the restaurant terrace starting heading for the exit or hiding under the tables, and even people on the street ran for cover.


    He now stood to his full height and his aura flared, but I raised my hand and made a pinching motion, like I was extinguishing a candle, and smothered his aura with my own, leaving him confused and disoriented.


    As I had drained his mana, and reduced the size of his core, he could no longer even create a mana barrier, and I easily sent tendrils of mana through his chest and wrapped it around his heart, compressing it just enough for fear to show on his face.


    It was only then that he suddenly realized that he had no mana, and his face turned white as a sheet.


    "As I said, I suggest we finish our breakfast first, and later you can hand over your dimension storages and we can discuss the terms of your servitude. As you said, it is the strong who make the rules. Isn''t that right?


    "As for you, Mr. Jensu, you are now virtually powerless, and for the humiliation and pain you visited on others, you have now been humiliated, but know that it is death that you deserve.


    I asked Cara for her smartphone and showed Jensu the video. As he watched I saw all hope and any remnant of self-respect disappear from his face. His shoulders slumped and he was the image of someone who no longer had any desire to live.


    I felt that he had probably had enough humiliation for one day, but I wanted him to realize fully the pain that his actions caused in his victims. I warned Cara telepathically in advance, of what I was going to do, knowing that she wouldn''t approve of it, and. what I did brought me no pleasure but I felt it was necessary nonetheless.


    "Mr. Jensu, I forgot to ask, do you have a wife or any children?"


    When he hesitated to answer I gave his heart a brief squeeze.


    "Yes, I have a wife and 2 children he said."


    "As of now, your wife and children are mine. Henni, Linx, Saduk, after we finish today, I want you to pick up his family and do to them whatever it is you do to the women you kidnap."


    He pleaded with me, begging for forgiveness, but I ignored his pleas, especially as I wasn''t actually planning on taking his wife and kids anyway.


    The rest of breakfast proceeded in silence, with many of the clients who had left, returning to their tables, but nervously keeping an eye on our table.


    I figured that it wouldn''t be long before word got out that there was a new boss in town on Evola and I wanted any new criminal elements to be afraid.

 A Forced Alliance

    After breakfast, I asked everyone to follow me to a secluded area where no one would be watching.


    When I had decided to travel to Evola to try and learn as much as I could about Antonius, I had no idea that I would end up having my own crew. That wasn''t at all in my plans. And now, less than 24 hours after arriving on this new world, Cara and I had become the leaders of a band of some of the most notorious criminals in the area.


    But here I was, standing in front of a group of thugs and it was time for me to take command. My idea for now was to reform them, something that I wasn''t even sure was possible.


    "As of now," I paused for dramatic effect and looked each of them in the eyes, "all of you, are working for me and Cara. Is that understood?"


    Most of them nodded in agreement, except for Arvel who apparently had questions he wanted answered first.


    "If we are going to be working for you, what will we be doing? How will we earn a living?"


    "I come from a world" I explained "where our first dungeon has recently appeared, and there should be many more in the near future.


    "We will be needing need artisans, trainers, guides, tradesman, merchants and guardians, because no one knows anything about dungeons or magic on my world. There will be plenty of work and especially for ascenders or persons with magical ability. "For some of you, it may not even be necessary to travel to my world, as some things can be done through the portal.


    "Also here, I would like it to become a place where people of my world can travel to in safety and buy from your shops, eat in your restaurants and visit your dungeons as well.


    "So I want to make one thing clear, there will be no more criminal activity, from any of you. We will be working to make this place a safe place to visit and to live, and at the same time get lots of rewards from dungeon runs."


    "But only a few of us are ascenders, and even less have any knowledge of any trades." Arvel countered, "How will they make a living?"


    "That will depend largely on each one of you." I said. "If you want to learn a trade, I will try to help you with my network, but if someone wants to become an ascender, I can most definitely help you to become successful ascenders. If you have no interest in working with us, I will let you leave, but not without certain guarantees, which you might find disagreeable."


    Arvel seemed satisfied with the answers and agreed to join our group.


    "Up until now, you have all been basically working as criminals. Criminals are not exactly known for being honest. So, it is normal that I can''t trust any of you. You understand that, don''t you?"


    They all agreed.


    "I need to be able to trust you, but for me to be able to trust you, I only see a few options. Of all the options, the one which is by far the easiest and also the most reliable is a blood pact ritual."


    At the mention of a blood pact, many looked very uncomfortable.


    "I don''t want you to do this against your will, but the other options won''t be much better, just ask Henni, Saduk or Linx."


    They looked to their 3 colleagues, who confirmed what I said, without giving any further details.


    "If you agree to the blood pact, hold out your right hand."


    Some hesitated, but in the end they all held out their hands.


    I created a bowl made of mana and took one of their own daggers from my storage, and cut each of their palms letting their blood gather in the bowl.


    I then had them each vow loyalty to myself and Cara; not to do anything that would go against us, our objectives or our wishes, either directly or indirectly, and to forfeit their lives if they broke the vow.


    They all pronounced the vow and I performed a magical binding with my blood and Cara''s and the ceremony was completed.


    "Keep your hands out" I instructed


    I quickly used my healing mana to close the wounds on their hands. To them it looked as though the cuts disappeared before their eyes and they were amazed to be healed so quickly without the use of a potion.


    "If it''s any consolation," I said "I think that you will find that working for me, will be much better than working for your previous boss. You may not be as feared as you were before, but I intend to make you respected. I want you to become the protectors of your town, you will be viewed as heroes. This way you can make amends, at least in part, to those you have hurt in the past.


    "I expect, once it becomes known that your criminal activity in the area has stopped, other crime bosses will try to move in and take over. This must not be allowed to happen. I expect you to shut them down before they have time to get installed. Who knows, we may even end up recruiting some of their members.


    "If someone moves in, who is too powerful for you to deal with, I will help you. I will not be physically here all the time, in fact, I will be absent more often than I am here; but I am planning on creating a communication device using runes.


    Also, I imagine that you have "under the table" arrangements with the local law enforcement, but that will have to change as well. I will speak with your previous leader about this in detail later, and if necessary, I will have to pay the local police a visit."


    I then turned my attention to their previous boss. I wanted him to serve as an example for everyone from his old crew.


    "How does it feel having your mana cut off and being humiliated in front of everyone? I asked him in front of everyone."


