Alice smiled as she looked through the first floor it was like a vast desert full nightmares. But there was one massive problem her monsters weren't getting along. The population was going down too quickly she looked her dungeon window and worried about the future.

Dungeon Name- Unnamed Core Name- Alice Species- Roaming Dungeon Titles- The First of a Species, The Roaming Dungeon Level-1 Floors- 2 Max Floors- 2 Rooms- 70 Monsters Count- 3,000 Boss Count- 0 Mana Capacity- Infinite/1000 (Reach Maximum Capacity to Level) (Mana Level will revert to normal once the second floor is complete) Mana Regen- 25 per hour

Skills-

Floor Creation, Room Creation, Auto-Rebirth, Absorption, Synthesis, Expansion, Item Assignment, Monster Creation, Boss Creation, Evolution, Environment Creation, Dimensional Entrance Creation, Dungeon Awareness, Safe Zone Creation, Auto Management, Monster Integration, Dungeon Store

Skill Store-

None

Monsters Types- Monster Name(Mana Cost)

Plant- Light Moss(5), Heat Trees(50),

Animal Mutations- Ambush Snake(50), Behemoth Scorpion(150), Trap Spiders(100), Heat Spiders(75), Sand Cats(40),

Monster- Sand Goblins(200)

Alice had released 4,500 monsters all together but for them to go down so much wasn't good. Then she noticed the Auto-Rebirth Skill she had and looked at the description.

Auto-Rebirth (Grade Unique Legendary)

You are a core that will roam the world and leave your dungeon unattended. To help maintain your home assign locations where your monsters will be reborn once there are no threats in a room. Only applies to monsters you directly create or claim, all monsters born in the dungeon by natural means are unaffected. Plants will regrow if destroyed in the same location as planted.

Alice jumped with glee and screamed: "In your face, other dungeons cheat skills for the win." She assigned points in each room and watched the population even out at around 3,500 but was sure as the monsters spread out and established them selfs it would rise.

At ease, Alice turned her attention to next the floor that would become her home.

"Ok time to make a home but it would be a waste to make it the entire floor."

"I have an idea lets just make it an oversized room."

"Not a bad plan but how do you plan on defending it when people show up. The first floor is deadly for normal people, but I could kill everything on that floor with my pinky, and we can't make it a total death trap either. Getting destroyed by kingdoms and all that crap."

"Let's build the floor, then make a maze off to the side, we can smash anyone who walks in to jelly haha."

"I like it; all the mean people can't get to us."

"I can't believe that dumb ass had a good idea."

"I know right why am I even here."

"Doesn't matter let's make that floor like a forest in the old U.S. we always liked looking at those."

"What's with you today you're supposed to be an idiot I don't like this."

"Whatever Alice lets go."

"Seriously what the fuck is with the voices lately."

Alice cleared out the dirt and was again stopped at 100 miles across and 1 mile high. She already had an idea of what she wanted to do with this floor. She planted maple, white ash, and a variety of other trees that grew in New York State's forests. She covered the ground with ivy and other small shrubs and plants. She also planted the light moss on the ceiling of the floor and created another type called Rain Moss. As the name implied they absorbed mana and moisture in the air and every few days would release it in the form of rain.

Alice then built a wall surrounding a 3-mile area where she would make her home. She used the first 2 miles of her area to create a labyrinth. She covered the walls with ivy and the ground with tall grass and flowers. It felt like walking through a grove, in all its untamed beauty but hid all of its dangers. Alice bought a specific monster for this part of the dungeon, a forest spirit.

Forest spirits were usually docile and maintained their groves, but Alice was going to change that in an extream way. She began with its body; normally the spirits possessed small trees molding them into a crude body. But Alice decided that the spirits would claim the vines around them instantly and launch a surprise attack on anyone walking by. She upped their strength, speed and durability as much she could. Then shaped their bodies to be 5ft tall and have spears, swords, shields, or claws as hands. She then gave them one goal, kill everyone who comes into the labyrinth. They would act as the primary force in defense of her home; she named them the Forest Guard.

