The following morning with our new member, the bard Raven, left East Grove for the Great Tree Mira. While in East Grove, we inquired with the guild information about it.

It shocked us humans that the dungeon was nearly 200 floors deep and the most dangerous defense of the dungeon was the tree that sits on top of it. That tree was even more amazing, it stretched from the surface of the ground all the way to the 200th floor and although not sentient like the great treant, it was special.

It released a special aura that was monstrously lethal to any form of undead. Secondly, the roots of the tree were themselves living and as long as the dungeon labeled a certain creature or being too dangerous, the roots would block paths and change passageways and lead the being into death traps filled with blood sucking vines and plants that released poisonous or hallucination pollin.

This dungeon’s self protection methods had reached the pinnacle when focusing on plant creatures. The demon lord actually lost a huge number of creatures to this tree before giving up on taking it.

Driving the carriage with the horse puppets, Raven was sitting next to me strumming his lute. I was looking at my skills while frowning.

“Is there a problem?” Raven asked.

“Sort of, one article of my archive skill is that i can archive killed dungeons. The words exactly are ‘You can now Archive killed dungeons and analyze their structure to make them your own dungeons and make rooms and layouts of the same type.’ that said i never heard of any killed dungeons.” he said.

“I see, well they aren’t hard to find. Elves are one people with a close relation to dungeons so we know a bit more. We call them Dungeon corpses and you can find them very easily.” He said and put the lute away and asked for the map of the nation we purchased.

He pointed to our present position. “This is the road we are on leaving East Grove, we are going north west around the rest of the Vine Grove before going directly west to reach the Great Tree Mira, which also means going to the dungeon city Floresia. Along the way there should be… i think 2 dungeon corpses unless more were born if the nation couldn’t get dungeons before they were captured by the demon lord.” Raven explained.

“You are talking about dungeon corpses?” Luna suddenly inquired through the opening between the men.

“Yeah, you know where they are?” I asked her.

“Sure, hand me the map.” She said putting her hand out. Raven handed it over and after about a minute she handed it back and they looked at it. There were nearly six small X on the map along the road towards Mira.

“So many!” I explain and notice a small number next to each x. “What is the number for?” i asked.

“That is the number of floors the dungeon had before being destroyed.” she replied.

That was surprising that she knew this much information but it was also a good thing because from the looks, there was actually one close, most likely one of the reasons why the town’s forest was pushed back to far back.

“Let’s go visit one of these. I want to see what the book does and i also need a base material anyway to start building some kind of platform for the spirits which i don’t even know how to start.” i said.

“I am also curious. I have never visited a dungeon corpse before.” Charlotte said really curious.

Figuring out our exact position after finding a landmark, we took a short detour to the closest dungeon corpse.

The specific dungeon corpse we went to in this case was once called the prisoner’s keep. It had been an attempt at the nation to make an armored fortress dungeon on the surface and the dungeon below. Naturally the fortress was rubble now and the dungeon was left to waste. That said, not without its materials being extracted.

Dungeons have two main purpose, resource and protection. Dungeons with contract with nations are the places they run to to hide from demons. Naturally the 5 great elven dungeons is also where nearly 80% of the population live at with 10% of the remaining population being at the capital under the protection of the Elder Treant and the rest of the 10% being those who exist in the rest of the nation.

Naturally if a dungeon is ‘corrupted’ the alliance races can do nothing else except kill it but after doing so they will extract all the material possible. Iron, copper, gold and all the herbs they can get. It doesn’t matter which but they will do it and leave the dungeon a true wreck after breaking all the special dungeon walls that normally would regenerate.

This regeneration of course is only possible if the dungeon was alive, the reason for this is that entire dungeon is built with a network of energy channels along the walls which help transport mana from the entrance and the surrounding dirt to the entire dungeon. Naturally the energy network isn’t so fragile that it would be destroyed but the elves know that dungeons are most likely to be born where once a dungeon lived so almost every month they would come and mine the walls to waste away at the stored mana in the network.

After over a decade of this, the dungeon corpses currently in the nation are all but ruined caves with a very low chance of birthing new wild dungeons.