    "It''s worse than death." he replied, all fight had gone out of him and he looked totally dejected.


    "Do you think that I crossed a moral boundary with you, or do you still think that the powerful can do whatever they want, defining right and wrong at their whim?


    "I get your point; I went too far." he conceded.


    "You might get my point, but do you deeply regret your actions? Would you take them all back if you could? I have the feeling, that if I removed the blood pact, and gave you your mana back, you would return to doing the same things as before, probably within the week. Am I wrong?"This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.


    "No, you are right, it is the only way that I know, and people don''t change easily."


    "How many people have been humiliated, tortured, robbed or killed, at your orders? What did you feel when you gave those orders?"


    "Too many, and I have lost count." he replied. "And when I did it, I felt powerful, I felt untouchable, I felt respected, feared. Other times, I felt nothing. I don''t exactly like who I was, and I am not proud of what I did, but it will be hard to change."


    "Thank you for your honesty, and I agree, and this is the reason that I am going to leave you cut off from your mana until I see that you have changed, but I get no pleasure humiliating you with that floppy appendage hanging from your chin, so I am removing it. A moment later it disappeared.


    "Also, I will call you by your real name from now on because I don''t enjoy making fun of people. I think it was necessary for you to experience just a small part of the pain that you have been inflicting on others. It is easy to confuse fear with respect, but in reality, you were hiding from your own fears and insecurities.


    "The same goes for everyone here." I continued. "We are looking for persons who have a moral compass, who know right from wrong. Who look to help others and who earn respect through honorable actions and not through fear. If any of you have these qualities, you will gain far more with me, than you ever did by preying on the weak.


    "You most likely didn''t choose to be what you have become, but circumstances can push us to make choices, and at one point we let those choices define us, but we don''t have to let ourselves be defined by the bad choices we have made in the past. We can make ourselves better, redefine who we are. I am really hoping that some, hopefully all of you can find the strength to change.


    "Now, enough for the patronizing morality speech. Let''s get down to business.


    "You can call me Xander, it is not my real name. I am from the planet Earth, where Eternua is the first dungeon on our planet in known history.


    "It is still closed for travel to my planet via the portals, but it should be opening soon. I am the dungeon champion but I still haven''t done all the floors. Only the first and the 10th."


    That last statement got their attention as I suspect they had never met anyone who had done the top level of Eternua.


    "I have pretty advanced mana control and manipulate all elements and their hybrid forms and can also perform healing. I have magic, runology, combat and healing skills.


    "Creating new enchanted weapons is a bit of a hobby for me."


    I took out my hammer and threw it at a large boulder about 15 meters away. On impact there was a blinging flash of lightning and a loud explosion which rendered the boulder to rubble and the axe returned to my hand and I put it away.


    Everyone was left speechless by the power of the weapon, and there was one of them in particular who was virtually drooling when he saw what my hammer could do.


    "This is my girlfriend Cara and whoever crosses her will regret being born, and I mean that literally."


    "Cara?"


    "I have pretty much the same abilities as my boyfriend," Cara said, "but I mainly have experience in combat and the earth attributes. I hope to train the other attributes but I haven''t had the chance as I only got them 2 days ago."


    "What do you mean that you got some attributes 2 days ago?" Mr. Jensu said "You either have them or you don''t, you don''t just gain new elements later."


    "No, that''s not true. Xander can give anyone all the attributes if he wants. He can even take someone without a core and give them a fully functioning core complete with channels and meridians in a matter of minutes. He has done it for at least 2 people I know."


    There were murmurs amongst a few of the group, but Jensu still refused to believe it.


    "That''s impossible, no one can do that. If someone could do that, they would be a God." He said, still not convinced.


    "Believe what you want," Cara said, "but have you already forgotten what he did to you?"


    "It is true he has done a number of inexplicable things," Jensu conceded "but if he has the power to grant multi-elemental abilities, then he is by far the most powerful mage I have ever met. I was a fool to think that I had any chance against him, even with my entire crew."


    "Enough about us," I said "I want you all to tell us a little about yourselves."


    "Tell me your names, your strengths, your weaknesses, your talents and your weapons of choice, and what you would like to do with the rest of your life.


    "You", I pointed to the biggest one in the group, the one who had been mesmerized by my little display with my hammer. What is your name?"


    "My name is Emac, but everyone calls me Hammer, and as you probably guessed, my weapon is the Hammer."


    "May I see your weapon?" I asked.


    He pulled out a Hammer that was even larger than the one''s Mitch and I used. There were no visible enchantments, but with his size and muscle he could do plenty of damage even without any enchantments.


    "Do you have any particular talent?"


    "I worked in a forge for a while and I was pretty good at it."


    "Great", I said "I could really use someone with your experience help me forge weapons."


    I examined his core and saw that it was not very developed and that his channels were barely open, so he was pure muscle.


    "Next, you", I pointed to the next person in the line and went through the same questions.


    His name was Nevel, his specialty was knives and daggers and he preferred close combat. His weapons were all unenchanted. His body was lithe and muscular like the body of an assassin. His core and channels were more developed than Hammer''s, but they wouldn''t be of much use, he would purely useful for physical combat and combat training.


    I went through all 12 of the band this way, and found that, although some had specific fighting skills, the only ones with any mana skill were Mr. Jensu (who no longer could use any mana), Hennisen, the second in command that I met on my arrival, and Arvel the other second in command who seemed to be a pretty decent mage.


    If it came to a dungeon run, I could only really rely on Myself, Cara, Arvel, Hennisen, Nevel and Hammer. Most of the others, Saduk, Linx, Solomon, Katun, Jensu, Konir, Elga and Gareth were just basic thugs with no particular talent, a couple didn''t seem to be thugs at all and I wondered what they were even doing in this group.


    I could of course improve their power levels, but I was hoping see if they could rely on each other working as a team. I also wanted to reserve the upgrades as rewards for those who had done something to merit them.


    "I want you to empty all the contents of your storage spaces here, we are going to start by redistributing the weapons and the wealth."


    Everyone accepted without too much resistance but Mr. Jensu did so begrudgingly as all of the best and most valuable items were in his storage.


    I separated the gold and jewels in 2 parts. Half I took for Cara and myself, and the other half was distributed evenly between the 12 others. Most of them ended up with more than what they had originally, except for Jensu who ended up with considerably less than before.


