Arthus quietly walked behind Ahri, every step he took deepened the feeling of apprehension pressing down on his heart. They have been walking through the dungeon while Ahri casually explained the features of the dungeon, just like when they were touring the safe city. Nothing about this felt right.

The passed through the first floor rather uneventfully, the only things of note were several rare plants Ahri pointed out and their uses, a few crystal ore deposits that have an unusually high purity and some animals with nice pelts or meat.

The second floor was similar to the first, there were trees, plants, and animals just like the first floor, but the flora was far denser, the already dim light on the first floor became even more gloomy and Arthur was able to spot a few traps and giant spiders.

Once Arthus was on the third floor his instincts war screaming at him that something was wrong, he could sense hostile creatures in the dark, mostly large cats, but they weren’t attacking the duo at all, he made sure to make several “openings” that such predators would find irresistible, a turned back here and panicked stumble there, however, they made no move to attack.

This eerie peace made Arthus nervous more so than if they all attacked him, that he could take care of, instead, he felt like he was being stalked by a predator and the large cat he sensed jumping through shadows did nothing to ease that paranoia.

He thought ‘perhaps I should attack first before something truly troublesome comes up”. Even if he still hasn’t recovered from his injuries he was confident in being able to win this fight, before his injuries he was power wise, equal to Merlin, although he isn’t as powerful now, he still isn't someone the Duchies were confident in beating let alone a few cats.

The fourth floor was more peaceful for Arthur, at first. The cat jumping through the shadows seemed to take a liking to making him uncomfortable, moving from one ambush position to another through the shadows, however, one over-sized predator was far better fifty thought Arthur.

Soon that slight feeling of relief dispersed like a gentle mist being blown away by a hurricane when he spotted something strange, a small frog with bright colors, it didn’t seem dangerous, but his divine body had a natural aversion to poisonous things and this frog almost made him jump like a frightened housemaid.

Arthus’ misery only intensified when he found himself wading through thigh-high swamp water on the fifth floor. The water itself wasn’t a problem, but the waterline and the occasional pair of eyes floating just above the surface was the problem, by this point, he already wanted to go back to the paperwork mountain, well maybe not, but at least come back with a cup.

Then the sixth floor appeared and it almost made him wish he didn’t enhance his senses. Something massive swam underneath the boat they conveniently found and his immediate reaction was to say, “we’re gonna need a bigger boat”, causing Ahri to chuckle.

Arthus was more than a little irritated and asked Ahri what this was about several times, whether it was about the dungeon creatures strange behavior or their destination Ahri kept annoyingly tight-lipped.

Several hours and a swim after entering the dungeon Arthus arrived at the destination.

The room was a cylinder several meters wide, enhanced dungeon stone lined the walls and the only furniture in the room was a stone round table with three chairs each an equal distance apart.

Arthus entered the room after Ahri, it was pitch black and he could sense another person in the room other than Ahri.

He had a minor ability to sense someone's mana levels which was a rather unique ability with few uses, however, considering the ridiculous power his normally insensitive power was picking up, he was sure of the other party’s identity.

Just as he was about to call out to his teacher, Ahri lit up the small room with a light spell and his words were caught in his throat.

Arthus didn’t expect that there was an existence that had such absurd mana levels other than Merlin, so when the sight of a fully armored female his mind blanked out for a moment.

Once Ahri sat down and he calmed down his mind he began sizing up the other party. First, they had a private room in a dungeon, which was unique all of its own, Arthus thought ‘no wonder Merlin was interested in something over here and didn’t want anyone interfering, such powerful beings can be very dangerous if handled poorly’.

Second, Arthus could tell the woman’s armor was custom fit for her and even enchanted with runes he couldn’t recognize, so It was likely she was either a dwarf or was friends with them, either option made him wary.

Third, the mana in this room is so dense and pure Arthus was sure no normal creature could survive here for long, but considering the other party’s absurd power this rooms existence made sense, there isn’t any way for a person to have such a high amount of mana without something of this level, more importantly, Arthus wondered ‘how powerful could this woman get if she continued using this room. Perhaps I coul--’

Arthus’ thoughts were interrupted when the bare wall opposite his seat abruptly turned into a door and opened, a man at least eight feet tall of towering muscle walked into the room. Once inside the man waved his hand and the door returned into a rock.

Between the new woman and Ahri a chair materialized out of thin air, although chair wasn’t a description Arthus would use, he would call it a throne if his mind was currently functioning properly.

