Raz stared at the floor as it changed. Aki? What is he doing? And how? He’s not even paying attention, he can’t be using the designer. It’s too fast.

Aki didn’t respond for several minutes, but when she did, her mindvoice seemed flustered. :It’s a ritual of some sort, but I don’t recognize it. I can’t even tell what it’s supposed to do. It’s very specialized and has something to do with Death, but more than that is hard to read. As for how he’s doing it, I don’t think he knows he is.:

What do you mean? How could you not know you’re changing a dungeon? Raz had practiced with Aki. Changing a dungeon was difficult. She said it was easier for people who Bonded, but even then you had to work through the dungeon’s core, explaining the change and having the core implement it.

Raz’s thoughts skipped a beat. That wasn’t true in this dungeon. The Voice had provided a really convenient visual interface, like the one he got when choosing a Path, to use to customize the dungeon. It was easier, but he could only change things that were in it. He wasn’t sure if that was more or less flexible, since there were things listed in the interface that he’d never heard of. Is this dungeon just different?

Aki had clearly been following Raz’s thoughts - but then again, she usually did. Even in her dungeon, she’d said it was easier if she had someone to use as an anchor. :Some of it’s the dungeon. I wonder. When the old dungeon died, did it say destroyed or conquered?:

Conquered. I meant to ask you about that, but I forgot.

Raz could hear Aki’s dry snort. He still didn’t know how she expressed comments that were completely sound-based when she didn’t have a way to make noise. :You and forgetting. I guess I’ll forgive you this time, you were a bit busy.:

So what does it mean?

:It means that the reason you haven’t been able to find the dungeon core is that it’s on him somewhere, if it exists. The fact that this was labeled a new dungeon instead of a remnant means it should.:

Aki stopped. Raz knew she didn’t like to say much at a time but she hated when he “interrupted her thinking” even more, so he waited hoping she’d say more.

:If he weren’t so obviously a half-dragon, I’d think he was a Wanderer. That would fit almost everything. But the dragons don’t permit that, even half-dragons, and he’s clearly sapient and not hostile. So it has to be one of the other options. The most common is a Binder. That would fit with this being a newly created dungeon, but a Binder wouldn’t be accidentally modifying the dungeon.:

Raz knew he should know what those were. He did remember that Binder was a Path (or rather, it was the colloquial name for a set of Paths that all had “Binder” in the name). It was one of the ones he’d looked at while trying to figure out what he needed to do to save Aki. He remembered not liking it and figuring out it wouldn’t help, but he didn’t really remember what it was.

Um.

:Raz, “I forgot” stopped being funny years ago. This is stuff you should know.:

Uh, it didn’t seem important?

:Not. Funny.: Aki sounded stern, then her tone softened. :Fine. A Wanderer is a powerful dungeon monster outside its dungeon. It’s still linked to the dungeon; they’re usually only found in wild dungeons, and they’re the main way wild dungeons manage dungeon to dungeon combat. A Binder is someone who has taken the Paths of Binding. They’re like Dungeon Keepers, only they control everything the core does. Their dungeons are completely static and tend to degrade quickly, but they are popular because they are predictable.:

Raz remembered now. And you hate them because they’d kill you. Well, reduce you to mindlessness. Same thing.

:Yes.: Aki seemed to think for a moment. :You can find out. Ask him what type of core this dungeon has. If it’s a Primary core, he might be a Binder. I can’t think of any good options if it’s a Primary core. If it’s a Subsidiary core…:

What?

:A subsidiary core might explain the strange interface you noticed; for some reason, that’s how the primary dungeon is set up. Most wild ones are just echoes of the primary dungeon with the same monster types and similar layout, but I have the feeling this one is one of the ones that will be different.:

Raz looked back at the circles. It looked like he’d have to wait for a while.

:Obviously don’t tell him about me.:

Yes, Aki. Whatever you say, Aki. I would never have thought of that on my own, Aki.

:RAZ!:

Raz started laughing. Aki’s reaction to that was always funny.

Serenity sighed. Hours of ritual design, and he didn’t have anything that would work at all. He’d found a couple of formations that would probably let him destroy the Heart, but he could do that without needing a ritual. He needed a cage that would prevent the Heart from affecting other people at all, not radiate a bunch of magic, be difficult for anyone else to open, and yet be easy to find if it got stolen or lost.