    I gave Hammer back his hammer and Nevel got back his knives and daggers. There was an enchanted dagger which I gave to Arvel and an enchanted sword which I gave to Hennisen.


    The rest of the weapons I let everyone pick for themselves.


    "Hammer, Nevel, Arvel, Hennisen, you will be the group leaders besides myself and Cara. Each of you can choose one of the others to be in your group, and you will be responsible for that person once we enter the dungeon. Cara and I will look after the others.


    "If I find that one of your group members gets seriously injured or dies has and you didn''t do anything to try to help him it will go badly for you. If you see that another group is in trouble, and you don''t do anything to help them when you could have, it will go badly for you. I expect you to work as teams but I also expect you to help the other teams if you can.


    Now, I have one more, very important requirement. Everything Cara and I told you about myself and about her, remains with you. You are not to communicate anything about us or our abilities, nor anything else that you learn about us in the future. You can say that we are your new bosses, and that''s it. Remember your blood pact.


    "Now let''s go to the dungeon with the best loot in the area, but not Eternua, we just came from there.


    A few minutes later we arrived at a portal for the dungeon known as Lunira.

 Lunira

    When we entered through the portal, we saw the layout of the level was a large open space of stone, with large black rectangular blocks randomly spread over the surface. At the far end of the floor, I could see an enormous block which I assumed was somehow related to the level boss.


    As soon as we stepped out of the landing area onto the onto the stone floor, one of the blocks opened up and a large armored buffalo-like creature exploded through the doorway which closed behind him.


    Arvel shot fireballs at it to little effect and then I saw Hammer run at it, jump in the air and smash it in the shoulder with his hammer. The hammer blow managed to shatter the armor on its shoulder and seemed to wound it, but it barely slowed it down as it continued to barrel towards us.


    I knew that my hammer would make quick work of it, but I was really hoping to see what the other teams were capable of.


    To my surprise Cara stamped her foot on the ground and a line of sharp granite spikes erupted out of the ground directly in front of creature''s path where it impaled itself by its own momentum and, after struggling for a few moments, it stopped moving and died. I quickly looted it before the next creatures arrived.


    Everyone looked at Cara with a new respect after that display of her earth attribute, myself included.


    We advanced a little further and another block opened and a number of baboon-like creatures with long fangs and vicious claws climbed out of the opening.


    Arvel sprayed fire from both of his hands, burning many of the creatures and killing a few, Hammer smashed one to mulch and killed another with his hammer, while Nevel moved like a ghost between the monsters, slitting their throats with his daggers. For someone who was fighting without using mana, his close combat techniques were impressive.


    A couple of the creatures managed to get past the group leaders and headed for Katun who was one of the weakest in Hennisen''s group. Unfortunately, another baboon-like creature was almost on Hennisen, but to my surprise, Hennisen ignored the immediate danger to himself and ran to help Katun, jumping on the back of the baboon that was attacking his team member and slitting its throat. At the same time Arvel and Hammer both attacked the last creature, killing it before it could reach Hennisen.


    "That was nice teamwork" I said, well done. I am a bit surprised at the difficulty of this level though. I find it seems harder than most first levels."


    "That''s normal" Arvel said. "This isn''t the first level; this is the second level. And with a group of 14 the dungeon increases the difficulty. Most groups are 5 persons, so the difficulty here is probably multiplied by 3 times the normal difficulty."


    "Why didn''t we start at the first level?" I asked.


    "You said that you wanted decent loot, the chests on the first level are crap." Hennisen replied


    "Well, I admit I feel a bit stupid, not knowing that a larger group increased the difficulty. I was hoping to see how well you all worked together as a team, and I must say that I am pleasantly surprised, but if we continue like this, some of us will probably end up getting killed. I think I may have to even the odds a bit.


    "Arvel, come here and drop your mana barrier."


    I placed my hands on his chest and opened all his channels and meridians and doubled the size of his core. It only took me about a minute, and I found that my speed and proficiency with healing magic was increasing really well.


    "Hammer, give me your hammer."


    I knew that it would take me a few minutes, but the gains would be worth it. I applied the same changes to his hammer as the ones I did for Mitch, but I added shock as well as it was simple adding the extra rune. I added the gems and powered the runes and then blood bonded it to Hammer.


    Next, I gave him a complete core and channel upgrade as well, so he could power the runes of the hammer if necessary, and reinforce his muscles with mana as well. I didn''t change his fundamental core structure, so he retained whatever elemental attributes he may have had previously.


    "Hennisen, you are next, come here." I gave him a core network upgrade and restored what I had removed from him on our entry on Evola; I felt he deserved that for saving Katun but also, since the blood pact it was no longer needed. He already had an enchanted sword, and although it wasn''t the best, it would do for now.


    "Nevel, come here, and hand me your knives." I added auto-return, penetration and lightning runes to his throwing knives and permanently sharpness, penetration and a fire rune to his daggers. To each of his weapons I added a medium sized gem, and lastly, I upgraded his core network and bound the throwing knives to him.


    "Katun, come here." I said.


    He stepped forward timidly.


    "You are the weakest person here. Would you like to be an ascender if you had more ability?"


    "My dream has always been to be an ascender, but I could never get strong enough. I always dreamed of being a mage, and I know that you might not believe me, but I never wanted to be a criminal; I hated every minute of it, but I couldn''t get out. I just want you to know, because I am ashamed of what I did and I want to be someone good, not a thug."


    I was touched by his words and I believed that he was sincere. "I am going to give you an upgrade." I said.


    I quickly reinforced all his muscles, tendons, ligaments and bones before giving him a complete multi attribute mana upgrade. I then took my mana gem and charged it and pressed it to his forehead, followed by the combat gem and then finally the magic gem.


    "You are now probably the strongest in the group aside from Cara and myself. I want you to look after the others, especially the weaker ones. If you see anyone in trouble, I expect you to defend them. I also expect you to live up to what you told me a moment ago. Become a hero to the people."


    "The same goes for you Hennisen, you are looking out for everyone."


    For Saduk and Linx, I gave them back what I had removed earlier and I made basic overall improvements to allow them to defend themselves. I did the same basic improvements to the other weaker members of the group.


    I looked up at the group and everyone was looking at me differently than before, was it thankfulness, respect, awe. I wasn''t sure but I could clearly see that something had changed.


    "What the hell are you?" Arvel said. "If I didn''t know better, I would say that you are some sort of God from another world? How did you do that?