To finish her maze, she evolved poisonous mold to release spores whenever someone disturbed it; these were named Spore Mothers. To finish the traps, she dug pitfalls with poison roots at the bottom and forest spirits that would manipulate vines like spears and impale anyone close by before they go in for the kill.

Alice wanted a back up for her defense and going along with the theme she wanted a Tree Man, but it wasn't in the dungeon store. She did find an Elder Forest Spirit, but she was blocked from buying it. So she did the next best thing she evolved her current forest spirit to possess large trees. She named them Oak Guard, they stood at 10ft tall and were stronger and more durable but were slower than the Forest Guard.

With her defense done Alice manipulated the stone around her and created a simple cottage, two floors with ivy growing up the side. It was simple and cozy looking, everything she wanted in a home. Alice smiled and spoke "Perfect."

With her home done she surveyed the remaining space. She wanted to keep it one massive room but knew it wouldn't be practical especially with the way her Auto-Rebirth skill worked. She decided to make rooms by making a few feet of dense forest separate the areas every few miles. Adventures could travel between rooms by simply walking between the trees, in the end, the floor ended up 46 rooms in all.

Alice decided to use wolfs, bears, goblins, and forest spirits as the monsters for this floor. The wolfs were evolved to be 4ft tall, as well as faster and more durable. The bears were evolved into tanks. They were slow, but they hit hard and wouldn't go down easily. They stood at 9ft on their hind legs and 5ft tall on all fours. The goblins were adjusted to be the same as the Sand Goblins except for being 3 and a half feet tall and have claws specifically for climbing trees. The forest spirits were made into weaker versions of the Forest Guard, she merely named them the Leaf Guard. She named the rest Pine Wolfs, Stone Bears, and Tree Goblins respectively.

Alice then decided to alter the floor geography to be rockier with caves and steep hills. This would give her monsters a place to live and her a place to hide loot. She then expanded a few of the caves into cave systems and made one last major evolution to her monsters. Their instincts were altered so they would fight cooperatively. Every adventure that would attempt this floor would either be killed, if they were weak or alone, or forced to join a party.

Alice released 3000 monsters for the general floor and another 400 to protect her labyrinth and house. With the second floor finished Alice received a notification.

Alert- Due to your second floor being completed the Unlimited Mana buff has been removed.

Alice smiled and said "Finally finished now let's see what happens when someone walks into this hell hole. I wonder if any of the food we planted tastes good. Eating with my mouth is going to be a nice change of pace instead of a constant IV drip."

A week passed, and in front of an old ruin, a group of Adventures was getting ready to make their way through a strange portal. 100 Adventures, 20 Knights of Asura, and 5 Court Mages had gathered by request of the king to survey the dungeon. A tall Elvish man with greenish hair and a look of worry plastered on his face stared at the swirling portal in front of them. Without averting his eyes, he began to speak to the woman next to him “I don't like this place, it just doesn't feel right for a dungeon. Sarah tell your knights to be careful in there.”

The woman covered in armor, Knight-Captain Sarah, responded “Oh come on don't be such a baby. The king even sent my Knights and the Court Mages out to help you. Pretty overkill in my opinion, all this for a new dungeon.”

“I don't know, this just doesn't look right I've been all over the continent, and I've never seen a dungeon like this. Even the air on this fucking place is different. Normally the mana gives you a chaotic feeling that anything could happen, what you'd expect from a child of Lyssa. But here it just feels; still, it's to calm for a dungeon. It feels like death.”

“Shit Erethon why the hell did you have to go and say that now. If anyone heard you, they'd lose their shit. You're the only one in the entire Kingdom with the Dungeon Conqueror class not to mention you're the highest ranking one here.”

"I know that's why I'm telling you, I'm a Middle A Rank, and I still don't like going into this newborn dungeon. Every single class skill I have is practically screaming at me to be careful in there, or we're all going to die.”