When the party arrives, they were a bit surprised that the state of the cave and fortress was so devastated.

“And i assumed elves were the breed to love nature.” Hermes said.

“We do.” the two elves said.

“But this is the teachings of Daniel Rock. He was the first person in the alliance to actually discover the energy network that dungeons possessed. Even his own book dungeons were said to have hidden from him but he found out when he destroyed his first dungeon.” Luna explained.

“So from that day you elves worked to keep dungeon corpses no more than caves?” Charlotte asked in awe and horror.

“Would you want the land of corrupted dungeons to breath again corrupted by the demon lord or bringing his armies back? We can’t do much else except this. We shouldn’t find any dangers. At most some wild cave dweller animals and maybe one or two alpha who are leaders of their breeds but not something we can’t kill.” Luna said.

No one spoke back and disembarked before the carriage was stored and the low grade guardian was made to scout.

The party made camp to sleep for the night while the living dolls and wooden puppets were the guards. They did not want to open a dungeon so close to a corpse so as to not affect it.

The following morning the guardian appeared from the cave and told them that he travelled with little to no resistance to the 5th floor before returning while memorizing most of the paths. Naturally it took so long only to reach the 5th floor because he had to go through the maze like dungeon but they had the benefit of having him scout for them.

Of course, they needed lights, unlike living dungeons that lit up their interiors, a dead one, especially one that has been drained to the extreme that it can’t even be regarded as a breeding ground for monsters, would not be able to light up.

This was handled very easily by me who had the much more perfect Light rune thanks to Valery’s second moon essence ceremony.

With the glowing orb of light over my hand, we head inside following the guardian with the living dolls at the back and the combat puppets in the front.

Throughout the entire walk, we kept looking around and exploring following the discoveries of the guardian. From dried lake beds to rivers and high ceiling rooms double the normal height of the rooms, that is normally around 4 meters, they actually actively deteriorated until they reached the 5th floor.

“This is tiring to walk.” Luna complained as she leaned on the wall and rubbed her feet through her shoes.

“I do not feel as such, it is interesting to try and catch a glimpse of a dungeon’s architecture when there is no real danger to come at you.” Raven said.

“I wonder, do we have to go all the way inside?” Misaki said in a somewhat bad mood to be in this dark cave.

Everyone looked at me but i took out my pen. “Archive dungeon.” I said but besides a small glow, nothing happened in their view. Naturally there was a screen in my own.

You cannot archive this Dungeon corpse from this location due to the intense damage to the mana network. You must locate the core of the network and archive it from there to reach all corners of the dungeon.

“Come on, i can only archive it at the location where the dungeon core once was.” I said.

The others just complained but after finding a small easy to protect room, we set up a camp and fire to make lunch, or dinner, whichever it was since no one could tell the time at this point.

“Dungeons sure are weird. We can start a fire in here but not suffocate from the smoke.” Misaki commented as she chewed on a roasted pork rig from the storage of the dungeon book.

“I don’t know how to explain that either.” I said laughing weakly.

The others laugh.

“It is probably just some kind of air cleansing magic that naturally exists.” Raven said.

“I sometimes wonder why dungeons don’t just close off instead of open up?” Misaki asked.

“Because their purpose in the world is to control the balance of mana.” Raven said.

Everyone focused on him when he spoke to which he smiled and took out his harp and began to play a gentle tune. “This is the knowledge we bards have learned through travels. As we are not bound by the chains of a nation we have travelled far and wide. The strongest of our people have gone past the land of exiles and met the countless races beyond those cursed lands. Those beyond are powerful, knowledgeable and arrogant. The little we learned was immense to the point that even the demon lord would seem insignificant. Artifacts as big as castles that fly in the air are said to be the greatest weapons. The material and knowledge of which come from dungeons of these promise lands. Little did they discover beyond that but they learned dungeons gather and control the flow of mana above the ground and pull excess below to protect the surface world from breeding titans and catastrophe like the primordial days of the world long past.” Raven sang and finished.

Everyone looked at each other a bit worried by the strangeness of the bard but the tale was very interesting.

“How much of that tale is true?” Luna asked.