He knew several options for each, but every time he tried to put them together, they conflicted in major ways that would prevent the ritual from working at all. He hadn’t even managed to find a temporary solution.

Maybe that was for the best. If he had found an acceptable temporary solution, he’d have wanted to spend the time to improve it, though a long enough temporary solution might have worked. A hundred years or so would probably be acceptable. He hadn’t really expected to find anything; proper ritual creation took years, not hours. The fact that he was doing it all by memory didn’t help.

He stood up and stretched. It felt good to move after all that time sitting.

What was that in front of him? It looked like an incomplete ritual circle, similar to several he’d considered, but it obviously wasn’t complete. “Where did that come from?”

“I was going to ask you that. I think you made it. Did you figure something out?” Raz was sitting behind Serenity, on what looked an awful lot like an overstuffed armchair. Serenity reflexively turned to face Raz, even though it didn’t affect his ability to tell where Raz was or what he was doing.

That was probably a reflex he should try to keep.

“Only a lot of failures, nothing that would actually work the way I want it to even temporarily. Probably why it wasn’t one of the options for the quest.” Serenity looked over the circle. “Huh. I think this is actually mixing together two or three different circles. That’s not good.”

“You’re trying to contain it, right? Do you have to? Is there some way to use it up?” Raz had clearly been thinking while Serenity was trying to design a ritual. “He lost to a necromancer, right? Maybe you can use that?”

Serenity’s mind was still on the mysterious blended ritual circle. It was a good thing nothing was powering it, because the effect would be unfortunate in a couple of places. Probably explosive; those runes did not like being combined and warped like that, and the containment ring on the inner circle was completely trashed. His thoughts came to a halt as he tried to switch gears to what Raz was talking about. Use the Heart?

Serenity couldn’t think of a way to use the Deathless’s loss against a necromancer, but he hadn’t even thought about necromancy and the Heart. He almost certainly could use it to reanimate a dead body. He’d probably even be able to bind the reanimated corpse to himself. If he did it correctly, the undead he raised would get some of the Deathless’s memories and power, but would only be able to follow Serenity’s will.

Serenity already knew which rituals he’d need to combine. The Final Reaper had used several related techniques, even though he’d never had an artifact quite like the Death-corrupted immortal heart of a sorcerer powerful enough to gain a title based on his immortality and fight against Death. That would be a powerful undead creature.

There was some risk it would be too powerful for Serenity to control, but there were ways to guard against that. He’d have to put some work in if he wanted to use the solution, that was all. It was certainly a powerful option; the true problem was that it wasn’t something he wanted to do. He knew where that path ended.

[New Path Choice Options Available]

[A Permanent Servant: Destroying the Heart of the Deathless is a waste. Instead, use it to create the perfect mage servant: one who always does your will and cannot act against you]

[Conditions: Take the Heart of the Deathless with you when you leave the A Rest from Death Dungeon. Find the corpse of a mage and raise it using the Heart of the Deathless as a component]

[Reward: An undead servant (Power dependant on level of success)]

[Failure Condition: Fail to control the power and mind resident in the Heart of the Deathless as it creates the undead mage]

[Conditional Failure Consequences: Earn the enmity of a powerful undead mage, possibly even the returned Deathless himself]

[Heart of a Monster: The best monster is one you control - and if they’re powerful, that’s even better]

[Conditions: Use the A Rest From Death dungeon to create a lich using the Heart of the Deathless as its source. Convert the power of the Heart into your power and link it permanently to the dungeon, yourself, and the lich]

[Reward: An immortal lich (monster) servant. Conversion of the A Rest From Death dungeon into a dungeon that slowly creates undead servants for you]

[Conditional Reward: If this is done as part of taking the Heart of the Deathless as your Heart, you may also become an immortal lich]

[Failure Condition: Fail to create a lich using the A Rest From Death dungeon]

[Failure Consequences: Destruction of the A Rest From Death dungeon and associated backlash]

[Failure Condition: Fail to control the power and mind resident in the Heart of the Deathless]

[Conditional Failure Consequences: Earn the enmity of a powerful immortal lich. Possible loss of control of the new dungeon to the lich. Sufficient failure may result in the return of the Deathless in either body or potentially both bodies]

Apparently Order’s Voice agreed that it was a different but valid option; two, in fact. Serenity read them over and shook his head. They were more or less what he’d assumed.

