Arienach’s voice in my mind brought be back to reality. “I suppose that answers the question about discussing peace.”

I considered that for a moment. “Why?”

“This is now registered as a dungeon. All inside are hostile. Trust me, talking will be the last thing that will be on their mind.”

I sighed and asked; “What should I know?”

“What you are in is known as a temporary dungeon. It will start off easy and gradually get harder till you find the boss, or the leader. I would usually suggest clearing the entire town then hunting the boss, but in our case, it isn’t necessary as there is nothing our level in the known multiverse. This will actually be an excellent time for you to become accustom to your powers.”

“Is there anything I should or should not do?”

“Since you are wanting to preserve what is left of the city, I would suggest you avoid most of the more powerful AOE effects and maintain a shield.”

“AOE?”

Arienach sighed. “You never really played games much, did you?”

“Er... no? I mean, I did play strategic games, but never something like swords and stuff.”

“Strategic... then you may manage to preserve a good portion. Think of this as a street to street offensive. By the way, AOE means area of effect. Things like your magma blossom would probably take out a few city blocks. You see, even though you are not full size, your magic still is and it was designed to take out an ancient dragon in one shot. This will be an exercise in control for you.”

“So the problem will not be killing them, but not destroying the city as I do it.”

“Correct.”

With another sigh, I mentally pushed the YES.

The gates of the city were hanging off their hinges and it was no trouble to squeeze between the bottom gap. The street in front of me was choked with rubble, but there were ways through. I pulled up my “radar” and instantly knew where my enemies were. Including the one in the tower behind me. I felt it as the crossbow bolt left the bow and things slowed down. Turning I waited, almost tapping my foot as the quarrel closed the distance. Then I caught it.

“I forgot to tell you about time dilation. When threatened, you will naturally go into this state. One of the perks of being a planar. You can also partially step outside this plane and no attack can touch you when you are there. Of course you cannot attack. I doubt that you will ever need to use that unless you just feel like frustrating an opponent.”

I also caught my first glimpse of my opponent then. It was an orc. I may not be a gamer, but an orc is an orc. Tall, broad shouldered, huge muscles, green. Well, this one was greenish brown, but you get the idea. He jumped off the parapet and I let him get about half way down before I sent a minor fireblast his way. I saw then, why I was going to have a difficult time here.

The orc was gone. So was part of the tower. A minor fireblast took out a good six yards of the center of it, and it collapsed. Great. I sensed another trying to get in behind me and spun. I tried to back the mana down from the first spell and cast it again. Another orc down and I could see a three foot hole behind him. Judging by the light and shadows, I would guess that it stopped about seven or eight houses in.

“I am open for suggestions here.” Shaking my head.

“Hm... I have never tried anything such as this, but maybe a mana blade?”

While we were speaking, another orc was approaching.

“Could you show me... er... you might want to hurry.”

“Why? Oh, him. Don’t worry about him, he can’t even touch you with your shield up.”

I turned to watch the orc swing a spiked club at me. He looked to be around three hundred plus pounds and he put everything he had into it. I forced myself to hold still and was shocked to see the club break. Then he started to pound on the shield.

“See? Now. Focus your mana into a sword. Just think of the shape you wish and push your magic into it.”

It took a few tries but after a couple of minutes, I had a rapier. I stared at it for a moment, then flicked it at the orc. I then proceeded to lose my lunch as the orc slid apart where I had cut it in half. It was a clean cut. Armor, leather, bones, all looked like they were cut with a laser. Then the guts spilled out onto the ground.

“New at this I see. Don’t sweat it. Finish killing it... take off the head. That’s right. Shame to waste good meat, but that’s life I suppose.”

Yeah, this was going to be a long day. The next five hours consisted of; find orc, kill orc, repeat. After the first few, I was no longer trying to empty my stomach as much, but there were still a few that reminded me that this was not a pleasant game. Since they couldn’t surprise me, I started to feel like a butcher. I systematically tracked them all down and killed them. The leader was about half again their size and a little messier. I had to take off his legs to get to his head, but it still wasn’t a challenge.

Arienach, reading my thoughts, replied. “Now you realize the problem of being overpowered. The challenge is gone and life becomes boring if you don’t find a goal. I think that is one of the reasons that the elf that slew me was so effective. I was at the point of not giving a damn.”

Clearing the dungeon Calalistos

159,000 points

Killing the boss Grebar

1200 points

Preserving 82% of the city of Calalistos

12000 points

3% to next level. Congratulations.

I stared at the notification for a moment. At a guess, the next level was several million points away. Then I realized that it didn’t matter. I didn’t even have a clue what my level was anyway. That thought brought up the pop-up;

Michael

LEVEL - 8764

EXPERIENCE - 1,173,512 / 3%

RACE - Planar Dragon

BREED - Silver

AFFINITY - Fire, Magic

CLASS - Ancient

ALIGNMENT - Neutral

Health - 112%

Mana - 105%

Oh....