“God I thought you Wood Elves were supposed to be cheerful. Whatever I'll go get the men ready.”

A few minutes later Erethon was looking over his gathered men and begin to speak “Okay everyone we're about to head into the dungeon, and we all know what's at stake. The recent message about the Pale Rider has given the Draco Kingdom an excuse to build up there military. We need to determine if this dungeon is going to be an asset or if it needs to be destroyed. Myself and six B Rank’s will be the first ones to go in and will scout out the initial to terrain then circle back and get everyone. Until we get back you'll be under the command of the Knight Captain, am I understood?”

““Yes sir!””

The week passed quickly for Alice, she adapted to her new situation very well. The lack of physical and mental torture over the week made Alice excited for the future. Although she was getting impatient wondering when the kingdom would send someone to her dungeon. She hadn't been able to change anything because she simply didn't have the mana to do so. She'd been able to get to level 3 over the week but all the skills in the skill store we're beyond mana capacity.

Alice opened her dungeon screen and only saw one skill she could afford but was put off by the message next to it. "What the hell Lyssa."

Dungeon Name- Unnamed Core Name- Alice Species- Roaming Dungeon Titles- The First of a Species, The Roaming Dungeon Level-3 Floors- 2 Max Floors- 3 Rooms- 116 Monsters Count- 7,635 (Revivable-7,900) (Unrevivable-434) Boss Count- 0 Mana Capacity- 2600/4000 (Reach Maximum Capacity to Level) Mana Regen- 50 per hour

Skills-

Floor Creation, Room Creation, Auto-Rebirth, Absorption, Synthesis, Expansion, Item Assignment, Monster Creation, Boss Creation, Evolution, Environment Creation, Dimensional Entrance Creation, Dungeon Awareness, Safe Zone Creation, Auto Management, Monster Integration, Dungeon Store

Skill Store- Skill Name (Mana Price)

Item Alteration (8,000), Mental Communication (15,000), Dungeon Mine (40,000), Magic Imbuement (3,000), Skill Imbuement (3,000), Monster Core Creation (400,000)(2,000) From your favorite loving and insane chaos goddess Lyssa =), Item Shop (6,000)

Monsters Types- Monster Name(Mana Cost)

Plant- Light Moss(5), Heat Trees(50), Rain Moss (8), Spore Mother's (120)

Animal Mutations- Ambush Snake(50), Behemoth Scorpion(150), Trap Spiders(100), Heat Spiders(75), Sand Cats(40), Pine Wolfs (50), Stone Bears(120)

Monsters- Sand Goblins(200), Tree Goblins (220), Leaf Guard (300), Forest Guard (600), Oak Guard (800)

“Why do I feel like this skill will end up screwing me in the end.”

Monster Core Creation- Monster Core's are very rare mana stones that form in unique and powerful monsters. Monster cores are used for enchanting and some rare potions.

Alice didn't like this it seemed like a great deal being protected by the kingdom but that meant something else too. That every other country was going to come and try to kill or conquer her. But as it was right now, her dungeon only had plants that were of any real value, and she needed a money maker fast. Alice sighed and mumbled, "I hope you enjoy the show you bitch."

Confirm- Purchase skill Monster Core Creation (400,000)(2,000) Mana

Yes/No

"*Sigh* Yes."

Skill Acquired- Monster Core Creation- All monsters now have a Core's within them and will be reborn with a core inside them. Core's quality will be determined by the strength of the monsters they dwell in.

"Ok then let's hope we didn't completely screw ourselves."

"We definitely did dumb ass."

"*Sniff* Don't be mean to main Alice she is doing her best even if we're all going to die now."

"What the hell even you Alice."

"I must concur with other two you brought to much attention to us too early."

"Well fuck you guys."

"Yeah fuck those guys! Main Alice, I'm with you will just kill whoever comes after us."

"Wait the dumb ass agreed with me we really are screwed aren't we?"

