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The Fifth Floor, The Dungeon, Medea Island

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Auora Isirtine watched the stone-brick walls of the dungeon with a healthy amount of caution. Though this dungeon had yet to throw something at them that could genuinely threaten her or her party, it's no excuse for negligence. A glance across the rest of the group revealed a similar outlook if the way they're scanning the hallway is any indication.

As they moved through the hallways, she reflected on the floors above.

The First was barely worth mentioning beyond the written warning at the entrance and the... unique lighting found in those sandy caverns. Not many dungeons are intelligent enough to attempt to communicate to their delvers, and those that do are conquered or lost. And that is because most dungeons are conquered long before they reach that stage in their lives. And those orbs of light... she could feel the massive amount of mana that roiled inside them.

And the terrible balance, barely maintained.

The Second was the textbook example of a trapped, shifting labyrinth. Thankfully, the dungeon had not yet made the exit and entrance variable. Knowing what direction you needed to go was a definite advantage, and though tricky, the underwater fighting was easy enough. The monsters relied on their enemies being unfamiliar with fighting underwater to gain an advantage. Despite their unique abilities, they were weak.

The Third would have been a slog without the map displaying the 'trial' locations, the most direct routes, and the Guardian Arena. Finding those locations within that jungle themselves would have been long and irritating. It's no wonder it'd taken the local guild more than a month to reach the fourth floor. The Fourth was just... Urgh. Rats are filthy creatures, and despite the variety, these particular vermin possessed, it was not enough to stop them. The tight confines were restricting and would most likely cause the death of many unprepared guilders but to Auora and her group? It was nothing.

And so they pushed up into the Fifth, which was an odd concept. She couldn't think of any other dungeon where you had to go up to reach the next floor. And with the change in the environment? There was no doubt this was the fifth floor.

The sewer grate they emerged from was located at the dead-end of a hallway. The walls were stone brick, with dimly-lit candelabras spaced out along the walls. The candelabras were strange, mounted with glass spheres filled with what looked like a light spell rather than a flame. There were also windows, though rare, beyond which was nothing but pure black. She thought she could see something shift in the light cast through the tall, thin window, but it could have been a trick of the light. And with as sharp as her eyesight was? That was worrying.

Auora and the guilders around her were examples of what people like them could achieve. The Pinnacle of what a guilder could become. Nothing could stand in their way.

And strangely, nothing did.

There were no monsters within what they discovered was an entire castle complex. There were courtyards and towers. A great hall with an intricate throne. The dining halls were set with delicately carved utensils and dinnerware. To the dismay of some of her more mercenary companions, the various knives, forks, and spoons were iron and not silver. Thus, they were essentially worthless. And honestly, imagine emerging from the dungeon laden with silverware. Who on this backwater island would even be willing to buy them beyond the local lord and perhaps the guild itself.

However, the most off-putting thing had to be the times in their exploration that Auora knew they were being watched. Not in a general way because she knew the dungeon would be watching their progress very closely. She had felt the same sensation many times before when those hidden from her sight watched her, unseen and filled with ill intent.

They had searched every single room they could find. They decided to settle in for the 'night' when no monsters or Guardian could be found. Not that they knew if it was even night on the surface. Time always feels wonky so far underground. They set up their camp in the 'great hall,' the one that held the throne. It was the largest room and one they could easily defend if it came to that.

"This place is a cakewalk!," Titon exclaimed with an arrogant grin. "No monsters at all. Perhaps these floors haven't been reactivated yet?" He rubbed his pristinely kept mustache. He, his sister Blace and his best friend Dorin all retired early, before the rest of us even began discussing the watches. Auora glared at their tent as the rotation was hashed out. That fool was going to get himself killed one of these days. She turned to engage in the discussion but found the decision had already been made for her.

That was how Auora found herself awake and scanning the room with two others while the rest of the group slept.

"This is unnerving," She commented, to slow, cautious nods.

"Aye," Xerat agreed. "This dungeon is proving the exception to many previous certainties. I've never encountered a floor that lacks monsters entirely. They never just let us pass without resistance, Lost dungeons especially. I don't believe Titon's theory. It's planning something. Don't lower your guard."

The rest of their watch passed uneventfully, though the feeling of being watched only grew more common. Auora crawled into the tent and lay there for hours, unable to sleep.

The feeling had grown to shivers on the nape of her neck, and she couldn't relax enough to sleep.

She tried to remind herself that the dungeon had yet to show anything capable of overpowering them, but her paranoia won that argument. What if it does? What if it's just biding its time, waiting for the perfect moment to strike?

That moment was four hours after her watch had ended.

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The Dungeon, Medea Island

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Against the instincts calling for the blood of the guilders on the fifth floor, I held back. These new delvers had proven themselves far too tough to be beaten by waves of enemies. Instead, a more strategic attack was needed.

While the guilders explored the empty castle, I was preparing. When they set up a camp to rest for the 'night' (actually morning but whatever), I was setting up my ambush. An hour before they would change their first watch, it began.

First, the lights dimmed further than they were until they were completely out. This was done very slowly, over a few hours. The second watch emerged from their tents in a much dimmer room, where the brightest source of light was the campfire they'd made by breaking a few benches and using the scrap wood.

Two hours into their watch, it was the only source of light. The change happened slowly enough that their night-vision could adjust gradually, and they didn't notice the lights going out.

Not that it mattered. They were chatting quietly around the fire, ruining their night vision all on their own.