    Also, after what we have done, why did you do this? What did we do to deserve this?"


    "You protected each other" I said "and that showed me that you have some good in you, but honestly, none of you deserved the upgrades you received. I am hoping that you will prove yourselves worthy. I have invested in your potential because sometimes people need someone to believe in them to find the force for change."


    "I also did it because this level is harder than I expected so I thought you needed a little help.


    "I need good men, so I am counting on you to stand up to the challenge."


    "Now let''s see if you fight any better now or if all my effort was wasted." I said smiling.Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.


    As soon as we started advancing again, this time two blocks opened at once. Out of one block about 20 flying monkeys with long sharp claws emerged, screaming and barking loudly as they flew towards our group.


    From the other door, 2 large bears appeared, but its hair was made of sharp metallic spikes, like a giant metallic hedgehog, and it had long horns like a bull.


    "Hammer" I called out over the screeching noise from the monkeys "Throw your hammer at that thing! Throw your hammer!"


    He didn''t seem to like the idea of throwing his hammer, but he did it anyway.


    The hammer flew head first into the bears chest, releasing a combination of a lightning strike and shock, blasting the bear back against the block it had just come out of and caving in its chest, killing it instantly, immediately his hammer shot back into his hand.


    When he saw what happened he jumped in the air and gave a victory shout that made even the flying monkeys pause.


    Cara sent a giant lightning bolt at the other bear which left a smoking hole in its chest before it fell face first to the floor.


    Arvel in the meantime had become a human flame-thrower, torching any monsters that came within 5 meters of him.


    Some of the monkeys figured out that they needed to avoid Arvel and attacked some of the weaker members of our group.


    "Nevel, try your throwing knives." I shouted.


    He threw one of his knives at a monkey that was diving for Solomon and the knife went straight through the monkeys chest, electrocuting him at the same time and the flew back into his hand.


    A moment later all of the beasts were dead and we had already advanced about half way through the floor, but I knew that they would get tougher the closer we got to the boss.


    "I think things are going to start getting serious now," I said, taking out my hammer "we aren''t very far from the boss. I think a lot of these blocks will be opening at once, so you all need to be on your toes." I was also intending on being more actively involved now as I was itching to use my new weapons and powers.


    We started moving forward and multiple blocks started opening on all sides of the floor.


    From a distance, a horde of giant flying hornets were heading for us but Katun created a tornado of fire, turning them all to ash.


    A group of fanged trolls were running at me and I took out my exploding mitrium hammer and threw it at the leading troll, his whole upper body exploded and took the head off the troll next to him. The hammer flew back into my hand and I threw it again killing another 2 trolls. For the last one Cara sent a bolt of lightning, leaving a hole in its neck, killing it on the spot.


    4 centaurs with scaled human-like torsos and arms but with long necks and cobra heads, were advancing on us rapidly. I shot a dozen ice spears, and many hit their target, killing 8 of them immediately, Hammer killed 2 by throwing his hammer and Nevel finished off the last 2 using his fire enchanted daggers.


    A large army of large beetle like insects with giant mandibles poured out of one of the columns and I saw Katun summon a storm that rained fire on them, and Cara sent bolts of lightning killing any that survived Katun''s attack.


    Hammer was throwing his hammer at a pack of ogres and when they got too close, he plowed through them, his hammer making short work of them.


    Arvel, Nevel and Hennisen were also having no difficulty with the beasts that were pouring out of the other columns that were opening, but I was particularly impressed with Katun who took to the magic with surprising ease. He seemed to have gained in confidence as well, showing no sign of fear, even against some pretty scary beasts. I found his lack of fear surprising considering that he had always been weak before.


    Cara was using the other elements with ease and I was more than a little proud of her. She had become a very powerful battle-mage.


    We had now eliminated all of the beasts from the other columns and that left us with only the level boss to deal with. The block was much larger than any of the other blocks, so I expected that it would be a very large creature, and some of the ones we had already faced were pretty tough, so this one would most likely be difficult.


    "Not to spoil anyone''s fun," I said "but I think it would be best if only Cara, Hammer, Katun, Arvel and myself, take on the boss or we might end up getting in each other''s way.


    For the first time since entering the dungeon, I donned my armor and created a shield as I advanced on the last block. The block opened revealing an elephant covered with a rough, rock like armor, with six trunks and four horns, and as soon as the block opened, it charged.


    Hammer and I threw our hammers at it, but it batted them out of the way with its trunks. Cara created a giant granite spike right in front of it. The spike broke through its armor and injured it before breaking from the force of its momentum. In the end, she only managed to wound it and slow its charge.


    Katun blasted it with a bolt of lightning where Cara had wounded it, causing it to rear up on its hind legs and roar in pain. Arvel followed up hitting it with a condensed ball of fire into its now open mouth, and Hammer and I threw our hammers again, and this time they both connected, shattering its armor and blowing off half of its massively thick upper torso and neck.


    It collapsed, and as it collapsed, Katun created a granite spike under it which now pierced completely through the boss, and if wasn''t dead before, it was now.


    I looted the boss and then we all returned to loot all the other monsters which hadn''t been turned to ash, after which, we went to find what rewards were waiting for us in the chest.


    The chest was loaded with gold and jewels and potions. There were a few decent weapons, of which a few were enchanted and a pretty decent suit of armor.


    We were 14 people in our group but there was only one chest, so we divided the rewards as evenly as possible between everyone. I took a little more than the others as I had used quite a few gems when upgrading their weapons, but no one seemed to have a problem with that, and they seemed particularly happy with rewards they received. I suspected that they were used to Jensu taking almost everything for himself.


    We now had had formed a very powerful group on Evola and that they were all blood bound to us so I wasn''t worried for either of us, but I hoped that I could get them aligned in the new mindset, to become a force for good, even when Cara and I weren''t present, and I knew that would be a challenge.


    Jensu was still the weakest of the group with just enough mana to create a shield for a limited time, but even so, he handled himself well in the dungeon, killing a few of the weaker beasts.


    Before I sent everyone home, I had a few questions for a couple of the members of the group.


    I called Hammer over "Hammer, have you ever heard of a metal called mitrium?"


    "Yeah sure, but it''s very expensive and I have never worked with it." he replied.


    "Do you know where I could get some on Evola?"


    "I do" he replied. "There is a metal supplier who gets it directly from the mines, in the next town; not too far from here."


