"'Rule #37 - Every dungeon is unique. They may even be beautiful. This does not make them any less dangerous. See Rule #1'

-50 Rules for Dungeon Divers"

== POV: Sevso ==

I awoke confused in a cave. I stared with disbelief as I saw my new titles and status, but though I jolted with sudden energy it did little to clear away the clouds in my mind.

I remembered… arguing. I felt the presence of a dungeon. Tadius had clearly sensed it too.

We argued about the reward.

I was no fool. I knew I was no match for him. I was more than willing to give up the majority to him. It hadn’t been enough. There had been a gleam in his eyes as they hardened.

I turned to run, not really expecting to succeed, but hoping desperately.

Then everything was pain and I hit my head on the stone and fell into the water. The cold shock of it faded even as I knew I was going to die.

And now I had woken up.

I was damp, but I felt a soft rug blanket me, and another was on top of me. I could feel that the one below me was sodden from the water that had come off me.

I remembered the pain in my back and I reached around to feel.

The hole was still there in my shirt, but my body was smooth and unmarked. I was unmarked anywhere. I didn’t have scars anymore. I didn’t have any injuries at all, old or new. For all that I was laying on a blanket that was wet and laying on cold stone, I was not even sore.

I called up my health… I stared. One hundred percent, perfect health. No one in the slums was ever at perfect health. Maybe we started out that way when we were born, though I wouldn’t count on it. And as we grew, forget it. By the Maw… no one was in perfect health without powerful healers.

I suppose this would help explain my new Lucky Fool V. What ridiculous circumstances had lead to me being healed by someone that powerful?

I called up my full status.

Status

Name: Sevso

Race: Human

Subtype: Male

Health: 100% - Perfect Health

Status Effects: Life Debt (Permanent)

Mana: 50/50

Primary Level: 5

Class: Street Tough

Former Classes: Orphan, Urchin, Pickpocket

Ability Points: 7850

Class Skills:

Intimidate II

Street Sense II

Strength I

Toughness I

Borrow Authority I

Titles:

Orphaned

Survivor II

Thief II

Muscle I

Lucky Fool V

Back from the Brink I

If I got more titles I might need to hide them like my normal skills. That AP though! I called up my notifications.

Back from the Brink I

You survived that which should have killed you. Did you learn caution or boldness?

+100 Ability Points

+All skills are easier to learn while you are in personal danger. (+10% Bonus to experience)

Lucky Fool V

A series of circumstances entirely out of your control have conspired to save you from grave peril. The power of luck shone so brightly on you that you are left with a residual glow. However, beware. The power of luck that is left with you is no match for the sheer scope of the fortune that was required to save you.

+7750 Ability Points (250+500+1000+2000+4000)

+Random events are significantly more likely to be in your favor

+Chaos magic and skills are significantly easier to learn or buy (50% Discount)

Status Change: Life Debt

Your life has been saved by another with no thought of reward. Your life now belongs to them. Align yourself with their purposes and morals.

+Immunity to other life debts

-Actions taken against the wishes of your debt holder can result in pain, injury, and death.

Debt holder: Caden – Dungeon

There it was. The reason for my gain and my debt were both apparent. After seeing the notice I also realized I could feel where this Caden was in my mind. The destination was so far away though. Impossibly far, mostly to the west, but north as well. Caden had to be across the ocean, and I had no idea how to get there.

I numbly collected the coins on the floor and put them in my pouch. I wasn’t sure what to do when I got to the other side of the cave and saw the wall with the light coming through. I put my hands on it and it opened easily to the touch. The cold was biting, but a few steps out of the cave was enough for me to orient myself relative to the valley and the city. I was not far from the south gate.

I made up a story to the city guards about being injured in a dungeon, but they asked no additional questions when they saw me. I guessed the blood and my truly dazed look was enough to convince them.

I had no idea what the dungeon wanted of me. The thought of being saved by one was beyond ludicrous. It had created a life debt. That meant that its motives were pure. It had saved me with no thought for itself, but how could that possibly make any sense? Dungeons were nothing but instinct. And that instinct wasn’t something nice either.

For now I simply started by making sure I survived. I had been saved, so it wanted me alive.

I couldn’t return to the slums. Tadius would hear about it and I would not get so lucky the second time. It was funny, I had so much money now. I would need to check later, but I might have more than the reward Tadius had tried to kill me for.

