I climbed down a winding stone staircase. The room at the bottom of the stairs, was dimly lit by a light emanating from the walls. It was as though the walls were glowing but by all appearances, the walls were made of stone. Other than a large ornate chest against the opposite wall and what appeared to be another stairwell leading down to the next level, the room was completely empty.

Up until now I would say that I was taking all these events pretty well. I mean, let's be clear, most people would probably be freaking out about now.

One reason for my calm was most likely that I was a pretty avid fantasy and litRpg fan, and this was all beginning to feel an awful lot like a dungeon adventure novel. If that were the case, the upper floors would typically be the most difficult levels and each floor should have some sort of portal that would take them somewhere outside of the tower.

Here, the only way out seemed to be down through the tower, as the door through which I had entered had mysteriously disappeared.

On the bright side, the best items of the whole tower should be in this chest, but on the not so bright side, the chance that I would make it out of the tower alive would be pretty slim if this really was a dungeon.

I had always dreamed of being an ascender, an adventurer, a dungeon beast hunter; something that up until now had only existed in Manga's, video games and fantasy novels. I guess it would be any young person’s dream. Swords, magic, dangerous beasts, riches, adventure. The only issue was, that I didn’t have any weapons or magic or much of anything for that matter, and I was on the “professionals only” end of the tower. Shrugging, I decided to make the most of it and take each new challenge in stride, and the first step in my journey would be seeing what was hidden in the chest.

When I undid the latch and opened the chest, the first thing that caught my eye was a sword with a pristine white hand grip that looked to be made of porcelain, with a handguard of some white metal with a gold inlay. The sheath that was also white, with inlaid gold designs running own its full length.

I reached in to take the sword when suddenly I received a surge of information from it. The Blade of the Celestial Dominion, (wow, it even had a pretty cool title). Banishes demons and undead, protects against the dark arts. Its power was relative to the level of the wielder, the blade was virtually unbreakable and retained a razor edge at all times. When I took it out of the chest, I was surprised by how light it was. It reminded me of how John Carter’s sword would have felt to him, except in his case, the sword only felt light because he was used to a heavier gravity.

When I unsheathed it, I was almost blinded by the light that it emitted. Its light was reminiscent of, well, the sun, but it wasn't hot, just incredibly bright.

The chest was just chock full of goodies and next thing I knew, a full suit of enchanted armor suddenly appeared on me simply by thinking about wearing it. Again, I was flooded with information regarding the item. The armor was self-repairing, very resistant and ultra-light weight. I honestly barely noticed I was wearing armor, and although I didn’t have a mirror, I was pretty sure that it looked great on me. It seemed to be made from the same porcelain-like material as the sword’s handgrip and was also a perfect white. I regretted a bit that armor was no longer in style and I would probably only get to wear it to costume parties and Comic-Con events, or in dungeons of course.

There was a small box in the chest which I opened to reveal a set of glowing gems, each a different color. The first stone I took out was an ascenders memory stone and contained the memories of great ascenders. I took the stone and touched it to my forehead (it seemed the logical thing to do at the time) and suddenly I was flooded with the memories of various ascenders who had visited this dungeon in the past. As the last memories were absorbed, I gasped for my breath. I felt like I had lived a hundred times in the space of a few seconds and it was very disorienting.

Once the memories had been retrieved, the stone faded to a dull color and I put it back in the box and took another one. This was a combat technique guide.

"Holy Sh!"

"Watch your tongue young man!"

"Are you talking to me?" I asked after recovering from the flood of information that I had just received.

"Of course, I am talking to you, do you see anyone else?" The voice replied.

"Well, no, but I also don't see you for that matter. I guess that would make you the tower?" I asked.

"You got it on your first guess, you may actually have some potential." The tower said in a mocking tone.

"I guess using the memory stone may have helped a bit,” I said, “but I have read about conscious dungeons in the past so I am not too surprised. Of course, you do realize that we don't have dungeons on this planet, right? We don't even have magic or mana or anything like that either."

"Well, this is the first of many towers that will be appearing on your world, at least in this era. There have been towers before, but they have been absent for quite some time now. And you, are the first ascender to enter, although you should know that, most people that enter the dungeon, start from lower levels, so I guess saying that you are the first "descender" would probably be more accurate." The said, laughing at his own joke.

"You really didn't leave me much of a choice you know. Your tower destroyed my whole neighborhood and left me stranded on top. So, as this wasn't really my choice, is there any chance that you will just let me pass through without me getting eaten by any monsters?"

"Now, now, that does not sound very adventurous to me. And to think I wanted to make you the hero of this tower, the tower champion. Do you think every tower has chests like the one you are so deftly emptying?"