Silently, individual flagstones dropped down, letting through matte-black and amorphous metallic forms. The Shadow Golems blended well into the shadows as they moved around the edges of the camp. More and more emerged from the holes, which closed up behind them.

One of the guilders on watched blinked suddenly and looked around at the darkness surrounding their camp. "Hey, doesn't it seem kind of dark to you? Weren't the candles lit, earlier?" As he finished speaking, the monsters struck up from the shadows of the guards.

They were on their feet in moments, with weapons drawn and lashing out at their ambushers. To the guilder's shock and surprise, their weapons swung through suddenly intangible metal. It's almost like they were attacking shadow. They didn't land a single blow.

The shadow golems lashed out with their sharp, elongated, and completely tangible claws, taking advantage of their off-balance and surprised opponents. It might have worked with lesser guilders, but these were anything but lesser. Claws were blocked or dodged. The golems, likewise, couldn't land a single blow.

The battle was truly joined when the resting guilders emerged from their tents, alert and itching for a fight on this unsatisfying floor. On one side were more than a dozen Golems composed of a mithril-moonsilver alloy which allowed the greatest mana conductivity and was driven by shadow sprites. Why were these not like the other golems? Well, that has to do with the alloy.

Moonsilver is incredibly conductive for mana, and when alloyed with Mithril, that seems to extend further. When the shadow sprite inhabited the golem made of this alloy, I watched its shadow mana spread and morph the material, much like that golem with the disconnected limbs did. It was fascinating.

When the guilders were exploring the empty castle, I had the golems follow them. They watched and learned, and I gave them memories of how guilders fought, tactics that had previously worked against those of lesser rank.

Almost ten minutes later, the guilders had still failed to land a single decisive blow. Before they could get another chance, my golems retreated down into suddenly missing flagstones, which quickly replaced themselves.

When the guilders regrouped after the fight, they noticed something rather alarming.

They were missing a few of their number. After all, didn't I say that fighting them head-on wasn't likely to accomplish anything? Well. Nothing directly. Ambushes like that did work as distractions. Distractions to cover, for example, the kidnapping of three sleeping guilders. 'Titon' and the other two. The golems had slipped into the tent these three were sleeping in before the attack had begun. Specifically, the tent furthest from the fire. They seemed to be the most deeply asleep, which should be punished. I was surprised at their lack of caution, to be honest, especially after so arrogantly proclaiming the ease of the floor where I could hear. The golems were almost completely silent, some aspect of their shadow mana absorbing the sounds of their movement as they moved the tent fabric out of the way.

Each golem brought in mithril collars, enchanted to keep the wearer unconscious. As the Golems slipped the collars onto the necks of the two men and one woman, their eyes briefly flashed open. Hm. Perhaps not as asleep as I expected. Not that it changed anything. The collars snapped shut before they could make a sound, and the enchantments activated automatically. The eyes of the guilders quickly changed from wide-eyed panic to the heavy-lidded look of Morpheus's call. When they were completely unconscious, the golems dragged my three new prisoners into a larger hole in the floor on the other side of the fire to the raging battle. The flagstones quietly closed up behind them, and below the flagstones, rock moved into place, just in case they attempted to dig through the floor.

The Golems dragged the sleeping prisoners into three new cells, each enchanted to sap mana from the air. They also had a new function. They were each linked to the mithril collars worn by the prisoners. When the golems pressed a specific spot on the collar to the mithril bars of the cell, the cell's enchantment linked to the collar. A little infusion of mana by the sprite activated the collar's second enchantment, which drained mana from anything touching it.

I watched anxiously as the collars worked. The golems lay the humans on the floor, then slid between the bars. When the collars started draining the mana from the guilders and transferring it to the enchantment on the cell, I was relieved. I'm not going to wake these guys up until the collars have drained as much mana as possible from them.

Afterward... Well... There are a few experiments I wanted to perform. I wasn't willing to try them with my other two prisoners, but these three... Yeah. I'm okay with doing it on these three.

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Outside the Dungeon, Medea Island

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When the teleport tent flashed with light, no one thought much of it. It was more than a few hours into the day now, and a couple of gold parties had returned already. When They walked out of the tent, everyone stared with wide eyes. Haythem included.

He was sure that all of them were thinking the same thing.

Why are they back? Did they beat the dungeon? Did they retreat?! What in the three hells could cause THEM to retreat?!

...

Aren't they missing some members?

Indeed, Haythem counted... three less than when they had started their delve.

Three.

As They walked away from the dungeon, Haythem's gaze turned to the teal glow shining out of the triangular cave. Just looking at the cold light sent shivers down his spine.

He was more glad than ever that he had convinced Flasa and Bertram to give up on the bounty. With the lessened resistance, they could harvest more resources from the dungeon with less risk. For the first time ever, they had more money than they knew what to do with. Personally, Haythem was eyeing an empty hill for the site of his future home.

Yes, a home. A house built with the money they'd earned.

He was... happy, here. The dungeon was challenging, no question of that. If it could kill them, it would surely take the opportunity. But other than that... it was far more profitable and survivable for those not trying to kill it.

"What're you thinking about, bud?" Bertram asked as he sat up from their shaded spot under a gently swaying palm.

"What do you think of that hill over there?" He asked. Bertram raised a brow at him but looked at the indicated hill. It was only a few minutes walk from the outermost reaches of Port Medea and high enough that it would give them a decent view of the growing town and port.

"It's a hill. Like many others around it." He said, still looking at him oddly. "Why?"

"Just thinking of the future." He said with a smile.

In fact... it's been a while since he last took the Platinum Rank Tests. Perhaps it's time.

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