I went to the adventurer’s quarter. My bloodstained clothes only earned me sympathetic looks there. I entered one of the most expensive shops. They should be able to make change easily from what I had. I hadn’t seen it all, but I knew some of it had glinted with gold. And I had sensed magic coming from it. I had at least a single piece of dungeon gold. How appropriate, considering who had given it to me.

The attendant nearly turned me away as he took in my appearance, but instead he simply pursed his lips and kept a close eye on me. If this wasn’t the adventurer’s quarter, I would never had been let inside.

As I hoped, everything was clearly marked. I eventually chose a few simple sets of clothes and cured hide armor. The label indicated it was leather from a Fiarad. I honestly had no idea what that was, but I could not ask anything without endangering my guise as an adventurer. I had no idea what was standard knowledge for one of them.

The cost came out to four gold and two silvers, and the attendant managed to look down his nose at me as he told me. I reached into my pouch and lifted out the first thing that buzzed to my senses. The attendant’s eyes went wide when a single piece of dungeon gold entered his view.

The obsequious bowing and scraping that followed was amusing, and the attendant told me it would take only a few moments to make proper change. Five normal gold and thirty-eight silvers were presented to me by the owner himself. The change came in a fine leather pouch. The owner apologized for any inconvenience and told me that the measuring and resizing for my purchases would be completed within the hour.

I was escorted to a side room and another attendant was all smiles and he measured me with knotted pieces of rope. I tried my best to pretend to be bored of the whole ordeal.

After being fitted I was escorted to another room with fine wooden chairs and small servings of food and drink for me while I waited. The attendant had also, not so subtly, presented me with a basin of warm water and a towel. If it had been any other time, I might have enjoyed the fawning attention. I had worked as a street tough at least partially for the status, and I would not miss the slums at all.

I would count myself lucky if only half my friends there would stab me in the back for a silver coin.

However, for all that my body was working perfectly, I found my thoughts troubled and was immensely tired.

Finally, everything was ready.

It was a new experience in every way. The clothes fit like they had grown on me. The leather of the boots was supple and perfect. The entire suit of armor shined like blackened oil. I was presented with a mirror and I could not recognize myself.

The face was the same, but the armor made me look dangerous in a way I knew I had never really managed before. All the aura of danger I had before was by borrowing other people’s authority.

After I left the shop, it was simple to procure a room in a decent inn. The cost per night was a half silver. Before, I would have considered it an extravagance beyond belief. Now it barely touched my funds. I had finally taken the time to count them.

I was rich beyond my wildest dreams. I had fourteen dungeon gold remaining. A smattering of other coins: gold, silver, copper, and iron added a tiny fraction more. Tadius would have only received a small fraction of this money as his reward.

Eventually everything came crashing down on me. I had expected to sleep, but I found myself trembling as I realized how close to death I had come. I had received a major title telling me I should be dead. I sat on the bed trembling and sleep took me before I realized it had even come.

That was all a week ago now. Since then I had pursued knowledge about dungeons. And I had learned at least one thing. No casual violence of any kind was allowed.

I had tried to kick a beggar out of my way and my head almost exploded from the pain. I barely managed to stay on my feet as my eyes watered. It had taken an hour before the pain faded away.

It was unthinking habit for me to shove or kick street urchins out of the way. I was quickly unlearning all the casual violence that had served me in the slums before, though. The pain was an excellent teacher.

My persona was as a veteran adventurer, and I used that as my first avenue of exploration. The various adventurers had been more than happy to regale me with stories of their dungeon exploits, especially when I bought them drinks. None had known anything about what dungeons actually were though, other than that they had black crystal cores. Any suggestion of good dungeons had been met with laughter.

Meeting failure there, I went to a priest, and even a library. I had been sent to various scholars, but none could really answer my questions. I had even talked with a pale grey Adar with shimmering grassy hair, but when I asked him if he thought dungeons could think and do something out of kindness he had simply laughed and told me to leave.

Eventually I was told about a mage named Gnaeus who specialized in obscure dungeon lore. It had taken quite a bit of arranging, apparently Gnaeus was not fond of visitors, but I eventually arranged an appointment.

I was waiting in the mages’ guild for that appointment now.

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==POV: Exsan==

I existed. I was very good at it. It was all that I had done for a very long time. Now I felt thoughts creeping in like shadows. No matter what I did they came back. It was no wonder my counterpart lost himself in meditation to lose them.

