To us, there was no forewarning. Or maybe there was, we just weren’t able to recognize it for what it was. First came a monster swarm. Every monster in the ocean for miles climbed up the beach and headed for higher ground. Watersfront was directly in their path. We fought them off. They weren’t concentrating on us. Most just passed on by. We heaved sighs of relief. Next, the air grew stifling. Nothing moved. It was deafeningly quiet. I noticed the ocean slowly receding, leaving foam in its wake. The horizon was hazy. By that time, it was too late. A wall of water had crept up behind that haze, towering above our heads, growing closer and closer, and then… it fell.

–Jacob Fletcher, survivor of the Tragedy of Watersfront

Roaring. So much roaring. My head pounds. Everything feels distant.

“Haven. HAVEN!” Nattiq shakes me. I can’t feel it.

“No,” I whisper. “You’re wrong.”

“Haven! What’s wrong? Are you alright? What happened. Devin, please. Talk to me.” The roaring continues, drowning out his words.

“I’m not ready. Not ready. I’m not. It can’t be happening.” Nattiq shakes again. His worried face appears in front of me.

“I still have time. I don’t. I do. Please don’t come.” My vision fades in and out. My hands shake. No, its my whole body that’s shaking. A panicked light flickers from my core.

“But it is. Something’s coming. It’s there. It’s getting closer. Closer. Closer. No, don’t come.” My breath catches in my throat. No, that’s wrong. I’m breathing too fast. My mana is fluctuating out of control. The whole tree shakes with me, and sliver fish swim around me, agitated. Whatever’s out there, it’s chasing me. I could feel it. I ignored it. Nattiq brought it to light.

“I can’t. I can’t. I can’t.” It was one thing to have things suddenly attack me. It was a whole other thing, something on a completely differently level, to know something was slowly making its way towards me. Its aura…it was palpable. I could feel it even from this distance. The moment it stepped on the Rhew.

Cold. So cold. Colder than the ice around me. Bloodthirsty. Hungry. It wanted to eat. A horrible grin flashes through my mind. One that wanted to swallow me whole. I’m drowning in it. It moved too fast to see. It whispered horrors in my ear. It’s tongue slipped across my skin. Blood comes pouring out in its path. Unconsciously, I latch on to Nattiq’s sleeve with a death grip.

Don’t. Please don’t notice me. Just pass on by. Keep walking. I’m not here. I don’t want to die. – Ipo the spriggan

Congratulations! Your senses are the only thing keeping you alive.

[Premonition I]: You can now sense malicious beings or events approaching in the near future. (cost: 15% of mana permanently)

The feeling flares. Ghosts form, poking me, laughing, taunting with rotting teeth and melting skin. I choke back a scream.

“He’s coming,” they sing. “He’s coming for you.”

“Nononononononnono.” I flinch back. The feeling of impending death begins to overwhelm me. This time, I don’t hold back the scream. The ghosts around me laugh. Nattiq is yelling again, holding me, trying to keep my arms down, trying to prevent me from scratching at my core. It’s better to die right now, isn’t it? He’s coming for me. I shake. I laugh. I scream.

{(self-destructive tendencies recognized; (status.soul) = unstable; [force]: {instinct.pattern})}

Feelings bubble up, pushing aside the self-destructive ones, feelings I had locked away long ago. They weren’t mine. I never had them. Not the ones that came to my rescue. They were planted in me. I somehow knew it. I didn’t want to ever have to rely on them, but now, I’ll die if I don’t.

My shaking stops. I stare off into the distance. The ghosts continue to haunt me, but I ignore them, lost in the tide feelings that flow out from behind the dam. I can feel it. I’m no longer myself. These feelings are controlling me, these… instincts. I am no longer Devin, no longer Haven that seeks to only protect, afraid to kill. I am nothing more than a dungeon. My life is being threatened. No need to hold back. Push aside distractions, memories, feelings, only focus on the instincts.