“Most, there was indeed an expedition, close to 1000 bards pushed forward and only 50 returned with what little knowledge they could obtain from that place. They also brought a warning about the gap lands between the demon lands and the alliance. This gap is filled with the worst demonic beings one can imagine. The strongest of which alone might be able to destroy a nation alone with no one being able to stop it, maybe even not the demon lord himself.” Raven said in a much more serious tone compared to the store telling tone he used to sing.

The others swallowed hard and the rest of the time they ate in silence before getting up and proceeding.

This dungeon specifically has 12 floors before it was destroyed. Of these 12, more than half of the dungeon has already caved in slowly returning to the natural state of the earth after losing the effect of the magic of dungeons that harden the walls.

The further down, the larger the floors but also the more cave ins they had to find detour for. Finally though, they made it to the center cavern which was a large cavernous room at the 12th floor coming down for a ruined stairway.

“So this is a natural dungeons dungeon room. It looks very different from the one the young dungeon built.” I say.

“Well you can’t really compare a 1 floor dungeon to a 12 floor one you know.” Misaki said scoffing at me.

“True.” I replied and looked around until i saw a large fist sized indent at the back wall. “That must be where the dungeon core was once placed.”

We walk over and examine the perfectly round hole. That said, around it all were several deep blade scars on the wall clearly showing what had destroyed the core and in a very not to nicely manner.

“Now let’s see what changes happens.” I said taking the pen and putting it into the hole. “Archive dungeon.”

WOOSH!

Suddenly the book flashes and opens before rapidly spinning the pages that glowed brightly. It seemed like it had almost infinite amount of pages before mana gathered and shot out dozens upon dozens of runes.

I took a step back while we watched those runes float around spinning and slowly gather and get surrounded by a film of mana. This glowing orb of runes lowered and fit into the hole on the wall suddenly releasing a pulse onto the wall behind it.

After a few moments the room began to light up naturally as many jutting stones on the walls and ceiling began to break off a shell revealing a kind of crystal.

You have archived dungeon core room. Time until entire dungeon has been archived, 6 hours. Scanning dungeon core room.

“Wha! Six hours to archive the entire dungeon!” i exclaim.

The others also begin to talk all together but the calmest was Charlotte.

“Guys. Maybe there is more to it.” she said.

Her calm words caused everyone that was close to yelling to pay attention. “Maybe it is because each corridor, each room and such need to be repaired or something.” She said.

They others frowned but i suddenly thought of something, “The network. It will probably take 6 hours for the entire dungeon to get enough mana to activate the energy network needed to archive the entire dungeon into the book.” I said.

“That indeed makes much sense.” Raven nodded, “What do you pertain to do until that point?” he asked.

“Hmm, we already had a long annoying trek down, at most we can do is get a proper rest and wait. Guardian, what do you think?” I asked specifically the creature that sensed the dungeon best.

“The dungeon shall reactivate, many structural problems might happen, it might be best to leave to another dungeon. As the dungeon core room is already part of the dungeon, i would suggest master to leave the room for safety. It is unknown of the water of the lakes and rivers existing in this dungeon will flow naturally until the dungeon is completely repaired.” He said.

As soon as he said these words, everyone felt a rumbling and sound of water.

“Shit!” i shouted and instantly open my hand towards the dungeon book that flew to my hand and disregarding the fact that they were in another dungeon, a gate opened up with a thought. “Run!” i shouted and everyone, including the minions, ran into the newly opened dungeon entrance with me at the back closing it off somehow.

Not 10 seconds later, a torrent of water suddenly blazed through the opening and quickly filled the room. Even though there was only one door, there was a kind of magic that allowed the air to flow into the walls meaning the water had free rein to rise to the ceiling.

Very soon the room was filled along with all the floors up to the 6th where the first lake was formed.

Inside the other dungeon, we all laid down huffing in fear as cold sweat covered our backs. We gasp for air to help calm our beating hearts.

“T-To think that water would randomly flood like that.” I said through breaths.

Before anyone could reply a snort cold snort came from behind us towards the back of the room. It made me open my eyes and look around.

We were in a small stone room about 6 meters in diameter and while looking around i noticed something at the back wall which made me blink before i looked at my book where i saw an identical version. One half of the dungeon core was on the wall meaning we had jumped into the dungeon of the newly bound dungeon core.