""Yeah.""

"Hey just because I agree doesn-"

"What was that I feel weird."

"Well, fuck I think someone just went into the first floor. Way to go, main Alice, we really are screwed."

"Shut up you bitch there probably from the kingdom. All we need to do is show them were worth more alive than dead and were fine. We can even kill whoever come's into the labyrinth to show them it off limits."

"*Crying* I don't wanna die, make the mean people go away."

"Ya lets just smash them."

"No, we need to think this out. If we rush in like a moron were dead."

"Shut the fuck up you guys are only the voices I'll make the decisions so be quiet and let me think ass holes!"

"Fine no need to be such a bitch about it."

"Fuck off already!"

With the voices silent, she began to look through her own stats and figuring out what she going to do. She didn't know how she matched up to the people coming, but she did know all the monsters were fodder compared to her, even her Oak Guard were easy kills so just have to wait and see how they matched up. As for her skills she hadn't even bothered to test them out or read the descriptions. "Alice you moron you knew people were coming, but you didn't even plan . Do you have shit between your ears instead of a brain!"

"I told you fuckers to piss off already!" Alice opened her stats and began to read.

Name: Alice Race: Homunculus / Roaming Dungeon Level: 1 Exp: 0% Titles: Homunculus, The Tortured, The Freed, The Destroyer of Worlds, Child of Mania, The Pale Rider, The Slaughterer, World Traveler Class: Pale Rider (Unique G) Racial Skill: Body Enhancements, Deaths Eyes, Dungeon System Health: 1,675 Mana: 1,978 Health Regen: 12 per min Mana Regen: 9 per sec Strength: 145 Vitality: 80 Agility: 90 Reaction: 75 Intelligence: 140 Wisdom: 135 Blessings: Blessing of Mania

Elemental Mastery:

Earth-66% Fire-76%

Wind-59% Water-52%

Light-9% Dark-12%

Metal-7%, Death-1%

Resistance/ Endurance:

Physical- 85

Magical- 100

Stamina- 1200

Stamina Regen- 15 per sec

Journeys

Complete-

Journey of the Tortured, Journey of the Killer, Journey of the Freed, Journey on the Mad, Journey of the Dead Soul

Ongoing-

Journey of the One Loved by Gods 60%, Journey of the Insane 87%, Journey of the Shattered 43%, Journey of the Scythe Wielder 1%, Journey of the Chain User 1%, Journey of the Cruel 32%, Journey of the Merciful 3%, Journey of the Pale Rider 1%, Journey of a True Mage 56%

Skills-

Active Skills- True Suffering lv1, The Presence of Inevitability lv1, Message of the Rider , Summon Mount: Unnamed, Summon Weapon: Scythe of The End, Chains of Samsara lv1

Magic Skills- Expert Fire Magic, Advanced Earth, Wind, and Water Magic, Beginner Light, Dark and Metal Magic, Beginner Death Magic, Mana Manipulation lv54

Passive Skills- Pain Immunity, Soul Immunity , Mental Immunity

Alice could only see 4 skills that weren't self-explanatory, the skills True Suffering, The Presence of Inevitability, Message of the Rider, and Deaths Eyes. All her magic was easy enough to understand, as well as her passives and summoning abilities.

True Suffering lv1- You are one who had finished the Journeys of the Tortured and the Freed. You have experienced unimaginable pain in your body and mind, yet you live to continue your journey. You will always carry the weight of what your torturers have done to you, but now it has become your weapon against those who wish to bring you pain.

You invade the enemy's mind and force them to experience the pain you have felt. At lower levels all the pain is mental. At higher levels, the suffering becomes physical as wounds you were once given are inflicted onto enemies.

Cost- 10 mana per second

"Well shit, I wish I had this when I fought Walker that bitch died way too easy."

The Presence of Inevitability lv1- You are the Pale Rider, Maina's representative on the mortal worlds. You represent the end of all things, you are the end of all things. The air around you becomes still, then the mana becomes still, then the soul becomes still, and finally, life becomes still. Make all feel the inevitable presence of the end.