    "Would you mind taking me and Cara there, after I have a talk with Jensu."


    "Sure, no problem boss. Just let me know when you are ready."


    I called Jensu over and I asked him to explain a bit about the political structure on Evola as well as the local politics, the justice system and what their relationship was with the local police and politicians. I needed to know the scope of their influence and their relationship with other neighboring criminal organizations.


    I was concerned that certain members of the local law enforcement, wouldn''t appreciate losing a significant source of their income, and cause trouble for us.


    Based on what Jensu told me, I was right to be concerned. Quite a few of them were on the take, so that would be yet another group that I would have to deal with.


    I now felt that I had a good overall view of the political, law enforcement and criminal elements on Evola but primarily the local situation.


    I then asked him if he was familiar with Antonius, and what he could tell me about him.


    Apparently, every Evolan knew of him and everyone feared him. He was basically outside of the law and no one could do anything about it. What his particular power was, he didn''t know.


    According to Jensu, he spent most of his time on Evola in the capital, where he had his own small army of followers. That seemed to be all he knew about him.


    Once I had finished questioning him, I told everyone that I wanted to see them in front of the hotel again in the morning and let everyone go except Hammer, who I signaled that we were ready to go to the metal shop.


    A half hour later, Cara, Hammer and I entered the shop, which could better be described as a warehouse. The building was enormous.


    We went to the desk, and I asked the person behind the desk about the availability and cost of mitrium. I also asked if there were any other metals with similar properties for runology.


    "There are other metals that are also quite good for runology," he said "but they are often softer, or harder but more brittle than mitrium, or they can''t be used together with other metals. Mitrium is by far the best all-around for enchanting."


    As Hammer had said, mitrium was very expensive compared to most of the other metals, but even so, I could easily afford another what I needed, as I had accumulated quite a bit of gold.


    I let Hammer haggle with the salesman and I purchased 50kgs of mitrium as well as 100 kg of steel.


    Once the transaction was complete, we all headed back. Cara and I returned to our hotel where Hammer left us and went on his own way.


    We returned to our room, where we showered and rested among other things, before heading to our favorite local restaurant.

 Will Power

    It was a beautiful warm evening, with a refreshing breeze, and after the day that we had had, we were both happy to relax on the terrace of the restaurant next to our hotel.


    Cara was particularly quiet and I asked her what she was thinking about.


    "I was thinking about the night that we arrived in Evola," Cara said. "When Henni threatened me, and, well, you changed; you weren''t yourself. It seemed as though you weren''t even there, as though you were possessed. You scared me, and I was wondering if you know what happened to you?"


    "I have thought about it as well," I said. "I remember, getting a super mana surge from the medallions, and then I thought about what they wanted to do with you, and my anger flared and I just wanted to destroy them.


    "And you''re right, I wasn''t myself, it was as though I let my rage take over control of my body. If it weren''t for you, I probably would have killed them, and not in a very nice way.


    "I am sorry if I scared you, I will try to be more careful in the future. Those medallions feed the mana much faster than absorbing it from a beast core, and I suspect it was at least in part due to the mana surge."


    "There is something else that I don''t understand." Cara said. "I saw you lift the three of them off the ground, as though it was nothing. I have never seen mana used that way before. Normally mana can only be used to lift very small or objects, but what you did should not have been possible. You lifted three large Evolans at once. How did you do that?"


    "I don''t know ," I admitted. "I remember wanting to lift them and there was some brief resistance, but I refused it and I just enforced my will and suddenly the resistance disappeared. I think the resistance was simply gravity, and that I must have created some form of anti-gravity."


    This made me think of what Will had told me when I asked him his name. He said that it wasn''t Will from William, but because the things in the dungeon were created through his will. I wondered if what I experienced was what he was referring to.


    "I don''t know if I will ever be able to do that again," I said "it was somehow linked to the state that I was in at that moment, and I would prefer to never lose myself that way again. If I could recreate the effect, without having to lose myself, it would be a pretty major breakthrough.


    "By the way Cara, I wanted to tell you that I was pretty impressed with you today. I guess it is maybe because I never saw you fight before, but I always felt as though I needed to protect you. After seeing you in action today, I realize that you can more than take care of yourself. Of course, I will always be there for you if you need me, but at least I won''t have to worry about you as much anymore." I said smiling warmly.


    "I have become much more powerful the last couple of days, but you know, you still haven''t created any weapons for me." Cara said sulking, but I knew that she was just teasing me.


    "I am sorry", I said "I guess that I didn''t want you to have to fight, but you''re a pretty heavy-duty battle mage now, so do you have any idea of what you would like for a weapon?"


    "I have been thinking about what would suit my style of fighting best, and I think that I know what I want.


    "I would like a whip, with sharpened spikes at the end and I would like them to explode the way your hammer does when they hit their target. Do you think that will be possible?" She asked, and I could tell that she was really excited about it and had probably been thinking about a design for a while now.


    "I think that I will be able to come up with something for you, but it may be a bit of work. In the meantime, if you are interested, I have the mace we got on our first night here, which is similar to what you are asking for. I could make it very light, and make the spikes explosive and maybe make the chain a bit longer. Would that be OK until I have the time to make you the whip of your dreams?"


    "A mace, with a longer chain should do, at least for now, but who knows, I may end up preferring it over the whip, I have never used a weapon before.


    "I think that a whip would suit you better, more cat woman, and less Orc, but I will work on the mace tomorrow morning, it could come in handy if we do the third floor of Lunira tomorrow."


    "You know, we won''t be able to stay here much longer before we will have to return. It will be a challenge to manage our projects here and back on earth. If you don''t mind, I may need you to return here without me from time to time."


    "I don''t mind, it isn''t exactly very far, but it won''t be as fun without you."


    "I am working on that." I said. "I need to find a way to communicate between here to earth. It may not be possible over such a long distance but I would like to do a test tomorrow when we arrive at Lunira, so I will need to create some communication devices before we return to Lunira, as well."


    We talked a bit about anything and everything and just got to know each other better, and before we knew it, our food arrived.


    The waitor had been present that morning as well, and seemed to be trembling slightly as he brought the plates to our table. I certainly hadn''t intended to scare the locals, but I guess it was likely to happen at one time or another.


    While we were eating, I noticed a couple of people who had been standing in the shadows, pretty much since we had arrived at the restaurant, and they had barely moved since.