The core on the wall began to give off a glow. “You are very stupid for a dungeon maker aren’t you.” a young child’s voice came from the core.

“Huh?” i exclaimed.

The voice also drew the attention of the others who looked his way.

“You mortal beings are all really strange, did you not hear my words or am i speaking in improper common mortal language?” he said again.

“No… no i am just surprised we are here… and that you can talk.” i said.

“Of course i can speak human, which dungeon core cannot? Still, once more, you are stupid, why would you reactivate a dungeon without accounting for the fact that you lack all the needed structures that once existed to properly run it.” he asked.

“W-what do you mean?” i asked.

A deep sigh came from the core. “You mortals.” he mumbled, “All dungeon’s aren’t simply things pieced together at will. We can’t say ‘i want water to run here or fill this corner of the room’ without having an entrance and exit that naturally flows to keep that level of water you desire. You also need a source and deposit route. Every dungeon is every respect is a masterpiece of nature balanced perfectly after countless experiments and countless failures to get the result we desire. Of course, small dungeons do not care for that in this environment and simple want safety so they don’t focus on details and just grow until it is safe enough to start doing small detail changes to produce special creatures and improve the conditions of your dungeon.” He said.

The young childish voice speaking about something no one understood was such a heavy contrast that it caused them all to freeze, naturally the dolls and puppets did not but the party was transfixed.

“Are you mortals dead?” the dungeon asked confused.

“Um… sorry we were… just so surprised.” Charlotte said politely.

“At what?” the dungeon asked.

“At… everything you said.” She replied blushing.

The dungeon sighed deeply, “I figured mortals would not understand.” He muttered and began to mutter to himself a while, “Fine, let me explain taking that mess up you did. The dungeon reactivated and in turn, things in the dungeon began to work but the damage had caused many collapses, you are all with me correct?” he asked.

After seeing a nod he continued,

“Good, now imagine you have a dry spring block, suddenly water appears and comes out at full power but the collapse previously mentioned had covered the main exit that would have drained the water to another section of the dungeon. What will happen?” he asked.

“It will start to flood.” Misaki said.

“Correct, now imagine all the water in the dungeon suddenly start to flow once more at that pace.” He said.

Everyone suddenly scowled as they finally understood partially what he was talking about.

“Good it seems your inferior brains finally understood what i am talking about. As mentioned, the dungeon’s water flow was restored making it pull water from its source by the natural flow of water in the dungeon was heavy obstructed making it impossible to return the water outside the dungeon. This is one of the mastery of dungeons building. We build natural environments which can sustain life. Food, water, healing herbs, all the basic resources are all meant to breed life to provide protection for ourselves. We can’t make a simple cave because nothing will be able to survive. Even the most basic dungeon has moss to sustain bugs and draw a few bug eaters until carnivores appear.” he said.

“You all must be really loved by spirits.” Luna suddenly said.

“Yes, more or less. My parents call them pesky because they appear around the 2nd floor constantly begging for us to make them a home. The easiest to deal with is those air spirits, they help produce the breathable air flow the dungeons have that keep the dust and musk from building up.” he said.

“Wait! Wait!” I suddenly get up and hold my head. “We were talking about this before, do dungeons intentionally make themselves invadable?” i asked

“Invadable? No we make ourselves livable genius, did you not hear me before? The bard was correct when he told you the story. We gather mana to keep it from overfilling the overworld. How i know this is because my parents and I are a few century old and dungeons have special powers to connect to networks of other dungeons to obtain knowledge.” he said. “Now the second reason is to preserve the races of the world and breed new ones to keep the cycle of evolution rolling.” he said.

The information was all so complex that it completely baffled everyone. Feeling a headache, i personally decided that i needed a rest. After some experimenting i found out how to open and close doors between my own dungeons even when there is none open. This is a new ability gained after binding the first dungeon as a way to hide. Naturally other dungeon makers can possibly find us but since there are no others it is a great way to hide.

We each went to our own rooms and waited for the dungeon to finish archiving before opening the dungeon from the entrance to leave.