“Achooo!” Charles, his eyes red and watery, covers his nose with a silk handkerchief. Years ago, he had felt deeply disturbed about his occasional sneezing. An undead getting sick? Preposterous. However, among his travels he met an Awakened with almond eyes who shared a piece of superstition with him. In the Awakened’s home world, people sneeze despite not being sick. This has to do with people talking about them behind there back, the Awakened claimed.

Charles puts the reminiscing of past adventures aside for another time. An immortal such as he gets plenty of time to remember the past. In the shadows of majestic mountains and towering trees, he walks alongside his son, Henry. Sunlight flits through the leaves of the bohemian trees, but does not dare approach the duo. A cacophony of color inhabits the path they walk. Flowers light up the green and brown forest with specks of bright tones. The mountains provide a backdrop of cool blue, their snowcapped peaks could almost be mistaken for clouds.

“Henry, please repeat what Elizabeth sent you about your brother’s adventures. I want it fresh in my mind when we talk to your Uncle,” Charles breaks the peaceful silence.

“Mmm,” Henry agrees, taking a moment to organize the information in his mind. “After his Champion began to assimilate floors, the Dungeon Mas- I mean, Uncle Zargir- Uh, Uncle Zughe-“

“Just call him Uncle Zed,” Charles puts Henry out of his misery. “He stubbornly sticks to his ancient name, but he knows it’s hard for most to say. I’m sure he won’t mind.”

“Alright, Uncle Zed then,” Henry smiles. “Uncle Zed decided to test Snowflake, which you already know. Snowflake rushed through the floors and fell into a previously non-activated trap. I asked around and that trap was activated on accident. It was a group activation, along with all the other traps. Anyway, that is when the, uh, incident with Ra’hel happened.”

“Ah yes, Ra’hel,” Charles rolls the name on his tongue as if trying to decide how it tastes. “A pity about her. I would’ve loved to have a granddaughter.”

“Don’t blame yourself Father,” Henry objects. “She was out of control! No matter what we tried, she was overcome by her primal instincts. You did what you had to! She was a liability to the family!”

“Yes, yes, I know Henry,” Charles responds in soothing tones. “Besides, if what you say is true I may get a granddaughter after all! A powerful one at that. Tell me more about her situation.”

“Right, okay. Ka’ie is the Insect Queen from the last Supremacy War. She was a player in Auntie Xyrp-“ Henry struggles to pronounce the name,.

“Just call her Auntie X when you’re talking to me. Never to her face through,” Charles puts his son out of his misery. “Your Auntie X is set in the old ways. To this day, I still don’t think she has forgiven me for becoming a vampire. Anyway. Enough about that, tell me about Ka’ie.”

“Yes, Father,” Henry agrees. He snags a low hanging flower, growing from vines entangled in a branch. Their path is littered with such flowers and he could resist plucking one no longer. His father had taught him to appreciate art and beauty in all forms. After deeply inhaling the flower’s fresh fragrance, he continues. “She fought for Auntie X in the last Supremacy War, but she used underhanded tactics. Uncle Zed took exception to her abusing the rules of the game, so he locked her up in a sub-dungeon as punishment.”

“And Snowflake struck a deal with her?” Charles prompts.

“She wanted one of his party to Soul-bind her to change her Source signature,” Henry twirls the flower between his fingers, eyeing a mountain cave in the distance. “After being rejected, she summoned an army to kill them. Snowflake, instead of fighting her, offered her his blood instead.”

A long sigh parts Charles’ lips, escaping into the gorgeous scenery. “Although that was a clever solution, your brother worries me a little. He will never survive if he doesn’t learn to stand up for himself. He hasn’t accessed the true power of our Blood or his Core. My poor wayward son, making life hard for himself.”

“To be fair,” Henry stands up for his youngest brother. “He has had attainment in the realm of ice magic. Also, using emotions to fuel his magic? A novel idea! It reminds me a lot of what berserkers do.”

“Don’t get any ideas,” Charles chides. “That is forbidden magic he is playing around with. I haven’t put a stop to it for two reasons. First, your brother’s stats and attainments are too weak to do any real damage. Second, I hope that the process of sorting it out himself will strengthen him mentally and emotionally.”

Charles’ lecturing tone breaks into a chuckle, “Besides, taking over Floor Masters with emotional flames is hilarious! Those snobs are always acting so snotty! To think they were defeated by mere emotions! What a joke.”

Henry laughs along with his father, poking fun at the fallen Floor Masters. Their laughs echo along the mountain valleys, scaring flocks of six winged birds into flight. As they get nearer to the cave, Henry’s laughter dwindles. His demeanor becomes noticeably nervous.

“Father… May I stay outside while you talk to Uncle Zed?” Henry asks with downcast eyes.

“Oh come on, your Uncle Zed isn’t so bad!” Charles insists. “I’ll even ask him to take human form, would that help?”

A reluctant Henry shuffles his way into the gigantic cave mouth, following in his father’s footsteps. The cave floor slopes downward, glowing boulders embedded in the cave walls light the way forward. The deeper they descend into the cave, the warmer it becomes. After what seems like miles of walking, Charles humming a little tune and Henry in nervous silence, they reach their destination.

In a wide room with soaring ceilings, the meet ‘Uncle Zed.’ An entire wall of the room is dedicated to screens showing the situation of each floor of the dungeon, but in multiple. Each variation of the screen represents the dimension that the version of that floor occupies. They are color coded for easy recognition. A colossal, scaled beast occupies the center of the room. Long serpentine tail, sharp fangs and teeth, bat-like wings, and glowing yellow eyes are the most striking features of this beast. The dragon is frivolously swiping a claw across a handheld screen, the contents hidden from view.