    I didn''t want them to see that I had noticed them, but I redirected some mana to my eyes to improve my vision, and it was clear that they were watching us, and from the way they were dressed, I suspected that they were some of the officers who had arrangements with Jensu and his men.


    Up until now, they only seemed to be watching, so I paid them no more attention, but I expected that they would be making contact with us soon enough.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    Once we had finished our dinner, we returned to our hotel which was just around the corner, but I could see that the watchers, followed us from the shadows until we entered our hotel.


    When we arrived in our hotel room, I got to work immediately on the communication device in the form of a bracelet made from mitrium. There were sending and receiving communication runes, and there were also messaging and recording runes, do I hoped that by placing in the right order, I could set up a two-way communication with its twin.


    It took me a few tries to figure out how I could create a recording and send it as a message to the communication rune which in turn would be received by a similar device, and play back the recorded message.


    After I managed to get that working, I needed to create a trigger to send the message and another to play the message, and yet another to signal that a message had arrived.


    When I had completed the rune sequences, I created 2 identical bracelets and I gave one to Cara and I created a message for Cara and sent it.


    I saw that the signal light on Cara''s bracelet was lit. I asked her to trigger the message to play by feeding a little mana in the appropriate rune.


    We were both surprised, to hear the message play back clearly. The next test would be from outside Lunira, to inside Lunira. As the dungeons were not actually on the planet, it would be a good test of long-distance communication.


    I knew that there were still some changes that I needed to make. I may one day need to send a message to one specific person, and not everyone who had one of the bracelets, but I would wait until I had tested it on Lunira before making any further improvements.


    I stored the bracelets away and we went to sleep.


    The next morning, I woke up early to convert the mace into the closest thing I could come up with for what Cara wanted.


    To make the mace more like a whip, I first covered the full surface in mitrium and fused it to the metal of the mace. I then transcribed the extend rune on each of the chain links, which would allow them to stretch, and I added a few more links to make the chain a bit longer.


    I applied most of the runes that I had used on my hammer making it very light, but on impact it would increase in mass and explode while generating lightning. I also added a penetration rune to each of the spikes.


    It was by far the most difficult weapon I had made up until then, as there were many inscriptions to be made for each chain and each spike, and everything needed to be connected to the gems for powering the different runes.


    In the future I would need to find a way to mass produce these weapons, I thought to myself, but I wasn''t sure if runes could be mass produced. That would be something to look into another day.


    By the time Cara woke, her mace-whip was completed, and I just needed to bond it to her. I was impatient to see how it would perform in the dungeon later.


    When we stepped out of the hotel, we found the whole crew waiting for us, but instead of the dangerous looking thugs we had seen the day before, we found a group that actually looked happy to be there and impatient to get started.


    Anyone care to join us for breakfast this morning?" I asked. "It¡¯s on me." I added smiling.


    Everyone joined us, and we had actually had enjoyable conversations.


    The restaurant crew and some of the guests looked nervous at first, but they eventually saw that the ambiance was totally changed from the day before.


    I also noticed that our watchers were back, but this time they were taking breakfast at a table not too far from ours and I was sure that they would be listening in, and I didn''t particularly want them overhearing us.


    Without anyone noticing, I created an invisible mana barrier at the end of our table where no one was likely to run into it by accident, and I applied the same sound proofing principles to it, as were used for sound insulation in windows.


    I was wondering what they would do when they realized that they couldn''t here our conversation any more.


    "Jensu" I said "don''t look now, but the two from the table over there have been following us. Do you know them?"


    "Yeah, they were on our payroll." Jensu said. "They were paid to cover for us and to look the other way. You, of course, have nothing to worry about, but they can be pretty nasty, so I might have some trouble from them if they come to me for payment."


    "Don''t worry," I said. "I will have a chat with them after we finish here. I will make sure that they know that they have to deal with me in the future. If there is one thing that I dislike more than a criminal, it''s corrupt cops."


    When we finished breakfast, I asked everyone to go to Lunira and wait for me there.


    When they left, I took my chair and joined the two officers at their table.


    "Good morning, my name is Xander." I said, introducing myself. "Jensu works for me now and I just wanted you to know that your business arrangements will be changing from here on."


    "Nice, to make your acquaintance Xander. My name is Track, and my partner here, is Gant.


    "We had an arrangement with Jensu, so if we need to renegotiate with you, there will be a surcharge. Jensu, we know, you we don''t."


    "I don''t think that you understood me. Actually, I expect you to do your jobs, for which your employer already pays you if I am not mistaken. My group will be assisting you for free, in their spare time. You see, our new goal is to clean up this town. Call it a redemption if you will, they regret their past and want to make up for their past errors."


    "That''s pretty funny, "Track said, laughing. "you''re a funny guy. Don''t expect me to believe for a second that your group of low-lives have suddenly decided to become the town heroes."


    "You had better start getting your head wrapped around the idea," I said in a dead serious tone. "because if you cause us any trouble, then you will have to deal with me.


    "Now, I know that you don''t know me, but I arrived in town only a couple of days ago and I have already taken over Jensu''s gang. So if I were you, I would be wondering who I was dealing with and I would be wondering if it is worth the risk to cross him.


    "You can ask around, but I can assure you that you won''t learn much about me, so I will help you out. You should just go back to doing the jobs you are paid to do and pray that I never catch you accepting hush money or abusing your power. I promise you that you will regret it."


    "Very impressive speech" Track said "but we have a whole team of law enforcement who has or backs, and we can call in even more if necessary. You may have managed to take over Jensu''s band, but even they knew better than to cross us."


    "Couldn''t have said it better myself." Gant replied.


    Something in his arrogance triggered something in me, but this time my mind remained clear, I suddenly understood how will power worked.


    "Remember my warning, or you will regret it." I said rising from the table and letting my aura of terror, seep through their mana barriers and through their skin, caressing their souls, threatening to snuff them out of existence at any moment.


    I watched as they paled from fear, as I continued to rise. They stared at me in horror and disbelief as I now was floating well above the table, before turning and shooting off through the sky to rejoin my group at the entrance to the Lunira dungeon.

 A New Level, New Powers and New Targets

    I flew through the air with ease having finally understood how will power worked, and I knew that I was just at the beginnings of the potential of this new power.


    I arrived at Lunira before the rest of my group, and found a comfortable spot, in the shade of a large tree, while waiting for them.