Your enemies feel the presence of the end first they fight in terror, then wallow in sadness and then finally they will accept the end. Lower level opponents will feel the end of their lives, the fear becomes acceptance. Higher level enemies will have their minds influenced and be more susceptible to attacks.

Cost- 5 mana and 5 stamina per second

"Ok cryptic as hell but sounds um... cool."

Message of the Rider - You are The Pale Rider and will spread your message to all without exception. The system itself will carry your words for all to see, let none question who you are.

Send a system message stating you are The Pale Rider and what have come to do. The message sent will be your thoughts while activating this skill.

Cost- None

"Ok, then this can help out by scaring the living shit out of them hopefully."

Deaths Eyes- You are the child of Maina with your mother's eyes see the life all around you. Look into one's very being and see what and who they truly are and represent none can hide from the eyes of death.

Look and see one's life force, can be used in conjunction with death magics life corroding effect. Also, see the true forms of those around you never be blocked by illusions and see the true intentions of another.

Cost- None

"I really hope this lets me see there stats screen or this is going to be useless. Anyway, let's see how these bastards are doing."

Erethon had already gotten over some initial shock of the sheer scale of the dungeon. His scouting party took over 2 hours, and he didn't even think that made it past the first half the floor. The thing had to be at least a hundred miles across. His men had already run into mutated goblins, scorpions, cat monsters, and snakes but nothing they couldn't handle. The dungeon was too massive to be a newborn Erethon had been to dozens of dungeons across the continent and was even the one who made the killing blow against the dungeon threatening his hometown, but he has never seen a dungeon quite like this one.

The dungeon provided good leather from the desert cats, and the shells of the Scorpions would make decent armor. Even the goblin corpses could be made into decent potions, but all in all this dungeon was fairly worthless except for one thing. The place had fucking put cores into every single one of its monsters. By the time they got back to bring the rest of the surveying force in he had already gotten over 50 of cores.

His forces contained 100 Adventures 4 A ranks, 18 B ranks 30 C ranks and 48 D ranks which were mostly composed of Craftsman from the Adventures Association. Along with the 20 knights that were on the cusp of hitting A rank and 5 Court Mages that were considered high B ranked. When he told Knight Captain Sarah what he had found she nearly sent all her men in to kill everything they could and bring the cores. If not for Erethon reminding her where they were.

Erethon began to give orders “Listen up everyone from what I can tell this floor is survivable for E Ranks, but you need to be high D to low C to make it through with no deaths. I want squads to form up around the A Ranks, or B ranks we will make our way through the dungeon slowly documenting everything we find. You all have 8 hours to make it to the other side of this desert floor with your findings if we don’t see you by then I’ll consider you dead.”

They broke into 22 groups and spread out, but Erethon couldn’t help but feel something was off about this place ignoring the dungeon cores even these monsters were to mutated. It takes a while for a dungeon to have even a handful mutants but for every one of these monsters to be mutated it just wasn’t right.

Alice looked on in surprise and horror. The adventures were decimating everything they could find. They slaughtered the monsters and were even chopping down the heat trees so they could watch them regrow. She expected most of this but it still royally pissed her off. Some of the stronger ones were even jumping over the canyons “What the shit, can’t these ass holes even follow the rules. I’m going to make something special for those canyons.”

But her monsters were still putting up a decent fight she was shocked to see how the goblins were using their new intelligence. The goblins formed crude villages around almost every cactus that wasn’t claimed by another monster. They bred Sand Cats like humans bred dogs, hunted her spiders for webs and one of them had even attacked a few weaker adventures while riding a scorpion. The little guy managed to kill 4 of them before a strong mage cut them in half with a wind spell.

