We were home again. But it was funny and maybe a little sad how little 'we' resembled the 'us' that had left.

I didn't care to dwell on that for long.

Aurum needed a new lair and I, frankly, needed to the normality of working on something.

He was no longer small enough to dwell in the alcove above the Sanctum, and so I set to hollowing out a den in the tunnels I had dug underneath the gardens. I wanted to keep him near me, so the obvious choice was to build a large dry chamber connecting to the flooded passage that led my Sanctum, while also widening the flooded space beneath the Sanctum’s shaft into an arena.

To reach me now, adventurers would have to enter the garden, avoiding pitfalls, lurking vipers, and the all-pervading poisonous spore of the mushrooms.

Above these gardens lurked the nacre-spiders, spinning luminous webs of pearlescent spittle in a space above the ceiling. Only their juveniles hunted on the garden floor below, while the adults lurked behind carefully camouflaged false ceilings, waiting to haul some unlucky invader into their clutches.

But assume for a moment someone got past these defenses.

They would have to descend into a flooded underwater labyrinth, fighting off the tentacled reelfish I had created. If they succeeded in finding their way, they would enter into a large, drowned antechamber, with the shaft of the Sanctum directly above them.

And from a hidden den attached to that antechamber, waiting to emerge, would be my Aurum. My guardian.

A cave wasn’t good enough. I had to make some modifications. Smoothing the walls, I carved them with scenes of the Dungeon’s short life. Argent staring up at Aurum. The serpent coiled around the egg. Izzis in his cage. Adamant being shaped from the earth.

It felt good. It felt incredibly good, relaxing, to shape the earth to my will. To carve my personality and my mind into the Dungeon until it became an extension of my own self.

Still these little touches weren’t enough. He would be cut off from the rest of the Dungeon, and I wanted to make him happy. I drew from one of the eternal lamps we had captured from Trivelin’s cohorts to make a blob of neverending flame, small and harmless, and enclosed it in a lamp made of emerald-green salt crystals.

With intense care I shaped even the tiny flaws within the salts, giving them the shape of fish- so that when the light shone through the shadows of a hundred fish were cast against the walls. To house the lamp I lifted up the stone in the shape of two intertwined serpents, holding the crystal bulb between their jaws. In this fixture I made the salt-lamp balance so delicately that the rising heat of the flame within would cause it to slowly rotate. Across the walls the fish began to swim and circle endlessly, the warmth of the lamp casting glimmering spots of sapphire and emerald among them, altogether creating a sparkling grotto of shadows and light.

Now I could feel a craftsman’s pride.

In the deep pool connecting his lair to my Sanctum, I seeded dozens of species of fish, lining the earth with a rich layer of algae to feed a thriving food chain with Aurum at the top.

Finally, I lengthened the pillars I had previously created in the snake den that was directly above him, causing them to extended down into his chamber. The numerous serpents that lived in the burrows within the pillars could come and hunt from his feeding bowl, if they were willing to take the risks.

As Aurum descended into his new home, the fish scattered around him, a spiral of silver parting around his dark shadow. Insectile limbs gripped the edge of the shore. A hundred legs slithered. In his jaws, Aurum carried the egg with incredible care, gently laying it in the glow of the lamp. He curled himself around it to sleep.

I did nothing to disturb him. Gods know he deserved to rest. But I carefully probed at the strange formations of Mana within him. I still didn’t understand what Olin had done, but I recognized, however grudgingly, that the man had been a genius.

Mana curled in intricate spiraling designs around a core that burned like a sun. Each rotating circle of characters intermeshed to the next, and flowing ribbons of smaller glyphs appeared and vanished as the designs turned. At the center of it all glowed a crystal seed, the same one I had seen fall from the illusionary tree.

It reminded me of my own Core, in a strange way.

[ Feathered Serpent Chimera ]

“Aurum”

This misshapen creation was born from the sin of Red Alchemy and carries a heresy in its heart. A chimera of many different creatures, its golden dragon bloodline still faintly persists.

Blessing: Name of the Treasure Guardian - This beast grows constantly by maintaining contact with its hoard, steadily absorbing Mana. Amount of Mana gained increases with hoard size.