“Brother! I see you are adapting to technology quite nicely,” Charles grins. “Would you mind shrinking down so we can have a chat?”

“I’d be a fool to not take advantage of the luxuries these Awakened have brought to our world,” the dragon rumbles. “Why don’t you take your natural form and we can talk like we used to?”

Charles makes eye contact with the dragon, signaling toward Henry with his head. Zed rolls his eyes, but complies with the request. The dragon wraps his massive wings around his body and with a twist he shrinks down. His wings fall away to form a cape that frames the full plate armor his human form is wearing. Although, calling it a human form is perhaps a bit generous. Standing at an intimidating nine feet tall and wearing head to toe draconic armor doesn’t exactly scream ‘human.’

“Hello Uncle Zed,” Henry says politely, if forced.

Uncle Zed, the ancient dragon that he is, didn’t miss the awkward body language. “Don’t worry,” he whispers in a dragon’s conspiratorial whisper. Coincidently, dragons are awful at whispering. No volume control. “I’ve always thought that your ‘Father’s’ insistence on this family relationship dynamic is weird. He hoards family like your ‘Aunt’ hoards gold. Do you know why he insisted on occupying such a low level in the Dungeon?”

“I’d don’t think he ever mentioned it,” Henry replies, grimicaing at Uncle Zed's misinterpretation of his nervous behavior. While true that Charles never mentioned it, Henry knows of this fact. Uncle Zed talks about it every time he sees him.

“He is using his position in the Dungeon to recruit promising family members! Cleverness and greed befitting one of our kind!” Uncle Zed's laughter shakes the room.

“Hahaha, he’ll find out soon enough! He should get to his second Rank Up and awaken his draconic blood before too long!” Charles gangs up on Henry along with his brother. Charles and Zed laugh and discuss the merits of being dragons, while making things awkward for Henry. Henry’s eyes go wide as the brothers casually discuss whether an influx of vampire/dragon hybrids will cause the gods declare war against them. They don’t seem worried about the possibility. After a while they get to the crux of today’s matter.

“Zed, I wanted to talk to you about your newest nephew and his, uh, daughter,” Charles broaches the subject.

“You know how I operate,” Zed rubs his fingers together in the universal sign for money. “Make me an offer and I’ll turn a blind eye to the insect escaping its cage.”

“Not just that,” Charles gives Zed a sly glance. “I want to talk about making him an official Floor Master, for all the floors he conquers. It’s only fair to reward such grand ambition.”

Zed scratches the bottom of his helm where his chin would be, considering the idea. “He is too weak right now. He needs to prove himself before I can give him that sort of responsibility…”

“Don’t be stingy brother!” Charles laughs. “Bring out the wine! Let’s talk business. I’m sure we can come to an agreement!”

***

Ka’ie wasn’t willing to share any information about my family, but she did let us go without a fight. She even gave us access to a secret passage that brought us to the end of the tenth floor. I left her a vial of my blood, as promised.

Unfortunately, we… what is that phrase? Out of the grill and into the coals? Something like that. Long story short, things got worse. A lot worse.

I may or may not have tendency to ignore those blue screens that pop up all the time. A lot of the time I’ll dismiss the screens without even looking at them. This tendency may or may not have come back to bite me in the ass. Hard. It is biting me in the ass hard. I read the screens, a tad too late.

Your Champion has conquered level 10! Level up!

Your Champion has called your leadership into question. Your authority has been challenged! All authority suspended until conflict is resolved.

Two little boxes with huge consequences. If I had read these, I would’ve known A, my supposed Champion is waiting for me. And I would’ve known B, they are not friendly. They say forewarned is forearmed, but in this case, it isn’t so bad. I doubt that there is anything I could’ve done to prepare me for the problem I’m facing.

It looks like all the creatures I have faced in this Dungeon, barring the insects, have gathered to face me. Liches, hobgoblins, slimes, direwolves, etc., etc. There are a few key differences though. The most obvious being that every one of these creatures in on fire. They aren’t screaming in pain, so that is good I guess. This fire is familiar. This is the fire I fed all my negative emotions about Quinn having a husband into. Our relationship has been going so well recently. I didn’t think these emotions would resurface. Especially not like this.... Fuck, bad jokes as a nervous twitch. I really wish humor could lighten this mood.

Another significant difference would be the four creatures that are attacking my companions. They exude a higher tier of raw power and finesse than the other creatures. They must be the Floor Masters I’ve heard so much about. I’d like to take a good look at them to compare them to Charles, but I have more pressing concerns.

“Creator!” A human shaped black flame confronts me, speaking in a weird mix of regular speech and the crackling of flame. This one must be my Champion. The concentration of flame covering it is greater than the others. The flames are so dense they are solid. So solid that the set of four wings on its back is holding it aloft.

“You abandoned me!” The figure shouts, it’s voice full of emotion. “You left me to die! But I fought to live. I devoured all who entered my sight! I gained a sense of self, a sense of purpose! I gave myself a name, because you couldn’t be bothered to do even that. I consumed the rationality of those you see before you. All of this for one purpose. My whole life has led to this moment. Creator, I sentence you to death for your crimes!”

Your Champion has initiated a duel! Defeat them in one on one combat to maintain your dominant position. Warning: The winner of the duel holds the rights to the loser’s life.