But this showed her another thing she was getting a lot of mana from their deaths. Those 4 gave her nearly 500 mana right off the bat and she going to spend it all right now. She went to the store and bought a Hornet and a Hornet Queen. She upped the hatching speed of the eggs and more cactuses on the canyon walls. She evolved the Hornets themselves to be faster and more poisonous. It wiped clean the rest of her mana, but it was so worth it to watch the adventures run for dear life when they jumped the canyons. She named them Fire Jackets because their venom was meant to cause pain rather than death.

“Take that bitches no more jumping over my canyons!”

After a few kills from her Trap Spider’s and she had the mana to fill the canyons she put ten queens around the islands she would buy one for every island by the end of this, but still, every colony would end up in the 10’s of thousands.

As the hours passed Alice saw fewer deaths, they lost 16 of the weak ones, but that was only due to greed or stupidity. The adventures had figured out all the plants regrew almost instantly and had taken to capturing the cactuses from the goblins. They even avoided the poison ones easily, and if they did drink any, they had potions to counter the effects. If the adventures were at the level, Alice had intended the floor to challenge it would be a good fight but for now, it was just a one-sided slaughter.

“Wow, Alice look at this mess they're about to come knocking on our doorway wat to fuckin go.”

“*Sob* No Alice keep the mean people away don't let them destroy our home!”

“Quiet you two you're not helping. I suggest that we push them towards the exit on the last floor and pray they don’t find the labyrinth.”

“No, let's bring them in and then poison them all.”

“No dumb ass we need some of them to live, or we're screwed. The smart one is right we have to try push to the exit, let's just hope they don’t get too curious about us.”

Captain Sarah was sitting next to the portal leading to the second floor she let some of her knights go down and scout but with strict orders to run if anything happens. Erethon was waiting for the rest of the surveying force. They only had 15 minutes, but two groups were missing. Sarah spoke up and asked, “What wrong Erethon even if they're not back it's within expectations.”

Erethon turned to look her the and said “When you go into an unsurveyed dungeon like this count yourself lucky if more than a quarter of your men make it back. But I’m not worried about that it’s the fact that dungeon adapted to us so quickly. The Hornets weren’t there before, and they were mutated.”

“What do you mean they weren’t there before?”

“When we scouted they didn’t exist in those canyons, and they feel like a response for breaking the rules here, the men jumped the canyons after all. Plus there's no boss here that means this dungeon is still an infant. This place doesn’t make any sense, and the mana is too different, it's stagnant like it's dead, and what the hell is with these portals it makes no sense.”

“Get to the point already.”

“This dungeon is sentient that's what I’m saying. I know it’s there extremely rare but I’ve been in a few, and this is definitely one them.”

More than a little annoyed Sarah retorted “I still don’t see why you're ready to shit yourself that means it realizes why we're here and as long as we follow its rules were fine. Even I know sentient dungeons care for their lives more than killing everyone inside. The king will likely be even happier about this place, and he might even try to make contact the fuckin thing. Now calm down already.”

“Shut up already and listen to what I'm saying the thing is reacting to us all dungeons are sentient it just take hundreds of years for them to have a level intelligence. But this one is a newborn and is already intelligent.”

“Erethon you need to get your shit together now, or I’m taking command. We know we lost 12 D ranks already, but that's better than we could ever hope for. So we're going to go down to the second floor beat it, locate the core and leave. It’s obvious we can't destroy this gold mine, so if the dungeon is sentient, it should realize that.”

“You're missing the point this dungeon isn’t normal!”

“No shit it isn’t, and look while you were having a meltdown the other two squads got here. I count four missing, so that makes 16 still this is pretty good for us. Now come on you paranoid bastard let’s get this over with.”

Erethon didn’t say a word and just walked through the portal he just wanted to get out of this place. Everyone was surprised at the changing scenery, but it was to be expected, dungeons never stayed the same for long. Erethon told his men to wait for the scouts to return. They made it back but one was missing, and it was unnerving for everyone. They were Captain Sarah’s Knights and were high B at least and for one not to make it back was a bad sign for the floor. They didn’t know at the time, but that knight had wandered in the Labyrinth died at the hands of the Forest Guard and the Spore Mothers.

