"Okay, wow. That... is a really weird feeling." Avan spoke more to himself than to Akkalon, while his gaze already wandered to the god in old man form.

"I had been wondering why my dungeon class didn't advance, while all my other skills and my subclass as a healer also advanced with my own level. But this," Avan pointed upward with a circular index finger motion, "explains everything. I wonder then, though, if all dungeon cores have consciousness."

Akkalon continued to sip his strangely never-ending tea as he listened patiently to Avan's explanations. "Well, yes and no. Some, as could have been the case with you, forcibly become a dungeon core with consciousness. Again, it varies from case to case whether the new dungeon core retains its memory or has lost it. But in most cases, the dungeons present on Aorus are of my creation and only in some cases have developed consciousness over the millions of years." Akkalon explained to him in calm words, stopping only in between to continue enjoying his tea. "Another case is when other beings try to exploit the system of my dungeons. By taking control in various forms, or by misusing the dungeon as such for their own purposes. Especially the last part happens quite often nowadays, so I'll give you the only warning I'll give you; be careful when approaching a dungeon." He finished his explanation of dungeons seriously, looking thoughtfully at Avan, and absently seeming to look through him as if he were looking at more than just the immediate surroundings.

With a clearing of his throat, the god's gaze quickly cleared and he looked directly at Avan this time. "The fact is, however, that I will not interfere. I create, but I do not force, control, destroy, or dominate any of my creations. Everything comes and goes, everything has its place. And after this cycle, there will be other eons of other cultures and beings who have completely forgotten the present situations, and it will start all over again. An eternal and never-ending cycle of life."

Suddenly he grinned mischievously at Avan. "Or one of the many colonizations convinced of itself destroys the entire planet, and creates again place for a new one at this location!" Akkalon spoke merrily and actually laughed briefly, to Avan's total bewilderment.

Before Avan could talk about the deity's sudden change of mood, he beat him to it with a wink. "Avan, what do you think this period of time means for someone like me? Nothing. It's like dust in the wind. And I live for my creations, and I love nothing more than to observe the most diverse developments. While my... wife, as you would call it, contributes her part to the fact that everything also has an end sometime, as it found its origin with me."

Even if Avan was still not completely clear with it, he could understand quite the sense behind it.

All life ends at some point. Or is reborn? He speculated inwardly and scratched with his right hand at his stubble, which had grown somewhat longer since the last shave in Cyntha.

With a thoughtful "Hmmm..." Avan also grabbed his round teacup again and took a few sips.

When the god sitting in front of him set his teacup down on the table for the first time since the beginning of their conversation, Avan stumbled a bit and looked at his counterpart tensely.

"Well, as pleased as I was to have made your acquaintance, I'm glad to have met you. Personally. As much as my time is limited, I am in the process of creating something new, in another place." Akkalon smiled good-naturedly at him. "But before I disappear again as quickly as I appeared here, I have decided to give you three gifts."

The old-looking man leisurely picked up his staff with his right hand and stood up from the table calmly and elegantly. "The first is a clue for you. Only by mutual agreement with another living being can you bind someone and their soul to you."

Avan already knew this from his specialization and the description therein, but was stopped from saying more with a warning index finger from the god.

"The second, Avan, is a gift you won't be able to use for a very long time, but it will help you immeasurably later on, should you make it that far." With this ominous statement, the god in male form turned and suddenly reached towards the giant statue. But instead of grasping at empty air, his left hand, along with part of his arm, seemed to waft and disappear from this reality, accompanied by a low supernatural hum.

Before Avan could think about what was happening here, and whether it was similar to his own celestial storage, the entire fifty meter staff in the statue's hand suddenly popped out of existence, and reappeared in smaller form in Akkalon's left hand as he pulled his arm out of the rift of reality that had formed.

Avan looked in amazement and with his mouth slightly open in disbelief at the staff, which resembled the one in the book about gods and the image of Akkalon in it like one egg on another. As his gaze traveled up the white gnarled staff to the perfect white floating sphere above, an immense pain suddenly stabbed through his head and he doubled over with a jerk of pain and held his head with both hands, groaning.

Oh fuck! I... Argh... I REMEMBER THIS. People. Madness. Bad idea! He cursed inwardly as he remembered the stories of the author of the Gods' Collectorium and how others had gone almost insane at the sight of this sphere.

Suddenly a warmth and calmness filled him, quite different from his own healing spell, which had tried in vain to heal whatever damage. Followed by a spontaneous feeling of wood in his left hand. "Don't look inside, Avan. You're not ready yet. Not by a long shot. Take it, and stow it well. That it may be helpful to you in the distant future." Akkalon's soothing deep and grandfatherly voice spoke to him.

Without committing the same stupidity a second time, Avan let the staff disappear without comment into his celestial storage and only dared to cast a short identification on it before the staff disappeared into its dimension.

[Staff of ???]

The description of the object hovered briefly before his eye, but not entirely surprisingly in a golden-yellow rune-embellished frame.

No sooner had the object disappeared, doubly confirmed by his vastly increased dungeon sense, than Avan dared to look up again and looked directly at a smirking Akkalon not half a meter from his face.

"I knew you would do that. Hah!" He smiled at Avan, but immediately became serious again and solemn in a way.