    My mind was a whirlwind of thoughts as I imagined possible uses for this power of will. I was far from being able to create the levels full of creatures that Will created in his dungeon, but I wondered what else I would be able to do. Flight seemed to be only a minor thing when compared to what Will could do.


    Was this even the same power that he used? Maybe I was getting ahead of myself.


    While I was lost in my thoughts, the rest of the gang arrived. They were talking with each other and hadn''t noticed that I was sitting their waiting for them.


    "How in the name of Evolandra, did you get here before us?" Henni said when he finally noticed me. "Let me guess, you can fly now, or did you teleport?"


    "Or it could be that you are all just slow." I said, getting up and walking with them to the entrance portal.


    "Today I want to do things differently." I said. "I want to go into the dungeon with a group of maximum 9 of us for level 2, and the other 5 for level 3. That should make both groups have about the same difficulty, but the loot will be shared evenly when we meet back outside afterward.


    "In the future if I am not here, I want you to try to do it the same way, just make sure that the groups are always balanced."


    I will take level 3 with Cara, Saduk, Linx and Henni.


    Everyone else will take level 2 again, but it should be easier this time.


    "Katun, I want you to wear this bracelet when you are in the dungeon, it''s something that I made last night for communicating over long distances. I am not sure if it will work in the dungeons so that is why I want to test it today.


    "If this lights up, it means there is a message waiting you. You feed mana into this rune and you will get the message. If you want to send a message, you feed mana into this rune, speak in a message and then feed mana into this rune to send it.


    "I know it is a bit complicated now, but I will make it easier to use in the future if our tests are successful.


    Katun and I did a quick run through with the bracelets before Katun entered Lunira level 2 with the others.


    I sent him another message shortly after the last one their team disappeared through the portal.


    In theory they were now in another dimension or another world so this was the true test. About a minute later, the light on my bracelet lit up and I listened to his message.


    I confirmed reception, and asked him to let me know if they ran into any difficulties.


    My five-person team now entered into Lunira level 3.


    It was very different from the level 2. Lunira level 3 was laid out like a park, with rolling hills and lakes, and forests with paths leading through them. Their were animals grazing and some fowl floating lazily on the water of the pond. It was almost hard to imagine running into a monster in these pleasant surroundings.


    As we advanced into the park, we noticed shadows moving along the ground beside us and when we looked up we found that there was a flock of very large creatures flying overhead. They were smaller than dragons, and they didn''t look like pterodactyls, so I assumed they must be wyverns.


    I couldn''t hit them with my hammer unless they got close much closer. I thought our best bet would be to go into the woods where they would be forced to land, but where we would likely run into other monsters and be dealing with 2 threats at the same time.


    Cara generated a storm overhead, generating high speed winds laced with fire and lightning, but the beasts had no trouble navigating the winds, and the fire and lightning had about as much effect as rain had on a duck.


    I realized that this would be the perfect opportunity for me to use my new flying ability. I imposed my will and shot into the sky, and faced the wyverns in their own playground. I took out my hammer and landed on the back of one of them, smashing my hammer into its back as I leapt off of it and shot off in pursuit of another, I threw my hammer at the second one blasting off its shoulder and as my hammer flew back into my hand, the wyvern turned in large circles as it fell and finally crashed to the ground below. If it wasn''t already dead, the others could certainly finish it off.


    The 2 other wyverns came at me at once from opposite directions and I waited for them until they were almost on me before shooting up last second and I sent out net of mana trapping them together so they could no longer fly. I watched as they tumbled to the ground where Cara and the others could fight them from the ground level.


    I quickly dispatched the last wyvern that was still airborne and I returned to the others below, and watched as Cara lashed out at the fallen wyverns with her whip-mace.


    The new weapon was impressive. Whenever she would swing the mace, it would shoot out much further than the length of the chain and when it made contact, a lightning strike followed by multiple explosions followed as each spike exploded.


    I noticed Saduk staring at me like he had never seen me before in his life.


    "Just when I thought I was getting a grasp on your abilities, you have to go and fly off. When in Evolanda''s name, did you learn to fly?" He asked. "I have heard of people using wind magic to do glorified jumps, but you were freakin'' flying and I ain¡¯t never heard of anyone doing that before. Not even the famous Antonius can do that!"


    Cara and the others had arrived in the meantime. "Yeah, when were you planning on telling me you could fly?" Cara asked.


    "It was something that I first touched on by accident the first night when I arrived in Evola. Remember when I lifted you Henni and Linx off the ground?" I said to Saduk "Well, this morning after breakfast I finally figured out how I did it. And," I said turning to Cara, "I didn''t tell you yet, because I wanted it to be a surprise."


    "Surprise!" I added jokingly.


    Now Saduk turned to look at Cara. "And Cara, where did your new toy come from?" Saduk asked. "You didn''t have that yesterday; I think that I would have remembered."


    "Xander made it for me this morning." Cara explained. "He made it from the mace that he took from you our first night here. Hard to recognize it anymore, isn''t it."Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.


    "I certainly hope that one day I can get on your good side and you''ll make one of those super weapons for me." Saduk said, "I ain¡¯t never seen weapons even close to the ones that you create."


    "Maybe one day. You know what I am looking for in people. If I find it in you, you will have your weapons."


    Saduk just shook his head. "I can''t believe that that is my old mace, and he just made it into a super weapon before breakfast this morning, and then after breakfast he learned to fly." He mumbled to himself. "Unbelievable!"


    I saw the light on my bracelet was lit, and I listened to the message from Katun.


    "Everything is fine here; we had a couple of close calls but nothing we couldn''t manage. It is much easier than yesterday. We are getting to the boss soon."


    "We just finished off a bunch of wyverns but no sign of the boss yet. We''ll let you know when we find it." I sent the reply.


    "I think that we will have to go through the forest if we want to find the boss." I announced, and started walking towards the main path that lead into the forest.


    We were moving ahead at a trot when suddenly three giants appeared in front of us, blocking our path, each with a massive spiked club in their hand.


    "Puny men, nice snack for Garanug." said the largest of the giants.


    Cara ran towards Garanug and the giant lifted his club to crush her but she lashed out with her weapon before he could complete his strike. She hit him square in the chest. He fell forward with his arm still raised in the air and a hole in his chest.


    "Henni, Saduk, Linx, do you think you could take one or would you prefer something a bit easier?" I asked.


    "I think we could take one." Henni said.