"Well, I guess that some of the things in the chest did seem too good to be true," I admitted. "So, why are you being so generous with me then, and why do you want to make me your champion? To be honest, it seems a bit suspicious."

"Dungeons are not really generous; whether you live or die does not really concern me in the slightest, although I admit that some persons I appreciate more than others, and there are some ascenders that I really do not like at all. But in your case, there are a few reasons more or less pragmatic. I need someone to spread the word about the dungeons in your world, someone to start an ascenders association, serve as a sort of ambassador to your world. Also, every decent dungeon needs a champion.

"Seeing as I destroyed your home, and more or less hard-handed you into entering my dungeon, I also felt that I owed you something in return.

"My intuition tells me, that you will make a good champion, that is, if you can survive your descent. You are young, seem to have a decent intelligence, you had the courage to enter the dungeon and then there is also your aura, which is probably your greatest asset." The voice of the tower said.

"My aura, what is so special about my aura?” I actually didn't even know that I had an aura, I have never seen it in any case.

"Well, you do have an aura, and although you cannot see it, it is particularly pure. The aura is the reflection of your soul, and believe me, a pure soul is a good thing. There may be some information on that in one of the memory stones."

"I think that with what is in that chest, used intelligently, and with some effort on your part, should put you well on your way to becoming a champion. Your greatest challenge will be surviving the next few floors being as you have entered from the wrong door."

"I thought that each floor would have its own exit. Do I really have to go through every floor?"

"That is true, there are portals on each level, but as a future champion you will need to know each floor. I may let you exit early if you prove yourself sufficiently. But I do expect you to become familiar with each floor of the tower in time."

"Is there a reason that you chose Queens as a starting point? It is already congested and the area you chose is residential. Wouldn't some cornfield in the mid-West have been a better choice? Having a dungeon here is going to be a logistics nightmare."

"The dungeon is here because you were here. If you were picking corn in Kentucky, the tower would have been there. But don't get the idea that you are irreplaceable and start making demands; there are other candidates, but you were the first on my list. That being said, even though the tower is here, portals to enter the tower may be anywhere on the planet where there is a connection to mana.

"Many dungeons will be appearing across your world over the coming years, they will change the landscape of your world in ways that you cannot imagine. The dungeons will generate enormous quantities of mana and aetheric essence, much of which will enter your world. This will lead to many portals appearing.

"Also, once a minimum integration has been achieved, people from other worlds will gain access your planet, and your people will also be able to exit into other worlds.

"I recommend that you take some time now to prepare yourself and start your descent when you are ready. If you can survive, you will have a good chance of making it out of the tower and I will consider you the tower champion. This title will give you certain privileges, but also comes with a number of responsibilities which we will discuss later if you survive."

"Thanks, I will do my best. By the way, my name is Matt. Would you happen to have a name?"

"Yes, I have a name, but to know a dungeon's true name is to hold power over it, so you can call me Will, and no, that is not short for William. I chose that name because just about everything that you see in the dungeon is a product of my will.”

“Well, glad to have met you Will, and thank you for the information. I certainly hope that I will be able to survive long enough to reach the portal.”

"Don't assume that I will go easy on you. Your death would be just one of many thousands that I have witnessed within my walls and I can always find another champion. I leave you to your preparation now, good luck with your descent Matt!"

I turned back to the box of gems and replaced the now dull stones in the box. The next stone was a mana and cultivation guide. That I would also need although I was not even aware if I even had any mana at that point. After consuming the gem, I took out the last gem, this one was a rainbow of colors unlike the others, and it was every fantasy fan’s dream, a stone containing the contents of various books on magic and the memories of mages.

I was beginning to feel that I had an unfair advantage. Most people would need generations to gather the knowledge that I had gained in just a matter of moments, although I wasn't sure how long I would be able to retain all the information that I took in. At least for the moment it all seemed quite fresh in my mind.

In the chest there was a ring that activated a dimensional storage space. This would allow me to store much of the contents of the chest without having to carry around any extra weight.

There were gold coins and gems that would make me a very wealthy man once I made my way out. There were various vials of potions for health, vitality, mana, poisons, even a resurrection potion, but only for someone who was very recently deceased. I would almost certainly need a few of these to get through my descent, I thought to myself; but hopefully not the resurrection potion as I would need someone to apply it. It probably would not be of much use to me for the moment. I wondered if these would all be usable outside of the dungeon. I definitely needed to see if the healing potions could help my brother Sebastian who was in the hospital with bone cancer. Without it, he wouldn’t have much longer to live.

The last items at the bottom of the chest were beast cores and from high level beasts at that. This dungeon was surprisingly generous, I couldn't help but think that it had taken a liking to me because these were far from normal rewards from a dungeon, and this I knew for certain, from the ascender’s memories I had absorbed.