Some of my thoughts were comfortable. They matched the instincts of my long existence. Thoughts of my domain came to me. Thoughts of the tunnels I was making to let in prey. Thoughts of the monsters breeding with abandon. Thoughts of the dark sheltering earth that held me comfortably.

However, many of my thoughts turned toward Caden. Caden was… strange.

But Caden was mine.

I would possess his strangeness. I would possess his knowledge. Everything he was was mine to have.

His actions did puzzle me.

His “language lessons” seemed pointless. However, it was easy enough to do them every other day.

Caden performed many pointless actions. He decorated. He made new strange rooms in the Starlight Grotto.

I could at least appreciate the new room he added that was bright like the sky. It was obviously meant for prey to walk through.

It had many plants and animals that were uselessly locked into harmless forms, but the waste was minor. Hidden dangers had been added in the innocent foliage, as well as treasures.

Obviously Caden has understood my lesson about luring in more prey. Caden was lucky that I was here to teach him.

The first few would come through this easy environment and then more would follow. Even now Caden was adding more.

I could feel how close I was to one of the presences that was waiting for me. I had always felt hunger, but now I knew what it was called. And I felt it endlessly, deep in my obsidian heart.

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==POV: Gnaeus==

I was reviewing my research notes when someone knocked on my door.

“By the maw, what is it?” I snapped. A messenger came in a spoke to me briefly.

Apparently, an interview had been scheduled without my knowledge, and most certainly without my permission.

I looked him firmly in the eyes.

“Tell the guildmaster,” I said, “that if this is not worth my time I am not going to be happy.”

The messenger gulped.

“Sir, I swear, this meeting will be worth it.”

He started to give me a rundown of everything that had already happened.

I stopped and thought. If what the guildmaster believed was true, then I indeed needed to see this person. If, however, what I suspected was true… I wanted to meet this Sevso even more.

“Fine, go fetch him,” I said.

A few minutes later Sevso was lead down the spiraling steps into my apartments. I led him to a small meeting room that the guildmaster had added in when he made my rooms. For all my hope to never use them, I had added precautionary emblems anyways. I activated them and smiled at the results. Everyone distrusted their eyes and skills when they said different things.

I had been watching how this Sevso walked, however. He was not used to his fine armor. Everyone forgot that the simplest explanation was usually the correct one.

The messenger had already been dismissed, so I immediately asked the question I wanted to know most.

“Why is a level five street tough meeting with me about dungeons?”

My guest looked surprised, and answered me.

“Everyone assumed I must be something more, I saw no benefit to telling them otherwise.”

I laughed.

“You are probably not aware of this,” I said, “but a number of skills were used on you to try and verify who you are. The results… contradicted each other, so everyone assumed that you must have an incredibly powerful obfuscation skill or artifact. Everyone’s basic character analysis skills showed you as level five. More advanced skills showed your class to be street tough. However… a number of things didn’t make sense. Your clothes are of very good quality, though that is something that is easy enough to fix with money, though the effort would be odd.”

“What convinced everyone were three things: first, merchant skills said that you had money. Quite a bit of it. And their skills detect personal wealth, it won’t be fooled with borrowing from someone else. Secondly, all the various mental intimidation and persuasion skills simply failed on you. Thirdly, skills showed you had a powerful patron of some kind.”

“Also, when people were implying that a bribe might make things go more quickly you just stared at them.” I laughed. “Honestly, that might have been the part they found most unnerving. Someone who is so powerful that they can turn up and ignore the customary bribes to meet someone high up is not someone to be trifled with. I think you probably saved a good week or two by ignoring the process completely.”

“Did you know the guildmaster did not even bother telling me I had this appointment with you until you already arrived?”

Sevso’s eyes opened wide with surprise.

He stuttered, “Nnnoo, I was very upfront about what I wanted.”

“Yes, yes,” I said, and waved a hand in dismissal, “no doubt you were. It is true, however. He knows far too well how much I detest these type of meetings. He is probably expecting a very unpleasant conversation with me afterwards, but he thought you were too powerful not to schedule a meeting with me. The irony is that you are a large enough puzzle that I am perfectly happy to meet you. Though if you don’t satisfy my curiosity you will likely be in very big trouble. Well, you might have enough money to bribe your way out of it.”

Sevso regarded me with a nervous look. Then he started to talk.

As he continued I found myself pleasantly stunned. Perhaps creating that dungeon had not been a mistake. If nothing else, now I had a way to track the dungeon down.