The throne was made of pure mana crystal, Arthus couldn’t even guess how much mana it could unleash, and the man in front of him made it appear just to use as a seat.

“Drink” said the man in an inhumanly deep voice that snapped Arthus out of his stupor, before he knew it there was hot tea in-front of everyone, Arthus didn’t feel anything from the drink so he obliged unknown man.

Movement on the corner of his eye caught his attention, the woman removed her helmet to drink her beverage, Arthus paused for a brief moment after seeing her face, however, this pause was brief. He was still a king so beautiful woman wasn’t something that would keep his attention like making things materialize out of thin air would.

Several minutes went by without anyone saying anything, instead, they just quietly sipped their tea.

Meanwhile, Arthus was almost sweating in his chair, it didn’t take him long to figure out who, or rather, what, the creature in front of him was. Merlin had emphasized the importance of whatever was happening in the new dungeon city and to keep silent about it, but simple emphasis wasn’t adequate for such a thing. There was a sentient dungeon sitting across from him and he only came to know that it existed in his Kingdom as he was facing it directly.

Arthus’ emotions quickly switched between elated and depressed, he was one of the few people in the kingdom to have read the remaining records about the first and only sentient dungeon.

(history lesson flashback lol)

The first dungeon was made during one of mankind's earliest recorded eras, just after a major event where most of the worlds advanced civilizations mysteriously vanished, mana enhanced monsters took over most of the land most of which haven't been taken back till this day,

During the initial days of the new era marked by the disappearance of most of the human population, hordes of beasts swept the remaining nations leaving nothing but death and destruction behind, several mage Kings came together and using their countries combined magical knowledge made a core.

This core was the perfect conduit for magic and they put their most advanced magics inside, however, the consciousness that the core formed didn’t want anything to do with its creators which it viewed as inferior.

Thus the mage Kings were forced to destroy the consciousness and use one of their own souls to control the core, however, this would mean the controller's body would die leaving them stuck inside the core.

The mage Kings voted and the chosen one used his soul to control the core. The first thing he did was to connect to a dragon vein in the earth with the mage Kings help, then using the nearly unlimited power he utilized each mage kings most powerful spells against the beast hordes.

The beast hordes were quickly destroyed and the mage Kings joined together to create the first Magedom.

Several hundred years went by and the core was tired of being used as a mine and resented the mage Kings, and the populous for forgetting about his sacrifice, so used his considerable magic to bury himself deep into the ground away from those who he despised.

However, the mage Kings wouldn’t let their key to wealth and immortality simply just leave, so they dug underground to find the core.

Battle ensued and neither side came out on top, so the core conceded that it will create wealth for those who deserve it and created the first dungeon. Anyone with the skill and the will to fight with their life on the line could collect this wealth, and this deal was fine for a time, until the mage Kings grew old and when they expected to be given youth again by the core, they were rejected because they didn’t deserve it according to the core.

Fighting began again, however this time the core had been gaining strength from all those who died in his dungeon, very quickly the difference in power became clear and the mage Kings were forced to retreat with 2 less in number.

Infuriated and afraid of death the mage Kings began to create a new core, one that would never rebel against “humanity”, however, with fewer mage kings and so much magical knowledge lost they were unable to create something powerful enough to combat the original core.

Once it became obvious that they would never succeed they sabotaged the dragon vein connected to the core, they then set the “new conditions”, either the core granted them youth and wealth again like the old times, or they would set off the dragon vein in a cascading explosion that would destroy them both.

Naturally the core was infuriated, it sacrificed itself to become what it is, then it saved humanity and got nothing in return except brief glory that was quickly swept away by the sands of time, it gave unimaginable prosperity to the human race and when it wanted to quietly leave, the ungrateful humans tried to stop it, after all of this the core still conceded and gave wealth to humanity, but for an equal trade this time, and still this wasn’t enough, the mage Kings wanted it to be a slave for eternity.

The core pretended to accept their demands until the moment when they let their guards down, instead of gifting a small amount of life energy to renew their youth, the core flooded its stores of life energy into the frail human bodies.

The great cities above rocked from the blasts and soon great swarms of demons poured out of the dungeon.

Once the cores rage was quelled it decided to never interact with mortals again, it pushed itself down the dragon veins into the center of the planet and legend is that all current dungeons are a seed of that original core.

Arthus shivered as he remembered the details of the records, a sentient dungeon could either mean an age of unprecedented prosperity, or the need for the creation and naming of a new age, he didn’t know which.