The scouts told Erethon that monsters attacked in groups, but the difficulty would only pose a threat to a careless mid B rank. He decided to play it safe and group everyone up and go through together. There were more plants, and it didn’t seem to be a room structure either, but Erethon could tell what the lines of dense forest meant.

Erethon called out when he saw the first monsters, and he didn’t like what he saw they were all mutated again. Forest Spirits, goblins, bears and wolves but the worst part was they weren’t trying to kill each other like the last floor they were attacking together. “Everyone form up and face the enemy they are working together!”

Erethon just kept thinking that they needed to leave as fast as possible.

Alice grew a little less worried about the situation in the dungeon. Her monsters were putting up a better fight, and the adventures weren’t going in the direction of the labyrinth either. People were even starting to get killed again. One of the somewhat strong ones got mauled to death by two stone bears. She was enjoying the fight when she saw a notification.

Alert Mana Capacity reached do you wish to level up

Yes/No

"Things already looking up Yes."

Level 4 reached skills added to Dungeon Store. Mana Capacity Increased

It took them over 10 hours of near constant fighting for them to make it the other side of the floor they lost 47 of their people but still, 73 lived not bad in Alice's opinion. It showed she was dangerous but survivable.

“We did it all the bad people didn’t find our home hooray!”

“Well shit we're alive for now but how many are going to come back to kill us I wonder. But fuck it we proved we are worth something so let's hope it works out.”

“Wait a minute you two there at the exit, but I count around 45 staying inside. Main Alice, you know what this means.”

“Yeah, we're completely screwed.”

“Why?”

“They're looking for our Dungeon Core you dumb ass.”

“Oh shit.”

At the same time, Erethon was losing his mind fighting with Sarah “Sarah we need to leave now this dungeon it isn’t right!”

“No our mission doesn’t end till we find the core!”

“No I’m the guide here, and I’ve been exploring dungeons for over 400 years so listen to me. We all need to get out of here NOW!”

“NO, YOU LISTEN TO ME YOU FUCKING COWARD IF LEAVE NOW I WILL PERSONALLY PUT YOU ON THE ASSOCIATIONS WANTED LIST!”

“YOU WOULDN’T DARE YOU BRAT!”

“TRY ME!”

Erethon clenched fists so tight that he drew blood. He gritted his teeth and said, “When your men are killed all around you there blood will be on your hand's alone child.”

“That’s how it always been anyway. I want to find the core as soon as possible, it's probably hidden in a cave or something. Same deal as the way here we stay together at least now we don’t have worry about the lower ranks getting in the way.”

It took 3 hours for them to find the Labyrinth Alice created. They walked in and soon as the last person walked in spears of roots shot out of the wall and impaled 6 men killing 2 men instantly. They then formed into the Forest Guard and killed the wounded and 4 other men. Erethon screamed out “There mutated Forest spirits use fire magic now!”

Responding to his order, the court mages incinerated everything in the area in a few minutes. Erethon was furious grabbed Sarah brought her the corpses and spoke with venom dripping from each word “You did this four of them were your men and 1 was an A rank. Do you understand now we need to leave now!”

Sarah didn’t hesitate to respond “We need to finish the mission no matter the losses they understood that. Now get off me we need to find Core be on guard and Mages prepare to burn anything that moves.”

They continued to fight the Forest Guard and only lost 2 more B Ranks from the ambushes, and a mage was killed by a Spore Mother. But after 2 hours they neared the end, Erethon hated this situation. He doubted there would be an exit back to the main dungeon so they would have to walk back through this hell hole all over again. But Sarah pushed them forward, and they saw something otherworldly. Massive Tree Men were standing at the ready at the exit. They were the Oak Guard, and the 10 of them rushed at the 32 remaining men.

Sarah screamed out “Burn those bastards now.”