I wander. I choose not my way. I travel by instinct. And that is how I got here today. — Last stanza of The Epic of Benzal Temian

Congratulations! You remain calm in difficult situations.

[Tranquility]: You have suppressed your emotions and let your instincts guide. (Enter a state of enhanced concentration at the expense of your ability to feel major emotions. Memories, detracting thoughts, and personality traits will be suppressed while instincts will be heightened. (Drains mental capacities; once a day; limit determined by endurance))

I open my eyes. I feel cold and calculating as I notice I’ve been moved back inside the tree, the |ice silk| draped room to be exact. A man stands over me. An akhlut as well. I study them, determining their threat level, then dismiss them. They are registered as comrades under a cause. I can ignore them. They count as part of my dungeon because of it. I turn my head south. [Premonition] is strongest there.

Threat Approaching: Level (34), high abilities– [Time remaining: 6:57:34]

The words from the screen spill from my lips.

“Haven, are you alright?” I turn to the man.

“Selkie,” I identify. “You will fight?”

“What?”

“Intruder.”

“Haven, you’re acting really weird right now.”

“Threat is approaching. Will you fight?”

“Yes, you know that.” I nod and turn to the akhlut.

“Akhlut, will you fight?”

Yes, Dungeon. I ’tis help against invader. I nod. The selkie stares at the akhlut. I look around my domain.

“Defenses, negligible.” I click my teeth. “Fighting force, the same.” A slight feeling of annoyance bubbles up. I push it down and focus on whatever information I can glean from [premonition]. It was not much, only the feeling that most defenses would be ineffective. I growl.

A ghost crosses my vision. Product of [premonition], but it gives me hints what my opponent could be. I access information from the system.

Races of the Puca Class: Wisp, Wraith, Banshee, Specter, Morgen, Bogie, Sluagh, Gwisin, Wight, Ghoul, Wendigo, Gidim, Yurei

The knowledge that fills me is disturbing. Could be any of them, depending on the direction they raised their skills. Could be another class, but puca was the most likely. Best case, it’s a morgen. Worst case, it’s a sluagh or banshee. Gwisin is a close third. Morgens aren’t effective unless underwater. Sluagh are invisible, intangible until the moment of their attack. They carry off souls. It is unknown if they eat them or not, but their attacks directly strike at the soul. They ride the wind, and they’re hardly ever alone either. After a second, I rule out sluagh. Whatever’s coming is too slow to be a sluagh.

Banshees. Relatively harmless, pacifist crybabies. But crossing one… they have a powerful innate skill that allows them to kill a person just by screaming, and not just any scream. There has never been a defense against it. Nothing works. Not [silencing], not [sound proof], not even the thick walls of a castle or even purposefully deafening oneself. The scream penetrates everything. There’s a small chance a person will live after hearing it… an even smaller chance that they won’t go insane. If it’s a banshee after me…

“Selkie.”

“What is wrong with you? You’re not yourself.”

“The race of the intruder.”

“The race? I don’t know. He looked pretty normal. I’d have to say human.”

“Features?”

“I only saw him from afar. Pale skin. Black hair. Had a creepy vibe to him. My brother swears he saw a ghost hovering around him. I could smell the blood on him from across the village. I followed him around for a couple of days, but he never did anything. I didn’t want to approach him because I felt like he would know somehow that I’ve met you.”

“A yurei then, a morgen, or a gwisin. Good. Not a banshee. But still… gwisin. Troubling.”

“P–puca?”

Indeed troubling, Dungeon. Puca hate cold. ‘Tis not often puca stray north.

“They may hate the cold, but it does not affect them much. Most have cold based skills,” I say.

“But what can you do against a puca? They’re freaky. They come up in scary stories all the time. Everyone knows they infect… Turn you into them… or eat you.”

“Quiet selkie. Akhlut. Tell me. Where can I find a ward?”

Ward. Idiot ’tis have one.

