Serenity floated in darkness. It was simply becoming normal, now; this was how it was when he talked to a dungeon core. Maybe he should talk to Aki; was it possible to decorate this space so it was a little less blank? Or was it not even a real space?

“Who are you?” The dungeon’s question came from the darkness; a point of light appeared that simply served to illuminate its crystal from within.

Time to get started. “I’m Serenity; I’m here at Gaia’s request…”

The Quiz Maze had even more questions than Echoes of Big Ben, but was just as easy otherwise; it sounded absolutely thrilled at the idea of having someone else to talk to.

“I don’t know if dungeons can talk to each other over the ley lines, but it seems like you should be able to,” Serenity offered. “You can probably talk to Settlement Crystals, too; I know cities are able to communicate with each other. Hmm. If you aren’t able to talk to anyone, where did you get your questions and answers? Information has to come from somewhere.”

The dungeon sounded puzzled as it answered. “The University Library, of course. I can draw on anything in their collection, any of their collections. It’s matching the topics to adventurers that is difficult; some blaze brightly with many topics, but others seem dull and blank.”

That had to be a Skill of some sort; probably something the Voice put together to make the “quiz” idea work at all.

“Your group was interesting. Many choices, and no one needed Basic Mathematics. I get tired of offering that one, but at least it seems to work for almost everyone. Rules and information on games is more interesting but seems a lot more splintered. Games are strange. I think I’m missing something. I listen to people talking and they sound like they think I’m a game but not a good one?” The dungeon meandered all over the place; it’d done that when asking questions before, but this one seemed especially disconnected from where it started.

Serenity tried to answer. “Well … your rooms are pretty bare. Maybe try theming them based on the questions? And they don’t always have to be the same shape. Perhaps change up how the questions are answered, or have different modes where the format changes. Perhaps some chairs, too, for sections where you stay put for a while? We did a lot of walking, and I know Sofie wasn’t really ready for it.”

People who were actually incapable of a long walk with some fighting really shouldn’t enter a dungeon, but that didn’t mean that people who could manage it necessarily wanted to. Serenity was fine, but everyone else in his group was tired, and not really in the fun way.

“You might also consider a maze section; I know this is about finding your way, but without a map or something it doesn’t feel like it. Or maybe a maze challenge as an option? Or even just show a part of the map as people go through it so they feel like they’re following a maze instead of an endless repeating room?” Serenity wasn’t sure if that would help, but anything that felt like progress other than “there are fewer doors on average” would be nice.

“Change modes?” The dungeon sounded startled. “Decorate? I … there are things on this in the Library. I must research! Thank you for the idea!”

Serenity supposed he was glad to have sparked such joy. Research wasn’t something he’d expected a dungeon to enjoy, but it made sense for them to be as different as any other being. A dungeon based on a library wanting to research made sense when he thought about it that way. “Be careful about how quickly you change. People know dungeons can change, but you don’t want to be seen as too dangerous.”

Serenity was actually surprised now that he thought about it; why were people being allowed to enter a dungeon that was known to have killed? It hadn’t struck him as odd when Vladimir mentioned it, because dungeons did kill people, but the western world was, in general, very risk-averse. It would have been counterproductive, but Serenity would not have been surprised to find that some governments prevented their citizens. In fact, it seemed if anything even more likely to happen in dungeons on privately-owned land: no one wanted to be sued, and even signing a waiver wouldn’t always stop that.

It would be even less surprising to find out that some governments, corporations, or even individuals were reserving dungeons for their own use, whether that was resource gathering or training. That was extremely common, elsewhere, and it only made sense that it would happen here, too.

It was time for Serenity to be moving on; he’d finished everything he was here for, including finding out how it knew so much about magic. He wanted to check out the University Library and find their magic section, but that could happen after he left. The only thing he had left on the list was Vladimir’s request. “Do you have another exit?”

More than one exit was common in higher-Tier dungeons, usually through a portal. Serenity wasn’t certain if it was possible in a Tier One dungeon or not; he’d never seen it, but he also hadn’t known to look for it while he was still on Earth.

“Another exit? No, there are only two, the entrance and the Library.”

Serenity had clearly phrased his question poorly. “You usually let people exit out the entrance, right?”

“Yes. The Library isn’t a place for most people. It would be grumpy if I let many people into it.”

The Library would be grumpy? It could be grumpy? Serenity revised his thoughts on what the Library was; if it could have opinions, it was clearly more than just a collection of books. Maybe another node, like the Settlements and Dungeons? “Then … I should probably talk to it, see if it wants to help as well. Can you open a route for me and Rissa to enter the Library? The other three will want to stay where they are for a few hours, then leave through the normal exit.”

“You have a message … yes, you plus one other should be fine. I will close the door once you leave. I do not want to anger the Library.”

Serenity opened his eyes on the real world again and looked around. Everyone was staring at him.

“What were you doing? Rissa said you were talking to the dungeon, but nobody does that. Dungeons can’t talk.” Sofie seemed to be the only one willing to say anything.