The mages let every fire spell they had loose on the Oak Guard, but it only slowed them down. The Oak Guard were created so they would not stop till they were ash. They tore into the lines and killed 6 knights and 8 B ranks in the first few minutes. Erethon was Expert at nature and fire magic, but these dungeon monsters brushed off the attacks, like nothing. It took 30 minutes to burn them to ash they were lucky the Oak Guard's were slow. But still, they were down to 4 knights, 2 Court Mages and the only two A ranks left Sarah and Erethon.

Erethon saw Sarah's eyes and didn’t even bother to scream at her. Her eyes said it all they were screaming out pain and regret and all she could do was live with it for the rest of her life. The 8 of them headed deeper through the forest till they saw the strangest sight. A small cottage covered ivy with fruit and berries growing on the side. It was something out of a fairy tale but then even more strange was the girl standing in front of it, a pure colorless white from head to toe except for her rainbow eyes with a black abyss at the center. She was riding a horse that looked like a ghost and held a battle scythe made of darkness.

Erethon and Sarah were at a loss for words at the sight they both only thought “How can a child like that exist and how could she be here.”

They wanted to ask, but they were soon filled with pure terror from only looking at the girl. It felt like the terror was putting them to an eternal peaceful sleep. But then came the pain it felt someone ripping every fiber of there being apart. They all collapsed to their knees with the exception of Sarah and Erethon. What finished them was the Alert they got from the system.

Warning- You have entered the dungeon of the Pale Rider. You now stand before the Rider herself and face her wrath. Your crime is having attacked the daughter of Mania, the child of the end's home. You will be judged by death itself may she grant you peace in death.

Everyone forgot the pain and the presence of death and stared at the message they received. They made a decision that would haunt them for the rest of their short lives, they went against the very thing that the system warned the world about a week before the Pale Rider the daughter of death itself.

Alice looked over her 8 intruders with cold eyes everything was going well until they decided to come and search for her core. She used The Presence of Inevitability, True Suffering, and Message of the Rider one after another hoping it would stop them in their tracks and it did. They just looked at her with terror, despair, and disbelief in their eyes. She decided to speak when she deactivated True Suffering to get there attention. "Why have you invaded my home was the dungeon I created not enough for you?"

No dared to speak to Alice but that's not what she wanted, she was furious and wanted answers. So she used her Chains of Samsara and implied the last 2 mages and a knight. "Answer or more of you will die."

Erethon spoke up "Please Lord Rider we meant no disrespect. Our purpose here is to survey this dungeon and report back to the king its benefits and dangers. That includes finding where the Dungeon Core is located we had no idea you were living in this dungeon."

For some reason, Alice was annoyed with his words and responded: "I don't just live here invader I am this dungeon's core."

Alice could see everyone visibly pale even more, but Sarah spoke up "Please have mercy Lord Rider my men followed my orders do not kill them."

Alice looked at them with Deaths Eyes; she could see there lives aura around them and could tell she was telling the truth. But she had a message to convey, and this was her chance "What is your name."

"I'm Knight Captain Sarah Laiydew of the Kingdom of Asura."

"Well, then Knight Captain live with the fact you killed all your men." Alice shot bolts of death magic at the three silent knights and watched them corrode into nothingness.

Sarah didn't scream the sound couldn't leave her throat she was too pig-headed to listen to Erethon, and this was her punishment. She stared at the spots her men stood until the same cold voice spoke up "There is still one person you can save go to your king and bring him here, or this elf will suffer far worse than your men."

Sarah looked into the eyes of the child and felt her soul being ripped out before she began to run. She ran and ran tears falling from her face hoping the monsters would kill her, but they never did. She made it to the portal and was greeted by those who left hours before. They were horrified by her story, and the raced to the capital with the riders message.

Alice smiled and turned to elf frozen in fear her horse and scythe faded away. She then deactivated The Presence of Inevitability and with a sweet tone spoke: "Now Mr. Elf you looked the leader of this little gang you're going to stay here and answer all my questions ok."