Avan, in the meantime, stood up completely and came out of his hunched posture into an upright position.

"The third gift I will give you will probably be as useful to you as my first, provided you interpret my first gift correctly at the appropriate time." With these words, Akkalon raised his staff slightly and angled it forward, to Avan's right, where he saw a waiting one-meter tall white hare, which he had forgotten all about with a brief pang of guilt.

The staff glowed with celestial brilliance and blue interwoven threads that seemed to snake around the light, and a gentle and slow mist flowed from the sphere at the tip to the waiting Horny.

The celestial mist flowed over the face of his dungeon creature, gently wafting down the white fur and enveloping the massive hare in such a sympathetic way that Avan narrowed his eyes, trying in vain to understand what was happening. The only thing that seemed to calm him down was the brief sideways glance from Horny, and a kind of cheeky grin, as far as Avan could see in a rabbit's face.

The fog billowed for seconds, and the steady stream of energy from Akkalon's staff never once died down, quite the opposite. The golden glow grew stronger, and the blue threads were joined by golden and black ones, all of which wandered in wildly unpredictable paths in and around the fog, eventually disappearing inside.

Ten seconds later, after the start of the spectacle, the shape of the fog suddenly changed and moved upward, slowly and creepingly, until it stopped, billowing, at Avan's shoulder height.

Avan noticed the immense amounts of mana at work here, and watched spellbound. Another ten seconds later, the fog suddenly thickened and the steady flow of mana from the rod ebbed.

New contours continued to emerge, and Avan could no longer wait in anticipation when it finally dawned on him what was happening.

A *chime* in the back of his head and a celestial framed message window before his eyes only confirmed his suspicions and he grinned with anticipation from both ears.

*Chime*

[Horny]

A former [Horned White Rabbit], found at ruins of a temple of Akkalon. Was originally named Horny by his dungeon. When first connected to Avan as a dungeon, spontaneously possessed an intelligence that seemed to go far beyond that of other animals. Through divine intervention, this dungeon creature eventually evolved into a beastman, a rabbit-kin.

A dungeon creature needs nothing but the mana of its dungeon to survive and can dematerialize and rest in the core of the dungeon if necessary.

Where before there had been a one meter oversized rabbit, there was now a brown and white rabbit-kin that reached from the size of the tip of Avan's ears to his shoulders, with a white horn in the middle of his forehead.

Grinning and not waiting for the last remnants of the disappearing mana, Avan swung both his arms around his dungeon friend and effortlessly hoisted him up in a powerful cloak. "Horny! Hah!" Avan groaned in delight, which only earned him a groan and groan from his new friend. "Oh, yeah, sorry. I'm almost smothering you, haha." He laughed and put Horny back on the ground with both feet, or rather paws. Avan put both his hands on Horny's shoulders and took a closer look at his evolved dungeon creature.

But before he could stare for seconds at the new contours and now real facial features, his counterpart politely cleared his throat and raised his right paw in front of his mouth.

"Master, I am really pleased to finally be able to articulate myself. But I would very much appreciate a, shall we say, less strong greeting next time." Horny addressed him in a melodic and slightly deep voice surprising to Avan and bowed fluently and perfectly to him after taking a step back.

Another voice also interfered from the left. "As much as I would like to be present in person, I must move on. It was a pleasure to meet you. And don't forget my words, Avan. I'll be watching your continued journey with anticipation." Akkalon waved his left hand and smiled graciously once to Avan, and faded away.

Oh... Okay. "Thank you..." Avan murmured, slightly embarrassed at his disappearing host.

Another clearing of the throat from the right side brought him out of his state of shock a few seconds later, into which he had briefly lapsed mentally after a wealth of information had flooded in on him one after the other over the last few minutes.

Avan turned his head, and gratefully smiled when he saw his butler-clad dungeon companion impatiently tap-tapping one foot on the floor.

After the hare-kin finally got Avan's attention again, he looked a little embarrassed for Avan for a moment, but then regained his composure. "Ahm, yes. So... Now that that's finally settled, sir, I have an urgent request that's been on my TONGUE since the beginning of my consciousness."

Avan looked at his companion with raised eyebrows and scratched the back of his neck with his right hand, eager to hear what came next.

Another throat clearing later, and feeling a bit uncomfortable if Horny's facial expression was to be believed, he began. "I am extremely grateful to you for this opportunity. And I am well aware that although I gained awareness and this development so early on through the Creator, ultimately it is all thanks to you. For that, I thank you!" He said more hastily than necessary, and bowed again to Avan, this time even more elegantly than before. When Horny stood upright again, he looked directly at Avan. "However, I have a single request, if you would grant it to me, sir."

Avan, still with raised eyebrows, looked at him in surprise, then nodded as he continued to hold the back of his neck with the palm of his right hand out of habit.

"If it were possible, I would like to change this... absurd name with which you have called me from the beginning. Horn would be more appropriate, and I wouldn't have to be ashamed of my name anymore, sir." His friend explained with a serious look. Avan caught completely off guard, just nodded and suddenly felt ashamed as his joke at the expense of his dungeon companion finally hit him.

*Chime*

Do you agree with the name change of your dungeon creature from [Horny] to [Horn]?

Mentally still embarrassed and a bit caught off guard, Avan immediately agreed without thinking.