Serenity took a deep breath. “It takes special Skills and generally a Path that deals with dungeons to talk to them. Some dungeons are friendlier than others. This one was lonely. More importantly, it turns out that there’s a second way out. It doesn’t like to send people that way, but it’s going to let me and Rissa out, while you three can stay here as long as you need.”

“Dungeons have more than one way out?” Vladimir seemed to think for a moment before he started to grin. “It must be very convenient to be able to talk to them.”

“It can be. Thanks for the dungeon run; it was good to see you again.” Serenity inclined his head, then turned towards the new door.

“Why don’t we trade phone numbers? I don’t know how long I’ll have this phone, but hopefully it’s not known to anyone back home.” Vladimir spoke up before Serenity got any farther.

The secret exit from the dungeon deposited Serenity and Rissa in a small, book-filled room. The shelves were made of wood and the books were obviously old; none had modern titles on the spine or dustcovers, and they were in all sorts of different shapes and sizes.

His surroundings were filled with magic; it wasn’t the sheer amount in a nexus, but was instead more like a weak ley line. More than that, Serenity could see the faint glow of magic over the bookshelves. He looked at them warily; if something was going to annoy a sapient library, it would probably be something about its books. He’d better warn Rissa. “Try not to touch the books. I don’t want to annoy the library.”

“It’s a magic library?” Rissa sounded surprised.

Serenity probably should have warned her earlier. He hadn’t wanted to say anything in front of Vladimir, but that was what telepathy was for, wasn’t it? “From what the dungeon said, yes.”

“Inquisitive and yet careful, interesting. You took control of the dungeon, then?” An old man’s voice was followed by the old man himself, bent and walking using a cane. His face was heavily wrinkled and he bent over the cane, his back bowed by age. At a first glance, he looked like one of the many immigrants that had come to the British Isles over the years, but Serenity couldn’t tell his actual heritage. His English was good and sounded more British than anything else, certainly more British than Serenity’s own English.

Serenity wasn’t fooled by the old man’s appearance. For all that he looked ancient, there was a fluidity to his movements. The cane clearly helped but wasn’t absolutely necessary. More than that, there was magic swirling around the old man. It didn’t feel like the magic of a high-Tier mage; if anything, it felt more like Russ, though somehow focused differently.

Serenity shook his head. “No. I prefer not to take control of sapient beings if I can avoid it.”

“Carefully stated. You’re an interesting one. The dungeon let you out here, then? What do you want with the library?” The old man’s gaze was sharp and clear, with no signs of the visual impairment common in older people. Either he’d had expensive treatment or he wasn’t as physically old as he looked.

There were people like that on other worlds. Some of them were deadly dangerous; whether or not he was, he deserved respect for his position. He wouldn’t be in a magical library if there wasn’t more to the story.

“Two things. First, we needed a way out that wasn’t the normal one. I didn’t want to wait until the others could leave, and if we left through the normal exit, it would be obvious we were unharmed by the dungeon. It would ruin Vladimir’s plan.” Serenity took a long look at the old man. He simply stood there, waiting. Once again, something about him didn’t feel old.

“Second, I wanted to know where the dungeon’s pulling its questions and answers from. Most of them should be in any good library, but the ones on magic…” Serenity shook his head. “There are schools that teach magic offplanet that don’t teach some of that. Razentul’s Third Transform? It’s useful only once you get into multi-Affinity spells, and even then it’s only useful when you’re trying to overlay instead of blend.”

It was definitely the most esoteric question Serenity had gotten in the Quiz Maze. He’d been lucky to remember what it was called; while he’d once used it regularly, he didn’t usually think about it by name.

The old man stood up straight, no longer bent over the cane. “And yet you answered it, and wondered enough to reach this place. Who are you? Who do you work for?”

Rissa stepped forward. “He’s Serenity. He’s my fiance. And my Guardian, approved by the First.” She bit her lip, then continued. “You know what that means, don’t you?”

The old man bent back over his cane and looked at Rissa sharply. “You believe I should. I do not know Serenity, for all his Name echoes as one known to the World. Who is this First Guardian? That is what you meant, is it not?”

Serenity stepped between Rissa and the old man. He didn’t trust this man’s form to be telling the truth; he was more dangerous than he appeared, and seemed to be trying to hide it. Poorly, but he still tried. “You might know him as D’Nehr.”

The old man stared at Serenity without moving or even blinking for more than a minute. Serenity had the distinct feeling that he wasn’t looking at a human at all; he’d done a better job of hiding that than he had his power, but he’d lost the disguise now. “It has been a very long time since I heard that name. Does he still live?”

Serenity nodded. “Yes, but he can’t come to or even near the surface yet. Perhaps in time.”

“I thought he’d long since died. In the Cataclysm, most likely. The world’s been dying for a long time.” The old man turned away from them. “It is good to know I was wrong for once. Please, follow me. We should talk.”