After leaving the boss room on the second floor there was another hall which ended in a small room. That room contained steps going up to a small landing in one corner. The diagonal corner had the same steps and landing going down. Both ended in more magical archways. In the corner opposite the steps headed down was another fire pit. And in the final corner was a pair of chairs.

“A tiny resting room to regroup and decide to move on or leave.” Typha stated.

No one else had time to comment as Una had already crossed the room and opened the only other door. After turning the bend of this final L shaped hall there stood an iron guardian. As Una approached it the guardian stepped to the side letting the others pass.

The door to the core room had been upgraded as well. It was now a half a foot thick and looked to be made of rich cherry wood. They had no idea that it had a center of ebony that would make it difficult to break down. Or that there were iron bars that could be dropped on either side of the door to further bar entry and buy the core time to escape should that ever be needed. That upgrade had been done for Arizo’s piece of mind when the core had moved to this floor.

The 3 teens only glanced around the largely unchanged room instead focusing on the massively different looking core.

Olive stepped forward and laid her hand on the barrier staring at the gem. “It’s bigger.”

Poli’s head snapped to her. He rushed forward and looked at the core. From the way his nose smushed into the barrier they could tell he wanted to get closer. “What did it look like before?” His voice was soft like a dream. As if speaking louder would shatter the moment.

“It was 2, 6-sided pyramids, with their bottoms together.” Tuck explained, miming a shape with his hands.

“Hexagonal bipyramid.” Poli stated, not taking his eyes off the core. “How large?”

“About half this size.” Hamish replied.

“It’s evolved. So soon.” He was in awe.

His 2 apprentices were taking furious notes about the core and barrier. Both wandering around the blocked area.

“What does that mean?” Olive asked. “Is this change going to hurt the core or this place?”

“Oh no. Quite the opposite. A dungeon core usually evolves after years of building. Some of the oldest or largest marine cores have never evolved. Why or how they do it is unknown but we do know that it unlocks new creatures and makes the dungeon stronger.” He finally turned to her with a wide smile. “Seeing this I am no longer worried about this core. The oddity we felt earlier is likely from the core evolving. They are likely feeling growing pains and would like us to leave.”

Everyone else looked to Una. She was watching them closely. After a pause she nodded and motioned to the door. They could see the titan rat snake and the stone guardian standing in the doorway.

The large snake turned back on itself to move out of the way so they could pass. Typha shivered. That move indicated that the boss was far more flexible than she was, making him far more dangerous as well. A fire lit in her eyes. The urge to dive. To truly test this place and herself. She couldn’t stop a hiss from coming out as plans to gather a party and raid this dungeon danced before her eyes.

“Let us place our protection runes and then we will go.” Poli told the core. None of them noticed Typha’s reaction.

It took nearly half an hour for the rune crystals and circle to be placed. Once they were done a set of 5 crystals that were each covered in hundreds of runes began to float around the core. They seemed to be stuck in an invisible bubble as they lazily orbited.

“Each of the crystals will gather a small bit of mana to power themselves. These 2 and these 2 are duplicates in case 1 is broken during an attack. The final one that is slightly larger is the lodestone. The crystal that keeps everything together. If the protection spell fails it will explode.” Poli explained to the core and the others that had been watching him work.

“I don’t understand why we are protecting it.” Evanna questioned. Seeing the core was strange. It felt wrong to her. Like this was a place she shouldn’t be.

“For many reasons. The most frightening thing is that if the core is directly attacked the ban that keeps them from creating monsters while there are people nearby and the one that limits how many creatures they can make are lifted. They could then spawn hundreds, even thousands of creatures. Then those creatures could come pouring out and attack the nearest city. And if the core is destroyed all the creatures under its control go mad with rage.” Typha responded.

The land dweller’s eyes went wide.

“Also.” Poli added tightly while glaring at the naga. “As you have seen, dungeons make many items that we can use. The bigger they get the more exotic their offerings.”

“There is so much we can learn from them.” Rechni added.

“And people want to use them as weapons and armor farms. They steal the core and make them only create. Not really sure how though.” Warsh said.

“And they make a great training ground for young adventurers. They can practice here before facing vicious beasts out in the world.” Typha finished. “Now we should really leave tribute and go.”

The rest of the group nodded. They each stepped up to the barrier and laid an item on the ground. Typha, Warsh and Poli added small thanks and prayers before stepping back.

“See you soon my friend.” Olive said, pressing her forehead on the barrier. After a few seconds she stepped back, took her twin’s hand and left with the others.

The adults all took deep breaths before moving through the glowing archway. They were all relieved that it really did lead to the man hallway. Typha looked back and confirmed that the archway had 3 marks above it. She also looked back at the mouth of the dungeon after they exited. She’d be back. To explore, to test herself and the core. Soon, she thought with a smirk.