“Oh, no nono. You’re not talking about my necklace, are you?” We look at him. “No.”

Idiot.

“No. You can’t have it.”

“It is necessary for defensive purposes.”

“No. It was a gift from Mam-gu Petra. I’m not letting you have it. Besides. It won’t help any. All it does is make me less noticeable when swimming.” The selkie frowns and crosses his arms over his chest.

Dungeon still ’tis need it?

“Yes. If I am to create defenses, I will need it.” The akhlut launches himself at the selkie and pins him to the ground. I stand and take the necklace off of him as he struggles.

“Stop!” A simple thing. A metal ring on a leather string. But I feel the runes marking the ring pulse with a strange power. One I want. I tilt my head and swallow the necklace.

“No! Why’d you do that!” The man yells. The akhlut keeps him pinned. Five hours if my plan works. That doesn’t give me a whole lot of time. I check the clock.

[Time remaining: 6:32:14]

Only an hour and a half to implement it. I grit my teeth. It may not be enough. I dive deep into my domain, under the ice while throwing up thick walls around my tree. A maze, wall after wall after wall filled with pathways of pits dropping onto spikes or all the way to the ocean below; trip wires thin and sharp enough to slice flesh; walls that would easily collapse.

Simple traps. Things I could do with my attention elsewhere, looking, looking for something I could use.

I find it a mile to the east, a bit of hope, protected by a massive octopus, a vent lord.

Vent Lord: Level (28) – An octopus of giant proportions feeding off the life surrounding a volcanic vent. Comparable in size and aggressiveness to that of a kraken. A vent lord is a dangerous creature. It is not advisable to provoke this creature as it is known for its intelligence, its quickness, and its ability to tear anything to shreds. Avoid at all costs.

I size the thing up and nod. Let’s see how good its mental defenses are. I swarm it with my influence. It freezes, feeling the invading force, then begins to writhe in panic, searching for the thing attacking it. It pushes back against my mind, angry and fearful, but I brush such pathetic attempts away. It was strangely disappointing. For a thing known for its intelligence, it fell under my influence much too easily. The vent lord floats gently beside me as I dominate the rest of the ecosystem around the volcano. Still, if it was a head to head confrontation and not a battle of the mind, I would have no doubt been torn to pieces.

There are many monsters termed as lords. They settle in the richest areas and take control. They have complete dominion over their surroundings. – Of Monsters and Men, 883

Congratulations! Your influence expands continually.

[Influence VI]: You’ve dominated a lord and his rule. (10% to creature conversion rate)

I scavenge the vent, injecting my influence into anything that I deem useful. In this state, I realize with annoyance that I had never used influence properly, as seen by my pathetic attempts to manipulate salt. Influence directly ties in with manipulation. The greater influence I wield over an object the easier it is to manipulate it. I had just found a treasure trove.

Congratulations! You have gained understanding of an |Elemental Subset| of [Fire]. You are now able to manipulate |Magma| as part of [Elemental Manipulation X] Congratulations! You have gained understanding of an |Elemental Subset| of [Earth]. You are now able to manipulate |Metal| as part of [Elemental Manipulation X] Congratulations! You have gained understanding of an |Elemental Subset| of [Water]. You are now able to manipulate |Acid| as part of [Elemental Manipulation X] Congratulations! You have gained understanding of an |Elemental Subset| of [Air]. You are now able to manipulate |Toxic Gas| as part of [Elemental Manipulation X] Congratulations! You have gained understanding of an |Elemental Subset| of [Earth]. You are now able to manipulate |Wax| as part of [Elemental Manipulation X]

From the magma, I found traces of starlight–a metal with similar magic properties as silver, only stronger–mixed in among other metals. I gather it, the acid, wax, and gas, as well as copious amounts of magma, and tell the vent lord to follow me. I gather salt as well as I travel back. The selkie jumps as the vent lord crawls into the room. He waves the sword he had been sharpening at the beast.