    "OK, I will take the second one," I pointed to the one on the left. "The last one is for you."


    I took out my sword, which I hadn''t used much lately and flew into the sky, dropping from above the giant, I directed a large part of my mana into the sword, increasing the light given off by my sword, and blinding the giant below, as I sliced his head clean off of his shoulders.


    Henni, Saduk and Linx surrounded the last giant. He swung his club to crush Henni, but he managed to roll out of the way just in time. The earth shook when his club hit the ground where Henni had been standing just a moment before. Linx managed to slice one of the giant''s Achilles tendons crippling it. The other two quickly reacted as he fell, Saduk managed to get in close and plunge his knife into the giant''s carotid artery, while Henni plunged his enchanted sword through the Giant''s heart. Seconds later it gave its last breath and passed away.


    We looted the corpses and continued further into the forest. I suspected that we weren''t far from the boss now.


    We came to a circular section, surrounded by hedges, and in the center, there was a statue of a beast that looked to be part lion, but with wings and a scorpion''s tail. If my memory served me correctly, it looked to be a manticore, one of the more dangerous mythical beasts one could meet.


    As we approached the statue, it suddenly came to life, its stony skin was replaced with lions fur and a bats wings. Its mouth was enormous and so were its fangs.


    Cara and I immediately attacked it with all we had, hammer, mace, lighting, fire, ice spears and stone spikes shooting up from the ground.


    It was over quickly, and after looting it, we collected all the treasures from the chest.


    As we made to leave the dungeon, I heard a female voice in my head. I assumed it was the Lunira dungeon speaking to me.


    "You all go ahead, I will follow in a minute." I told them.


    "Hello, am I speaking with the dungeon?" I asked.


    "Yes, I am Luna, although I think that you know that this is not my real name."


    "I am Xander," I replied, "but that is also not my real name."


    "Who taught you to use the will Xander?" Luna asked.


    "I was given most of my powers by Eternua, to become its champion." I replied. "But the will I figured out on my own. I still only know how to fly, but I suspect that it can be used for much more."


    "You are right about the will, it can be used for much more, and it is normally a skill reserved for dungeons and for the God''s. It is not meant for humans." Lunira admitted.


    "I am honestly not sure what to do with you, Xander. Eternua is older and wiser than I am, and I suspect that it is not by accident that you have learned this power, but this is a power that would be coveted by every mage if he learned of it."


    "Also, I don''t know if I can allow you in my dungeon anymore." Luna said sadly.


    "Why?" I asked. "If you don''t want me to fly in the dungeon anymore, I won''t."


    "I think you know why." Luna replied. "I think that you have been holding back, and I think, deep down, you know the true potential of your power." She said.


    Suddenly, I heard a noise, behind me, and the Manticore that we had killed had revived, and again broken free of its shell of stone. Its roar seemed to shake even the ground under my feet, as it beat its wings and charged at me; its scorpion tail poised to strike.


    I barely had time to react, but I knew this was a test, and I suspected that I knew the solution. Something that I had feared trying, not for fear of failure, but for fear it might work.


    I faced the manticore as it was now virtually on top of me. If this fails, I thought to myself, I will probably die here. I looked it in the eyes, which were now about one meter from my face, and, applying my will, I opened my mouth and said "Die".


    The manticore collapsed in front of me, its chin resting on my feet; all life had left its body.


    "Now you see why I can''t allow you in my dungeon anymore" Luna continued. "Your power would make it too easy for you, and you could just come to claim your rewards.


    "I pity you in a way, the power of the will, over time, will leave you with few challenges, and I life without any challenges, I wouldn''t wish on anyone. You may even lose your desire to live over time, if the God''s don''t notice you first."


    "What if I promise not to use my will, would you accept my word?" I asked. "I need to get stronger to face some mages who are using people''s life force and demon¡¯s essence to enslave others and I need to stop Antonius who is trying to kill me, and abusing his power to harm others."


    Luna laughed "You are the noble, idealistic type I see. I can see why Eternua chose you. I am also familiar with these mages, and they will be a challenge, even for you. Also, defeating Antonius is certainly a noble cause.


    If you wish to promise, not to use your will, I will let you continue to enter my dungeon. But if you break your word, you will never enter again." Luna said with a tone of finality.


    "Even, outside of this dungeon, I would recommend not using your will power. The God''s are jealous beings. And even though they do not see everything, they may consider your power a threat to theirs. If they notice you using it, I am not sure that they will react kindly to it."


    "I suspect that the God''s rarely take interest in what is happening on the different planets, but from time to time they do, so be careful when you use your power or you may attract their attention."


    "So the God''s really exist." I said. "I never really believed in them, though many do believe on my planet, all the stories regarding the God''s are thousands of years old. Some claim to have met or spoken with them, but I don''t think anyone actually believes them."


    "What are Gods but beings at a higher level of power?" Luna mused. "To many, you would already be considered a God. Maybe one day, you will find a way to surpass them, anything is possible. You should speak with Eternua about them, he has a lot more experience than I do."


    "Thank you for your lenience and advice. I will be careful."


    "Something tells me that Eternua knew what he was doing in choosing you. I look forward to seeing where fate will lead you my young Xander.


    "Don''t forget to pick up your rewards on the way out, and good luck." She said, and with that, I knew our conversation was over.


    I headed back to the chest and found quite a few valuable items had been added for that one last challenge.


    I thought about what she said, and I added the God''s to my mental checklist of targets that needed to be dealt with, but I needed to learn more about the them, and as discretely as possible.


    I also thought that she was right about something else. Deep inside, I knew that I could kill the beasts easily, but I was afraid of losing the excitement, the adrenaline rush, if I succeeded using my will.


    When I exited the portal, I found the others already outside waiting for me.


    I dumped the loot that we gained on the ground and the others did the same, but I kept the rewards I had gained for killing the manticore the second time as I knew that Luna had intended those rewards for me alone.


    Between doing the 2 levels in parallel, we now had more and better-quality rewards than the day before.


    We split it up between us and, considering how much we had already, I let everyone decide if they wanted to do another run, or take the rest of the day off.


    I was happy that they agreed to end it there for the day as I had other things to do.


    I told Katun to keep the bracelet on him at all times in case we needed to contact each other, and I told everyone to deny any rumors that I could fly.


    Even though many had seen me at the restaurant that morning, many would refuse to believe it, so I was not too worried. It would be just another rumor in a few days.