Either one would put him back on the path of the Final Reaper. The first option was definitely something he’d have done as the Final Reaper; a powerful but completely loyal servant was often more useful than consolidating the power in himself, because he couldn’t be in multiple places at the same time.

Or could he? Maybe that was something he’d be able to do in the future. The Final Reaper hadn’t been able to.

The last option was even more powerful; creating an army of undead, even slowly, was something Serenity knew just how to leverage. Being able to do it without even having to do it himself was even better.

An army of undead monsters would be even less palatable to other people than an army of undead had been in his past. Admittedly, people had often assumed they were monsters, even though they weren’t, but that didn’t matter. He knew where that path went.

He knew the hatred and terror it invoked in others.

He didn’t want to face that again.

He also didn’t want to be the man who used those options ever again. He remembered being the Final Reaper, but he wasn’t that being. The Final Reaper would not have thought about what others would think or whether or not it was an evil decision; he would simply have seen the power.

Serenity was knocked out of his internal debate by Raz’s voice. “What type of core does this dungeon have?”

Serenity turned back towards Raz. That question had come out of nowhere. “What do you mean?”

“You know. Is it a subsidiary core?”

Raz sounded serious. That term, subsidiary core. It was familiar.

Ah, he remembered. It was the reward for defeating … no, for conquering the Last Refuge of the Deathless dungeon. “Why was it conquer instead of defeat?”

Serenity went ahead and redeemed the reward.

[Reward: Subsidiary Linked Core - Tier and Grade matched to Conqueror]

“You mean this?” It looked like a smaller version of Serenity’s own core, hexagonal and clear. It was much smaller than the one the dungeon had originally had. That one had been smoother, almost pill-shaped, and Serenity thought it had been darker, although that might have been the Death mana that suffused it. It was hard to tell when you could see shapes but not color. This core wasn’t spitting out Death magic; of course it looked different. “It says it’s a Subsidiary Linked Core. What does that mean?”

“Yeah, that’s what I mean.” Serenity saw Raz nod as he agreed. “I’m not sure about Linked, all subsidiary cores are connected to their primary. Basically, they’re just like a primary dungeon core, only without their own personality. The main dungeon can act through them if they’re in a separate location. Sometimes a dungeon will keep some with its primary if they grant additional capabilities to enhance the main dungeon. We should probably do the basic dungeon setup. Have you done it before?”

Raz seemed to really like having his right hand in that empty pouch. Serenity guessed it must be like putting your hands in pockets; Raz didn’t have any, so he used a pouch. Serenity definitely preferred pockets.

“No, I haven’t. I fought them, I didn’t build them.” As far as Serenity knew, there were only a few types of people that did anything even similar to “dungeon setup”, and they were all employed - if that was the right word - to watch dungeons and make sure they were properly maintained. It had always seemed like one of the many professions that was vital to modern life but invisible to everyone until something went wrong.

Like so many other things, he’d simply never cared to look into it farther than knowing how each individual dungeon worked. It was like asking how water got to his house; he knew there were pipes and a water tower and a treatment facility - or was that for sewage? Well, they added chlorine something to the water, at least. And fluoride for teeth. Keeping dungeons functional was similar; he didn’t have to know how the pipes worked to know that he got water when he turned the tap and he didn’t have to know how dungeons were maintained to delve them.

Perhaps that wasn’t true anymore. He now needed to learn everything he could about how monsters worked, and that meant he couldn’t leave dungeons out of the equation. It might be very important to learn what he could about dungeons themselves, as well. “When you say basic dungeon setup, what do you mean?”

Raz seemed to stop for a moment, and his voice sounded puzzled as he replied. “You don’t know? Then how did you expand a dungeon here? Didn’t your teachers go over the basics?”

“Uh, no.” It was going to be obvious if he tried to fake knowledge he didn’t have; Serenity had always been bad at that. It was usually better to admit when you simply didn’t know, even if you were supposed to. It wasn’t like he had a specific role he was playing here; that was different. “I wasn’t taught any of this. I took care of the old dungeon core, and got this as a reward.”

Regardless of how open he was being, Serenity definitely wasn’t going to admit how he dealt with the old core.

“Do you know what dungeon it’s subsidiary to?”

Serenity shook his head. “I’m not sure it is. At least, I don’t know of a dungeon it would be linked to.” He had suspicions about where it was linked, but he wasn’t a dungeon.