“It’s with me,” I say. Still, he looks hesitantly at the octopus and at the amorphous blobs of material floating in the air. I set the salt and the metal down, and knead the wax as I create another maze, this time of rooms spiraling up the tree. It’s too simple, though, so I place more traps including noxious gasses under the floor to be released by stepping on a switch, and slippery slopes that slid into acid or magma pools. |Aura of protection| keeps the ice from melting to either substances. I create a system for my staircase spiraling outside my tree that smoothed out the steps and created a slide impossible to climb. If need be, I can get rid of it altogether with that system.

I have to be careful. Once an antagonistic being enters my domain, I can’t manipulate it very much. It’s a law that’s imposed upon me, a racial weakness. I abhor it. There’s another as well. One that does not allow me to close off the path to my core. I curse the world. That’s why traps are necessary, mechanisms that lead to a chain of effects. But it’s still not enough. I move the room to the top of the tree, line the |ice silk| with thorns and acid and place it where ever I can. Even the thin, draping curtain of tree branches has it.

I create golems, many of them. Some are basic humanoid figures, others are copies of my companions and monsters. It’s an army, one with deadly surprises when killed, either bursting with magma, gas, or acid. Myself, I ran magma through my veins, giving an almost rosy tint to my skin. I placed acid in my stomach cavity, and gas in my lungs. With little effort, I could breath out any of the three like a dragon. I found I could place |aura of protection| on my allies to protect them from the effects of the substances. They weren’t considered skills, just pieces of the environment. I check the time.

[Time remaining: 1:46:43]

It was rushed. My whole defense system was rushed and likely wouldn’t hold for very long. Fourteen minutes though. I pour acid into the lake, line the bridge with every trap I could think of including weakening it to the point of collapse, and create a moat of magma midway through the outer maze spanned by a similar, railless bridge with a convex sloped walkway. A person could very well slip straight into the magma. It was hot and bubbling, protected by |aura of protection| to keep it from cooling.

My mana was beginning to run low, but one final thing. I manipulate |aura of the lost|, concentrating it on both mazes. The mazes, they begin to slip in and out of the material dimension. As a result, no room or path was stable, it shifted, moved. The place it resided was never the same. Leave it and you might never find it again. Its design was ever-changing, and it could run with or without my prompting. That I hadn’t figured this out earlier was bittersweet. It only told me how much my emotions and misconceptions clouded my thinking.

Finally, I feel it.

The item has «Necklace of Ardor» been fully incorporated. (20% mana recovered, |Basic Ward Schema| discovered.)

The most important thing recovered from the era of the Hynafol would be wards. Without them, we would have perished against the monsters long ago. — Higher Wardsman of Oi’ufe

Congratulations! Wards are the basis of defending your domain against creatures.

[Warding I]: You have discovered the basic runes of warding. ({Rune of Baneberry}, {Rune of Bittersweet}, {Rune of Elderberry}, {Rune of Juniper}; Materials used to make runes and the runes themselves determine the effects of the ward.)

I found it! There’s a correlation between influence and manipulation. This is why focus and will determines the amount of mana a person can utilize. – Scholar H’daif

Congratulations! You knowledge increases as you incorporate various things.

[Incorporation IV]: You can incorporate more things within your domain to allow for increased environment design. (Only applicable to things without souls; 15% mana absorption; +30% mana absorption if materials are fully incorporated (4 hrs) and not just stored; Schemas and addable attributes created from absorbed items)

Wards. As much as they were effective against monsters, they were even more effective against puca. It was strange. No one knew why it had such a great affect on them. Wards were expensive to maintain, and good materials were hard to find. Not many places in the world had them. Not according to the information the system gave me. It was vaguely irritating that the runes I received were so basic, though, even though I had known it would be likely. {Juniper} was a rune of relaxation. {Elderberry} for increased memory recollection. Useful, but not in this instance. The other two would have to do.