As my attention returned to the Gardens I noticed several developments. One was that outside, the golden fruit of the mangrove trees had finally drawn attention. Another was that several of the vipers had finally reached the point of evolution.

But what I chose to focus on was Adamant. He had reached evolution himself.

Your creation is undergoing Evolution

During this time, Mana you gift them will be more effective, and they will be easier to shape.

Choose a path-

Stone Golem (Common) - Resembling a living statue, these dutiful servants are dull-minded but unbreakable.

Greater Homunculus (Common) - Representing a half-way point between artificial being and true life, the greater homunculus is strange, uncommonly ugly, and slightly intelligent.

Earth Elemental (Rare) - A whirling collection of stone and dirt bound to a spiritual core, an earth elemental embodies the resilience of the world and is almost impossible to kill.

Dwarven Eidolon (Legend) - The protectors and guardians of the dwarven kingdoms, Eidolons possess a strange and silent intellect that lends itself to stunning works of craftsmanship.

Many-Handed Servant (Mutant) - Absorbs traits from the last foe defeated. Gains the ability to create and control endless hands.

The choice was tempting. The ability to conjure countless hands combined with Adamant’s resilience would be devastating. Making him even more unkillable and presumably stronger by selecting Earth Elemental would leave him equally well-suited to repel invaders. I could sense in him a deep frustration, an anger at how little he’d been able to do against the Eyeblight.

But we didn’t make decisions based on anger. And I would have plenty of creations that were strong, that were tough, that could defend me. How many chances would I have to pick a Legendary path, and how many of the paths my creations could take would lead towards craftsmanship?

I selected the Eidolon and watched as amber light glommed onto Adamant, becoming semi-solid and encasing him in an luminescent chrysalis. In moments he was only visible as a shadow within the glowing caul of amber.

My last duty was to settle matters with Trivelin. He had set my core aside along with everything we’d taken from Olin’s laboratory - the golden staff, the faceted blue golem cores, and an assortment of little trinkets that had somehow vanished into his pockets. Argent held me in her paws as she watched him whittle a tiny stump out of mushroom roots.

As I waited he reached down and pushed the peg to the stub of Argent’s missing leg, wrapping what I had taken for loose threads of fungal celia around her hindquarters to form a harness. Her usual bouncing hobble-hop evened out as she raced around him testing her new limb.

Which settled it for me. I didn’t trust him to do anything but seek his own interests, but I appreciated a servant who could pander to me so well. The small, clever touches of kindness towards my minions and the mouth-watering praise of jewels all told me one thing; the two of us could understand each other very well.

I would trust him to know how rich I could make him.

At my command, Argent lifted me into his hand and sank her teeth into his thumb. Although he let out a swear of protest I could feel his hand shake with excitement as Argent curled his bleeding fingers around me.

The world faded out. The familiar tablet of stone descended to bind our Contract.

Between Trivelin Arbador and the Nameless One

This Contract Shall Be Sacred:

Trivelin shall undertaken any task given to him in exchange for fair compensation.

Trivelin shall never betray or purposefully harm the Nameless One’s interests.

Trivelin shall receive the Attunement of Disguise.

On the day Trivelin delivers a Phoenix that lays sapphire eggs to the Nameless One, he shall receive the Attunement of Jewels.

Trivelin left the Dungeon with a tremor in his hands, fussing with his collar. Shellshocked by his good fortune. The difference between a scavenger or a poacher like him and a true adventurer was simple. An adventurer had reached the final floor of a Dungeon and forced the core to grant them an Attunement.

Everyone had Mana inside them, sure enough, and people who spent their lives challenging Dungeons accumulated more than most, but they could only harness it with years of careful training in magecraft. Unless they achieved Attunement.

With an Attunement your Mana would naturally begin to manifest in special talents, known as knacks, that set adventurers head and shoulders above the rest of the world.

Hooking his thumbs through the lapels of his jacket, Trivelin set out into the world. He was poor, filthy, shipless, and smelled of a sewer, but this wasn’t the worst misadventure he’d stumbled into on a drunk night. No, this was the beginnings of good times for Captain Trivelin.

He took his hat off and dusted it clean, setting it back on his balding head. Oh yes, there were good times ahead. As soon as his knack manifested he could go to the Adventurers’ Guild and receive their seal. And with one of those…

The world was Trivelin’s oyster.