I didn't have much, but this was what the starlight was for, and the wax, both useful substances against most puca. Wax for {baneberry} and starlight for {bittersweet}. Or rather a mix of the substances for the best result. 9:1 wax to starlight for {baneberry} and 8:2 starlight to wax for {bittersweet}. I shaped the runes with care in strategic places and choke points throughout my domain. {Baneberry} would place a barrier that repelled. With enough strength though, someone could get through. {Bittersweet} would invoke confusion, one that would tend to disorient people, making them lost. Someone with enough willpower could break it.

Lastly I turned to my pile of salt. Salt had an amplifying effect for wards, it seemed, and as a double advantage, puca tended to hate the stuff. I connected each {baneberry} rune with a line of salt embedded in the ice, making a shape like a complex web. This would extend the barrier along those lines and boost its effects on each rune. As for the {bittersweet}, I drew concentric circles with the salt around each so that it radiated out like a pebble dropped in a pond. The effect would radiate out similarly.

I quickly think through the things I had done to prepare. That was it. That was all I could do to prepare in advance except for one thing. A bout of nervousness pushed through the cover over my emotions. I took a deep breath and placed my path points into {strategist}.

War is no simple thing. Sure for us soldiers it is. We hack and slash, block and bash, but for us that’s all. The person working the hardest is that person watching on the hill. – Tice Graden

Congratulations! {Strategist I (25/25)} Path: Complete. (+5 health; +5 mana; +10 health regeneration; +10 mana regeneration; {Strategist II (0/50)} path; [Predict I]: You are able to make a slight prediction of an opponent’s next move (cost: 5% of total mana permanently)

Behold my most powerful skill: [Tackle]. It was formed when [dash], [leap], [roll] combined. Though, Terry said he got it just by practicing. – Herdsman

Congratulations! Through your knowledge a way appears.

Level [21]!: Your progress is unmistakable. (+20 mana; +10 path points; [Premonition I] and [Predict I] are compatible and merge to form [Forewarn I]; Skill level increased to [Forewarn II]: You can see flashes the events concerning you in the future. When fighting, you can see your opponent’s next move. (cost: 30% of mana permanently))

I grit my teeth. Today, I’ve lost a total 121 mana due to these passive skills. It hurts, but they could very well save my life. My [forewarning] sparked.

[Time remaining: 0:00:03]

It was him. He was here.

Status Menu Name: Haven [Locked]–Devin Race: Legendary Dungeon Level: 21* Attribute: Green Health: 284/313 (2.75/min)* Mana: 107/197 (2.75/min)* State: Tranquil – (Endurance remaining: 45%)* Biomes: 4* Floors: ?%Ξ] Named Monsters: 4 Monsters: 473* Animals: 25,243* Plants: 132,200+* [Ξ] Path Points: 23* Paths: {Beginner V (0/20)} {Ingenuity II (30/60)} {Valiant II (0/120)} {Defender IV (2/30)} {Architect I (0/50)} {Strategist II (0/55)}* Skills: [Influence VI]* [Incorporation IV]* [Ambient Aura VII] [Plant Growth I] [Green Thumb I] [Tamer II] [Karma II] [Natural Projectile III] [Core Teleportation] [Epithet] [Elemental Manipulation X] [Biome Creation] [Fluid Floors] [Golem Creation] [Loyalty] [Tranquility]* [Warding I]* [Forewarn II]* Achievements: |Ingenuity!| |Powerful!| |Dauntless!| |Against the Odds!| |Crack Shot!| |Breeder!| |Safe Guard!| |Creator of Wonders!| |Leader!| Causes: |«Against the World»| — 3 [Ξ] Auras: |Aura of Light|, |Aura of Warmth|, |Aura of Fury|, |Aura of Souls|, |Aura of Protection|, |Aura of the Lost|, |Calming Aura| Fire: Main, Magma* Water: Main, Ice, Acid* Earth: Main, Plants, Minerals, Metal,* Wax* Air: Main, Toxic Gas*